God and Religious Toleration/What is God

Christianity: Living in the light

Religion Will Lead to Enlightenment

Hinduism: Brahma (person) in Brahman (cosmos)

Spiritual enlightenment means to obtain a deep insight into the purpose of all things, to understand the mind of God, or to achieve a fundamentally changed level of existence whereby one's self is experienced as a nonchanging field of pure consciousness. Mysticism is the awareness of God through direct experience.

Realize that every true religion is based on the experience of enlightenment of its founder: the Judaism of Moses, Christianity of Jesus, Buddhism of Buddha, Hinduism of many enlightened. The center of a religion is enlightenment. Moses was enlightened, as he saw a shining (burning) bush after many years of a secluded life in the desert. He saw the light of God in the bush. Jesus became enlightened, after John the Baptist gave him the Enlightenment energy (kundalini energy). After this Jesus meditated 40 days in the desert. Then the devil (his ego) left him and the angels ministered to him (he was able to help with the enlightenment energy his fellow human beings). Buddha got enlightenment after six years as a yogi under the Bodhi tree. Mara (the devil) disappeared and Buddha rested in happiness.

There are different conceptions of God within the same religion

Buddhism: Buddha giving light.

Moses has, in contrast to Jesus, an abstract concept of God. In his central definition Moses describes God as: "I am." These words refer to God as a happy state of being which one experiences in the enlightenment. In the words "I am" the royal road to enlightenment is mentioned.

God can be described personal and impersonal

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam God is seen as an acting person. God is a supreme being, which can be addressed as a person and asked for help. Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism (Chinese philosophy) prefere the abstract concept of God. God is higher energy and a state of being. Although both definitions of God can be found in every major religion, one can still say Christianity is more commonly associated with the personal concept whereas Hinduism is more connected to the abstract point of view. For this reason, many conflicts and misunderstandings have been encountered by the followers of the aforementioned religions. Each side claims to possess the real understanding of God.

Amma built a bridge between the religions

Amritanandamayi

A significant gap among the religions has been bridged by Amma. Amma is to date the main representative of Hinduism in the West. According to Amma, there is a great enlightened force composed of fully enlightened souls. This force possesses a cosmic consciousness which is at one with the cosmos (with God) and with one another. One could view this as a mass of souls who see themselves as one, or a mass of souls who view one another as friends.

According to Amma, a prayer is always heard and reacted to or upon by one of these higher beings. It doesn’t matter what name humans use in the process, whether it be Allah, God, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, or Odin, it is all the same. The only point of importance is that the person praying would like help from a higher force in the cosmos.

God is often described as a cloud in Christianity. This image goes well with the idea of the aforementioned great enlightened force of souls.

Debate about God (Germany 2009)

Buddha meditating in the light.

Atheist: “Those who set themselves down for twelve years and don’t think of anything, will get enlightenment.” That is the essence of what you have been saying?

Yogi: Correct. The essence of enlightenment is in simply existing (calm, rest, not thinking). You think when you need to think. Simply ceasing thoughts sounds simple, but it is a rather dynamic process. Before the thoughts come to a point of calm, all of the suppressed emotions and stress situations in the subconscious come to the surface and dissolve.

To force thoughts to stop would be wrong. You sit down somewhere, wait a bit, and then the dance of thoughts and feelings begin. After a time, it all comes to rest, and inner peace, harmony, and happiness emerge. That is how you rise from one level to the next. The “I” and “me” mentality ceases. You cannot force enlightenment. It comes of its own speed.

Atheist: Does an enlightened look at the dark side of the psyche?

Yogi: The contention with one’s own shadow side is the main way to enlightenment. An enlightened is aware of the negative side of his or her self. They take the negative side as it is. They live positively with their weaknesses and integrate them into the psyche. They are harmonious with the self.

Atheist: What is the omnipotent God?

Yogi: God is a cosmic consciousness field that is over and in all beings. God is described as ubiquitous, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipotent, and blissful. In transcendence, God is described as all-encompassing mother and father, full of love and happiness.

Ubiquitous is a good description for the cosmic information field. All-knowing is a good component of this field. Love and happiness are experienced when you become one with this cosmic field. But what’s the deal with all-powerful? That I am not so sure of.

The way I deal with this concept, is to see God as the cosmic law working everywhere and absolutely. An enlightened feels God as an all-powerful being. At the same time, he has the ability to deal only within his possibilities. He must remain within the rules of the cosmos.

The power of the cosmic consciousness field is limited, in my opinion. It has to emerge with whatever material is at hand. It can create a material cosmos. It can manifest itself as an enlightened. It can influence the development of the material cosmos. But it remains within the rules of the universe. For that reason, I define the all-powerful nature of the cosmos as an inner feeling. I define the power of God as transcendent and contradictory.

Atheist: Isn’t love the essence of Christianity?

Yogi: Very good. We should all love more.

Atheist: To carry around love within oneself all day and everyday should be enough for enlightenment?

Yogi: Try it. It is enough. You will see God in the world and in other people. You will have love, peace, and happiness within. All-encompassing love is the quickest way to a life in God.

Atheist: What I don’t understand is how people know the universe scientifically, they know how big it is, how old it is, they know that it is there. Despite that, they don’t know it really, because the feeling for it is missing.

Yogi: Very well stated. Enlightenment is a cosmic consciousness. One feels like he or she is a part of the universe. Enlightenment can be created in that the cosmos are visualized around oneself and the universe as a whole. The visualization of the universe activates the Kundalini energy (the enlightenment energy). It is not enough to know something of the universe, one must also feel it.

Atheist: It is as though we know there is a God, but we don’t feel or sense the existence of this God. If we look in the right direction, we then become aware and can thus become enlightened?

Yogi: Visualizing God awakens the enlightenment energy. Praying with real feeling awakens the Kundalini energy. For this reason, many Christians say they can feel God. They think about God and have feelings of peace and happiness.

Atheist: Do you know the end of the way?

Yogi: The way of enlightenment is endless. God cannot be measured. You can grow eternally. When you have saved yourself, then you can save everyone else. Amma meditates for herself first. When she has enough enlightenment energy in herself, she then meditates for other people and sends them happiness, wisdom, love, power, and peace. Most people could use a lot of these things.

Atheist: Isn’t the world unimportant for the enlightened?

Yogi: An enlightened has peace within him or her, but the suffering of others is not unimportant to him or her. Those who have God within, have enough for themselves. But God is also love. Enlightenment changes people from egotistical persons to loving, giving individuals. The ego is dissolved and through the destruction of the ego, the enlightened recognizes them in all of their fellow humans. The enlightened see the suffering of others and wish them happiness. Love flows from them to their fellow humans and their enlightenment becomes more all-encompassing. An enlightened is not a nihilist, rather a Buddha who is concerned with the happiness of his or her fellow humans.