Monday, January 3, 2011
"The Spark"
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I receive a quote from Thomas Merton periodically in emails. I felt that today's quote was profound and challenging.
I receive a quote from Thomas Merton periodically in emails. I felt that today's quote was profound and challenging.
The "spark" is not so much a stable entity which one finds but an event, an explosion which happens as all opposites clash within oneself. Then it is seen that the ego is not. It vanishes in its non-seeing when the flash of the spark alone is. When all things are reduced to the spark, who sees it? Who knows it? The "spark" which is my true self is the flash of the Absolute recognizing itself in me.
from Thomas Merton's Love and Living.
There are several parts of this quote with which I resonate. The first is the idea of an event, especially an explosion, being the essential experience of God. God is not an entity to be discovered, but rather an experience to go through. God cannot be contained in wind or fire, but the experience of nature brings into touch and communication with God. We cannot see or touch God, but the events of our lives lead us to the conviction that God is real.
Secondly, the idea of "the spark" being my true self, a flash, when the Absolute recognizes itself in me. How beautiful. How profound. How deeply challenging. Does God recognize himself in my soul? Is there a part of me that when God and I share an experience, the Divine himself comes more alive? Could this be what we mean in orthodox Christianity when we talk about "glorifying God" and "giving him praise" with our lives?
When my true self connects with true divinity, there is a spark, an explosion of life and love.
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