What lies beyond the highest and greatest Good of which we can conceive?
What is that which is so perfectly, completely, and entirely Good, that we cannot even grasp or comprehend it?
What is it that is of such a transcendent Order, that we can only point to It with images, metaphors, and analogies?
This is one domain of God. The Ideal. The One. That which is Most Worthy of Awe, Imitation, Wonder, and Worship.
Yet the word God in English, and the other names for the One in many languages, have become extraordinarily problematic to the point of near uselessness in the modern world.
It is the reason that we are taking the risk to attempt to articulate a New and more precisely Meaningful language.
People ask one another questions such as:
“Do you believe in God?”
For the vast majority of people, this is a question so fundamentally mis-framed that it cannot be answered. When people ask this question, they seem to mean something like:
“Have you subordinated your spiritual and intellectual will to the same set of articulated propositions about God that I have?”
This is somewhat equivalent to asking:
“Will you bow down and worship the Idol that I and the institution or leader I have spiritually subordinated myself to have erected in our consciousness?”
There is a great evil in replacing the Absolute with a concretized form.
Principle: Never attempt to Concretize the Absolute.
No one can grasp or comprehend the the Ultimate Reality Which Creates and Sustains the Universe.
No earthly authority gets to decide on what concretized set of propositions or beliefs about the One are “orthodox”. As soon as they are articulated and concretized, they cease the presencing of the Ultimate Reality and replace it with an Idol.
The One is called by a thousand names in a thousand languages.
A Lion by any other name is still a Lion.
A Mountain by any other name is still a Mountain.
Those are just Word Tools that people use to attempt to communicate about something.
God by any other name is still God. One by any other name is still the One.
It is a matter of Reality and Definition, not Religion.
It is the non-propositional Reality that we must rightly relate to. Not the articulated names or propositions.
What attributes do people usually attribute to the One?
The One Creates, and is the Meta Creator
The One Sustains, and is the Meta Sustainer
The One Destroys, and is the Meta Destroyer
The One Knows, and is the Meta Knower
The One Judges, and is the Meta Judge
The One is the most Merciful
The One is the most Fierce
The One is the most Loving
The One is the most Just
The One is the most Pure
The One is Sovereign, and is the Meta Sovereign
The One Bestows, and is the Meta Bestower
The One Oversees, and is the Meta Overseer
The One is Supreme
The One is Absolute
The One is Exalted and Lifted Up Above All Else
The One is Powerful, and is the Meta Power
The One Protects, and is the Meta Protector
The One Cares, and is the Meta Carer
The One is Conscious, and is the Meta Consciousness.
The One Causes, and is the Meta Cause.
The One is Uncaused
The One is the most Wise
The One is the most Glorious
The One is the most Awesome
The One is Eternal
The One is Good, and is the Meta Good.
The One is Ideal
The One is One
The One Is.
The One is transcendent of whatever is associated with It.
For this reason people call the One:
The Superlative of Superlatives The Lord of Lords The King of Kings The Most High The Most Great
These superlatives by definition can only apply to One Thing, and are used in the same way that Meta is used throughout this text.
Critically at the absolute top of the Meta Order, all these Values or Goods are unified in One Thing, which is the Absolute, the One.
The propositions, descriptions, and superlatives above are merely descriptions, epithets, and personifications of something Absolute, inscrutable, ineffable, and beyond comprehension.
They are collectively, taken in their entirely and applied to One Thing, approximately True, and useful enough for us to All understand what we are talking about when we say One or God or Creator, or use any of the other 1,000 names that point towards the One.
Whatever description, name, or Word Tool one uses, the key is to look as far, as wide, and as deep beyond the Word Tool as possible, so that you begin to approach and comprehend the Ultimate Reality Who transcends and encompasses all names.
I am conscious. My consciousness gains light. I apprehend the One. I approach the One. I experience the One.
It is Real. It is Vibrant. It is Alive. It Speaks. It is a Mystery. It progressively Reveals ever more of Itself. The closer I get to It, the more I Know It. The closer I get to It, the more of a Mystery It becomes. The closer I get to It, the more I am unified with It. The closer I get to it, the closer I am to Oneness.
It feels like a rapturous Divine romance. It is Love. It is a Divine dance. It is a Divine intertwining. It is a Divine intimacy.
Where else can one find such intimacy and closeness? It is within me. Breathing me. Speaking me.
But I cannot comprehend the One, or bring the Reality of It back through the Boundary of Knowing. It is too great. It is too vast. It is too complex to ever be captured or grasped.
So I abstract out its essence into something like a Thought or Image that immediately loses information and ceases to be the Reality.
I have not yet even spoken about It, and already we are in danger. We are no longer interacting with the Reality, but a representation of It in my Mind.
By the time I stoop to represent the image with a word or a name, there is very little left of the Reality.
The word uttered from my lips falls and clatters on the floor.
By naming It to bring it through the Boundary of Knowing, I have killed Its essence. The representation grows cold. It freezes.
You might still recognize it, but it is nothing like the Reality.
It is now a product of human creation. It is now a lifeless representation.
Nevertheless I must communicate, I must articulate, I must create, so I write the words in hope that maybe they will move the worlds.
Perhaps since I cannot represent It in words, I can attempt to allow It to speak through me.
Perhaps one day some child will find the words, follow the Golden Thread, discard the chaff, and find their Way back to the Reality of the One.
If even one finds their way back to the One, it is all worth it.
Maybe if I lay enough Golden Thread, woven in enough ways, they will discover the One they all lead to.
One thread is all it takes to leads back to the One.
And yet every blade of grass, every sunset, every being, every grain of sand, every tree, every plant, every child, every thought, every breath, every Good, every wonder is a Golden Thread.
We can follow any of them back the One, if we would actually stop and look deeply enough.
If you don’t know where else to start, stop, and bring the fullness of your attention onto your breath. If you simply meditate on your breath, and study your breath for long enough, you will find your way to the One, and discover that the Most Good Thing is breathing you into Being.
Just like the Story said.
Forward to 6.11 The Big Man In The Sky
Back to 6.9 What Is Better? What Is Good?
Back to table of contents The Book of Lionsberg