Experiencing God

[soma]

I love this topic because God ceases to be an object and becomes an actual experience. I have found in my experience that when I accept one God everywhere in everything,it frees my mind to experience God all the time. I feel we are where we are suppose to be at this moment and experiencing what is meant to be. Drugs, anger, problems and bliss all seem to come from God at the proper time. This theme relaxes my emotions so I can praise everything as good because it came from God. I think this kind of encounter Jesus revealed to be the key to reality, a connection to God or pure consciousness that has the ability to bring into physical being that which is spiritual and ultimately real. I don’t think the words were meant to be an end in themselves, but a vehicle to lead a person to encounter the all-pervading God that is beyond the grasp of the mind and all words. I feel Jesus had the ultimate experience with God consciousness and his consciousness was interchangeable with God’s. He is beyond the normal mundane world of time and space and is the living expression of pure consciousness where everyone can find fulfillment. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”

 

When I trust my experience and intuition to bring a positive spiritual experience into the mind, I approach my problems in a positive way and that alone eliminates them. They cease to be problems when an intuitive power is used as an inspiration and help to the world. Einstein said that no scientific law is discovered without intuition. When I reflect on unity I get acquainted with different spiritual aspirations and endeavors realizing that there are different upward paths in a variety of religions. I feel this is spiritual evolution where the knowledge comes from inside and then is built into the life outside in a life of love and unity. I love to experience the different spiritual dialects where the same experience is talked about using different words, symbols and disciplines. I can acknowledge and confirm anothers experience because I can feel it inside even if it is from different scriptures than the usual ones I read.

[BillM]

To Soma:

 

I love this topic because God ceases to be an object and becomes an actual experience. I have found in my experience that when I accept one God everywhere in everything, it frees my mind to experience God all the time.

 

I appreciate the way you put this, Soma. For far too long, religion has tried to look for “Satan” or enemies in everything. And we generally seem to find what we are looking for, don’t we? What different people we would be and what a different world this might be if we could look for the Divine in each other right from the start instead of sorting people into dualistic categories.

 

I feel Jesus had the ultimate experience with God consciousness and his consciousness was interchangeable with God’s. He is beyond the normal mundane world of time and space and is the living expression of pure consciousness where everyone can find fulfillment. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”

 

That’s an interesting way to look at it. For me, I don’t believe in a metaphysical or disembodied Jesus. I think the Jesus of the Bible is dead and gone. IMO, if he lives on, it is through his teachings that have and continue to influence his followers. I suppose you could call this a consciousness of sorts. But I don’t believe his ghost possesses people. But, for me, God is just as much in the “normal mundane world of time and space” as he is “elsewhere” (wherever that is, if there is an elsewhere). Many would disagree with me, but I don’t believe were we created for “heaven.” As much as I generally disdain the book of Revelation, it does end, not with disembodied souls in heaven, but with heaven coming to earth.

 

Einstein said that no scientific law is discovered without intuition. When I reflect on unity I get acquainted with different spiritual aspirations and endeavors realizing that there are different upward paths in a variety of religions. I feel this is spiritual evolution where the knowledge comes from inside and then is built into the life outside in a life of love and unity. I love to experience the different spiritual dialects where the same experience is talked about using different words, symbols and disciplines. I can acknowledge and confirm another’s experience because I can feel it inside even if it is from different scriptures than the usual ones I read.

 

I again appreciate the way you put this. One of the things that drove me away from Christianity was that it taught me that I couldn’t trust myself or my experiences. My trust was supposed to be in the Bible or in Paul’s experiences, but I wasn’t supposed to trust the Light within because I was, after all, a sinner (even after being “saved”). It couldn’t understand that even if I trusted the Bible or Paul, it was still *I*, my self, trusting myself to make that determination.

 

Now that I am beginning to learn to trust myself (and, oddly, to trust God more), I find that other’s experiences (as you have said, from different upward paths in a variety of religions) are meaningful to me. I don’t have to try to gauge whether or not they are “biblical” or “Pauline” or even “Christian.” God, as an experience, is bigger than that. He simply cannot be boxed or “booked” or "incarnated" once and for all.

 

This doesn’t mean that I uncritically accept anything anyone says as the truth. It just means that I look for the commonality of experience or, as you say, the oneness or unity, behind their words. Perhaps if we could stop idolizing and worshipping the words, we could discover the Divine experience behind them?

[NORM]

When I trust my experience and intuition to bring a positive spiritual experience into the mind, I approach my problems in a positive way and that alone eliminates them. They cease to be problems when an intuitive power is used as an inspiration and help to the world. Einstein said that no scientific law is discovered without intuition.

 

I agree with this approach. I find that intuition is a good starting point to solving problems and analyzing contradictions. Previously, I was taught to distrust intuition because, as sbnr1 points out, we were told that our intuition is corrupted by sin.

 

Rejecting the notion of original sin is a very freeing thing!

 

NORM

[soma]

Brian Holley' date='16 February 2011 - 10:27 AM' timestamp='1297870071' post='23430']

Interesting point,George. I think we have to be 'up for it'. This is a primary openness or maybe what Brian Swimme calls 'allurement' (The Universe is a Green Dragon). Campbell suggests that our brains are 'reducing machines' which pull in information from around us and make sense of it. Some brains are better at that than others. It's a matter of genetic inheretence, environmental conditioning, culture etc. So maybe some people are more psychologically inclined to be 'spiritual' than others - that's certainly a difference between me and my wife. Swami Saraswati says of compassion, it's like swimming. You can't learn it by lying on a table and waving your arms around. You have to get in the water and swim - you have to get into life and 'compassionate'.

 

I feel different personalities are attracted to different ways to the experience, but the experience is the same. The 4 yogas are a good expample. Yoga means union and there are different kinds of yogas to help one find that spiritual experience. Hatha Yoga is the one most people are familiar with. It is relaxing or preventive medicine. A person inclined to this type of relaxation can gain a spiritual experience from these techniques. Karma Yoga is more “action”. It is finding union through and in action. Long distance runners alter their consciousness and have a spiritual experience running. Marathoners are simply doing a kind of spiritual devotion. Bhakti Yoga is the yoga of “devotion” to God. A Bhakti yogi is trying to strengthen his/her relationship with God. Jnana Yoga is the yoga of knowledge. This is great for intellectuals they find union through the pursuit of knowledge. I feel we are all guided to and on our path. May we enjoy the journey.