How Do You See God?

"How Do You See God?" by E. Raymond Rock

How we see God indicates the depth of our spiritual understanding. From an image of a bearded grandfather with long gray hair, emerging from clouds surrounded by sunbeams, to the ineffable, to no belief at all; these are a few of our ideas about God.


As children, we are completely dependent on our parents for physical and psychological support - our parents are our Gods. As we get older, the deification of our parents falls a little flat as we realize their fallibilities - and we naturally search for something more secure to fill the void. If our parents have already introduced us to religious ideas when we were still young and impressionable, then we usually accept these as Truth and form images in our minds based on the indoctrination. These images typically stick with us for life and we defend them rigorously, and no further inquiry into spirituality is made. We believe that God is there, but so miraculous that mere humans can't see Him/Her. And since God is judging everything we do, we try to do things that will please God as we conduct ourselves accordingly. Being good and believing benefits our ego with a feeling of eternal security for itself.

If we are not introduced to a belief system when we are young, or have an independent streak and debunk the validity of any belief other than what we can see for ourselves, then we believe that our senses are God. That is, nothing exists beyond what we can see, hear, think, etc. Since we can't see God, God doesn't exist, and we become absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure, whether it be self-indulgent pleasures, which we become weary of after a time, or giving our services to others, which is a subtle form of decadence, with an ego still benefiting and seeing itself traveling through experiences.

In both cases, a strong self or ego is present - an entity with deeply embedded opinions. We don't see our opinions as opinions; however, we see them as Truth. Since both can't be correct, God or no God, one has to be wrong . . . or perhaps both.

If we decide to question everything, and actually begin to understand our own minds, we can see that we create our own ideals. These ideals have nothing to do with Reality, but everything to do with our insecurities. At beginning levels of spirituality, our individual "self" is deeply entrenched, and therefore we experience fear. The "self" we have constructed in our minds is vulnerable to destruction, and we therefore create insurance policies for it in our minds so that we can continue after death.

The ones without insurance policies, the atheists or the world indulgent individuals, keep spiritual inquiry out of mind. The atheist might think that nothing survives the earthly experience, so they try to make each second count toward something. The world indulgent individuals seek constant pleasure, constant activity. Both of these indicate the operation of a strong "self" or ego, as the ego believes that it knows best.

Authentic Spiritual progress, which culminates in real freedom, seems to have something to do with the idea or image of ego, of ourselves, and as we develop spiritually, this concept or image of a separate self begins to loosen up. As it does so, something fills the void of that image we held so closely, our "self" and our opinions and ideals, but this new something that fills the ego void doesn't appear as an image at all; it shows up as a feeling of inexplicable ecstasy, awe, or freedom.

In the early stages of spirituality, our habit patterns again create images of this new feeling of freedom , perhaps in the form of a universal consciousness that might appear as the cosmos or the sum of all humanity, or maybe some other image, but as we go deeper, these images subside as well. Then we are left with only the freedom.

When "we" are gone, and only the freedom exists, there is no longer fear. Opinions, always based on fear, become restricted to what we have to do in the world to make a living, and not about Reality, or God, or however we wish describe the ineffable. The feeling of freedom is so cleansing and life altering that we no longer concern ourselves with the destiny of a "self," an illusion that we now understand is non-existent except in this fleeting existence we call life.

This feeling of freedom can result from traumatic experiences. Coming out of a narrow escape with death can change a person. We have all known or heard of people whose personalities have completely changed after such an experience where their intellect couldn't handle a situation that took control. This loss of control is the key, and what reduces the illusion of ego. For one brief moment, the charade is exposed, and that is enough - only that brief moment - for Truth to arise and change one irrevocably.

Unfortunately, our habit patterns might take such an experience and categorize it back into our beliefs, and therefore attempt to take control again. Still, there is a lasting effect, but if instead of taking such a precious experience and pigeonholing it into narrowness, we expand upon the experience, and then the results could be extremely far reaching, approaching Sage and Prophet levels. It only takes a steady openness without coming to conclusions.

To experience this openness and courage without having to wait for a traumatic event to impact our lives, merely do something that has the same affect. Simply learn about contemplative prayer or meditation, neither of which are involved with beliefs, and both of which can bring an ego under control and actually transcend it.

The freedom you have always sought is right here . . .