Can Transformative Inquiry Lead to The Knowledge of God?

As I began to think about the contents of this essay, I carefully thought about how a common individual such as I could arrive at the knowledge of God. I did not want to take the approach that, maybe, as when I was growing up, was placed upon me by people who tried to describe an all-powerful being that under no circumstances should be questioned. I heard about God, an all-powerful being that controlled all our actions and, in a way, had destiny figured out. It was a common phrase to hear around my elders in Mexico, when something bad occurred, “Sea por Dios,” I can translate this as “Be it for God.” Therefore, as I continued to learn, I learned to question and wonder by what? For what God?

As I arrive at this point in my life, the term transformative inquiry describes many things that I have always tried to describe, but never could sum up in such few words, because it was an impossible task to even describe.  What I am saying is that I never settled for such a brief description of a powerful being, a being that can do all, and nothing is hidden from his eyes. All questions and all doubts that I had as I grew up, most of the time, were directed toward finding the good and searching for love. I must say that along the way, many moments of despair arose and even disillusionment, but, for some reason, I knew that something else would come. Along the way, I also discovered that by digging within myself, I could find reality, and most times I would see many things that did not bring comfort, only the contrary. It has been a process of opening and shutting that path of internal communication; and it was even worse because I did not even have a concept or a concrete understanding of that internal quest.

Transformative Inquiry is a path towards love; it is a path that will lead to the facing of reality, and not always a good reality. It is the getting in touch with cruel intentions and bad feelings, but after all that has vanished, because it will vanish, comfort will arise.  When I wrote the first document and understood what Transformative Inquiry is about, the first connection that I made was that this transformation has to lead to the knowing of God. Transformative Inquiry will seek deep into one’s self and cannot fail the individual or trick oneself into being bad.  I believe that Transformative Inquiry will lead to the knowledge of God. As the path of Inquiry is sought, many obstacles and challenges will arise, but that is only from a human perspective, since we are beings that must struggle with consistency all through our lives.

What is Transformative Inquiry?

Transformative Inquiry is a constant question of one’s beliefs and actions and a constant striving for change in order to achieve something better within oneself, based on what is said and learned. It is a process that goes beyond intellectual inquiry, because it implies the transformation of one’s actions and attitudes about things that matter for human existence. The way humans are bound together is by a society, and every action that each human performs within this society will affect another in a direct, indirect, positive, or negative form. Most times, we base our actions and attitudes on this educational value, but there has to be more than our perception. The good begins with one’s own concern about oneself, and not yet the other. What I mean is that, in order for one to love or try to help others, one must first reach a level of goodness for oneself. This is not implying “my own material comfort,” but my “spiritual awareness of right and wrong, and choosing to do the right for the sake of right.” When I talk about “right,” I am referring to a common good for myself, because only with this right will I be able to be coherent with my thoughts and actions.

This practice is a path that will inevitably lead to the knowledge of God; it is love for oneself and others. While we are present on earth and free will is a constant challenge, the path of Transformative Inquiry will lead to pure love.   

Is There Such a Thing?

As I answer this question, I cannot help but think of my own experience as an example. By no means do I try to claim that my actions are the right ones, but I think I can answer that Transformative inquiry does exist. By saying that it exists does not place me any closer to being transformed in such a form.  I will try to explain what I think about this question based on my reflections about changing feelings, thoughts, and actions that I’ve come to realize are not right.

In the limited knowledge that I have about philosophy as a career, I have questioned behaviors and thoughts that are not relevant, for example, when I am in public. Sometimes my words reflect great understanding or empathy towards something that I might not really care about or even understand. But, because I said or thought in that moment that I understood, even though I did not; it is absolutely wrong with my own transformative inquiry, but correct according to the social standards that we all have agreed upon.   

I present the above explanation because when I come to realize that I am wrong or realize that something within me must be challenged, I can enter transformative inquiry for myself. Knowing that something I’ve done or said is not right is a beginning to understand that something must be challenged. To change and remain coherent with the ideals of right is not an easy task for an individual.

Transformative inquiry is a constant challenge of reason, but as I try to challenge reason, my feelings will also influence my reason. This can be a desperate effort, due to the fact that we can become very low motivated by seeing that our trying to reach the right will not be achieved. A proposition that I make to myself is to keep remembering every day that the right must be achieved within me, and if I fail, I must try once again. This explanation might be interpreted as a comfortable solution, but at least at this point in my life, I have not discovered a form to be more coherent with the connection between the right and my actions. As humans, I believe that we are extremely inconsistent beings, and most often we fall into the world of circumstances and do what we must do in order to survive and seek good for the ones we love, and some even believe that not harming someone else is enough to be right. I believe there is more to the right than only not harming others, but doing more is most of the time uncomfortable and does not fit within the lives of comfort that we constantly strive to achieve.

Transformative inquiry is a challenge to oneself and reason that can cause an uncomfortable situation, but it is the only way to achieve the right. Many philosophers ask for change or self-reflection, but not many are coherent with making unification between their thoughts and actions.  The principle that one’s own philosophical statements do not apply to one’s actions must be categorized as hypocrisy.

Do We Judge Ourselves?

In order for one to begin the process of transformative inquiry, it is imperative to understand how one comes to view one’s own personality and reality.  There is always a space in our lives where we become masters of evasion by encountering our daily routines in countless activities. There is little time to judge one’s self in front of a conscientious mirror.  Most time, this evasion comes due to the crude reality that the human predicament will bring upon us, without any alternative. Human life is complicated and can be crude once the reality of our own reality is revealed. This is the main reason why many choose to live life in a quiet contemplation that will undoubtedly lead to a tragic lostness. History, along with philosophy, has shown with concrete evidence that life can be developed by creating complicated empty questions that entertain the minds of the common people and intellectuals, allowing a life of shadows and relativism. Souls are only blown away when the time to vanish from our physical body arrives. Things that cannot be answered even by the most complex human mind become uncertain and not worthy of the internal search. Anything beyond the life and mind of man becomes discarded, and many times, cheating oneself becomes acceptable in order to obtain self-comfort, where our own judgment can find a soothing answer. Human beings tend to forget, and most humans decide to forget instead of reflecting on all the actions that have formed life for each individual. This is a palpable reality where most common psychological and self-improvement techniques insist on the individual not to seek answers to issues that one cannot solve, and therefore to seek a new beginning from that moment forward. This is not a totally bad suggestion; the problem comes when this cycle is constant in our lives, and we become recycling machines of sentiments and actions that are not worthy of carrying in our lives and do not help our moral arrogance. One is taught to throw away everything that does not work and therefore not question our deepest reasons; this inhibits us from questioning: why? We try to find our own self and deep reality. This makes a lot of sense, because the more we forget, the more excuses we find to create metamorphoses that justify the way we choose to live life and find comfort in vanity and arrogance.  One answer that can be confronted is to remember and not forget each reality that has shaped life. In the process that we can remember all that has shaped our circumstances with the particular purpose of living Love’s Demand, the inquiry of transformation will only lead to God.  

“We are thereby judged by a divine standard of love represented by conscience. Moral honesty about ourselves requires that we acknowledge the propriety of such judgment. It requires candor from us about our violating Love’s Demand.” (Moser)

There is a key concept in all that has been mentioned before, Love’s Demand. This is to love as only God can love. To love in the way that only God can love is an action impossible to obtain for any human being, and that is the reason why most of the time it is disregarded in our own mortal lives. But, to take this way out, would only lead us back to the life of empty explanations and forgetfulness of all our actions, and thoughts. By neglecting Love’s Demand, one will only arrive at a self-centered life, a life that in modern society is well accepted, and many times the one who can live a life of needing little or giving little to others can be accredited as a self-sufficient individual. This term is viewed as a positive adjective in society, since this self-sufficient individual is capable of making decisions that do not depend on the will of another; this is also defined as success. The most powerful man can trip on a rock and break his head; this might seem like a shallow example, but as simple as it might sound, its only purpose is to show that not every aspect of life can be programmed or even controlled by an individual that has restricted capabilities, even though one might tend to forget. This is not an invitation to follow Love’s demand only because of consequences, as some might like to argue. Love’s Demand has nothing to do with consequences; it has to do with love, and only the Love that humans are not able to deliver in a constant manner.  

As we live and find forms to accommodate our lives to all commodities and social values, the only thing we do is judge ourselves accordingly to what we understand to be our own salvation on earth. If one looks at this argument deeply, one will see that pride and arrogance are what drive our social success, and the constant drive to reach that self-sufficiency. This is a blind fold that is placed as we learn to live in our schools, work, and everyday activities. It is shallow, and the proof of our human conflicts shows palpable evidence. It is an argument that does not seem difficult to discard; the proof is presented here, yet it is not as easy as all other options might be to take it face to face.

Imitation and transformative inquiry            

Transformative inquiry is a journey into the deepness of one’s own reality, the reality of nakedness of the soul, with nothing to hide. Arriving at this stage, an individual will realize that there is no other way but love. Some might argue that each individual is different and that what one might consider right or good might not be so for someone else. This argument cannot be accepted. The acceptance of relativism once again will create comfort and superficial diversion from reality. The right is to promote a life of love; it is the struggle to imitate someone who is worthy of imitation. Often, humans tend to imitate other human actions, without viewing this as an incorrect action. The imitation of other human actions can teach us to better live life in the communities that we share. Human imitation gives us skills to better function in everyday situations. As one enters Transformative inquiry, one will realize that human imitation of other human actions will not be enough, due to the fact that, as limited rational beings, we will not be completely coherent and therefore eventually fail.  It is an earthly abyss that has been forming all throughout history. Humans imitate other incoherent human actions and leave these forms of life as an inheritance for future generations to continue with these same practices. This is a wrong decision that has not been analyzed as something valid, but nevertheless, it is valid.  We are predisposing ourselves to the unavoidable outcome of failure because we imitate something not worthy of imitation. We imitate something that does not look back upon us, we imitate selfish beings, and we are guided by things that are not completely rational, only as God is.

“But it would be very disturbing, indeed, it would be impossible, for me to look at [betragte] a painting or a piece of cloth if I discover while looking at it that it was a painting or the cloth that was looking at me. And this is the case with the Christian truth; it is Christian truth that is observing me, whether I am doing what it says I should do.” (Kierkegaard p.379)

The main focus of this situation is that one must only imitate a being worthy of imitation. Therefore, one form of finding a being that is worthy of imitation can be transformative inquiry. This is stated because it is the internal search that cannot lead to anything but love. It is the day and night struggle; it will create discomfort, and many questions will arise; another form of trying to achieve this might simply not work. There is no shortcut, and Love’s Demand is something that surpasses any human power.

“Lord Jesus Christ, you did not come to the world to be served and thus not to be admired either, or in that sense worshiped. You yourself were the way and life—and you have asked only for imitators [eferfolgere]. If we have dozed off into this infatuation, wake us up, rescue us from this error of wanting to admire or adoringly admire you instead of wanting to follow you and be like [ligne] you.” (Kierkegaard p. 378)

With Transformative Inquiry, one will find truth; truth can only lead to God’s spirit. Once a person enters the position of internal search, it is an initial stage that can encounter many difficulties and barriers that will try to divert attention from the

focus. The main battle that each individual must encounter in order to achieve this correct path is the struggle with one´s moral pride. We will be incapable of loving and therefore finding the transformative way, due to our moral stubbornness. We are constantly insisting on judging ourselves according to what we think God is supposed to be. God is not an interpretation; God is a being, an all-powerful being that should be seen as such, not an interpretation that soothes our need for moral comfort.  Only the spirit of good can lead us to God; absolutely nothing else will satisfy the search.  The difficulty is that an individual in society tends to only see what is placed in his direct path and therefore will become used to seeing only the immediate panorama, and never the other way around. We like to think that we see the reality of God, just as we would like it to be, and to the extent that we ourselves have been creators of that false reality, which in no form can be the absolute truth, but it reigns in our limited reality.

The only way that transformative inquiry will lead to the reality of God for the individual is by denying oneself. As the individual denies himself, there will be a new process that will begin to take place, a process of the true inquiry. It is by no means a denial of self-degradation or a stage where the self is neglected. It is the denial of one’s selfishness and moving away from anything and everything that is not useful to enter the path toward the realization and understanding of God’s spirit.  It must be clearly understood that the self-denial will undoubtedly lead to suffering of the individual, this will come, because no human being is used to not satisfying those needs that are dictated by selfishness and moral arrogance. Self-denial means the absolute neglect of self-praise; one must view oneself as not worthy of anything and thankful for everything.  Notice the difference between what is being said. It should be understood that we need absolutely nothing else that we do not have. We have what we need; if we do not have it, might it be that we do not need it at that point? I should never demand anything that is outside of me; the only individual that I can demand from is myself. All demands will arrive with the transformative inquiry process, and along the way, with the denial of oneself. 

Self-denial is the only way that the highest form of love will be achieved. Several types of love might be experienced, but this is the AGAPE love. It is the love where no self-interest is placed; it is love, for love and only love. Unselfish, unplanned, and therefore not sought for satisfaction of reward, it is the self-denial that will give peace and understanding when it is really understood after all the struggles that will experience. It is extremely difficult to understand and explain due to the fact that, without reflection, this explanation might even seem unreasonable or ridiculous, and most certainly impossible. Only God can love as God, we are not capable of loving as God. God’s love will find everyone and will exclude no one. That immediately calls for incoherence in our social structure. Most of the time, we think that we must love the ones closest to us more than others. It should be understood that we absolutely have a higher degree of responsibility with the ones closest to us, and therefore might grow a deeper relationship of sentiment with them, but to love, we should love everyone the same. This statement can trigger different arguments, and even testify that it is incoherent to love all, even the ones not close to me. This is why I mention that we cannot love as God loves. We are selectable beings that will develop all our sense of values according to our immediate relations. This is not true for the God that I speak about. 

We now have an example, an example of God, and the way love is conducted on his part. This is where imitation arrives; it is the imitation through transformative inquiry. Only with transformative inquiry will one arrive at a stage where self-denial will become eminent and a constant reminder of the way life should be conducted. Many failures and sufferings will come along the way, many days we will forget about this project, and many times, even doubts will come about due to everyday situations that we might encounter. However, the most appropriate form of achieving this task is by consistency. As I mentioned along the lines of this document, this consistency only exists in fiction; does it mean that we are condemned to not achieve happiness because we cannot be entirely consistent? Definitely not, because as soon as the purpose is forgotten, all we must do is look for introspection; remember that we do not judge, we are being judged. Facing the person in the mirror, taking responsibility as it arrives in our step is the priority.

Problems One Might Encounter

The biggest problem that an individual will encounter along transformative inquiry will be the struggle between moral pride and moral honesty.

“Human moral pride resists honesty about our flouting Love’s Demand. It offers a cover-up story instead, a story concocted to save our moral honor. Our moral pride suggests that we have no need of moral guilt or shame. We are, it proposes, morally in the clear on our own. So, according to our moral pride, we are not deserving candidates for moral judgment. We rather merit moral approval even from God, by the lights of our pride.”  (Moser)

Simple words will give us the premise for this mission; human pride can do much more than our love. Human pride instead of giving the individual a sense of security about the intellectual knowledge that has been acquired over a lifetime does no such thing. Human pride will fill an individual with weakness, a weakness that blinds the spirit from truth.  Human pride is often developed from something that might excel us over others. It can be intellectual knowledge, sporting activity, artistic ability, or any social occupation that distinguishes us from the rest.

This is along the lines of social rules, which will give you a status of respect among peers and others. It will often also bring wealth and a sense of security, so that at no point in life will that individual view it as false security.  It becomes an everyday diversion, a challenge of the human spirit, the feeling that among humans in society, power is achieved every day with our activities, decisions, and presence. This is false; it is moral pride; it tends to be devious and cunning, creating falsehood. It is only through the transformative inquiry of one’s self that this blind fold will be removed. For example, let us imagine a famous personality that comes to a point in life where he/she wants to end life on this earth; what good will moral pride bring at that point? What can one say to a young person who is putting a rope around his/her neck to end life? There is absolutely nothing that moral pride will solve there.

On the contrary, moral pride is the conductor of these behaviors. Moral pride is the one that dictates that one has the authority to take one’s own life whenever that individual decides to do so. Moral pride blinds us from life, it blinds us from our vulnerability, it does not allow the individual to see that just as one looks to the outside, one must also look to the inside, and at the same time, someone else is looking upon you. No one from society; it is God looking upon you, it is that image of God looking back at you and asking you to question what you are doing, question your reality, and asking you to achieve moral honesty.  Moral pride is fear, it is running away from reality. Moral honesty in accordance with the way we conduct our lives might be even more fearful. It is the nakedness of all actions that have been committed in a lifetime. It includes the giving up of one’s own will and entering self-denial. Moral dishonesty is the forgetfulness of everything that is not worthy, according to our moral pride, to remember. This is because it would diminish us among our fellow earthlings. It is a maze that starts with the simple complication of trying to cover up a fear or a weakness and will eventually scale up to human disasters, such as many that history has given us all through time.  

Moral honesty is to repent, not to forget. To repent is a difficult action because it is an activity of the spirit, or pure reason, and it must only be this way or else it would not function. We are looking at the inner being and questioning harshly all actions that we are accountable for, all judgments that we have imposed, all unfairness that we have held, and the dishonesty that we possess. It is leaving the spirit naked, free of all mechanisms of protection that we have developed over a lifetime.  Moral honesty does not include questioning why we have or have not; it involves self-denial and silence. Moral honesty is the silence and the contemplation of one’s own actions that will be louder than any word spoken.  This silence will allow one to listen to one’s own self with the process of transformative inquiry. It is the searching and the listening that will only lead to moral honesty; there is no other form. If one can reach this point at least once, all inconsistencies will be in constant struggle to survive because moral honesty will keep coming back; if the truth is reality, it cannot be put away once it has been discovered. It is not done because of fear, but that fear will burn and will ask for soothing relief, it will ask for a break, and that is where transformative inquiry will pick the individual up again and serve as a guide to find God.

“It does not become involved with you at all; it is silent, and by being silent it wants to be a sign to you that you are before God, so that you remember that you are before God—-so that you also in earnestness and truth might become silent before God.” (Kierkegaard 338)

It is with silence that the understanding will arrive; it is in the presence of God that one will understand God. The only proof of God, therefore, is God; only in His presence will one see that reality.

No Sacrifice is Too Big

The process of transformative inquiry will lead to love, to know oneself is to realize one’s own vulnerability and weakness. Realizing one’s own weakness, one will understand the powerless being that one is, and therefore will realize the existence of a supreme being that has created all previously mentioned. It is to look in the mirror and face reality, it is to see inside of whatever terrors our lives have encountered, it is to deny the self to be liberated of a duty that no human can bear. It is the process of inquiry; it is the process of silence, of asking for nothing and fighting for everything. By no means is this proposal an invitation to sit and enjoy what might come our way and even accept it. It is how we deal with what comes our way and work through the self-denial to discover reality. This is the sacrifice that humans must encounter; it is the cruel reality that must be faced. It is the realization that this road only ends in death.

Only a being that gives life can take away life and offer something else after terrestrial existence.  It is not a sacrifice because something else will be offered after the unavoidable end. It is a subjective reality; it is the reality of the greatness that is offered to us here and now. It is the discovery of the birth of a human being and of everything in nature, it is the acceptance of the death of all that is born, it is the acceptance of an all-powerful being that is capable of giving all for nothing in return, because we give nothing in return. It is not a contract, it is not a lease, it is love for God. No sacrifice is too big for this self-denial, no sacrifice is too big for that transformative inquiry that will, without a doubt, lead to love.  With the process described, will come a life that can be tested against this belief. It is not blind faith or fideism, there is proof, the sacrifice and the silence will allow the individual to feel that love can conquer all. Only God can act this way, only God is consistent, but no human should regard themselves as a bystander who only receives what comes their way.

It is self-sacrifice that must always be active; it is sacrifice that brings discomfort according to the definition of comfort in society. It is a sacrifice that brings questions to the table and will not go away until they are either faced or neglected, and most will decide to neglect. That is why transformative inquiry will, without a doubt, lead to acknowledging God.  

Why Do We Neglect Transformative Inquiry?

Knowing the good is not enough to do good. Knowing what is wrong and pointing to the problem is not enough to be good. Doing the good to justify one’s reputation is not enough. Philosophy has not taken this question in a straight form; divergence will arise, and other things will be questioned, such as intelligence instead of the truthfulness of the spirit.

To know what is right can lead you to act according to it; however, there is a significant amount of sacrifice involved. Not many philosophers have talked about transformative inquiry as a form to achieve a better self. To try and present a straight answer as to why transformative inquiry has been neglected through philosophy and history, I can only think of human inconsistency, and the “right” not being flexible. Only in fiction will we find perfect consistency. Furthermore, humans and language many times do not come to agree on certain things that are expressed or acted upon. Actions and language can be misunderstood from one to another. I can attribute this to the fact that we are limited rational beings; that even though many times we intend to achieve the “right,” we might not understand what the “right” is about.  Human interpretations are constantly satisfying internal needs. The human predicament is only neglected or taken as a trade-off between comfort and discomfort. Human society will always encourage the most comfort that the individual can acquire. Anything that does not bring comfort or even something that disrupts my hedonistic drive (that is, comfort) will not benefit me in any form.

Philosophy, at times, has gone to the extent of claiming that my obligation is to be a self-sufficient being, and that when I obtain an answer, I should share it, even if I do not want to apply it to the position I am maintaining, ad hominem. When one seeks transformative inquiry, this makes absolutely no sense; it is useless. 

What Difference Does it Make if Transformative Inquiry Exists?

We are not innocent bystanders, and whether we encounter an inner transformation or not during our lifetime will influence the way each individual lives. When I first came across this question, my initial reflection about transformative inquiry was how one can understand one’s calling to help others, and act according to the “right.” But now, I come to understand Transformative Inquiry as a search for oneself, to love and understand, and be responsible for one’s actions, words, and attitudes. By striving to be constant every day as a rational being and knowing that one is responsible for their actions, it is only then that each one can become more aware of their surroundings, be responsive, and seek the “right.”

Transformative Inquiry is an undertaking that does not leave a blind spot. It is an internal probe that has no other way to end but the acceptance and knowledge of God. It is the life worth living; it is an uncomfortable situation that will not allow for anything else, but the acquiring of love and therefore the acceptance of God. It is discomfort according to social standards, but then again, how much comfort can we achieve without a superior being?

The task of reaching and seeing within oneself is a most excruciating mission, but nothing else will soothe life as we know it on earth. There should be some other sort of comfort rather than the one that has been established by social standards.  It is necessary to mention the neglect that philosophy has placed on the subject. It is not a theory, but a way to live and test one’s will. Even though I might reach superficial comfort at some point in my life or divert my attention with hedonistic events, these will not deliver agape love. The soothing antidote of superficial relief will only lead to a dishonest life. Once transformative inquiry is sought, there will be no time to lessen the mission. It is a process that will allow one to understand what is worthy of life. It will make us ask questions about how to handle the predicament of fear. One must be honest; without moral honesty, one will fail. This is a portent call that will make sense for the Undertaker. It is an answer that cannot be provided by anyone else but oneself; it is holding a mirror and asking Who am I? Who do I want to be? Philosophy can provide an answer to this question; however, only the one who is situated in front of the mirror can enter transformative inquiry and the quest for God.

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