Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Faith

My faith is sometimes a very difficult subject to put into words. I believe that the Divine -- or "God" -- is the living universe: the sum total of all that exists. I find comfort in this belief, as I have studied many of the world's religions for some time and I find that this is the simplest explanation to account for all their differing perspectives. For the theologies of the world vary, from a single God to many, from a God with form to God without form, and from personal Divinity to impersonal -- or even absent -- Divinity.

I find, that a living universe is a simple large organism we may call the single God. I find that It is manifested by the various beings and forces of which It is composed: God the many. I find that It exists as both the many formed parts which we can see and measure, and the abiding unity which binds it all together. I find that It can be personal in our relationship to It or impersonal in the larger view of Its everyday existence.

And I further find this echoed in the various traditions of the world. I hear the Tenrikyo faith say that "any and everything is all the body of God". I hear the words of Mohammed in the Koran: "wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God." And I hear the words of the Greek mathematician Empedocles: "the nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."

I find that this starting point opens us up to a much broader world of spiritual understanding. For we cannot remove ourselves from the Cosmic equation, as we are want to do. Rather, we find that we are part of the living universe; that we are part of the body of God! We find that each and every thing is part of the body of God, and therefore every thing has a tiny piece of God with it: Cosmic DNA, if you will. That is to say that that which makes God holy and sacred: a piece of that is contained within us all. And so we each have that Holy Spirit within us. There are no worthless or useless people. There are simply people who fail to live up to their potential.

As we each contain a piece of God within us we find that we should love our neighbor as we should love ourselves, for "wheresoever we turn, there is the face of God!" We may find God in nature, or in a stranger, or the eyes of a child, or in our own mirror.

We also discover that we are not the separate beings we appear to be. We are all interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. How can we be as cruel to one another as we are? For we simply harm ourselves when we harm others.

And so I shake my head as I watch the ways people treat one another daily, from abuse and disputes and murder to the saber-rattling and wars around the globe. So many people want to destroy so many others. And we treat each other and our world as useless and disposable.

Perhaps we would get along better if we could only see ourselves in the eyes of others.