One of the many valid spiritual perspectives and the one that seems to work best for me these days is pantheism, the belief that God is the Universe, the Universe (or Nature, or Divine Cosmic Dance) is God, and that all of the “things” in the universe are manifestations of God, and are not really separate things. God is the only thing that is happening, and God is more of a verb than a noun. God is not separate from “creation” and there is no “creator” of what appear to us to be “things”. So, these days, I am not a “theist,” a “monotheist” or a “polytheist” as I don’t think of God as separate from the Universe, separate from all of the things (or processes or ‘open living systems’) happening around us and concurrently with us. All things are interrelated, interconnected, open processes that are happening together somehow, in ways that we can describe and understand a bit with our scientific “laws”. . . but also in metaphysical ways that are ineffable, unknowable. I call these miraculous, ineffable forces Divine Grace, and this is the “thing” that, I believe, is most worthy of our respect, appreciation and gratefulness (which I consider to be the highest spiritual virtue). Because I believe that God is happening, I do not believe in atheism or agnosticism. An electromagnetic field, an electron, a quark, a water molecule, a bacterium, a tree, a worm, a sensation, a perception, a thought, a person are all interconnected aspects of God happening. Does God have ears that can hear us or our prayers? In a way “he” or “she” does, but I’m thinking they are our ears that “he” has and not his ears. Does God love us? Yes, in a way, since we love one another. Should we love God? Yes, definitely. So, as you can see, I ‘worship’ a God that is not personified, that isn’t created in our image, that doesn’t have his own thoughts and feelings, but who thinks, feels and lives through us . . . and, through Divine Grace, animates the entire Cosmic Dance.
People are somehow blessed with the miraculous ability to verbally think with words and languages-- abstract concepts ordered by grammar. But just because there is a word for something doesn’t mean that it exists. The map is not the territory. I’m not sure that existence exists, or that any “thing” exists (e.g. minds, hearts, souls, egos, angels, leprechauns, the devil, unicorns, gravity, justice). What I’m aware of is a string of sensations, perceptions and thoughts that are happening. But that doesn’t mean a “mind” exists in which they happen, or a heart exists in which feelings happen. Existence implies a certain amount of stability, but it seems to me that everything is always changing and evolving. You can’t really put your finger on a moment in time, an electron, a mind, or a sensation. So it makes more sense to me to say that interconnected processes are happening (the present progressive tense) than to say that a thing exists.
These beliefs may also be called existence monism. From Wikipedia: Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there exists only a single thing (e.g. the universe), which can only be artificially and arbitrarily divided into many things. . . . The term "monism" was introduced in the 18th century by Christian von Wolff[6] in his work Logic (1728),[7] to designate types of philosophical thought in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind[8] and explain all phenomena by one unifying principle, or as manifestations of a single substance.
Mathmaticians tend to be “Platonists”, because they believe that numbers and perfect geometric concepts like perfect circles actually exist, and people ‘discovered’ them. But others, like me, (“idealists”) prefer to think of them as abstract concepts that don’t really exist, but that people have invented, because they are extremely useful for people. I doubt if there are any perfect circles that exist in the Universe, and I doubt if the number 17 “exists” on Neptune, or existed 5 million years ago. I would call them fictional, imaginary things in people’s minds, like infinity, good luck or leprechans. My view is that the irrational number pi doesn’t really exist. Pi is the unapproachable limit that the circumference of a circle divided by the diameter of the circle approaches as the circle gets more and more perfect. But all the circles in the universe, to me, seem a bit squiggly and imperfect, so C/D is always greater than pi (perhaps 3.15). Two dimensional planes are extremely useful concepts, but I’m not aware of any that actually exist, except in a mathmatician’s mentation. (But, I guess, in a way, ideas are real, so can I create my own reality and give things existence by thinking about them? If I think there are angels, does that mean they exist? Well, in a way, they do, as abstract concepts. . . just like words can be said to exist.)
So now to the next big, difficult, probably unknowable spiritual question, “what am I?” . . . Legally, Edward D. Miller is all of the things that are happening here and now, centered in this space and this time, happening from the moment of my birth to the time 3 minutes after my heart stops beating. And, commonly, I am defined by my relationships (I am my mother’s son, and have been, and always will be, even after my death) or my activities (I am an obstetrician and a tennis player) or my attributes (I am a short, gray-haired man) or my current preferences (I am a heterosexual or a Democrat). But on a deep, spiritual level, because I don’t think of my “self” or my identity as being a separate, stable thing, I believe that I am God happening (or a manifestation of God happening), just like you, a tree and a ray of light. Another valid way to describe me, or another animal is: a unique, open, living system that takes in nutrients from my environment, metabolizes them, and excretes wastes back to the environment , and that is autopoetic (an adjective that applies to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself.)
These perspectives are all valid, but, on a deeper level, my self is ineffable, something that I will never be able to understand well, something I can’t put my finger on or fully grok. My sense of my “self” is ‘that which is privvy to my own brain/mind/heart activity.’ I believe that I am that which is aware of my sensations, perceptions and thoughts . . . and that is the crux of how I am different than you or a tree. More than that, I believe that I am that which seemingly has free will and an ability to choose my thoughts. I am that which can choose to think about a dolphin or a worm. If I didn’t have the ability to be aware of sensations or thoughts, and I didn’t have the ability to choose my thoughts and actions (as I won’t after my brain dies), then I would say that I wouldn’t exist anymore. My sense of self would be gone, as it temporarily is in a coma.
In a way, I am my body too, but my body changes every second, and I would still feel like my same old self even if I had amputations and/or heart, lung and kidney transplants. But I don’t think I would be the same person if they were able to give me a brain transplant.
In a way, “I” will live on after my death as occasional thoughts ‘in the minds of’ family and friends. And certainly it’s plausible that some part of my essence will live on in future living things who will acquire (borrow from the cosmic library?) some of the atoms that have been intimately associated with my body. I’m an agnostic about whether some non-material aspect of me (e.g. my soul) will live on in other living things, but that seems like a nifty possibility. But it seems certain to me that God, the Divine Cosmic Dance, will continue to vibrate in awesome, complicated, beautiful ways, into the indefinite future.
What is our purpose in life and why are we here? Well, purpose is just a word for another abstract human concept, and clearly there are many valid answers to this big question. Here are a few that I like these days:
to harmonize well (or vibrate well) with the Universe/God
to love well . . . to optimize my relationship wellness with all the other aspects of God around us, by often choosing to practice other-centeredness, kindness, mudita, compassion, empathy, acceptance, equanimity and gratefulness
to dance well in the Cosmic Dance
to optimize the "holistic wellness" of ourselves and those around us
to optimize the wellness of the Universe . . . by frequently choosing to practice virtuous, skillful thoughts, feelings, words and gestures in the next few moments, because that may be all that I can control, and the biggest challenge of our short/long lives.
to play the game of life well (skillfully) . . . which sometimes means light-heartedly ('surf the waves of change', be with the flow), or heavy-heartedly when that is called for, with creativity and a good variety and balance of plays in our playbook--e.g. gratefulness for Divine Grace, acceptance of the way the Universe is evolving, right brain modes and left brain modes, divine masculine modes and divine feminine modes. Hopefully as we age we are more skillful at choosing to practice the 'plays' that work for us, and choosing to minimize practice of plays that don't work so well for us.
... fun stuff to ponder with discursive thinking. but I wish I could bang my gong now . . . to help me disidentify with my self and enjoy a mystical experience of being with God in a more profound way.
P.S. according to William James, “in mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed. In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same recurring note.”
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