Seeing God (Book Recommendation)
Ever since I was young, I was fascinated by God.
I wanted to know who, what, where God is.
In my childhood, I felt that God came frequently. Until one day, God stopped visiting. What I use to hear and feel in my youth was no longer with me. I no longer felt “That.”
But as I grow older, the familiar “That” I see and feel everywhere.
God Is and Is Not
For a strong while, I was an atheist. For a long while, I was a devout Catholic.
Today, I am neither.
I’m not part of any religion. I do not partake in rituals. I do not ask and pray to God anymore. Why?
Because God doesn’t give anything. God doesn’t want anything.
Certainly, God does not want you to bow or worship.
How could God want? To want is to beg. To beg is to need. To need is to suffer.
Is God suffering? Is God a beggar?
To suffer implies incomplete. God is the implication of whole. Hence, the word “Holy.”
To want is to beg. If God is “almighty”, then why is God begging?
If God wants, then God can’t be God. If God wants, then the idea of God can’t be real.
But as I write these words to you, God is real.
I feel God in my fingers as I write. I hear God in the laughter of my 5-year-old nephew. I see God in the steam of the green tea I drink every night.
God is not a bearded man in the sky. God is much closer.
God is not a higher being, but an inner one.
God is not revealed by a burning bush but in this exact moment.
God’s domain is not in the heavens above, but within.
But do not seek God. Do not hope for God. Where Hope is, God is not.
There’s no effort in seeing God. In the effort, God runs.
No doing. No seeking. No focusing. No praying.
So what to do?
God is found in Nothingness. So float in Nothingness.
Do nothing. Be nothing. Want nothing.
God appears when you no longer need anything. To see God, you have to become God yourself. That’s the condition.
God is not a master or a father. God is a peer.
God does not give. God greets. The word of God is “Hello.”
“Spare words: nature’s way.” -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“To need nothing is to have everything.” Once you have everything, what is the difference between you and God?
It takes One to know One. To see One, be One.
I Am
God cannot be explained intellectually or in The Mind — only described.
The Mind analyzes. You cannot analyze God.
To analyze means to break down. You cannot break down the complete and whole.
God is closer than you “think.”
There’s a famous saying by Jesus. He says,
“I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Light.”
For a long time, I thought Jesus was saying that about himself. Today, I no longer see it that way. It is not a recognition of him, but a recognition of ourselves.
You are the Way. You are the Truth. You are the Light.
As Buddha once said, “Be your own light.” Jesus and Buddha were great poets who rhymed with one another.
When Jesus was asked, “Are you the Son of God?” He responded with, “I am.”
“I am” is not a hierarchal statement. It’s an acknowledgment. It’s acknowledging our true nature as complete human beings.
There’s a tragic irony in hearing the teachings of Jesus and Buddha, the authentic human beings. Their teachings were never meant to be religions.
Religion is the middle (meddling) man between you and God. It’s running towards the Divine while looking down at your feet the entire way.
You become worried about the placement of your feet and toes instead of the direction you’re running. Next thing you know, you’re way off course.
We were never meant to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and Buddha. We were meant to walk alongside them.
We were not banished from The Garden of Eden. We let ourselves out.
Eden is not closed off to us. We can go back to it anytime.
Eden is right here. God is right here.
God is in a cup of tea. God is in a morning breeze. God is in the mountains and the rain.
God is in your fingers when you’re creating something out of nothing.
God is in your laughter when you’re not bounded by Time.
God is in your eyes when looking at your loved ones with freedom beyond dimension.
God is Essence itself.
Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, “Beauty is when you disappear.” Jiddu Krishnamurti was certainly familiar with the divine.
When I say, “divine” do not mistake it as superiority, an ideal, or something to strive for. That’s the Ego chattering and spouting illusions.
“Divinity. Godhood. Buddhahood. Truth.” These are words that describe the extraordinarily ordinary. These are what remain when all falsehoods disappear.
When Ego disappears, God appears. When Self leaves, Buddha arrives.
I do not know much, but I do know what God looks like.
God looks like This.
God looks like You.
Perfect.
To find God is to find Yourself. When nothing else remains, there You will be. Where You are, God is.
Book Recommendation
“The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran has a passage on religion that is the most beautiful articulation of God I’ve ever come across.
“And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in the rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.”
- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
”The Prophet” is a short, poetic, and powerfully lovely book on everything: Love, joy, sorrow, raising children, pain, friendship, religion, etc.
A truly enlightening book in understanding the human condition.
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Originally published at https://www.jacobacostareads.com on February 15, 2022.
