through my twitter connection @UUsoul i came across a post on the topic of a personal god at celestial lands. i figured that rather than replying, i’ll comment in a post here.
david from celestial lands says
i believe that there is no division in god, that every moment of every day we are intimately involved with god; in a flight of birds, in a breath of wind, in a cab driver who cuts us off, in a moment on the zen cushions… all one, all god. we are a part of god, and nothing can be more intimate than this. god is a holy spirit that is intimately involved in all things, and we are intimately involved in the part of god we can touch and sense.
however, god does not, in any personal way, know that we exist as individuals. i wonder whether god is even capable of “knowing” in any human sense. more, my faith in god does not require god’s knowing of me. i am “known” simply in my being, along with all of being, and together we are becoming… and becoming… and becoming. to me, nothing could be more intimate than this.
my reply:
very interesting!
if i may spin this a little further, in a bit of a free-association way …
i can have a personal relationship with (a) god, believing on an intellectual level that god mostly IS, as you describe it, yet allowing myself to imagine some sort of intelligent god, which makes the interaction easier. (an analogy: i know that the number 1,000,000,000,000,000 exists but i am not capable of imagining more than 7 discrete things at a time) (wow – i’ve never written it down like that before. talk about the limitations of being a human animal!)
if my guiding principle is that god simply IS and add to that the belief that god is infinite, then i can invite all sorts of imaginary, emotional and intellectual helpmates. for example, i can be open to and play with the possibility of god having some sort of intelligence, consciousness, or even power of intervention.
is this related to the idea of “i believe THAT god” rather than “i believe IN god”?