{"id":789,"date":"2014-06-26T12:26:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/?p=789"},"modified":"2014-06-26T12:26:16","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:26:16","slug":"oh-god-what-to-call-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2014\/06\/oh-god-what-to-call-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh God, What to call it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My favorite name for Divinity is \u201cThe Thing Itself.\u201d The phrase reminds me that I don\u2019t know exactly what it is, other than that it is a great and wonderful mystery I attempt to point to with words such as wisdom, love, power, energy, omnipresence, beauty, allness, creative intelligence, or mind, among other terms. Or, for short, God, which I refer to with the gender neutral pronoun, It.<\/p>\n

Projecting Human Character On To It<\/strong><\/p>\n

When exploring how It works in creation and what It does, the phrase \u201cThe Thing Itself\u201d is helpful in that it interrupts the tendency to project human characteristics (such as jealousy and vengeance) and behaviors (such as judgment and retribution) onto how Divinity works. The question, how does God (in a human-like form) work in the world, to me is different to the question, how does God (as beauty, allness or oneness, etc.) work in the world.<\/p>\n

For this reason, I tend less and less to use the term God, because it is so inextricably interlinked with ideas of human-like behavior, regional loyalties, wants and needs. The word God is also irretrievably gender-specific and regardless of how my concept of It evolves, the male association in contemporary language and culture stays firmly in place. My short hand term for The Thing Itself is more and more frequently Divinity, or Spirit. Or simply, It.<\/p>\n

There is No Good, Sane or Reasonable Reason It Would Do That<\/strong><\/p>\n

My relationship to It today is far warmer and more mature than it ever could be with the fear-provoking image of God I learned in childhood. Instead, today, as omnipresence, It has no wants and desires, requires nothing and makes no demands. It doesn\u2019t need to. It has everything, or more accurately, It is everything. It cannot be cajoled or convinced, pleased, influenced or offended. As love, It doesn\u2019t create a creation that must be tested. As wisdom, It wouldn\u2019t create a creation that is divided between polar opposite energies and there is no good, sane or reasonable reason why it would set It\u2019s own creation at war with itself to determine allegiance.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cThe Thing Itself is everything and is everywhere,\u201d is a more powerful motivation to ethical behavior than the threat of displeasing the man-god of my youth ever was. When I take time to think about Divinity as everywhere present, doing so is the most awe inspiring practice I know and one that motivates me to examine my intentions, thoughts, words, and behavior. In my youth I had an illogical sense of god watching my behavior, but being safely separated in my thoughts from his scrutiny. Now I don\u2019t want to be safely separated in my thought from It, I enjoy and embrace that I exist within the allness of Divinity and relish exploring how knowing that can impact the way I serve my fellow beings.<\/p>\n

The Thing It Self Is In You<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is something in you and in me and in every being, something which is in its original state, something which is untouched by the passing changes of the appearing world. That something is The Thing Itself and I see how when I become conscious of It in me it appears to have a more unrestricted flow into my world than when my focus is on other matters.<\/p>\n

\n

I was told to live
\nBy some inner mystic Presence
\nI was told to live and to love, to laugh and to be glad.
\nI was told to be still and know of the One Almighty Power, in and through all
\nI was told to let that Power work through and in me.
\nI believed that voice, and I am healed
\nAh, the joy of life.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ernest Holmes<\/p>\n

You might also enjoy reading \u00a0Defining God is not Easy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Edward, author of The Power of Meditation, \u00a0graduated as a Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chaplain in April 1999, received a Doctorate of Divinity from Centers for Spiritual Living and was awarded the much-respected Ernest Holmes Award for exemplary demonstration of the teachings of Dr. Ernest Holmes.\u00a0 <\/em>Among his passions as a minister is helping other ministers and has served the Ongoing Ministers Education Conference for 10 years. Other passions include music, cats, essential oils, science fiction and leading people on tours to places in the world to experience new cultures and new ways of understanding the Divine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite name for Divinity is \u201cThe Thing Itself.\u201d The phrase reminds me that I don\u2019t know exactly what it is, other than that it is a great and wonderful mystery I attempt to point to with words such as wisdom, love, power, energy, omnipresence, beauty, allness, creative intelligence, or mind, among other terms. Or, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,82,1],"tags":[279,81,71,280],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-living-2","category-spirituality-2","category-uncategorized","tag-define-god","tag-edward-viljoen","tag-god","tag-the-power-of-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\nOh God, What to call it?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My favorite name for Divinity is \u201cThe Thing Itself.\u201d The phrase reminds me that I don\u2019t know exactly what it is, other than that it is a great and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2014\/06\/oh-god-what-to-call-it\/\" 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