Tosia H Zraikat

What is God?

God the Creator by William Blake

 

I often hear the phrase: God is love. One would expect that the idea of God - creator of all that is, infinite love, divine force within all of life and the world - would unite us, lead us to recognise our common humanity as children of God, our oneness with all being, and to be more loving.

Yet our ideas about God and our relationship with God have done just the opposite. From earliest times, our conceptions of God have divided us, been a source of endless strife, misunderstanding and judgement.

No wonder so many reject the idea of God altogether and have become virulently antagonistic to it. Yet atheists are often just as intolerant and violent because of their beliefs about God as the religious!

However God might have been conceived in pre-historic times, for as long as human beings have recorded their beliefs in stone, rock, parchment or in the oral traditions passed down for generations, God has been appropriated by different societies, cultures and religions for their own purposes: to differentiate between peoples; to claim superiority over other groups or individuals; to instill fear and obedience to institutions; to promote intolerance, antagonism, and violence; to justify the mistreatment and intimidation of women, children and minority groups .....

 

It is no exaggeration to say that All the grievances and ills that humanity has created have in some way, some time been aggravated - even generated - by our beliefs about God.

 

Christianity, Islam and Judaism have wrought enormous suffering in the names of their God, and although the Gautama Buddha remained silent on the subject of God, even that most peaceable of religions has its own dark history of religious intolerance, antagonism and violence against those who believed differently.

Our conceptions of God can also cause us much personal suffering. If God judges and punishes the wicked, then we are fearful for our souls. If God protects, aids and rewards the good, we think we can earn 'good points' with God, and become confused, resentful, or feel abandoned by God when life becomes too difficult, good people or children die, or we do not see rewards or blessings for being kind, good and devout.

Our ideas of a punishing and rewarding God can lead to so much self-doubt, so many feelings of unworthiness, to resentment and pessimism.  We become so fearful of displeasing God that we cannot even care properly for our own wellbeing, because we are afraid speak or act truthfully to those around us, or even to communicate our own desires and needs.

 

Job confessing his presumptions to God, by William Blake

 

Surely it is time to reconsider our ideas of God, individually, as communities, and as humanity. Surely we have had enough of this misinformation, misunderstanding and ignorance about the nature of God, and of our own spiritual natures.

Given the divisive nature of religious institutions, and the fact that they have wandered far from their original spiritual imperative as taught by their great Teachers, or lost sight of those original teachings altogether, I don't believe that dogma - that is, the official and exoteric teachings and practices of the religions - has much to teach us about God or spirituality.  Although my enormous respect and love for Yeshua of Nazareth has caused me to sometimes call myself a Christian, I disassociated myself around the age of twelve, from the church and Christianity as it is generally taught and understood.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

left: God enthroned by William Blake

right: God sending the Great Flood, by Michelangelo

 

 

However, there have always been, even now, great souls, teachers and mystics from each religion presenting to us a much deeper, universalist, esoteric perspective. Those great teachers speak of the universal love, brotherhood, and Oneness that religions loudly claim to promote, but hardly ever do.

We also have teachings from even less conventional sources, messages received from the spirit realms through mediums and psychics, inspired philosophers and others. These non-conventional sources tell us much about the nature of God and our own true nature that can help to open our eyes to grander, nobler, deeply humanizing perceptions of ourselves and each other.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to examine and discuss some ideas about God from sources other than religious dogma, and I hope you will feel inclined to read some of them and be prepared to enter new territory. I offer no certainties, just ideas that I have found especially helpful and credible, ideas to help you think more deeply about this notion of God, and what it means to you.

To start with, below is a link to a message from Brother Boniface, an English monk who was killed for destroying a tree sacred to the pagans. Centuries after his passing to the spirit realm, he speaks with a much deeper understanding through the medium, Leslie Flint. Prepare to be challenged.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtE1O-AjFtI

You can also follow the link to many other spirit messages received through Mr Flint.  Enjoy, and God bless. 

 

 

Boniface cutting down the tree of Thor   

 

 

First, Humility.

 

Reading Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography in my late twenties, I was struck by his humility, this great man esteemed by so many across the world confessing his inner struggles with stubbornness, sensuality, and sometimes, harsh expectations of his wife and family. Instead of decreasing my admiration for this remarkable individual, these confessions given with such frankness and humility only brought him closer to me, not a saint but a human being who, guided by his deep spiritual faith, gave himself wholly over to his ideals and political cause.

Yet I was not prepared to be so accepting of my own faults and errors, which seemed so many and so intractible. Instead, I struggled with self-condemnation for much of my life, as so many of us do.

Recently, and with help from unknown sources, that struggle has ended; I learned to accept myself as I am, faults, errors and all.

It began when, wanting to work on my psychological 'shadows', I earnestly prayed for help to remove or clear out whatever was hindering my spiritual growth. Help came, and for about two weeks, every night when I lay down to sleep, long-forgotten memories of past wrongs would flood my mind, even tiny ones that I had not at that time been aware of.

It was awful, to realise how much pain I had caused to others, and how much pain I still carried inside of me, and I would lie there weeping, deeply ashamed and feeling so unworthy. But I knew that this was a clearing out, a necessary emptying of self of all that baggage, so I did not resist. Instead, I asked for forgiveness from each person whom I had offended or hurt. I asked it from the fullness of my shame, for I finally accepted that I was a deeply flawed human being, often weak and selfish despite all my good intentions.

I had thought myself humbled once before during a four year depression, but this was even more  profoundly humbling, for I understood that as low as I was, through the grace of the Holy I was able to be lifted up and embraced with love. How could I not forgive those who had offended or hurt me, I asked, and embrace them as I was being embraced? So I forgave each and every remembered hurt, and sent love to the relevant person.

I tell you this because I learned in those two weeks that to be human is to be flawed, susceptible and weak, so we are not judged for our weakness, and can accept it. What 'saves' us is our earnest desire to grow, to be stronger, more conscious, and to use whatever abilities we have in the service of others. What redeems us is our commitment, how ever often we fail, to see ourselves in others, and to act from love. And that requires from us humility.

 

Now, I am finally able to accept my faults as I work to overcome them, to humbly ask for and receive divine guidance, and, knowing that we are all seeking our way, some more consciously than others, to lovingly be of service where I can.

Yes, there is so much yet to do. I am far from the en-lightened (transformed into light) person that I would like to be, but one day, in this life or another, I know I will be. I know that I can walk the long and often hard road, for the sense of inner peace that has come from these experiences gives me courage, and it does not falter.

"I do not think people realise how necessary it is to be humble. All the great teachers and all the great prophets of old invariably ... realised this was the secret. .... Only in humbleness and contriteness of heart can one hope to perceive the wisdom that will set one free from the shackles of the mundane and material. This has been proved over and over again. The greatest strength lies in what appears to be weakness."

     (Brother Boniface, afterlife communication from the New LeslieFlint Trust at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtE1O-AjFtI).

 

Maidens, Knights and Power

 

(Arthur Rackham, illustration, The Snow Queen)

Why are we so enamoured of the great mythic heroes who ride in search of adventure or on  seemingly hopeless quests? Though they often seem vain, arrogant, belligerent, besotted with wealth and glory, why do we love them?

What is it that draws so many of us to the stories of ancient goddesses and to fairytale maidens and princesses who can suffer and sacrifice so much?

Because, I think, on a deeper level, the heroes and heroines of myth and fairytale reflect something that is profoundly and tenderly human: our deep yearning to find purpose and meaning in our lives...our search for wholeness.

Whether the knight sets out to save a beleaguered princess, uphold his honour, rout a threat to the tribe, or pursue a vision like the Holy Grail; whether the maiden undertakes her perilous journey to find herself or her true love, fundamentally their quests are for wholeness, to restore or bring wholeness to the world thereby taking part in its conscious evolution.

At the deepest level, the quest of the knight and of the maiden, princess or no, represents the individual's search for the true self....for truth itself.

In the knight's quest, the goal is reconciliation with, and integration of the feminine - the maiden to be rescued; the princess saved and won; the dragon’s gold; the shining grail. The maiden, the forgotten or imprisoned princess seeks her male counterpart - the enchanted and forgetful prince; the stolen childhood friend; the powerful king.

In mythology, the feminine primarily represents not the female (the gendered body), but the feminine principle: the receptive, incubating energy that lets be, passive not in the sense of helplessness, but in the way of allowing energies to manifest in their own way, and knowing how to draw on them. Wu wei.  Sich lassen. The softer, yielding energy of Letting be. The Goose Girl's seeming submission to her persecutor belies the strength of her patience and constancy.

Similarly, the mythic knight and fairytale prince represent the masculine principle: the forces of action, deliberation and  decisiveness, initiating, asserting, self-determining. The bright, hard Yang energy that may be temporarily clouded by enchantment or forgotten.

Masculine and feminine principles (yang and yin, or Carl Jung's animus and anima) are not a matter of biological gender, rather, they are forces that are active to various degrees or at different times within each psyche.

The Greek goddess, Athena (left), for instance, is associated with the male qualities of war-making, action, and achievement, and she was capable of violence and cruelty if offended.

In mythology and fairy tales, feminine expressions of the masculine principle are plentiful - maidens undertaking quests to save fathers or brothers, to win back lost lovers, or correct injustices, and often suffering deeply for their goals; deceived or mistreated princesses using their wits to set things right, though as in the Goose Girl, their actions and sufferings can also reflect distinctly feminine qualities …. hidden, long-suffering, patient, darkly secretive, chaotic, sometimes dangerous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, Lancelot, Gawain and other mythic knights can sometimes be quite feminine, expressing the more passive, dark and secretive feminine qualities. In Lancelot (right) for example, the feminine and masculine principles are often in conflict, causing him to be torn between action and inaction, decisiveness and indecision.

And in Hans Christian Anderson's tale, the Snow Queen, Hans, the stolen boy, must be rescued by his devoted friend, Gerda, whose loving, trusting, often timid heart belies her determination, courage, and her razor-sharp decisiveness.

 

Only on the surface are these stories about gender. Go deeper, and you can see that they are about power. For girls and women, recognising and reclaiming their power to make things happen. For men, discovering the power of love, selflessness and surrender in their own hearts.

 

 

What do these tales tell us? That within ourselves we are not limited by biological or social gender.

....Both masculine and feminine forces exist within us, and we can recognise, develop and draw on them to help achieve our goals and purpose.

Powerful is the man or woman who can recognise these different forces within them, and use them wisely.

 

On the spiritual level, mythic quests represent the eternal quest for wholeness.

The mystical goal of the quest, for knight and maiden alike, is to activate and bring together the masculine and the feminine forces. 

The knight rescues the princess and they wed. The hero slays the dragon and gains its hidden treasure. The maiden saves her swan brothers and through her love and sacrifice, makes them fully human. The princess awakens her be-spelled prince and he recognises his true love again. Gawain, or in some stories, Parzival finally is worthy to see the holy grail, whose purity, goodness, and feminine quality of receptiveness are now reflected in his transformed soul.

 

      

(Illustration for Grimms' The Six Swans, by Walter Crane)

 

 

In such tales, the human being is made whole, no longer divided, fragmented or incomplete.

 

 

 

Is it the Sufis who teach that this is love, the recognition in the man and woman that they (male and female) are but two aspects of the One?

In the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, when the disciples ask how they will enter God’s domain, Jesus says…

 "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female…”                                                              (Nag Hammadi Library)

 

It is not our role or gender that matter, that give us power.

True power comes from wholeness, the uniting within self of seeming opposites, of the masculine and feminine (yang and yin) energies, the awakening of the self to its oneness with the other, with our world, and with the Sacred.

 

Tosca