...My great friend Heinrich Zimmer had a saying: ...

...' The best things cannot be told; the second best are misunderstood.' ...

...The second best are misunderstood because they talk about what cannot be told... 

...and one thinks one knows what they are saying... 

...This is the way religion is...

...The idea of God is an idea that is metaphoric of something that cannot be told,

 and yet we say that God is good, God is merciful, God is just, and God loves these people 

and not those , etc. , etc... 

...We are not talking about God at all...

...We are talking about our IDEA of God... 

...Meister Eckhart, in the thirteenth century, said, 

... ' The ultimate leave-taking is leaving God for God. ' ...

 ...Gods are all metaphors of this ultimate mystery, the mystery of your own being...

Joseph Campbell

"The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959 - 1987: 'Creativity' " 

(Copyright © 1997, 2007 Joseph Campbell Foundation)