This short discourse will attempt to clarify, in the simplest way, the Teaching’s belief in God.
First, God is omnipresent, meaning that God is everywhere, in everything and in everyone. There is no place outside of God. This does not mean that God is limited to just what is or to the sum total of what is, because God is infinite and thus includes the transcendental infinite as well as the finite universe. Furthermore, God is omnipresent for each person and in each moment, meaning that God’s Presence is always present in every instance of our lives. Thus, God is always here and nearer to one than usually realized.
Second, God is omniscient, meaning that God is all knowing. God is conscious of everyone and everything, in every moment. This is because God is Consciousness, which is the Source of our own consciousness. This means that God is always aware of everything. Now this is why some people reject a belief in God – because they are uncomfortable with the thought that God is watching everything they do and knows everything. This would of course be uncomfortable to anyone who feels guilty about what they do or have done. It also feels to be an affront to personal privacy; if God "sees" everything and also even knows our every thought.
Yet to someone who feels alright about what they and how they live, this might not seem so uncomfortable. For example, if one does not have any guilt or embarrassment about their sexual activity nor their bathroom requirements, then perhaps God’s omniscience would not feel uncomfortable. And why would there be guilt or embarrassment about such normal human things? Because of distorted religious teachings. For we have to understand omniscience in the context of other truths, such as God’s love.
So if we can propose here the possibility of God being omniscient, let us also propose that God is conscious of everything we do but without any condemnation or judgment. This sheds a different light on it all. For we not suggesting that God is watching everyone with a judgmental eye. Neither are we suggesting that God’s consciousness is like a human parent watching over us; this analogy has some merit but certainly not in the sense of a judgmental parent. The consciousness of God is not judgmental; it is simply conscious. Moreover, God is loving and compassionate, rather than judgmentally condemning.
Thus thirdly, God is unconditionally loving and all-compassionate And when God’s unconditional and all-compassionate love is combined with God’s all-knowingness, then there is no more guilt or embarrassment about natural human activities nor about one’s occasional mistakes. In other words, we do not have to continually self-critique ourselves about our sins. We might indeed make mistakes and do things that are less than noble, but we need not feel that God is watching us in judgment and seeing us as sinners for this or that. God is not doing that, and we do not have to be doing that to ourselves. This whole judgmental and condemnation theme in western theology is simply a misguided and distorted teaching. God is love and compassion. God is caring and forgiving. The condemning and judgmental God is simply a false god, which has falsely seeped into western established religions.
God is loving, caring, and compassionate. God’s love means that in every moment we can know and feel that God loves us. God embraces us with love. In fact, God’s Being is Love Itself. And every instance of love coming from us or anyone has its source in God, for God is Love and is the very source of all love as coming from anyone. As well, God cares. God cares about us and about everyone and the whole world. Know that God cares and is ready to help us. Then thirdly, God is compassionate. This means that God understands us and understands our unique situations. So that no matter what is going on in us, in our feelings and in our actions, God really understands us and understands our difficult situations, and furthermore understands how we make sometimes mistakes or get sidetracked. Compassion from the Divine Observer is a mixture of love and wisdom, of unconditional love mixed with understanding wisdom.
Now let us briefly come back to the theme of judgment. It might be argued that IF there is no judgment from the Divine, such that all is lovingly accepted or at least forgiven from God’s compassionate understanding, then there is no divine distinction between the killer and the healer. In other words, if God unconditionally loves everyone and there is nothing that God is judging or condemning, then isn’t everyone completely free to do whatever? (and still be loved by God).
Here is the answer. God still loves you, no matter what you do. God loves everyone, no matter what they do. God is also still caring and compassionate for everyone, no matter what. Yet what makes the difference is in how God will have to respond to each person and their circumstance, which involves God’s Wisdom. So God’s Love is unconditional, without distinction between good or bad. All is in God’s Love. However, the distinction between good and bad, better or worse, is significant when God’s Wisdom is involved, because the response of Wisdom will be different depending on the quality of our actions.
Briefly, let us define wisdom – it is somewhat more than intelligence. Intelligence is a know-how, so we could say that nature has intelligence – a practical intelligence in the working of things, so to speak. Wisdom is intelligence but with the addition of purpose; so we could say that nature has intelligence with purpose – the purpose being a higher goal to which nature is heading or to which wisdom is leading. This is the Wisdom of God, as found in the natural world, and in people as well.
Thus, God is also Wisdom and this wisdom is at work in the world. It may not be perfectly or completely at work in the world, just as each person is not necessarily wise in their thoughts and actions, but this Wisdom can be found in nature and to some extent in many people.
The Wisdom of God is present everywhere, but it is not always at work in a perfect way, or perfectly actualized. Nonetheless, everything and everyone is in a larger evolutionary process which is gradually leading to greater degrees of actualized wisdom and finer degrees of perfection. This relates to another truth about God, which is God’s omnipotence or power; but for now let us wait on this explanation.
We do not need to assume an anthropomorphic image of God as being like a wise and all-powerful King who dictates every move of nature, including our own actions. Neither is God the Wise making a ‘decision’ about how to respond to each person or each circumstance. And its not like God the Wise making continuous judgments about what we are doing, and then delving out rewards or punishments.
Instead, God’s Wisdom is simply embodied in nature and it is more akin to what we think of as natural law. Another useful understanding of Divine Wisdom would be the idea of karma – which comes from eastern thought but it is also part of scientific thinking. Karma is a natural law of cause and effect; whereby the effect (which is what happens) is a natural result of causes (actions, behaviors, and circumstances that preceded the effect). So whatever is happening in our lives or in the world is an effect caused by previous actions, behaviors, and circumstances. What is is explained by what happened before, and every action is a cause to future effects.
This puts the responsibility of our present circumstances and our fate on our own actions, rather than having a simplistic religious belief that whatever happens is because God the Wise decided it so (in His making this "the best of all possible worlds"). In the law of karma, there is no reason to think that God the Wise makes everything perfect. {One could say that everything is perfectly the way it has to be by the law of karma, but this muddled mixing of word meaning is confusing and too often misleading .}
Karma is the efficient means of God’s Wisdom. It is how Wisdom works in the world, and it is also how we learn and then evolve towards being more wise and loving ourselves. For as we understand that the world is presenting effects of previous causes, we can then also understand that the future can be made better by the causes we produce right now. In other words, if we can responsibly produce causes that are more loving and intelligent, then the circumstances of our future will correspondingly be more loving and intelligent.
It is this law of karma that evolves the world and humanity; not the dictatorial manipulations of God as "the absolute Ruler." The way that karma works to evolve the world and humanity is by continually reflecting to us learning circumstances – or lessons in the school of wisdom. Thus, the Wisdom of God is simply reflected in the cause-effect reality of nature and in how circumstances naturally reveal wisdom lessons (about causes and effects) and sometimes propel us to make changes for the sake of a better life and world.
Now let us return to a question about how God’s Wisdom produces a difference, depending on the ethical quality of our actions. God loves unconditionally, so all people are loved no matter what actions they make. And God is not watching us with judgmental condemnation. This must be understood first. But according to how we think and what we do, there will be a corresponding response from nature and the world around us. This response is the Wisdom of God, responding to us in a way that teaches us important lessons and leads us back into harmony with the Divine. This can also be understood as karma, the natural law of cause and effect. If our actions are already loving, holistic-minded, beautiful and good; then the world and our karma will reflect beauty, goodness and love back to us in. Yet if one’s actions are harmful, or solely based on self-centered desires, or unethically deceptive, or what might be called evil, then Wisdom (or karma) will bring to one a corresponding response that will reflect back to the person what they instigated. In other words, by law of Divine Wisdom, or the law of karma, a person will receive a corresponding reflection of whatever they had previously instigated or caused. Thus, the quality and ethical nature of our actions determines how life will reflect back to us, according to the Wisdom of karma.
This is the Divine Justice. It is not that God is judgmentally condemning people for various sins and then producing punishments for the sinners. Rather, there is simply a natural law taking place, a law of cause and effect, which over time reflects back to us. Thus, if our actions are loving, holistic-minded, beautiful and good, then in our future the world will reflect back likewise. But if our actions are harmful, low-minded, ugly and bad, then in our future the world will likewise reflect this back to us. This is the natural law of karma, yet it is also the Wisdom of God – for Wisdom wants to teach us how to be better human beings and how to live in harmony with others and the rest of nature.
Wisdom wants to teach us how to help build a beautiful world and live in peace, and how to make the whole world a better place to live. Yet if people are not listening to the inner Wisdom, as is available within, and if people are making harmful actions without true love for everyone else, then the Divine Wisdom will have to teach these people by presenting harsher learning lessons, in order to awaken them from the slumbers of self-absorbed ignorance. The goals inherent in Divine Wisdom is for the whole world to evolve towards greater love, intelligence, beauty and goodness. So all wisdom lessons are intended to lead people towards such goals. If a person intentionally moves towards these goals in their actions, then God’s power of Wisdom will provide them with favorable circumstances and abilities. But if a person acts in a way of harm towards others or to nature, or is in this kind of uncaring attitude, then the power of Wisdom and karma will have to bring difficulty and lesson to such people, in order to teach them needed lessons and awaken them from their slumber of ignorance.
Now besides this natural embodiment of wisdom (as potentially learned lessons) in the workings of life, God’s Wisdom is also available to anyone who is open to it. For we believe that the Divine Wisdom, which includes higher intelligence and realized purpose), is everywhere available, such that anyone can open up their intuitive heart and mind, in order to hear or receive this Wisdom or at least glimpses of it. We believe this Wisdom is available to anyone, so that they may accelerate their spiritual evolution. Thus, it is not necessarily at work in everyone. God’s Wisdom might be more realized in one person, while less realized in another.
Therefore, it is incorrect to say that God’s Wisdom is always perfectly at work in the world; since this Wisdom is so unrealized and lacking in so many people. Those who severely lack in love and wisdom will be making un-wise causes in the world and thus producing unbeneficial actions in the world, meaning that the world will reflect the degree of wisdom so far realized in those who act in the world. In other words, the world could never be a perfect reflection of God’s Wisdom as long as there are unwise and unloving people making actions in the world. Our present world is mostly the result of human actions, so there cannot be a world full of God’s Wisdom unless people are full of wisdom. That is, what we mostly see is a world reflective of how much love and wisdom is in people, the main actors in this world; rather than the world being a perfect reflection of God’s Wisdom and Compassion.
God’s Wisdom and Compassion is everpresently here as being available – to be realized and to be effective in the world – but it is not automatically at work in everything going on. What we mostly find in the world is human ignorance and its resulting karma of unnecessary suffering. Yet hopefully, all of humanity will spiritually evolve from ignorance to wisdom, and from self-centeredness to love. For this is how the spiritual process works. This is the divine plan; that all conscious beings begin from ignorance and self-centeredness, then gradually evolve towards holistic wisdom and expansive love. This is the great process of awakening, which requires many centuries and generations of each reincarnating soul, and what propels this along are the lessons of karma and the inner whisperings of divine wisdom.
Gradually then, God’s Wisdom and Love is realized and manifested in the world, through human beings; yet along the way of this evolution there is inevitable conflict, hurt, and unnecessary suffering, because the lessons and the wisdom have yet to be realized.
Awakening wisdom and the lessons of karma propel this process of spiritual evolution. And this is all part of God’s Power, which will now be better explained. One of the attributes of God is Power. Fundamentally, this is the power of love and wisdom. Yet God’s Power also includes the power of consciousness and awakening. It also includes the power of creativity and of life itself. So the attribute and meaning of Divine Power is large and inclusive. We could even simply say that God is the power source for everything. Even the bad, or what some people would call evil, is empowered by God, because there is no other ultimate power except God. But even though all actions are empowered by God and dependent on God, no matter what their ethical quality is, God does not "will" there to be bad or harmful actions in the world.
This issue has been a misunderstanding for many religious thinkers and even mystics, and semantics makes the confusion. Medieval writers of both Christianity and Islam often used the concept of "God’s will" to mean the same as "God’s power," …Will and Power being understood as meaning the same. But a confusion results when "God’s will" is also equated with "God’s decision," as when people say "oh, that must be God’s Will," … implying that God decided it to be. The thought is that "God’s will" implies that God in His love and wisdom is deciding everything that happens, based on love and wisdom. But this interpretation is clearly not true. God, with love-compassion and wisdom, is not deciding everything that happens. God is not "willing" everything we find in the world, in the sense of "deciding" or "choosing" or "wishing." If this were so, then people have a valid point that God may not actually be so loving and wise afterall, and it is for this reason that so many intelligent people have rejected the whole idea of God, completely. But if this mistaken interpretation is removed from our beliefs, then God is freed from looking so stupid to so many people.
For the truth is that God ‘s power is at work in all things and in all actions; but this does not also imply that God is deciding everything. God is not deciding everything nor agreeing to the rightness of everything; and thus, God’s love and wisdom is not necessarily involved with everything that happens in our world. Many actions and occurrences are actually lacking in love and wisdom; and this is because love and wisdom have not yet been realized in those people who are making such actions. This means then, that God is not responsible for everything that happens and is certainly not setting it all into place. Rather, spiritually unawakened people are responsible for most of the troubles and sufferings in the world.
One of monotheism’s main concepts is God’s omnipotence, which means all-powerful. God is all-powerful. This would have to be true, since God is the ultimate Power of the universe and the source of all micro-powers. If there were any other power equal to or greater than God, then this would be a dualistic theology. But this concept of omnipotence, based on the spiritual intuition of divine unity, has been often misunderstood. The mistake is to presume that God’s omnipotence necessarily implies that God is decisively making everything happen in the world. The mistake is to infer that God, the all-powerful, must be dictating every action and every occurrence in the world. This false conclusion might be based on an assumption that an all-powerful God would act like a human dictator or like a puppeteer determining everything that happens.
Yet this false image can be abandoned. For the fact of having omnipotence, does not necessarily mean that God would execute this omnipotent power at every moment in order to exactly determine everything that happens. God does not have to be understood as a controlling dictator of everything; like, ‘it’s My world and I’ll make it exactly the way I want it to be… because I’m so absolutely powerful.’ We do not have to understand God in this very limited and anthropomorphic way.
Instead, understand God as having ultimate power, or as being the ultimate power itself, but not necessarily or always exercising this power in a controlling and dictating fashion. For instead, God’s power works in a more subtle way, as a motivator or as an inner drive towards expanding love and wisdom. God works from within things, from within lives, and this is not absolutely dictatorial. God is influential, rather than dictatorial. God is suggestive, rather than commanding. God is available, rather than imposing.
And this is all part of freedom; because freedom is a necessary principle in the divine process of creative evolution. Freedom is a necessary aspect of the divine plan, as it were. But this divine plan is not like an exact blueprint decided before time and being implemented day by day by the power of God. That would be a wrong understanding of the plan. The plan is really to do with a general process of newly unfolding creativity, over the generations of life, which also involves freedom – which means that the creative process is not pre-planned in any exact manner and, in fact, it is a continual surprise.
Freedom is, thus, a significant principle in the divine creative process, or in what we call spiritual evolution. There is freedom and free will in this unfolding creativity, rather than an exact pre-planned blueprint and rather than an all-controlling power dictating and manipulating every new activity. Subsequently in this free creative process, as in any experimental artistic process, there will be mistakes and wrong turns, but also successes and unexpected creative solutions. Moreover, this creative process will be continually adjusted by a parallel process of learning from one’s mistakes through the feedback of karma and the inner guidance of divine wisdom.
Now there is one more aspect of God’s Power that we need to consider, in combination with God’s Love-Compassion and Wisdom.
This is God’s power of healing and redemption , which could also be understood as part of the power of God’s Love and Wisdom. God’s Love and Wisdom can make immediate positive changes in a person’s life. But this does not simply come automatically to everyone.
The ordinary course of life is to learn and make adjustments in life from the lessons of karma or from the lessons of our social and physical world. Some people learn more quickly than others. Some people resist learning so then remain stuck in negative karmic cycles – making negative actions which then cause negative effects, both to others and to themselves. Eventually there will be some sort of new awakening and learning, and a resulting positive change in life, but there could be a long road of ego resistance beforehand.
All along the way the Divine is deep within whispering needed wisdom and insight, but the person has to be ready and willing to listen. Thus, in the ordinary course of our lives God does not force higher wisdom upon anyone, nor does God make anyone do what is best; for this has to depend on a person’s freedom – to listen or to ignore, to agree or to resist, to make positive changes or to remain stuck in repeating negative karmas. Nonetheless, divine wisdom is available to anyone.
Normally and most often, repetitious negative karma will continue on until the person somehow awakens from this slumber of automatic repetitive behavior. This awakening will usually occur from shock or from pain. Most karmic lessons, and a resulting positive change, are learned from shock or pain. We call these the tough learning lessons of life, learning by negative feedback. Of course we can also learn by positive feedback, learning by what works, which is a much nicer way to learn. Yet we can also learn directly intuitively from the divine wisdom.
So, God’s wisdom can enter our intuition, which will then help us overcome obstacles and actually change our karma. But this is not guaranteed; for most people will have no such intuition. Nonetheless, it is possible to gain wisdom intuitively from within. And of course it is also possible to receive wisdom from others, especially spiritual teachers or spiritual teachings, but also from traditional religions and cultural wisdom. However, there is no guarantee that one will receive real wisdom rather than misguided beliefs posing as wisdom. Truth must be ultimately discerned by each person; for there is always a possibility of deception. Teachings may even have the best of intentions but still be confused.
The larger point here is that we can, possibly, receive spiritual wisdom intuitively, or wisdom from within. This will then be healing and redemptive, because any new wisdom or awakening will make a positive change in the course of our lives. This also is significantly important in relation to our karma. The law of karma, of cause and effect, primarily acts as a treadmill of repetitious patterns. An action causes a future corresponding effect, which is then cause for a further effect, and so on. So what happens is that each cause produces an effect similar to the cause, which will then result in a similar effect and then create another cause likewise, and so it goes on and repeats like a wheel always returning to the same place. This is the wheel of karma, which is circular and repetitious. That is, until one awakens from the repetition and with new realization emerges free from it.
This freedom from previous karma is known as redemption. In Christian terms, redemption is freedom from sin; but this is really the same meaning, because sin is a repetitive cycle, a repetitive karma. Of course, though, there is repeating positive karma and repeating negative karma; the idea of sin is of course related to the negative karma. Redemption can also mean a return to God, which could also be understood as a return to God’s wisdom and love, from the shackles of sin or of repeating negative karma. This is also related to a higher meaning of healing.
Yet we are not implying here that all of one’s repeating karma can be redeemed or that one’s whole life will suddenly shift into Christ-like sainthood. Rather we are speaking here about small shifts, small changes, in parts of one’s life; it would be unrealistic to expect every aspect of one’s life to suddenly turn into divine radiance. This could be one’s greater hope, but we also need to be realistic about this and realize that most positive changes occur in small steps, and most often there is a personal self-work that is also necessary in this.
Thus, God can directly help us – through wisdom and guidance – to transcend and eliminate our previous karma. In other words, God can immediately heal or abolish our negative karma, if we ask and if we are truly in a receptive state for this redemption. This is the immediate efficacious power of God’s Love-Compassion and Wisdom. Love is the healing force and wisdom directs healing in the best way.
This means that God can eliminate our negative karma and lead us into a higher stage of life. The power of God can always overcome the power of repetitious karma. God can change the karmic cycle. God can free people from their ongoing karma and jump start a new creative awakening – jump start of newly awakened life. This is the possible power of God, and it is as well a possible power of human beings. As Christ is the archetype for this potential power to be a spiritual healer and redeemer of mankind. Inner spontaneous wisdom is the first possibility for karmic redemption. An inner awakening of love is the next possibility. And thirdly is the outer possibility of a spiritual healer or an example of Christ. All of these possibilities show that God and spiritual purpose have power over karma; God’s love and wisdom is greater than the law of karma; so it can potentially heal or overcome any karmic troubles. The power of God’s love and wisdom is ultimately greater than any other principle at work in the world. But it does not just happen automatically. One has to be ready for it and willing to receive it.
This is not a power that manipulates or fully controls all events in this world. Rather, this power of Love provides Love to this world, it generates Love, and it brings Love into this world according to people's receptivity to Love. Love is not imposing; rather, it offers itself and provides itself, and it comes into our experience and reality when there is an opening for it. Love also brings goodness into the world. It brings goodness, beauty, harmony and justice. It also brings joy and fulfillment. Love also dissipates fear, anxiety, worry, anger, and suffering. Along the way, Love is also intelligent, the intelligence of Love.
Love makes us feel good and do good. On one hand, Love is the feeling of Love, or the feeling of being loved. On the other hand, Love is the impulse for loving, the power of love in action. So it has these two basic aspects, pertaining to feeling and action, to feeling loved (or in Love) and doing love (or loving).
Thus, the Divine Will generates the feeling of being in Love, and it also generates the impulse or decision to love. Divine Will wants us to feel loved and also to love. So how do we help others and the world, how do we serve life and love? We help and serve by loving others and also by doing good for others. We do good for others by giving them what they need. The first things people need are the basics of life and healthy living. Yet people also need love, the feeling of being loved and opportunities for loving. People also need joys and pleasures. We need not be too greedy about our joys and pleasures, but to have joys and pleasures are certainly important. Different people may have different kinds of pleasures to which they seek, so we are often different in our particular pleasures, yet we all share the same basic need for pleasures in general. What we each enjoy can be seen as the good we seek.
The Divine Will, as the power of Love, seeks to fulfill our pleasures and bring us joy. The Divine supports our needs and pleasures, though the flow of this Divine support depends on receptive and cooperating factors in the world at hand. The Divine supports and encourages our pleasure, though it does not support personal or social greed. There is a distinction between greed and justified pleasures, but this issue will not now be discussed.
The important point, for now, is that joys and pleasures are part of the Divine Will, or part of Divine Goodness as is Intended by God. Thus, we can bring goodness in the world by supporting and helping others in the fulfillment of their personal pleasures, whatever they may be (as long as such pleasures are not harmful to others). In other words, love and service in the world involves the bringing about of pleasures to others, or giving to others what is pleasurable to them. This may not be just physical pleasures, of course, for it could be emotional or intellectual pleasures. It may even be the spiritual pleasure/joy of becoming closer to Divine Being.
So love [in action] involves bringing greater pleasure and joy in the world around us. In other words, a way we can bring Love into the world is to bring pleasure and joy to others. Also, helping them to fulfill what they seek to fulfill, whatever that may be, is to bring pleasure to them. One way to think of the Divine Will is that Divine Purpose or Intention to fulfill and bring about the pleasures and joys of everyone, in a great harmony and fairness. But of course, this is not just about others. It is also about ourself. For we also serve the Divine Will and Purpose by fulfilling our own pleasures and joys. So our own pleasures are of course important too.
Remember that each of us are instruments (so to speak) for Divine Experience. That is, the Divine experiences itself through us. So we serve the Divine by our experiences of joy. We bring joy and pleasure to Divine Being as we ourself experience joy and pleasure. Thus, here is one of the great secrets regarding Divine Purpose. The Divine seeks enjoyment. This world is created for the purpose of enjoyment. And the Divine enjoys through us. Theologies of recent past have mostly emphasized that the purpose of life is for learning, or for some sort of religious conversion. Learning and religious yearning are admirable; but also are joy and pleasure. Most deeply, the greatest fulfillment of Divine Purpose is the feeling of love and the experience of loving. This is the deepest joy.
Love is different kind of power and strength from our usual understanding of power and strength. We usually think of power and strength like that used when chopping wood or pushing at something or manipulating something. This power comes from just below the belly, which is often called our centre of power. Even our thinking can actually come from this place. It is when we are trying to move things or force something to happen. But the power of love works in a different way. It is not passive, yet its activeness is of different kind. It brings together and builds a unified relation, while the other kind of power manipulates from a centre of separateness and relates in a separative way.
It is important to notice this difference, as we relate with others. For in our relations with others, our centre needs to move up into the heart, so that we relate with others in love. Then the power of love can unfold. We need to allow this power of love to unfold, rather than try to force it on others. It is not like chopping wood or manipulating blocks of cement. It is a different way of being and doing. It is being with, and coming into an empathy with others. It is not the same kind of power used when chopping wood. It is more like a melting with the other, or discovering unity with the other. It is like coming into unity with the trees, rather than trying to make use of them.
To simplify this, love is a merging together in unity, rather than try to make others conform to our wishes. But too often we treat others like wood in a forest, trying to chop and sculpture the wood how we want it to be. But again, love is not just passive. For love actively seeks out the good in everyone and helps to bring forth their inner divine potentials. Love is empathetic and brings out the good in others.
So in conclusion, there is usefulness in the kind of power needed to chop wood and get things done in the material world, but in the world of human relations and also aesthetic relation with the natural world, the manipulative kind of power needs to be abandoned. Love needs to be in power. Love needs to be in charge. So we need to surrender the manipulative power and embrace love. This is the true Way of the Masters. To be a great Master in life is to foremost be in love and live by the power of love. Then great actions will proceed from this love. Jesus could do all sorts of miraculous things, but this power came from love, not merely from an ego trying to be great.
God is the Unity. All is God
God is Love, and Love is ever-Present and throughout the world.
But it is a mistake to think that all self-expressions are with love, or that all human actions express the Divine Love, Compassion, and Intelligence. Many human expressions result from selfish ego causes. Human actions are manifestations. Thus, all not all manifestations express the Divine Love, Compassion, and Intelligence. Simply then, not all manifestations express Divine Love and Intelligence. Thus, not all events in the world are expressions of Divine Love/ Intelligence, since many events are human expressions/ manifestations. Therefore, one can only conclude that some events (if not many), as produced by human actions, are not expressions of the Divine Love/ Intelligence, or one would at least have to admit that some (if not many) events are extremely low in Love and Intelligence; in the same way that one would have to agree that many human expressions and actions are produced from selfishness, ignorance, and sometimes mental illness. Therefore, it is fairly incomprehensible to believe that every particular action and event in the world is a perfect expression of Divine Love and Intelligence, or that 'it's all perfect', or 'everything that happens is perfect', or that everything which happens is from Divine Love and Intelligence, or that everything manifest is perfectly measured out in every detail of perfect proportion, or that all happenings in the world are really for the greater good, or that everything has a divine purpose (was divinely intended from Compassion-Intelligence); or that everything is by the Hand of God. (Well, is this implying that everything is by the Hand of Love, or by the Hand of Wisdom, or that anything that happens is under the immediate and controlling direction of God?).
What is true is that the Divine, God, Love, is ever-present throughout the world, but not necessary or always manifesting. What we find manifesting in the world, as events or as expressions from people, is not necessarily of a high spiritual quality. Manifestations often lack in love and wisdom. This is obvious to any common sense. And to believe otherwise is probably a lack of true honesty, or else a desperate attempt to have faith in some doctrine or spiritual cliché. As already said, manifestations often lack in love and wisdom, because some occurrences in life come from the actions of people who lack in love and wisdom and who more often act from self-centered egoism.
Yet, then, how is it true that the Divine Love is ever-present throughout the world, since not all manifestation and occurrence express Divine Love? Can Divine Love be present here and everywhere, while also not necessarily being manifested, expressed? A simple way to say this is that Divine Love and Intelligence is here everywhere, but not yet manifested in its finest expression everywhere. In another way of saying this, God is fully here in this moment and in every place, but God is not fully expressed here in this moment and in every place. In some places, through some people, and in some events, God – as Love and Wisdom – is not manifesting very well at all. So it is quite an exaggerated generalization to refer to all events as being of the Hand of God, or as having Divine Love, Wisdom and Purpose, let alone as being perfect.
Consider also the incoherence in thinking that all events are divinely guided-directed or measured out in perfect love-wisdom, while at the same time believing that spiritual guidance is an important factor in living a good life and for the world coming into spiritual fulfillment. Because if it is important that people listen to spiritual guidance, either from teachers or from within, then this means that guidance can make a difference. So if one listens to and follows spiritual guidance, it is assumed that this is better than not doing so, and that this following of guidance will produce good results in the world.
Yet all this does not even matter if every action and event is always perfectly good, or always directed caused by the divine power of love and wisdom. For instance, what if one does not follow the divine guidance as given by prophets or as given from within? What if one intentionally rejects it, or what if one simply neglects it? Then their action will proceed from this rejection or neglection. So in effect, this person will be acting from a rejection or neglection of divine guidance. Thus, it is absurdly incoherent to simultaneously believe that whatever this person does is divinely guided or divinely directed! Yet this is exactly what is going on....
A person is believing that all events are divinely guided – well even more so, that all events are divinely exactly measured out in perfect proportion, with absolute love and compassion and wisdom. And thus, it must follow that all human actions are part of this perfect directed guided measuring out of Love's wisdom – since many, if not most, occurrences in the world are from human action. So all human actions would be directed and guided by the Almighty wisdom -- (in order to assume that all events are directed and guided by the Almighty wisdom). YET, this directly contradicts the belief that spiritual guidance can be accepted or not – neglected or not – rejected or not.
Prayer is also a problem in this. The reason one prays to God for guidance in life is so that guidance may come, rather than not. The reason one prays for goodness in life is so that goodness may come and manifest in life, not badness or evil. But if everything that happens is always good, then praying for the good becomes quite redundant. If one believes that everything occurring is always good, always loving and always wise as directed by the Almighty, then what is the purpose of praying for goodness? If every event in life is really good, since each event is directed or measured out by almighty compassionate wisdom, then what purpose is there to pray for goodness? Everything is already a perfect manifestation of love and wisdom. If everything and every occurrence is already directed and guided by God, then what need is there for seeking guidance? If I think that everything is guided by God, then why would I need to ask for guidance? For if everything is guided by God, including the events created by man, then I and all men are always guided by God, as He is the director and guide of all events.
In other words, if one believes this, then there really is no possibility of not being guided. There could be no such thing as an unguided action; no such thing as an action or event that is Not directed by the Almighty. No such thing as simply an action or event that has no good reason for it at all, no significant good in it, no good purpose in it, no love in it, or no wisdom in it. This lack of goodness, love, wisdom, and divine purpose in something is Impossible under the faith-belief that everything and everyevent is always a manifestation of good, love, wisdom, and purpose.
Now at this point, the person trying to hold on to their faith, or on to their cherished clichés, will have to admit the logical absurdity as outlined here. But they can still appeal to the faith and cliché of divine paradox. This gives permission to ignore contradiction. Any logical contradiction can be excused as being an example of divine paradox, or else as divine mystery. This is not new; it has been the excuse for contradiction throughout known history. For one can excuse any kind of evident contradiction in logic or in action, by labeling it as divine paradox, divine mystery, or as the inexplicable Will of God.
So we took a little diversion there to discuss a possible incoherency or inconsistency in belief, whereby a person holds two beliefs that contradict one another. Yet the main topic is how to explain that Divine Love and Wisdom are already present everywhere in the world, yet not necessarily manifested. For to say that Love is everywhere present does not necessarily mean that Love is everywhere manifest. It is a logical-linguistic mistake to interpret the meaning of Love is everywhere present as necessarily implying manifest love. For example, it is understandable to say that a person has love inside even though they might not be manifesting love at the time. We often have experiences of friends or love partners, where the person is not at all manifesting love at the moment, yet we still believe that they have love within. Sometimes love is there, but not there manifest. In other words, what is in a person's essence, or potential, or capacity is not always manifesting.
In the same manner, the space and world around us can be filled with Love Essence, or Love Presence, yet in particular actions Love might not be manifesting, nor Wisdom manifesting, nor Divine Purpose manifesting. But just because these Divine Qualities are not manifesting at a particular moment or through a particular person or action, does not mean they are not ever-presently here. They are ever-presently here because they always exist here as potential.
God is at every moment ever-presently here and everywhere, but this does not necessarily mean that God is at every moment ever-presently manifest in perfection. So let us not claim that all manifestations are perfect, or that all of the world is perfect. God is ever-presently here, but does not necessarily manifest in perfection. In other words, Love is ever-presently here, but does not always manifest very well. Why?
One reason is that divine manifestation is a gradual process of perfection over time. It is a kind of evolutionary development. It is in a gradual process of unfolding perfection. It is sort of working its way towards maturity; that is, it is maturing through us. Or we could say that the world is in a gradual process of maturing and manifesting its inherent Divinity. And while in this process, or during this process, there will be many particular instances of non-love, non-wisdom, non-good, or of mistakes, wrong turns and stupidities. So it is simply wrong thinking to believe that all particular instances are divinely inspired, divinely guided, love guided or wisdom guided.
Divine expression/manifestation is unfolding as a process. In other words, the Divine Love-Wisdom is gradually unfolding through time and through development. The Divine Love-Wisdom in its Perfection, in its possible best, is NOT necessarily here in each moment nor in each circumstance or event. Rather, the Divine Perfection is in a gradual process of unfoldment, which means that what happens in the world is usually an as-yet perfected manifestation – even sometimes being very crude and definitely lacking in love and intelligence.
There may be some degree of intelligence in each moment/place, but if this is so very small then it doesn't really deserve to called intelligent. Same with love or compassion. If there is so very little love and compassion in a particular action, then it hardly deserves to be called compassionate love. So it makes no sense to call every action a grace of God, or a Compassionate Act of God, or as having a wise purpose to it.
The Divine is in process of actualization; it's in a gradual unfoldment. But even this unfoldment and process is not micro-managed by God, as if every moment along this process is exactly measured out from the top-down Management. No. This process unfolds as a experimental learning, as each being is learning and often making mistakes in the experimental process of their life. This learning and experimental model of the process is coherent with free will, which is different from the model of a Monotheistic, monopolistic King-Dictator directing and micromanaging each person and each moment.
Yet, this dictorial managing idea of God, putting everything in exact place at every moment, is the very premise of faith when someone proclaims that every event in the world is from the Hand of God, or Compassionately–Intelligently directed-orchestrated from the Almighty Power, or the great Puppeteer.
Thus, the Divine Love-Wisdom is not always manifesting, yet it is in a continual general unfoldment – as the Divine Potential gradually becomes actualized. Now, one necessity for such actualization through the human kingdom is realization. A human being needs to realize the Divine Qualities, such as Love and Wisdom, in order for these to be actualized. We first realize, then actualize. There may be some exceptions to this, but generally it is true. Therefore, one reason why the Divine Love, Wisdom, and Perfection is not always and everywhere manifesting is because of our lack of realization. If we don't realize the Divine, either in ourselves or in the world, then we probably lack in manifesting the Divine as well. So realization [of the Divine, or the Divine Qualities] is somewhat crucial for Divine Manifestation. And realization is a gradual unfoldment, a gradual process. It is one step at a time towards greater spiritual realization and maturity.
Thus, the Divine Reality of Love is here and everywhere, but it is not always manifested because it is not always realized. If someone has not yet realized the Divine, even though it is ever-present here and within them, then they are spiritually ignorant, and thus their actions and expressions will unfold from this ignorance, rather than from the realization of Divine Love. Non-realization is the common state of man at this time. There is non-realization of love and certainly a lack of realized intelligence. This then naturally results in actions without much love and intelligence. If love and intelligence has yet to be realized in oneself, or as yet not found through the spiritual guidances given to man, then of course these actions will NOT be divinely inspired, not be divinely directed, and not be produced from love and wisdom. Therefore, it is obviously incoherent to suggest that all actions and occurrences are divinely inspired, or divinely guided, or divinely produced from love and wisdom.
God, The One, includes all beings and all occurrences. Everything is in God. And everything is made of God's Essence, the Substance of One Being. But it is a mistake of thinking and a leap to false conclusions to conclude from this that every occurrence is decided, directed, managed, shaped, and willed by God (or by Love and Wisdom). One is then confusing Unity of Being with monopolistic management. For example, a group can be unified without everyone being compellingly directed by a mono-managing power. There can be unity in a system, or organism, without absolute micromanagement of each part or moment. Thus, it is true that everything is in God and all is made of this One Substance; yet not true that everything is decided, directed, managed, shaped, and willed by God.
It is true that everything and everyone is in God's love, enfolded by Divine Love; but not true that everything is manifesting this Love. Everyone is really made of Love Essence, which is Who each of us really is, the true Substance of our being; but it is not true that this love is always being expressed. God's Love and Compassion is all around and is also in us as our essence; but not every occurrence in the world is being directed by God's Love and Compassion. In many cases, the Love and Compassion is not getting expressed. It is not coming through the person well at all, so it is not getting manifest.
The same is true for Divine Wisdom. Divine Wisdom is inherently within us. We are all inherently connected with this Wisdom. It is naturally deep inside us all. Because, again, we are made of this Divine Substance, so all of the Divine Qualities are inherent in us – as potentials in us. Yet we do not always realize this Wisdom. In fact, the realization of Wisdom is a developing process over time and experience. It should not be a surprise that Wisdom is realized over a process of time, rather than it being instantaneously expressed at every moment. In addition, Wisdom is realized by experimentation, by trial and error, and not merely by sudden moments of intuition.
This Love, Compassion and Wisdom, which is God's Will, becomes more expressive and manifest if we pray/ask for it and sincerely open ourselves to God's Guidance and Inspiration. Thus, the finer expression-manifestation of God's Will, of Love and Wisdom, is contingent on our own humility and receptivity. The final result of any manifestation depends on the relation between the divine active Will and the receptivity-realization of the human agent. Both in relation make the result. So it is not just God at work; it is both God and man. Yet man makes the mistakes. And this is why the results are not divinely perfect; because man is in a process of development, a work in progress.
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There is Unity and God is everywhere; yet not every particular occurrence is measured out by God or directed by the Hand of God. The Truth is not so one-sided, Top-down, Authoritative or Dictatorial. God is not the great chess player and we the pieces. Hopefully we let go of this medieval image. Freedom exists in the System. Freedom exists within Unity.
A false assumption is that if there is One Being, God, and if this world is in the Oneness of God, then God must be deciding everything; the idea being that there could only be one decision-maker or one ultimate Will bringing about everything that happens in the world. But this is a very simplistic view of Unity, which is not logically nor theo-logically necessary. A higher governing power does not have to be absolutely dictating the actions and events of this world. This view would also contradict a belief in human freedom. Also, if God had planned everything out from some beginning of time, then there is no freedom since everything is already planned out – including our 'decisions' (what we delusionally think are our own decisions). Yet still, the basic assumption is that God is the only decision-maker.
For if there is just one absolute decision-maker, God, Who wills and decides all events of the world, then there is no freedom to do other than what God Wills and decides. Then, there is no human freedom of decision, because all decisions have already been decided by God. Nothing can happen except what God decides and Wills. In other words, God would be making all the decisions and manifesting His Will at every moment. Therefore, we would be not be making any decisions on our own and by our own free will.
Additionally, nothing that happens in the world would be caused by our own free will, since everything that happens in the world would be caused only by God. Thus, in this view, human freedom is just an illusion. We might think we are free to choose between alternatives, but God is really deciding everything.
And also remember that if all events in the world are intentionally caused by God, Who decides what is best in Love and Wisdom, then all human action would also be intentionally caused by God, since most events in the world cannot happen without human thought and action being involved. The production cannot take place unless the actors are playing their needed practical part. So if events in the world are decided and produced by God, then this would require the participating people doing such stuff to be also part of this planned production.
Take for example a man who blows himself up at a Mosque and kills many people. Some believe this was by the Hand of God, and some believe not. Some believe this was commissioned by God, and that it had a divine purpose, or some hidden Compassion and Wisdom in it. Some believe not. Some might believe that this event and all events are divinely ordained or planned in advance. Some believe not. Yet those who do believe in the divine commission of every event in the world, must also then accept that every specific action of a human being is divinely willed or set to happen by God, because each action of a human being will of course cause an event, and many events are of course the results of human actions. Thus, for example, people were killed because of what this person did. Nothing would have blown up without the action of this person. This tragic event could not have happened without the action of this person. So, if the event were caused by God, then the action would also have to be caused by God. And if the man's action were caused by God, then what kind of freedom is this? It would be no freedom at all, since God would be the only cause and the only one deciding anything.
Continuing with this example, if one assumes that the event had to have happened, by some kind of divine purpose or by divine ordinance or for some part in a greater plan; then does the person have any real choice in the matter? Imagine the person seconds before he explodes the bomb. Is he freely able to NOT do it? Can he change his mind at the last second, and just say no to it all? Well, if we assume that the tragic event had so much divine purpose, or that it was important to some greater plan, or that God really set it up intentionally with love and wisdom, or that it simply 'had to be' by divine ordinance; then could this person by his own free choice actually change the plan? Could he decide to not go through with it, which would then mean that God's greater plan and intentional love-wisdom would get foiled!!? The man would decide at the last second to not blow it all up, which would then foil God's plans (as made from higher love and wisdom and with higher purpose). See, here is the point. If you really believe that the killing was part of some divine plan, or that it had a divine purpose, or that it was willed by God out of some [incomprehensible] love and wisdom, or was by the Hand of God the Wise and Compassionate; then two questions arise. One, is it better, from a divine love and wisdom point of view, that the bomb should go off and of people die? (Since when it happens, there is so much to do about how this must have been God's Will or Love's Will). And if it is better for the world that the bomb go off, then is it possible for the person to change his mind about it? Does the person actually have free choice in all this?
For the man of faith says 'the event had to have happened' and it was 'really good' and purposeful (from a divine perspective)… even though it seemed to be awful and unnecessary and without any good purpose (and even though the man of faith has no clue at all how or why it is good or divinely purposeful). But then, what if the bomber decided not to bomb? First of all, can the man actually decide against what God willed? If he decides to not bomb, then all that divine goodness and wise compassion [involved in the bombing] suddenly is lost. The Divine Plan and the purpose of this bomb is now foiled. People are saved from a horrible death, but now what about the divine importance of the bombing. It is now lost. So first of all, can the man actually go against God? Second, if this bomb never goes off, because the man suddenly decides to not do it, then is this now the Will of God? In other words, is it like this. If the man blows himself up, then this is the Will of God, and if he does not, then this is the Will of God. Sounds like the Will of God, and the love-wisdom assumed to go with it, changes as man changes his mind?
So the basic belief that God is deciding and causing all world events, while also of course applying generous compassion and purposeful wisdom to each decision, is very evidently incompatible with beliefs in human freedom. The two beliefs just don't make any sense at all, when side by side. If we start to use real examples, then this incompatibility and incoherence becomes even more so evident and obvious. People can hold such incompatible beliefs only because they subconsciously avoid putting them side by side in conscious thought.
There is also the incompatibility in believing this all-causing God to be Compassionate and Wise, while also acknowledging the very evident cruelty, selfishness, and stupidity as seen in world affairs. This conflict of belief really can be very troublesome, but it is amazing how people can so glibly ignore it; of course the secret to this is to not think about it with any clarity and to keep affirming dogmatic pious clichés, and of course keep the faith.
Yet the incompatibility of beliefs is obvious. Here are the alternatives. Maybe God is not really Loving and Wise after all; maybe God is simply cruel or perhaps not too smart. Well, any religious person has to reject this. The next alternative is that world circumstances and events that happen are really never bad at all. Everything that ever occurs in manifestation is always good – that is, it always has a higher divine purpose or a spiritual reason, which is based on Love and Wisdom. In other words, everything happening in our world is Really caused by Love and Wisdom. There is divine compassion, love, wisdom, and divine purpose in all events. But if this is true, then all events must really be [God-caused] manifestations of compassion, love, wisdom, and divine purpose.
So then, the question is this: Are all manifestations/events really good? -- are they really God-expressions of compassionate, love, wisdom and divine purpose? Even though we all seem clueless about how this is so? Even though each of us has a natural feeling and moral sensitivity that many of these events and actions in the world are bad, not loving, and not wise, and have no evident higher purpose? Shall we neglect, ignore and suppress our most natural moral feelings that many things are actually bad, and also Unnecessary and without any good purpose? -- Suppressing our natural moral feelings for the sake of some religious dogma that does not even make any sense to our conscious powers of reason? Or perhaps, we can piously disregard all of the seeming conflict in reason and in feeling by invoking the cliché of divine paradox or divine mystery. It may all look like contradiction and incompatibility is at foot, but it is all part of a great divine mystery or a great paradox. We cannot expect to understand it all. So we should just have faith in the dogmas and verbal clichés.
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Now here is what is true.
There is free will. There is metaphysical freedom, which means that freedom is a quality (or principle) pervading throughout life. It is part of the creative universe.
Theologically speaking, using theological imagery, God is the One Creator. God is the One Creative Power and Imagination. God is the Central Sun of all creativity. Yet God diversifies into many suns, into many centres for creativity, into many beings with creative powers. Each of us potentially is one of these creative powers. Another way to understand it is that God delegates power and creativity to pieces within the Unity of Being. We are those pieces. Each piece has a potential creative capacity, as given by the Absolute Divine Power, God, a capacity to decide how things will be (though limited to a sphere of influence) and to make them be. In other words, the Creativity of God is spread out in diversity. It is spread out freely.
God guides and helps, but does not Rule over with authoritarian decree. God is not an authoritarian Ruler. God is not compelling every person to do this or that. And God is not making everything happen, or setting up the events of this world. God is not really responsible at all for most events of this world. Most things happen because of what people decide and do, and these decisions and actions are not always guided by love or by wisdom or by God. Creativity is actually spread out in the diversity of life. It is as though God, with true Compassion and Love, has given away His Power and Creativity to the members of life. God has given away his Authoritative Power and Manipulative Power, by spreading out power and creativity to all the members.
There is no compulsion in religion. In other words, in spiritual Truth there is no compulsion. There is freedom. This is a metaphysical and theological statement. At first glance, the statement might mean that religions should not compel or force others into it. In a second level of meaning, it is about the Way of true religion; that is, the Way cannot be enforced by compulsion. There has to be freedom in the person; the person has to find the Way under the conditions of freedom; no one is forced to enter into the Way. This shows that freedom is central in our spiritual existentialism. And finally, there is the metaphysical meaning of this statement – that there is no compulsion in the spiritual law. Compulsion is not how it all works. The truth is that no one is compelled by God to do this vs. that. God is not compelling or making everyone do what they do.
Yet there is an implication that we are always compelled by God, if one believes that everything in the world is under God's Command, or under God's Will, or determined by God (with Love and Wisdom of course). Because it would be impossible to determine every event in the world, without also determining every human action. There are those who say, in the face of a tragic event, that God must have set it up for some good reason. It must have been set up by God, and also must have a hidden Love and Wisdom in it. In other words, the assumption is that God must have brought this into manifestation, and since God is Loving and Wise, this manifestation must also be so. It does not look like this is loving and wise, it does not feel like this is loving and wise, and it does not make any sense whatsoever as being loving or wise; but one tries to hold faith that it is so. And the good reason for this event is explained as being a mystery, unknowable both to reason and to our lowly sensitivities.
An old model of God is as Ruler over His subjects, or He Who rules the world. Yet there are different kinds of rulers, or different ways to rule. An old model might believe that God rules absolutely and specifically over everything, in the sense of a Commander giving demanding orders and making sure that everyone does exactly what He says they should do. In the absolutist model of God, God tells each person or thing what to do, and they do it, by the Power of God. God Wills, and what God Wills is instantly done, since God is of course all-Powerful. This is part of the absolutist model of God the Ruler. The assumption, the premise, is that God is all-powerful; therefore everything is determined by God.
Yet in reality, in truth, God is not so exacting, specific and dictatorial as this. If we use the Ruler analogy, God is really a very liberal ruler, Who allows maximum freedom with a minimum of authoritative command. God does not authoritatively dictate and enforce exact commands on each person and in every instance; because freely allowed creativity, experiment, and trial and error are essential to the whole divine purpose of creation. Creativity is one of the essential purposes of creation or of life; which includes creative diversity and the creative integrative harmonization of such diversity.
But we do not have to imagine this creative process and evolution as being exactly directed by God the Ruler. We do not have to imagine or assume God to be micro-managing the whole creative process. Nor do we need to imagine or assume that God has planned it all out, before it actually happens. Planning out creativity? How boring! What a boring idea of God! Imagine planning out your whole life beforehand, and then just watching the planned movie script unfold. What a bore! Imagine micro-managing everything around you; also very boring, and perhaps neurotic as well.
Instead, imagine that God allows life maximum freedom in its activity and creativity, and that life's creativity is unplanned, unknown and unpredictable, except in limited degree. Now from a traditionalist image of God, this could seem quite radical (though even in traditions there has been debate about these issues). You mean that God does not hold absolute control over everything and does not dictate His Power on everything? What kind of absolute Power Ruler is this? Some people will insist that God must be all-powerfully dictatorial and manipulative, else God would seem wimpish. Maybe if God was not imaged so much as a Super-macho-Man, but instead as Mother-Woman, we would not have this problem. But then some may also argue that life could not possibly be unplanned, unknown and unpredictable, from God's view. They will argue that God must know it all, with no surprises. How can life surprise God? Well, life can surprise God, because life's creativity happens in a moment, and this exact moment is unknown until it happens.
At least see that this is possible; then let it be something to meditate on. Why not think of creation as an unplanned, creative surprise? Which does not have to be exactly directed or even known by God beforehand. This is the real truth. But don't believe it on faith; ponder on it, consider it, meditate on it, then perhaps it will be realized. Give up old faith, and begin a process of realization.
The truth is that creative freedom abounds in life and in the whole universe. The human being, especially, has creative imagination and creative freedom to do what has yet been done. May we continue to interest God with our creative thinking and artistry. The human being is free in thinking, imagination, and in creative doing, because we are the creative agents of God. Actually, every part of life is a creative agent of God, but let us consider the human being right now.
God intended to be creative. The world/universe is because of the Divine Creative Purpose. As God says in the Hadith traditions of Muhammad, "I was a hidden Treasure and I longed to be known, so I created the world to be known." The purpose of creation, the world/universe, is for the Primary Reality to be manifested and known. Yet this Primary Reality, which we call God or Allah or Brahman or the Tao, or Truth, or also other names, is so infinitely full of hidden potential and mystery, that It decided, so to speak, that It would unfold through time and an unplanned creative process, whereby freedom was given throughout creation, in order to allow individuals and also collectives to creatively experiment and try a variety of approaches, for the purposes of expanding intelligence, developing harmonious relations, and creating greater beauty, joy and love in the world.
Instead of God being the Absolutist Director, Ruler, Manipulator of the world, the human being (especially) is delegated creative power. Instead of God micro-managing the world with dictatorial precision, the human being has been given the power of creative imagination and activity, to do the more detailed and particular creative work. Yet this means that man is given creative power without having a prerequisite of vast wisdom and expansive love. So even though man is given the power of creativity within the Creation, man does not necessarily perform God's Will with the obedience of a perfect servant. So man is given creative power from God, but without any assurance at all that this power will be used lovingly and wisely. In fact, the chances are rather slim that the creative actions of man will be up to any standards of divine quality, since man is in slow evolutionary process of realizing love and wisdom.
Man/woman has to develop this wisdom and love. And along the way, many mistakes are made, many trials and errors, and many problems have resulted from this lack of love and wisdom. Creativity is unfolding through human beings, with freedom and without divine manipulation, but wisdom and love have to be learned along the way. Eventually, our creative power (our freedom) will unfold with wisdom and love, as we gradually realize wisdom and love. But along the way of gradual realization, we will make mistakes, make wrong-turns, hurt others, etc. The mistakes, the wrong turns, and the hurts are not necessary, not planned, not divinely commanded nor directed. They are simply inevitable to some degree as possible outcomes along the learning, evolutionary process.
Thus, the actions of man, and thus many events in the world, are very often not really Divine at all, in the sense of being caused by Love and Wisdom. Instead, many events are caused by man's ignorance, selfishness, and spiritual immaturity. And it would be very strange to suggest that God intentionally directs the ignorance, selfishness, and spiritual immaturity of man.
So, man has creative freedom, mixed with creative power. This is, of course, a general statement about man overall, since people have different degrees of freedom and power in their creativity.
The Purpose of human beings and other members of life having creative freedom and power, that is not micro-managed by God, is for existence to be uncertain and full of surprise. It is for dramatic interest and tension. What we need to do, in order to understand, is to imagine why God would allow creative freedom without exact governance, instead of simply dictating and exactly directing every instance. Perhaps this has something to do with Real Love. Additionally, the allowing of creative freedom among the members of life brings forth a process of individual development, or soul development throughout time. Also, this allowed freedom brings forth vast diversity, and also the challenging quest of how to harmonize such diversity.
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So, creative freedom is allowed and pervades our existential situation. Creative freedom is an essential part of Divine Purpose and of the metaphysical structure of this existence. Creative freedom is also an essential Quality of Divine Being.
But is there any Higher Guidance to go along with this creative freedom? Or is life and the universe a random creative process? Here is where we need to realize another aspect at work, which is Higher Guidance, or we can say it is the Divine Influence. Creativity is not just random or without any structure at all. As human beings, we are not simply left on our own to create a beautiful, loving, and purposeful world, by accidents of trial and error. We are given Guidance. There is a Higher, Divine Influence at work – at work in the creative process.
We are being guided and influenced towards Love, Wisdom, and Beauty. This is the Influence from God. For these are Purposes of God, the creative Aims of God – Love, Wisdom and Beauty. Beauty is a large idea – it includes also Harmony and Joy. These are essential Qualities of God, the Divine Qualities, which are intended to be existentially manifest, even though this requires time, development, and process. These are Qualities of the Divine Being, from Whom we have emerged and in Whom we are. Thus, these Qualities become as magnets, as we are naturally drawn to the greater Purpose and Aim. Thus, the Divine Influence is like a magnet, drawing us towards Love, Wisdom, and Beauty – the Greater Potentials of who we can be. In addition, we already have within us the Divine Seed. We are already inherently Divine, since truly we are the children, even the microcosms, of God our Creator-Being.
Thus, the Divine Influence works in these two ways – by the Divine Magnet and by the Divine Seed.
The Divine Magnet is a natural meta-physical force, at work through our mind and heart, that draws or attracts us to our Greater Being and to Greater Purpose. These two Attractors, Greater Being and Greater Purpose, are of course intimately related.
We are drawn to our Greater Being through heart, or through love, or through devotion. This only works if we are open to it and allowing it; otherwise, a person can create suppressive patterns to it. Yet it is the Greater Being, known as God, Allah, Brahman, or Mother, Who actually draws us closer – if we are sufficiently open and allowing. This draws us into greater Beingness, greater Love, and greater Wholeness. And this works through the medium of the heart. This spiritual law of divine attraction works similar to the law of gravity, by analogy. We naturally gravitate to greater Being. Using the analogy of magnetism, we are magnetically drawn to greater Beings, and ultimately to the Being of God, to not just learn from and be guided by such, but also to become as such. This is part of our spiritual purpose – to become a greater, more encompassing, and more complete Being. Esoterically, this is called ascension toward the One, yet there are many levels or degrees along the way.
The other Magnetic Attractor is Greater Purpose. This works through our mind, which is naturally attracted to higher logical purposes. The mind searches for purpose. It's kind of like the lost parent for our mind. The mind searches for purpose, because it needs purpose. Mind naturally asks, "what is the purpose of this?" or "what is my purpose?" or what is the purpose of life?" Mind wants to know purpose – the purpose and my purpose. So it happens that mind can be open and receptive to realizing higher, greater Purposes. These higher Purposes are, of course, known in Divine Mind. Divine Wisdom knows the higher Purposes. But we have to work a bit, thoughtfully, to realize Purpose.
So the mind naturally seeks Purpose, or Purposes, which it can find either through cultural norms or through spiritual intuition. The path of least resistance is to find purposes in cultural norms – meaning that one finds purposes already espoused in their culture or in their religion. The more difficult path is to find Purposes by one's own intuition and realization. A culture, or a religion, or a tradition can teach true spiritual purposes. This is of course possible, and it is the hope. But we cannot necessarily or simply just trust whatever culture, religion or tradition we happen to be in. This is not say that it would be wrong; but really nothing can be trusted without our own intuition and logic to evaluate it. So may we discover the True Purposes as told, but not fooled by the false purposes as told. Yet in order to be free of any possible false purposes as told by culture, religion, tradition; we will need to contact and accept our own intuition about what is True and what is True Purpose. At the same time, one is not just on their own in this Quest for Purpose. Because the Magnet of Purpose is also at work, which is naturally drawing us to True Purpose. In other words, Purpose itself is attracting us to it. The greater Divine Purpose (or Purposes) is magnetically (in a meta-physical way) attracting mind to It; such that we come into its service, or we gradually come to fulfill it.
It is natural for mind to seek a higher purpose, or at least an important purpose, so that life can be understood as meaningful. The higher purpose gives us an aim to achieve. The most usual mode of mind is practical. Mind is mostly practical. But any practical plan or action requires an aim, a goal, a vision, or a purpose. That is, before a practical plan and action can be made, there has to first be an aim, a goal, a vision, or a purpose. The practical mind needs to know the aim or the purpose, to which it can be practical. If one has not a clue as to what the aim is, or what the purpose of the action is, then one is also clueless as to how best to act.
So first, mind needs to know the aim or purpose. For example, if the purpose of life is to maximize sensuous enjoyment, then the practical mind can make plans and strategies to accomplish this. If the purpose of life, or the aim of life, is to maximize social praise, then the practical mind can make plans and strategies to accomplish this. If the purpose or aim is to understand life as best as possible and also to serve life, then practical mind can make plans and strategies to accomplish this. Of course, there could be many great purposes in life, not just one or a just a few. But the point is that mind needs and seeks higher purposes, or meaningfully important purposes, or aims. We even commonly speak about having meaning and purpose in life. So purpose is ultimately important to mind. In fact, a known purpose, or aim, is what motivates us. It motivates our practical mind and our energies for action and work.
Purpose is a motivator of action and change. But it is a very unique kind of motivator, because it is like a Goal that attracts us to it. Purpose motivates our energies, like a magnetic pulling. Purpose seems to draw us to it.
The other way of Divine Influence, as stated already above, is the Divine Seed. The Divine Seed is within us, and it has to do with our original being. This Divine Seed is who we really are in our innermost essence. Also, like any seed, this Seed in ourself carries the codes for developing certain capacities and qualities of being. We each have a potential to become a spiritual being with spiritual qualities, and this is because of the spiritual Seed inside us, in our essence.
So what is within our Divine Seed? All the goodness we can be, all the love we can be, all the wisdom we can be. And all the creative power we can be. These are all powers in our Divine Seed, our essence-potential. Also in here is our spiritual purpose. We already have spiritual purpose, or purposes. We are born with them. But we need to realize them. We all have spiritual powers, qualities and purposes; but what use is this if we do not realize what we have or what we are?
What is wonderful about having the Divine already within us is that we can find the treasures right here in us. The human tendency seems to be to search outward for treasures such as wisdom, love, and purpose. So we search religions, teachers, or outer systems of belief. We search outward, but then neglect to search inward. Of course though, great teachings and great teachers are out there. Great workshops, great audios, great videos, great retreats, great holy books, etc and etc. and much to learn from out-there. But are we neglecting our inward treasure, our inward teachings, our inward divinity, the divinity of our inner self? Are we neglecting what is already in us, yet seldom noticed? Such as the wisdom, the love, the goodwill, and the understanding that is already in us. Moreover, this inward direction of search will lead us to new and surprising insights of wisdom and love, and about our own potential powers. And this comes directly from our own being, not from anyone else or anywhere else.
Perhaps we might go on retreats whereby we meditate on what is already in us. Thus, being on a retreat, going nowhere else but right here, going right into oneself. And with no need to study holy books, or say prayers, or listen to audio discourses by great teachers, or do anything other than meditate in oneself and receptively be open to the Divine within. This would be the Great Retreat, the Real Retreat. A retreat from a subtle, unnoticed habit of searching outward for spiritual treasures, searching outward for holy wisdom and guidance, and searching outward for a connection with Love. But the treasures, the holy wisdom and divine love are all within us. No doubt they are also outward. No doubt that wisdom, guidance and love can be found in the spiritual teachers of our time, and in the holy books of the past. But why are we so often looking outward, rather than inward? Are we so spiritually insecure that we cannot have faith in our own spiritual essence? The Divine, the Spiritual is already here in us. This is our true nature.
The treasures of holy wisdom and love are already in us. Spiritual guidance is already in us. The spiritual qualities are already in us. Great spiritual will is already in us. What else do we need? We can find all this outward, outside of ourselves. And hopefully we will. Also important to find outward is friendship, companionship, connection, love, dialogue exploring the truth, and cooperation towards common goals. Yet, there is something out of balance if one is predominately, if not always, looking outward for spiritual wisdom, guidance and teaching. Because we ought to be able to find this within us.
So the big question is how to find this within. We know how to read books, and attend talks, and make certain prayers or rituals. But do we know how to find spiritual wisdom, power, goodness and love in our own being? Do we know how to find these treasures within us? For it is one thing to realize that spiritual wisdom is within; it is another thing to actually realize the spiritual wisdom. It is here in us, but how do we access it?
The first suggestion is to have faith in oneself. Faith is usually talked about as Faith in God or as faith in a religious text or narrative. But here we have faith in our own self. Though this is really a faith in God, or faith in Spiritual Qualities, as being in our own self. So it is not merely a faith in oneself. It is faith that God is already here in us. It is faith that we are already Divine. Now this is quite a radical faith. It is radical faith in ourself, and also a radical faith in God. After all, it is quite amazing to believe that God is everywhere, including right here in oneself. It is quite amazing to believe that God would be right here, right now, and right in us. We are so very often searching for God outside of us; as for example, in a religion, or in a spiritual teaching, or in a particular guru. So we tend to look for spiritual truth elsewhere from our own being. It seems we are afraid to actually seriously embrace an understanding that God and spiritual truth is right here in us. Now it could be that other teachers and teachings have said just this, so perhaps this is nothing new. But what is new is if you actually take this seriously – and realize that God is right here in you.
Remember that you are looking for a great treasure, which we said was within you. But it is not simply you; it is God within you. The treasure is God, the Universal Being, and all of its magnificent Qualities; while the abode is within you. In a sense, you are the treasure, because the Divine is in and through you. But don't confuse the Treasure with your superficial thinking and automatic reactions. Because the Treasure is very profound; The treasure is God within.
The second suggestion is to turn inside to meditate within. Turn from outside attention to inside attention. Turn within to find God, the Divine. Our usual attention is outward, and we very often look outward for satisfaction. Our desires and aims are predominately outward. So to turn attention inward requires some intentional effort, since it is not our usual pattern.
Yet the turning inward is not enough. There has to be some degree of looking deeper into oneself, deeper than just a surface look. One has to go deeper into oneself, to the very depths of oneself, to find the deepest truths and deepest qualities of oneself. This requires some degree of desire, intention and aim to find the deeper truths of oneself, and find God within. So the attention turns inward to look within, which is a kind of search, a search for deeper truth and for God, but we don't want this to be merely superficial. We are searching for the Profound. We are searching for what is Divine in us.
Searching is an active mode. It is like the great odyssey, the great adventure to discover great mysteries. So we embark on this journey, this search within us. And the outward journey becomes just a metaphor for the inward journey.
Then, once we have turned inward and once we know the Divine is hidden somewhere within, the next step is receptivity. We know the Divine Treasure is in us, but we haven't yet found it, at least not fully. So we are still in the search. But searching alone is not enough. Searching is a looking, but it is not necessarily a finding. The missing ingredient is receptivity. One has to be receptively open. In addition, one has to also be in a mode of allowing.
So we embark on this journey, but we still need to be openly receptive and allowing, so that the mysteries will be revealed. Thus, the search is an active mode, but also needed is a receptive and allowing mode, which is feels quite different – because it is receptive and allowing. Then in this mode, God the Divine can speak to us and reveal to us.
Understand that God seeks to be known. So God is always trying to emerge in us. God is always deep inside us, ready to come forth and be known, waiting to be known, waiting for us to allow this emergence. So understand that God is waiting within us and ready to emerge, yet must wait until we allow it. We need to open up the channel, as it were, or the passage. For the Divine is most usually blocked by the 'dweller on the threshold', who is none other than our own ego-pattern of preoccupied mental habit. Also, … know that the innermost truth in ourself, the real in ourself, is trying to emerge and be known.
Thus, these two modes are important – active search and receptive allowing. We will need both, but some kind of personal balance will need to be achieved. It is effective to work at one for a while, then the other, then finally come into a balance with these two modes. This is the fast track.
The active search involves our intention and desire. Intention focuses the attention or mind on the goal, and creates a perseverance to not allow superficial and compulsive thoughts to dominate. Intention creates a continuing, sustainable effort of focus and direction towards the aim. Having the aim is also part of this active mode – an aim to discover our innermost truth, or to discover the Divine in us, rather than just allow the superficial and the habitual to dominate in mind, or allow our mind to be easily distracted by either outer or inner stuff. Also important is desire, because we need to truly want something, want to know something, in order to have emotional power for the search. The emotional power of desire is needed for this search, because it will offset the many other desires we already have for the superficial, and it will also keep us from distractions. In conclusion, intention and desire help us focus and persevere towards the Goal, while also helping to counteract our present mental and emotional tendencies towards the superficial.
Receptive allowing is important for a few reasons. One is that our usual tendency is to allow everything but the Divine. We allow others to enter into our mind and emotions, and we allow all sorts of thoughts and emotions to dominate. So let us allow the Divine to emerge instead. The divine, the spiritual, God, within us is ever-intending and desiring to emerge into our conscious understanding. God wishes to be known. This is a key to God's Will, and it is worthy of tremendous pondering.
Yet, our usual tendency of ego-based mind is to suppress any potentially new psychic packages that may be emerging from the spiritual depths of ourself. So, a conscious and intentional allowing will derail that pattern of suppression. The ego based mind, which tends to be a dominating and self-preserving force, will attempt to suppress/repress any new emerging ideas or guidances, in case they might disrupt or conflict with the ego structure. We can also see this tendency in social and political entities.
Suppression is a strategy of the ego personality, or it might be called a mechanism of the ego, which it does out of fear and uncertainty concerning what could be revealed from within. Remember that one major function of the ego is self-sustainability, or self-preservation. So, what might be revealed from within has a possibility of disrupting or even transforming the usual ego patterns of preservation, which is a troublesome possibility from the ego's perspective. Thus, the ego has built into place an intricate mechanism for suppressing newly emerging thoughts and feelings, in the fear that they could lead to disruption, discontinuity, or even perhaps a revolution in oneself. We can see this very pattern at work, as well, in society and in political power.
Thus, we need to counteract the usual tendencies of the ego, which have become quite subconscious, by receptively allowing our inner mind and inner heart to freely emerge. Allow the inner self to speak. Allow truth to be revealed, which is to allow the heart to speak sincerely. Unchain the freedom. Break down the barriers. Free your own real self, and don't barricade anything. Allow what is already within you to be free and to speak and to be known and understood. Allow this innerness to come forth in freedom, and listen to this. Understand this. This is the attitude we need in our self – an attitude of openness and freedom – whereby we allow all of our innerness to be heard and understood.
Now of course, in this openness there will be various emergences of superficiality and even perhaps confused thoughts. We cannot expect everything within us to be perfectly wise or useful. But at least now we are allowing the creative and divine essence of oneself to emerge, rather than be suppressed. We will still need to have a mental and heart dialogue regarding what is most wise and useful. Receptive allowing is not a final remedy for every issue in life; but it is a necessary beginning.
So the next suggestion is to make some time to listen – listening to what is emerging from the Truth within. Be allowing and receptively open to wisdom guidance from within. Allow the Divine to speak, then listen to what God is revealing. Yet this requires being discerning between what is superficial habit or chatter of the mind from what is truly coming from the depth of inner being. Which gives an important key – one needs to enter deeper into oneself, beyond the superficial and beyond the chatter, into the depth of true being, into the depth of real sincere listening.
Openness and listening are very similar. They go hand in hand. Listen with a faith that the Divine is already present in you. The Divine is already speaking; we just need to listen. The Divine mostly speaks softly, not loudly.
The Divine is gently suggestive and also allowing; rather than barking out orders and demanding our obedience. So, in order for the Divine to get its gentle and suggestive message through to us, we need to open up to it and listen. The Divine has the power to shout, but its gentle and allowing nature does not act this way. So we cannot expect the Divine to shout out messages to us, nor expect the Divine to force us to do what is good, right, loving and wise. The Divine is present in us with love-wisdom, but it isn't going to come to us in a shout nor a shove. Therefore, we need to make the initiative and effort to listen – to a soft, gentle, and non-demanding voice. We need to really listen, in order to hear it, which is why a quieted mind or quiet meditation is a key, so the Divine can at least be heard. Taking heed of its wisdom and suggestions is even more difficult.
So, to have a clear Divine Connection is not so easily actualized. Openness, allowing, receptivity, and listening are all needed. And the listening is subtle.
Also, the Divine speaks in a subtle way. At times, the Divine might seem to speak from within us. But the Divine might already be speaking, in which case it is not really speaking from within, but rather is right here. Thus, listen to what is present. One can get caught up in a mode of trying to listen to the Divine speaking from within. Sometimes this is the way, but another mode of listening is to simply hear what is already going on.
The Divine speaks, but there is a great obstacle in the our hearing. This obstacle is created and controlled by oneself. The obstacle is something to do with myself. In other words, something to do with myself is the cause of not connecting with and hearing the Divine. What is this obstacle? It is a combination of resistance, disinterest, preoccupation and distraction.
It would seem, from what has been said about the Divine speaking lovingly and wisely to us from within, that there is an open door between the Divine and our self. But the problem is that there is usually a closed door. And what is the cause of this closed door? Our own self, or something we are doing. The obstacle is this closed door, which we are somehow responsible for, not the Divine. And so we need to take some initiative to open the door, or at least stop tightly closing it up. At least loosen it up. But even better, open it up.
This is connected with spiritual initiation. A usual thinking is that spiritual initiation is simply about a connection being made between person and Divine, by whatever traditional ritual or Teaching may be involved. It is usually thought that initiation is just about opening the door, or perhaps even as simple as walking through the door, or perhaps simply reciting some kind of verbal formula. But real initiation is not quite so easy, because it requires breaking down the closed door. In other words, often we need to break down or break through the resistances, the closed doors, which we as personal-ego have created.
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Surrender of oneself is an important aspect of the opening door to God. Surrender, then be awake to what remains. Remember that God is here, but we are simply not awake to this. What holds us back in this realization is the closed door, created by some combination of resistance, disinterest, preoccupation and/or distraction. These are difficult to notice because they have become subconscious, but all we can do is to be more conscious of these patterns. If the door were really open, then God would spontaneously appear and the Divine would naturally unfold through us. It would be nice if the Divine would simply work through us and through everyone, but this is not how human existence is. We have to deal with the reality as it is, which is that a door stands between God and ourself, and we are responsible for the door being closed. But what is enlightening about this is to realize that we just have to open the door, or perhaps we need to break through the barriers and locks created by our ego. How to do this is a very practical question. Surrender is essential, the willingness to surrender ourself, so that God can be here in clarity. Now of course this means surrender of the petty stuff of our self, petty desires and petty reactions, petty obsessions and petty fears. But it is much more than just this; it is surrender of I, this self, as a separate being from God.
Surrender can be a confusing idea. It can mean giving up, but what do we give up? Surrender does not mean surrender of our will, or giving up our will, in the sense of not having anymore will. We need will. We need our individual power of will in order to get things done. Great masters have said that we need our will in order to serve God, or in order to serve life. We are not being of service to God or to life, if we have no will or if we lose our will. So we need will. The real meaning of surrender, in terms of will, is to change the orientation of our will. That is, change the orientation from self-serving to God-serving or to life-serving. One might also have a prayer or aspiration that our personal self-will be used by God's Will or by the Divine Will. This is the intended meaning behind the statement, 'I surrender my will to Thine', or 'I give my will to God.' One is giving one's will to God, in the sense of giving oneself as an instrument for God's Work. To summarize the importance here, the real meaning of surrender is a giving up of compulsive self-interest, self-preoccupation, and desires for predominately oneself.
Yet a further meaning of surrender is to give up our resistance to what is emerging from the Divine. Essentially, we must surrender our resistance – to listening and of taking into heart what the Divine is seeking to reveal. Essentially, we must surrender the barriers between us and the Divine, and to unlock the door into Divine Knowing. For God is already here. Yet we do not realize God because of the door being shut, even though we shut the door. Surrender is an essential act for unlocking the door and opening it up.
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Next, we need contact. Surrender is the letting go of our barricade or letting go of the closed door to God. So after this is a step forward of active contact. First, unlock the door; surrender the lock. Next, open the door and make contact. Open the door and see who is there. Make contact. Another word for this is connection. We need to make a connection. And not just a superficial contact or connection, such as 'hi, how's it going', and then walking away. But rather, make a real and sincere connection.
There is no ultimate advice to give about this, nor can anyone say what will happen. Each contact and relation with God will be uniquely different. All we can suggest is to open the door and make the connection. What happens next cannot be known until then. We have to go into this with no expectation or preconception. We must open the door, or perhaps break it down, then make an active contact, and then see what happens next. It's sort of like opening our door and meeting someone new. And then spending some time with this guest to get to know them, or perhaps hear what they have to say. Yet in this case, it is God, or the Divine, so this guest is really our Teacher and Guide.
Now it is one thing to make a brief contact; but it is another thing to develop a sustained contact, or lasting connection. By analogy, if our goal is to listen to a radio station, then we need a sustained connection. It might be a forward step to very briefly connect and hear the station for a few seconds, which is better than nothing. But ultimately this is not enough. So the goal is to develop a sustained contact and connection.
This requires of us a few developed qualities. One needed quality is concentration, or sustained attention. This doesn't mean an ability to stare at something for a long period. It is an ability to sustain attention and interest, without succumbing to distraction. In other words, we will need to hold our connection with higher divine Mind by having sustained attention and interest. One way to improve this is to first understand that God, or higher-divine Mind, is ready and waiting right here and now for us to open the door, make contact and listen. Knowing this, it is natural to have an interest in what that will be. If we realize this is the Divine Mind itself speaking to us, this should keep our attention sustained with interest.
The next important quality is aspiration. This can also be understood as higher desire. Aspiration means to have a great interest, hope, and desire for reaching something much greater than the ordinary. Usual desire is really just for the ordinary. Aspiration is for the extra-ordinary, or for the greater than ordinary. But here we are speaking about something even greater, which is spiritual aspiration – interest, hope, and desire for the spiritual beyond the little self. One is aspiring to have sustained contact, connection and communication with the Divine, with Higher Mind, or even right with God. This is not a little desire. It is a very big desire. And this higher desire, this aspiration, helps us make a connection with the Divine, and it will also help sustain it.
The third important quality for sustained contact is decision. We need to make a clear and firm decision to not only make contact, but also to really listen and pay heed. Decision is one of the great potential powers of a human being. But it is rarely applied. Decision requires desire, but it is greater than just desire, because decision requires a whole, synergistic agreement in oneself. It requires that we pull all of our self together, in honesty, then put forth our decision. Desires can happen almost at whim and they don't seem to require much all-round agreement in the totality of our self. I desire this, then that, and then this other thing, etc. Desire is most often like a scattered mind. But decision is not scattered. It is much more organized. In fact, it requires organizing, the organizing of oneself. It requires an agreement in oneself and also a synergistic cooperation and a coming together of the many forces of oneself to affirm Yes. I will. This is a very big step.
So in summary, some key qualities for making and sustaining Contact are:
concentrated attention, aspiration or higher desire, and decision. Another quality to mention would be faith, or trust. For this opens up the channel of connection. Skepticism or doubt, as well as fear or worry, will block the connection. How to arrive at trust or faith is a difficult question, which is discussed in a different discourse but a few remarks will be made here. First, this is a beautiful quality to have. However, it is not something that one can simply create. Religions tend to give an impression that we are responsible to have faith; as if it is something that one chooses. Yet any faith that is simply a choice is probably superficial. Instead, real faith and trust is developed from real feelings of divine love or divine presence, and also from real spiritual experience. This makes faith authentic and real, rather than merely a choice made in order to save oneself or to belong to a group. It may be that developing faith involves some degree of choice, but it must also be based on real experience, feeling, or intuition of what is True. Really believing something is true, based on real experience, is very powerful.
This brings in the importance of being real and true. If we are to make a real and true contact with God, or with any level of the Divine Hierarchy, it has to be real and true. The same goes with any real and true communication. We gota be real in our communication with God, or the Divine. It can't be a fake this or a fake that. The connection's gota be real. It's gota be true. Otherwise, we are simply fooling ourselves. The conversation has to be true. It has to be real. Anything less is a waste of time. So what is it to be real. First, it means to reveal our own realness, and be true. Don't be misleading or hiding stuff or superficially fake; instead be intimate, honest, revealing, and not holding back. Be completely open and true with God; while in the knowing that God loves us. If we can get to this kind of deeply real contact and communication, then God will be able to help us in a real way. If we are real, then God will be real.
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Higher contact (contact with higher spiritual levels), or Inner contact (contact with our own true essence, or soul), brings a new degree of enlightenment or spiritual awakening. It brings us to a new degree of love and understanding. This is an understanding about spiritual truth, purpose, and our own true self.
Contact also brings us closer to the essence of Love. We tend to experience greater Love. We also tend to have greater love for the contact – whatever that contact may be – maybe it is contact with God, or with our Teacher, or with our Angel, or with our own deep soul.
In addition, once contact is made, there is a feeling of responsibility – a responsibility to do something and to be of service. We can be of service both outwardly and inwardly. Outward service is exoteric, and inward service is esoteric.
Outward service is using our physical actions and words to bring forth love, wisdom, goodness, justice and beauty, and make good changes in the world. We do not passively wait upon the Hand of God to create goodness, justice and beauty. We ARE the hands of God! Now to some people this might sound arrogant; but in fact, this truth is all about responsibility.
To complement outward service, inward service is using our mind and heart to bring forth love, wisdom, goodness, justice and beauty, and make good changes in the world. Our minds and hearts are powerful, even though not so immediately as our physical actions and words. But our mind and heart have a powerful inner effect in the world – a hidden, esoteric effect. Our love has a real vibrational effect in the world, which is transformative and change making. We greatly underestimate the power of our emotions within the world, especially underestimating the power of real sincere love. We also underestimate the power of our inner intentions.
Our mind also has great power and effect in the world. The power of mind is great, especially when focused with intention. All minds are connected. All minds are in a larger Mind of Humanity, so we can intentionally work in this. And all minds are ultimately in the Universal Mind. Thus, understanding this, there is much that could be said about what possibly to do; but this can be left for each person to realize on their own.
Inward, esoteric service involves using our mind. This idea is new to many people. To much extent the monotheistic religions have suggested to us that life and circumstances are created by the Mind of God. Similar to the notion that it is all by the Hand of God, is the notion that it is all by the Mind of God. God thinks things into existence. Now, this is true – the Mind of God is the foundational creator. We ourselves did not create the whole world the way it is, let alone the universe. The Divine Mind is the original creator of Ideas and Forms. However, our own minds also participate in creation. God provides the general Ideas and Ideals, which then influence and inspire us. But then we participate in creation by making specific ideas and ideals from the general Ideas and Ideals. We make ideas out of the General. We make the General specific. We elaborate upon the General, build up from the General, and work on the details. God provides the Basic, General blueprint; then we creatively invent the details or how to more practically apply the General Ideals.
Thus, we are minds of God. We are thinkers for God. This gives us a great responsibility. For now, what are we going to create with our mind? And how can we apply our mind to helping the world become a better place – more loving, more intelligently wise, more cooperative, more just, and more beautiful in goodness? The answer is simple, yet multi-layered. Intentionally think good thoughts. Hold and transmit the best ideals. Yet how do we know what is good and best? We listen to our spiritual intuition, which is our link to the Divine Mind, the Great Creator. We listen and understand what is Generally good and best, and then we make these general and somewhat abstract Ideas into more specific and definite ideas.
Basically though, the big Idea to remember is that we have a creative power of mind, so that what we hold in our mind and 'think out' is influential in the mental sphere of humanity. Think out peace and cooperation, then this adds synergistically with others who hold similar ideas, which then creates a strong mental idea in the mental sphere of humanity. Esoterically speaking, we are all having an ongoing conversation in the mental sphere. Some will learn to work intentionally in this.
The final truth to impart is that this is inward connection with others, or this inward conversation, is not merely mental or idea oriented. It also involves the heart and the qualities of heart. The inward connection with everyone involves both mind and heart. These ought to go together. In discussing the spiritual structure of a human being, we often distinguish mind and heart. There is an important distinction but, at a deeper level of Truth, the mind and heart really work in unison. They cannot be so simply divided into distinct functions. It is true that one can think without any heart feeling. And one can have heart feelings without any specific thoughts or ideas included. But the higher level, or the higher ideal, is for heart and mind to be in unison. This is when ideas have corresponding heart qualities, and vice versa. In practical terms, when we intentionally communicate or create within the mental sphere of humanity we bring both mind and heart into it. Both mind and heart communicate and radiate out in unison; rather than separately. For example, one might see the Ideals of cooperation and caring, while simultaneously radiating out a deep love. In other words, the higher ideas and the spiritual feelings can be together in unison. It is best when both are present and conscious.
So now, it has been suggested here that we are the hands of God and also the minds of God. While at the same time, there is no suggestion that God is thus redundant or that all spirituality is reducible to just the human being. God, (or however one wishes to name the universal power that is transcendental to us), has a Hand in creation and even in the present affairs of life, but it is not so absolute as some religious teachings have said. An elaborated explanation of this is elsewhere in these discourses, but in short we call this the Divine Influence, which is both a general and subtle influence, and does not deny processes of natural evolution nor relative freedom in creation.
The Mind of God is also at work, along with the mind of man. Our minds have creative power and great influence in life – more so than usually realized. Yet our minds are influenced by the Divine Mind, since we are actually within the Divine Mind. It is possible to neglect or close off to this Greater Mind, but only for a time. There is a freedom we have to neglect or ignore the Mind of God, and it is possible to go in counter directions, but the Divine Influence cannot be completely suppressed. It will carry forth its subtle and general influence, and in time will dissolve any temporary set backs.
Thus, now we can consider this. We are the will of God. Potentially. There has been much to say by monotheism about the Will of God, and it is repeated here again that not all that happens is the Will of God. All that happens is by the power of God and by the allowing of God, but not by the Will of God. Some yes, some no. Any action in the universe requires the power of God. But this does not mean that God decides and molds each action. Rather, the power of God, though originating from a Singular Metaphysical Source, is spread out and distributed throughout everywhere. The Power is shared. It is delegated. Such that each part of the universe, or each in life, has some power of its own, but not an absolutely dominating power. No one thing or person is the absolute or whole God-Power Itself, but is just a part of the Divine Power or a piece of it.
And each has a freedom in this. Since freedom goes along with real power. (power is a freedom to make things happen) .
There is a Will of God... involving Intention and Purpose
Yet each of us are a will of God, potentially, if we have an alignment with the Greater Will of God. If we are actually aligned with the Divine Will, we can then understand that we are a will of God. We are then under the Will of God, but also expressions of God's Will. To think this is somewhat dangerous though. It might produce an egotism or else a fanaticism. However, this discourse would be insincere if it did not mention that being a will of God is possible. It is. It is possible and part of our potential to be powers of God. It is possible that we can see a need and produce a solution or healing by the very power of Divine Will.
Divine Will is both power and direction. So when we correctly talk about the Divine Will, or God's Will, it is implied that this has power, a power to accomplish. In addition, it is implied that this has direction or aim. The power has a direction or aim. We can also speak just about Divine Power; just speaking about the Power and nothing else. Or we might speak about a Divine Direction or Aim, which is to where or what is intended. Yet Divine Will includes both power and direction/aim. God has both. But the power is not absolutely manipulative or dictatorial, and the aim is not specifically fixed.
The Power is delegated and spread out through all the universe. Nonetheless, there is still Power emerging from the Source, which can be called the Divine Influence or Divine Inspiration. Yet, as for the Power spread out, each of us holds some of this Power, which we can use. We are speaking here very esoterically, and yet this is part of the history of mankind. The Divine has given us partial degree of the Divine Power, involving mind and will. We are free to use it. The lovers use this power for goodness and beauty. The immature use this for only themselves. While the weak and asleep make no use of the power. The Initiate and Spiritual Magician use the Divine Power for the benefit of humanity -- for goodness, healing and beauty.