Theos-Talk Archives (April 2006 Message tt00288)

Here is another less poetic but perhaps just as effective description 
of the Mystery of Creation taken from THE CONQUEST OF ILLUSION, 1928, 
pp114-115, by J.J. van der Leeuw.


"There is but one Reality which we may term the Absolute
or the Relative, the very being of which is eternal Creation or
eternal Becoming. If in that eternal creative Rhythm we
distinguish one phase in which the relative is oblivious of the
Absolute, seeing but separateness and an external universe
of relativity, and another phase in which the relative once
again realizes itself as the Absolute and in that realization/ is
/the Absolute, even so these phases are but distinctions /we
/make in that which is entire and whole -- the one, ultimate
eternal Reality.
When, in the world of the Real, we realize the ultimate
reality of the Absolute as creation or eternal becoming, when
we know the rhythm of creation as the very being of the
Absolute, we can see the absurdity of those questions which
ask out of what material the universe is made, who made it
and how it was made. All these questions originate in
illusion, and, unless we conquer this illusion in ourselves
from the beginning, we shall find it coming up in subtle forms
at every step of our philosophical contemplations.
To the intellect in its limitation the realization which we
gain of the Absolute as creation is very unsatisfactory, since
it does not in any way solve or explain the problems which
the intellect constructed and for the answer of which it
clamours. But when we gain the experience of this ultimate
Reality we find the questions disappearing in the light of
Reality; in that light we can see the absurdity and distortion
inherent in the questions and problems which the intellect
considers so seriously and so strenuously. We do not in any
way solve the problem of creation, we experience the reality
in which the problem is seen as the product of illusion.
In that ultimate experience we know that the absolute is
eternal creation, that creation is not an act, thought or
emanation of the Absolute but that it /is /the Absolute, its very
purpose. It is the one Reality beyond which nothing is, there
is no cause to which the one eternal truth can be traced, no
final result which it can ever produce or accomplish. We
may call this ultimate reality Absolute or the relative, the
two terms refer to the same Reality, which is the relative when
experienced by the separate creature as a world of separate-
ness and multiplicity, which is the Absolute when realized
as That which is all relativity, past and future, in ever-present
Reality. That Reality is Creation, it is the final and awful
Truth which we realize in the world of eternal reality the 'one
dark truth' of which Dionysius speaks. Truly this final
mystery is awful and dark, yet its darkness is better than the
light of our world-image and the awe with which it fills us
is better than the self-complacent conceit of the intellect.
It leaves us silent, for its simplicity is too great to be ex-
pressed. It is a mystery, the Mystery of Creation, the
ultimate Mystery, but it is no longer a problem since we
ourselves are It."




Jacques Mahnich wrote:
> Another very poetic description of creation, inspired by the Vedas :
> 
> The Book of Beginning
> Canto One
> The Symbol Dawn
> (Sri Aurobindo - SAVITRI -) 
>
>
> 
> danielhcaldwell wrote:
> Hymn of Creation: "He verily knows it, or perhaps he knows it not."
>
> Below I give 4 different versions of the remarkable "Hymn of 
> Creation" from the Rig Veda. 
> 
peace within,


bill



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