We are inherently religious, but not doctrinely so. “The Tao that can be told is not th eternal Tao.” This comes from the Shamans and early Taoists in northern China in the form of the Tao Te Ching, which was composed between 500 and 5,000 years before Jesus. And which also says, “Darkness within darkness, the gateway to mystery and understanding–and the “understanding” is that everything is grounded upon mystery. Christianity which is grounded upon dogma and doctrine cannot get around the mystery at the heart of it all that has to be “taken on faith.” But then goes out of its way to disparage the “Mystery Religions.”
All religion is mystery at the core. We do not know how we know what we know, and do not spend enough time–are not encouraged to spend enough time, or taught how to spend it–seeking even to know ourselves, much less explore the mysteries that lie beyond us and surround us. Yet, “Know Thy Self” was recognized as being essential knowledge, inscribed on the ancient Greek Temple of Apollo in the precinct of Delphi between around 700 years BCE.
It is to our shame that we do not honor the mysteries of existence with our attentive presence, yet call ourselves “religious” because we believe what somebody, anybody, tells us to believe “because it is so.” Nothing can be so that has to be believed to be true–it can only be said to be so. Beyond the saying is only Mystery.
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