spiritual discussionsThis is the place at AW for mamas to learn about all different religions and beliefs, to ask questions, to give answers- all done with respect! if you don't have anything nice to say here- don't say anything at all.
Tell me, briefly, what/who God is and what s/he/it means to you. I realize that this is asking a lot of you. But perhaps your answer will be my enlightenment. I am looking for it --enlightenment.
Thank you so much, and please, no arguments, just tell me what it means to you and your life. Thank you so much for sharing (in advance).
I'm trying to find "enlightenment" as well. So far, here's what I feel. I feel God is everywhere...in every bird in every marvel of nature....in innocent children....in someones laugh....in happiness. I don't feel or never felt comfortable in a church or congregation type of environment so I don't go that route to feel God.
On Saturday, I attendended a Solstice ceremony and watched the sun rise....as we were in a circle around the fire, and the sun was rising, a flock of geese flew very low and directly above the circle.....it was incredible! I felt something right then and there. I know I would never and have never felt that inside a church. That truly opened my eyes to what I have been sort of feeling, that God is everywhere.
i have every intention of answering this, but as the regulars around here know, i tend to wax verbose on the subject. after the holidays i'll have to sit down and think of a succint yet thorough way to express who God is to me.
Originally posted by Wendi "God" is who people thank when things do go their way.
And who people thank when things do go their way. And/ or who people realize knows the way things are supposed to go and thank even when that way is not "theirs".
Location: "the stars are matter, we're matter, but it doesn't matter."
Posts: 3,024
god is everything...
to me, most purely manifest in nature.
I think god is able to take on many symbols to understand her; it is able to take infinite forms.
I think god is constantly communicating with us.
Beyond words, yet able to put things into words when we need it.
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Dawn,
mama to Maxine Day(8/01) and brand new Ivan Wolfgang(6/08), partner to Jason.
I haven't been in here lately so I thought I would chime in since I am on my path to enlightenment too.
Since I was a child, God was presented as a dominant male figure. I keep thinking how interesting it would be if God turned out to be the type of person you fear/hate the most? Like, if someone is a racist, God appears to them as a person of color. That would be a huge lesson in accepting...
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Julie P.
MOM to 3 sweeties, Aiden, Payton, and Avery!
Originally posted by jules I haven't been in here lately so I thought I would chime in since I am on my path to enlightenment too.
Since I was a child, God was presented as a dominant male figure. I keep thinking how interesting it would be if God turned out to be the type of person you fear/hate the most? Like, if someone is a racist, God appears to them as a person of color. That would be a huge lesson in accepting...
That's a really interesting way of thinking of things. I ought to put something/one that I don't like in the place of GOD. For example, a murderer. If that person were God, perhaps it would be to teach me to love all God's creations, and to forgive...
Very interesting. Thank you for making me think about that.
And thank you all for sharing. You have all made me think and appreciate. Anise, I await eagerly your response!
If I stand before you, and I place my hand upon your heart, and your hand upon my heart, and you look into my eyes and we speak to each other in true communion, one to the other as though the other were the center of the universe, and if we lose ourselves in the beating of the hearts and the joy of true communion with another living, beautiful, vibrant thing, that is God.
I like to say that God is the metarealtionship amongst all things. It dwells here in me and in you, but it is not merely our personhood, our the summation of personhood, humanity, the ecology, the universe. It is all of those things, but it is also the relationships between all those things. The continual unfolding of life, the changes and dances of life, the great mystery of two things meeting and being changed by their meeting. All of that is God. It is foundation of mystery, the ground of being from which everything grows and is nourished. It is that which allows me to see you as Holy in your own right and to offer myself wholly to you.
Ultimately God is a mystery, ineffable and unknowable. But I think we want to understand it, to relate to it. To draw it down into our lives so that we remember it and interact with it. So we create Chariots, vehicles that draw the divine light down from heaven and into the world. We give these Chariots various faces--HaShem, Persephone, Allah, Jesus, etc. They are not God. The moment we name God we limit it, and God is without limit. But these names draw us into relationship. These names and faces show us how to be in the world, and our knowledge of how we must be in the world shapes how we treat others--how we stand in relation to *everything*. Our Chariots are important because they shape the entire gamut of our being. If I pray to God the way I think it might be (the nameless, faceless eternal no-thingness) then I get nothing from that. It's like praying into a vast, dark, deep hole. But if I fill that hole up with wonder, with stories and rituals, emanations and emotions and I pray into that and trust that those things will carry my message towards the Beyond then I feel fulfilled. I have something with which I can relate, and by which I can judge myself. I have a standard for my life under the observation of my Chariot, the interface between me and That Which Cannot Be Named.
As to whether there is an aspect of being-hood that is a manifestation of God, I do not know. I like to think there is, and I live my life as though there is, and I commune with that and ask for guidance and blessings and aid, but I do not pretend to know how those prayers are processed. Maybe there is an aspect of God that is sentient and that meddles in human affairs, or maybe there isn't. I don't know, but for me it doesn't matter. I am comforted in my faith that there is, and at this stage of my life that is good enough.
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