March 8, 2002

I don't believe in God in the way most people think about God. I don't 
believe in some higher consciousness who created the world as a craftsman 
makes his goods. God is not compassionate nor vehement nor just. These are 
nothing more than concepts that people impose on God.

I believe in a God which is all-embracing: good and evil, death and life, 
beauty and ugliness, being and nonbeing. God is the source of all 
existence, but did not create and does not interfere. If I had to give a 
concise definition, I would say God is "that which transcends duality."

Once one starts to put labels or characteristics on God, saying "God is 
this, God is not that," one inherently places limits on God. By doing 
this, we are masking the true nature of God. There is nothing wrong with 
this. The danger and confusion arises when one mistakes the mask with the 
true God.

Of course, the mind functions in the realm of duality. It is natural to 
make God understandable. But we lose something when we do this. God by its 
very nature is beyond comprehension. When the mind quiets down enough, we 
can catch glimpses of nonduality. Within each one of us is the yearning to 
merge with the Oneness, to see the face of God.