Why
at all a room need a door to enter in? A door that can be ‘latched,’ ‘locked,’
and opened only with a ‘key,’ is in itself teach an interior philosophy. In the
“Theory of Everything,” Stephen Hawking makes a mention of what Ludwig
Wittgenstein said, “the sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of
language.” So intend to analyze the three words mentioned above, namely –
Latch, Lock and Key and proceed to an elemental understanding of the
constituents of a room.
Latch:
This term is different from “lock” (a small metal bar that is used to fasten a
door or a gate. You raise it to open the door, and drop it into a metal hook to
fasten it). We have a phrase in English – “Latch on” which would mean to
understand an idea or what somebody is saying. Hence, just after you enter your
room, you need to latch on the profound sense of being You in the room. People
ask – who are you when you are alone in the room? You are yourself when alone,
no one sees you. God sees you as you are. There is also a saying, “God is
closer to me than I am to myself” – Here then, as you enter your room latch on
the conviction that God is closer to you.
Lock:
There is no meaning for a lock if it cannot be opened. Lock presupposes a
closure with an openness veiled in it. In theology we speak of God revealing
while hiding. Our minds can be opened only when it is opened to the grace of
God. Check whether the cells of understanding in your brain are locked with
prejudices, fear and many other anomalies. Open them to purify with the key of
understanding.
Key:
a metal already shaped to fit the keyhole. Only a particular key will work for
the particular key whole. Master key is yet another thing to consider.
Hope
the following elemental understanding of a room will strengthen the above three
words. Their connectivity is the work of the readers.
A
room with windows: Our body and its senses are
windows to the soul. The spirituality of most saints consisted in training
their senses because they knew that senses are a powerful way of awareness,
healing if properly trained. Our understanding is facilitated by the senses.
St. Thomas Aquinas would say that there is nothing in the intellect which has
not first been in the senses. One enters their room with one’s embodied self.
The body is housed in the room. The soul is housed in the body. So even though
you are alone in your room, there is always a relationship – between your soul
and body. No wonder why saints advocated the mortification of senses.
A
room with darkness and light: the presence of light
is not a complete absence of darkness, darkness is still there. Similarly the
light is still there in darkness. Just like clarity contains the previous
non-understanding, our bodies too carry the cells of our historicity. To see
the things in the room, an ‘entering in’ in invariably and unalterably a
‘necesstiy.’
Chair:
Chair symbolically connotes authority. So sit on the chair of your conscience.
Crucifix:
A Crucifix is considered as a hermeneutical key to understanding our salvation
history. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God,
trust also in me. In my father’s house there are many places (rooms) to live
in;… I am going now to prepare a place for you (Jn 14: 1-3). The whole history
of mankind’s salvation is summarized in Jesus’ death on the cross. He teaches
us a deep truth “you do not live for yourself only, but for others.” Therefore,
I prefer to pray – Lord make me a blessing to all the people whom I am sent to.
The crucifix also teaches that I am not my own – “You are not your own
property, you have been bought at a price” (1cor 6:20).
Books
on the shelf, mirror, and a picture: a monk of the 12th
century Alanus de insulis, in his De
Incarnatione Christi writes: “Every creature of the world is for us a book,
picture and mirrore.” Fulton Sheen would say that we are all books issued from
the divine press. A broken mirror reminds me of Balthasar’s mention of a limpid
mirror – “limpid mirror has been shattered, the infinite image has been
shattered over the face of the world, the world has become a heap of fragments.
But every splinter remains precious and from each fragment there flashes a ray
of mystery of its origin” (Balthasar, Heart
of the world, 1954).
Space:
Eckhart Tolle in his book The Power of
Now says, “… you are not what happens, you are the silent space in which
all things happen.” The space in my room is limited, but out there, the space
seems limitless calling me out to transcendence.
There
are many other elements in the room, if I go on it will be a tedious business. But
I can stop with this concluding remark: everything points to something or the
other, but the greater pointing is the limitedness pointing to the limitless.
