I was reading where Tolle describes God as Being and it blew me away...(talk about mind identification),because I was raised in a christian family and you know how God is so human over there....I can resonate perfectly with what Tolle is saying,but after decades of thinking God was semi-human,I get caught up in thinking again...does this make God generic....I cannot speak to him or pray cause he's not really there....OMG the atheists were right etc,etc,etc.lol
So I suppose I haven't quite grasped what God is.
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Ok, apologies for the delay, I've had a lot on at work and the response for this is not something that can really be summarised in a short reply. I also needed some time to contemplate the best way to answer this with my own truth.
Firstly, let me say, anything in my response is my own understanding, my own truth and what is valid for me. There is no intention of my words being against any religion or even favouring one religion over another. And, for sake of argument, I talk about atheism as a religion too, as it too is based on beliefs (There are two types of atheism; the fundamentalist aetheists who staunchly insist there is definitely no god and fight (sometimes literally) against other religions and the regular atheists who are happy with their own belief there is no god, but don't go out of their way to fight those who choose to believe in other things).
So, being into complementary therapies myself (including Reiki, EFT etc.), these are often classified as being "spiritual" practices, yet, if I talk to others about what I do, they automatically assume that this makes me a spiritualist (someone who believes in communicating with the dead, that there are spirit guides etc. etc.) and this is a common confusion between someone who is being spiritual, and a spiritualist. It then usually gets assumed that I believe in God, or I'm religious in some way. How I answer this usually depends on how much time I have to discuss with the person.
The usual answer is that "No, I don't believe in God, I'm an atheist" (the non fundamentalist type), because I know that, like you said, God is seen as being some human like "other" entity; the beardy old bloke in the heavens looking down on us who we should pray to, worship and fear. If I say I believe in God, most tend to assume that I'm Christian of some sort (I was raised in Church of England, but that was childhood), as I certainly wouldn't fit the stereotypical image (others views) of, say, being Jewish or Muslim.
Now, if I have time, I will actually answer "Yes, I believe in God, but perhaps not in the traditional sense that most do.", and this is where the conversation can last a long time....
So, coming back to the point of the question asked, who is this God fella anyway?
Typically a Christian church will teach that God is the creator of everything, that he created the universe, the planets, and us. Likewise we learn that Jesus was God incarnated in human form and this is why people pray to Jesus as well as God (and likewise the Catholics pray to Mary as the mother of God, who, logically thinking, must therefore be God herself).
But we are also taught that we are subserviant to God, we see Him (or Her) as a seperate entity that we must respect, look up to, pray to and worship, and, in the case of churches, fear the wrath of.
Now, other churches, will see God as something different, some having more than one God (let's not get into the details).
Here then we have different churches with different views on who or what God is, all claiming that their God is the true God and other churches God's are false. etc .etc. This is all a very dualistic view of "ours" and "yours" and is the core reason for conflict. These churches (or simply just people with their own beliefs) become so attached to their own truth (again a dualistic view) that they would not even entertain the idea that their true God is the same as everyone elses, but that everyone is explaining it in different ways; different terminology; different languages; different cultures etc. (Of course there are those who use a concept of God for control, but that's a whole religous topic in itself).
If we just step sideways for a second and look at religious texts...
The Bible of the Christian church is a wonderful book. It's full of wonderful wise teachings. So why are some bibles worded differently to other bibles? Is the bible different from other religious texts of other religions? The key comes down to interpretation and language barriers, as well as some churches/organisations desire to control using the wise teachings often by changing wording and then relying on taking that wording literally.
Looking at the history of relious texts we can go back to such scriptures as the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. These are ancient wise teachings of unknown authorship written in sanksrit and date from long before Jesus' time. But, if we look at translations of these sanksrit texts and compare them with other mainstream (and long term) religious texts and philosophies we can find great similarities, whether that is with the Christian bible, the K'oran, Buddhist teachings etc. The terminology and names may differ, but the concepts and wise teachings can clearly be seen to be the same. There is no conflict; they are all teaching the same, and they are all likely to have been interpretations of the same teachings as they spread around the world, just given a different label and then, unfortunately, often misinterpreted and used for the wrong reasons.
(Note: Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita are text that the Vedic teachings of philosophy are based upon)
But this still doesn't answer who or what God is.
In truth we can only accept God as being what we know to be true in our own experience, perhaps let me give an example...
From my own awareness, I can observe my thoughts arising and changing. If I am observing those thoughts, I am not those thoughts.
From my own awareness, I can observe my memories come and go. If I am observing those memories, I am not those memories.
From my own awareness, I can observe my emotions as they change from one moment to the next. If I am observing those emotions I cannot be those emotions.
From my own awareness, I can observe a person standing in front of me, I know therefore that I am not that person.
(now taking an example from the Headless Way (
The Headless Way -- Douglas Harding))...
If I point at my legs, I can see them and I am aware of them. (assuming my stomach isn't too big
)
If I point at my stomach, I can see it and I am aware of it.
If I point at my chest, I can see it and I am aware of it.
If I point at my face, ...... there is nothing there to see,
but I am still aware. I am in fact pointing at my awareness. This awareness is my true Self.
Now, you may tell me that I have a face or in fact a whole head, but that is what you are aware of from your own evidence. But from your own evidence do you have a face or head? I can tell you you do, but your own evidence tells you otherwise (and bear in mind that a mirror is not evidence directly from your own awareness). And my own evidence tells me I have no head, but I'm simply the awareness that is here.
I am the observer. Everything I observe is
in my awareness.
Now, if everything is in my awareness from my own evidence, including you. And, from your evidence, everything is in your awareness, including me, then we exist within each others awareness.
Expand this concept, and very simply, everything is within everything elses awareness, or, more simply put, everything is One.
So, when I meditate (or you or whoever meditates), we bring ourselves to a state of awareness. This awareness allows us to observe these other things (thoughts, memories, emotions etc.) as seperate from ourselves, yet completely within our awareness. This seems like a pardox. How can something be seperate from us yet within us. The answer to this, for me, is when we consider that these things are not actually seperate from us, they are actually an inherent part of us, they are a part of our True Self. Again, everything is One. We are the "creator" of these things. Yet, our true Self is unchanging, it is simply awareness. So, whatever these things are that appear to change, they already exist in all their possible forms and we are simply being aware of different things at different times, including time itself.
If I created you and you created me and we all created this universe and the thoughts and memories and concepts of everything. Then we are all God.
The wisdom that is taught in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita (and Rg Veda etc) are all part of the Vedic teachings and the same wisdom you can find in most religious texts if you read between the lines. These wise teachings include the concept of the True Self or unchanging observer as well as the methods for meditation and how to become truly present and Self-Realized, and of course the concept that all is One.
It's not a concept that is easy to put in words, and this is just my own understanding at this moment. I hope it has made sense.
Or course I could be wrong and you may come up with a different concept of what God is for you. Whatever works for you is the truth.
Hugs
Giles
Linear Mode
