The Inner Door and Absolute Truth
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
(Revelation 3:20)
Absolute truth is constantly knocking on the door of our inner world. Like the words of Scripture, the fact that the inner door is being knocked is very sobering and valuable for mindful people.
How can someone who has not been enlightened by the true meanings of this sobriety and value open the door that is being knocked? How can someone who lacks humane capabilities, poor of human virtue, and with warped mind follow these moral rules of sobriety and value?
Absolute truth means divine truth. It means being familiar with the divine mysteries. It means remembering our essence, knowing ourselves, waking up to the truth, being enlightened, being aware, not forgetting our true identity, knowing our rights and place in the light of those mysteries. The knowledge and mysteries of this truth conduce to our heart, mental, and spiritual awakening. It helps our inner world find balance and stability with the awareness of this awakening. As it flows and interacts inside us, it inspirits our world of meaning and stimulates and spices up our living spaces. What is important here is being open to the warnings of the truth/essence as well as that we do not shut our inner doors and withdraw into ourselves. There is no form of blindness more frightening and dangerous than for a person to shut their inner door and withdraw into themselves. Because this situation causes one to both drift apart and be estranged from the essence. Those who do this fall so far from the divine mysteries that they experience the pain of self-alienation. These people always think and act as though only others are to blame for everything. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
It is impossible to explain the truth to such people. You have to reach them in order to explain it to them. The problem is that you can’t reach them. They are absent from their own houses and spirits. They are always outside. They are always traveling in unreasonable, dead-end places. No matter how hard you knock on their door with divine truth, you will not hear a single sound in answer and the door will not open. They are absent from their own houses. Since they strangle the spirit and word inside a shell, they have either forgotten or lost their true identity. And they cannot return to their homes because of mental barriers and stumbling blocks….
Well, who will open the door to Him -the divine truth who always knocks on the door of our house? If no one is inside, if the house is empty, who will hear the knocking on the door? If the inner house is not clean, how will He enter and make Himself comfortable?
This is the main issue that pushes people to anxiety and worry. What matters is staying home so that one can open the door. What matters is being at home. Keeping the house clean. What matters is opening the door to absolute truth so that it may come and dwell with us. What matters is receiving Him nicely and sharing a meal in our inner house. What matters is being enlightened and enlightening others with the transformations and reflections of this reception. Thus, the way to the divine perspective/life that is forgotten with over-attachment to the material world. A happy and stable life within the social reality is possible thanks to this way which leads closer to the divine essence.
However, if the owner of the house is not at home, who will be the host? In other words, it will be easier for troublemakers and shady and hostile characters to invade and take up residence there. However, if the owner of the house is at home, unwelcome visitors will have a more difficult time getting in. Entering becomes optional.
The main mission of the church and the chief task of the servant stewards who bear the spiritual vision of this awareness, is to have the owner of the house stay at home and help clean that house for the owner’s comfort. To disinfect it in a spiritual sense, if that is possible…
Whichever path a human takes, he himself is the starting point. It has to be. The internalization of the meanings has to the main goal in order to transition from the person who thinks he knows, to a person who knows himself, that is, the program of the self. It should be remembered that any initiative and change (and even effort) that does not start or spring up from the person’s inner world cannot be successful. Based on this vital awareness, Saint Anthony (251-356) gives us that important and well-known reminder of his with the words, “To know God, you must first know thyself.” And in this sense, he has made a breakthrough in the understanding of hidden meanings.
As it is written, “One of the beauties of knowing that one does not know is being able to observe oneself, realizing what one looks like from the outside and undertaking self-discovery. Those who do not know, know themselves. Striving to understand and learning are not an act of storing knowledge in the brain, but an endeavor to free the mind and soul. Learning something requires first and foremost knowing that one does not know. It is humanly impossible to learn something that one thinks they know.”
Saint Aphrem of Nsibis (303-373), who likened humans to the house of God, gave us this warning 1700 years ago: “If your house is honored when you host an important person, imagine the honor of hosting the master of everything within yourself. Leave no filth inside your thoughts, which have become a temple. Do not leave anything inside the home of God that will upset him. Let God’s home be adorned with things that are worthy of Him.”
Yusuf Beğtaş
Syriac Language-Culture and Literature Association – MARDİN
