Zen story: Will God please be God for me
@innertalks (21250)
Australia
June 29, 2023 7:43pm CST
The Zen master, Enri Zerploski, was talking to his students about God.
He told them that in Zen, we do not believe in God, because then, God becomes only a belief to us.
He then went on:
"What we do in Zen, is to meditate, and then God comes out of the woodwork to greet us."
"God must become real to one, for one to be real to God."
"Lying awake, trying to dream of God, never works until you lie asleep in your dream, and then it is up to your dream self, whether you get to meet God, or not, who is but a dream self of God."
"We have many selves within us then, and one of these selves is God, just as to God, we are one of his selves too."
"All is one then, and this means that all works as one, and nothing is separated out from that oneness to work alone on its own."
"We can have a relationship with any part of oneness, including with God, but, in truth, this is really just our having a relationship, with the greater us too."
"It is love which makes oneness, oneness, when all parts of that oneness see each other part, from the same level of perfect love, that oneness sees itself from."
"God wants to be in oneness with you, so be in oneness with him too, as much as you can do so."
"There is no separation between God, and his creation, in any part of it."
"There is no separation between us, and the love of God. Nothing can separate us from God, nor from his love, as God is love."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
The Zen master claimed that God is not a belief, but a reality.
3 people like this
1 response
@Shiva49 (26281)
• Singapore
30 Jun
I also believe we are all part of the whole and sort of branches from the creator.
We need to be inspired by our source and thus find greater meaning.
If we think and act like we are separate, then the unity is lost and ego and greed creep in destroying the canvas of creation. We will drift in different directions flailing our arms in desperation.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21250)
• Australia
1 Jul
Even Jesus Christ said that he is the vine, and we are the branches on that vine.
So, we are all a part of God, and God is a part of us too.
Nothing is inseparable from God then, either.
Trying to go it alone, never works, as we end up isolating ourselves away from the connections that we need to fully live a fully alive life from.
Love flows, it doesn't dam itself up in any vessel of itself, and then start to stagnate.
Love is alive, vibrant, moving, and active, and energises us by its flow between different instances of us.
We are collectively one, but uniquely ourselves too.
But, we are a collective conglomeration, not an island.
@laser_vision (56)
• United States
1 Jul
@innertalks
I believe we are not a part of God - we are images of God. And God is not a part of us - we are fallen creatures who have rebelled against him. Christ provides reconciliation, but human beings are their own essences, separated from God.
I am myself, and I exist in relationship to my brother, but we are not the same. There is a thing that makes me, me. There is me-ness, and him-ness, and between the two of us there is a mass of connection and disconnection. So it is with God and man.
Interesting thoughts though. When I interact with another person, I feel the mass of connections and breakages. I keep untangling the web. It is a struggle to keep the web straight.
2 people like this
@laser_vision (56)
• United States
1 Jul
@innertalks Interesting thoughts, but I still believe that beings that are intimately interconnected are just that - interconnected - and not absorbed into each other. There is a difference between sustaining and merging. I do not become one with someone else simply because I cook for them.
It is more like stepping into a river. The Holy Spirit lives within me, but He is not me. God guides the world around me, Him working the broken system of this fallen world. The connection is within me and all around me, and it overwhelms me, but I am not it.
And I most certainly am not a part of God. That is the tiny flaw. I am not a deity or part of one. I am me, a mortal human, and I am thus less than the flood of God. I must learn to walk inside the river of that relationship, underwater, overwhelmed, than to try and escape the banks. Every step inside of God's will sends me miles forward, for He is then pushing me.
But that is beside the point. If my hand is connected to a rope, that doesn't make my hand a rope. If I am connected to God, that doesn't make me God. I am not God, God is God, God is not me, and I am under the authority of God, bound by Him always and forever.
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