The Many Roads to God.

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” I often quote Rumi on how to reach God.

Yet, anyone who has gone around the sun a few times knows that there is no one answer to any of life’s difficult questions.

Trying to understand God, to use a crude analogy, is like the Hindu story of the blind men approaching an elephant. “What is the elephant like?” The one that touched its legs said: “It is like a pillar.” Another that touched the ears said “The elephant is like a husking basket.” Similarly, each experienced parts of the whole through limited “vision.”

Our tradition refers to God’s thirteen attributes.  God of mercy (before a man commits a sin); God of mercy (after a man commits a sin); Almighty Lord of the universe, Ruler of Nature, and Mankind; Full of affectionate sympathy for the suffering and miseries of human frailty; Assisting, helping and consoling the afflicted and raising up the oppressed; Long suffering and slow to anger; Abundant in goodness; True to Himself and Truth in love; Remembering the good deeds of the ancestors for a thousand generations; Bearing with indulgence the failings of Man; and also Man’s evil deeds springing from malice and rebellion against God; and also Man’s shortcomings due to heedlessness and error; He will not allow the guilty to pass unpunished but visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him.

There are many ways to connect to God, through the heart, but also via intellect, mercy, nature, sympathy, etc.  Many paths are laid out for the experience.

The Zohar, the central book of the mystical tradition of Kaballah, opens with the image of a “thirteen petal led rose.”  Those who love gardening, who cherish roses, are aware of the full use of the senses to experience their beauty, the perfume, the taste (rose water), the music of the ecstatic nightingale, the velvet touch of the petals, and yes, the thorns. 

No true love is free of pain.

In the twilight of his sleep, in the desert, Jacob battles with God and wins.  True love requires struggle.  I doubt anyone who wrestles with God can inflict a technical knockout.  But, in some sense, we all polish and redefine the image of God that sits on the mantle of our souls.  The win is in the engagement.  As in all forms of mentorship, I also allow my son to beat me in a game of chess.

Many roads lead to the One True God, as long as, as championed by The Dalai Lama, they pass through the gates of kindness.