Re: The vast unseen

I agree w/much of what you say. However, I have no problem calling the universal WE God, as did the ancients and many cultures. While somehow over the centuries the word God has come to signify a being that is somehow separate from the rest of us -- the root theologies of God do not describe God this way. I do not believe that man created God in his/her image. Rather some ignorant force/culture/being at some point in man's development superimposed his/her own image on mankind's idea of God. The concept of God being an all-powerful aspect became usurped by the conqueror/s. This distorted image of God was passed down culturally. However, after reading a lot and studying the many writings/oral traditions of the wise people of numerous cultures I ahve come to the conclusion that:


... God is all that is manifest. Together WE (including the universe -- space, time, matter) are God. What people experience as God is often that connection to a focal point within God where WE make our will, our thoughts, our desires manifest. When the power of God is manifest by any individual, it is because that individual has the ability to be a conduit of the power of the collective. Those individuals who are able to achieve such power are given the blessing of our perfect selves. Granted there is great power that can be achieved by the individual and/or groups of individuals -- including power that can be used against the whole -- but the power of God is the power of the whole and thus more powerful than any and can only be used for the good of the whole -- thus the wisdom of the commandment: I am the lord thy God and thou shall not have any other gods before me.

If the masculine form of the word God is offensive to some, I think of the manifest as the masculine aspect of God and the unmanifest as the feminine. They are not mutually exclusive and work in tandem.

Given the above, one can see why love is not only the most important, but the only way to paradise.