Not one. Not two.

I am using a book by Sr. Joan Chittister as a daily meditation.  Her book, The Rule of Benedict:  A Spirituality for the 21st Century takes the Rule and breaks it down into daily chunks to which she adds some wonderful commentary.  For example, below is the commentary to yesterday's selection.

Benedict, whose whole way of life is steeped in the psalms, relies heavily on the psalms here to prove God's probing presence to the individual soul. God, Benedict says quite clearly, is within us to be realized, not outside of us to be stumbled upon.  It is not a game of hide-and-seek we play in the spiritual life.  It is simply a matter of opening our eyes to the light that drives out the darkness within us.


"How does a person seek union with God?" the seeker asked.


"The harder you seek," the teacher said, "the more distance you create between God and you."


"So what does one do about the distance?"


"Understand that it isn't there," the teacher said.


"Does that mean that God and I are one?" the seeker said.


"Not one. Not two."


"How is that possible?" the seeker asked.


"The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and the song. Not one. Not two."


I find this tremendously comforting.  Despite the "His eye is on the sparrow" mentality that tries to assure us that we are each the focus of God's undivided attention, the bottom line for me is that smacks of too much making God in our own image - as if God is some amazing multi-tasking, control freak.  Whereas this emphasizes how we are all part of God, God is within and around us.  God "knows" us because we are the body.

The examples are all the more fitting for their transient nature.  The light, the wave, the song all dissipate in a moment as do we.