“Tell me,” said the atheist, “Is there a God — really?”
Said the Master, “If you want me to be perfectly honest with you, I will not answer.”
Later the disciples demanded to know why he had not answered.
“Because the question is unanswerable,” said the Master.
“So you are an atheist?”
“Certainly not. The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which nothing may be said… and the theist makes the mistake of affirming it.”
The above is a quote from Anthony de Mello’s book One Minute Nonsense. You can hear the same message in Lao Tzu’s words, “The Dao you can talk about is not the eternal Dao.” Anthony de Mello continues in another book, One Minute Wisdom:
“Help us to find God.”
“No one can help you there.”
“Why not?”
“For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean.”
Related: What Is Englightenment?