Patterns of Spirituality

Proofs of God

All logical attempts to prove either the existence or non-existence of god just send me to sleep. The only proof of god that means anything is that derived from personal experience, and this means the experience of the worlds beyond the physical world that we are all familiar with. Hence proof is always subjective.

In the physical world, all our thoughts, actions, and beliefs are dominated by having to live in this world. However, there are worlds that exist beyond the physical world, or another way of saying this is that many planes of reality exist beyond the physical plane. To detect such planes requires suitable training. Now if I want to become a mathematician, I have to go through many years of learning to acquire the necessary skills. So similarly, to go beyond the physical world requires a long period of learning, usually involving meditation and contemplation. The experiences gained from such a learning journey will provide the proof of god.  However, few of the people who can travel beyond the physical are thinkers who can analyse their experiences. Hence most travellers produce many different ideas about what god is, and most of these ideas are faulty and unsophisticated. It all depends on the person's ability to interpret his experiences.

The most faulty and unsophisticated beliefs about god are those propounded by the various religions. Mystics get nearer the mark, but their need to see god as all good and planet earth as all bad also has the effect of narrowing their understanding. The real problem is that as a person ascends to higher planes of existence, there is only an inadequate vocabulary of ideas that exist to describe such planes.

There seem to be two different ways to come into the presence of god. Some mystics describe a way where they feel the presence of god. The other way is a visual one where the person sees a suitable image of god - the person does not see god itself, but only a representation of god. One common image is that of the shining white light.  My experience of this image is related in the article Monism and Dualism.

How a person interprets his journey through reality depends ultimately on what he considers the end goal of existence to be. Most mystics seem to think that it is divine love, and they have as their ideal that of becoming absorbed in the love of god (or what the mystics call "union"). I see the goal to be the state of equanimity, as did Buddha. So perhaps there are several different end goals, and each person will journey to the goal that he is most happy with.

Proof of the existence of god is never given to a person unless he searches for it. God does not seem to hand out any freebies. Spiritual experiences are nearly always a reward for suitable efforts made. And it does not seem to matter what a person does, so long as he does something. It is irrelevant whether a person is a Christian, a Buddhist, a shaman, a medicine man, or whatever. There seems to be no set path to god ; instead, the person has a lot of latitude to follow his own path to god.

In the background of these ideas is the idea of reincarnation. It is not possible to go from beginner to mystic in one lifetime ; many lifetimes are needed. After all, even if I study mathematics for many years and develop some facility with it, it will not necessarily make me a brilliant mathematician. At the best, I will be competent. To become brilliant at your field of study, you will have to have studied it for several lifetimes.

Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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