God is Ineffable

by joey

What is God?

We often hear people talking about ‘God’ ‘Allah’ ‘Om’ ‘Buddha-Mind/Nature’ ‘Enlightenment’ ‘Ultimate Reality ‘ ‘Realization’ ‘Kundalini Awakening’ ‘the psychotic-visionary episode’, the list could go on and on.

[“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." ~John 4:24] (Christianity)
[“……God is love.”~1 John 4:8] (Christianity)
[“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; …..”~Surah 112:1-2] (Islam)
[“satyam jnanam anantam brahma” (“Brahman is of the nature of truth, knowledge and infinity.“)~ Taittariya Upanishad' II.1] (Hinduism)

We have heard and read about these verses over and over again, but did we ever question the true ‘meaning’ behind those concepts? Do you take the scriptures literally? Is there a way to KNOW at all?

Ask yourself right now; do you KNOW ‘what’ is God?
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God is ineffable.

Sometimes, it draws a clear line between YOUR God and MY God, YOUR religion and MINE. However, we must take into account that ‘God’ is an ineffable word.

[“Then they will know that You – Whose Name is HASHEM – are alone, Most High over all the earth” ~Psalm 83:18 HaShem = “The Name”. We’re forbidden to speak it – and it is impossible to say it! It can only be breathed. ] (Judaism)
["Invent not similitude for God; for God knows, and you know not."~Qur'an 16.74] (Islam)
[“There is no way to explain enlightenment. It is just a word to indicate something beyond, something very, very far beyond the normal human condition.” ~Rama] (Zen Buddhism)
[“You cannot describe it or draw it. You cannot praise it enough or perceive it. No place can be found in which to put the Original Face; it will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed.”~Mumon] (Zen Buddhism)
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How is God is ineffable?

What is the relationship between belief and knowledge?

The only way for you to know something, is to experience it, otherwise, your knowledge is only theoretical. You know how a stone feels like, because you have touched it before, and you know it’s rough. Another example will be of a Tarzan who has never left the jungle before.

Tarzan has eaten fruits his whole life, and has only tasted the sweetest, bitterest, and the sourest of fruits. One day, he met an explorer and the explorer explained to him that a taste named ‘saltiness’ exist. He used fanciful words to explain to Tarzan, and Tarzan now thinks he process the knowledge of ‘saltiness’.

What do you think Tarzan will say when someone asks him ‘what is saltiness?’?

He might explain using what he knows, or what he believes he knows (those fanciful words); however, we must recognise that his knowledge is merely theoretical, it’s a mere belief. We must recognise that the only way to truly know what is ‘saltiness’ is not through external sources (books, teachings, schools) but through DIRECT EXPEIRENCE.

["Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching.
Rely not on the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words.
Rely not on theory, but on experience.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe anything because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."- the Buddha] (Buddhism)

Now throw all the intellectual rubbish, of all you’ve heard and of all you’ve learnt aside, and ask yourself again, do you know God, have you experienced God?

[ "A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating."~Eckhart Tolle] (N.A.)

The problem of language is that it is merely a tool we use to make verbal communication possible, it has its limits, and that’s when ineffability comes back into the picture. Some other examples of ineffability are; sensory perception (such as colors) and love.
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All is One.

[“God is without name and form. But human mind can't work without using the form. So we create a form for God…”~ Babaji] (Hinduism)
[“God has no religion”~Mahatma Gandhi] (N.A.)
[“It is called enlightenment, nirvana, God, truth, call it what you will. There is no activity other than the eternal activities of the universe, perfect being, the awareness of all suchness, knowledge.”~Rama] (Hinduism)

God is formless; and for our limited human mind to grasp it, we have created effable expressions of the One True God, of the Eternal Now.

Enlightenment is unspeakable; it’s the path to true liberation; no one can save us but ourselves. The Buddas merely show the way, the way to the Eternal Now.

Allah is the divine name; the Quran stated 99 names of Allah, no one has ever seen Allah for no vision can grasp Him, the Eternal Now.

Although seemingly different, all religions are fundamentally the same; here is a link to an interesting fable THE ELEPHANT AND THREE BLIND MEN.

The men are like the founders of the religions, the elephant is like God. Each has experienced God and has their own interpretation and sometimes has also established their ‘set of rules’ to lead people to liberation and salvation and to follow. However enlighten/holy a person might be, he is still human, he falls sick, is imperfect, and of course, gets influenced by his culture/traditions.

Prophet Mohammad realized Allah when angel Gabriel came to him said that he is the messenger of God while he was meditating in a cave in Mount Hira.

The historical Buddha realized Enlightenment when he was meditating under the Bodhi Tree years after he left his kingdom for the search of the Truth.

IMO – Enlightenment = (finding) God = Realization of the Ultimate Truth = the Eternal Now.

Now take everything aside again, doctrines, biblical knowledge, religious knowledge, education; have you truly experience God? Can God be experienced? What is God in the first place? Do you know what is God? Can He be known through reasoning? Is God really ineffable?

I can't tell you what is the Ultimate Truth, we can't say what the Eternal Now is, I can't tell you what is God, we can’t say what Enlightenment is, and we can't say what it isn't, because these are words and words have nothing to do with the Ultimate Reality.

God.... Real or Not?

by Reeve

Regarding the question of whether do God exist or not?

You know, we all always question about existence about God.

For centuries until now, the modern age, man like us has always debate on whether do God exist and who created us and the world.

These can be in a form of a physical tangible experiential feeling, or miracles such as healings or deliverance or etc, which make them, believe in God.

But anyway, I want to bring out something which I pick up out of everything.

I come to realise that all of us seem to question in our heart about the existence of God.

The thing is, looking from a holistic point of view, my question is:
In the first place, what or why have we ask in our mind and heart whether do God really exist and create us?
What gave us this intellectual capacity and curiosity to be able to ponder on this question?

I mean, for animals, I don’t think that they will think about this in their mind in their daily life of survival.

If God doesn’t exist, and we came from “nowhere”, it’s very hard to think that it’s a natural thing to be able to question about our existence.

How can all our deep, philosophical thoughts come from “nowhere”?

Humans like us have this space in our hearts and minds that seem not to be filled.

Other spaces such as the need for survival, love and acceptance, success can be met and filled up by our natural lifestyle.

But there is this space, which beckons for something more than ourselves.

It beckons for the possibility of a Being that is bigger than us, someone or something, that possibly created us and the whole universe.

And until this space is filled up, we will never stop questioning the existence of this higher being, one that we called as God.

We try to use our logic to debate on it.

But if God is real, then He must be bigger than all our logic.

That’s mean our logic is not good enough to conceptualise Him.

There is a limit to how much we can reason logically.

And the truth is that, in order to believe that God is real and He created us, we got to use more than just logic.

We need to experience His supernatural presence.

Or else, there’s really no point believing that God is real.

God = Nothing

by joey written in early 2008

The most common conception of God is the Omnipotent Being believed in monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

It has however challenged the minds of many about His existence, including mine, pondering and doubting His supremacy.

But what is God, anyway?

As interpreted by many cosmological philosophers, everything that begins to exist has a cause; therefore a first cause must exist. But in order for the first cause to exist, it must have a cause; therefore the first cause must be an uncaused first cause.

A case would be a conversation between a theist and an atheist.
Atheist: Does God exist?
Theist: Yes, for he is our creator.
Atheist: Then who created your God?
Theist: He does not need to be created.
Atheist: *kena stun*
The cosmological approach for the theist to reply is to affirm that God is the uncaused first cause, or the prime mover (unmoved mover), and by doubting the existence of a first cause can the atheist continue the argument.

I would however want to make an amendment to the existing cosmological argument, it has proposed that:
Premise1 - Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
Premise2 - The universe has a cause because the universe exists.
Conclusion - A first cause exists.
At first glance, this is a very appealing argument to the theists alike. However it often leads to confusion and does not provide a convincing argument. To avoid contradictions for the later parts:
Premise1 - Every existence has a cause. (Derived through the existing cosmological argument)
Premise2 - Nothing can be self-cause. (Because everything needs a cause)
Premise3 - But there must be a first cause which is uncaused. (Existence exist)
Conclusion1 - God is the uncaused first cause. (Derived through the existing cosmological argument)
Conclusion2 - God = Nothing. (Because Nothing can be self-cause)


If there is a Nothing, then the Nothing would not be in TIME or have PHYSICAL EXSITENCE for Space + Time = Existence.

-Nothing doesn’t ‘exist’, even if ‘it’ did, it would not exist in Space-time.
-And even as I type the previous 2 sentences, it seem inappropriate because when a Nothing is a Nothing, we can’t even talk about it, we can’t call it “a” , or “it” or “have” or “there is a Nothing”, simply because it’s Nothing(of non-physical existence).

Scientists now believe Nothing created everything, for at first:
There was Nothing -> then there was something
From the scientific point of view, this process is defined through what is now call, the Big Bang. They also believed that Nothing could be the key to the Theory of Everything.
(Scientific definition of ‘Nothing’ = dark energy.)

It is illogical and impossible for an empirical ‘proof’ of God due to its nature (ineffability-to be discussed). Therefore, the classic atheist argument of ‘absence of evidence is an evidence of absence’ is regarded as invalid.

Monotheistic religions affirmed that God created everything, the earth, life and everything there is (all existence).

Premise 1: Nothing created everything
Premise 2: God created everything
Conclusion 1: God = Nothing
Conclusion 2: Nothing = God

Then again the conversation between the theist and atheist.
Atheist: Does God exist?
Theist: Yes and no.
Atheist: What?
Theist: He does not exist in existence, but He is ‘here’, He is ‘there’, He is ‘everywhere’.
Atheist: (o.O) okay.

*to be continued..............