Religion has been high-jacked by true believers. But Spirituality is nurtured in Uncertainty.
Because we uncritically value our beliefs, we give our uncertainties a negative connotation. Yet Uncertainty is the seed of
creation.
According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the whole universe
arises from the field of quantum uncertainty, where a particle's
momentum (mass multiplied by speed) and its location cannot be simultaneously known. The "particle" may just as well be defined as a non-localized
wave of pure mathematical probability. Can we find any more positive
way to honor the creative power of bewilderment?
Emily Dickinson
wrote, "I dwell in possibility." The field of infinite possibility is the groundless Uncertain, the unfathomable space between
our thoughts. Beliefs are not nearly so full of Truth as the silence between them.
Medieval Christian mystics honored this space as the deepest prayer, and called it "the cloud of
unknowing." Meister Eckhart
wrote, "I need to be silent for awhile: worlds are forming in my heart." How do we know but that a new creation doesn't arise each moment from the boundless silence at our core? Here is our first vocation: to awaken the space of unknowing.
We need courage to linger where nothing is final, nothing is certain,
and all is possible. We need courage to rest without clinging to any belief
at all. Jesus said, "With God all things are possible." (Mat 19:26) If the Creator doesn't need to be certain, why should we?
(Photo: 'Space Between the Atoms' by Timothy Vincent at deviantart.com )
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