The Heschel Series - Philosophy begins in Wonder 2

What fills us with radical amazement is not the relations in which everything is embedded but the fact that even the minimum of perception is a maximum of enigma. The most incomprehensible fact is the fact that we comprehend at all.

Man is Not Alone; p. 14

The Heschel Series - Philosophy begins in Wonder

We may doubt anything, except that we are struck with amazement. When in doubt, we raise questions; when in wonder, we do not even know the question. Doubts may be resolved, radical amazement can never be erased. There is no answer in the world to man's radical wonder. Under the running sea of our theories and scientific explanations lies the aboriginal abyss of radical amazement.

Man is Not Alone; p. 13

The Heschel Series - Radical Amazement 2

Wonder is a state of mind in which we do not look at reality through the latticework of our memorized knowledge; in which nothing is taken for granted. Spiritually we cannot live my merely reiterating borrowed or inherited knowledge. Inquire of your soul what does it know, what does it take for granted. It will tell you only no-thing is taken for granted; each thing is a surprise, being is unbelievable.

Man is Not Alone; p. 12

The Heschel Series - Radical Amazement

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge.

Wonder goes beyond knowledge. We do not doubt that we doubt, but we are amazed at our ability to doubt, amazed at our ability to wonder. He who is sluggish will berate doubt; he who is blind will berate wonder. Doubt may come to an end,  wonder lasts forever. 

Man is Not Alone; p. 12

The Heschel Series - The Disparity of Soul and Reason

The awareness of the unknown is earlier than the awareness of the known.  The tree of knowledge grows upon the soil of mystery... We should not expect thoughts to give us more than what they contain. Soul and reason are not the same.

Just as the simple-minded equates appearance with reality, so does the overwise equate the expressible with the ineffable, the logical with the metalogical, concepts with things.

The awareness of the ineffable is that with which our search must begin... The search of reason ends at the shore of the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide.

Man is Not Alone; pp. 7-8

The Heschel Series - The Ineffable part 2

What smites us with unquenchable amazement is not that which we grasp and are able to convey but that which lies within our reach but beyond our grasp; not the quantitative aspect of nature but something qualitative; not what is beyond our range in time and space but the true meaning, source and end of being, in other words, the ineffable.

Man is Not Alone; pp. 4-5

The Heschel Series - The Ineffable

I'm pre-posting since I'm at Cornerstone this week.  I'm following Abraham Joshua Heschel's book Man is Not Alone... it's best read in small bites.  Can be kind of overwhelming but full of rich quotes.... drs

 The attempt to convey what we see and cannot say is the everlasting theme of mankind's unfinished symphony, a venture in which adequacy is never achieved. Only those who live on borrowed words believe in their gift of expression. A sensitive person knows that the intrinsic, the most essential is never expressed.

Man is Not alone; p. 4