The Omega Challenge
July 9, 2019//
The Omega Challenge:
In a recent letter to the Omega community, Ilia challenged us all with questions that center on one big question: Who and What is God? Please read her prompts and share your thoughts, experiences, and musings in the comment area below, as together we explore an understanding of the evolving God emerging anew in our midst:
- How do you experience God in this moment? What is God for you?
- How can you deepen your consciousness of the divine milieu in our complex, fragmented world today, a consciousness that in every encounter, there is an excess of being, an overflow of reality that evades our complete grasp; an excess of being which is God?
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At the moment I experience God as Spirit, energy and as being everywhere; in me and around me and in every part of the Universe.
For me God is LOVE. He/she/it is not about religion but about LOVE and LOVE is God.
I am aware that there is a shift in the world going on…and a shift in me too…and so awareness, meditation and guidance to move forward in my path
In my small view of existence, God is the essence of Being. I respond to God by living in gratitude to all that is. This requires my poor attempt at being open to all that happens in my awareness from one moment to the next, free of judgement. “I abandon myself to your will oh God, do with me what you want, for I love You.”
God and universe?…What is God for you? Do any of us know? Soon after the Big Bang, primordial protons and neutrons formed from the quark–gluon plasma of the early Universe as it cooled below two trillion degrees. A few minutes later, in a process known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis, nuclei formed from the primordial protons and neutrons…. said the scarecrow and still it is all a mystery. So now the question of “God” (with a big G, a little g, or goddess, first cause, or one without a second, take your pick) the creator of the universe ….not sure what God is for me personally in or out of “the moment”… I guess if we look at how science tells us the universe works, how it evolves how it flared forth with a Big Bang… how things implode and explode all the time… expansion contraction, then I guess If the universe was created by God, God would kill us just as soon as look at us. I’m just happy to be here in the moment at all.
I have been experiencing God through interbeing with other people. We are all Christ and somehow dwell in one another through the wonder of consciousness even when we are physically separated by distance or death. I am able to be realize the uniqueness and beauty of my soul when God’s love flows to me through another being. My ability to love another and affirm them through mirroring is the greatest power I because it continues the process of creation. We are food for each other.
I have been haunted by the words of Howard Thurman since I first heard them a few months ago: “Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”
Phil, thank you for sharing these beautiful reflections, especially Howard Thurman’s. They speak so eloquently of “interbeing” (a new word for me!) and have given me fodder for the spirit as I contemplate the connection of consciousness with other beings.
Yes!
Right now I experience God in quiet and as Quiet. And He encompasses and embraces all in Himself. If you could look into His eyes, you would see all of creation.
Probably contemplative prayer is how He can make us more aware. He could reach us with His Quiet in quiet. Of course, God can do that in whatever way He chooses to at any time!
Debbie, I love this: “If you could look into His eyes, you would see all of creation.” When I imagine doing just that, it feels so loving.
What a simple question. I sit and try to formulate an answer and determine it is beyond me. I know that I know that I just don’t know what I am experiencing. Maybe both a beautiful longing and forfillment. I wait in contentment for the answers.
I have come to believe that “God” is an energy of Love that pervades all of Reality, and that we need only open our consciousness to be immersed in it. This is not a sentimental Love, but one that nudges us in the direction of compassion, mercy, and justice.
The only way I know to deepen my consciousness/awareness of this Love is by dedicating time to sit with and in it. That dedicated time enlightens me (to the degree that I am able to absorb it) to this indescribable Reality that my rational mind typically pushes to the periphery. Sitting in silent prayer brings it to the center for me, at least for the time when I am in that space. While there, I have been graced with experiences that defy verbal description but which also point me in the direction of living in Love. When I leave my prayer space, I take my newfound knowledge of this Reality with me, and strive to bring it into every encounter I have with creation and other humans…though at this point in my spiritual development I rarely succeed in remembering! It has been a challenging journey to undertake, but the wondrous moments have made and continue to make it worthwhile.