I was thinking this morning that I would like to start a new religion. I would like to be able to give people the secret of happiness. I would like to be able to provide a map for life, a set of guide-lines that would cut through the hypocrisy and the ideological pseudo-truths that people are so happy to subscribe to and which do nothing to make them happier, better persons, or to change the world. Unfortunately I do not know the secret of happiness and have no maps to give. I am not even sure I influence my own children for the better. The two greatest teachers of religion, Guatama and Jesus had both found that secret before they began to speak about it. I know how to go about finding it, I think, but, perhaps, deep down I am inhibited by doubt.
People want certainty; they want categorical and definite truths to believe in. They want to be assured and the last thing they want is doubt. Unfortunately – no that is undoubtedly the wrong word – fortunately, it is not possible to talk about God or about ultimate reality in that way. Fortunately, because if God could be described in concrete terms He would not be God. The one thing we can all agree on as humans is that we are not content with our lot. We long to transcend our limitations, to break down the barriers which enclose, and divide, and restrict. In a world of jaded palates we long for ecstasy.
God is in the depths of our being. We do not believe this. We give it lip-service, but we do not really believe it. We do not believe it because it places the onus on us. If God is in the depths of my being and I have not found him whose fault is that? Mine? The communities of which I am a part and who have shaped and moulded me? God’s fault? This reminds me of the story of the fish who heard about the ocean and went looking for it but could find it nowhere. Language is inadequate. God is not an object, nor is he objective reality existing somewhere to be found. This is why Buddha was so wise not to talk in this way; to refuse to speculate. Jesus did not hesitate to use the religious language of his time, but he used parables and paradoxes to point beyond the accepted conventions. That is all one can do – point beyond. That, however, is not enough for most people, or rather, it is too much. We do not want to let go of what we have until we can see where we are going. All the great teachers say that we must let go and journey in the dark, in the cloud of unknowing. We do not want to do this by ourselves, we cannot. We need a guide. Sadly, there are few guides.
The Church holds itself up as a guide. The priests recite the Mass and say the words of the sacraments. They tell us that inner transformations are occurring. They assure us that when we die we shall see God. But they do nothing that will help me to transcend this enclosing now. They do not even tell me it is possible. In fact they say it is impossible, in spite of the long mystical tradition in the Church. The Church is afraid of mystical experience. It does not know how to deal with it. The professional mystics are confined to the enclosed orders in monasteries and convents. People are hungry for God and they are given platitudes.