The Word Within Us, Full of Grace and Truth

The talk will explore the Word as a source of mystical experience and spiritual revelation in world religious traditions.

The Word, source of mystical experience and spiritual revelation, has been a focus for wonder and enquiry through our oral and written traditions for thousands of years. In the Corpus Hermeticum ‘Poimandres says: “This is what you must know: that in you which sees and hears is the Word of the Lord, but your mind is God the Father; they are not divided from one another for their union is life.’
This talk and discussion will range from the inspirational and visionary hymns of the Vedic poets, through the teachings of the Word and ‘I am’ sayings in St John’s Gospel and Neo-Platonism to spiritual experiences contemporary with ourselves. In the following, when St John quotes Jesus’ words, he is stating not a new teaching but one that has been our heritage for thousands of years: ‘It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.’ St John. 6.63
The poets of the RigVeda, an oral tradition long before the written collections of 1500BCE, sought that source of insight and inspiration both within and without themselves, in their heart/minds and in the flowing forms of the creation. What they found they expressed as mantras for our reflection and understanding. For these poets, the Word, Vak, is the source and destination of all: ‘Vak spreads forth as far as Prayer extends.’ RV.X.114.8

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