While intended in a secular vein, I've always liked the astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington's humble assessment, "It's not that the universe is stranger than you imagine, rather it's stranger than you can imagine". I usually pair that with Saint Augustine: "That which you know is not God. If you think you understand, you have failed".
My greatest comfort comes from the Rabbinical Iris Dement, who spoke with wisdom in Let the Mystery Be.
We are light beings or, with the quantum physics in mind, quantum beings collapsing the wave function all the time without time, space and spacetime. We are creatures and we create so in a (human) sense(s) we are god🙏
Many mystics in both the Jewish and Christian traditions interpreted the "light" of the Genesis 1 Creation account as pointing to the non-dualistic Mystical Revelation, which is beyond conceptions, and which reflects, as much as possible for humans to experience, G-d's Self and Source of Creation.
This same "Mystical Revelation, of which "light" is a metaphor and is NOT to be taken literally, also implies G-d's hidden unfolding into Creation and all the nuances of it, as reflected within that Revelation-- some of which mystics are forbidden to speak of (but not forbidden to hint..). It is considered a sacred Divine Reflection into the very core of the human soul.
The Mystical tradition which uses this teaching is Neoplatonism (e.g., Philo, the Gospel of John, Plotinus, the Kabbalah, Sufism, and others).
Interesting excursus into the mystical texts of the ancient Jewish legacy about one of the most intriguing subjects of its oral and written Tradition . I find curious your mentioning Rav Yeouvah’s interpretation about the Original Light, as it refers to the sight (opening to the Qabbalah visual tradition and to the following iconoclastic question) while the Biblical Word Tradition has generally privileged hearing and listening. Just to underline the Pilpul of the exegetic debate of the Jewish tradition ….
While intended in a secular vein, I've always liked the astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington's humble assessment, "It's not that the universe is stranger than you imagine, rather it's stranger than you can imagine". I usually pair that with Saint Augustine: "That which you know is not God. If you think you understand, you have failed".
My greatest comfort comes from the Rabbinical Iris Dement, who spoke with wisdom in Let the Mystery Be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlaoR5m4L80
We are light beings or, with the quantum physics in mind, quantum beings collapsing the wave function all the time without time, space and spacetime. We are creatures and we create so in a (human) sense(s) we are god🙏
Many mystics in both the Jewish and Christian traditions interpreted the "light" of the Genesis 1 Creation account as pointing to the non-dualistic Mystical Revelation, which is beyond conceptions, and which reflects, as much as possible for humans to experience, G-d's Self and Source of Creation.
This same "Mystical Revelation, of which "light" is a metaphor and is NOT to be taken literally, also implies G-d's hidden unfolding into Creation and all the nuances of it, as reflected within that Revelation-- some of which mystics are forbidden to speak of (but not forbidden to hint..). It is considered a sacred Divine Reflection into the very core of the human soul.
The Mystical tradition which uses this teaching is Neoplatonism (e.g., Philo, the Gospel of John, Plotinus, the Kabbalah, Sufism, and others).
fascinating; thank you, Chen
חג שמח
Interesting excursus into the mystical texts of the ancient Jewish legacy about one of the most intriguing subjects of its oral and written Tradition . I find curious your mentioning Rav Yeouvah’s interpretation about the Original Light, as it refers to the sight (opening to the Qabbalah visual tradition and to the following iconoclastic question) while the Biblical Word Tradition has generally privileged hearing and listening. Just to underline the Pilpul of the exegetic debate of the Jewish tradition ….
Words cannot express what the Creation was like because processes were at work that may have never been put in place ever again.
I enjoy a Taoist creation story that the Tao created Yin and Yang and they went on to create everything else.
Really fascinating, thanks!