Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Thank you. I am actually looking at the human aspect of God; because, I only encountered the "spiritual" aspect when I prematurely became part of the Church. I found there were a lot of core Christian beliefs that I do not agree with (it doesn't resgonate inside). I love the faith and way of devotion. I found it rude to be a part of something that I am not really a part of.
That's pretty much all I can do. Spiritually, God as a deity has never been a part of my worldview or belief. I don't have that "there is a Creator" feeling inside me. So, when it comes to God as a Creator of any faith, I can only interpret it by the religions set scripture, human thoughts (which I find odd to say), and listening to others and my own personal experiences in the Church. I try not to limit the Creator to the Christian faith; but, that is what I am accustomed to.
In my worldview, there isn't a "actual God". So, it would be the human word God. I don't find anything wrong with the human word God. In general (outside of my faith), we have our definitions of the nature of God no one better than the next.
My personal beliefs? I am a Nichiren Buddhist and pagan practitioner. Nichiren Buddhism is young Meyahana sect that focuses on chanting and becoming one with the Mystic Law. I guess you can compare the Mystic Law to God in that both are life and brings life in all of us. However, there are drastic differences.
Here is what Nichiren Shonin (A Buddhist monk in the 13th century) says in his collection of letters to his disciples (the Gosho) about the Mystic Law--one of the last teachings expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha. (I have abbr. it for convinence)
I have just carefully read your letter. To reply, the ultimate Law of life and death as transmitted from the Buddha to all living beings in Myoho Renge Kyo. The five characters of Myoho Renge Kyo ere transffered from Shakyamuni and Many Treasures, the two Buddhas inside the treasure tower, to Bodhisattva Superior Practices, carrying on a heritage unbroken since the remote past. Myo represents death, and ho life. Living beings that pass throught he two phases of life nad eath are entities of Myoho Renge Kyo.
Tien-tai (Nichiren's teacher) says that one should understand that living beings and their environments and the causes and effects at work within them, are all the Law of renge (the lotus). Here living beings and their environments means the phenomena of life and deaht. Thus, it is clear that, where life and death exist, cause and effect, or the Law of the lotus is at work.
To skip, he continuesTien-tai (Nichiren's teacher) says that one should understand that living beings and their environments and the causes and effects at work within them, are all the Law of renge (the lotus). Here living beings and their environments means the phenomena of life and deaht. Thus, it is clear that, where life and death exist, cause and effect, or the Law of the lotus is at work.
Shakyamuni Buddha who attained enlightenment countless kalpals ago, the Lotus Sutra that leads all people to Buddhahood, and we ordinary humans beings are in no way different or separate from one another. To chant Myoho Renge Kyo with this realization is to inherit the ultimate Law of life and death. This is a matter of utmost importance for Nichiren's disciples and lay supporters, and this is what it means to embrace the Lotus Sutra. ~WND Ch 29 (Pg 216)
In the Lotus Sutra (one of the many scriptures of the Buddha and his disciples) it is written:
"By what means can I cause sentient being to be able to enter the highest path and quickly attain the Dharma?" LS Ch 16
Bascially, all Mahayana Buddhists are called to help people attained perfect knowledge of acceptance of life and death. The Lotus Sutra says that Shakyamuni taught each person according to their understanding or by expedient means. That would mean that if someone understands life and death through Christ then that is their way of obtaining true understanding of the Mystic Law via Christ's Passion.
In my faith, Nichiren says that the only way for one to awaken their Buddha nature (wisdom of the Buddha or Myo) is by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (I devote myself to the mystic law of cause and effect: Lotus Sutra).
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I am also a pagan practitioner and have a high reverence for nature. I use holistic means of medicine, spiritual practices, healing, and the like. My Buddha nature is that of my association with nature and my interconnection with "creation" which includes all living.
When I practiced Catholicism, what I took from it was the act of cleansing, repentence, sacrifice, and being born again. I also realized that people find the same way of understanding life (resurretion) and death (crucifiction) through Christ as I do through the Mystic Law.
It is hard if not impossible to find a Creator within the Mystic Law and life. The last quote is one of my favorites that wraps up how I see God (the author is Christian with influence from native tribes around the world)
"A semion writer says 'God was in the food they ate, the water they drank, the air they breathed the earth they trod and died on. In the sleep they slept, in the dreams they dreampt. In the everywhere and the everything.' (Schaef says) Some nature cultures don't even have a word for God. It is not because God doesn't exist. It is because He is self-evidence. He is assumed. In native cultures there is no need for the word God because God Is life itself.""~Anne Wilson Shaef author of Native Wisdom for White Minds
That is how I see God. God Is life. "He" Is the Reiki, Chi,Tao,Holy Spirit, Mystic Law, and so forth.
It's hard to define the nature of God because our cultures and bias cloud the point that if God is real as a fact, he (she or it) should not need us for "him" to exist. Two and two is four everywhere aroudn the world no matter the language and ways of getting the answer to that equation. If we used a spiritual way to "solve" the nature of God, what general formula would we use that is not open for interpretation?
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