Naming God vs. Keeping Silence

     In 1953, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a terrific science-fiction short story called, "The Nine Billion Names of God" (http://downlode.org/EText/nine_billion_names_of_god.html). The premise was simple and brilliant: an American computer company sells a large, fast computer to a Tibetan monastery. The monks buy the machine to more quickly complete what they believe to be humanity's purpose: to print out all the possible names of God, pegged at about nine billion. Not to spoil the plot, but the monks succeed, abruptly ending the story and ....

     One of the purposes of this blog is to explore the language of experience that might fairly and broadly be called spiritual. Of all the possible spiritual questions and topics, none may be more fundamental, at least to this Westerner's sensibility, than that of God. The funny thing is that we think and pretend we know what we're saying when we use that three-letter word. As kids in America, many of us thought that God meant that Bearded White Guy in the Sky, a benevolent or punishing being not unlike Santa Claus. As adults? Jesus. Higher Power. Ultimate Reality. Love. Creator. Wakan Tanka (Lakota). Alpha & Omega. I Am Who Am. Pure Being. The Source. Etc.

     Are we talking reality or fantasy here? An experience of what is or what we want to be true? Perception or projection? In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries increasing numbers of thoughtful people began to find the concept and experience of God marginally important or, for some, patently absurd. Advances in scientific, historical and scriptural studies have, for many, gutted out the easy, comforting beliefs and spiritualities we learned at home or at religious instruction classes. While some variations of the traditional religions flourish, millions live their lives happily without much formal religious expression, particularly when it comes to community experiences like church, synagogue, mosque, etc. Numerous scandals and their subsequent cover-ups in many religious institutions have become all too frequent and added to the exodus of practicing believers.

     Filling the vacuum have been many instances of what some folk mean when they say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious." With roots in Emerson and the Transcendentalists, an appreciation of world religions and the New Thought movement, many people find a self-driven and personally validated spiritual practice to be a very important part of their lives. Millions of Twelve Step practitioners adopt a Big Tent conception of Higher Power that lets individuals choose what's meaningful to them in the spiritual arena. Still others meditate or do yoga and buy millions of spiritually themed books to nourish themselves.

     Over the next few entries, I want to explore what it could mean to name God and what it could mean to keep silence, what it means to pray and meditate, and how people of our time might find some common ground to talk to each other about our most interior experiences.

     Meantime, treat yourself to Arthur Clarke's story..... and stay open.