Saturday, June 26, 2010

One

God is One.

One beginning. One Being. One universe. One reality.

God is Many.

Many choices. Many possibilities. Many people. Many faces.

God is Peace.

Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace and joy. Peace and love.

God is Harmony.

Harmony of Thought. Harmony of Being. Harmony of Rest. Harmony of Action.

Some Pantheist-oriented Quotes From The World's Religions

"I am easy of access to that ever steadfast seeker who constantly meditates on Me and gives no thought to anything else."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 8:14

"Pray without ceasing."

Christianity, Bible I Thessalonians 5:17

"Know Thyself."

Greek, Socrates

"The Supreme Reality exists WITHIN."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 6:5

"One who knows the inner self knows the external world as well. One who knows the external world knows the inner self as well."

Jainism, Acarangustra 1.147

"The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."

Christianity, Bible II Corinthians 6:16

"Know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit lives IN you."

Christianity, Bible I Corinthians 3:16

"As a mother with her own life guards the life of her own child, let all-embracing thoughts for all that lives be thine."

Buddhism, Khuddaka Partha, Metta Sutta

"I am the Self, seated in the Hearts of all creatures."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 10:20

"All you under heaven! Regard heaven as your father, earth as your mother, and all living things as your brothers and sisters."

Shinto, Oracle of Atsuta

"Even in a single leaf of a tree, or a tender blade of grass, the awe-inspiring Deity manifests itself."

Shinto, Urabe-no-Kanekuni

"Any and everything of this universe is all the body of God."

Tenrikyo, Ofudesaki 3.40

"Everywhere You Turn, There Is The Face Of God."

Holy Q'uran, 2:115 (translated)

"Undivided I am, undivided my soul, undivided my sight, undivided my hearing, undivided my in-breathing, undivided my out-breathing, undivided my diffusive breath, undivided the whole of me."

Hinduism, Atharva Veda 19.51.1

"God needs no pointing out to a child."

African Religions, Akan Proverb (Ghana)

"The nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

Greek, Empedocles

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the Kingdom]."

Christianity, Gospel of Thomas 22 (Gnostic)

En Tota

God is the universe. And here, by "universe" I mean the word as it's component parts suggest: "uni" + "verse" = "one" + "word", the one word which describes everything everywhere, including those things we know of and extending to those things we cannot even begin to imagine. In short, God is part and parcel of all that exists.

And so, to put it simply, as we ourselves are part of all that exists, each of us is also a part of the body of God. That is to say, we each contain but a small part of that Sacredness within us. And so do all people, and all things everywhere.

We need only look within ourselves to find God, or in the mirror, or the eyes of a child, or to the birds, the rocks, the oceans, or the stars. Everywhere we turn we find God. And so, as it is said in the Tenrikyo religion: "Any and everything of this universe os all the body of God." Also, the Greek Empedocles said: "The nature of God is a circle, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." God is within us all, if we will but look.

We find God within ourselves, within others, within nature. Sacredness is everywhere; everything is Sacred. And the only profanity comes from what we do, or what we think. We can choose to bring forth the Holiness within ourselves. We can choose to be a part of the greater picture.

"God within,

God without,

but never without God!"