Will You Be My Valentine?Some ideas that have been kicking around in my head. Please don't take them (or me!) too seriously. Just concepts I have been working with to explain some unresolved questions in my head.
Growing up, I always had a vision of God as a person, an entity. I think Emmet Fox sums up my view quite well when he describes a view of God as an Emperor - the Old Testament God - just waiting for us to step out of line so he can bring the hammer down. The New Testament God is a lot more user friendly but something that I could never reconcile was the concept of the Trilogy of God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How can three people be one person? How can a spirit be a person? How can a Father beyond Earth create a son on Earth? I wasn't able to achieve a conceptual framework that brought all of this together. I wasn't looking for an explanation of The Trilogy, it sort of found me. I think that I have written before about how the three Western incarnations of God fit the Eastern concept of Body (Jesus), Mind (Father), and Spirit (The Holy Spirit). To get the ball rolling a little bit... What is your definition of God? "What is God," not "Who is God." Why not "Who is God?" When I ask myself "Who is God", I find myself repeating things that others have drilled into my head - Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind who redeemed us for our sins by dying on the cross. It's not "me" that is saying that. It's somebody else. However, when someone asks me "What is God", I have to think a little because the question that I hear is, "What does God mean to you?" The beauty of that question is that you can ask it to anyone, Taoist, Buddhist, Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu and you have a universal basis for communication. Who is your God can lead naturally into a discussion of the merits of one God over another. I don't really think that's the point. So what is God? What does "God" mean to gordo? For me, God is love. In the religions that most appeal to me, there is a strong thread of love running through their core beliefs. The bible is full of references to love - Your Father loves you, Jesus so loved the world, love your brother... The Old Testament has a fair amount of fire and brimstone running through it, but if you consider the Ten Commandments, to me, they are a code of brotherly love. It was the concept of love that led me to my current understanding of the Holy Spirit. Assuming that God is love, then all of a sudden I have a definition for the Holy Spirit that works for me. The Holy Spirit is love. When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit they are filled with love. Love, compassion and understanding. For when we love ourselves, others and the world itself, we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit. I see many similarities between the Holy Spirit and the Eastern concept of enlightenment. Love is a universal language and knows no boundaries. Love transcends culture, national boundaries and class. Fits nicely with my perception of God. Fits nicely with most definitions of God. So this had me thinking further. If God is love, does it really matter what god you follow? On my journey for the truth, my quest for understanding and/or my way to heaven - does it really matter what path I follow? Does love care about my denomination? Would Jesus care if I believed in Saints, in the resurrection, in life after death, in the holy sacraments... would the Father care if I went to church on Sunday, said the rosary, did pilgrimages? Do any of these creations matter? Were these items created by love or by man? Leave that for a minute. Back to love. What are the implications of God being love? For me, the implications are that in order to follow God, to aspire to be my best, I need to work on loving all things. My body, mind, and spirit need to be united in a quest to fill themselves with love (i.e. the message of God). Well, I have reconciled the concept of the Trilogy, but my definition leaves me looking at a long struggle. I also know that I really don't measure up to the perfect ideal that I have created. There is so much work to be done. Maybe I will never get there? Is this an impossible task? What to do! The challenge of trying to measure up to my image of God has been driving my writing on self-acceptance (essentially self-love). Until we accept ourselves, we are totally screwed in trying to accept others. Without the hope created by loving ourselves, it's a daunting task to love everything outside of ourselves. Armed with self-belief, self-acceptance and self-love, we soon realise that the path of love (The Way) is the only true path - it is the only road that is consistent with the truth. A book I read recently talks about the different layers of love. Love of self, love of others (close to us), love of all man, love of all things. I'll tell you something, I really like this definition because it is mighty hard to measure up. It's like swimming, you can always improve your stroke! I can always become a better person. It is also a message of hope, with no rules and no expectations. We are free to focus on what really matters. Living a life full of loving compassion for all things. In a traditional Christian framework, all one really needs to do is follow the rules and you can feel safe - you are okay, you are not living in sin, you are living consistent with scriptures. Indeed, I was specifically taught that so long as I didn't break any rules, I was okay. Even if I blew it, I could go to confession and that would sort things out. Well, if my only standard is love, then it opens a whole range of possibilities. What it says (to me) is that not only do I need to live right by my fellow man, I need to think right as well. This is the concept of "right thought" that I referred to. For if we are filled with hate and envy for another - it is going against the essence of God. To be true to my God, I need to strive to love my brother as I love myself - in thought as well as action.
I've written before that I really had a tough time with patience before I moved to Asia. I noted that Asia taught me the value of patience. Still, in reading and studying the writings of various spiritual teachers, I catch myself growing impatient. Shit! I better start saving myself - right now!!! Man, oh man, there is so much work to do - I better start praying, meditating, whatever... It makes me smile. I am repeating the exact same pattern in my spiritual life as my physical life. Here is where I've found the value of a little self-acceptance. We all know that we are going to leave this world at some stage. There are a lot of differing views on where we are going to go - reincarnation, heaven, Valhalla, nirvana, dust... Does it really matter where we are going to go? Would you live your life differently if you knew for sure there was a heaven? Would you live your life differently if the Ten Commandments didn't exist? What about if you had never heard of Jesus? If one truly embraces the message of the great prophets, then the way one lives is pretty much the same. A good Muslim, a good Jew, a good Christian, a good Hindu, a good Buddhist - all live their lives consistent with the principle of love. Even if you have your doubts, turn that on its head. Is living a life full of loving kindness inconsistent with being a good Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist? Certainly not, I know people of all those faiths who are outstanding citizens. So what's the point? The point for me is that all of the teachings are essential, but none of them matter. All of the dogmas, rules, stories, parables, traditions and folklore are built on top of one universal truth - that God is love. Happy Valentine's Day gordo - 14 February 2001 |