Most of the people on earth agree that there is such a thing called God. But what is that–and how does it work? That’s the question that has captured the attention of philosophers and theologians for thousands of years.
Today we continue our own exploration of this endlessly fascinating and incredibly important topic. This is, in fact, the most important aspect of human life, and the most important topic we could ever discuss. I believe even “Don L.” and “No Name” will agree with that.
Last week our lesson in Sunday School All Week revolved around “God’s process,” describing it this way:
1. God individuates Itself, manifesting Itself as a million-kagillion-bazillion “singularizations” of The Singularity. Or, if you please, the Only Thing That Is.
2. God does this so that It can realize Itself. The Process of Self Realization is a three-part process: (1) Know; (2) Experience; (3) Be. In the Single State of Pure Being God can Be Itself — but It cannot Know or Experience what It is Being, for the simple reason that there is nothing else.
(You cannot know yourself to be “big” is there is nothing “small” that exists. You cannot experience yourself as being “fast” if there is nothing “slow” that exists. If nothing exists except That Which You Are, then That Which You Are is not knowable or experienceable. It is conceivable (that is, you can conceive of it), but it is not knowable or experienceable.)
3. Since there was nothing else that IS save the ONLY Thing That Is, God could not go “outside of Itself” to find out about Itself; to Know Itself or to Experience what it might come to Know. So, God did the only thing that God could do. God divided Itself into a countless number of parts (or aspects of Divinity), so that each part might then experience The Whole, and so that The Whole might experience Itself through each of Its parts. This process is what I have called “individuation.”
4. God then created a series of what we might call Devices, through which the Knowing and the Experiencing of Itself would become possible, even though nothing else but Itself existed. These Devices were: Time, Space, Physicality; Relativity; Forgetfulness; Consciousness; and Evolution.
5. What we have come to call The Soul is nothing more (and nothing less!) than an Individuation of God (or an Aspect of Divinity), physicalized and evolved to the point that it has developed self-consciousness. Not all physicalized Life has evolved to the point of having self-consciousness. Some Life forms, on the other hand, have evolved to a higher level of self-consciousness than humans have. They are said to have a high level of Awareness. Indeed, even among humans, levels of Awareness vary from person to person. (More about this in the weeks ahead.)
6. In the Realm of the Spiritual, the Soul is Divinity Divisioned. That is, God Individuated. This Division of Divinity moves through The Essence on an eternal journey, from the Realm of the Spiritual to the Realm of the Physical, to the Realm of the Spirisical (that is, the point between the other two realms). The completion of one cycle of this never-ending journey is called, in our language, a “lifetime.”
I promised that this week we would explore the reason for this journey, with its many cycles, as well as taking a look at how and why the Divine Devices of Time, Space, Physicality, Relativity, Forgetfulness, Consciousness, and Evolution work. So let us begin…
We begin–again–with an understanding that there absolutely is something called “God.” (Or Adonai, Allah, Elohim, Hari, Jehovah, Krishna, Lord, Rama, Vishnu, Yahweh, and by many other names as well.) Most of the human race agrees on this. In nearly every culture on earth the largest number of people feel sure that there is something Larger Than Themselves; something that cannot completely know or totally define, but that is Bigger Than All Of It…and the source of and the power behind everything.
In spiritual terms, this Thing has been described as the Supreme Being, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Source of All Life, the Father Which Are in Heaven. In scientific terms this Thing has been described as The Essence, The Prime Energy, and First Cause. Metaphysically (and metaphorically) It has been described as Pure Intelligence, or First Thought, or the Unmoved Mover, or The Singularity.
Most of the human race (but by no means all of it) also believes that there such a thing as the human soul. This can also be described in spiritual, scientific, and metaphysical terms. Spiritually, it is thought of as a spirit. Scientifically, as a localized energy unit. Metaphysically it is often referred to as an Aspect of the Divine, or an Individuation of Divinity. I like to call it a “singularization of The Singularity.”
In the New Spirituality (as opposed to most more traditional human theologies) the Soul is considered to be a part of God. It is understood to be God, individuated. There is no doctrine or dogma of Separation in the New Spirituality. There was no “Garden of Eden,” there was no “fall of man,” there was no one driven out of “paradise,” and there is no separation of anything from anything else. There is only One Thing, and all things are part of the One Thing That Is. The entire cosmology is based on Unity and singularity. One Thing in Many Forms.
This is a major difference–no doubt, the major difference–between the New Spirituality and traditional religion. And, of course, it changes everything.
(When these lessons continue: Why The Singularity “individuates” – or, why are you you.)