This is a (long) post in response to a comment in another thread. I’m starting a new thread here so I don’t hijack the other one and move away from the original topic started there.
For the impatient, if you don't have time to read everything, you can just skip to the parts in bold. Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ethereal God is basically the ultimate awareness underlying everything, and thus it is aware of everything. It is continuously aware of everything, and this creates focalization where life and consciousness evolves. These focalized points are basically each one of us, we are the focalized reflections of God being aware of everything. Thus, the masters say that we are God, and indeed we are, our individual subjective awareness of consciousness is actually just God always being aware of everything. Raising consciousness then, is knowing God better; our consciousness is evolving to be able to include more and more into our awareness. Below 200, we are only aware of ourselves, but over 200 we start to gain empathy, be aware of our friends and family; higher up, we begin to be aware of animals, nature, the planet, and mankind in general. Enlightenment then, is the conscious realization of the awareness of Allness, awareness of God, of being God. |
Finally... someone who uses the word "God" in a similar context that I like to use it. For years I’ve tried to talk to various people about knowing God and their relationships with God, but I pretty much gave up on it because the word "God" has so much baggage attached to it, and the word can be taken in so many different ways.
For example, I thought I was talking about the same exact thing with the other person, only to realize later on we couldn’t be farther apart. I remember one case where I talked for a couple hours with this older Jewish man in his fifties about "knowing God" and our personal "relationship with God". He was a very spiritual man and he had a lot of insights. However, at the end of our talk, I remember throwing out a casual statement that "Evil really doesn’t exist 'out there'." and he was totally shocked. He started chuckling and listing off all the "evil" he saw around him in the world and asked me "How can you possibly say that THAT is not evil?".
And to this day, whenever we run into each other, he continues to remind me of all the "evil" he sees in the world. He’s still very friendly and we still enjoy each other’s company, but every time we talk at length, even though I try to avoid going back to that particular topic about "evil", he continues to say things like "Someday, Joe, when you are ready to open your eyes, God will show you all the evil that exists around you." or "You need to get it through your thick skull, Joe, that simply saying that evil doesn’t exist, doesn’t make it go away."
So basically, after a couple of similar experiences with other people, I gave up on using the word "God" and just used words like "Universe" or "Consciousness" or "Life" instead. Meaning, I usually took more of an eastern slant on these types of discussions, where "God" is seen more as a process or a force, rather than a western slant, where God is seen as more personable and knowable. (With neither "slant" being more right or true than the other one.)
But I’m digressing. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts, positive or negative, on the book "How to Know God" by Deepak Chopra. Or even just get some opinions from others on "Knowing God" and "Relationships with God" as it relates to "Levels of Consciousness".
I really like this book because I think it helps people who have grown up with the common fear of God and eternal damnation. (I grew up Catholic.) I think it helps people, like me, transition towards some more empowering beliefs and relationships with God.
A lot of non-dual spiritual teachers seem to say that a path or a process is just a huge waste of time. Better to see Truth now, right? But I’m beginning to think that unless the transition is gradual rather than all-at-once, some people won’t even be open to listening to these ideas, much less integrating them. It’s just too much to digest at once.
For example, someone living in the
Bible Belt and is in constant fear of God and going to hell is probably not going to be all that receptive to any idea that "hell" can also be seen as a state of mind rather than an actual place or realm. I mean, I think there is a lot of "unlearning" that needs to occur first before any potentially conflicting ideas and beliefs are allowed in.
(continued below...)