#095-2006- After Michelangelo - 32" x 48"
An acrylic painting I did in 2006
Michelangelo painted his frescos 500 years ago . I did this one to learn from a master painter. It is a small section of his painting "The creation of Adam" that I have changed slightly to make it my own.
(below is a copy of his original )
Is God the old white man in the sky that Michelangelo portrayed, so long ago, in his original painting around 1500, painted on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Vatican city? This bigger then life, human like sky god, which is really a remake of the Greek god Zeus, that atheists like to negate, so often, is always seen as a separate deity from us mortals here on earth. Is there a more universal way to know what God is?
OK! , I will admit this type of questioning has been an obsession for me, most of my life, but especially so, the last ten years. Questions like, what is God? can last a life time, it cannot be known with our intellect. The thinking mind cannot comprehend what is spirit. But, a deeper part of our being can realize deep truth, however, it may not be easy to express that revelation in words.
What is God ? This is perhaps the hardest of all questions, isn't it? Its a question pondered by seers, philosophers and all spiritual masters throughout human history. For many the word 'God' creates a negative reaction in their thinking which may even cause havoc in their body chemistry, as it hits them in the pit of their stomach. For others it brings them to a certainty of inner conviction that moves them toward joy and rapture. However, for the vast majority of people, these matters have devolved toward an attitude of indifference, the word 'God' has lost all meaning in their daily lives. Why can this word, which is really just a thought form, cause such a varied response in us humans? Well, perhaps its all the other thoughts that we attach to this word 'God' that cause our reactions whether it be labeled bad, good or neutral. Atheists, devoted believers and the secular masses have all built up an internal network of thoughts concerning their ideas and concepts of what 'God' is. Does anybody really know what, or who, God really is?
I listened to a well known local united church pastor turned atheist, speak recently. His words seemed well rehearsed, empty and shallow to me, during his book promotional talk. Atheists seem to believe in only a material and mechanistic type universe, that is void of the supernatural. They have rejected anything to do with spirit and even the idea of a universal consciousness. In the question and answer period that followed, some christian believers were practically shutdown by the audience, when they tried to debunk the speakers stance. I left the room saddened by the dichotomy of thinking in that public forum, on what seemed to me as a one sided, empty and unappealing perspective. I am sure the atheists in the room felt renewed in their mutual disdain for all that is religious and spiritual. But, the christian believers may have felt somewhat ostracized and demeaned as they walked out of the building. I felt as if I were standing on the middle ground between these two opposing forces of embedded fundamentalist thought. The new brand of godless atheists, and the biblical literalist believers are both fundamentalistic and firm in their conviction concerning what they believe truth to be. Both tend to be closed minded toward any opposing or dissenting view. If it doesn't fit their narrative, in their understanding of life it can't possibly be true,for them. Both camps believe they represent and know the truth. But, what is truth, on this subject, really? Can we know? In the vortex of opposing opinions and emotions, the truth always seems to lie in middle ground. What is the middle way when it comes to opinion concerning matter and spirit ?
Perhaps there is a middle way to approach this subject. Let me dig freely into this for awhile and see if I can pick a way through the maze of thoughts and hopefully come to a center point that makes sense.
What is a word like 'God' ? Like all words it is a thought form. We know now that thoughts have the power to create. Its the creative intelligence behind thought form, on a cosmic scale, that brought the universe into existence according to ancient teachings. 'In the beginning was the word (Logos) and the word was with God and was God' this is the well know verse in John 1:1. Some of the Greek philosophers 300-400 BCE perceived this logos as an active rational and spiritual principle that permeated all reality. It is in a sense the highest authority or principle that governs all that is in existence, the seen and the unseen. Some have called it the God Self, the superordinate organizing principle at the top of all hierarchical principles. It may be the over arching authority or principle that underlies the structure of the universe.
But, for the purpose of attempting to understand on a limited scale, what God is, with the Logos meaning aside, we are trying to define some phenomenon that is non material in nature. We are attempting to attach a thought form, a verbal word, to that which is formless and unexplainable. Its likely impossible to use words to describe that which we cannot comprehend with our analytical mind. If we describe something, we put a limit on it. Whatever God is, it does not fit into a box with walls of limitation. It seems as if, God, the unknowable mystery, will not fit inside an institution, a religion, a philosophy, an ideology, or any belief system at all. So, at best we will only get a very limited understanding of what this mystery is, in this dimension.
Another well know phrase used to refer to God is- the ground of being -Paul Tillich 1886-1965
Paul Tillich was a very well know Christian existentialist philosopher and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century.
Here is a quote from the source link below
"Paul Tillich was critical of the view of God as a type of being or presence. He felt that, if God were a being, God could not then properly be called the source of all being (due to the question of what, in turn, created God). As an alternative, he suggested that God be understood as the “ground of Being-Itself”.
He felt that, since one cannot deny that there is being (where we and our world exist), there is therefore a Power of Being. He saw God as the ground upon which all beings exist. As such, God precedes “being itself” and God is manifested in the structure of beings."
Click the link below for his view of God as 'Ground of being'
ground of being
This extra article gives other views on the variety of ideas in defining God, click here images of God
There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao.
Tao to Ching, #25 written circa 500 bce
For more on Tao click Tao
Perhaps a word which both atheist and believer alike, can accept and comprehend, is to refer to this mystery we live and have our being in, simply, as 'Life' . What is life? We know almost instinctively when something is alive, don't we? , but, we have no idea really what this invisible life force is. When there is life present it emanates or radiates some sort of vibrant energy, be it ever so subtle. We can't wrap our thinking mind around it, but, deep down in our heart, or intuitive mind we know there is some sort of energetic presence in what we call life. Pull a carrot out of the ground, its still alive. When a tree is dead we know it because it is lifeless and without living matter, only an empty structure remains with its base elements.( It could be argued that there is life in the elements, atoms are now known to be made up of energy on the deepest level, rather then just invisible particles.) A tree without leaves in winter is considered still alive, we could say it is at rest. We know its alive. What is this life presence all around us, even in the coldness of winter?
Spirit is also another universal word used to describe this Life presence. I personally prefer the word Spirit or Life to express what has been traditionally been called God. Both of these words don't seem to have the multi-generational emotional baggage of meaning attached to them, like 'God'. 'Spirit and Life' does not seem to provoke or excite most people ...but, these words seems to be a more neutral and meaningful way to speak of this mystery we live in.
Another word for this life presence is what many Christian mystics, Hindu yogis and Buddhist monks down through the ages call stillness. Out of this no-thingness or stillness field arises all the phenomenon we experience in our known universe. In this absolute stillness we can almost determine that there would be is no movement, no action, no matter, even atoms become still, the particle as photon, or proton and electron with their electrical charges return to the potential wave energy state. Stillness in this absolute sense may be the field of potential where there is only the formless nothingness. Stillness is the containment where we live and move and have our being. Can we experience this stillness in a noisy and active world? Maybe! , many mystics have experienced this deep state of being. To be still and know, I am, God, is a well know verse from the psalms. With this understanding, God is found in the stillness. Many mystics call stillness God. Whatever God is, it is found only in the now, not in the past or future. When we still the body and mind, becoming present, in the here and now, and go deep within, in the meditative state we may begin to know what God is. It has little to do with belief, you don't have to "believe "anything, its more like an inner knowing or realization.
Life in its multiplicity and diversity of forms rise and fall in massive cycles over eons of time. Science and the ancient Vedic teachings seem to agree on the proposition that universes come and go, and galaxies come and go. We know, the earth was once formless and void of life and it became over billions of years a living being, with quadrillions of units of living biological communities, forming one massive global ecosystem. The earth with its huge feedback loops, and the interconnection, and interbeing of all its intelligent life, seems to have a mind of its own, a global collective mind, something the ancient Greeks called Gaia, or in modern times mother earth . Mountains rise and fall, ice ages come and go, creatures and plants morph into new creatures and plants, extinctions come and new life forms evolve. Human kingdoms rise and fall , and we as individualistic units of consciousness rise and fall as well. Life is manifested for a time and it goes back to the unmanifested. This cycle of life moving from the manifested form to the unmanifested non form is what we think of as life and death.
Universal consciousness or infinite intelligence are other words used to try and express this mystery of life. The materialist scientist believe that consciousness is only inside our brain. But the new non material scientists today are studying this universal consciousness and they realize it may be an infinite intelligence and the foundation or basis of all we call life. We seem to live in an ocean of consciousness and we are like waves moving up and down on the surface. When the individual wave loses its energy it dissolves back into the oneness of the ocean. When we drop the physical body we, as this individuated consciousness, melt back into the whole, the cosmic consciousness.
There is so much we don't understand. I only scratched the surface of what we can conclude by observation. The inner world found within, with the practice of meditation or contemplative prayer can help us realize more and more. The Jesus character did say that the kingdom of God is found within, its not some thing we can grab hold off and touch, in the physical realm. Let that sink in. We, may never fully grasp what God is until we, through grace come into a deeper realization by looking within. And, even if we did through a meditative state, enter the realm of the divine presence we will not be able to use words to adequately express ourselves to others what we know for sure about the ultimate reality.
Outward expressions of devotion to an image that represents God, like Michelangelo's Zeus like sky god, like the Jesus character, the Krishna figure, or a Buddha statue, or the sun and stars and many other idols, may have been a natural need for most humans. To worship an abstract God that is not visible, or without human attributes may be impossible for most people. The idea of the god-man has been with us long before Jesus walked the earth. There is the idea that the spark of the divine is in all beings. In Christianity it is suggested a human Jesus was the ultimate embodiment of the logos, the Christ, the spirit of god. The Christ spirit within all of us has been a teaching in Christianity since its beginning. The pre-incarnate Christ existed at the beginning of time, Jesus is the embodiment of it, fully in a human being. Christ in you the hope of glory ( Col 1:27) was proposed as a real possibility for all people everywhere. The divinity within the human being is a very old teaching that goes back thousands of years before Christianity began.
We live by grace and we trust in powers that are greater then us. I did not mention experiences that people over the years have experienced, when they encounter this divine presence. Attributes that have been revealed are subjective to the individual . Qualities like the fruit of the spirit have been recorded for example in the christian tradition, and much as been written about near death experiences where a great infinite love, bliss and joy have been experienced.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.....” (Galatians 5:22-23)
It seems like, in this age of enlightenment, the more we learn on this deep subject, it becomes very evident, that we really don't know much at all. The details will have to wait until the final dissolution of our finite physical body. When our individuated temporal being melts into the infinite one being, we may find being itself is connected to an even greater 'ground of all being'. It is all a great mystery. I wrote a poem on this last year here is the link: The Great Mystery .
In conclusion , many words and concepts have been used down through the ages to describe God but none are sufficient. It is the greatest of all mysteries. So, what is God?, a good answer may be ..'I don't know'. This may be the most truthful answer for something that is unexplainable and unknowable. The agnostic position of, 'I don't know', when it comes to questions referring to God, is in the end perhaps that middle way, the most humble way and perhaps the safest position to take. This conclusion may not promote the certainty, of 'I believe in God', but it can promote the openness of getting closer to truth. Its truth, or the seeking after truth, that sets you free. Not knowing is freedom, it keeps us humble and open to new revelations about life, in the present. When we rely totally on past revelations, in the written texts, of other peoples subjective experiences, and their visions of what God and truth were, we can get a very distorted and illusory image.
I hope I gave a small glimpse, perhaps as if looking through a very dirty window, my very limited impression of the awesome phenomena we call God. Someday we will get greater clarity, until that day keep an open mind, question everything. Seek and you may find.
Eventually you get to the point where the search is over, you will have found the greatest of treasures, and it was not found out there somewhere but it was found within.
One reaches a point where there are no more questions and there's no more search. - John Butler
