GOD

Growing up with Christian beliefs, influenced by Mormons as a young child and then later by Baptists I, like most other Christians, while praying, would look up at the sky or in my mind, visualize some perfect mystical being floating in a mystical realm out on the edge of the universe. Now, I understand that to mystify and externalize God is to commit the same idolatry that is forbidden by the Ten Commandments and only serves to stunt spiritual growth. As a Buddhist I have come to realize that God is not some being that is separate from anything or anyone, but rather the intrinsic energy that permeates the universe the glue that binds reality everything and everyone, and sees through the eyes and feels through the touch of every sentient being. Yes God is perfect but this perfection is not perfection as perceived by the human egoistic persona that can only translate reality dualistically. Instead it could be described as an all- encompassing perfection, grounded in reality, not dependent on the minds idea of what perfection is. Perception or conceived Ideas are created when the dualistic mind or persona (which in and of itself is a collective of ideas) identifies with its own judgment of an object in opposition to itself. Because of this, ideas will always differ from one person to the next. Perception and persona therefore, are not reality. They are illusion. The true way to commune with God and experience our intrinsic perfection is to stop identifying with illusionary reality or individual perception and just let everything be what it is without identifying with the persona’s judgments about what is arising. Compare yourself to a tree. The tree has no need to identify with judgments about what is happening around it. The tree has no need to identify with judgments about itself. It has no persona that hates the tree next to it because it branches got too close and invaded its bubble. It has no desire to attain anything. It just is. When there is no judgment every leaf falls perfectly where it was meant to fall. Every branch sways in perfect motion when the wind blows. Without judgment your every action happens to perfection, every human is perfectly what it is. Every decision is perfectly what it is. Every song is sung to perfection. Every mistake is made to perfection. The brain will continue to conjure up the persona because that is what it does and it will do it to perfection. The conjured persona will continue to reinforce itself with more ideas about itself and it will do it to perfection. It will have dualistic opinions and form concepts about its perception of the world around it and it will do it to perfection. Without conceptual judgment Every moment is perfection. This is divine reality. So next time you want to look toward God, don't just look to the sky. Look at everything around you. Look at your friends, your family, your enemy. Look at those who comfort you and also those who torment you. Look at both Mother Teresa and Saddam Hussein, Look around yourself and within your self. Divinity permeates everything. Trying harder to commune with God is spirituality. But when you realize that intrinsically you are always in divine communion then there is no longer a need for spirituality. Like an ocean trying hard to be water, It has only to realize that by nature it was always a manifestation of water. Therefore the effort is moot. Allen watts put it perfectly when he said “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” Or T.S. Eliot when he said , “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”