What is God?

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Rayden_Greywolf

Why the demand for total faith though? What purpose is there in that?

Your thinking about total faith (I made no 'demand', nether did i imply that total faith was a requirement!) is another one of your 'paper tigers' I guess/think. I just mean one have to be (positively) 'optimistic' not (negatively (doubt-full) if one is to become proficient in any it-could-go-one-way-or-another modality or venture.

Let's say you are in a sail boat that is not presently headed towards an island that you want/wish/hope to go to. Faith is a very practical thing which yo have to have and use to get there - in the sense that you have to 'believe' that if you turn your rudder to the left or right, the boat's nose will turn left or right accordingly. Without such faith you would not be able to 'intelligently' use the boat's rudder to get to the island. If one 'fears' and/or 'doubts' that one will be able to navigate one's way to said or any other 'place', chances are one won't successfully manage the learning-from-trial-and-error process which is part and pacrel of getting anywhere, that is anywhere else than where you presently are.

Originally Posted by Rayden_Greywolf

And you posit that one can connect with this kind of God as you mentioned earlier?

IMO, all one has to do is 'believe' and 'trust', i.e. have 'faith', in this regard that there really is, or at least really may be, something that is 'intelligently' functional 'within' or 'accessible' by oneself which one can connect with, i.e. 'access', and then imagine that 'it' will respond in 'answer' to the 'needs' the questions one holds in (one's) heart-mind and poses to it.

I myself don't access 'it' in the interpersonal way Miss H. does, even though based on my readings and experience I do believe and think 'it' does respond to personal wishes and desires, because my 'personality' has an 'independent' (you might even say 'arrogant') streak and so doesn't easily attitudinally 'open' to receiving 'answers' that way. So I tend to use 'repeated' (in my head) mantras like "Wherever I am and whatever comes my, the very best is what I'll know, think, feel, do and say," or variations thereof, sometimes even just silently (i.e. non-mantrically) just expecting whatever 'answers' or 'solutions' I wish to 'get' to simply 'pop' (from 'out' of 'nowhere' ) right into my head.

And if and when I have used Miss. H's 'approach', I have never 'spiritually' 'heard' an 'answer.' But, unlike you, my earnest friend, I don't get 'into' feeling isolated, abandoned etc. as a result. I simply believe and have faith that, even though I have posed and hope to 'get' and 'answer' or 'response' that way, the answer of response will still (eventually) be forthcoming (in the usual way for me) by virtue of my having spirit-energetically formulated my request, i.e. my 'need' statement.

Glad that you are going to give what's in my book a 'go'. Wishing you the very best with that - it's not 'spoon fed', so a 'digestion' process is required.

Addendum: I have more recently postulated (to myself) and so have begin to experience said 'intelligence' in a more 'relational' way, as emanating from and being aspects of 'greater' (more transpersonally inclusive) Being(s) - as implicit in statements like: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by hallow

I know shes was just a dog. Not to sound crazy but it really feels like shes really there just hanging out with me. I have no doubt she still is. I never felt this kind of feeling before with anything. But i never spent 18 years with any one living being. I wrote this to help me and whoever is reading this how spirituality works, you just have to trust your own judgment no matter how silly it sounds.

HiHo Hallow!

I read, I think in one of Jane Roberts' Seth book - and this makes complete sense to me - that still incarnating and/or higher souls can and sometimes do send, or 'incarnate', portions of their soul-energy, i.e. their presence/consciousness, into animals (like dogs) to be around and interact with other souls they have 'connections' with and so 'serve' them (their spiritual/developmental 'needs') in such capacity.

Even occasional (out-of-the-ordinary) apparently 'chance' encounters with critters (insects even) can/may be 'propitious' 'visitations' in his regard, I think/believe.

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by davidsun

I myself don't access 'it' in the interpersonal way Miss H. does, even though based on my readings and experience I do believe and think 'it' does respond to personal wishes and desires, because my 'personality' has an 'independent' (you might even say 'arrogant') streak and so doesn't easily attitudinally 'open' to receiving 'answers' that way. So I tend to use 'repeated' (in my head) mantras like "Wherever I am and whatever comes my, the very best is what I'll know, think, feel, do and say," or variations thereof, sometimes even just silently (i.e. non-mantrically) just expecting whatever 'answers' or 'solutions' I wish to 'get' to simply 'pop' (from 'out' of 'nowhere' ) right into my head.

And if and when I have used Miss. H's 'approach', I have never 'spiritually' 'heard' an 'answer.' But, unlike you, my earnest friend, I don't get 'into' feeling isolated, abandoned etc. as a result. I simply believe and have faith that, even though I have posed and hope to 'get' and 'answer' or 'response' that way, the answer of response will still (eventually) be forthcoming (in the usual way for me) by virtue of my having spirit-energetically formulated my request, i.e. my 'need' statement.)

P.S. having to do with 'heart' (spirit) issues - these are different from 'head' (mind) issues. Especially when I've identified a a 'need' for spiritual 'healing' on my part, a thought-and-felt relationship proved both necessary and boon-tiful! IMO, one can't just 'change' oneself, anymore than anyone can actually lift himself or herself off the ground by pulling up on his or her boot-strings!

I have more recently really "I need your help, I can't do this by and for myself" asked Miss H. style (beseeched really!) The Entity of Life, which is what I have deciphered Jesus personally 'i'dentified with to the point where he regarded IT as himself and himself as IT - to 'heal' my 'love-neediness' - my inner 'wanting' and 'needing', and feeling weak and incomplete if I didn't 'receive', affirming loving responses from 'others' who I kept trying to 'connect' with in the hope of 'receiving' it from them - to enable me to 'love' etc. whether or not said 'love' etc. were returned in ways which specifically suited 'my' needs as then existing. To do this I had to conjure up such Presence as both being 'real' as well as 'really' surrounding-n-sustaining 'me' and inwardly 'speak' to It and image-in it 'hearing' and lovingly responding to my spiritual 'neediness'.

I sense and hope that others here can also sense that this has 'worked' or at least is 'working' - in the sense that I am now fairly 'healthy' (i.e. 'whole'), at least I am more so than ever before, in such regards.

Woohoo, everyone!

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by Rayden_Greywolf

I probably have asked this question before, just with different words, but whatever.

So, what do you believe God is? Do you view God as an intelligent entity? Or maybe an undefinable field of "energy" throughout the universe? Is God pure awareness?

I'm having trouble coming to terms with what I've learned about God, myself. I want a God that is personal and relevant to one's life, but at the same time, how can this be so if God is more like awareness or simply the Universe itself? I want to be able to feel comforted in times of darkness, but how does one do that with an impersonal God?

Rayden_Greywolf,

Rayden_Greywolf,

I would suggest going to the basics. Forget all the intellectual arguments. Most simply......God is love. If you have ever had an experience of loving something/someone or have had the experience of being loved........you have had an experience of God. I believe everyone has had these experiences. They know God but do not realize that they know God. They devalue these experiences because they are distracted by what others conceive of God as being.

Examine the nature of love. Love is not given because one demands it.....love is not received because one demands it. It is spontaneous coming from the depths of our spirit(if we are giving it) or simply radiating from the spirit of another if they/it are giving it. It is mutual in nature.......there is a giver....there is a receiver. If not perceived it is not there. If, for example, one feels love at the sight of a baby's face or a spectacular sunset that comes from within......it is not demanded by either the baby or the sunset. If you have the perception....the feeling......the understanding that someone loves you.....the origin of that love is not because you demanded it.

For something that is so basic and so beautiful as love(God) we cannot expect it to come by demand. Faith(which you mention)......love......and knowledge of God, in the end, are all acts of grace. In the case of God, IMO, He has always loved you(as I previously referenced that all experiences of love are experiences of God). Re-adjust your vision and try to interpret the love you experience as being manifestations of God.

[blossomingtree]

I'll just chip in that I'm like OP - I could never believe something just because someone told me to or because they believed it. Nor could I just think God is love or God is great or God is a flower (no matter how beautiful the flower is) - and that was just me...

Therefore, what I'd suggest is, Rayden_Greywolf, if you want to know the answer "for yourself", you'll have to pick up a spiritual practice.

Pick a tradition - any genuine tradition - Yoga, Advaita-Vedanta, Sufism, Mystical Christianity, Buddhism, anything - pick one and dig dig dig until you know of what the Sages speak about.

Then you won't have to doubt anymore and you will, I believe, find the comfort that you seek.

Be well.

BT

[leighbaby]

I agree with blossomingtree, I think the best way to find out what God is, is to follow the path yourself.

For me, God just...Is. Everything.

[hallow]

Originally Posted by davidsun

HiHo Hallow!

I read, I think in one of Jane Roberts' Seth book - and this makes complete sense to me - that still incarnating and/or higher souls can and sometimes do send, or 'incarnate', portions of their soul-energy, i.e. their presence/consciousness, into animals (like dogs) to be around and interact with other souls they have 'connections' with and so 'serve' them (their spiritual/developmental 'needs') in such capacity.

Even occasional (out-of-the-ordinary) apparently 'chance' encounters with critters (insects even) can/may be 'propitious' 'visitations' in his regard, I think/believe.

Thank you!

[Rayden_Greywolf]

Originally Posted by blossomingtree

I'll just chip in that I'm like OP - I could never believe something just because someone told me to or because they believed it. Nor could I just think God is love or God is great or God is a flower (no matter how beautiful the flower is) - and that was just me...

Therefore, what I'd suggest is, Rayden_Greywolf, if you want to know the answer "for yourself", you'll have to pick up a spiritual practice.

Pick a tradition - any genuine tradition - Yoga, Advaita-Vedanta, Sufism, Mystical Christianity, Buddhism, anything - pick one and dig dig dig until you know of what the Sages speak about.

Then you won't have to doubt anymore and you will, I believe, find the comfort that you seek.

Be well.

BT

Thank you, that seems like very good advice.

[davidsun]

As I wrote in my book, this is what I think the “God”-concept references

The potentially liberating and amendatory truth (which, for the forementioned reasons, many don’t appreciate) is that everybody in existence is spiritually motivated by a mindfully discriminating intrinsic potency. This was termed ‘atman’ or ‘soul’ by sages of old, who recognized everyone and everything as an immediate expression of the universally present, intelligently creative essence which they understood to be the real meaning of ‘Brahman’ and ‘God’. But, because such words have been misappropriated by custom and their significance sometimes grossly distorted by misusage, I generally refer to it alternatively, as Intelligence, Creativity, Life Itself or the Life-Force. However labeled, it is the source or essence-ial‘element’ from which all Being springs, the core I-Am-That-I-Am, THAT which IS at root within each and everyone.

I theorize(d) and logically argue that “Love and Joy” is the ‘nature’ or ‘character’ or ‘essence’ of said “intrinsic potency” in the first completed chapter of my the treatise titled “What Jesus Really Meant” which I am still in the process of composing. (If anyone is interested, a free pdf download of that chapter is available here.)

The “Love and Joy” referenced is the ‘love’ and ‘enjoyment’ of being alive, of experiencing and expressing said potency, which I argue it is Life’s ‘aim’ (or ‘goal’ or ‘program’) to maximize. It is not ‘confined’ to what is conventionally regarded as ‘love and joy’. For instance, in my view, even things like hate are an expression of said ‘essence’, in that, when people are ‘frustrated’ by being ‘denied’ whatever they have set their minds on actualizing and their hearts on ‘enjoying’, they can get into ‘loving’ and ‘enjoying’ hating whatever it is they experience and so ‘see’ as being the ‘cause’ of such ‘frustration’ and ‘denial’. This (kind of “Love”) is shortsighted and so doesn’t result in maximal ongoing fulfillment of Life’s love ‘motive’ of course. I just mention it to illustrate that there are many ways in which one can grasp and understand the idea That “God” is and “Love” and “enjoys” “Loving” – in the case cited, aspects of said “God” “Love” and “Enjoy” hating as well. IOW, there is nothing in existence, hate included, that isn’t an expression of and experienced by “God”.

I do also believe that there are various kinds and levels of consciousness ‘spirits’ besides 'human' ones, some of which may optionally assume ‘forms’ even though they don’t have ‘bodies’ in the normal sense of the word, which/who one can 'potently' commune-icate and interact with in the above-mentioned Love and Joy experiencing and expressing fashion. Just sayin’ ….

Also, regarding the “intrinsic potency” idea, here’s a quote from a vedic scripture, I can’t remember where I found it, which I think is confirming (that is, confirming of the idea I am bandying about) I think:

“Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby the eye can see: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;
Not that which the ear can hear, but that whereby the ear can hear: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;
Not that which speech can illuminate, but that by which speech can be illuminated: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore;
Not that which the mind can think, but that whereby the mind can think: know that to be Brahman the eternal, and not what people here adore.”

The ‘here’ I assume references the author’s general location at the time of this was written.

[blossomingtree]

You're welcome, RG, we've all been there.

BT