The Buddamom

_{The Question of
God}

_{I was looking at an old copy of Shambala Sun, a Buddhist magazine, the
other day and came upon a review of a book called “Buddhists talk about Jesus,
Christians talk about the Buddha”. In it the author noted that,
“...Interestingly, the Christian contributors’ admiration for the Buddha and
Buddhism exceeded their counterparts’ admiration for Jesus.” This has been my
experience as well in talking with both Buddhist practitioners and
non-Buddhist practitioners. Many Christians and Jews have written about how
their foray into Buddhism led them to a deeper connection with their own
faith. I can’t remember ever having read that a Buddhist found inspiration
from the west. This is why I feel cautious about sharing my views about how a
deeper understanding of God has enhanced my Buddhist practice. But, fools rush
in, so I’d like to say a few words about God and Buddhism.}

_{I grew up in a reform Jewish family. We went to temple on the holidays,
observed some of the holidays at home and we children went to religious, or
Sunday, school. Like many other Jewish families there was very little talk of
God. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps because of the fresh memory of the
holocaust, perhaps because of the ambivalence about a God that is depicted as
wrathful, perhaps because the intellect does not hold God the unknown
comfortably. Whatever the reason, many modern Jews do not grow up with a
personal, friendly, loving connection with God.}

_{Moving from this reform Jewish heritage into Buddhism I remained
untouched by a personal connection with God. Yet, when I read other spiritual
works there was talk of God. Mother Teresa and the other Catholic saints who I
greatly admire spoke lovingly and intimately about God. I felt a hunger to
know this God, this expression of Love, first hand. There was a juicyness
missing in my spiritual practice that compelled me to study Western mysticism
by way of the New Thought practice of Religious Science. What was most
valuable to me in Religious Science was the entry way into a personal
experience of God that this system offered. I studied intently for 6 years,
became a licenced practitioner, and developed a personal relationship with
God.}

_{In preparing to write this paper I foraged through my Buddhist books and
pamphlets and came upon an old pamphlet entitled, “Buddhism and God”. I felt
as if I had hit the mother lode until I read it. It spent the entire time
defending the Buddhist position on denial of God and asking for tolerance
between the two views. I had the same experience when I tried to talk with a
Buddhist teacher I greatly respect about God. He spent the conversation
defending an argument against God, closed to the places where God and Buddhism
might meet. I share this, not to speak against Buddhist practitioners, but to
share my difficulties in approaching this subject with some of the
knowledgeable Buddhists I know. Many Buddhist teachers see the old, exoteric
definition of God as “someone” a being, higher and more important than us.
Those not schooled in a deeper, more mystical, relationship with God see God
as a crutch, a way to not take responsibility for our lives.}

_{It is clear that if something is an ultimate truth it is true for all
times, all places and all people. What views on God embody this ultimate
truth? What commonality can be found between the Western view of God and
Buddhist thought? I have had to dig deep into both Western mysticism and
Buddhist ultimate truth to find answers to this that fit for me. The surface
interpretation of religions, the material consumed by the masses, is not
multi-national. A God that is personified as a parent is more tribal and
primitive than a God that is larger than anything we can contain with our
limited minds.}

_{Ultimately, in all the wisdom traditions, God is beyond words. The Jews
do not say the word God. They speak of G..d. In Taoism Lao Tzu said, “ the Tao
that can be spoken is not the true Tao.” . And yet, we humans need to
communicate, to point a finger in the direction of this ultimate truth, so we
continue to speak of God. When we speak of God certain words keep coming up.
Beautiful, bright words such as Love, Joy, Peace, Power, Life force, Light,
Harmony and beauty. These are qualities that we attach to people but they are
also just qualities, universal qualities that are wholesome and considered
good by people everywhere regardless of their religion. It is through the
contemplation of these qualities that I learned to see the face of God. I
couldn’t relate to God as something outside of myself. In order for God to be
real it had to be experiential. These qualities are called the wholesome
qualities by Buddhism and the Buddhist practitioner strives to develop them
within their own consciousness. While the Buddhist practitioner works on
developing wholesome qualitites the Western practitioner works on embodying
God, these qualities, more fully. Surely this is a place where Buddhism and
Western religions meet.}

_{I have come to know God as the Oneness of all things. By that I mean,
thought creates form, form is an expression of thought, but they are basically
the same substance only form is denser. God is that energy which we know as
thought and the substance which we know as form, nama rupa in Buddhist terms.
The interconnectedness of all things continues to unfold in my awareness. God
is the energy which connects all things and the substance which is being
connected. God is Chi or Prana, also refereed to as Power. It is the mystery
which unfolds each life, the mystery behind synchronicity and the unfolding of
events. God is Karma and all the other natural laws which operate in this
universe. God is that mysterious quality which compels a mother to love her
child. Why should we feel Joy or Peace or their opposites, pain and
discomfort? These are all expressions common to people all over the world. God
is those feelings which all people, regardless of their religion, share. God
is that which is universal.}

_{An experience of God is available to anyone who slows down the rapid fire
pace of the egoic thinking long enough to be still. “Be still and know that I
am God”. This is where Buddhist practice, meditation, is so valuable to the
Christian and Jew and Muslim. In meditation we sit in mindful, choiceness
awareness and allow life to flow without interference, without trying to
control our breath or our mind. It is in this silent, relaxed, accepting state
that awareness of the presence of God in all things can emerge. There are
Western mystical practices which lead to this awareness but they have been
much less available to the Western seeker. Western mystical practices are
having a reemergence thanks in part to the influx of Buddhist practice and the
need to address this personal experience of God.}

_{I have found that a direct connection with God, Oneness, the unconditioned,
the void which encompasses all things, to be a great aide to my meditation
practice. Since developing an intimate relationship with this Oneness I can sit
in quiet in this field of unlimited potentiality and my mind can settle into the
vastness without fear. There is a sense of Love in the space between breaths,
not human love, but a state of non-discriminating love. In the Anguttara Nikaya
the Buddha says, “Luminous is the mind, brightly shining, but it is colored by
attachments that visit it. This untrained people do not really understand, and
so do not cultivate the mind. Luminous mind, brightly shining, and it is free of
attachments that visit it. This the noble follower of The Way really
understands; so for them there is cultivation of the mind.” It is this Luminous
Mind that I call God or Love or Oneness. This is my understanding of God and
this is why I have no problem being a Buddhist who loves God.}

Jacqueline