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14840289 No.14840289 [Reply] [Original]

There is a book called "The History of Mysticism" by S. Abhayananda, that helped me to clarify my thinking about the divine.

(Abhayananda offers free PDFs of all of his books on his website.)

Abhayananda convinced me that our ideas about God are binitarian, meaning that we can think about God in the Absolute, without name and form (I AM) and God in the relative, with name and form (Jesus, Krishna.)

In Buddhism, there is both the water and the waves. In Taoism, there is both the One and the many. The One exists in everyone and everything, so God is both immanent and transcendant.

Christianity and Western philosophy focus on the individual (not the societal) and the Relative (not the Absolute) and the transcendant (not the immanent) and the waves (not the water) and the many (not the One.)

For example, in the dualistic terms of Creator and creation, God is transcendant (out there) rather than immanent (in here) except in the case of Jesus, who is believed to be both God and man, but not really like us.

Christianity and Western philosophy focus on perfection or sinlessness (not Oneness or wholeness) so our integration is between our selves and our shadows (not between each of us and the water and the other waves.)