In the West, God -- be it bearded Jehovah or younger Jesus -- is a man, typically portrayed with light skin and a beard. He interacts with other people, curses them, blesses them, and interferes in their lives when people break his rules. He controls a piece of the universe called Heaven, and grants entry to people who worship him and who obey him at all times.
This sounds more like a mob boss than an enlightened divinity.
Yet walk into most churches (or synagogues, or mosques, or temples -- it doesn't vary that much) and you will hear something along these lines. Follow these rules, or you will go to Hell.
Even if you don't believe in God, or are agnostic, it is this image that is supposed to shape your "spiritual" inclination.
God is presented as something to be feared. So you see most people today live in fear of God, or live in fear of other people who believe in God, or life in fear of the people who make the rules based on the values of a fearful God.
If we want to plumb the depths of human consciousness, we have to get rid of these limiting ideas of God.
It is OK to have a connection with the larger universe and to have a sense of spirituality without subscribing to any particular church or doctrine.
In fact, spirituality is so unique -- and we as individuals are so unique -- that every person probably has their own idea of the nature of God.
People don't need to agree about their conceptions of God. It's OK for there to be a difference of opinion about God.
The important thing is that people make up their own minds about God (or the lack of a God) and not just blindly follow some belief because it makes them feel better.
That is not genuine investigation, but simply acting like a sheep. And our consciousness is too precious to behave like a sheep.
Personally -- I view God as being the mind, and as being the universe as well. This may seem like a paradox, but to me the mind and the universe are one and the same -- and both are God.
God is the bridge that connects my intentions, desires, hopes, and prayers to their material manifestation.
I sit, and quiet my mind, and then I open my mind to all of creation and feel a comfort that all will be well, all can be healed, everything will be OK. No need to worry.
In this state, you can formulate an intention and ask that it come true, so long as it is in the best interests of all involved. And if it is, then it happens.
God is the connection to all of consciousness. When you sit by yourself, and you feel the presence of a loved one who may be thousands of miles away -- that moment is God.
Or when you sit in a garden and can delight in beauty, happy to be alive -- that moment is God.
Our purpose here on this Earth is to obtain ever greater freedom. Freedom means the defeat of fear, and values promulgated on such fear. When you confront a fear, and you knock it down, and you obtain greater spiritual and psychological freedom -- that moment is also God.
And because freedom is always growing, always expanding, always evolving, so too does our own conception of God grow and expand, and evolve in tandem as well.
