Seeking the Mystery

Seeking a Face - to - Face Encounter

 ‘At the moment humanity is searching for its soul’

                                                         Sister Ishpriya 

Many  reflective theologians, mystics, sages  and scientists suggest that humanity is facing another shift or quantum leap  in evolutionary consciousness. This normally requires a paradigm shift. Past experiences in both Religion and Science suggest that paradigm shifts go through a cycle of breakdown, chaos and eventually break through. In short, these shifts are moments of  great change. 

IHuman beings, both individually and collectively find change difficult and many , whether people with a Faith Tradition or none,  struggle through these periods. This 'struggle' results in Fight :Flight or Freeze and can lead people to seek some re-assuring encounter either with some 'certitude' or, if people of Faith, Mystery. There is inside humanity a 'spark', a 'soul', an Indwelling Spirit or a yearning by many names. This yearning is a search for Mystery. The great Hindu Sage and Poet Rabidranath Tagore composed the following poem on our yearning for this Face- to - Face Encounter.

Greeting the Light

Face to Face
 
Day After Day, O Lord of my life,
I stand before You face to face.
With folded hands, O Lord of all worlds
Will I stand before You face to face ?
 
And under Your great sky, 
in solitude and in silence,
With humble heart, 
I stand before you face to face.
  
In this arduous world of Yours
Turbulent with toil and struggle.
Among hurrying crowds. 
I stand before You face to face.

And when my work shall be done in this world, 
          O Lord of all worlds.
                                                                      Alone and without the need of words 
                                                                            I will stand before You face to face.
                                                                                                                                                          Rabindranath Tagor 

This poem expresses the intimacy many  are yearning for, both in personal and spiritual terms. For those who have a Faith Tradition, Tagore, is expressing it in terms of  our unique relationship with the Source of all life – Ultimate Reality. Ultimately we will ‘stand’ face to face with this Source. Paradoxically, this does not have to be an ‘after death’ experience, it is an experience we can have in this life. It can happen momentarily, as with a sunrise, the face of a child, a beautiful view. These are examples of those moments of transcendence that can happen. However, they are fleeting and in times of crisis and change , these can seem more difficult to encounter. In short we are searching for our ‘soul’ – a term that is not the property of any religion but of all humanity.

 
This searching for ‘soul’ has become more prevalent and urgent in  recent times. The great changes in both Science and Technology have challenged and changed many of the old certainties that have held sway for centuries. The growth in modern communications, allied to the exponential growth of computers, means that we have more information at our fingertips and that this information can be shared in seconds around the world. We are living in times that are changing faster than either individuals or institutions can either keep up with or manage and this can be both challenging and unsettling.In addition, the old patriarchal paradigm is broken, women are no longer willing , nor should they be, to accept an inferior status, The feminine attributes and gifts are , after millenia of suppression , beginning to assert their equality.
 
For many of our Institutions, particularly Religious, these unsettling times can give rise to great anxiety and panic. Thus we see an ever increasing growth in fundamentalism and conservatism as Institutions and Organisations try to avoid the chaos of change and cling on relentlessly  to old and outdated theology, worship and ideas. This is particularly true of male dominated Institutions, which applies to most of the formal Faith Traditions and certainly those in  Western Religions. These resist and even deny any ideas and advances that suggest that we  could benefit by acknowledging the on-going evolution of Creation and the importance of  balancing the patriarchal dominance with the feminine aspect of our humanity.

Yet both Science and the Universal Wisdom of the Mystics, along with the wisdom of the aboriginal peoples of the world, acknowledge and recognise that there is both Chaos and Conservation and that these two  are a natural part of nature, the environment and the human experience. At the moment, modern humanity is over-focused, and arguably obsessed with the patriarchal and masculine side of its psyche. Part of the solution could be for humanity to tap into and balance its feminine and masculine gifts in order to find a new and wiser way through this quantum leap. In this respect we have much to learn from the wisdom of the  ancients and the aboriginal peoples who both recognise and celebrate the feminine aspect of the Divine. This could result in us finding the balance required that will enable us to cherish, respect and appreciate the richness of both the feminine and masculine. In this way mutual respect will grow and the oppression, abuse and our disastrous failure to acknowledge and accept the great talents and gifts of women will cease.

There is nothing too surprising in all this. If we just look at history. In the middle ages the invention of the printing press brought about terrific changes. The spread of information and ideas was rapid and played a huge part in the turmoil and chaos of the Reformation in Western Christianity. At that time the Catholic Church tried to cling on to the old ways and to suppress the growth and spread of new reformist ideas. However, like the famous story of King Canute,  the (formal) Church failed to stem the tide. Instead it resisted the necessary reforms and the  ensuing conflict let to centuries of war, dispute, torture and general disharmony between peoples and Faith Traditions.

Now we have entered the Digital Age, with rapid changes in technology and communication.
Information and ideas move around our planet in seconds and all forms of authority are struggling to contain and control the pressure for reform and change. Modern people do not communicate in the old ways, hence the dying spasms of post (snail mail) and the growth of email, Facebook, Snapchat , blogs etc.  

Yet, in the West, our Churches  , Mosques and Synagogues still rely to heavily  on written texts , which are interpreted ,mainly, by males from a very conservative standpoint.. In addition, many outdated and outmoded rites and rituals  are retianed and these often  fail to appeal to so many. This is particularly true for  both the young and the discerning older people.  This is very evident in Christianity but history shows that both Islam and Judaism will too face this disenchantment with  Patriarchal Religion.  Certainly for Christianity , it is little wonder that churches are almost empty and cinemas, shopping malls and dance studios and clubs are filling up. Many people find worship boring and irrelevant to modern times and modern issues of injustice, oppression, violence, prejudice and the growing gap between rich and poor. They are searching for answers to questions that very often the  main stream churches don’t or won’t address.

Our task, both as individuals and as members of communities and traditions, is to first take responsibility for our own life and its journey. This is the primary task of maturing into adulthood. Too often we remain in child mode and thus subservient to patriarchal authority. Then we need to model this in our relationships and our communities. The Face-to Face encounter, in Tagore's Poem, is similar to Buber's  I : Thou  relationship of modern psychology. It is a relationship of mutual respect and adulthood. Ancient Wisdom and modern psychology assert that this is a surer and safer path to finding our true self - our soul