The God Thread

[SalixIncendium]

I'm in trouble already. God has no name.

Are you sure your god has no name? You referred to your god as "God" five times in your post.

 

[Bird123]

"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet" (Shakespeare). Perhaps the name is not as important as the concept?

While it may be a joy for you to be around God and angels, think of the angst of them to be around us. It is painful for them to discuss bodily functions (since they are focused on greater things).

Pain?? We all have the Power to Choose what we deem important. Bodily functions are probably no more important that a car part. There really is no problem until a part quits working. That might be a pain. On the other hand once one understands how to fix things, there really is no problem.

We are all Spiritual beings in our true natures. That is who we are. That is really the only thing that matters. It's nice you Understand.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Bird123]

Are you sure your god has no name? You referred to your god as "God" five times in your post.

That's about language. I have to put a general reference down in order that a reader even has a clue what I'm talking about. When you think about it, that's all titles and names are all about anyway. Could a title or a name do justice to what actually is? I think not. This include things other than God as well.

We depend on language for so much yet is anyone really it's master. A statement often means different things to different people.

I am no master of language. I simply muddle through. On the other hand, I think most understand what I have written.

 

[mangalavara]

Post the name(s) of the god(s) you worship/work with, along with the reasons you work with them. Also include the name of the pantheon if you have one.

This is a good thread and I have enjoyed reading everyone's replies about the deities they worship or work with.

When it comes to pantheon, Hindu deities are the only deities I worship. The ones I worship the most are Ganesha, Shiva, and Parvati. The primary reason that I pay homage to Ganesha is that he is the remover of obstacles. Shiva is who I see as Brahman because I like a supreme being who is meditative and away from crowds. Parvati also receives my worship because of who she is in relation to Mahadeva.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Post the name(s) of the god(s) you worship/work with, along with the reasons you work with them. Also include the name of the pantheon if you have one.

I like Krishna because he is loving and Kali because she helps me with my self-esteem, but I don't know what it means to "work with" deities. I would like to understand more about that. Also, Jesus and Buddha are my spiritual role models but they are not gods to me.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Why do I stick around God? I haven't found any other place better. Yes, It's simple Math!!

If you get stuck at one place, how will you find a better one? It's simple Math!!

This include things other than God as well.

IMHO, when you term it God, it does not mean anything other than Sky Daddy. Not an appropriate name. Perhaps you can say 'nature'.

 

[Bird123]

If you get stuck at one place, how will you find a better one? It's simple Math!!IMHO, when you term it God, it does not mean anything other than Sky Daddy. Not an appropriate name. Perhaps you can say 'nature'.

One is never actually stuck. It's by choice.

God actually has no name. Everyone already knows who everyone is. I used the term God to give reference to what I am speaking. It's about what is. It's about what I said and not any labels or titles. Since God is actually Someone, the term nature would never fit.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Aupmanyav]

It's about 'what is'.

God has many connotations, like whether it is the God of Christians or the Allah of Muslims or the monkey-faced God of Hindus, Hanuman. I stay clear of this word. We indicate it with the word 'Brahman'. 'It', not 'He', not a sky daddy.

 

[Martin]

I have it on the very best of authority that God, being an Englishman, drinks tea not coffee.

Indeed. And He nibbles daintily on cucumber sandwiches, in between rounds of croquet.

 

[Martin]

God has many connotations, like whether it is the God of Christians or the Allah of Muslims or the monkey-faced God of Hindus, Hanuman. I stay clear of this word. We indicate it with the word 'Brahman'. 'It', not 'He', not a sky daddy.

I much prefer "Brahman", though most of the Hindus I come across online refer to "God" rather than "Brahman".

 

[SalixIncendium]

I much prefer "Brahman", though most of the Hindus I come across online refer to "God" rather than "Brahman".

I could be wrong, but I think for the most part, Hindus will refer to Brahman as God, especially to non-Hindus not familiar with the term "Brahman" so as not to have to explain what Brahman means each time they say it.

But I agree. I dislike using the word "God," when referring to Brahman, both saguna and nirguna, because "God" brings to mind in most the Abrahamic God.

 

[Martin]

I could be wrong, but I think for the most part, Hindus will refer to Brahman as God, especially to non-Hindus not familiar with the term "Brahman" so as not to have to explain what Brahman means each time they say it.

But I agree. I dislike using the word "God," when referring to Brahman, both saguna and nirguna, because "God" brings to mind in most the Abrahamic God.

The impression I have is that generally Hindus are happy to refer to "God" because for them there isn't that association with the Abrahamic God, and the baggage it comes with for us westerners.

 

[SalixIncendium]

The impression I have is that generally Hindus are happy to refer to "God" because for them there isn't that association with the Abrahamic God, and the baggage it comes with for us westerners.

Yes. We generally have no problem using the term amongst ourselves because there are typically no Abrahamic connotations tied to it when we use it.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yeah, those interested in Advaita, know the difference. I do not mind if other Hindus relate it to God. Their view.

The impression I have is that generally Hindus are happy to refer to "God" because for them there isn't that association with the Abrahamic God, and the baggage it comes with for us westerners.

True.

 

[Bird123]

God has many connotations, like whether it is the God of Christians or the Allah of Muslims or the monkey-faced God of Hindus, Hanuman. I stay clear of this word. We indicate it with the word 'Brahman'. 'It', not 'He', not a sky daddy.

Brahman doesn't fit because Brahman isn't actually a Being. That is my understanding.

The Supreme Being really belongs to no religion at all. It has never ever been about beliefs. It's about what actually Is.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Vouthon]

Post the name(s) of the god(s) you worship/work with, along with the reasons you work with them. Also include the name of the pantheon if you have one.

If I may make my own the creedal statement of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, as to the identity of the God to whom I give latria (sole and supreme worshipful adoration):

"I firmly believe and simply confess that there is only one true God, eternal and immeasurable, almighty, unchangeable, incomprehensible and ineffable, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons but one absolutely simple essence, substance or nature."

In a sense, I regard myself as a natural Trinitarian: the belief in a single, self-subsisting, omniscient and eternal Triune Deity just seems to capture my personal understanding of reality perfectly.

The doctrine of the Trinity, which is Christianity's most unique and important, has both a deeply relational conception of Divinity and an incarnational one.

Within Trinitarian theology, the 'one' God is literally a communion of love (as the First Epistle of John declares: "God is love!" ontologically in His inmost being), a divine dance of love.

And for me this is a beautiful mystery. As Pope Francis notes in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si:

"When we contemplate with wonder the universe in all its grandeur and beauty, we must praise the whole Trinity. For Christians, believing in one God who is trinitarian, communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation.

The divine Persons are subsistent relations, and the world, created according to the divine model, is a web of relationships. Creatures tend towards God, and in turn it is proper to every living being to tend towards other things, so that throughout the universe we can find any number of constant and secretly interwoven relationships".

Christianity also places the 'scandal' of a fully incarnate God - conceived and born of a mother's womb in the person of Jesus, fully divine and fully human - at the heart of its understanding of the meaning of existence, which I love.

St. Augustine of Hippo provided our western theological tradition with its classic expression of Trinitarianism, through a psychological analogy of the Trinity in which the unity of essence is compared with the rational part of the human soul, composed as it is of “the mind, and the knowledge by which it knows itself, and the love by which it loves itself.”

This appeals to me too, as an understanding of the inner life of God and why He relates to Himself in three distinct relations of one essence to Itself, by analogy to our own human mind (akin to the Father) and it's self-awareness (akin to the Son, the self-image of the Father) and love for itself (akin to the Holy Spirit, the love with which God the Father loves Himself in the Son).

It's a complicated doctrine, no doubt, but it appeals greatly to me on both an intellectual and emotional level.

In terms of pantheon, I believe in the existence of the Angelic Choirs: immortal, immaterial and purely spiritual conscious beings known as angels, that were created by God at the beginning of all things and serve as His messengers with the phenomenal world in which we live. They are venerated and prayed to by Catholics (every individual is believed to have a guardian angel) but never worshipped.

I also believe in the Communion of Saints: the belief that the souls of all human beings who have died in a state of grace (including my departed ancestors and older relatives, as well as the church's official canonized saints and beatified) dwell with God in the state of heaven, beholding His Beatific Vision without any mediation, and that through God - who is omnipresent everywhere - they are still united spiritually with those of us here on earth, such that they can be both prayed to for intercession before God and prayed for, as well as venerated (but never offered worship, only God can be considered worthy of worshipful adoration).

 

[Aupmanyav]

Brahman doesn't fit because Brahman isn't actually a Being. That is my understanding.
The Supreme Being really belongs to no religion at all. It has never ever been about beliefs. It's about what actually Is.

What all does this Supreme Being is supposed to do? Why do you term it as a 'Being' rather than nature or some similar word? In what way it is different from Brahman which is not a Being?
Does nothing other than that exist?

 

[SalixIncendium]

Brahman doesn't fit because Brahman isn't actually a Being. That is my understanding.

The Supreme Being really belongs to no religion at all. It has never ever been about beliefs. It's about what actually Is.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

For clarification, are you making a distinction between Brahman and "The Supreme Being?"

In my understanding, Nirguna Brahman is pure being.

 

[Aupmanyav]

To both of you, @Bird123 and @SalixIncendium, What do you mean by 'being' here? And Salix, what is an 'impure' being?:
Being:
- the fact of existing; existence (as opposed to nonexistence).
- conscious, mortal existence; life: Our being is as an instantaneous flash of light in the midst of eternal night.
- substance or nature: of such a being as to arouse fear.
- something that exists: inanimate beings.
- a living thing: strange, exotic beings that live in the depths of the sea.
Definition of being | Dictionary.com
- Aup. adds: or a Supernatural worship-seeking monotheist God Being - "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me."?

 

[SalixIncendium]

To both of you, @Bird123 and @SalixIncendium, What do you mean by 'being' here?

सत्
Sat
Existence

And Salix, what is an 'impure' being?

Impure typically means diluted or mixed with and extraneous substance. In this case, being tied to gunas. Vrittis affect impurity in being.