"Q: In the spirit of being open to redemptive love and not resisting what is, please comment on this seemingly confusing possibility: that God could or would fall into illusion/ego/confusion and ‘forget’ what he/she really is, with result of the apparent need for redemptive love to heal this confusion.
Adya. What you are addressing is an age-old question: Why would an all-powerful and all-loving God create such confusion and suffering in the world? The problem here is with the way we have been taught to think of God. The problem is that we humans have created God in our own image. We tend to think of God as some sort of super deity that stands outside of creation pulling the cosmic strings of creation and deciding on everything that does or does not happen. If that is how we conceive of God, then God has a lot of explaining to do. This conception of God is a purely human invention. When I use the word ‘God,’ I am referring to the unfathomable wisdom and love that is woven into the fabric of existence, and which transcends existence at the same time. This is not to deny the confusion, sorrow, and even violence that we can experience in our lives.
Apparently existence contains all possibilities, both positive and negative; since its source is infinite, how could it be otherwise? The problem begins when we conceive of a God who consciously decides what will and will not happen. Then we have to wonder why such a God would decide, or allow, for so many terrible things to occur. There are many elaborate theologies to explain this conundrum away, but in the end, none of them make a whole lot of sense. The problem is not with God, but with our conception of God. We have created God in our own image; that is the problem. God is the Infinite—containing all possibilities and all outcomes. God is not a cosmic someone who directs the events of life. We can be either conscious or unconscious of the Infinite, and it is the quality of one’s consciousness that determines how each moment is experienced."
~ Adyashanti, "Redemptive Love: The Healing Power of Descending Grace" Online Course
Adya. What you are addressing is an age-old question: Why would an all-powerful and all-loving God create such confusion and suffering in the world? The problem here is with the way we have been taught to think of God. The problem is that we humans have created God in our own image. We tend to think of God as some sort of super deity that stands outside of creation pulling the cosmic strings of creation and deciding on everything that does or does not happen. If that is how we conceive of God, then God has a lot of explaining to do. This conception of God is a purely human invention. When I use the word ‘God,’ I am referring to the unfathomable wisdom and love that is woven into the fabric of existence, and which transcends existence at the same time. This is not to deny the confusion, sorrow, and even violence that we can experience in our lives.
Apparently existence contains all possibilities, both positive and negative; since its source is infinite, how could it be otherwise? The problem begins when we conceive of a God who consciously decides what will and will not happen. Then we have to wonder why such a God would decide, or allow, for so many terrible things to occur. There are many elaborate theologies to explain this conundrum away, but in the end, none of them make a whole lot of sense. The problem is not with God, but with our conception of God. We have created God in our own image; that is the problem. God is the Infinite—containing all possibilities and all outcomes. God is not a cosmic someone who directs the events of life. We can be either conscious or unconscious of the Infinite, and it is the quality of one’s consciousness that determines how each moment is experienced."
~ Adyashanti, "Redemptive Love: The Healing Power of Descending Grace" Online Course
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