I have been reading about these levels of existence in the ancient teachings. Some of what I have learned is really helpful and gives me great insight, but what I have been reading lately doesn’t give me any help at all. It feels like it was made up just to justify the teachings.
Finally today, I realized something that has been bothering me for the longest time. Many of these ancient teachings are based on constellations and/or the planets in our solar system. However, what we know from modern astronomy is that the universe is literally bigger than anyone can imagine. There are so many planets and stars that there are hundreds of thousands of possibilities of other planets and solar systems that could be similar to ours and have life. Why would God base his creation on our solar system and the stars that can be seen from the Earth? It just doesn’t make any sense.
It is just another one of these pride-based systems where human beings believe that God has centered everything around us. It doesn’t fit with what I know about God. I can have a very personal relationship with God and yet He can have the same relationship with trillions of other human beings that have come before me, who exist now, and will come after me. I am not special and yet at the same time, I am His special creation.
When it comes to understanding God and His creation, I don’t see how we can look to the stars and planets and believe that all the answers are there just for us. We are the ones who created the idea of the constellations. And while modern astronomy does track the movement of the stars, it is all relative to being on Earth. If we were on a different planet, then it would be completely different. I can’t believe this part of the teachings when it seems like they want to base it all on being here on Earth.
All my life, I knew that we weren’t really here. We aren’t really anywhere. Not really. Time and space are totally relative. They don’t exist for God. And so, why can’t the religions of the world and philosophers accept that we can’t understand it?
I keep reading and learning, but it just seems over and over again that man wants so much to be able to name everything, and to explain who God is, what He is like, and why He is what He is. I am probably one of the few people I know who says that I have faith, but I will never really be able to understand the Deity that created me.
I think that’s where it falls apart for some people, but not me. Other people seem to need to understand and know God in order to have faith. If that understanding and knowledge is somehow threatened or changed, then the person finds themselves in danger of losing their faith. For me, faith doesn’t work that way. It isn’t based on knowledge of God or understanding God. My faith is based on a feeling I have deep within me. My knowledge and understanding of God can be dynamic. It can change and grow all the time, but it never threatens my faith because that feeling I have inside doesn’t go away. That feeling is simply a part of me. Nothing anyone could tell me about God could change the feeling that I have felt all my life. I think (and I am not totally sure about this) that it is like the love I have for others.
I love my husband. I choose to love him every day. It’s a feeling I have deep inside of me and there’s nothing anyone can say or do that will change that feeling. The only person who could change it is me. If I choose to stop feeling that way and I don’t want to stop feeling that love for him. With God, it is the same way. I choose to love Him and have faith every day. Nothing can change it, except me. Only I can choose to stop feeling that way. I know I could, but I don’t ever want to. I can’t imagine a world without that feeling in my heart. It just wouldn’t make sense.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
