Facing Mystery
by Ted Tollefson
December 17, 2023 | Red Wing UUC
Mystery is like the horizon.
When we attempt to look at it directly it shifts, is not easy to capture in words, yet is always present. Example: the horizon that surrounds you through any sense gate.
Mystery can sometimes be reduced to a problem and solved.
This can be a huge resource. Mystery novels and detective fiction are hero myths that celebrate the power of rational thinking to make the world understandable and sometimes better. Example: Improving the appeal of my class by consulting the department chair and taking his advice.
Mystery can sometimes be mystification.
It has been used by priesthoods and religious hierarchies to cloak their claims of power and privilege. Ask a Christian to explain the Trinity to you. It is an attempt to reconcile two contradictory ideas: the strict monotheism of Judaism and Islam with the three-in-one Trinity of Father-Son-Holy Ghost. Example: Virgin Birth, the Trinity.
Mystery sometimes appears as necessary gaps in our knowledge.
According to several Western philosophers, all knowledge and all logical systems depend upon assumptions that cannot be proven (Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, Godel's Proof...). Our knowledge is based upon necessary fiction and axiomatic assumptions. Example: 2+2 = 4 only in base 10.
Mystery in a spiritual sense is the world glimpsed and savored in wonder and delight.
It begins by breathing into the present moment and appreciating the beauty that surrounds us. When we come to rest in the present, the world is not only enough. It is lovely to behold. Example: "I am awaiting a rebirth of wonder, a renaissance of joy" (Lawrence Ferlinghetti).