Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 8, 2010

God is a metaphor for that which transcends all
levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.

Joseph Campbell, mystic, philosopher


I disagree. (I know; what arrogance, disagreeing with Joseph Campbell!)

I have spent years on the journey into the Mystery we call “God”. I’ve been at it for over 45 years, maybe more if I count my very young years when I was unconsciously asking the pertinent questions.

God cannot transcend intellectual thought. Intellectual thought is an essential characteristic of being an authentic human being. It joins with Intuition and with Feeling and with Reason – if indeed Reason and Intellectual Thought are different – as part of the capacity of human Life.

My own Journey has had many dimensions: Mystical, Feeling, Intuition, Reason. Recently – I would say within the last few years – I have finally come to an Understanding of “God”. It is essentially based in Intellectual Thought – which has certainly been assisted by the others. I can now shut my eyes, clear my head, and I understand what God is. I intellectually perceive the deep vastness of Being. I know that I am integrated with that vastness of Being – and my Heart and Mind and Reason and Intuition act as “handmaidens” in this gloriously freeing and expanding knowledge. I know that I am one with All that Is – and it is my Intellect, which has been honoured by Mystery, which is the bearer of this Knowledge. It makes me feel solidly human - like a person free of “sandy ground”. My intellectual thought feels like I have reached “the house built on rock”.

What God is is a metaphor – on this Campbell is correct – “for all that transcends all levels” of Mortal Limitation. In this elegant Earthly existence, we are graciously hidden from what St. Paul would call the fullness of knowledge in the Dark Glass.

This is a great gift! One of the great blessings of this Earthly Life is to journey without Certainties. This reality is one of the basic characteristics of the wonder of human existence,

Let us journey with Joy, and without Fear, on this path. It is one of the greatest possibilities – as I understand the Gospel – that “Jesus” and others gave us.

Brian+