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Because you are joyless, mind gives you the idea of joy. Because you don't know what love is, mind gives you a thousand and one definitions of love. When you know love, mind has nothing to do; mind simply ceases. One's real silence is not empty, it is not a kind of absence of everything. On the contrary, it is full -- too full, abundantly full, overflowing -- not with thoughts but with real experiences. And that is the revelation of the secret.

FOR THIS DARKNESS, THOUGH OF DEEPEST OBSCURITY...

Obscurity in the sense that you cannot figure out what it is and what it is not. Obscurity in the sense that you cannot define it and you cannot describe it. But it...

... IS YET RADIANTLY CLEAR, AND, THOUGH BEYOND TOUCH AND SIGHT, IT OVERFILLS OUR UNSEEING MIND WITH SPLENDORS OF TRANSCENDENT BEAUTY.

Beauty is there, but the idea of beauty is not there. You hear the music, but you cannot describe it -- not even to yourself.

Dionysius uses two kinds of language. One he calls "cataphatic." "Cataphatic" means a positive language which speaks of God as Father, light, spirit, power and being; it tells us what God IS LIKE. But remember, it is only a finger pointing to the moon -- the finger is not the moon. The cataphatic language is useful, at least useful for those who are very childish in their approach towards life. A child can understand God only as Father, hence all childish religions talk about God as Father. When religion reaches maturity it drops that idea completely.

Jainism does not talk about God as Father; in fact, it does not talk about God at all. Buddhism emphatically denies talking about God, because to talk about God you have to use cataphatic language and a cataphatic language IS at the most approximate. But as far as truth is concerned you cannot be approximately true: either you are true or you are not true.

Can you say to somebody, "I almost love you," or, "I love you approximately?" That will look very stupid, silly! Either you love or you don't love. You cannot say, "I love you fifty percent, sixty percent, seventy percent. " The idea of percentage won't work; it is either a hundred percent or nothing at all.

Truth

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