Dear D,

When we think of God, we think of certain qualities like benevolence, mercy, wisdom, and justice. We think of all-goodness, all-powerfulness, all-seeingness.

All right. But then what happens when we cease thinking of God’s qualities? 

We might then try to think of God. But can we think of God?

Can we, for instance, think of infinity? We cannot. Can we think of eternity? No. 

So, we can’t really think of God. 

Then the question appears: “But then does God exist? How could God exist if He were to be unthinkable or un-picturable?” 

We should interrogate the assumption that to exist is to be thinkable. 

Crucial to any genuine mysticism is the counter-proposal: Existence is experienciable yet it may not be thinkable. Remember, here, the opening of The Tao Te Ching, which states: “The Way that can be named [or thought] is not the Eternal Way.” Laozi is trying to indicate that the Way–or God–is and its Is-ness is experienciable. 

And that’s where this inquiry brings us. It brings us to the view that God is and this Is-ness is directly experienced yet neither picturable nor thinkable. 

And if this is true, then what is prayer? Prayer, on this construal, is the merging of “me” into God; it’s the dissolution of the apparent division between “me” and God.

After all, Balyani (the Sufi) puts the point very well: “Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord” and, indeed, whosoever knows thy Lord knows thyself.

Where does prayer take place? In the heart. What is discovered there? Look closely and see. 

Warmly,

Andrew