Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Confessions of Faith

"This is Not a Pipe"

Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists because he paints not only his interpretation of the subject matter, but also the matter behind the subject matter. He was quoted as saying, "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see."

In the illustration of the pipe above, Magritte textually adds, "This is not a pipe." It is not - in fact - a pipe, but merely a painting of a pipe. It is not tangible as a pipe would be. One cannot pick it up and smoke it as a pipe is intended.

I happened upon a site this morning and noticed that the author used the 'Pipe' illustration in an attempt to define spirituality and truth:

"Beliefs are not Reality. It's essential to remember that all of these ideas are metaphors. Doctrines, words, concepts, thoughts and pictures all translate, emphasize, reflect, and otherwise point to reality. But no description of reality is the reality it describes. Words and pictures, ideas and doctrines, are not the things they point to. They are distorted indicators, utterly different in kind from what they point to. You can describe a tree in your backyard to me all day long, but until I touch it with my own hands, I can't feel its bark. If description can't communicate the tree-ness of a tree, how much less can words communicate God!

...

"Awakening is the transition from "religion" with its firm answers, perspectives, and experiences, to realization, the awareness of what IS. Even more important is “Real-ization,” the embodiment of that awareness."


The above text refers to, I gather, the basic "belief"-structure of Christian Mysticism. Honestly, I don't know anything about Christian Mysticism - maybe it's like Kaballah to Judaism - so I'll choose to remain skeptical until I can read up on it a bit. Regardless, the author makes some good points on the exemplifications of faith.

Becky's mom has a plaque with the following quote hanging in her first-floor powder room. I'd read it often as a kid, having consumed copious amounts of grape juice:

"I was regretting the past, and fearing the future, when suddenly my Lord was speaking. ‘My name is I Am.’ I waited, He continued, ‘When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Was. When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I Will Be. When you live in the moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I Am. I Am.'"

-Helen Mallicoat

I trust, without doubt, that the Lord is real. Although the concept of God is not tangible, He is tangible because He is. I've never had a problem with putting my faith in God. Perhaps having such doubtless faith prevents me from understanding the antithesis, those who doubt. Since I do not seem to possess the capability to comprehend a Godless reality, I cannot efficiently communicate to inquisitive doubters why or how I choose to assert 100% trust is God's is-ness. But then I think of Magritte, and the author of the aforementioned site, and I agree that "no description of reality is the reality it describes."

1 Comments:

At 10:42 PM, Blogger Mike Willis said...

Beliefs are not reality, and neither are words. But these are the building blocks that we use, every day, to communicate with each other. If you're standing in the middle of a busy street and someone yells, "Move before that car hits you!", you're not going to stand and ponder exactly what they're trying to say. Of course, cars and God are two different things. So I would argue that to compare a tree (as your author did) to God is a bit disingenuous - comparing apples to oranges, to to speak. Trees don't require faith. God does. Of course, this coming from a self-proclaimed doubter! *smile*

 

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