How can this be possible – simultaneously revealed and concealed, both present and not apparent? It sounds like mere mystical sophistry and fanciful theorizing, but we all experience how this works in our daily lives. Consider the mind. On the one hand, a few moments of observation are enough to tell me whether you are conscious or not, i.e. that your mind is present. On the other hand, I cannot directly see, hear, taste, smell, or feel your mind; it hides behind the signs by which it reveals itself. All I can do is infer its presence, and yet that inference is as close to certainty as I can have about someone else. And so your mind is manifest to me and yet hidden from me at the same time.
From your own perspective, the mind ‘feels’ as if it lies within you, right behind your eyes. You can ‘see’ or ‘hear’ some of what you are thinking on what seems to be an inner screen or soundtrack, and you can consciously peruse its contents by acts of memory or attention. All this is done in secret, so you can dissimulate, alter, or lie about these states of awareness when dealing with others. In one sense, therefore, your mind is a private, inner reality. On the other hand, your mind is much more fluent in and comfortable with the external world than with its own insides. It is an outdoor entity, in the sense that its images, vocabulary, and interests are all drawn from and attuned to the world of physical bodies, motion, and space. Its very language is derived from a public consensus on what is ‘out there’. Your mind has found ways to achieve a precision abroad, through the techniques of modern science, that it will never reach as it stumbles around in the dark room containing that dim and solitary screen of your thoughts and memories. And so you could say that your mind has both an internal – batin – habitat and an external – dhahir – propensity. Is it an agent of the external world growing within you, or a true proxy for yourself wandering into an alien environment? Or both? Or neither? Who can say?
In learning to control the physical world, humanity has discovered amazing tools – ones that we can only wave about like stubby pitchforks when we come to the deep, unlit chasms of ignorance within ourselves. Consider this: that for all our scientific knowledge, including the most recent revelations about the human brain, we are little better at comprehending and controlling our own consciousness than we were ten thousand years ago. We are so accustomed to skirting this impasse that we no longer appreciate the scope and grandeur of its profundity. We have lived so long on the edge of an abyss that its proximity usually leaves us unmoved.
As overwhelming as the vastness of interstellar space, and as beautiful as a coral reef or a choral symphony, our ineffable, internal realms of meaning and insight can move us to awe, tears, or acts of noble sacrifice and constant devotion. None of these forces can be summoned by human will alone, as they point to an undefinable potential inside us that is greater than what we can know and control.* How can we make sense of this tremendous unseen reality that can never be reduced to figures or clear concepts? What symbols do we use to convey this presence of the Infinite in our daily lives?
* Why do we search for meaning? What is the source of our values, and of our need for them? I contend that GOD is present in every quest for meaning and every act of love, whether we acknowledge His Presence or not. Without such instances of Immanence, our lives would be meaningless and worthless.
The GOD You Already Know 