Monday, January 26, 2009

The Experience of God

Here is today's Buddhist thought.

Wisdom does not mean knowledge but experiential understanding. Wisdom helps you to change radically your habits and perceptions, as you discover the constantly changing, interconnected nature of the whole of existence.
-Martine Batchelor, "Meditation For Life"

Often in psychology you have the argument of "nature versus nurture" to explain why we are the way we are. Sometimes in spirituality you have the argument of "knowledge versus experience". It is a desire for the experience of God that has always driven me in the spiritual life. What can the knowledge of God really be? No one knows anything about God with any certainty. All theology is speculation. With that in mind, what is the experience of God? Have any of my so called spiritual experiences really been an experience of God? Even one of my friends who is a priest and a monk told me that monks themselves get into heated discussions trying to define the experience of God. What is it I experience when my idea of the experience of God seems to be happening? Is it God or an over active imagination?

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