02-17-2014, 06:34 PM
I have been asked this question before. I will attempt to address this from multiple angles. Some you may find useful, and others maybe not. I hope is of some value to you, friend.
The difficulty with this has to do with being too focused on intellect and not focused enough on the heart. The intellect is linear, but infinity isn't, so there is no way to for it to ever hope to grasp it. Only the heart can hope to understand. Our intellect is certainly useful, but its use is for survival, for solving puzzles. God is not a puzzle, nor is reality, just as a flower is not a puzzle. The flower simply is, there is nothing to figure out.
While there appears to be many beings, there is truly only being itself. Just as when a ray of light shines through a prism, there appears to be many colors formed, but it's truly only one light. We live in a world of apparent duality, and as such, one appears as many. It's an illusion.
Notice how when you dream at night, that you appear as only one character within the dream. You identify as a certain imaginary entity. And when you awaken you realize that you aren't actually that character at all; what you are is the dreamer - you are the source of the dream. In life, it also appears that there are separate characters; this too is ultimately an illusion - what we really are is the Source.
There is an episode in the show Adventure Time, with a bubble as a character. This bubble is lost, trying to find its way home. At some point, it pops, only to realize that it wasn't a bubble at all, it was actually air. I think this is a beautiful metaphor, I was surprised to see it on Cartoon Network.
I am going to assume you're Christian, but I may be wrong and that's fine. If you aren't, then don't bother with the following question.
Is not all food the body of Christ?
The difficulty with this has to do with being too focused on intellect and not focused enough on the heart. The intellect is linear, but infinity isn't, so there is no way to for it to ever hope to grasp it. Only the heart can hope to understand. Our intellect is certainly useful, but its use is for survival, for solving puzzles. God is not a puzzle, nor is reality, just as a flower is not a puzzle. The flower simply is, there is nothing to figure out.
While there appears to be many beings, there is truly only being itself. Just as when a ray of light shines through a prism, there appears to be many colors formed, but it's truly only one light. We live in a world of apparent duality, and as such, one appears as many. It's an illusion.
Notice how when you dream at night, that you appear as only one character within the dream. You identify as a certain imaginary entity. And when you awaken you realize that you aren't actually that character at all; what you are is the dreamer - you are the source of the dream. In life, it also appears that there are separate characters; this too is ultimately an illusion - what we really are is the Source.
There is an episode in the show Adventure Time, with a bubble as a character. This bubble is lost, trying to find its way home. At some point, it pops, only to realize that it wasn't a bubble at all, it was actually air. I think this is a beautiful metaphor, I was surprised to see it on Cartoon Network.
I am going to assume you're Christian, but I may be wrong and that's fine. If you aren't, then don't bother with the following question.
Is not all food the body of Christ?