Some years ago I invested in an interactive biofeedback programme for my computer called 'Healing Rhythms'. It offered a range of training and information to help quieten your mind, find an inner balance and develop a personal practice. Inspirational messages were provided by a range of people including Deepak Chopra. I found some of the things he said helpful, and was reminded of this when I recently came across a copy of Deepak Chopra's book 'How to Know God – The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries'.
The word 'God' evokes a wide range of understandings, descriptions and beliefs. I wonder what response and meaning the word 'God' has for you? And if someone asked you, 'Who is God?' How would you respond?
In chapter 3 of Chopra's book, he writes about 'The Seven Stages of God' and suggests we are all entitled to hold an understanding of God that we feel is real. This is a vastly different approach to the doctrinal summaries formalised in the various Christian Creeds and Catechisms!
What appealed to me was Chopra's inclusiveness – and the way he responds to the mystery of God. He suggests God reveals and captivates each of us differently. I wonder how you respond to that suggestion? Are you able and willing to live with that inclusiveness – or do you want to say there is only one right understanding of God (that being the one you have grown to appreciate)?
I see a similar approach to Chopra in Rabbi Arthur Green's Jewish Mystical understanding of God. Green reminds us that in the Hebraic tradition, Moses received the Divine Name 'Y-H-W-H' (Exodus 3:13-14). Because of the sacred mystery held within this revelation to Moses, the Hebraic faith has a long prohibition on writing or speaking this sacred name. Instead, the Jewish writers used a range of alternative words, such as 'Adonai' meaning 'My Lord', 'Elohim' meaning 'God', and 'HaShem' means 'Name', and 'Hakadosh baruch hu meaning 'The Holy One, Blessed Be He'.
Another reason for this prohibition is that the four Hebrew letters hold a multitude of interpretations. For example, they form both a verb and a noun. One translation being: 'that which was, is and will be'. When spoken the letters make the sound of a breath – and while utterly without form they contain all the faces of humanity, and each face imaging the face of God. The Name also includes all genders – and no gender.
For example one interpretation of this Sacred Name is that the first Hebrew letter is a masculine point without shape and form while encompassing all existence, while the second letter is the most primitive of feminine energy. Together they birth and encompass all that exists, and everything that will exist.
The third letter belongs to us. It is the Divine Word that is already enfleshed within each one of us (as it was in Jesus) and we perceive incompletely through our human intellect. The fourth letter is Shekinah, whose divine glory radiates through the cosmos as light. She is the divine feminine mother who is always seeking us, without reserve, helping us to discover wholeness and purpose through works of compassion and mercy. She invites us to reflect her beauty and light as we become co-partners with the Divine and reveal the mystery of God's face to others.
Are you interested and willing to live within the mystery of this eternal breath of God? It may not feel as comforting as being presented with a list of articles of faith to believe, but God is not of our making and understanding – we were created in God's image and likeness, not the other way round. What meaning do you take from that?
Ultimately God lives in the unknown, and Chopra suggests when we can embrace that mystery fully, we will be at home – and free.
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.
Phil
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Chopra, Deepak, How to Know God – The Souls Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries, Harmony Books, 2000.
Green, Dr Arthur, Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology, Jewish Lights; 2003.
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