KUMA: Spiritspace--Concepts of God/Long Answers

QUESTION

What are your deepest thoughts and feelings about your concept of spirit or God?

Long Answers/Essays

God is the Creator. He is the Father of all that is. I believe that He expects for us to respect Him and love Him. We respect Him by giving Him the credit He is due daily; when we recognize that He is in charge of it all, we are respecting Him as our God. We love him by loving one another as well as ourselves. And, I believe that this is what He expects of us.

Religion is a set of beliefs that help people show God respect and love. Religion is not, however, the gauranteed path to a wonderful relationship with our Father. We use "Father" and male pronouns in reference to God, not because we believe He is a man. He created man, and therefore cannnot be a man. But, we refer to Him as such because historically, men have been the providers and seen as the source of life. When a woman is with child, it is often said that she "got pregnant" or that the father of her child "got her pregnant". Man is viewed as being the source of the child's life. For these reasons, I think that is why we refer to God in male terms.

However, God exhibits qualities that are seen as feminine as well. For instance, He is very patient, merciful, forgiving, and kind. In child rearing, mothers moreso than fathers exhibit these characteristics. God is, therefore, a Great Being for which our limited minds and language cannnot begin to understand or describe completely. But, one's goal should be to understand God and spirituality as best as one can. This way, they may build a relationship, a union, with our Creator. All praises are due to Him.

My deepest thought and feeling about my concept of God goes back to the biblical myth that the women came into being from a rib of a man.....I believe quite the contrary, that she having the womb or door of life had to be the source of birthing mankind...I believe this myth was vital in the creation of a man dominated society where women would be sub-serviant second class help mates to a patriorical society which very deceitfully rewrote history and dismissed thousands of years of history known as a maternal or mother as God society...besides as christian faith teaches about the "Father..Son and Holy Ghost"..Well, How you have a father and a son without a mother.....this myth goes against life as we know it and is just one example of how the woman has been misrepresented and miseducated about her true place in the circle of life.

So to sum up the very core of my faith...as I pray I not only recognize the power of the father but also the love, compassion and warmth of the mother And as God created the mountains and the lions roar she too was a part of the crtion process..... maybe she gave the rose it's scent...and the sky it's blue.....this reality strengthens my faith,my purpose and my direction as a spiritual being.

I dont know. Lets see. There is something out there that is bigger than I am more powerful than I am. I believe that I cannot control it. I am not sure it can be controlled. I believe that there is no reason for me to know the extent or the limits of the concept. I know that, and only that, it is my faith that allows me to survive in this world and coexist peacefully with others when I do not KNOW whether they mean to help harm or leave me alone. I believe there is a God who has control over luck,chance,opportunity and my preparation to not only perceive, but also stand ready to receive the blessings and miracles when they occur. I have faith in a SPIRIT/GOD that I am its creation and am loved.

As an adult, I relate to my God in the other-than physical world, with similar respect and love that I give to my parents in this world, time, space and plane. I stand in awe of its omnipotence, but like Puff the Magic Dragon, I believe that the power of the spirit requires us to all believe in something sufficiently similar so that we act in concert and thereby create in this place and time the love that (fuels) keeps us and our concept of Spirit/God keeping on. My concept of Spirit/God is therefore a reflection of the best that I am, and at the same time the fulfillment of my needs, as well as anything that I need.

My own spirituality is mostly intuitive, although my personal philosophy has been drawn from multiple paradigms. Most helpful to me in self-esteem issues is recognition of the Goddess Mother spirit, who has sustained us since the earliest civilization.

The universality of spirit is best exemplified in Jain tradition (Hindu sect who wear cloth across their faces so they won't accidentally injure some microscopic being), in the stories of the Bushmen (Mantis the trickster is the precursor to all the trickster mythology), Australian aboriginal (cyclic reincarnation, including all life), and Native American (hence the bear, the psychic mother spirit).

A contemplative lifestyle is comforting (i.e. Buddism) but difficult to implement today in the US. If you can make time each day to block out the world, turn off the phone, etc., and totally relax, you can help yourself melt into the One spirit. Play with babies and puppies whenever the opportunity arises. Harvest all the hugs you can. Be sure that you are loved, and that the more love you have, the more you will get. There can never be too much love. Those who attack your spirit are merely unsure of their own, and you are ultimately responsible only for your own actions and for the energy you put forth into the universe.

I also derive most of my personal spirituality from biology and physics, which support a unified spirit paradigm. I believe in love. You can just relax and feel it in innocence anywhere. Love must be UN-learned. It is the natural state of being.

Hatred, envy, greed are all social constructs. They are the result of rule making and separatism, of outcaste groups and ostracism. Society mis-directs and parenting follows its lead. The Thomas theorem says, "What man defines as real is real in its consequences". Basically, we are what we think we are, what society has taught us to think we are. If we can UN-think the patriarchal world view, we can construct our own internal peace.

Long Answers/Essays
God is the Creator. He is the Father of all that is. I believe that He expects for us to respect Him and love Him. We respect Him by giving Him the credit He is due daily; when we recognize that He is in charge of it all, we are respecting Him as our God. We love him by loving one another as well as ourselves. And, I believe that this is what He expects of us. Religion is a set of beliefs that help people show God respect and love. Religion is not, however, the gauranteed path to a wonderful relationship with our Father. We use "Father" and male pronouns in reference to God, not because we believe He is a man. He created man, and therefore cannnot be a man. But, we refer to Him as such because historically, men have been the providers and seen as the source of life. When a woman is with child, it is often said that she "got pregnant" or that the father of her child "got her pregnant". Man is viewed as being the source of the child's life. For these reasons, I think that is why we refer to God in male terms. However, God exhibits qualities that are seen as feminine as well. For instance, He is very patient, merciful, forgiving, and kind. In child rearing, mothers moreso than fathers exhibit these characteristics. God is, therefore, a Great Being for which our limited minds and language cannnot begin to understand or describe completely. But, one's goal should be to understand God and spirituality as best as one can. This way, they may build a relationship, a union, with our Creator. All praises are due to Him.
	My deepest thought and feeling about my concept of God goes back to the biblical myth that the women came into being from a rib of a man.....I believe quite the contrary, that she having the womb or door of life had to be the source of birthing mankind...I believe this myth was vital in the creation of a man dominated society where women would be sub-serviant second class help mates to a patriorical society which very deceitfully rewrote history and dismissed thousands of years of history known as a maternal or mother as God society...besides as christian faith teaches about the "Father..Son and Holy Ghost"..Well, How you have a father and a son without a mother.....this myth goes against life as we know it and is just one example of how the woman has been misrepresented and miseducated about her true place in the circle of life. So to sum up the very core of my faith...as I pray I not only recognize the power of the father but also the love, compassion and warmth of the mother And as God created the mountains and the lions roar she too was a part of the crtion process..... maybe she gave the rose it's scent...and the sky it's blue.....this reality strengthens my faith,my purpose and my direction as a spiritual being.
I dont know. Lets see. There is something out there that is bigger than I am more powerful than I am. I believe that I cannot control it. I am not sure it can be controlled. I believe that there is no reason for me to know the extent or the limits of the concept. I know that, and only that, it is my faith that allows me to survive in this world and coexist peacefully with others when I do not KNOW whether they mean to help harm or leave me alone. I believe there is a God who has control over luck,chance,opportunity and my preparation to not only perceive, but also stand ready to receive the blessings and miracles when they occur. I have faith in a SPIRIT/GOD that I am its creation and am loved. As an adult, I relate to my God in the other-than physical world, with similar respect and love that I give to my parents in this world, time, space and plane. I stand in awe of its omnipotence, but like Puff the Magic Dragon, I believe that the power of the spirit requires us to all believe in something sufficiently similar so that we act in concert and thereby create in this place and time the love that (fuels) keeps us and our concept of Spirit/God keeping on. My concept of Spirit/God is therefore a reflection of the best that I am, and at the same time the fulfillment of my needs, as well as anything that I need.
	My own spirituality is mostly intuitive, although my personal philosophy has been drawn from multiple paradigms. Most helpful to me in self-esteem issues is recognition of the Goddess Mother spirit, who has sustained us since the earliest civilization. The universality of spirit is best exemplified in Jain tradition (Hindu sect who wear cloth across their faces so they won't accidentally injure some microscopic being), in the stories of the Bushmen (Mantis the trickster is the precursor to all the trickster mythology), Australian aboriginal (cyclic reincarnation, including all life), and Native American (hence the bear, the psychic mother spirit). A contemplative lifestyle is comforting (i.e. Buddism) but difficult to implement today in the US. If you can make time each day to block out the world, turn off the phone, etc., and totally relax, you can help yourself melt into the One spirit. Play with babies and puppies whenever the opportunity arises. Harvest all the hugs you can. Be sure that you are loved, and that the more love you have, the more you will get. There can never be too much love. Those who attack your spirit are merely unsure of their own, and you are ultimately responsible only for your own actions and for the energy you put forth into the universe. I also derive most of my personal spirituality from biology and physics, which support a unified spirit paradigm. I believe in love. You can just relax and feel it in innocence anywhere. Love must be UN-learned. It is the natural state of being. Hatred, envy, greed are all social constructs. They are the result of rule making and separatism, of outcaste groups and ostracism. Society mis-directs and parenting follows its lead. The Thomas theorem says, "What man defines as real is real in its consequences". Basically, we are what we think we are, what society has taught us to think we are. If we can UN-think the patriarchal world view, we can construct our own internal peace.