What is God and did he really speak to mankind?

a reply to: TzarChasm

I love that cartoon!


Since God is the subject,
We are all just sparks in the fire of the creator.



Enjoy the ride!


I often wonder how many people read and read and read about "God" but never choose to experience.
Your existence is not by chance.

The odds of you being right here, right now, are one in infinity.

a reply to: artistpoet

It is a matter of belief. You can choose to believe or not believe, but there is an invitation there. You can choose to accept it or not. All the intelligence in the world wont find God, because he lives in heart. It is a personal knowledge that can only be gained through heart and His promise is to give us a heart to know Him, when we seek Him with all our heart.

The main stress of the promise lies, however, in this: “I will give them a heart to know ME”; that is, not merely to know that I am, and that I am Jehovah, but to have a personal knowledge of myself. I can scarcely express the idea which I wish to convey to you, but you all know the difference between knowing who a man is, what his character is, and all about him, and knowing the man himself. There are hundreds of people of whom we know a great deal; we are favoured by some prying gentleman or other with stories of how our great men dress, and what they say, what they eat, and when they eat it, and all sorts of minute details of their personal habits: still, despite all this information, we do not know these people, we would speak falsely if we said we did. To know them we must be on speaking terms with them, there must be a mutual recognition, there must be dealings of some kind between us.

Now, it is so in the far higher matter of which we now speak. It is not enough to know that our Creator is the Jehovah of the Bible, and that he is perfect in character, and glorious beyond thought; but to know God we must have perceived him, we must have spoken to him, we must have been made at peace with him, we must have lifted up our heart to him, and received communications from him. If you know the Lord your secret is with him, and his secret is with you; he has revealed himself to you as he does not to the world. He must have made himself known to you by the mysterious influences of his Spirit, and because of this you know him. I cannot explain this knowledge, but it is delightful to remember that many of you understand what it means by experience.

answersingenesis.org...

a reply to: Kitana

It is a matter of belief. You can choose to believe or not believe, but there is an invitation there. You can choose to accept it or not. All the intelligence in the world wont find God, because he lives in heart. It is a personal knowledge that can only be gained through heart and His promise is to give us a heart to know Him, when we seek Him with all our heart.

You speak of the heart ... what do you mean by that
The heart is an organ for pumping blood around the body

Our awareness of existing does not come from the heart
It is an organ as I have described

I understand using the word heart in a poetic way conjures something different
Like our feelings ... but feelings. emotions, thoughts ideas do not start in the heart
It was ancient belief that the heart was the seat of the soul and the actual physical heart was that seat

However if you are using the word "Heart" as a way to God you need to explain what you mean by it
if you wish to guide others

DO YOU KNOW WHO GOD IS?
Do you know who 'god' is? God is not Visnu (a deity) or Siva (energy) or Brahma (creator), not the wind, the sun nor the moon; not I or you; not Laksmi, or the mind (intellect).

God is without form and undivided (not in the objects); that splendor (devanam) which is not made and which has neither beginning nor end is known as god (deva) which is pure consciousness (awareness).

That alone is fit to be worshipped; that alone is all.

If one is unable to worship this consciousness, then he is encouraged to worship the form. The latter yields finite results, but the former (consciousness) bestows infinite bliss. He who ignores the infinite and is devoted to the finite abandons a pleasure garden, and seeks the thorny bush.

However, sages sometimes worship a form playfully.

Now for the articles used in worship: wisdom, self-control and the perception of the Self in all beings are the foremost among those articles. The Self alone is consciousness, which is fit to be worshipped at all times with the flowers of wisdom.

Indeed only infinite consciousness (cid-akasa) which alone exists even after the cosmic dissolution, exists even now, utterly devoid of objectivity. All these mountains, the whole world, the firmament, the Self, the jiva (individual) and all the elements of which the world is constituted - all these are nothing but pure consciousness.

Before the so-called creation, when only this pure consciousness existed, where were all these (heaven, etc)?

Space (akasa), supreme or infinite space (paramakasam), absolute space (brahmakasam), creation, consciousness - are mere words and they indicate the same truth, even as synonyms do.

Even as the duality experienced in a dream is illusory, the duality implied in the creation of the world is illusory. Even as the dream objects seem to exist and function in the inner world of consciousness in a dream, objects seem to exist and function in the outer world of consciousness during the wakeful state.

Nothing really happens in both these states. Even as consciousness alone is the reality in the dream state, consciousness alone is the substance in the wakeful state too.

That is the Lord, this is the supreme truth, that you are, that am I, that is all.

The worship of that Lord (consciousness) is true worship, and by that worship one attains everything. Consciousness is undivided and indivisible, non-dual and neither fashioned nor created by activity; it is not attained by external efforts. Its adoration is the fountain source of joy.

The external worship of a form (deity, holy personage) is prescribed for those whose intelligence has not be awakened, and who are immature like little boys. When one does not have self-control, he uses flowers in worship; such worship is futile, even as adoring the Self in an external form is futile. However these immature devotees derive satisfaction by worshipping an object created by themselves, they may even earn worthless reward from such worship.

I shall now describe to you the mode of worship appropriate to enlightened people. The Lord fit to be worshipped is the one who upholds the entire creation, who is beyond thoughts and description, who is beyond the concepts of even the 'all' and the 'collective totality.'

He alone is referred to as 'God' who is undivided and indivisible by space and time, who's light illumines all the objects, who is pure and absolute consciousness. He is that intelligence which is beyond all its parts, which is hidden in all that is, which is the being in all that is and which robs all that is of their being (i.e. which veils the truth of their Self). This God is in the middle of being and non-being (as awareness). It is God, and the truth that is indicated by 'Om'. It (awareness) exists everywhere, like the essence in a plant.

The pure consciousness which is in you, in me and in all the gods and goddesses alone is God. Holy one, eve the other gods endowed with form are indeed nothing but that pure consciousness. That is God, that is 'all' I am; everything is attained from and through him.

That God is not distant from anyone, nor is he difficult to attain: since he is forever seated in the body and he is everywhere like space.

Somewhere this consciousness functions as space, somewhere as jiva (individual), somewhere as action, somewhere as substance and so forth; but without intending to do so. Even as all the different oceans are but one indivisible mass of water, this consciousness, though described ain different ways, is but one cosmic mass of consciousness.

This consciousness is like a mirror which holds a reflection within itself, as it were, without undergoing any modification thereby. Without undergoing any modification in itself, this consciousness appears as all these countless beings in this universe.

In this body, thoughts and notions generate action in the light of this very consciousness. Surely, but for this consciousness even an object which is immediately in front of oneself cannot be experienced? The body cannot function or exist but for this consciousness. It grows, it falls, it eats. This consciousness creates and maintains all the movable and immovable beings in the universe. The infinite consciousness alone exists, nothing else exists. Consciousness alone has arisen in consciousness.

Consciousness does not undergo any modification nor does it become impure. The infinite consciousness which is unmodified and non-dual, can be realized by one in the self-luminous inner light (of awareness). It is pure and eternal, it is ever present and (being awareness) devoid of mind.

Consciousness alone is the reality in all forms (of existence) and all experiences. Action springs from thought, thought is the function of the mind, mind is conditioned consciousness, but consciousness is unconditioned!

Since the omnipresent infinite consciousness alone is present at all times, diversity is absurd and impossible. Belief in the existence of a goblin creates it. Belief in diversity establishes it. When the non-dual being is known, duality vanishes instantly.

That infinite consciousness alone is fit to be adored and worshipped. However, there is no use in inviting it for the worship; no mantra are of any use in its worship for it is immediate (closest, one's own self), and hence does not need to be invited. It is the omnipresent self of all.

The 'realization' of this infinite consciousness (which is totally effortless) is alone the best form of worship.

This infinite consciousness can be compared to the ultimate sub-atomic particle which yet hides within its heart the greatest of all mountains. It encompasses the span of countless epochs, but does not let go of a moment of time. It does nothing, yet it has fashioned the universe. Sustaining the entire universe, it does nothing at all. All substances are not different from it, yet it is not a substance; thought it is non-substantial, it pervades all substances.

The supreme being is formless, and yet the following five are its aspects: will, space, time, order (or destiny) and the cosmic unmanifest nature. It has countless powers or energies or potencies. Chief among them are knowledge, dynamics, action and non-action. All these are but pure consciousness; because they are called the potencies of consciousness, they are apparently regarded as distinct from consciousness, though in fact they are not.

This entire creation is like a stage on which all these potencies o

a reply to: artistpoet

Heart, is meaning in a poetic way, something that is not the rational, logical thinking mind, but rather something of the soul, a soul deep searching. When you find it, the rational and logical comes into play and it all makes perfect sense. But if you don't include the deepest part of your soul in your search for God, you will never find Him. It takes all of you, not just part of you, to find what you are looking for, if you are indeed looking for God.

a reply to: JimNasium

Great post.
Very similar to a guide message I once got.

I shall go find it....

Spirit Guide Help Page 4

The spirit world is full of every kind of energy you can think of and things you cannot think of.
Energy and consciousness co-exist within each other as one being. T this being is what we call "God".
The great consciousness acts much like a diamond.
It is filled with light, and within that light resides everything that was, is, or possibly will be.
All things are possible in spirit. It is a hologram of consciousness.

It was the only time I ever asked about the creator to a guide, and that was part of the answer although it went deeper into "dark" and "light" spirit guides.

I dunno if that coincides with any religion, but that is what my own guide gave me.

a reply to: JimNasium

hey,

you have been cut off due to length. Would you please finish in a second post ? : )

I was very enjoying it and would love to read the rest.

What you have posted so far is the essence of all the religions and philosophical texts in my opinion.

But to add something to the topic the following is my opinion.

So if we take into account what it says in this post as true. Ergo the conclusion is that God is communicating with all of us and all the time!?

But ... How can that be? where are the signs ... right? Well we can make it simple or hard it depends only on us personally in most cases... But not all. And intuition is our connection with the Self.

Well if I spin it differently, God is communicating and learning about Himself all the time through endless cycles of life and death. Karma is about learning not justice!

No coincidences and learning is the main role of us as Its beings or creations. So father and son and holy spirit metaphor is mentioned in some form in all true religions and it makes sense from this prospective.

Also the Father (Brahma, first Aeon,..) is the first critter and is the male aspect and within him was created then the female aspect (Universe, Maya). And that brings duality and the dance of lovers as Him and Her almost immortal and eternal but not exactly like the Holy spirit or Tao. Each being and everything else is created due to their play of forms within and outside of us.

That is in my opinion the other part of evolution and the beginning of big bang ... in a way : )

a reply to: Darkblade71


Thank You that is nice of You to type.

I can route You the website as it is chockfull of wisdom.

a reply to: UniFinity

I'll attempt to do so. If You'd like I can also route to You the website in which I gleaned the info?..

namaste

a reply to: UniFinity

Here is the rest:


This entire creation is like a stage on which all these potencies of consciousness dance to the tune of time.

The foremost among these is known as 'order' (the natural order of things and sequences). It is also known as action, desire or will-to-do, time and so on. It is this potency that ordains that each thing should have a certain characteristic - from the blade of grass to the creator Brahma. This natural order is free from excitement but not purified of its limitation: that (natural order) is what dances a dance-drama known as the world-appearance.

It portrays various moods (compassion, anger and so on), it produces and removes various seasons and epochs, it is accompanied by the celestial music and the roaring of the oceans, its stage is illumined by the sun and the moon and the stars, its actors and actresses are the living beings in all the worlds - such is the dance of the natural order.

The Lord who is infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness of this cosmic dance. He is not different from the dancer (the cosmic natural order) and the dance (the happenings).


namaste

P.S. I'm awaiting the answers as to whether Y'all want Me to route You the website proper..

a reply to: JimNasium

thanks!

The finish was as god as the start.
pun intended : )

Yes, please post a link, there is never enough of good links, wisdom is limitless.

a reply to: JimNasium

I'd check it out if you posted it.

a reply to: Kitana

You stated this "Your intelligence wont bring you to know God."

I dispute this because...

"God" is Higher Intelligence ... The Creator of the Universe
Each has a spark of the essence of the Creator ... their own higher intelligence ... Their own link to reality

The Higher Intelligence I speak of is Love ... not Academic Intelligence

I guess we all have our own path to understanding and as such different ways of explaining things

The pursuit of science can lead one to God ... it can "Blow" one's mind so to speak
Gardening can lead one to know God
Anything that exists can lead one to God as it is all part of the Creation

Though I personally choose to not use the word God as it has too much dogma attached to it

a reply to: artistpoet

That is your opinion on the matter, and if you think you can find "god" through your own intelligence, as if your intelligence can find a god, then go for it.

It was not Jesus's opinion, nor how I came to the full knowledge of God. But you go your way - we all have a choice to make, and it is only ours to make in the face of the invitation.

Good luck.

a reply to: Kitana

It was not Jesus's opinion, nor how I came to the full knowledge of God.

How do you know what Jesus thought unless you knew him
You do not have full of knowledge of the Creator ... no one does ...

A Fiery, Burning Bush that, probably would burn worse than Gonorrhea, or any STI than you could think of if you touched it, that could speak, and if you looked at it, you would die a horrible, horrible death.

That right, just look and walk into the light...Gods waiting.

a reply to: Specimen

You see there were evil time travelers in those days and, the 'fiery' bush was actually Bush Sr/Jr. with a high powered machine gun threatening this Moses character with certain horrible death if he didn't write down exactly what he demanded, changing the future of history to astronomical heights.

a reply to: awareness10

Nah, it just it didn't liked to be f'd with, or repeating it self three times...Hence, a burning bush, that would lure mortal men to it death by sucking the life out of them if they looked at or didn't listen it. Sounds very feminine really.

originally posted by: Kitana

That is your opinion on the matter, and if you think you can find "god" through your own intelligence, as if your intelligence can find a god, then go for it.

Well, from what I've seen, that statement is most certainly true. It seems the less intelligent someone is the more they claim to know God and usually speak for him as well.

That is a good point " If God exists is debatable " ,because as it is said like that, is true, but you cannot debate you are alive. You could come up with some cockamamie ideas and try to think your way out but your existence, note your existence, your consciousness depends on another larger than you can fathom. If you wish call it God, so be it. I take it though more of bigger consciousness which can exert an influence apart from impacting all consciousnesses like yours but just yours, as most do. My definition, in your view, does not constitute God, because I do not question existence, I live it and dedicate it to the 'thing?' which gave it to me. a reply to: artistpoet