Are you willing to let go of every concept you have about God and seeing what the wisdom within you has to say?
How to get the most out of these Wisdom Quotes:
Put aside everything you think you already know.
Open your mind and heart to receive something new.
Take your time going through each point.
Return to any points that particularly touch you.
In the coming days, listen carefully to the wisdom within you.
1. The Source and Intelligence Behind All Life
"It doesn’t take a tremendous leap of observation to notice that there is an intelligence that is animating life, that is keeping the planets in rotation, that’s telling the plants when to bloom, when to go into slumber for the winter, the changes of the seasons, what makes an acorn turn into an oak tree...
This intelligence, when you’re out in nature, you can see it so clearly. You pick up a leaf and, if you inspect, it you’ll see the intricate detail that has gone into everything.
It’s profound intelligence and, the beautiful thing is, that it’s also active in you. Take a moment to simply notice, right now.
Is your heart beating? And are you doing that? You notice that your heart is beating and you’re not actually the one responsible for that. It’s beating, seemingly, on its own.
Notice also that, this whole time that I’ve been talking and sharing with you, you’ve been breathing. Were you doing that consciously? Notice that your lungs are functioning, there are thousands of chemical reactions occurring in this very moment within your body. Your blood is circulating, your neurons are firing, your eyes are blinking,
I want you to notice even the smallest of things here - you’re not doing any of that. There is seemingly an intelligence that is sustaining you, that is actually providing this sense of aliveness within you. It’s like a life force that is animating everything in everyone.
Take a moment to recognize this, that there is an intelligence that is beyond your intellect, that is at play and sustaining you and that is also at play behind all that is.
Take a moment to look in the direction of that which is beyond anything you know, beyond our understanding and yet palpable and alive. It is the source and intelligence behind all life - God, Spirit, Universe, Oneness, etc.
It doesn’t matter what you call it because it doesn’t change what it is.
It exists beyond time, space, matter and limitations. It’s the source of all wisdom and love within you because you are not separate from this intelligence. We can imagine we are but, in reality, we’re never separate from this intelligence."
~Joshua Benavides, from the video: The Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought
COACHING NOTES:
We begin in a place where we can all agree - that there is some kind of universal intelligence behind all life, from the rotation of the planets and the changing of the seasons to the miracle of our bodies and how they are being sustained.
This is an excellent place to start in our exploration of God. But notice what the last paragraph says: " It’s the source of all wisdom and love within you because you are not separate from this intelligence. We can imagine we are but, in reality, we’re never separate from this intelligence."
So, immediately, we discover that what we are looking at in our exploration is not separate from ourselves. Meditate on that.
2. Beyond Religion and Tradition
“God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don’t think my tradition defines God. I think it only points me to God.”
~John Shelby Spong
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“A less pure teaching of a lineage traps us in the lineage, makes us a Buddhist or a Christian or a Hindu, not a free being, because when the people who lead do not have the full connection, they cling to the vehicle rather than to the truth toward which the vehicle is directed, and vehicles (institutions) corrode unless they are constantly fed by the living spirit.
And the living spirit comes only through beings who are it. We can become organizational groupies as part of our path, but if we know it’s not enough, we must have the honesty to let it go.”
~ Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill: Awakening to Oneness
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“To choose not to be part of a team or religion does not make me non-religious; for my religion is Truth and I am very much in love with God. I do not need to align myself with a specific messenger if I already understand God’s message. And the way I think is not considered ‘New Age’, since common sense is not new."
~ Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
COACHING NOTES:
In the above quotes we see that it is okay to follow religious traditions, it is okay to leave religious organizations, and it is okay not to identify with religious groups at all. It is all okay. Notice any intolerance rising up within you as you read these statements. Do you have strong opinions about religion? Do you impose those opinions onto others and feel you know better?
In our exploration of God, we must address the subject of religion with an open mind and see it for the vehicle it is meant to be. For some, it is helpful, for others it is a hindrance. Either way, it is not for us to judge but rather to remain open, and not get distracted by the noise of the conditioned mind.
3. A Living Love
"And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him"
~ 1 John 4:16, New Testament, Bible
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"Thank God that He is love. Love is His nature. We must realize that the greatest revelation in the Bible is that God is love."
~ Watchman Nee
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"To abide in love is to live a life in which we love others habitually with the love that is God Himself, that He may be expressed in us. To abide in God is to live a life that is God Himself as our inward content and outward expression, that we may be absolutely one with Him. God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus he can be one with us practically."
~ Footnotes from the Holy Bible, Recovery version
COACHING NOTES:
No exploration of God would be complete without the revelation from the Bible that God is love. And yet, not so much an objective love as one that is very subjective in its nature. Consider a time when you felt a force of immense love pouring through as you were compelled to help a complete stranger. Or perhaps there was a different scenario in which you experienced a love that seemed to 'come out of nowhere.'
God, divine love and humanity are all somehow connected in a mutual abiding. We must have an open mind to receive these things because they are mysterious and incomprehensible to us. However, we can enter into these truths through our experience.
4. Divine Energy and Oneness of Life
"When people search for truth, they often look in two directions - at the form and at the formless - creating the idea of a duality in life.
The life force beyond all things has no form, yet it gives form to all things.
In the illusory world of thought, many believe the inner self is God and outer self is the body. But I can assure you, the inner self and the outer self are the same thing.
You must see in the singular if you want to find truth. When you understand this, you will see through the illusionary duality of life.
All life is divine energy, whether in form or formless. When this energy takes form, we call it nature.
Both the form and the formless together create the whole, the oneness of life, that which we call God.
Nothing can possibly be greater or separate from the whole. Only the ego suffers such delusions."
~Sydney Banks, The Missing Link
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"Everything that exists has to be made of the formless energy that was there before form. Its foundation is that it is divine energy in disguise. It is that universal energy, formless energy now in disguise.
A lot of people come to awareness that they’re made of divine energy so they think divine energy is some formless energy within themselves and that the body is something different. But they’re the same thing. The body is that same formless energy in disguise.
Everything is divine energy.
And, as we see that, a number of things start to happen. We see the oneness to life. We are all the same. We are the same.
We are human beings who are divine energy who can create the illusion of separateness via our thinking."
~Dr. Bill Pettit, from the video: Never Broken, Never Lacking.
COACHING NOTES:
I remember the first time I came across these quotes. I was astounded and, to this day, wonder why the whole of humanity has not been taught this from birth. Perhaps I'm a dreamer to think such things but, my goodness, what a vital and profound truth these words point to, and one that would, no doubt, change the course of humanity.
Have you ever considered what your life force is made of and where it comes from?
Do you see that oneness is not some mystical, new age idea, but actual common sense?
Are you aware of the illusion of separateness that is created through our thinking minds?
5. The Core of Stillness
“Has it ever occurred to you that you are seeking God with His eyes? The truth is that you already are what you are seeking. You cannot find it because you are it.
You can’t look at what’s looking. You can’t think about that which is prior to thought. The mind cannot comprehend what is beyond the mind.”
~ Adyashanti
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“In order to find what the concept of God is pointing to, you must let go of your image of God and every concept you have about God. You must dare to be void of all concepts and enter into perfect Emptiness, perfect stillness, and perfect silence.
You must forget everything you have ever learned about God. It won‘t help you. It may comfort you, but such comfort is imaginary; it is an illusion. Let go of all the false comforts of the mind. Let them all come to an end. The end must be experienced fully in Stillness.
When you let all images, all concepts, all hopes, and all beliefs end, Stillness is experienced. Experience the core of Stillness. Dive into it and surrender fully.
In full surrender to Stillness, you directly experience That to which the concept of God points. In that direct experience, you awaken from the dream of the mind and realize that the concept of God points to who you truly are.
~Adyashanti, The Impact of Awakening
COACHING NOTES:
Really, there is only one question here that is of importance. Are you willing to "let go of your image of God and every concept you have about God?"
Without dropping the old, we cannot receive the new. There is nothing to be afraid of here. You need not accept anything that doesn't align with your spirit. You can trust your inner sense of truth. Just be open and enter into silent stillness.
6. The Ultimate Blasphemy
"To imagine oneself a separate self is the ultimate blasphemy.
It is normally considered that to say 'I am God' is blasphemous. However, what is truly blasphemous is to say 'I am a separate self.'
With this thought, consciousness denies its own unlimited universal sovereignty. It relinquishes its freedom.
It is not blasphemous to feel and say that I am the totality of experience. It is a position of love in which everything and everyone are included."
~ Rupert Spira
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"God is not playing with you. God is playing as you.
I know you and love you far too much to treat you as a mere person. I refuse to know you as less than God."
~ Mooji
COACHING NOTES:
"It is not blasphemous to feel and say that I am the totality of experience. It is a position of love in which everything and everyone are included."
If this is true, then why can't we see ourselves as the totality of experience? Because anything that we look at is either in physical form or thought form. To be in this "position of love" that Rupert Spira talks of, we must disappear.
Only when the concept of myself that is separate from God, the thought-created me, the ego, the false sense of self, the small, limited, body-mind dissolves into presence can I experience the conscious awareness that I am. And it doesn't have to be difficult or complicated.
In this conscious awareness, we are one with what we call God - even though, in reality, we never left this oneness and we can never be apart from it, except in our experience.
7. Songs for Your Spirit Playlist
This is my personal playlist, so see if there's anything here that resonates with you. The first one is my favourite. The lyrics say, "Know you are loved," but I like to sing, "Know you are love." Choose whichever feels right according to where you are on your spiritual journey.