So…”I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”.
I guess it would help to expand on what I’m looking for. At the most basic level it is God and immediately you are thinking: “Well that’s easily solved. Go to church or mosque or synagogue or which ever flavour suits”. The problem is, I have done that a lot over the years. And yes, I now know about God from a number of different angles, but what about knowing God? I need to experience God in a deep and intimate way. All the teaching about God fails to satisfy.
Putting the dilemma another way, have you read about love (and love is a great example because most religions tell us that God is love)? If people have related their experience of love to you and you’ve watched films, heard poetry, watched others, do you know love?
The thrill, the butterflies, the pains, the nerve tingling emotions. The sheer rush that is like nothing else. Again I ask, do you know love? The answer is no and only actually experiencing love will allow you to know it despite watching a catalogue of films. You have to fall in love to know love.
Can there be any real knowledge of love without experience? And, likewise, can we really know God without experience?
Or, as a friend of mine put it, you sign up to be a skydiver. You pay your money and go to skydiving school where they teach you all about the science of skydiving. They show you the parachute that skydivers use, tell you about great skydivers of the past, take you in the plane that skydivers jump from and even teach you to jump from a platform and land correctly. Then you’re given a certificate that declares you are a qualified skydiver and you say: “I haven’t experienced a single jump. How can I be a skydiver? It’s not true”.
The odd thing is, for the most part organised religion didn’t want to tell me about the possibility of experiencing God but was happy to call me a fully qualified member.
Religion is a defence against the experience of God.
Carl Jung
I guess having people in your religion who actually have a relationship with the god you teach about does move things up a level.
So here is the journey and your welcome to tag along and offer up your experience.
Wic
The Polie Pages 