The Fact of Creation

Creation has at least created controversy and so it is plain to see it actually exists. While that is a glib statement concerning creation it is also true. Creativity, or creation, is evident in everything we do and experience. Its most useful exercise is to use our creative authority to be who we are. It is not usual for most people to do this. Many people do this to varying degrees but to actually realize who we are, absent false examples of self, to be only who without the false ownership that is the mask we call our self, is unusual.

Most people consider creation in biblical terms. I do as well but I do not consider the Bible to be the word of God. It is a book written by men for men, as God quite simply does not write books. To write a book and then claim it as a Divine authority is obviously dishonest. If we actually had confidence in the Divine we would have little use for the book as our relationship with God would be direct. A direct relationship is the only possible relationship any person could hope to have with God or the Divine. This is true whatever God is and even if God is naught.

The Bible, or any other sacred text, is only intended to allude to God or some manifestation, or example of, enduring value. The language of God makes no sound, no hand writes it down, no eye reads it, no tongue speaks it and it is understood by all. This is how we know God, by accepting that whatever God is, or even if God is naught, it is acceptable and God means us no harm. We need to accept that God can not possibly suffer any injury and the only sin we can commit is against our self.

We recognize and experience creation in our daily life as we see its plain and simple expression is everywhere. This blog entry proves that as it did not exist before I wrote it. All creation is like that, creation just is and it only happens at one time. Not one thing has ever happened at any other time than the singular moment that is now. The past and the future is contained there in its entirety. Nothing escapes it. Now is the moment of creation and none escape it.

Michael, The Mystic Tourist

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Tags: Bible, Creation, God, Now, Sin, The

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Comment by Mystic Tourist on February 13, 2012 at 9:07am

Hi Paul,

Interesting comment concerning the metaphysics of imagination. Imagination is metaphysical. It is as powerful a tool as I have ever found. It is most usual that we use the imagination to ignore and that invariably produces denial by which we forget our imagination and imagine things as they are not. Our communities and our society are largely built in this way. The imagination can be used for pretend and make-believe as I just pointed out but it can also can be used to see what actually is. To do this we have to release our imagination from the bondage of ignorance and denial as that is what creates the pretense by which we do not see. The application of imagination in the practice of metaphysics exercises the imagination so we can begin to recognize, or remember, its intended purpose.

God's presence can not be denied but when we corrupt our imagination with ignorance we pretend God is somehow unknown or distant from us. We imagine things as they are not. When I look to stand where God is, so God's presence is known, I consider anything that seems to be absolute or of an absolute nature. There are three qualities that I am confidant are this way. Understanding, Truth and Compassion. These act as an anti gravity releasing us from ill will or injurious thought and habit. Injurious thought and habit create a mass and mass creates gravity and we become mired in what only has value if we let it go.

I have not read about this stuff but have learned it through the practice of mysticism. When I say we are created in God's image and likeness I mean it literally. Image is imagination and likeness is sentiency, awareness, cognition, creativity. We are like God but we are not God. We can not know God in any other way than by acquaintance. We can not define God as that would create God and we do not have that authority. We can allow God to represent, express and make a demonstration of God's self. It is this way that we walk with God and we all walk with God. The only distinction that makes this apparent is awareness.

That is a little wordy for a comment thread. My apologies. I do not think I could of been more concise and still responded effectively to the thread. Thanks for your interest.

Comment by Paul Christopher Martin on February 13, 2012 at 6:54am

Thanks Michael.

I am reading (slowly!) a book at the moment on Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination in which it is said that it is not possible to know the essence of God, but only the attributive presence of God, as revealed in the divine names; e.g., Creator, Life-Giver, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Generosity, Justice, etc. This realization of God's manifest beingness is achieved through the World of Imagination (khayāl) or Images (mithāl), which is an intermediary realm between the spiritual and corporeal worlds.

When you say 'we are created in God's image and likeness' how do you understand that exactly? I presume you don't mean a physical likeness, i.e. God as a human being writ large in the sky? According to the Church Father, St. Augustine (354–430), the human mind images God (the Trinity) through the function of memory, undestanding, and will. Or perhaps you mean a symbolic likeness as in kabbalah, where the ten apparent divine aspects of the hidden God (Ein Sof), represented by the qualities (sefirot) of will, understanding, wisdom, power, love, beauty, splendour, endurance, foundation, and kingdom (Shekhinah) are reflected in the human being? (Traditionally, that has been the human male.)

Paul

Comment by Mystic Tourist on February 9, 2012 at 8:27am

What a thoughtful comment Paul. Very refreshing.

The relationship with god is constant but the realization of it requires awareness. I have come to consider spirit as what we allow to animate our person. I am working with three spirits now, Grace, Love and Acceptance. In order to do this I use metaphysics. I use thoughts, images and behavior to fashion a place, and a way, for my person to be. I do believe it is possible to live a divine life and for me it involves the rather mechanical process I described. I am sure different types of people have different ways. Yes I believe that it is possible to walk in this world and walk with God simultaneously and that some people do. I do not think it compromises a persons ability in any way. Yes I do think that people in this condition have been known to write. The temptation is to then attribute what they have written to God while it can only be about God and as such it alludes to God. When we imagine that the word of God is written down we struggle to find God where God is not. God does not know us indirectly and so long as we afford our self an intermediary we are separated from God by at least that veil.

I believe in the concept of Image and likeness. That we have imagination (image) and likeness (consciousness / sentiency / awareness / creativity).  I believe that we are created in God's image and likeness and that that implies a certain responsibility. When we look to others to tell us about God we have not looked to God. That is true even if we have faith that God is somewhere that God is naught.

Comment by Paul Christopher Martin on February 9, 2012 at 6:10am

Thanks Michael for this rumination on creation.

When you say that the only possible relationship one can hope to have with God or the Divine is 'direct' I take it you mean a 'spiritual' contact, a communion that is not mediated by the intellect (thinking)? I wonder though, Is it possible to live in this state and yet function (mentally) in the world all the same? And if it were, then what if one were to write about it, at the time that the eventful consciousness was happening? Could it then be said to be the 'word of God'? Were the writers of the Bible operating in this way? In so far as human beings articulate this verbally or literally they are the instruments of God. The 'language' of God makes a sound through us.

I tend to think that people may be divinely inspired, directly aware of God's presence through intuitive attunement; but at the same time, the gift of spiritual awareness has to be wrapped in words in order for it to be expressed, and so the mind invariably acts as a filter. In that sense perhaps we can only have an 'indirect' consciousness of God?

Paul