- Panentheism – an Inclusive and Diverse View of God
- Zeus-god
- Theos
- Immersed in God
- Destinations and Journeys
If we are to evolve in our relationship with Theos, we have to accept that the quaint Sunday School image of “God” as an old guy with a long white beard, sitting on a throne on a cloud just isn’t adequate any longer. Theos is neither “Zeus” nor that guy that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We’ve known for a long time that the sky isn’t a bowl over a flat earth; that the stars aren’t little lanterns in the sky; and that God doesn’t live on a mountain named Sinai, Olympus or anything else. Besides, clouds make a lousy platform for heaven. If nothing else, all those high flying jet airplanes have surely ruined the flower beds around the Pearly Gates by now.
The “mystical” model of God isn’t any more helpful. A god who only exists as part of the things of Creation – you, me, the chair I’m sitting on, the dog lying at my feet, the tree outside my window – might be “connected” to all of us. But even if we modify the image a bit and make it fit the more traditional Christian concept of the Holy Spirit I find it hard to relate to a God who is little more than a wisp of smoke.
There are innumerable variations on these two perspectives. Written in specific circumstances for specific people in specific places at specific times in their history, they spoke to the societies they were intended for, defining religion and “God” in the most relevant terms for their cultures.
While they were appropriate then and there, none have been completely and universally satisfying. And for good reason – none are complete.
Theos is, by definition, beyond definition.
As human beings, however, we still yearn to understand that in which “we live and move and have our being.” The nature of Creation is a fundamental part of our existence, and remains so whether the label we choose is “God” or simply “the universe.” We exist within it, and have an innate need to seek the Grand Unified Theory of Everything.
And as I explored some of the myriad images of God that humanity has created, I couldn’t help but recognize that underlying unity in their diversity.
The challenge, for me, was to find an expression of that unity that acknowledged the evolving nature of my own experience of, and relationship with, Theos. And that did it without conveying the same hubristic claim that I take others to task for – thinking that whatever definition resonated with me encompassed all of God.
John Shearman, one of my long-time friends and mentors, suggested I explore panentheism. The “en” in the middle is important. Panentheism is not pantheism. Rather, it’s a perspective on God that suggests that we don’t have to choose a single image. Indeed, its premise is that there’s no choice to be made.
Panentheism views Theos as both transcendent and immanent; apart from us and intimately part of us. But the transcendent God is more than a man writ large. And the immanent God is more than a wisp of smoke.
It’s not a new concept.
It’s been part of Hindu religious understanding for millennia; and even Judeo-Christian thought, which is traditionally fixated on the concept of separation, has explored panentheism in one form or another since at least the time of Spinoza in the 1600s.
By seeing God from a panentheistic viewpoint, we free ourselves from the temptation to define God by projecting human emotions, whether of anger or love, wrath or forgiveness, onto Theos’ transcendent consciousness. As Isaiah puts it, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are my ways your ways.”
Panentheism allows us to see God’s immanence in other people, other faiths, and other worldviews. We no longer need others to adhere to our doctrine or dogma in order for us to be “one” with them. To paraphrase a popular Celtic prayer – “We may see the face of Jesus the Christ in everyone we meet.”
Looking at Theos this way we become liberated from the fear of rejection by some sort of “jealous” Zeus-God. More, we can deepen our relationship to the immanent Theos who is never apart from us.
Panentheism encompasses all of our past attempts to “define” God while recognizing our ever-changing understanding of Creation. It acknowledges the relationship that exists inseverably between God, the universe and ourselves. By doing so, it provides a framework for us to explore and evolve that relationship.
In diversity.
In unity.
Eternally.
Lewis Randa's Dream inspired me to write the following poem.
IF I WAS GOD
Would I know that I rule the world I see?
Would I trust that things are as meant to be?
Would I see the me in you and the you in me?
If I was God would I love to be?
Would I fear not evil; and be the peace of the dove?
Would I deem upheaval as a cry for love?
Would I understand as below so above?
If I was God would I be love?
Would I accept the world and not change it at all?
Would I allow the terror from the winds that squall?
Would I give up control and not make a call?
If I was God would I stand tall?
Would I recognize myself and get off my knees
And see the forest through the trees?
Would I feel connected to the birds and bees?
Would I realize that I hold the keys?
Would I keep my lantern lit and view the world with light?
Would I know that this is it and everything’s all right?
By Pamela Powers
The dream provided an awareness that whatever can occur in our earthly existence is worth occurring, however joyful or tragic, because through these experiences God comes to know itself by experiencing all the pain, just as we do; all the joy, just as we do; all the sorrow and grief, just as we do, and when we do. And that, the dream conveyed, is because we and everything that exists is God. If I read what I learned through my dream in some book or someone told this to me, I wouldn’t necessarily get it like I did in my dream.
It seems that in the process of being born into a physical body, and succumbing to continuous phases of ego development, we become detached, not only from our connection with God, but more accurately, the awareness that we are God, and everything around us is God, and every experience we are having, (this bears repeating) fundamentally, is God having the experience. That thought never crossed my mind. I sensed that everything was God in a macro-universal sense, but never came close to considering God as having my personal experiences. That changes everything. I feel I now need to reread every important and meaningful text, scripture, poem, prayer and revisit every philosophy, ideology, theory and principle of life on which I have based my understanding. The dream was for me the mother lode of all paradigm shifts.
What God is on earth was clarified for me, in intimate terms, through the dream. I now recognize more than ever that surrendering one’s ego, as best one can, is required to illuminate the awareness that there is a personal God to whom my physical body and personality give form. How much more personal can God get, if, in fact, the experience I am having, God is having — not in addition to, not with, not through, but having exactly as I am having, when I am having it, because we are one and the same in time and space? Within earthly existence, this oneness has confounded humanity in its search for God, as God is concealed within the ego framework of personhood.
As this was being communicated through my dream, a sense of profound peace and self surrender enveloped me. I found myself in an alert state of sleep with no images or back drop that I can recall. I felt like I was being told the secret of the universe which, perhaps, others are aware of, but I certainly was not.
Prior to the dream, I understood each experience I had as me having alone. How could it be otherwise? I was taught that God was aware of all things, even my experiences. I was never taught, however, that God is all things, and therefore aware of all things; and is aware of all things because God is experiencing all things! We think, because of our separation from what we really are, personal experience is ours alone. My dream told me otherwise. It was as though I saw God the next day in everything around me.
Now it seems the very question, “is there a personal God?” is akin to a cell on my physical body questioning a personal relationship with me because the cell is unable to appreciate the relationship between us. The relationship, of course, is so integral, so one and the same, that it is indiscernible.
We can assume God is much more than what is taking place in the cosmos, but it is enough to know that where God exists on Earth is as personal as each beat of our heart, for we are the outward and visible embodiment of Godhood. We are the physical form, imbued with a concept of self that at once denies we are God, while existing for the sole purpose of God being us. And in being us, the dream imparted, God experiences in the “first person”, the reality we create.
So I awoke the next morning with a sense that what I have had explained to me in a dream now needs to be absorbed so I never again fall into thinking that God is something other than everything and everyone, and then begin questioning whether or not he/she/it is personally involved or cares enough to prevent horrible things from happening. Forgive the redundancy once more: If something can happen, no matter how horrific and unfair or wonderful and affirming, it is allowed to happen. It is allowed to happen because God manifests itself through us in order to experience everything that can happen, both the good and the bad, in our terms (and everything in between), and therefore we and everything else are created and exist for that end. And because it’s God’s experience, it’s our experience too, not the other way around. Thus, God couldn’t be more personal, and as such, mystifyingly, doesn’t seem to be personal at all, or even exist for that matter. Before the dream, none of this crossed my mind.
Talk about not seeing the forest through the trees.
For years I have been drawn to the Sikh saying: “If you can’t see God in all, you can’t see God at all”. I never really understood it until now. Thanks to the dream, this saying awakens me to an understanding that takes my breath away.
Feel free to share: lewisranda@gmail.com
Lewis, thanks for sharing a wonderful vision. I haven't seen it before, but I am grateful that you have taken the time to post it here. I hope you won't mind if I quote portions of this in future articles.
I'm also adding a link here to the Peace Abbey http://www.peaceabbey.org which I hope visitors to SLG will follow.
in relationship
David
The Dream
David,
So appreciate your sharing your insights which so resonate with my own awareness following a dream I had during a "dark night of the Soul" following the death of a friend of my daughter. I may have sent this before but will do it again just in case it never made it. Sure is a beautiful way to live life knowing that the God you once felt separate from is now lived rather than just worshipped.
Lewis
THE DREAM
By Lewis Randa
Dreams can have a most amazing effect on people, but to be honest, I rarely remember dreams long enough to consider any of them all that important. One, however, I cannot stop thinking about and it has changed the way I view reality. How long the substance of this dream will pervade my mind and spirit is anyone’s guess. I hope it lasts a lifetime.
With each tragic and horrible bit of news these days, and there have been many, I have been struggling with the question that countless others struggle with as well, and that is; how could there be a “personal” God? With all the suffering in the world — war, famine, greed, indifference, murder and disease, how could a personal God allow these things to happen, given that God, supposedly, is in charge? Free will is one thing; senseless tragedy another. I have pretty much concluded, after considerable reflection over time that there being a personal God is a nice, comforting idea which I learned in catechism. But, however, in light of all the tragedy and suffering around us, this was seemingly not the case. Or, if there is a personal God who would allow these things to happen to anyone at any time, then I certainly am missing something. Then one night, Christmas night, through a dream, what I was missing was explained to me.
I retired following a wonderful Christmas day with my family. Our holiday ritual included the recitation of the prayers for peace of the major faith traditions of the world in the interfaith chapel at The Peace Abbey. Though troubled by the recent tragic death of a friend of my daughter, I was at peace, at least with the principle that everyone and everything that exists is an expression or creation of a loving God. What I was struggling with, however, was that this so-called loving Creator would permit such horrible things to happen so randomly in the world. No doubt, nearly everyone has had that thought cross their mind at some point, only to work through it until it had to be addressed again, under new and different, difficult circumstances.
What I failed to understand, until it was revealed to me in the dream, was that God, whom I thought had no personal relationship with us, actually “experiences” what we experience — physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually with each and every experience everywhere, at all times and that is why all things are allowed to happen. God isn’t just allowing things to happen to us, God allows things to happen to itself.
First of series of The Dream