Seeing God

    by Phaedre Suriyai Christ

A couple of months ago circumstances brought me for a week’s stay in Manhattan. I opened the newspaper to a New York Times book review of  The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, an Oxford University professor (in the field of “the public understanding of science”). In his book, Dawkins claims there is no God. He says “I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable and I live my life on the assumption that He is not there.” 

The reason why this was particularly noteworthy for me is because this book review marked the first time in five years that I had read any material written for mass public consumption, i.e., newspapers, magazines, books, etc. As many yogis do, I had isolated myself from society for an extended period in order to go deeply into the mind and its connection with Spirit, deterred by as few cultural influences as possible. The trip to New York marked the beginning of a gradual re-entry. It is typical of the Absolute’s sense of humor that this particular article, claiming the nonexistence of Itself, would innaugurate my emergence from a solitude in which I perceived little other than God. 

As I read the article, I thought the book was some sort of joke or hoax. I found it hard to truly believe that anyone, particularly one whose official duty was to promote intellectual public understanding of anything, especially of unseen forces, could seriously state there is no God. I felt Dawkins had to be pretending, or else he hadn’t researched too well. And then the Absolute, which communicates with us through the mind, shot me a trio of images to wake me up to the realization that not everyone shares my same perspective. 

The first image that crossed the screen of my mind was a picture of a sort of faceless politician. You’ve seen the fellow I’m talking about on C-Span in clips of congressional filibusters, his head carefully pivoting from left to right, hands gesturing, mouth working non-stop. Although the image came silently through my mind, it was accompanied by a “knowingness”,  a wave of comprehension.

Spirit, I remembered in that moment, has been politicized, packaged, given a spin. In public arenas, to say one believes or doesn’t believe in a Creator categorizes you, attaches you to various agendas. In certain circles, God is an issue. Scientists and theologians have been taking stances on the Creator for centuries. And of course dealing with God as an issue dampens if not ruins the possibility of actually perceiving the subtle nature of our Source. With that one picture of a politician, given to me by Absolute Mind, it began to make sense that Dawkins might be able to do an actual in-depth search for God and not find Him.

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