engage

[fh3579]

I'm translating a book: 12th insights. What does the word "engage" mean in the context?
Once one makes this discovery, one realizes the universe is filled with all sorts of fortuitous encounters, intuitions, and mysterious coincidences, all pointing to a higher purpose behind our lives, and in fact, behind all of human history. The only question, then, for the seeker who wakes up to this reality, is how does this underlying mystery really operate, and how does one begin to engage its secrets
.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

I suspect the writer means you to understand engage as meaning interact with in some way. If we accept that there is a conscious being behind this 'higher purpose', then what should be our reaction to it/him/her?

When we react in some way that the being can sense, we are engaging.

 

[velisarius]

Hi Mr. T.T.,

I agree with your interpretation of the word "engage" of course, but I think in the given context the meaning must be more in the direction of "unlock" its secrets. I don't know that it's possible to "interact" with a secret, though that is the literal meaning.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

You're probably right, Velisarius.

When people start talking about this sort of thing, they often abuse language.

We have to choose between unlocking secrets and engaging with the being with the higher purpose who/which is the source behind the secrets. I may well have chosen the wrong option.

 

[fh3579]

Thank you, velisarius and Thomas Tompion.

 

[wandle]

I would take the meaning to be definition 9 in WordRef Dictionary:

9.to bring (a mechanism) into operation: he engaged the clutch

 

[fh3579]

Thank you, wandle.