How God Teaches Us Character

When you look at different religions and traditions there's always the notion and the link between man and God where man doesn't just imply the male human species it implies both male and female. There's always this link in connection with God. Certain traditions and religions may mention that God created man in his own image. Other traditions will say that God is within you or that the light of God shines or that we are the mirrors and prisms perhaps through which God's light shines through.

So I wanted to kind of look at this in a more palatable way because a lot of these notions can come across quiet, mystical. They can come across very esoteric and far from what we may perceive as our everyday reality. But some of these notions are perhaps and can be held true in regards to our everyday reality. I thought that would be interesting to explore together.

God’s connection in life forms

So because of this very continuous tradition throughout history and religions that have this indication and connection between man and God, perhaps God's characteristics are manifested in humans and all life forms. If God's light shines through all beings and all of existence, through every atom, through every cell, then perhaps God can be found. God's qualities can be found in all these aspects, in all these manifestations of material reality, at the very least.

So if we observe our own being, if we observe ourselves, it's like what about this very being? Has it or is it connected to God? You could be an atheist. You could be a very strong believer in religion. But right now, as it is, as we are, what is or can be that very connection to God. Some may not see this as a connection. Some may see this as God itself. And there are many different ways of communicating this and conveying this. And then there are different terms and words that are used. Let's not get too hooked up by the words, let's not get too hooked up by the signposts. Let's just go in the direction the signposts are pointing.

So with that, if we observe our very being, is there any aspect of our being that is eternal? Is there any aspect of this being that is ever present? Is there any aspect of this being that is not limited or localised in space? Is there any aspect of this being that is not bound by time? Is there any aspect of this being that is all merciful? Is there any aspect of this being that is all loving? And the list goes on and on and on.

So comparatively, if we sit down and look at different human beings, if we look at Hitler, for example we can immediately say there's nothing loving about this person. We can say that there's nothing this person isn't ever present. He's localised in one place he was at a time in history, and that's it.

The same goes even for perhaps saints and prophets and stuff, you can say that their body was localised in a particular space where they weren't ever present and the same logic can be applied there. But actually all of these characteristics and descriptions that are perhaps God's characteristics and descriptions are very prevalent in this immediate reality in everyday life. But the moment we try to compare these characteristics with a substrata of characteristics that we encompass as human beings, we are isolating these characteristics. And what that then eventually does is it will by definition not justify these boundless characteristics of the divine.

So for example, if I have a tendency to not forgive, then immediately you can say, well, God is all forgiving. So there is no congruency here, there's nothing similar about this person who doesn't forgive and God's characteristics of all forgiveness. So really what we're doing here is we aren't comparing the right thing. In fact, there shouldn't really be a comparison.

The very sense of being

And what I mean by that is that the very being itself, the very sense of being, if looked at, if inquired into and observed, you'll notice that the very qualities of being or consciousness or awareness, that which comes prior to whatever appears in reality. If the qualities of this sense of being are truly looked at and truly felt, the light of this being is truly felt, then there is no difference between all of these characteristics of the Divine and the very sense of being. And you'll notice that in fact they are of the same light in essence.

All these traditions and religions, when they describe the divine, it's actually through that channel, through the direction of the sense of being, that is ultimately allowing the very recognition of all of reality and all of what appears in reality. And what I mean by awareness or consciousness or the sense of being that comes prior to whatever appears is that whatever appears in reality, whether we feel an emotion, whether a thought crosses the mind, whether there are certain objects.

The very fact that whatever appears in reality is allowed to appear is because of the ever present sense of being. Even the very limitations in the confines of the body and the physical nature of life, even those are recognised. These boundaries are recognised. And the fact that boundaries can be recognised must mean that there is that which is boundless to recognise that which is bound.

And so with that it may take some introspection and observation to really settle and arrest in this sense of being. And as you do so, you may realise that, hey, I am not any of that which is bound. I am not that which I have been identifying with all this time. I'm not a particular image, I'm not anything that I have accumulated over the years, I'm not the memories, I'm not the experience. These are all things that are appearing in reality. But really I am that which is experiencing and recognising these aspects of reality that are appearing.

So as we allow ourselves to rest into this and there is much less of an identification with form. What then happens is you may recognise some of the qualities of that sense of being, the qualities of the Divine. And it's like ah, from this perspective I have found the ability to be immediately forgiving, because really the inability to forgive is linked to form, it's linked to image, it's linked to the sense of identity. So if someone hurts me and pain is felt, really that pain is an expression of the identity, but that pain also along with the identity is known and is recognised from this sense of being.

The sense of being or consciousness or awareness, whatever the term which comes prior to the pain is actually untouched by the pain and is even the very reason why pain is felt, is allowed to be felt, is allowed to even be recognised. If the environment or other people hurt us, the US we are talking about is that which in essence has been accumulated, is that which has been identified with a typical term is the ego.

For this reason, if we aren't identified as the ego, can there be true forgiveness? Because there is no attachment to any opinions or reasonings, there's just the light of being, the light of the Divine that shines through you, that is allowing for immediate forgiveness. And it's also for this reason why religious practises perhaps or spiritual practises are leaning towards humility, trying to allow you to cultivate humility, to become humble, to push you towards the direction of being more selfless rather than selfish.

Selfishness vs Selflessness

Selfish would mean strengthening the identity, strengthening the ego and really cementing that as the centre of the universe. Selflessness would be the opposite of that, to allow the ego to dissolve in reality and to not really make it the main subject of reality. With that there is enough space for the light of the Divine to shine through. The sense of being is not localised anywhere, it's not bound by time.

There is the experience of time speeding up and slowing down depending on the activity of the task at hand. Whatever appears in reality and is recognised by the sense of being. Where the sense of being isn't really a separate part from reality, it is that which is allowing whatever appears in reality to appear and to be known.

In this case, love is unconditional. For conditions are only applied and imposed by the character and the opinions and the judgments and the thoughts and the images and everything that is connected with the ego.

The Takeaway:

If we allow ourselves to rest in being beyond the character, beyond the egoic identity that we are so strongly trying to protect all the time, can there then be the recognition of divinity, the recognition of the presence of God through the sense of beings, characteristics or the nature of being.

Only then will you know true unconditional love, true forgiveness, true compassion. The ego or the sense of separate self. The identity can never know these things. The sense of separate self or the ego. The identity is cultivated and developed through a set of boundaries and conditions.

It's an image, and images have to have an outline for it to define itself and to stand out within existence. But divinity or the sense of being or God implies that there are no boundaries, there are no limitations. It transcends form, yet it allows form to be. These are all characteristics of the sense of being, the light of divinity that shines in all aspects of being.

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