Fruit of the Contemplative Life
Fruit of the contemplative life: => General Discussion => : Tad July 11, 2022, 11:46:09 AM
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Do you use the fromework of God in your practice? How? For example, contemplating the source/God behind all existance.
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Hi Tad,
I noticed no one replied so I thought I should write you back.
I am very flexible about this. I have read the Buddhists who are non-theistic, as well as the Christians and Hindus who are theistic. I believe they are all describing the same universal life-path and are all equal seekers after the transcendent.
I believe there is some danger in the "man in the sky" idea. At the same time I have known many sincere devout who use the anthropomorphic idea of the sacred as a tool for better engaging with it.
In terms of what "God" is exactly, I think of God as the "opposite" or "pole" of the universe we inhabit now. We exist in space and time; "God" is outside of these things. God is both everywhere and nowhere. God is the ground and the origin. God is also elusive. We live in a world where we have the ideas of "existence" and "nonexistence": God is actually outside (transcends) these ideas. So, it is deeply difficult for the human mind to understand.
This is why I said there was some danger in the "man in the sky" idea. Even to say "God exists" imposes the limitations of our physical universe on God. God is something so utterly different we cannot understand it.
In Buddhism they refer to the "unfathomable questions" and I think this is one of those ideas. We try to ponder it, but long analytical discussion often creates more misunderstanding than understanding. Perhaps the best way to wrap our heads around it is only through intuition (revelation).
I think you should pick whichever (theism, atheism, or otherwise) is most amenable to you or your psychology and proceed with it.
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Hello Alexander,
Well said. I read about apophatic theology which says that God is beyond any definition so it can only be explained by what it is not.