to seek God’s face
Wow, it’s been over a year since I’ve posted.
I thought I would perhaps clarify previous misconceptions. I have not jumped any ships. I am still the same me, holding the same beliefs. What I seek are ways to LIVE OUT what I believe, ways to grow into a better, improved version of me. I seek to be my highest self, and that is a lifelong quest.
Along the way, I have found some interesting techniques and tools that assist in my understanding, and in my ability to APPLY the highest spiritual principles in my life. Spirituality in the head isn’t worth beans. Spirituality in the heart is better. But spirituality in daily actions is the only thing that really matters.
When I was younger, it took me a long time to find the best way for me to express my spirituality, to learn, and to be challenged to live it daily without being overly encumbered by the mythology and deception that is so rife in so many belief systems, and to do it in the most healthful way possible, for me.
While some people can live with/within the deception/myths, I found it much more challenging to do so. And so I had to completely leave the Christian mythology of a dead man who was God in person and who rose again. I know there is a larger teaching under that, that we can rise from the ashes when terrible things happen and create a new and better life, but there is so much WORSHIP of that mythology, of that lie, that I could not identify myself with that ideology. The system within which I now work also has its own set of mythologies, but they aren’t worshipped. Many many people hold them to be literally true, which I do not, but that’s a far cry from worshipping a mythology. And so there is enough “wiggle room” for me to find my place and to glean so much wisdom from the sages. There is also comfort, and a community. All good things.
In my 20′s, my search was for God. But now I do not need to seek God. God is un-seekable. While there is a Bible verse with the command to “Seek my face…”, seeking the “face” of God is a different quest than seeking God. (“God”, of course, is a relative term, and God’s “face”, of course, is also a symbolic term. I do not use either term in a literal sense.)
To me, the term “seek God” indicates a quest for finding some spiritual truth, perhaps enlightenment, or a relationship to the mythical Someone Out There. But to “seek God’s face” seems to indicate finding a way to put an actual face on my spirituality. To live it with full consciousness, in every moment of my life. To allow spirituality to hone me, to embody me. Not to search or embrace some Other, but to embrace that deepest spirituality in myself and in my daily actions. Hence, I don’t need to seek God; I need to find a way to put a face on my every moment, a face that is the very essence of my deepest beliefs.
This is not to argue whether or not there is a “God.” This is to say that whatever word you wish to use to represent your spirituality, putting a face on that, YOUR face on that, as well as the face of ALL on that, is the real topic at hand. This is nothing less than living consciously, living Tao, in my opinion and my experience.
