“In the beginning there was existence alone - One only, without a second. He, the One, thought to himself: Let me be many, let me grow forth. Thus out of himself he projected the universe, and having projected out of himself he entered into every being. All that is has its self in him alone. Of all things, he is the subtle essence. He is the truth. He is the self.”
Chandogya Upanishad
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. . . . God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
Genesis 1:1, 27
Hinduism, one spiritual teacher said, “begin[s] by assuming that ultimately the cosmos is a unified whole in which absolute reality and the relative manifestations are profoundly connected” (Living Religions, 77). They call this Absolute Reality, as said earlier, Brahman. But this is not the end! These teachers believed that Brahman resided within themselves. This is called “atman.” It is similar to a soul or spirit in the Christian traditions, but not exactly the same. The Hindu text quoted above describes how Existence, the formless absolute, projected forth from itself all that exists. All that exists is Brahman. But Brahman is the totality of existence. Everything else does not have all of Brahman, all of existence, but instead is a piece of existence. But everything together compromises Existence, the Absolute.
When I started questioning my atheism a couple of years ago, I began with yoga (Western yoga, involving positions of the body and breathing techniques). Often our instructor would say something reminding us of our shared breath. I breathe out, and my breath goes around the room and is taken in by my neighbor, by the plants in the room, by my other neighbor. When these beings breathe out, I take their breath into my lungs, into my bloodstream, and something that was once a part of them becomes a part of me. We are one.
We have all heard someone say, “You are what you eat.” We often say this as a metaphor, but it’s true. When a child is growing, the matter that grows them taller is matter that was once food. The things we eat are broken down and literally become the stuff we are made of. We are all connected. We are one.
The Absolute Reality, God, Brahman, is present in all of these things - in my breath, in my food, in my bloodstream. My breath is God. My food is God. My body is God. And the person next to me is God, too.
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"
Matthew 25:37-40
When I realized that God is really all around me, I started to rethink my actions. If God is the ground beneath my feet, what does it mean when I throw trash in landfills? If God is a fly, what does it mean when I kill flies who bother me? If God is my sister, what does it mean when I use unkind words? If God is a slave working long hours for little money harvesting cocoa, what does it mean when I casually buy a chocolate bar at the checkout? If I am God, what does it mean when I do anything to harm myself, body or mind? What does it mean when I eat food that is harmful to my body? What does it mean when I dwell on negative thoughts about myself?
If God is a flower, what would it mean to keep more plants in my home and office? If God is a tree, would I think more before using extra paper? If God is a chicken who died to feed me, to give me life, would I think twice before just throwing leftovers in the trash? If God is a man out of work at the traffic light, would I do more than hurry past? If God is my brother, would I spend more time listening to his stories?
And God is. God is all of those things.
I want my faith to be wide enough to encompass all of these things. I want my faith to touch the food I eat, the plants I keep, the paper is write on, my relationships, my time, my everything.
Going back to surrender. Daily I remember that I am not in control. I surrender that false idea that I am in charge of my life. I surrender the idea that I am separate or less than. Drink in the truth that everything around me is magic. Everything is connected, and everything is One. That is God to me.
This understanding has changed the way I do some things. It’s changed the way I see things. It’s caused me to rethink the obvious. It’s caused me to be careful about what I buy, what I throw out, what products I use.
In the future, I might write about some of the things that have changed in me. I phrase that passively because this was not something I necessarily chose, a decision to make a lifestyle change. I had a realization about the Ground of all Being, I surrendered to that truth, and little by little, my priorities shifted. The things I wanted and cared about changed.
This post is part of a three-part series. Come back next Sunday for the next post!
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