This is a bit of an old thread, but while it’s active again, I may as well respond.
Approaching it merely from a philosophical standpoint, don’t accept that we are all just parts of God (Source or whatever you want to call such a being). I have several reasons to think this:
- What would be the motive? Such a divine being can’t be trying to experience new things, because by definition, it has to be infinite, and so there is no new experience that this being can possibly experience that is not already within itself in some way.(I use “it” to try to generalize the concept of God as much as possible).
- God can’t have parts or “tendrils.” Again we run into the problem of infinitude, which cannot be split into parts. God must be completely simple and without parts, or else there would be some other power that would have had to bring those parts together, for such a God could not have done it itself.
- It violates our individuality and intrinsic value. We have a deep, unquestionable sense that we are individuals, not just imagined components of some whole. While I do agree there is an interconnectedness, we must not overemphasize this for the individual. Even some in this thread have protested to the idea of merging back into source. Intrinsicly, we want to maintain our individuality, and we feel it is unjust to lose it. It denies the value of the individual, because each perceived person is really only a part of the Source, but the person themselves has no value independent of that whole.
I believe that we actually are individuals. I think that we were created out of love. When we love someone, we want them to experience happiness and whatever is best for them. We want to share our own happiness. I believe that God is the same way, and created everything in order to share infinite love.
Yes it is painful here sometimes, but I think that is when we disconnect ourselves from that love and try to make it on our own. I believe the point is to become more and more connected to that love.