Being
Alive
“The
most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the
sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a
stranger...is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to
us really exists, manifesting itself to us as the highest wisdom and
the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only
in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at
the center of all true religiousness, and in that sense, and that
sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious men.”
Albert
Einstein
The
state of “unknowing” is one of the most difficult for humankind
to tolerate. We want to lock down and explain everything in the
universe. We want our minds to penetrate every mystery and give it a
thorough, logical and concrete explanation. We want proof. “Show me
the proof!” we say.
The
problem is that so much we can reach with our brains is limited and
transitory. Even our science, which we hold in high esteem, changes
from generation to generation. Just about all of Sir Isaac Newton's
laws about time and space were proven to be “relative” by
Einstein and subsequent theoretical mathematicians. Then, there's the
problem of not being able to actually see most of what constitutes
“reality” except in an equation, which of course, leaves all of
us non-mathematical types in the dark.
Luckily,
the truly beautiful parts of creation, the elegant and radiant
parts, must be experienced. When we attempt to explain them, we
lose their significance. We can be transported by a beautiful sunset,
or by watching waves lap a shoreline. We can be utterly taken out of
ourselves by music and art. We can be plopped down in an alternate
dimension while sitting on our meditation stools. We can look into
the face of another human being and see ourselves. We can know
something is true without being able to explain how we know. All of
us can experience these things. They are mystical, and they are the
essence of being alive.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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