The Search for God

[SalixIncendium]

This is a cute children’s parable I heard in a talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on chapter 2, verse 16 on the Bhagavad Gita. He credits the parable to Alan Watts. I thought I’d share it with you.

The parable is from the nondual perspective about why people seek God. Many Vedantins relate to this as the “play of Brahman.” I’m paraphrasing here…

God alone existed for eternity, which is a very long time.

One day God was bored and lonely and wanted a playmate, so he came up with an idea. He decided to create a play and pretend to be ‘not God.’ So the play began of God and ‘not God.’ He set out pretending to be a universe with stars, planets, trees, plants, animals, and people.

Since God is God, he’s very good at what he does. So when he pretended to be ‘not God’ in the play, he was so convincing in his role of ‘not God,’ he forgot that he was God. So the play became a nightmare. So now God, playing the role of ‘not God’ and forgetting he is God and, as a result, suffering so much, finds himself in an ongoing search for God.

 

[BSM1]

Wow! This is very close to what I have said for years to describe Man and our existence. I figured that God, being everything, wanted to experience Itself from a different perspective; but everything was 'God' and this would be difficult. So God, being God, took a tiny piece of Itself and deemed it "Not God" (the actual term I used) and created Man. God then placed into Man a small chunk of this "Not God" in a spirit form. Now God has a creature that is still 'God', but 'Not God' as well to measure Herself by. This is why, no matter how hard we try, we cannot escape the 'God' within and all around us; we all simply reflect another aspect of 'God'.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

This is a cute children’s parable I heard in a talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on chapter 16 on the Bhagavad Gita. He credits the parable to Alan Watts. I thought I’d share it with you.

The parable is from the nondual perspective about why people seek God. Many Vedantins relate to this as the “play of Brahman.” I’m paraphrasing here…

God alone existed for eternity, which is a very long time.

One day God was bored and lonely and wanted a playmate, so he came up with an idea. He decided to create a play and pretend to be ‘not God.’ So the play began of God and ‘not God.’ He set out pretending to be a universe with stars, planets, trees, plants, animals, and people.

Since God is God, he’s very good at what he does. So when he pretended to be ‘not God’ in the play, he was so convincing in his role of ‘not God,’ he forgot that he was God. So the play became a nightmare. So now God, playing the role of ‘not God’ and forgetting he is God and, as a result, suffering so much, finds himself in an ongoing search for God.

So the omniscient narrator of this story is, at the same time:

- God, even though they don't realize it.
- aware that they are God, so therefore more perceptive than God.

Sounds like a creative but flawed approach at self-aggrandizement.

 

[Jedster]

When I was heavily into believing my (former) Guru was 'The' God incarnate, there was a similar story, although i can't remember the name of the actors.
Anyway, it went something like this.
God incarnates(not manifests ) as The Guru and has his devotees living somewhere in a hermitage/ashram in India. He has living with him a number of devotees, the only one who 'know who He really is'.
After some time of grooving with his devotees, he announces that he is going out 'into the world' to experience being an ordinary person.
The devotees implore him to stay, which he ignores.
So he leaves the ashram and after a long time, one of the devotees says, "He's been gone too long, I think he may have gotten lost in his own maya. I'm going to find him".
I can't remember any more, maybe there was no ending.

So maybe we are all god.

(The Guru may have been Gorakhnath ... my memory is getting flaky)

 

[Terry Sampson]

A favorite of mine:

 

[dfnj]

Can God have a thought so complex that even She can't understand it?

At first I've thought being omnipotent must be boring. But how would an omnipotent being know what excitement is in order to desire it?

Human beings are God's way of experiencing the thrill of having limitations by sharing in our experiences of joys and frustrations.

 

[rational experiences]

Once there was no God. No man, no female, no Garden and no animals.

Just spirit...and they never knew change.

One moment change occurred, yet where they existed change instant, slowed down into evolution in the state change.

In the moment that the first spirit inherited its Garden presence it realized what change was. And it was too late.

By the time the male spirit manifested he idealized that he was God....the bodies lost to spirit form and he believed he too was lost.

He had no one to talk to...the Nature spirit could no longer communicate.

He was lonely. He wanted to return to spirit. And so he invented science, the biggest mistake of his male life.

 

[dfnj]

The search is over. I found God:

 

[Windwalker]

So the omniscient narrator of this story is, at the same time:

- God, even though they don't realize it.
- aware that they are God, so therefore more perceptive than God.

Sounds like a creative but flawed approach at self-aggrandizement.

Or a loose metaphor for children to try to relate to something which is too abstract for their minds. It is after all, a children's story meant to convey a higher truth. Taking a children's story literally, is inadvisable as an adult. Of course, many fail to take that advice seriously.

 

[Cooky]

So the omniscient narrator of this story is, at the same time:

- God, even though they don't realize it.
- aware that they are God, so therefore more perceptive than God.

Sounds like a creative but flawed approach at self-aggrandizement.

You have to use your imagination man. And not always logic and knowledge.

...You can do it.

 

[sun rise]

This is a cute children’s parable I heard in a talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on chapter 16 on the Bhagavad Gita. He credits the parable to Alan Watts. I thought I’d share it with you.

The parable is from the nondual perspective about why people seek God. Many Vedantins relate to this as the “play of Brahman.” I’m paraphrasing here…

God alone existed for eternity, which is a very long time.

One day God was bored and lonely and wanted a playmate, so he came up with an idea. He decided to create a play and pretend to be ‘not God.’ So the play began of God and ‘not God.’ He set out pretending to be a universe with stars, planets, trees, plants, animals, and people.

Since God is God, he’s very good at what he does. So when he pretended to be ‘not God’ in the play, he was so convincing in his role of ‘not God,’ he forgot that he was God. So the play became a nightmare. So now God, playing the role of ‘not God’ and forgetting he is God and, as a result, suffering so much, finds himself in an ongoing search for God.

I would not be surprised to learn that there are many sources.

The version I know has God having a whim to see himself. And what causes a whim? Nothing, a whim just happens.

So the universe came into existence with absolute knowledge being balanced by absolute ignorance.

The game of duality is played for uncounted ages with a very few at any one time becoming the perfect mirror and then the seer, the seen and the object of seeing all dissolve back into perfect oneness.

 

[WhyIsThatSo]

This is a cute children’s parable I heard in a talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on chapter 16 on the Bhagavad Gita. He credits the parable to Alan Watts. I thought I’d share it with you.

The parable is from the nondual perspective about why people seek God. Many Vedantins relate to this as the “play of Brahman.” I’m paraphrasing here…

God alone existed for eternity, which is a very long time.

One day God was bored and lonely and wanted a playmate, so he came up with an idea. He decided to create a play and pretend to be ‘not God.’ So the play began of God and ‘not God.’ He set out pretending to be a universe with stars, planets, trees, plants, animals, and people.

Since God is God, he’s very good at what he does. So when he pretended to be ‘not God’ in the play, he was so convincing in his role of ‘not God,’ he forgot that he was God. So the play became a nightmare. So now God, playing the role of ‘not God’ and forgetting he is God and, as a result, suffering so much, finds himself in an ongoing search for God.

I like this one better,

Once upon a "time", long before there was such a thing (time), there was "NOTHING" (No Thing), and only "Silence".
Then the Silence thought to itself and another "Thought" was "conceived".

Now the Thought that was conceived was the "Son" (child) of the Silence. And His Mother was the "Thought" of the Thought.
So His "parents" named Him "WORD".

The "WORD" Himself began to "think" and as He did He brought every "thing" into existence.
One of the "things" He brought into existence was His much younger "sister" "WISDOM" (Sophia).

Now "Wisdom" was a curious young girl ( naturally ), and she wanted to know the "Silence" that gave "Life" to her.
But the "Silence" is unknowable, so her quest was in vain.

But Sophia (Wisdom) being what She is, took it upon Herself to find out for Herself.
So She too thought a "thought", but she did so without Her "consort" (husband), which is "KNOWLEDGE".

And what came forth from Her was a "monstrosity", a "miscarriage". a "half-God".
So being ashamed of what She had done, She hid Her "child" in another "realm" (universe), far, far away from Her home.

Then this "half-God" found Himself all alone, and being powerful, like His Mother,
He proceeded to make for Himself His own "world" (cosmos, universe) out of the only thing available to Him (matter).
He even proudly boasted that …. " There is no other God but me "

His Mother would scold Him often, so He knew there was something "above" Him. But He was "IGNORANT" of the "ALL".
And having only caught a fleeting glimpse of that "MAN" and "World" ...."above" Him,
He proceeded to make (CREATE) His own "man", and a "clay model" of the Original.

Only, His Mother, Being Wise (Wisdom), did not tell Him that He was doing exactly what the "Father" (Silence) wanted.
The "half-God" was ignorant of His "Source" (roots), so in every clay model He made there was in it a "spark" (spirit)
of His Mother ( Wisdom ).

So, to this day, we are ALL, "all alone" (in this world ). Not knowing who we are, what we are, or WHY we are.
And we keep coming back here, lifetime after lifetime, until we all finally gain what we all need most,
Our True Parents......"Knowledge" and "Wisdom". And our True Home we left, far, far away.

 

[PureX]

My suspicion is that this concept of "God/not God" is emanating from our binary-functioning human brain, rather than from any logical, existential extrapolation.

 

[Cooky]

My suspicion is that this concept of "God/not God" is emanating from our binary-functioning human brain, rather than from any logical, existential extrapolation.

Indeed. Are you able to appreciate it? Or do you not like it?

 

[Windwalker]

My suspicion is that this concept of "God/not God" is emanating from our binary-functioning human brain, rather than from any logical, existential extrapolation.

Well, anything "logical" is based upon dualistic thought. Getting the logic out of the way, letting the intellect take a break, allows us to see the paradox of nonduality unproblematically. We have to use words, which are dualistic. But we don't need to literalize them as the facts of the way things really are, and thus confuse our logical minds with something beyond what it is capable of penetrating using dualistic constructs.

 

[BSM1]

A favorite of mine:

View attachment 37730

Love me some MC....

 

[BSM1]

Can God have a thought so complex that even She can't understand it?

At first I've thought being omnipotent must be boring. But how would an omnipotent being know what excitement is in order to desire it?

Human beings are God's way of experiencing the thrill of having limitations by sharing in our experiences of joys and frustrations.

To make the equation even more complex, you can't separate 'God' from the thought itself. God has to be the thinker and the thought at the same time. Any other way and you don't have a deity.

 

[Nakosis]

Within the realities created by our mind we can be anything we want.
Unfortunately with this external reality we have to deal with, limitations are real.

 

[George-ananda]

This is a cute children’s parable I heard in a talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda on chapter 2, verse 16 on the Bhagavad Gita. He credits the parable to Alan Watts. I thought I’d share it with you.

The parable is from the nondual perspective about why people seek God. Many Vedantins relate to this as the “play of Brahman.” I’m paraphrasing here…

God alone existed for eternity, which is a very long time.

One day God was bored and lonely and wanted a playmate, so he came up with an idea. He decided to create a play and pretend to be ‘not God.’ So the play began of God and ‘not God.’ He set out pretending to be a universe with stars, planets, trees, plants, animals, and people.

Since God is God, he’s very good at what he does. So when he pretended to be ‘not God’ in the play, he was so convincing in his role of ‘not God,’ he forgot that he was God. So the play became a nightmare. So now God, playing the role of ‘not God’ and forgetting he is God and, as a result, suffering so much, finds himself in an ongoing search for God.

I like this. It echoes the understanding of my spiritual path Advaita Vedanta.

Brahman (the One Absolute Consciousness) and Maya (the temporary Self-imposed illusion of separateness) are central concepts.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I like this. It echoes the understanding of my spiritual path Advaita Vedanta.

Brahman (the One Absolute Consciousness) and Maya (the temporary Self-imposed illusion of separateness) are central concepts.

Not sure if you're aware, but Swami Sarvapriyananda is the minister of the Vedanta Society of New York and frequently does talks on Advaita Vedanta.

If you're interested: Vedanta NY