Spirituality Information - Journey In The Fields Of Forever ( Part 3 )
Journey In The Fields Of Forever
Part 3
G. K. Chesterton
As I was meditating on what the poet-priest meant when he declared that "the whole universe is a sacrament", I tried to imagine what all-embracing, total and satisfactory experiences that might be for a man who had transcended time and space... It occurred to me that what I wanted was just to be "at one" with the universe.
Part 3: The Three Steps
In matters of the spirit, we are all agreed, there is no argument that can settle anything. At the back of every mind there is a wall of prejudice against logic and common-sense. All knowing men are agreed that there are in our minds certain innate ideas, which persist in spite of all attempts to get rid of them. No amount of reasoning will persuade a man who is predisposed against any kind of religious belief; and on the other hand, no amount of reasoning will convince him who instinctively believes in the supernatural.
The Unseen World
"There is something in us which makes us unwilling to accept that this world is our only world, which makes us eternally prone to believe that there are other worlds, which make us inclined to think that there is another goal before us or behind us, or on the left or on the right." — William James
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Let me begin by wishing you a Happy New Year and New Calendar. I trust we shall all take better care of our health this coming year than we did last, and I shall be very surprised if any of us falls over one of the stile-marks.
As I was meditating on what the poet-priest meant when he declared that "the whole universe is a sacrament", I tried to imagine what all-embracing, total and satisfying experiences that might be for a man who had transcended time and space.
I was thinking of something which would unite all human beings in one common consciousness, something which would reconcile the enigmas of their mind and heart, their hopes and fears. It occurred to me that what I wanted was just to be "at one" with the universe.
In matters of the spirit, we are all agreed, there is no argument that can settle anything. At the back of every mind there is a wall of prejudice against logic and common-sense. All knowing men are agreed that there are in our minds certain innate ideas, which persist in spite of all attempts to get rid of them. No amount of reasoning will persuade a man who is predisposed against any kind of religious belief; and on the other hand, no amount of reasoning will convince him who instinctively believes in the supernatural.
The Unseen World
"There is something in us which makes us unwilling to accept that this world is our only world, which makes us eternally prone to believe that there are other worlds, which make us inclined to think that there is another goal before us or behind us, or on the left or on the right." — William James
"An agnostic," he said to me one day in his very simple way, "is most of all a man who has lost the sense of wonder. He no longer sees the sacredness of the existence of his fellow-creatures any more than he does that of the stars and the sun and all time."
We used to meet at St. Albans and have long conversations. I found him rather a hard man to understand. He had got in his head, as he confessed himself, an idea which was a cardinal feature of his system. It seemed to overshadow every other idea. He had got it from some old priest or monk whom he trusted as absolutely as he believed in the reality and the completeness of this whole big universe. There was in his mind no word for it except "Realism".
"Realism", he explained to me, "is not one of the things that you can think or talk about in a rational way. It is not a thing at all. It is like the real world which it informs and illuminates."
He pointed round the room where we were sitting in his little farm-house on the Hampshire Downs and said, "If any one of us asked you what is this chair? how would you begin your explanation?" And I found out at last that he wanted me to tell him what it meant to be a realist, because I was a sort of ambassador for all young Englishmen without experience of life.
"But," he said, "this is a chair and that is a table, it is not true to say that these things are the same. That would be fantastic. This chair may be fanciful, but it does not pretend to be anything else. It does not pretend to be an elephant or a mouse or anything else."
"That," he said, "is merely an allusion. It is an image. As I now knelt down on the floor for his blessing he added the words which I have just quoted from William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience". He ended by saying "Our Lord of the universe has but one thing to give us, and that is his own Realism."
And as I listened to this wonderful man, sitting in his white beard on the floor of a farm-house on the Hampshire Downs, I felt that I had come face to face with something which was not exactly new and yet was not quite old. It was something which I had never believed in before, but had always felt that it ought to be believed in; something which each new experience makes me feel more strongly every day of my life.
Yes! I have come face to face with it, and now that I have seen it I know what it is. It is the Real World.
"An agnostic," he said to me one day in his very simple way, "is most of all a man who has lost the sense of wonder. He no longer sees the sacredness of the existence of his fellow-creatures any more than he does that of the stars and the sun and all time."
We used to meet at St. Albans and have long conversations. I found him rather a hard man to understand. He had got in his head, as he confessed himself, an idea which was a cardinal feature of his system. It seemed to overshadow every other idea.
Conclusion
"An agnostic," he said to me one day in his very simple way, "is most of all a man who has lost the sense of wonder. He no longer sees the sacredness of the existence of his fellow-creatures any more than he does that of the stars and the sun and all time."
We used to meet at St. Albans and have long conversations. I found him rather a hard man to understand. He had got in his head, as he confessed himself, an idea which was a cardinal feature of his system. It seemed to overshadow every other idea.