IT
The concept "it"
is a fascinating word. I look out my window and I see
children playing in the grass. One child taps another and
yells out "Tag, you're it!". The children
quickly squirrel away and the child who is "it"
then runs to try and tag another child. Later, I see the
same children playing "hide and seek". One
child is "it" and after closing his or her eyes
for a period of time sets out to try and find the other
children who have hidden themselves in the playground
area. Many spiritual teachers say that this is how God
has fun, and that God is "it". They say each of
the children is "God" and that "God"
likes to play "hide and seek" with itself.
If the concept "God" is just another word for
the word "it". Then it is most curious how
people use the word "it" all the time and have
no idea they are talking about God. If so, then all I can
say right now is "It is, it loves you, it is."
As an exercise in enlightenment, each time you hear the
word "it", consider that "it" could
be replaced with the word "God", and that each
time the word "it" is used by someone, one is
saying something about God whether they know
"it" or not. For example, one might hear
someone say "Hey, how's it going with you?" or
"Come on, get with it!". When one replaces the
word "it" in each sentence, one gets "Hey,
how's God going with you?" and "Come on, get
with God!". One might see how this can be quite fun
and makes for some interesting observations.
Enlightenment may be found in any and every sentence if
one does not let the words get in the way. The concept
conceals what it reveals. Words like "this" and
"that" and "what" and
"where" and "here" and
"there" and "who" and "why"
are concepts which describe abstractions. They are like
variables which have different values at different times
and different points of reference. Each of these words
can be thought of as having its own personality. It would
also seem that these other abstract words are beneath the
word "it" in hierarchy. (Which makes sense if
the word "it" is another word for
"God".)
Consider the sentence "There is more to it than
that." Isn't this sentence curious? Makes me wonder
what "that" means. If one replaces the word
"it" with "God", then the sentence is
"There is more to God than that." But what is
"that"? When one considers that the word
"that" has a personality in the same way as one
might consider that "it" means "God",
then one can make all sorts of interesting observations
about almost any sentence. Although some people may feel
that doing such exercises only leads one to
"reading too much into things" or "reading
into something more than is there," I feel that
there is meaningful information in the relationships of
abstract words in every sentence. Sometimes when someone
asks me a question like "What is your deepest
fear?" I respond "No, it's not" just to
poke fun at words like "what".
