-4-
(Diversity:
The Divine Manifestation)
If
God in Her original state is viewed as a singularity where all opposition
merges into a oneness of being; then, creation can be
seen as the manifestation of that singularity into a reality. Thus, in a sense,
the Creator is one with the creation. If the Essence of God is all that is,
then all that is, is a manifestation of that Essence. It takes the diversity of
the universe, the complexity of the cosmos, and the diversity of life to
manifest the complexity of the Force from which it proceeds.
If
we can see the paradox to the Divine, we will have no problem recognizing that
not only man is in the Image of God, but all of the
Creation represents the Image of a God which transcends form or image. Reality
then becomes, our individual conscious 'perception of the Eternal
Being from which we come. We become aware of God by experiencing what is of God
in our miracle of being. God is reflected in the stars and planets. She is part
of the forces that drive the galaxies. The smallest quark and the largest black
hole are visions of the same singularity, which make them possible. The
fundamental Forces, which make up the universe, are manifestations of the power
of Being. Liquid, gases, matter, and all which
proceeds from them (which includes all life) become one with that which makes
them possible.
We
cannot behold God in His singularity; but She does
become visible in our experience of Her in reality. In the Diversity of
Creation we can see the complexity of the Divine, and
in doing such all that is of God's Hand becomes SACRED. When we begin to
see the sacredness of what "is", we will truly be worthy of anything
that may transcend it. If we were to recognize creation as being of God, then
we would realize that what we do to that creation (be it the environment or
each other) are in fact what we are proclaiming to God.
We
search our theologies for miracles to prove God's existence. Yet, the biggest
miracle which is ever present with us is often ignored - that being, the
miracle of reality itself. To phrase it in the question of philosophers, one
which has driven the science of physics: 'Why is there something instead of
nothing?' No matter what our answer to that question, the existence of reality
is more profound than any supernatural event recorded in all our sacred text.
Not even the resurrection of Jesus supersedes the miracle of something coming
from nothing. The parting of the
In
the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, Jesus tells us:
His
disciples asked him: "When will begin the repose of the dead? And, when
will the new world appear?" Jesus answered, "THE SANCTUARY YOU
EXPECT IS HERE, ALTHOUGH YOU CANNOT RECOGNIZE IT."
(logion 51)
His
disciples questioned: "When will the kingdom come?" Jesus answered,
"It will never come if you are expecting it. Nobody will say 'look here'
or 'look there'. YET THE KINGDOM OF THE FATHER IS SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE
EARTH AND NO MAN SEES IT.
(logion 113)
Our
religions are filling us with a desire for more; often, at the expense of an
appreciation for what is. Ministers speak of a KINGDOM TO COME with little
regard for the Kingdom already upon us. Western Theology has so concerned
itself with God in the transcendent; it fails to promote Her
in the reality around us. We have sacred words, sacred books, and sacred
places; but that which is most sacred of all, the creation of which we are
part, is declared merely a testing ground over which we claim dominion.
Psalm
139 tells us:
Where can I escape from Thy Spirit (Oh
God)?
Where
can I hide from Thy Presence?
If I climb to heaven, Thou art there;
If I
make my bed in Sheol, again I find Thee.
If I take flight to the frontiers of the
morning,
or
dwell at the limit of the
even
there Thy hand will meet me and Thy
right
hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely darkness will steal
over me,
night will close around me," darkness is no
darkness for Thee and light is as luminous
as
day.
TO
THEE BOTH DARK AND LIGHT ARE ONE.
(VERSES 7-12)
David's heart was telling him, there is no
escaping God. The miracle of God's presence stems from the farthest reaches of
the heavens into the bowls of the earth itself. It spans the largest galaxies
to the smallest of particles. In God, light and darkness are one - for God is
the singularity from which they proceed.
While
many often chose to ignore the sacredness of the Divine in the Diversity of
that which is around us, others have come to see it quite readily. While
Our
material quest has caused us to remove from reality our spiritual evolution. We
talk of morals and values, but they become empty words, for, according to so
much of our theology the world itself has only limited value in our religious
belief structures. Many find themselves looking forward to the jeweled walls
and golden streets of the heaven in Revelation; missing, the sacredness of a
rose or the treasure of the bee which pollinates it.
Religious
emphasis on the supernatural and the spiritual aspect of the Divine also helps
to feed a belief structure where God is actually viewed on a much different
plane of existence than we ourselves exist. This has the effect of blinding us
to the reality of Her Presence in the people and things around us. Such
attitudes can often be used to justify the mistreatment of people because they
are seen as heathens or living under the direction of the devil. These views
also allow us to approach aspects of the creation we find distasteful (such as,
snakes or wolves) as being evil - giving us a right to eliminate them. Often
these attitudes are carried to extremes, and that which merely inconveniences
us is seen as evil; thus, we become justified in ridding ourselves of it. Such
attitudes allow us to view those things, which differ from ourselves as odd or
crazy at best, and perverse or evil at worst. All of this feeds the intolerance
and indifference, which is becoming all the more pronounced in our world.
While
no Christian religion would preach such directly, the psychological suggestion
which is planted in the minds of so many believers, is
that the earth is some type of game board where God tests us and the devil
challenges Her for the prize of our souls. Salvation rests outside us in the
Blood of our Savior. Mortality becomes inferior to immortality. The great hope,
which is offered, is beyond life, in death - in the destruction of what is and
the creation of a "new Earth." But the real psychological danger of
many of our present doctrines is that they deter us from looking for God in the
beauty and glory of everything that is around us. They often impede our ability
to see the potential, both spiritually and socially, which could be gained from
mutual respect of our differences and acceptability of our diversity. Too many
of our religious beliefs tend to stagnate one’s growth
because of their reluctance to entertain the new, the different, and the
unusual. They offer us "Projection" and scapegoats by justifying the
persecution of that which differs from us, under the pretense, that it is evil
and not of God. We pick and choose what we deem to be sacred and everything
else becomes ours for the taking, or, to be declared evil and not of God.
But
peoples, such as the keepers of this land before the Christian/European
influence, saw the presence of the Great Spirit, or the Creative Force, in
everything that surrounded them. They realized that diversity itself was the
sacred - that nothing exists solely for itself.
D.H.Lawrence, speaking of Native Americans of the
Southwest, explains:
It was
a vast old religion, greater than anything we know; more darkly And nakedly religious. There is no God, no conception of
God. ALL IS GOD. But it is not the pantheism we are accustomed to, which
expresses itself as "God is everywhere, God is everything." In this
Indian religion everything is alive, not supernaturally but naturally alive.
(D.H. Lawrence,
THE VAST OLD RELIGION Of TAOS, 1936)
(Quoted by: Jamake Highwater, THE PRIMAL
KIND, l98l,p82)
Joseph Campbell tells us in "The
Power Of Myth":
When
you see that God is the creation, and that you are a creature, you realize that
God is within you, and in the man or woman with whom you are talking, as well.
So there is a realization of the two aspects of the one Divinity.
And this is the way Native peoples viewed
all things. Diversity was for them, different aspects of the same Divine. This
Creative Force was an intricate part of every man, woman and child; of every
plant, animal and rock; of every form of energy of which they were aware. Often
this very Essence sacrificed itself in order that other things may live, such
as, in an animal giving up its life in the hunt to supply food to the tribe. In
short, these people viewed the transcendent Essence of God in the totality of
the earth itself.
While I
stood there, I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I say: for I
was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the
shape of all shapes, as they must live together like one being.
(John G. Neihardt, BLACK ELK SPEAKS, University of Nebraska Press,
cl979)
While
we can accept a concept of God sacrificing himself upon a cross, the native
peoples realized that God sacrificed himself in the buffalo, the corn, the land
and all that sustains our lives. Maybe the whole metaphor of the "Body and
Blood of Christ" refers to the constant sacrifice the Creator makes for
the creation. God's participation in our world is not a one-time event that
took place on
Such
vision, as that of Black Elk is common among aborigines’ peoples. Needless to
say, our world could benefit greatly from incorporating such a view of God's
Image into the theologies that ignore or deny the connection of the Creator to
the creation. Our preoccupation with heaven and hell and our eternal salvation
can cause us to loose sight of the Creator's Presence in the creation. But common
sense should tell us: what right do we have to a heaven, when we abuse the
earth? What kind of selfishness motivates us to look for more from God, when,
She has already given us the splendors of this world and the life to appreciate
it? In the Gospel passage quoted on page 70 of this text, Jesus tells us that
'not a sparrow can fall to the ground that the Creator doesn't notice.' Is that
consistent with a portrait of a Creator who is indifferent to the treatment of Her creation?
There
is nothing wrong with belief in eternal life, or a heaven. But when that faith
causes us to take the world around us for granted, then, it is ignoring that
this creation is the work of what we call the Creator! So many of our religious
songs, rituals, and Sacred writings give praise to the Creator for His
creation; but they become empty words indeed, when we abuse, desecrate, and
foul our earth for profit and convenience.
So
often theology, and many of the religions based upon it, concentrates their
effort on the God of a spiritual realm - a realm that is apart from the
realities of our everyday life. Progress and profit have become the fixation of
the everyday reality. God as a caring Creator does not fit well into a
philosophy that is driven by profit; so, we remove Her to the supernatural;
thus, we eliminate any practical use of religious ideals in terms of solving
our real life problems. There is little in our Western theology to help us act
with any spiritual ethic in matters of environment, conservation, or acceptance
of social responsibilities for others - and many existing Christian sects
demonstrate this sad point. We have reduced our actions to proclamations of
faith; and reduced personal responsibility to the rhetoric of words; which is
the psychological consequence of removing God from the diversity that is of
Him. We eliminate the "taking up of our cross" by a belief
structure that tells us that Jesus did that for us. A belief
structure that replaces our actions with the writing of checks.
Aside
from the Native Americans, the concept of the oneness of God in all things is
also prevalent in eastern revelation. Karen Armstrong in her HISTORY OF GOD
conveys a parable from the Chandoga Upanishad:
A young
man called Sretaketu had studied the Vedas for twelve
years and was rather full of himself. His father, Uddalaka, asked him a question which he was unable to
answer, and then proceeded to teach him a lesson about the fundamental truth of
which be was entirely ignorant. He told his son to put
a piece of salt into water and report back to him the following morning.
When
his father asked him to produce the salt, Sretaketu
could not find it because it had completely dissolved. Uddalaka
began to question him:
"Would
you please sip at this end? What is it like?" he said.
"Salt."
"Sip
it in the middle. What is it like?"
"Salt."
"Sip
it at the far end, What is it like?"
"Salt."
"Throw
it away, and then come to me."
He did
as he was told but [that did not stop the salt from] remaining the same. His
father said to him: "My dear child, it is true that you cannot perceive 'Being'
[in the Eastern ideal as the essence of all things] here, but it is equally
true that it is here. This first essence - the whole universe has as its Self:
that is the real: that is the self: that you are, Sretaketu.'
(p30)
In this parable, while one cannot see the
salt, its presence is in every droplet of water. We know it is there because we
experience it in the taste of the water, no matter what approach we might take in
tasting it. By seeing the Divine in this manner, we quickly see the reality of
the concept that God is part of us; as some theologians might explain it, we
are temples of the Holy Spirit, a profound metaphor for the Divine Essence
which gives us being.
The
Divine Salt is a part of us. But the concept transcends that - and the Divine
Salt is all of its creation in the same way as the salt is part of the sea. If
we were to separate the salt from the seawater, it is no longer seawater; but,
something different that we know as freshwater. When we separate the creation
from God we create an insurmountable contradiction, because, the creation could
not be, for being flows from that from which it emanates. If God is the source
of reality, She is also part of it, for all reality
would proceed from His Being. The very fact that God created in such diversity
could be construed as a manifestation of the complexity of the Creative Force.
Removing God from reality could be one of the contributing reasons as to why we
are so blind when we approach the temporal world around us. We see the
creation, as we desire to see it; not, in the truth of which it exists - that
is, in the Image of the God Who created it! We also
see God, as we desire, not, in the truth manifested in the creation that is of Her.
Armstrong
goes on to explain that God cannot be reasoned, but can only be experienced, a
point Carl Jung also emphasized. One does not detect the salt in seawater until
they experience it in the taste or through some other sense. In the same
manner, we will feel the oneness of God if we learn to see Him in all that is
of Him. If we strive to see God in reality more than believing in Her in the supernatural, we will begin to move closer to
God's Inspiration. When we seek to remove the Creator from any of the Creation,
which many religions do, we lessen our ability to experience Her
in that particular manifestation. The more we equate God with the diversity,
which surrounds us; the more we are apt to experience Him.
The
paradox once again comes alive here. When we look to creation with an eye
toward God, we find Him; and when we look for God with an eye turned toward
creation, we once again find Her.
The
Buddhists express the same motif in another parable:
Legend
tells of a net owned by the great God Indra. It was
unique in that it was made of highly reflected gems, and the wonderful effect
of this is that when one gazed at a single gem one could see at once that
isolated stone in its beautiful particularity; and yet, reflected in it, the
entire net.
(Douglas Fox,
BUDDHISM, CHRISTIANITY AND THE FUTURE Of MAN. 1972, p48)
Part of the problem with seeing the
Creator in the creation comes from some of our interpretations of Genesis.
Unlike many other religions, Christianity sees us as having dominion over the
earth, rather than, being a loving part of it. Such logic is based on the
following Biblical verse:
And
God said: "let us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness, AND LET THEM
HAVE DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth.
(King James
Version, Genesis 1:26)
But, as it has already been established,
there is another creation account recorded in Genesis where it seems God does
not give us dominion, but rather, makes us caretakers.
And
the Lord God took the man and put him into the
(King James
Version, Genesis 2:15)
Viewing this with the knowledge of other
religious cultures, this would seem the key to a basically responsible
theology. We were put into God's world to help take care of it! We have the
potential to add to the beauty of the earth and enhance the creation - if only
we were to see it as the sacred garden that God planted.
The
concept of dominion over the earth is not only false, but defies logic. We
cannot control the forces of nature. We are completely dependent upon the earth
to survive. And any woodsman who has encountered a
bear, or diver a shark, will quickly see the folly to our dominion over animals.
The long and short of it is: we can protect ourselves, we can effect our
surroundings, and we can shape things in our world better than most of the
other animals - but we are a long way from having dominion over that which we
are dependent upon. Dominion is a self-serving delusion. The Earth is what
gives us life; we cannot live without it. But the natural order could continue
long after we are gone - and this could hardly be called dominion!
So
by religiously seeing ourselves as protectors and keepers of earth, we go a
long way in planting a psychological suggestion that could make us much more
responsible to the world in which we live. It would also create a theological
basis for a more active recognition of the Creator as reflected in Her creation. Accepting a greater responsibility becomes a
way in which we can pay meaningful tribute to God as well as working to improve
our own human condition. By recognizing the Creator in the reality of the
diversity of Her creation, we add more incentive for
acceptance of responsibility to take care of what we have been blessed with.
God knows of the sparrow's fall because the sparrow is part of Him. She knows
the number of hairs upon our head because we are a part of Him in the physical
reality in which we exist. The world is important to God because in all its
diversity it is of Him! Care of each other, care of our world, is caring for
God in the only manner we can show love or concern for Her.
We
have a tendency to try to place things in categories of absolutes based on
opposition. But the only thing that is absolute is the opposition - and reality
becomes a blend and harmony of that opposition. The paradox is what is absolute
and truth becomes a balance of the paradox, as we can best perceive it. The
famous physicist Stephen Hawking tells us there is no such thing as absolute
time:
Up to
the beginning of this century people believed in an absolute time. That is,
each event could be labeled by a number called "Time" in a unique way,
and all good clocks would agree on the time interval between two events.
However, the discovery that the speed of light appeared the same to every
observer, no matter how he was moving, led to the theory of relativity - and in
that ONE HAD TO ABANDON THE IDEA THAT THERE WAS A UNIQUE ABSOLUTE
TIME. Instead, each observer would have his own measure of time as recorded
by a clock that be carried; clocks carried by different observers would not
necessarily agree. Thus, time became a more personal concept, relative to
the observer who measured it.
(Stephen
Hawking, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, 1988, p143)
If such a common shared experience as time
cannot be declared in absolutes, how is it theologians
seek to declare the Personage and Mind of God in terms of absolutes? The logic
and folly behind such declared absolutes are self-evident, but the danger and
consequence of their dogmatic truths are much subtler.
In
seeing diversity in the attributes of God, we are not only more apt to see His
sacredness in our creation, but we also foster a sense of tolerance which is
never possible in dogmatism. In the realization that God may choose to reveal Herself in different ways to different peoples, according to
their needs and abilities to relate to Him, we actually can improve our
knowledge of God by being able to share in another's experience of Her. We are
also more likely to see possible mistakes in our own faith, which may be
potentially harmful to others or ourselves. Diversity aids us in respecting the
religious ideals of all faiths, not because every faith interprets their
message correctly, but because every faith has its foundation in sacred
revelations even when such revelation might be misused. This diversity of God's
revelation will be considered in much more depth when we discuss sacred
revelation.
Theology
cannot hope to explain the oneness of diversity any more than a good Christian
could hope to explain the Trinity. But the Trinity can be used as the motif by
which we can recognize the diversity of God. If we can look beyond the literal
interpretation of that doctrine, we can see a much wider picture of God that is
portrayed in it - a picture which fits with the religious observations of
faiths worldwide.
The
Creator or Father is the paradox, the void as the Buddhist describe
it. He is all opposition merged into one singularity; a
phenomena that even the physicist can grasp. The Father represents Being itself, and from that, everything else proceeds. All
exists because of Him, and She exists because of
herself. It is male and female, yet not male and female. It "IS" and
"IS NOT" - in a state of Being that is Being itself with no real
explanation possible with our limited intellects and their perceptions. The arrogance
of human beings that claim they can pronounce anything about the First aspect
of this Trinity is pure foolishness. The most we can ever hope to convey is
what we feel of it within ourselves, and what we experience of it in the
creation of which She is a part!
The
Son becomes the creation itself; God manifested in reality. Jesus gave us a
blueprint in the Gospels of how we as sons and daughters of God should live
life in fulfillment. But this blueprint does not separate the Creator from the
rest of Her creation, and it doesn't have to. If God
can be three in one, God could also be all things in one. Christ is the symbol
for God incarnate in His creation. "The Word became flesh"
when something was begotten out of nothing. God's word IS the reality
that exists throughout the cosmos. It is the symphony she has set in motion.
The
Holy Spirit is the power of God in all things. If the cosmos is the saltwater,
the Spirit is the salt:
In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the SPIRIT of
God moved upon the face of the waters.
(King James
Version, Genesis 1:1)
When we abuse others, when we neglect others; we abuse and neglect the
Spirit of God. When we use or exploit the creation in arrogance and
selfishness, we abuse and exploit the Spirit of God! The Spirit of God moved
upon the void and created all that we can see and all that we cannot see. It is
the Spirit of God that allows it to continue. We are all temples of the Holy
Spirit, and the creation is more sacred than any of our sacred places or
inspired words.
The
Divine paradox and God's diversity help us to make sense of a world that is
full of opposition and pluralistic in our observation of reality. Concepts such
as these help us to celebrate the wholeness of creation without crushing the
individual differences within that wholeness.
Seeing
God in diversity prevents the theological mistake of pigeonholing God into a
neat little package that excludes anything which doesn't fit.
People
need to be encouraged to experience God in the manner She
chooses to reveal Himself to them. Our religious values must come to recognize
this if religion is to serve the Will of God rather than the self-serving
proclamations of men. It is time that our faith in God was used to unite us
instead of divide us. Religion should be offering us useful ways to solve our
social problems; instead of, making judgments and offering metaphysical
justifications for them. Faith should make us more responsible in matters of
environmental concern; instead of, being used as a sword to control and
manipulate people. God's love is expressed in tolerance,
brotherhood, peace, equality and diversity - not in war, bigotry, condemnation,
rejection and dogma. Until our religious ideals can serve all men, they
cannot truly serve God!
NEXT CHAPTER -5-Love, The Divine
Essence
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