God
Our conceptions of God limit our understanding of human consciousness and the real beauty that pervades this universe.
In the West, God — be it bearded Jehovah or younger Jesus — is always depicted as a man with light skin and a beard. He controls a piece of the universe called Heaven, and grants entry to people who worship him and who obey him at all times. If you don’t obey him, then through some power he is able to send you to a pit of eternal sulfur and fire, to burn for eternity. This sounds more like a mob boss than an enlightened divinity.
While Christianity provides the most obvious examples, the same could be said of most other religions. Walk into any setting where dogma has taken the place of critical thinking, and you will hear something along these lines: follow these rules, or you will go to Hell.
Even if you don’t believe in God, or are agnostic, it is this image that is supposed to shape your “spiritual” inclination. Thus, most western athiests define themselves in opposition to this mafia God-figure but then make the mistake of concluding that this is the most that can be expected of a valid conception of God.
God is presented as something to be feared. So you see most people today live in fear of God, or live in fear of other people who believe in God, or life in fear of the people who make the rules based on the values of a fearful God.
A true sense of spiritual freedom requires a complete disavowal of these limiting ideas of God.
In fact, spirituality is so unique — and we as individuals are so unique — that every person probably has their own idea of the nature of God. It would be a safe bet that if you were to walk into a church (or synagogue, or temple, or shrine, it doesn’t matter much) and ask two people sitting next to each other to define God, you would get two very different answers.
It is totally fine to have a connection with the larger universe and to have a sense of spirituality without subscribing to any particular church or doctrine.
People don’t need to agree about their conceptions of God. It is totally fine for there to be a difference of opinion about God. Not only is it totally fine, but in America it is legally expected that people will have different ideas about religion — which is why the First Amendment protects all forms of religious worship.
The important thing is that people make up their own minds about God (or the lack of a God) and not just blindly follow some belief because it makes them feel better. That is not genuine investigation, but simply acting like a sheep. And human consciousness is too precious to behave like a sheep.
Here is one example of a unique perspective of God: God as the bridge that connects a person’s intentions, desires, hopes, and prayers to their material manifestation.
A person sits, and quiets her mind, and then opens that mind to all of creation and feels a comfort that all will be well, all can be healed, everything will be OK. No need to worry.
In this state, it is possible to formulate an intention and ask that it come true, so long as it is in the best interests of all involved. And if it is, then it happens — that moment is God.
Here is another conception of God: God as the connection to all of consciousness.
When you sit by yourself, and you feel the presence of a loved one who may be thousands of miles away — that moment is God.
Or when you sit in a garden and can delight in beauty, happy to be alive — that moment is God.
Our purpose here on this Earth is to obtain ever greater freedom. Freedom means the defeat of fear, and values promulgated on such fear. When you confront a fear, and you knock it down, and you obtain greater spiritual and psychological freedom — that moment is also God.
And because the mind is God, when the mind grows, then God grows in tandem, maturing with us as we explore this Creation of which we know so little. God as our twin, as our teacher, as our child, all at the same time.
How pleasant to think of God like that.
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