Looking at God in the Eyes--PART 2

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,

Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,

Until the lengthening wings break into fire

At either curvèd point,—what bitter wrong

Can the earth do to us, that we should not long

Be here contented? Think. In mounting higher,

The angels would press on us and aspire

To drop some golden orb of perfect song

Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay

Rather on earth, Belovèd,—where the unfit

Contrarious moods of men recoil away

And isolate pure spirits, and permit

A place to stand and love in for a day,  

With darkness and the death-hour rounding it. 

                 --Elizabeth Barret Browning

All actual life is encounter.

                  --Martin Buber

It is never easy to truly see someone. And few blessings in this lifetime can compare with the feeling that one enjoys when truly and completely seen by another.

It is noble to empathize with another person’s pain, joy, or experience. One needs to turn aside from his usual preoccupations, take a step from self, and focus on the other person’s life for a while. But that is still not completely seeing the other and standing in total relation to him. That is sharing your being with his.

The encounter of two people at the deepest level, to the extent of utter communion, is when they truly see each other...see all and unleash all that there is to be seen...see nothing else.

That encounter cannot be reached with a supercilious comfort and casualness. It is the labor of a lifetime; it is the deepest experience of life itself. It is the ability to be submerged in the other, to experience the other fully. Only "pure spirits" willing to lose all sight of any distractions that will hold them back from dissolving into the immediacy of the other and to become exclusively present in the one who they are deeply seeing can "stand up erect and strong/Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,/Until the lengthening wings break into fire."

One of the greatest humanists of our time, Martin Buber, wrote an entire work about this goal  - I and Thou.

He built an entire philosophy of relations between man and man, and man and God, by explaining that we are constantly faced with the choice of living in two radically different worlds--the "World of Thou" or the "World of It." This is based on his relating to other men and objects with two opposite attitudes. "To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold nature." He can see them as objects to be viewed, observed, and utilized. As "It"s. Or--

"If I confront a human being as my Thou, and say the primary word I-You to him, then he is not a thing among things, and does not consist of things. He is no longer He or She, limited by other Hes and Shes, a specific point in space and time within the net of the world; nor is he a condition that can be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless ans seamless, he is You and fills the heavens. This does not mean that nothing exists except him. But all else lives in his light."

"Every actual relationship to another being in the world is exclusive. Its You is freed and steps forth to confront us in its uniqueness."

"I-You can only be spoken with the whole being."

Buber then goes on to explain that in truth, every You experience, every seeing of the other with wholeness and devotion, is essentially an experience of God Himself. 

"Extended, the lines of relationships intersect in the Eternal You. Every single You is a glimpse of that." 


To the extent that even one who "fancies that he is godless--when he addresses with his whole devoted being the You of his life that cannot be restricted by any other, he addresses God."

And just as when submerged in a terrestrial You, all the rest of life and reality is viewed solely through his light and based on the exclusive relationship with him, so, too, with the Eternal You.

"In the relation to God, unconditional exclusiveness and unconditional inclusiveness are one. He who enters into the absolute relationship, nothing particular retains any importance--neither things nor beings, neither earth nor heaven--but, yet, everything is included in the relationship. For to step into the pure relationship does not involve ignoring everything, but seeing everything in the You, not renouncing the world but to establish it on its true basis. To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence. "Here world, there God" is the language of It; "God in the world" is another language of It ; but leaving out nothing, leaving behind nothing at all, to include the whole world in the You, to give the world its due and its truth, to have nothing besides God but to grasp everything in Him-that is the perfect relationship. 

Men do not find God if they stay in the world. They do not find Him if they leave the world. Whoever goes forth to his You with his whole being, and carries to Him all the being of the world, finds Him who cannot be sought. 

Of course God is the "wholly Other";but He is also the wholly Same, the wholly Present. Of course He is the Mysterium Tremendum that appears and overwhelms; but He is also the mystery of the obvious, nearer to me than my own I."



To live life with intensity and meaning, to stand in exclusive relationship with God by seeing Him in all. To be like the cherubs that always not only face each other, but also see each other, with "lengthening wings [that] break into fire/At either curvèd point." Like two people content to revel in each other's being with devotion and wholeheartedness--to be like that with God, to see the Eternal You as one relates to reality with deliberateness and meaning.

The most important thing is to habituate oneself, to train the thought and mind to recall at all times, that all he sees in the heavens and the earth and all therein are but the outer garments of the King that is enclothed in them.

      

       --Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya 42 

Turn your eyes from me;
    they overwhelm me.

      -- Song of Songs 6

See that caravan of camels

      loaded up with sugar?

His eyes contain that much sweetness.

But don’t look into His eyes

      unless you’re ready to lose all sight of your own.

                             

       --Rumi

Looking at God in the Eyes

No wings have ever carried a greater weight of intrigue than those of the cherubs. Situated atop the Holy Ark in the Holy of Holies, the cherubs' winged embrace has fascinated millions.

In the Talmud, a classic discussion is recorded regarding the cherubs' stance:


The Torah (Exodus 25) dictates that the cherubs were to face each other, "The cherubs are to have their wings spread upward....the cherubs are to face each other," whereas Chronicles II 3:13 states, "And their faces were to the house" (i.e. the walls of the sanctuary)- implying that the cherubs stood back to back. The Talmud resolves the apparent contradiction by explaining that when the people fulfilled the will of God, the cherubs faced each other, reflecting the sacred intimacy between God and His devoted followers. But when men disobeyed God's will, the statues of the cherubs mimicked the worsened relationship by miraculously turning their backs to each other.  

Serious relationships have the frightening capacity to make our hearts soar to the zenith of ecstasy in one instance, and then fling our souls to the abyss of despair in the next. Toward the object of our love, we can at times feel love, hate, craving, disgust, and the plethora of ranges in between. While constant, drastic shifts of feeling can sour a relationship, any healthy attachment will at some point, in some form, experience the wide scope of varying human emotions.

In general- but especially when it involves a lover- no one likes to feel disappointed. No one likes to feel hated. No one likes to feel ignored. And yet, worse than all those things combined would be the ultimate rejection: indifference. After all, it is far better to be sick than to be dead. It is far better to fail than to not attempt. It is far better to receive negative emotions from a lover than to feel the biting iciness of none at all.

This is the inner symbolism of the cherubs' back-to-back pose. When the people would please God, the cherubs would face each other, gazing at each other like two lovers living the most intimate of moments. When they would sin, the cherubs reflected the tragedy by turning their backs to each other.

But there is a far deeper interpretation by the famed mystic, Rabbi Loew of Prague, the Maharal.

He resolves the contradiction between the verses (and rereads the words of the Talmud) differently and more profoundly. He says that the cherubs would not turn their backs to each other. They would always face one another.

And yet the verse in Chronicles states that "their faces were to the house (i.e. the walls of the sanctuary)."

The miracle was much, much deeper. The statues of the cherubs would not turn around. They'd always face each other.

But if sin occurred, their gazes changed.

Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

            --Song of Songs 1:15

Why does God liken our eyes to those of a dove?

Doves only focus on one thing at a time, and usually, it is their mate. Because of this, they have the nickname "love birds." They are always watching each other, staring into each other's eyes like lovers who see all of life in their mate's eyes, and hence cannot stop staring. That is the gaze of love, with which we are wont to stare at the Divine when we are in love with Him.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;

Where can we find two better hemispheres,

Without sharp north, without declining west?

       --John Donne

But when the people shunned God, the cherubs' gaze changed. Whilst standing face to face as well, now the gaze would be blank, empty, and indifferent. They'd see through each other. They would be like lovers who could not summon enough care for each other to even show hurt or disapproval. Just blank stares...

The most hurtful thing is to be looked at....yet not seen....


And this is our true situation, our choice, with God, our Beloved. He is everywhere; we always face Him.

But are we seeing Him? When you see all the beauty and grandeur in the world around you-do you see His Light in it all? Do you see Him staring at you through the eyes of those that love you?

Or do you not see Him in all that surrounds you, though you face Him always?

The Hebrew word for "repentance" is Teshuva--Return.

Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return'?
     --Malachi 3:7

Is He not everywhere? Why does one need to "return" to Him?

Returning to Him means....seeing the Divine in all and looking back at Him as He's always looking and seeing you.

The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy and the hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch to the glory of God.
                   --Thomas Merton