July 03rd, 2015

Christopher Alexander wrote about our interconnection with all that exists and related this to what he called the "ground'" or "the void."  He continued:  "The fact that this something is nameless, without substance, without form--and yet is also intensely personal--is one of the great mysteries at the source of art.  It appears in the writings and teachings of . . . Christian mystics [. . .]  in Zen, in Mahayana Buddhism, in Tibetan Buddhism, in Tantric scriptures, in the spoken word of the Hopi, in the Jewish mystical writings of the Cabala, in the practice of Islam, in the Tao, in the poems and teachings of Sufis [. . . ] and in the thought of St. Francis of Assisi.  The similarity of these teachings has been emphasized many times:  'Before heaven and earth, there was something nebulous, silent, unchanging and alone, eternal, the Mother of All Things, I do not know its name, I call it Tao.'
   In every case, the essential point concerns the existence of some realm, or some entity, variously referred to as the Void, the great Self . . . God . . .and the fact that human life approaches its clear meaning when and only when a person makes contact with this Void.  The belief . . . is that as this connection occurs, the person becomes connected to all things, and at one and the same time more personal, more human . . . and more peaceful . . . "
(quoted in David James Duncan's God Laughs and Plays.)