Today, I’m pondering this idea of forms and the formless.... this is why in the OT, God commanded that the people of Israel make no “graven image”.... do not make an idol out of a thing, a form. Forms may point us in the right direction, but they should point us to the Eternal One, the formless, the Great I am. Forms, like names, may point us toward the God, like Jehovah Jireh, god my provider, but God is not only my provider. That’s why there are hundreds if not thousands of names for God. God is not the name.
If I cling only to one name for God, I end up making a cult out of it, to the exclusion of other names or forms. I cling to the form, rather than the formless.
If I make an idol out of a certain teacher or guru or pastor, and I say to myself, “Only this teacher has ‘real’ insight, everyone else is on the wrong track...” I have made an idol out of a form. The teacher may point me to God, but the teacher is not God.
If I say to myself, “my religion, my sect, or my denomination, my culture, my nation, my people, my political party are the only ones who really seek truth or are the only ones who follow truth”, then I have taken a potentially good thing like that denomination or group and I have turned that form into an idol.
God wasn’t saying, “never carve anything or paint an image”. He was saying that “forms can point you toward me, but do not worship the temporary form.”
Though my Christian family members do not understand, this is how I can have a statue of a Buddha or Madonna and child or crucifix and NOT BE TEMPTED TO WORSHIP IT, at all. The Buddha statue may remind me to focus on inner peace when I look at it. The statue itself does not bring me peace. That does not mean that I worship it or look to it to be my god.
The antique Madonna and Child music box, a simple tool for reminding me to take a moment to meditate, is not my god. I do not worship it simply because it is currently in my possession. This Spezialgeschaft fur devotionalien is not my god. Just because I look at or keep it around does not mean I worship the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus.
In the same way, having a crucifix does not mean I worship the cross or that I pray to the cross. No, it is simply a form that may remind me of the formless, eternal One.
The Tao Te Ching states, “Clay is formed into a vessel. It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful....Therefore, what is present is used for profit. But it is in absence that there is usefulness” (chp 11). The form is only a vessel. It is the formless which we seek.
We are eternal, formless beings in a physical body (which is just a form) and with mind patterns and thoughts (also just a form). If I capture fog or mist in a bottle, do you say, “Aha! The mist is the bottle. Or the mist looks like the vessel it is in”? The mist is not the bottle, yet we believe our bodies to be our true identity. At the same time, the form of our body is also a part of us. It is temporary. The stories we cling to are also a kind of bottle. We take great hope or wallow in despair, depending on how we see ourselves, how we perceive this bottle. Yet, the thoughts and words are also part of us. They are not us. They are a form for the formless. Forms do not last forever.
2 Corinthians reflects the teaching of the Tao above: we hold this treasure, this mystery, this glory in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing glory is not from us (the projected mind-body image) but from God (the eternal who is in us).
2 Corinthians 4- “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
This is the good news. We have forms which point us to the formless. But we do not fixate on the forms, they are only temporary. And when we recognize the eternal one living in us, we have peace. We can accept with grace any situation that arises, because we are no longer attached to the old self or the outward forms.
Can you capture the vastness of the sky in a bottle? No more can you capture the formless, infinite, eternal one in a temporary, finite form. Can you catch the sky and put it in a bottle? It is vast. Infinitely vast. Without end. Jesus talked to Nicodemus. What is spirit? Can you catch the wind?
I think a better interpretation would be “can you catch it, hold on to it, name it, tame it, make it your property, put it in a vessel and store it?” You may try. It might even work temporarily, partially. But you cannot hold on to it or make it yours. As soon as we say, “Aha! I’ve got it. I understand spirit”, it slips from our grasp.
Our minds, words, thoughts, belief systems, and bodies are forms or vessels for the formless. They are not the formless. They can point us in the right direction, but they cannot “hold on to it” or truly contain it. It’s like trying to fit the entire sky into a little glass jar. You can capture some air and seal it in, but as soon as you do that, it is no longer the infinite vastness of sky. It may be a part of it, but the infinite cannot be contained forever in the finite.
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