Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
and the answer is....
What you describe is a paradox.
All paradoxes are reconcilable.
If we live within the mind of God then there is nothing that is separate from God.
What is difficult to understand is who we are in relation to that fact.
God is in us and we are in God.
We will one day become like God but never can we become God.
God is the All.
We are a creation in the mind of God.
God experiences Self through our souls.
Our souls experience self through our bodies.
Our bodies experience self through the senses.
This is God's schoolhouse.
As we learn about ourselves God learns about Self as well.
This is why it is so important for us to heed the call of the ancients to Know Thyself.
The Gospel of Thomas
Translated by Thomas O. Lambdin
Gospel of Thomas (Lambdin Translation) -- The Nag Hammadi Library
I don't know if you've practiced Zen. When I practiced, it tells us to get rid of the attachments, definitions, and labels that define what we think is who we are. This includes god, mind, energy, and symbols. It's going back into child form. What's difficult about this is because it's so simple. It's like learning how to crawl again when we already know how to walk.
For example, I love art. I draw, paint, and write poetry. It's second nature to me but it is difficult at the same time. It's only difficult because in a sense we are always looking for perfection (to be god) but life doesn't work that way. If we go back to simplicity, then expression flows easily.
So, if I am using the words from the OP, deity would be the art I use to describe life. The experience of life from the physical experiences and mental are defined by energy (in concrete terms) but I rather define them by expression/deity because it makes it more personal. It's not wrong to say it is what it is.
I honestly don't know why some of you are taking offense to it. If we keep trying to define ourselves, then we'd be running in circles. Art teaches us the opposite. We can have guidance from sacred books from art adn poetry to scripture and stories, it doesn't matter. Everything is a guide towards living not towards purpose.
Trying to find a purpose is like trying to get to a destination on a tred mill. Living life is actually exercising, knowing you are on a treadmill (not being afraid to say you are on one), and defining it however you want to help yourself live life until the battery runs out.
I don't know why its complicated.