Saturday 18 May 2013

Where Lies God?


I would not wish to imply that this is a subject that I can cover with one post, or even a larger but finite number of posts.  It is my purpose here to try a slightly different approach to the problem of  the God word, to try to step into the darkness in the hope that that act of faith is answered by the gaining of something of practical value.  As in science, an hypothesis that does not tally with practical experience is of no real and lasting value.

Of course the first problem that arises is, "What is God?"  It is a similar, if not the same, question as, "What is Truth, the Self, Consciousness,  Life Force," and so on.  However, it occurs to me that such questions as these do not necessarily need to be answered before progress can be made along our chosen path.  To develop this argument further I would like to use an approach which has already proved to be eminently successful in the lives of many men and women.

There are many people around the world engaged in spiritual recovery, using Twelve Step Programmes.  From the first programme developed in the 1930's which was to lead to the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organisation which benefited from some vital, spiritual input by C. G. Jung, further programmes were developed by other self-help groups with great success.  So much then for history.

I would like to quote the first part of Step 11 of that programme, the latter part not being relevant to the point I wish to make.  The quote is as follows:-

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him................."

Now how may an atheist alcoholic or an atheist narcotics addict approach this Step? Particularly with the latter, this can be a matter of life or death.  Does she/he simply say that without a belief in God this Step, and hence the whole programme, is not for them?  If that line is followed, the consequences can be dire.  They may on the other hand say that, whilst not believing in God, he/she will follow the Step anyway.  Unlike most of us, addicts do not have the luxury of debating the existence or otherwise of God, as if dealing with a theological or ideological debating point with little or no practical significance.  For them the programme must offer a practical solution to their most urgent problem.  The programme must work;  this 11th. Step of the programme must work.

Let it be supposed that our atheist friends have chosen the path of survival.  Referring to the quote given above, the first point that this Step implies is that there is something, namely God, towards which one can move but about which, or about whose identity, we are free to remain in doubt.  The second point to be noted is that this bringing down of the hidden into consciousness can be brought about by prayer and meditation, and I would also add contemplation.  That is the chosen method for working this Step.

There will come a time, and more than just one time, when certain psycho-spiritual realisations emerge from the underground of the mind.  Some of these realisations may not be anything to write home about, but a start will have been made;  a sound practice will be developing.  Sometimes, however, the realisations may be greatly uplifting, exciting, may even be shocking or frightening, but of such a nature that life will never again be seen in quite the same way.  What may be concluded from this experience?

One conclusion might be that one has experienced God, albeit not a divinity that one might have expected to meet, simply because this Step implies the existence of God.  In short, it might be concluded that one had effectively been hoodwinked by a particular form of words. On the other hand it might be concluded that a door has been opened into a higher, perhaps more spiritual, existence of which one had previously been unaware.  In other words, something profound and useful will have been encountered without a prior requirement to believe in God.  The spiritual realisations experienced, might just indicate that life is not all it appears to be, and that there are rewarding paths to be travelled, even though the ultimate goal may lie in darkness and uncertainty.  Now of course we are not dealing with the laws of hard sciences here. The implicit element of choice may possibly lower the probabilities of success, if the word success has any meaning in this context.  But the probability will nevertheless be statistically significant.  For what more can one ask?

At some stage in this process, I would begin to ask questions about the origin of these spiritual experiences. (Is life worth the having without questions and doubts?)  I might query the nature of these experiences, and what are their origins.  I might, with some wonder, notice the changes that have occurred within my being, not brought about by my little consciousness. A door begins to open onto a new, fresh experience.  It may well be that God is experiential, that there may come a time when I might say, "So that's what God is!"  Spirituality is about an awakening and about presence.  It is essentially a personal and practical experience.  What a stunning experience to have.

Freed from dogma, whether it be religious, political, scientific (and oh yes, science too has its dogmas and its high priests) or any other form of straitjacket of the mind and soul, I can come alive to new possibilities, new paradigms even, a continuing opening to the wonder of the "inner" as well as the "outer" universe, and my small part in it.  It seems to me that it is only by refusing to adopt the role of a spiritual sheep before the shepherd in the pulpit, or enculturated zombie before the sleeping ideologue, that I can progress.  Only out of my acceptance of real, personal responsibility and a genuine growth into spiritual adulthood, can I become an inheritor of a wonder and truth beyond imagination.  It begins now, and now, and forever now.

19 comments:

  1. Tom, I appreciate very much your approach to this difficult and elusive subject and the straightforward, no bullshit manner in which you formulate your thoughts. The 12-step programme, and step 11 specifically, is an inspired illustration to the points you are making and I am certainly interested to hear how you will develop this theme.

    Speaking for myself, the *existence* of God (not the definition of what Gd might be) has never been in doubt, not through any religious brainwashing or sheep-like acceptance of dogma, but only via a personal experiential sense that is as real as the colour of my eyes or my fingerprints. I question and argue with nearly everything that all religions as well as spiritual theories say but am nevertheless sure that God is here to stay.

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  2. Natalie: Thank you very much for your comment. To be truthful, I also am very interested in how this theme will be developed. I always knew that I would need to jump around in time, because realisations sometimes take a long time to come through, even years sometimes.

    The only way I can approach my task is to try to both listen and hear where I am being pulled. I'll try to intersperse my more serious posts with a light-hearted (I hope) approach to the painful episodes in my life, e.g. childhood. Beyond that I cannot yet see my way, but that is one of the joys of this journey.

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  3. There is a word in German - Ursprung. It means source, or origin. But the -sprung part implies a springing from the origin into the present. The ever-present origin ~ Ursprung und Gegenwart. The concept is not mine, but Jean Gebser's. Does God lie or spring into the consciousness? How much movement is involved?

    Questions are the spark, I think. You run into a closed door and ask why. Questions asked in quiet are freeing. Doors may open in response.

    What happens to those of us who watch TV, movies, etc. and wallow in the fictional experiences of others? To those of us who read an ancient book and go through life with the answers. All of the answers. No questions needed. Scary. A soul straitjacketed (can a use that as a verb?)

    "It begins now, and now, and forever now." An ever-present origin revealed through questions asked of one's soul. Is that where God lies? Where God moves? I wonder.

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  4. Fascinated as I am - in a technical sense - by the subjects you raise, I'm dipping out and this comment is merely an explanation as to my near-invisibility.

    In fact I dabbled objectively in a related matter a month or so ago (The mechanics of prayer) and actually posted on the subject. Despite the fact that my approach eschewed controversy VR told me I was straying outside my normally ribald territory, would almost certainly be misunderstood and recommended deletion. Which I did. But not quite quickly enough. One commenter had actually read the thing and covert explanations were necessary.

    As I said, near-invisible.

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  5. Rouchswalwe: When I read your comment I had to stop, and go out onto our terrace in the slight drizzle that was falling. I think I needed to convince myself that the moisture around my eyes was the result of the rain - but it wasn't of course.

    For a few moments I was lost in something precious; then I moved.

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  6. Robbie: Thank you. Glad you are not totally invisible, but then in my mind you never really are.

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  7. “Ignorance is bold, and knowledge is reserved.” — Thucydides

    I write so much about this, no need to expound here.

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  8. I dare because I trust you, Tom.
    Could we, humanity, all of us, be 'God in progress'?
    Our soul registers everything that we see, hear, touch, feel,.....and our mind thinks about it all until it finds the eternal truth and then we will all be as 'God' as possible.
    Of course one needs to believe in reincarnation for this to make any sense.

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  9. a friend, who works as a counselor with recovering addicts (at a facility that embraces the AA model) says they talk of acknowledging a "higher power" rather than "god" when going through the steps. Each individual can use whatever word/term they wish, but as counselors, they use the broader term. i like the differentiation very much, even though i am a believer.


    i love the last words of your post:
    "Only out of my acceptance of real, personal responsibility and a genuine growth into spiritual adulthood, can I become an inheritor of a wonder and truth beyond imagination. It begins now, and now, and forever now."

    i was taught and do believe in this notion:

    "as man/woman is, God once was. As God is, man/woman may become."

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  10. a friend, who works as a counselor with recovering addicts (at a facility that embraces the AA model) says they talk of acknowledging a "higher power" rather than "god" when going through the steps. Each individual can use whatever word/term they wish, but as counselors, they use the broader term. i like the differentiation very much, even though i am a believer.


    i love the last words of your post:
    "Only out of my acceptance of real, personal responsibility and a genuine growth into spiritual adulthood, can I become an inheritor of a wonder and truth beyond imagination. It begins now, and now, and forever now."

    i was taught and do believe in this notion:

    "as man/woman is, God once was. As God is, man/woman may become."

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  11. Zhoen: It is enough that you are here. Thank you.

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  12. Ellena: Your trust honours me. I believe the whole universe is in a process of becoming. We talk so readily about entropy, the cosmos dying away to a cold death. We do not talk enough about enthalpy, the steadily increasing complexity of life that exists in the cosmos which runs counter to entropy.

    Maybe, yes, the material universe with all our little consciousnesses combining to celebrate the glory of CONSCIOUSNESS, or God-becoming, is what all sentience - not just that of humanity - is called to become.

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  13. Zephyr: Yes, thank you for mentioning that point. It is an expression I have heard used many times, although I feel less comfortable with it now that the God-word. In fact as early as Step 2 in that programme are used the truly magical words, "Came to believe in a power greater than ourselves...." No God-word, only a recognition of something more powerful than our egos.

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  14. A continual becoming, calling to me to be a conscious participant - that is how I see it. I've always believed; I just had to step away from, and eventually reject, the Theist view as it was presented to me in childhood, before a door could open toward a spiritual maturity. Fr. Richard Rohr talks a lot about "second half of life spirituality" - a time when we stop trying to make God in our own image, and enter into the mystery of continual presence. It's a wonderful journey, Tom, with no fixed point of arrival, and it's an odd and comforting thing how you set onto the path and find companions.

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  15. Beth: Thank you for that. Your comment has come at just the right time. I am not enjoying this sense of wide open vulnerability I am passing through at present. But I must not hide away now. Thank you again.

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  16. Tom, new to your blog... Lucy thought I might wander over... I have always thought that the key to step 2 "power greater than ourselves" is to acknowledge that alcohol is itself a power greater than ourselves and that the power in step 2 must be not only greater than ourselves but greater than alcohol too. Refer to step 1 "powerless over alcohol". Beyond that greatness one tumbles into the void and leaps to the end all: God - but you don't have to and many will not... they will stop at "greater than alcohol" in one or another form and be content.

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  17. Christopher: Welcome to Gwynt. An interesting comment. I suppose I have always assumed that someone addicted to any substance would take it as read that it was a "power greater than themselves". But I guess that assumption merely reflects my own past inability to control another person's drinking. Thank you.

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  18. Tom, I am happy you have found my blog. You won't find a recovery focus there too often. I explore farther afield there. I like to shape shift, it seems, so I pretend to presence in other realms there. I am very fond of Lucy. We were introduced here in "Blogland" back in 2008.

    I was going to continue discussing the addiction insanity but I was putting up too many words. That is a sure sign of me not being clear or the topic being too difficult. So I deleted. :D

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  19. Christopher: I understand.

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