I propose that we (the soul/jiva) are simultaneously one and different from God. In other words we ARE God and we ARE NOT God. And though these two positions seem contradictory, both are true at the same time.
Confusing, yes.
Inconceiveable, yes.
So an experiment:
Don the God hat for a moment. Forget you are NOT God.
Being God, I suggest you would likely ask questions along the lines …
… the soul being you, rather than something separate from you that you possess, for example, like your mind, your intellect, your body etc. Of course you don’t have to use the word soul.
I propose that feelings, or in other words emotions, are the language of the soul.
I further propose that our lives are primarily about a calling of elements into play, assembling our cast etc., setting the stage, for us to feel/experience the feelings we are after. … read more
I suggest that this is what we are. And that we lowercase ‘G’ gods are simultaneously one with and different from the uppercase ‘G’ God.
‘One with’ in that we are also divine.
‘Different from’ primarily in that we possess the special ability to accept the illusions of the material world as real.
But one should not hurry to judge this ability as some sort of flaw or problem. … read more
I suggest that this is true because the others ARE YOU.
ARE YOU in the sense that we are all God. Are God in the sense that we are from God / of God, and everything that emanates from God is God.
And that we are also simultaneously not God, and similarly not the others, does not change the fact that we are the same at the same time. … read more
I propose we are divine, part of God, or in other words, we are ‘of God’. And because we are not anything but God, in that sense we ARE God. And that we are also NOT God does not change that we ARE.
That being the case, I suggest that judgement of wrong or right/good or bad/punishment or reward flies in the face of our divinity. … read more
One
If I think I am God … then, looking at my experience of life and the world around me, I might question Why am I doing this to myself? … How does it serve me? … etc.
Different
If I think I am not God … then my questioning might be more along the lines of Why is God doing this to me? … read more
I propose that we are always perfect. Perfect and prefectly situated. Seeming imperfection is always the result of erroneous assumption as to who we are and what we are about. After all we are part of God. We are God in that sense. So how could it be otherwise?
Consider for a moment the case of Dorothy, the sweet and innocent young girl who gets lost in a storm, survives miraculously … only to be pursued by a nightmarish green skinned woman and an army of flying monkeys … wait a minute, isn’t that a film? … read more
I propose that death, and for that matter birth, old age and disease as well (sometimes dubbed the fourfold miseries of material existence) are there to serve us. They are there in support of our purpose. Indeed they are necessary to our purpose.
But how? And do they really need to be so extreme and harsh? I propose they are actually no more or less graphic than necessary, in fact just dramatic enough to make entirely believable the notion that we are mortal/temporary, limited … and so on. … read more
Karma, understood as reward/punishment, is a concept that seems to fly in the face of the oneness aspect of the jiva (individual soul) and God (the source). In other words, why would God punish Himself? Perhaps if it is understood more in terms of our creation of a backdrop for us to perfectly experience a specific chosen emotion, then that would fit much better with the idea of our emotional experience being part of the completeness of God. … read more
It is not so much that God is getting something that He wants from what is going on here in the material world, but more that He is simply manifesting something He is: the Supreme Enjoyer. His supreme enjoyment includes ‘enjoyment’ of the myriad of pleasures, including those ghastly and horrific, facilitated by self-ignorance in the material world. Without them His enjoyment would not be complete! … read more