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Getting to God: How do we
get ‘There’ without
using the G-word?
How do we, as agnostics, atheists, believers and spiritual seekers of
all walks, find what we are looking for—peace, purpose, and spiritual
experience–while navigating around the traditional terminology
used in religion, words that for many of us have been so overused and
abused that they actually hinder us in our search for truth?
It all begins with the G-word, doesn’t it? God. Talk about a good
word gone bad for many of us… Is there any other word that carries
so much baggage? This point came up recently while talking with co-workers
about a new book that had the “G-word” in its title. The
heads began nodding when a friend voiced a common experience, saying, “After
all the horrible things done in the name of God, I don’t even want
to use the word, let alone try to believe in it.”
You may have a similar reaction to this word and many words used in religion,
words that others accept without question: God, Jesus, church. When those
words are spoken, we may instead hear in our minds: judgment, persecution,
dogma. In short, the vocabulary of our Judeo-Christian heritage has a
very different meaning for us and often deters us in our spiritual search.
But we do need a spiritual vocabulary to navigate the spiritual path,
especially in the early stages.
So, what are we to do? Without a handy set of words—which are,
after all, just symbols and labels for our experience of reality—to
use on our spiritual path, how do we get our mind around things? How
do we communicate and share our experiences with others? It’s as
difficult as trying to explain where India is to someone without being
able to use a map or not even use words for the points on a compass or
for units of distance. We need words to navigate through landscapes,
work days, relationships, and religions. Words are indispensable. But
we must also recognize the limits of words in their ability to define
what they label for us. The word ‘map’ is not the terrain
itself which it describes. None the less, it’s a handy term to
use for the document we unfold in our car and in its ability to help
us get to our destination. Map: such a simple, three-letter word, and
yet so helpful to us.
Now, let’s go back to that other ‘simple’, three-letter
word: God. Why is it so problematic for many of us? Because while none
of us confuse the word ‘map’ with the terrain it describes,
I have met many people that do seem to confuse the word ‘God’ with
that which it points to and attempts to define. Worse yet, by naming ‘it’,
some claim knowledge of God. And here, I believe, is what many of us
sense, resent and have trouble accepting; that a person can ever define
something that transcends our own knowledge, that is vaster than the
cosmos itself, that is the mystery of mysteries... how can this be summed
up into a three-letter word? When we hear others use this word, it often
sounds as though they are saying, “There—got it. I’m
done. I’ve named it so I know it.”
But you and I know that naming and knowing is not the same thing. If
you have been to India but I have not, you may share your experience
of India with me, and I may then use the word ‘India’, but
I still do not have a direct experience of India. Don’t I need
to travel to India and experience the country for myself before I can
even begin to comprehend what India is about? And even then, isn’t
the country too big and diverse to ever really grasp with our limited
minds?
That’s the problem with summing up the Mystery with a single word
that is then used so freely, so lightly by those who think they have
no need to actually make the journey themselves for a personal experience.
That’s what really bothers us about the word God, isn’t it?
Yes, the word has been abused during past crusades and current holy wars,
but even beyond that, all of us—atheist, agnostic, believer alike—intuitively
know that whatever the organizing principle of the universe is, ‘It’ is
much too big to be captured by a simple word and then easily understood.
One of my favorite bumper stickers reads, “God is too big for any
one religion.” We can also add the obvious statement that “God” is
also too big to be captured by any one name.
So, again, what are we to do? We sense there is something more beyond
the confines of our five senses and our brains, but we are not comfortable
using common religious terms. Well, we can take the approach that many
world religions have taken at some stage of their evolution, and that
is to not even utter the name of God except during the most sacred of
ceremonies. Or, we could go the other way, that of Hinduism, and use
one or more of the thousands of names for God that adorn this faith,
selecting a symbol that has the most meaning for us. Or, perhaps we should
take another common approach of world religions that says, to quote the
Indian Vedas, “Those who know It, speak of It not. Those who speak
of It, know It not.”
The symbol, word or term we choose to name God is not really important.
What’s important is to recognize that what we are seeking and,
hopefully, experiencing, is beyond all definitions and descriptions,
let alone a single word. Once we grasp this truth—the mystery of
God, the vastness of Spirit, and so forth—then we can use any term
that suits our needs. And, we don’t confuse the word and the related
definitions with the “thing-in-itself” anymore than we confuse
the map with the territory it attempts to describe. Call It God, Allah,
Brahman, Spirit, Nature, Mother, Father, Teacher… or don’t
call It anything. It’s not the terminology but the experience that
we are after, anyway.
Years ago, when I was having similar difficulties using spiritual terms
that seemed to limit and personalize God too much for me, I went to one
of Ananda’s spiritual directors for advice. He provided very wise
council, saying, “Then don’t name It, but think of it in
terms of Light.” At the time, that’s what I needed: a concept
and term for Spirit that was more abstract, infinite, and yet still tangible.
For you, the appropriate term or quality to hold in your heart or mind
may be Love, or Wisdom.
The important thing is to start where you are. If the word ‘God’ has
too much negative baggage for you, discard it. Too many of us fall into
the trap of subconsciously clinging to an image of God that we know is
no longer believable for us (e.g., God as the bearded, judgmental guy
in the throne in the heavens). But we haven’t taken the time to
revise this outdated image and, consequently, we “don’t believe” in
the very thing we ourselves (or society) created. We then call ourselves
atheists or agnostics. But the problem is not with God, but with our
definition of God.
So, start where you are, right now, in your awareness of or your relationship
with whatever power, personal or impersonal, that you sense is within
you or around you. What does It feel like? Is It close or distant? Personal
or abstract? Go within yourself and try to sense what this Divine presence
is for you. You may be thinking, “There is nothing there but empty,
cosmic space.” But you won’t know until you go within, and
I have good news for you; anyone who has taken the time to seek the Divine
within has never come back—not if they have sincerely and consistently
followed tried and true spiritual practices—and said they found
nothing, as the Existentialists would have us believe. On the contrary,
the saints, mystics and teachers of all world faiths have come back with
the same ecstatic experience; there is Something great, loving, vast
and mysterious flowing through our lives in and all around us.
How do we duplicate the experiences of the saints? The most common spiritual
practice is that of Meditation . And more good news: meditation does
not require any belief on your part (see my last Ananda web article for
more on this) and it is non-sectarian. A common definition of meditation
is “concentration on some aspect of the infinite.” What do
we mean by “the infinite”? That definition is entirely up
to you. Call it God or don’t call It anything. This brings us back
to the point of this article; find spiritual terminology that works for
you. To find it, go within through a time-tested practice such as meditation.
Seek experience of the infinite. Then the terminology you need to navigate
the spiritual path will come to you.
Past Sories
Getting
to God: How do we get there when we don’t believe?
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