Giving Life to the Divine

The Foundation Of Modern Morality

 Giving Life to the Divine

 Informed by the revelation in Buddhist practice of the precious and fleeting nature of all life, and further enhanced by the presentation of the idea of love and compassion, not only in Buddhist practice but as foundation to Christianity and other mystical traditions from other religions as well, there is a foundation for human morality that can last as long has does our species on this planet.

Before us, as always, lives the reality of the great mystery. We do not know what the fundamental state of existence is, what is the ultimate composition of things. We have notions from quantum physics and other theory, but currently we cannot know the ultimate question at the heart of the great mystery.

 What we can know, and what we experience, is that we exist in a universe, and perhaps greater dimensions than this, that reflects awesome beauty, wonder, elegance, structure and order. This certainly reflects a source of profound wonder, beauty, and magnificence.  In the face of this sublime and unfathomable beauty, the  word which may best express the qualitative nature of the great mystery is Love.

 But this is an idea of Love, that exceeds all limits of human understanding. It is Love on an infinite and measureless scale.  This love is not a being, or personage, or gender, or entity, or even consciousness, as we understand. It is simply and purely the very fabric of reality itself. Reality is Infinite Love.

 All of creation is the expression of this Love from formless source into the seemingly endless variety of form.  In a way it can be truly said, that all that is, is love coming to life.

From this we may make a departure from our earlier conceptions of God and divinity.  There is not a supreme being residing in some holy place, watching over and ultimately dictating what happens on earth, in the universe, or wherever else there maybe.  There is, although impersonal, and not human, an infinite state of existence of immeasurable beauty and wonder that we all are moment by moment expressions of.  All the forms of creation, arise from and return to this fundamental reality of Love. Life is perpetually dynamic, transforming over and over for as long as there may be time. This is the life of infinite love. This is what we are all part of, now and forever.

 We could simply just be grateful for our existence, and live our lives for the fulfillment of our needs and the realization of our ambition.  But although not ordained, or commanded from on high, there is for each and every one of us a beautiful and sublime potential. We can grow and evolve our consciousness and ongoing awareness of this Love, and express into this life a reality of Love that is even greater than our mere existence in this reality. We can transform ourselves into more loving compassionate beings, and we can help our world become even more beautiful and brighter expressions of that miraculous and wondrous source we all arise from.

 This is the sublime ambition, as we model what the Great Source itself has done, bringing greater love to life, giving life to the divine.

 In this way we overcome ourselves, we overcome what is base and brutal, senseless and destructive, selfish and abhorrent in ourselves.  We overcome whatever our internal obstacles are to making the most of our lives in spite of great difficulty and suffering, in spite of shallow and superficial preoccupation and ambition.

 If we cultivate and maintain consciousness of the beautiful source of all being, and as well of the precious and fleeting nature of life, we may learn to think and act in ways that always seek and honor that precious reality and life, this is how we may  give greater life to Love…

Michael Potter

December 17, 2017