ULTIMATE KNOWING

The second thing that the world’s wisdom traditions all address is the possibility of ultimate knowing.  If what I shared in the previous blog about the nature of Ultimate Reality is to have any meaning for us, it must be knowable by us in some way.  The mystics of the Perennial Wisdom Tradition assert that direct, immediate knowing of the One we call God is possible.  They tell us that such knowing is not based on reason nor deduction but on communion.  We only truly know that which we become one with.  Communion is a knowing through union.  Knowledge of God, then, means union with God – something that the mystics have always proclaimed to be not just possible but the goal and fulfillment of humanity.

Knowing is, therefore, becoming one with that which we seek to know.  We see this in the Hebrew Bible’s use of the language of knowing to describe sexual intercourse (as in “Adam knew Eve”).  Knowing is intimate and this intimacy is transformational.  We come to resemble that which we know.  The more we resemble that which we seek to know, the more we truly know it, and the more truly we know it the more we are one with it.

Union is not sameness but likeness.  However, in union, the dualism that initially separates subsequently dissolves and we experience the unity that holds us both.  This is, of course, a profound mystery – a mystery that lies beyond understanding but not beyond experiential knowing.

Adapted from Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Living, an article first appearing in ONEING, a publication of the Center for Action and Contemplation, Spring 2013, Vol 1, No 1.