Its a shame the idea that “god” is a person with a personality has competed-out other ways of thinking of god. Is there a deep mystery that our own consciousness even exists? Are we connected in that mystery with the billions of other consciousnesses around us? In ignorance of what even consciousness is, are we sure it inheres in our bodies and not somewhere else?
If god is the label for consciousness beyond your own consciousness, AND you admit the probability that god is not an angry-father-like personality that wants to help some people, hurt other people, and COULD fix everything if he wanted to, the world gets a lot more interesting.
In my opinion, the experience described in this quote is a classic mystical experience. That it leads you away from the god-as-angry-father picture of god is likely true of every other mystic, especially the famous ones.
Its a shame the idea that “god” is a person with a personality has competed-out other ways of thinking of god. Is there a deep mystery that our own consciousness even exists? Are we connected in that mystery with the billions of other consciousnesses around us? In ignorance of what even consciousness is, are we sure it inheres in our bodies and not somewhere else?
Read the Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions sequence and the Twelve Virtues (especially that of Curiosity). We can’t be “connected in that mystery” because the feeling of mysteriousness is a type of ignorance, and ignorance of some phenomenon is a fact about our minds, not about the phenomenon. When something seems mysterious to us, the proper thing to do is to think about how to solve it, not to worship our ignorance.
If god is the label for consciousness beyond your own consciousness, AND you admit the probability that god is not an angry-father-like personality that wants to help some people, hurt other people, and COULD fix everything if he wanted to, the world gets a lot more interesting.
If God means all that, then you’ve just changed the definition so much that there’s no point in calling it “God” anymore. To make sure you’re not just sneaking in connotations, try describing whatever it is you’re calling “God” but giving it a different label — say, “spruckel”. “Spruckel is the consciousness beyond your own consciousness”. Does that feel different to you than “God is the consciousness beyond your own consciousness”? If so, you need to consider what the word “God” is doing in your mind when you hear it, and specifically notice that it’s something the word is doing rather than anything about what you claim to be defining it as. If not, then… well, then you won’t mind henceforth using the word “spruckel” for this thing you’re describing instead.
According to Richard Verstigan’s Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1605), the ancient Saxons called the month of February “Sprout-kele”:
by kele meaning kele-wort, which we now call the colewort, the greatest pot-wort in time long past that our ancestors used, and the broth made therewith was thereof called kele. It was the first herb that in this month began to yield out wholesome sprouts. During 600 years that Rome was without physicians, the people used to plant great store of these worts. February is yet in the Netherlands called Spruckel.
Its a shame the idea that “god” is a person with a personality has competed-out other ways of thinking of god. Is there a deep mystery that our own consciousness even exists? Are we connected in that mystery with the billions of other consciousnesses around us? In ignorance of what even consciousness is, are we sure it inheres in our bodies and not somewhere else?
If god is the label for consciousness beyond your own consciousness, AND you admit the probability that god is not an angry-father-like personality that wants to help some people, hurt other people, and COULD fix everything if he wanted to, the world gets a lot more interesting.
In my opinion, the experience described in this quote is a classic mystical experience. That it leads you away from the god-as-angry-father picture of god is likely true of every other mystic, especially the famous ones.
Read the Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions sequence and the Twelve Virtues (especially that of Curiosity). We can’t be “connected in that mystery” because the feeling of mysteriousness is a type of ignorance, and ignorance of some phenomenon is a fact about our minds, not about the phenomenon. When something seems mysterious to us, the proper thing to do is to think about how to solve it, not to worship our ignorance.
If God means all that, then you’ve just changed the definition so much that there’s no point in calling it “God” anymore. To make sure you’re not just sneaking in connotations, try describing whatever it is you’re calling “God” but giving it a different label — say, “spruckel”. “Spruckel is the consciousness beyond your own consciousness”. Does that feel different to you than “God is the consciousness beyond your own consciousness”? If so, you need to consider what the word “God” is doing in your mind when you hear it, and specifically notice that it’s something the word is doing rather than anything about what you claim to be defining it as. If not, then… well, then you won’t mind henceforth using the word “spruckel” for this thing you’re describing instead.
“Spruckel” is my new go-to nonsense word. It sounds like it should be a three-inch-tall woodland creature of some kind.
According to Richard Verstigan’s Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1605), the ancient Saxons called the month of February “Sprout-kele”: