How To Know God Part 17

Stage Three:Faith brings me peace. I pray that life should be free from turmoil and distress.

Stage Four:I have faith that inner knowledge will uphold me. I pray for more insight into G.o.d's ways.

Stage Five:Faith tells me that G.o.d will support my every desire. I pray that I am worthy of his faith in me.

Stage Six:Faith can move mountains. I pray to be G.o.d's instrument of transformation.

Stage Seven:Faith melts into universal being. When I pray, I find that I am praying to myself.

Notice how strikingly different the same word is in each stage. When people say that they have faith or that they believe in prayer, you cannot be certain what they mean without more understanding. This accounts for why there is such wild divergence of opinion about whether G.o.d listens to prayers and answers them. In relative terms, it all depends on your level of consciousness. At lower levels the thoughts behind a prayer may be too diffuse to create a result. As separation closes, the gap between prayer and result is closed, too; every prayer is answered. At the level of miracles prayer has the power to alter outward events. Finally, in the state of unity consciousness, there is no need for prayer. Your every thought comes from the soul; therefore you would only be praying to yourself.

A boundary is the same as a horizon. If you attempt to walk around the world, the horizon is the farthest boundary of your sight, yet it keeps advancing ahead of you as you move. The spiritual equivalent is stated eloquently in a verse from the mystical Catholic monk Thomas Merton: The Lord travels in all directions at once.

The Lord arrives from all directions at once.

Wherever we are, we find that He has just departed. Wherever we go, we find that He has just arrived before us.

In literal terms this verse states two things. One we already know: G.o.d is elusive because he exists in the domain of uncertainty, where time and s.p.a.ce aren't fixed. The other is that G.o.d is always perceived within boundaries. We get only a limited idea of him, and that limited idea keeps shifting. There is no cure for this misperception until the final stage of unity; until then, the gap of separation keeps causing the mind to think it knows G.o.d when only partial knowledge is available. In shorthand form, here are the horizons that limit our vision in the seven stages: Stage One: Horizon of Fear I provide for the necessities and look out for myself. But when I get anxious, I feel lost. Only G.o.d knows why bad things happen in this world.

Bounded by anxiety, insecurity, dependency.

Stage Two: Horizon of Control I exert power and relish compet.i.tion as a way of fulfilling my ambitions.

But when things get beyond my control, I am totally frustrated. Only G.o.d knows why things don't work out the way I plan.

Bounded by guilt, duty, victimization.

Stage Three: Horizon of Fatalism I'm at peace with myself and know what is happening with me inside. But I lose my center when nothing makes sense anymore. Only G.o.d knows why destiny can be so cruel and capricious.

Bounded by karma, introversion, lack of power.

Stage Four: Horizon of Self-deception I navigate through the world with much more intuition and insight than most people. But I can be misled by my inner voice at times. Only G.o.d knows why my intuition deceives me just when I need it most.

Bounded by hidden secrets, past conditioning, ego needs.

Stage Five: Horizon of Fantasy My inner world is rich with new discoveries, and I have enough awareness to see that my thoughts come true. But some of my deepest wishes stay on the level of unreachable fantasies. Only G.o.d knows why this happens.

Bounded by self-absorption, grandiosity, playing G.o.d.

Stage Six: Horizon of Ident.i.ty My whole life is devoted to service, and I can be selfless in the face of great demands from others. But sometimes the suffering of humanity makes me want to escape this world. Only G.o.d knows why I can't lose myself in him all the time.

Bounded by thought, personal ego, traces of old conditioning.

Stage Seven: Infinity-No Horizon I see no difference between my mind and the mind in all things. My ident.i.ty is one with all people. Only G.o.d knows that I am merged into him in all dimensions at all times.

Boundless.

Perhaps this is the most telling "chart" of all, because we identify so completely with our boundaries. The horizon is fluid, however. Each stage breaks the boundaries of the one that came before. To someone in stage two, where guilt serves to keep the ego from going mad with power, the absence of guilt doesn't seem possible. It would be a sure sign that stage three is looming should the person successfully find real forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a mark of stage three, and those who arrive there have pushed their projection of G.o.d just a little further.

Society tends to cl.u.s.ter, like seeking like. At a party of psychiatrists, everyone believes in insight; at a party of entrepreneurs, everybody believes in success. This makes it hard to accept that G.o.d's values are any different. We all know marriages where both spouses are sure that the world is a certain way, whether it be dangerous, unsafe, abundant, benign, or blessed. Is this a form of organized deception? Yes and no. Although your boundaries define you, that shouldn't be taken as negative; every stage of inner growth allows you the opportunity to see things that are hard to see. Projection is inevitable and very powerful.

The boundaries of belief are true event horizons, because the mind can't go beyond them, even though to an outsider the boundaries don't exist. A fundamentalist Christian may be unable to conceive of divorce without believing that he will be thrown outside G.o.d's grace, just as an Orthodox Jew would find it inconceivable to break kosher laws or a Muslim to allow his wife to walk outside with her face uncovered. A stage one interpretation of Christ, if it reflects fear, would center on the times he warns of sinners "cast into the outer darkness with wailing and gnashing of teeth." A stage one interpretation of Allah centers on the Koran's promise that one sin against G.o.d's laws is enough to deserve eternal d.a.m.nation.

These beliefs defy reason, and that is their purpose. Religions have always feared the end of faith. (Recently some Protestant sects attempted to remove all references in the liturgy to original sin and human imperfection, but they failed, even among liberal theologians. The winning argument was that only G.o.d is perfect and we should never forget it.) Obedience holds the religious world together and makes redemption possible. For G.o.d to have his place, human beings must know theirs.

In every stage the essential point is the same: You believe that G.o.d is holding you back for some reason. As long as you are in that stage, you will wrestle with what the reason is; this forms the core of your personal drama. In truth you are projecting all boundaries; this becomes obvious when you see that other people have boundaries totally different from yours.

The end of separation is preordained. Eventually there is no more need for boundaries. The event horizon gets pushed as far as the mind will go, and after that G.o.d must take over. The word mystical is used carelessly to describe many different things, but I would say that in any stage of inner growth, whatever lies outside your boundaries is mystical to you. The famous cargo cult among the Trobrian islanders in the Pacific derived their religion when Allied planes dropped supplies from the sky during World War II. Being unable to comprehend what an airplane is, the islanders built straw effigies of them and prayed for their return. What was ordinary technology to us was across the event horizon for them.

Even when you find yourself stagnated in fixed beliefs, the possibility of closing the gap is always present. Every morning you have a new opportunity to know G.o.d. Your starting point may be one of fear and guilt, or it may be one of expanded awareness-that is all relative. According to our three ways of finding G.o.d, no one is ever trapped without hope: 1. We can always cross the horizon to a new reality.

2. Clues are left to tell us how to grow.

3. Second attention enables us to read these clues.

The saint is equal to the sinner in this regard. Both are guided by G.o.d from across the gap.

THE POWER OF INTENTION.

The aim of spirituality is to learn to cooperate with G.o.d. Most of us have been raised to do the opposite. Our skills and abilities come from first attention and not second. As a result, our issues tend to center on the lower stages, where fear and neediness, however much we deny them, take their toll. In these early stages the ego a.s.serts its needs with great force-money, security, s.e.x, and power make huge claims on everyone in society. It is important to realize that G.o.d doesn't judge against these things-when people feel that they owe their success to G.o.d, they are right. When wrongdoing goes unpunished and good deeds are ignored, G.o.d smiles on both. There is only one reality, which is spiritual, and nothing lies outside G.o.d's mind. We tap into the source of creativity and intelligence with every thought.

What makes a life spiritual, then?

The difference is entirely one of intention. I began this book by saying that two people could be followed around from birth to death with a camera, and there would be no external way to show which one believed in G.o.d. This fact remains true. Unless you become a recluse or enter a monastery, your social role is irrelevant to how spiritual you are.

Everything depends on intention. If someone uses kind words but intends to snub you, the intention cuts through. The most expensive gift cannot make up for lack of love. We know instinctively when intentions come from an honest place or a place of deception.

In spiritual life, intention includes will and purpose, aspiration and highest vision. If you set your intention toward G.o.d, spirit grows. If you set your intention toward material existence, that will grow instead. Once you plant the seed of an intention, your soul's journey unfolds automatically. Here are the basic intentions that mark a spiritual life, stated in terms of what a person wants to achieve: I want to feel G.o.d's presence. This intention is rooted in the discomfort of being isolated and separate. When G.o.d is absent, the underlying feeling of loneliness cannot be escaped. You can mask it by developing friendships and family ties. Ultimately, however, each of us needs to feel a sense of inner fullness and peace. We want to be satisfied within ourselves, no matter if we are alone or in a crowd.

I want G.o.d to aid and support me. G.o.d's presence brings with it the qualities of spirit. At the source, every quality-love, intelligence, truth, organizing ability, creativity becomes infinite. The growth of these things in your life is a sign that you are approaching closer to your soul.

I want to feel connected to the whole. The soul's journey takes a person from a fragmented state to a state of wholeness.

This is felt as being more connected. Events around you start to weave into a pattern. Small details fit together instead of being scattered and random.

I want my life to have meaning. Existence feels empty in separation, and this gets healed only by moving into unity with G.o.d. Instead of turning outward to find your purpose, you feel that just being here, as you are, fulfills the highest purpose in creation.

I want to be free of restrictions. Inner freedom is greatly compromised when fear is present, and fear is a natural outcome of separation. As you move closer to your soul, the old boundaries and defenses start to melt away. Instead of being wary about the future, you flow with the river of life, awaiting the day when no boundaries of any kind hold you back.

If these basic intentions are present inside you, G.o.d takes the responsibility for carrying them out. Everything else you do is secondary.

Someone who is in the grip of fear, for example, cannot move beyond stage one, despite good deeds, a secure home life, and positive thinking. We all attempt to mask our limitations with false att.i.tudes; it is only human nature to try to appear better than we are, especially in our own eyes.

But once you set your intention in the right direction, self-deception is rendered irrelevant. You will still have to face your ego needs; you will still continue to play out your personal dramas. This activity takes place on the stage of first attention; offstage, spirit has its own devices-your intention is like a blueprint handed to G.o.d, which he carries to completion in his own fashion. Sometimes he uses a miracle; sometimes he just makes sure you don't miss the plane to New York. The fact that anything can happen is the beauty and surprise of the spiritual life.

Strangely, people who feel extremely powerful and successful often set the worst intentions in motion, as far as spiritual growth is concerned. Here are some typical intentions that have nothing to do with finding G.o.d: I want to win.

I want to prove myself by taking risks.

I want to have power over others.

I want to make the rules. I want to be in control.

I want to do it all my way.

These intentions should sound very familiar since they are repeated ad nauseam in popular fiction, advertising, and the media. They all center on ego needs, and as long as your real intentions come from that level, your life will follow suit. Such is the fate of living in a mirror universe.

One meets hundreds of people who mistake their own intentions because their egos have taken complete control. Some of the most powerful figures in the world are spiritually quite naive. If intention is left to the ego, great things can be accomplished, but these are minuscule compared to what can be achieved with infinite intelligence and organizing power at your disposal. G.o.d is on the side of abundance. It is a great misfortune that the spiritual life has earned a reputation for being poor, reclusive, and ascetic. G.o.d is also on the side of increased happiness. The shadow of the martyr has fallen over spirituality with dire results. In general, to be spiritual in these times means going it alone, far more than in the past.

In a society with misguided conceptions of G.o.d and no tradition of masters, you are responsible for setting your own intentions.

Here are the ground rules that have proved effective for me personally and which I feel will work for many people: 1. Know your intentions. Look at the list of spiritual intentions above and make sure that you understand how important they are.

Your destiny is to move in the direction of your soul, but the fuel that makes destiny move is intention. Intend for yourself that the gap of separation gets closed just a little more each day. Don't let your false intentions remain masked. Root them out and work on the anger and fear that keep you attached to them. False intentions take the form of guilty desires: I want someone else to fail, I want to get even, I want to see bad people punished, I want to take away something not my own. False intentions can be elusive; you will notice their existence by the feeling tone connected with them, a feeling of fear, greed, rage, hopelessness, and weakness. Sense the feeling first, refuse to buy into it, and then remain aware until you find the intention lurking beneath.

2. Set your intentions high. Aim to be a saint and a miracle worker. Why not? The same laws of nature operate for everyone. If you know that the goal of inner growth is to acquire mastery, then ask for that mastery as soon as possible. Once you ask, don't strain to work wonders, but don't deny them to yourself, either. The beginning of mastery is vision; see the miracles around you and that will make it easier for greater miracles to grow.

3. See yourself in the light. The ego keeps its grip by making us feel needy and powerless. From this sense of lack grows the enormous hunger to acquire everything in sight. Money, power, s.e.x, and pleasure are supposed to fill up the lack, but they never do. You can escape this whole package of illusion if you see yourself not in a shadow fighting to get to G.o.d but as in the light from the first moment. The only difference between you and a saint is that your light is small and a saint's is great. This difference pales in comparison to the similarity: you are both of the light. The irony of near-death experiences is that when people come back to report how rapturously they felt bathed in a blinding light, they overlook that the light was there all along. It is the self.

4. See everyone else in the light. The cheapest way to feel good about yourself is by feeling superior to others. From this dark seed grows every manner of judgment. Getting out of judgment is vital, and to plant that seed, you have to stop dividing others into categories of good and bad. Everyone lives in the same light. A simple formula may help here. When you are tempted to judge another person, no matter how obviously they deserve it, remind yourself that everyone is doing the best he can from his own level of consciousness.

5. Reinforce your intentions every day. On the surface, the obstacles against spirit are enormous. Everyday life is a kind of swirling chaos, and the ego is entrenched in its demands. You cannot rely on one good intention to carry you through. It takes discipline to remind yourself, day in and day out, of your own spiritual purpose. For some people it helps to write down their intentions; for others periods of regular meditation and prayer are useful. It isn't good enough to repeat your intentions to yourself on the run. Find your center, look closely at yourself, and do not let go of your intention until it feels centered inside yourself.

6. Learn to forgive yourself. The ego has a way of co-opting spirit and pretending that everything is going well. Thus we all fall into traps of selfishness and delusion when least expected. The chance remark that wounds someone else, the careless lie, the irresistible urge to cheat are universal. Forgive yourself for being where you are. To be honestly a creature of stage two, driven by ambition and haunted by guilt, is more spiritual than pretending to be a saint. Apply to yourself the same dictum as to others: You are doing the best you can from your own level of consciousness. (I like to remember one master's definition of the perfect disciple: "One who is always stumbling but never falls.") 7. Learn to let go. The paradox of being spiritual is that you are always wrong and always right at the same time. You are right to try to know G.o.d in every way you can, but you are wrong to think that things won't change tomorrow. Life is change; you must be prepared to let go of today's beliefs, thoughts, and actions no matter how spiritual they make you feel. Every stage of inner growth is a good life. Each is nurtured by G.o.d. Only your second attention will know when it is time to move on, and when you know, don't hesitate to let go of the past.

8. Revere what is holy. Our society teaches us to be skeptical of the sacred. The usual att.i.tude toward miracles is a bemused caution; few people spend much time delving into the world's great wealth of scriptures. But every saint is your future, and every master is reaching over his shoulder to look at you, waiting for you to join him.

The human representatives of G.o.d const.i.tute an infinite treasure. Dipping into this treasure will help to open your heart. At just the moment when your soul wants to blossom, the words of a saint or sage may be the right fertilizer.

9. Allow G.o.d to take over. When all is said and done, either spirit has power or it doesn't. If there is only one reality, nothing in the material world stands outside G.o.d; this means that if you want something, spirit can provide it. Deciding what part you need to do and what part G.o.d will do is delicate. It also changes from stage to stage. You have to know yourself in this regard; no one else can tell you what to do. Most people are addicted to worry, control, overmanagement, and lack of faith. On a daily basis, resist the temptation to follow these tendencies. Don't listen to the voice that says you have to be in charge, that things aren't going to work out, that constant vigilance is the only way to get anything done. This voice is right because you listen to it too much. It won't be right if you let spirit try a new way. Be willing to experiment. Your intention is the most powerful tool at your disposal.

Intend that everything will work out as it should, then let go and see if clues come your way. Let opportunities and openings come your way. Your deepest intelligence knows much more about what is good for you than you do. See if its voice is speaking to you. Maybe the outcome you are trying to force so hard isn't ultimately as good for you as the outcome that naturally comes your way. If you could give 1 percent of your life over to G.o.d every day, you would be the most enlightened person in the world in three months-keep that in mind and surrender something, anything, on a daily basis.

10. Embrace the unknown. You are not who you think you are.

Since birth your ident.i.ty has depended on very limited experience. Over the years you formed likes and dislikes; you learned to accept certain limits. A h.o.a.rd of objects acquired over time serves to prop up a fragile sense of fulfillment. None of this is the real you. Yet no one can instantly subst.i.tute the real for the false. It takes a process of discovery. Because it is painful to strip away so many layers of illusion, you have to let the unwinding of the soul take place according to its own rhythm and timing. Your overall att.i.tude should be that the unknown is awaiting you, an unknown that has nothing to do with the "I" you already know. Some people reach the edge of illusion only at the moment of death, and then with a long look backward, one lifetime seems incredibly short and transient.

Around 1890 a Blackfoot Indian chief was dying. His name was Isapwo Muksika Crowfoot, and he whispered these words into the ear of a missionary father: What is life?

It is the flash of a firefly in the night, It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time, It is the little shadow that runs across the gra.s.s And loses itself in the sunset.

The part of us that we know already is the part that flickers out all too fast. Far better to seize this time and become timeless. When you feel a new impulse, an uplifting thought, an insight that you have never acted upon before, embrace the unknown. Cherish it as tenderly as a newborn baby. The unknown is the only thing that truly cares about the fate of your soul; therefore it would be good to revere it as much as you revere holiness. G.o.d lives in the unknown, and when you can embrace it fully, you will be home free.

ENDNOTES AND.

FURTHER READING.

I drew from three vast areas of material for this book: religion, quantum physics, and neuroscience. Each contains its own mysteries and complexity.

As I wove them together, I realized that many new doors were opening. The following notes are intended as a guide to readers who might wish to walk through some of these doors. I have favored imaginative readings here in the belief that there is more adventure in speculation than in conventional thinking. But I also feel that today's speculation will become accepted wisdom in the near future, and I invite the reader to join me in that belief.

If any one thinker inspired me to write this book, it was the noted Dutch neuroscientist Herms Romijn, who has offered a beautiful synthesis of spiritual and scientific thought in his long article "About the Origins of Consciousness: A New Multidisciplinary Perspective on the Relationship Between Brain and Mind" (Amsterdam: Akademie van Weterschapen, June 23, 1997, 100: 1-2, pp. 181-267). In this remarkable work, Romijn argues that conventional models for the brain fall far short of explaining the mind's basic operations, particularly memory. After testing the leading theories of mind against one another, Romijn favors a combination of quantum theory and ancient Vedanta, which together are the only way we can conceive of a universal mind that serves as the source for our own thoughts. With deep grat.i.tude to him for his breakthrough speculations, I must also point out that Romijn does not make any religious arguments-the expansion of his ideas into the domain of G.o.d are purely my own.

ONE. A REAL AND USEFUL G.o.d.

1. A number of short answers to the question "What does the experience of G.o.d feel like?" can be found in Jonathan Robinson, Bridges to Heaven (Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint Publishing, 1994), pp. 54-62. Responses were all provided by spiritual writers and teachers.

2. The beginning of "spiritual physics" is complex, and because quantum theory has now expanded into at least forty different and often conflicting interpretations, the whole subject remains extremely th.o.r.n.y. I first attempted to unravel the basic ideas in Quantum Healing (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), but for more technical resources, I can lead the reader to several books that have made a deep impression on me over the past decade. They are all cla.s.sics in one way or another and recognized as starting points into the quantum maze.

David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980).

Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics (Boston: Shambhala Press, 1991).

Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind (New York: Penguin USA, 1991).

Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).

Fred Alan Wolf, Star Wave: Mind Consciousness and Quantum Physics (New York: Macmillan, 1984).

Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (New York: Bantam Books, 1980).

The best collection of original writings from great physicists on metaphysical matters was edited by Ken Wilber, Quantum Questions (Boston: Shambhala Press, 1984). Wilber went on to publish authoritative books about mysticism and physics that combine compa.s.sion and great depth of knowledge. A good appreciation of his insights can be gained from one of his earliest books and one of his most recent: Eye to Eye (Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books, 1983) and Eye of the Spirit (Boston: Shambhala Press, 1997).

3. The Duke project, formally known as the Monitoring and Actualization of Noetic Training, presented its findings in fall 1998 to the American Heart a.s.sociation.

4. Readers will vary widely in how much quantum theory they'll wish to read about. For an introduction to the paradox of how light behaves, nothing is wittier or more palatable for the layman than a series of freshman physics lectures given by the late n.o.bel laureate Richard P.

Feynman: Six Easy Pieces (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1995). Big Bang theory changes so rapidly that it is difficult to find an up-to-date treatment outside the pages of the journals Nature and Scientific American. I have relied upon Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1988), now ten years old but still reliable in the essentials on how time and s.p.a.ce came into existence.

5. An eye-opening book on the many conflicting aspects of Jehovah, as he careens through the turmoil of the Old Testament, is Jack Miles, G.o.d: A Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1995). For a large compendium of modern spiritual writings, the reader is referred to Lucinda Vardey, ed., G.o.d in All Worlds (New York: Vintage Books, 1995).

6. I am referring to students and devotees of Kabbalah. An introductory explanation of Shekhinah can be found in David S. Ariel, What Do Jews Believe? (New York: Shocken Books, 1995), pp. 22-23ff.

TWO. MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES.

1. Although there are thousands of written scriptures in the Indian tradition, much of the wisdom is pa.s.sed down from master to disciple. The most inspiring modern example of this relationship, in my experience, can be found in Sudhakar S. Diks.h.i.t, I Am That (Durham: Acorn Press, 1973).

But the reader is also referred to the many books centering on other notable voices of Vedanta, such as Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharishi, Paramahansa Yogananda, J. Krishnamurti, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to name some of the best-known exponents in the West of a five-thousand-year-old tradition.

2. For the most literal translation of Christ's words I have relied upon the New English Bible translation, except for some instances where the King James version was inescapable, having become part of our language.

For scriptural quotations outside the recognized gospels, see Ricky Alan Mayotte, The Complete Jesus (South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, 1997).

I should also point out that all interpretations of Christ's words in this book are my own and not derived from any sect or authority.

3. Hawking himself does not deal in the connections between spirituality and quantum physics. The latest and best summary of those connections is made in Paul Davies, The Mind of G.o.d (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992).