A Time of Quiet

I just watched a video on Jacob Barnett, a 13-year-old-genius who will graduate from Princeton at the age of 14 and then begin his doctoral work building on Einstein's theories.  At 3, Jacob was diagnosed with autism, and his parents were told that he would never learn to talk or even to tie his shoes.  He was put in Special Ed., where, as he says, "I couldn't learn anything."  But according to a wonderful talk he gave on TED, that worked in his favor, because when Isaac Newton and Einstein both had to stop learning, they used the time to begin thinking and creating. 

Newton was at the University when the plague swept Europe and closed all public works, including schools, for two years.  As a Jew in pre-war Germany, Einstein was not allowed to attend University, and went to work at the patent office.  But for both men, the stopping of learning introduced a time of quiet, when they could think from their own perspectives.

According to Jacob, the reason he could not function in the "REAL" world was that he was in the "fourth dimension," thinking so deeply about the interconnectivity of things (math and science) that the other three dimensions lost reality for him.  After behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, etc., he was finally left alone to do the things he could do instead of those he could not do --- interact with other people, tie his shoes, etc.  Because he wanted to sit in on a college calculus course at the age of 8, he taught himself all of high-school math in two weeks, and the entire academic curriculum from 5th grade to 12th grade in 6 months. 

Jacob's advice to all of us is to "stop thinking," and for 24 hours, "Just Be" the subject about which we have the most passion.  His words resonated so strongly with me because for the past week I have been reading The Cloud of Unknowing, which gives the same advice in the spiritual realm.  Our knowledge, our meditations, our prayers, according to the anonymous author, are all objects between us and God.  If we have a 'naked intent' to be united with God, we need to leave behind all the thoughts, no matter how "holy," that cannot connect us to Him.  He does not say, "Do not pray," but only that if we want to practice contemplation, we must abandon our own thoughts and perspectives about who God is and who we are, and just approach Him without knowing.  Just being aware of ourselves and of Him is enough -- as Jacob says:  "Just Be" the subject you are interested in. 

Jacob claims to be able to explain the 4th dimension to the rest of us, given 30 minutes and a white board.  I wish Sixty Minutes had allowed him to do that when they interviewed him.  Still, even without understanding the 4th dimension, I think it is possible for us to enter it spiritually, if we embrace the words of Jesus:  "Anyone who wants to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."  Denying ourselves means rejecting all the foolish, entrapping, thoughts that run through our minds, taking up the cross that is "ourselves," just as we are, and entering into the realm in which He lived while on earth and continues to live now in heaven.