Thursday, December 01, 2005

Ecumenical Linguistic Gymnastics

One of the first lines in the Tao Te Ching is that the Tao that can be named us not the true Tao. Genesis however begins by saying that in the beginning was the word and the word was God. It's ironic that for the Christians, faith alone isn't enough. God must be defined in human terms. It's like God's word is greater than God's glory, or reality. Which comes closer to what I believe the Tao, or God, to be. Although it is beyond human concepts, I can recognize elements of it everywhere around me.
I remember a few years ago when a devout Baptist friend asked me if I believed in God. In a move more Zen than Taoist, I pointed at the snow-covered countryside beyond the train window. How could a person take in so much beauty and not believe?


On the turntable: John Coltrane, "Coltrane for Lovers"
On the nightable: Nicholson Baker, "The Everlasting Story of Nory"

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