Working on "A"

After we break our hour’s silence, our small circle of worshipping Quakers often speak of “joys and concerns.”

In these hard times, we share mostly concerns.

Last Sunday, one woman’s comment seemed particularly urgent. “If anyone can tell me how to get from A to B, I’d appreciate it,” she said in frustration.

I wondered about how she had framed the problem: Getting from A to B.

She felt the need to reach a goal (at least it wasn’t “Z”), but she was stuck in the misery of her present.

This is going to sound a lot like Eckhart Tolle, but could it be that progress is all about ridding ourselves of “B”? If there is a “B” out there, by the time you reach it, it will be the new “A.”

Life is a river of “A”s. “B” is always around the bend.

The trick is navigating “A," being in and managing The Now, as Tolle has written,

“A” is all we have — ever.

Afterwards, I shared my thoughts with the woman. “Work on A,” I encouraged her. I think she understood.

Beyond the Confines of "God"

I came across this passage from Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now," and it speaks my mind perfectly. Or perhaps I should say it speaks my "experience of being" perfectly.


When you say Being, are you talking about God? If you are, then why don't you say it?

The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or Nietzsche's famous statement "God is dead."

The word God has become a closed concept. The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of someone or something outside you, and, yes, almost inevitably a male someone or something.

Neither God nor Being nor any other word can define or explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only important question is whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you to experience That toward which it points. Does it point beyond itself to that transcendental reality, or does it lend itself too easily to becoming no more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol?

The word Being explains nothing, but nor does God. Being, however, has the advantage that it is an open concept. It does not reduce the infinite invisible to a finite entity. It is impossible to form a mental image of it. Nobody can claim exclusive possession of Being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence, the realization I am that is prior to I am this or I am that. So it is only a small step from the word Being to the experience of Being.