Mystery

MYSTERY - Also see SECRET, HIDDEN, SEPARATE, ESOTERIC, PARADOX, FAITH, MYSTIC, MYTH, LIFE, DUALITY, GNOSTIC, BECOMING

Antonyms: TRUTH, REALITY, ONENESS, BOTH, TRINITY, WHOLE, COMPLETE, PERFECT, MEANING, CONNECTED

Definition: 1. One that is not fully understood or that baffles or eludes the understanding

2. One whose identity is unknown and who arouses curiosity

3. The skills, lore, or practices that are peculiar to a particular activity or group and are regarded as the special province of initiates.

4. A religious truth that is incomprehensible to reason and knowable only through divine revelation

The basic idea is that religion, true religion, starts with the mystery of God [ineffable, external, infinite]. If the mystery is grasped by humans, it's not the true mystery, and believing that we "possess" the mystery leads to deformations of belief -- fundamentalism, war, and the like. On the other hand, if we ignore the mystery altogether, we simply fail to be fully human and miss out on an important part of ourselves. The roots of faith grow out of the human longing for infinity, for transcendence and are watered by wonder in the face of creation and acceptance.(Amazon review of God at the Ritz: Attraction for Infinity)

The heart of the Christian mystery and the meaning of salvation - "God had become man, so that man could now become God (by grace because God is love). Saint John of the Cross wrote of Athanasius' corollary (man become God) when he simply penned: "If anything pleases God it is the exaltation of the soul. Since there is no way by which He can exalt her more than by making her equal to Himself, He is pleased only with her love. For the property of love is to make the lover equal to the object loved" (The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 28). In his Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas does teach that the sin of the devil was that the devil desired to become God (STh I,63,3) [or the Fall of man]. But [one] would sin were [one] to desire to be like God even in the right way, but of [one's] own power, and not of God's." No man can save himself without God's help. It is not something that we can take or earn, but it is attainable and it is a real ontological change in us when God gives us this share [of divinity] in Him. (http://catholicexchange.com/2007/05/02/94512/) - also see WORSHIP

By grace God gives Himself to the devotee by oneness with Spirit in which the mystery of life is no more. Vanished is the duality of the multiplicity in the Indivisible Unity in the devotee's awakening - with realization that all things are of God. (2nd Coming, Vol 1, p529)

The soul that sees Him [One] everywhere [many] is one of love's secrets which is only known of those who have experienced it. The simple vision [knowledge] of pure love does not stop at the outer husk of creation; it penetrates to the divinity which is hidden within. (p305) (Mysticism)

We live in a world of reality only if we have a taste for mystery. (Further, p76)

Faith is both a mystery and a miracle. (http://www.orthodoxeurope.org/page/10/1.aspx)

We need to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life - to appreciate that life is complex. (Further, p14)

God's unfathomable mystery, in which things which are opposite in our universe coincide. Man has to speak about God as suffering AND rejoicing, unchangeable AND repenting, acting AND resting: He is darkness more a‑light than light. (Buddhism, p193)

In order to solve this mystery, one must completely cut off all the delusive thoughts of the ordinary mind. This mystery cannot be reached by thought and is unattainable through words. (Zen & Bible, p176)

Mystery denotes something God has not previously chosen to share with men. (Beginning of the End, p102)

To approach the mystery as if it were merely a problem to be solved would be an indicator that one is still bound to pretranscendent attachments. (Dark Night, p93)

The mystery of life is to be experienced, not explained. (F. Herbert)

The sacred reality must always remain an ineffable (inexpressible)mystery which fills us with dread but exerts a ceaseless attraction. Our world is beautiful, baffling, and tragic. Adam and Eve wanted knowledge of priveged information, but got self-knowledge and an understanding of the mystery of our own being. We also have to recognize the sacred mystery of our fellow man. Other human beings remain as opaque and mysterious as God - indeed, thet can reveal to us the essential mystery and otherness of the sacred. God no longer speaks or intervenes directly, but human beings can achieve the integration and wholeness for which we long only by coming to terms with our own natures of crimes, grief, and resentment. We have to make peace with the past, as best we can. It is a struggle in we may never fully succeed, but only if it is undertaken can we become a source of blessing to the world and to others. (Beginning, p117-9)

How has Christianity survived 2,000 years of skepticism? What makes humans generous? For as long as death remains a mystery, so, too, will resurrection. Our faith is the same of those 2,000 years ago. Suffering is not a problem to be solved; it is a mystery and all we can do is hang on in faith. (HA 4/7/96).

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:6)

Confront the dark world of uncreated reality and the cloud of unknowing in the hope of piercing it. As long as you wrestle with logic and concepts, you are imprisoned in ideas or forms of thought that have already been established. (Hist, p338)

Little by little, a mysterious Power, which I now humbly recognize as the grace of God. (Rebld, p30)

"The Lord works in mysterious ways" (???) sure was true when I prayed for the slasher of my tires, which cost me $200, and then 2 days later received a escrow overage check for $600. The mystery of faith and the sacraments of Initiation help to give us glimpses into these mysteries. (Randy)

*MYSTIC/*MYSTICAL/*MYSTICISM

In more ordinary ways of apprehending the world, the knower and the thing known remain distinct. In mystical experience, however, subject and object are merged; knower and known are one. Thinking proceeds from negativa (God is not this, not that), through purgation of all taint of involvement in sensuous delight, to a "flight of the alone to the Alone." ('90 Collier Enc)

A properly mystical state is something that happens to a person; one cannot induce it voluntarily but can only prepare the way for it by the practice of prayer. Those privileged to enter this realm, experience in a new way what it means to love God with all their powers. GOD HIMSELF MAKES AVAILABLE TO SUCH INDIVIDUALS A NEW POWER BY WHICH THEY CAN LOVE HIM. (Contemplation, p4)

spiritually significant or symbolic; mysteries known only to initiated (Dict)

Albert ??, St. Bonaventure, Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis, St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Eckhart, Aldous Huxley?

See the web for the Mystery of Jesus of Nazareth by Andrew Greeley