Tuesday, December 08, 2009

 
apophatic: of or relating to the belief that God can be known to humans only in terms of what He is not (such as `God is unknowable')

An example of apophatic mysticism is in the classical Tao text, Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao Tsu (6th century B.C.E.), which begins with the words, “Even the finest teaching is not the Tao itself. Even the finest name is insufficient to define it. Without words, the Tao can be experienced, and without a name, it can be known.” (Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mysticism/)
posted by Sastry Rama 6:34 PM