A mystic once said, “If any one saw God and understood what he saw, then it was not God that he saw, but something that belongs to Him.”(1) Some mystics contemplate the formless God and others meditate on the forms that God takes, but the wise mystic knows that the unmanifested and unknown God is beyond both. Even the formless God is an “idea” created in our own mind as an archetypal ideal to help us describe an unknown God, obscure, remote, and outside of us, that remains an abstract thought in our mind.

The last statement reveals that both the visible and invisible God take external appearances so that our own thoughts and feelings about these irrational and abstract ideas are rendered more rational and concrete for our intellect. For these reasons, abstract thoughts acquire different forms and remain concealed in various archetypal symbols in our conceptual world. Therefore, all philosophies and belief systems may be nothing more than complex and interesting concepts created to help us understand our relationship with an unknowable God.

We should add that our conceptual world and everything in it help us to enliven our spirit. In fact, the language of our conceptual world is an intuitive language coming from the psyche. These ideal models are indeed meaningful and significant to sincere seekers of truth since all images and representations of an invisible and unknown God within their psyche serve a Divine purpose. In truth, these symbolic images are designed to attract, enchant, enrapture and vitalize our passion and ardor towards our own source or Center of Pure Being that is the unknown God.

God as a concept

Ruysbroeck, a Flemish mystic, once expressed a similar idea: “God devours us and feeds us at the same time.” Now, we could add, “All the appearances that the unknown God takes on for us, with or without form, are still godly and holy guises, and thus are profoundly significant and meaningful to the one receiving these impressions, since all of God’s expressions enliven and excite the soul of man.”

We could further add, “Any concept we have of God, even a most intricate and abstract one encompassing the idea of the Void, will still remain personal and, therefore, even this idea of the Void will still reflect and externalize an idea we have of it. Hence, the concept of the Void will, in itself, be a reflection of one of God’s faces or guises, compatible with our own level of understanding.”

So, what does this mean? Simply that any image or face that you may make of the Divine still remains a creation of your own thoughts and feelings, and hence will be rooted in your ego. That is why all thoughts and ideas you have of an unknown God will always belong to the world of duality, meaning that the world in which everything that you conceive and feel is first projected outside of you so that your intellect can recognize and absorb it. This is why projections of spiritual ideas are actually reflections coming from your conceptual world, drawing you back towards your own inner center.

We can now better understand how God’s Divine guises reflect in our own being so as to harmonize, endear and unite our ego with God’s own Center of Immanence and Presence. All the images and aspects that God may take in our imagination will be represented by a multitude of symbols conceived psychically and mentally in the world of duality in which ego prevails. Through these inner attractions and enticements, ego is also invited to join in, after its transmutation and absorption into the Center of Pure Being.

Consequently, we see that it’s impossible for us to jump suddenly from a world of duality into a world of Pure Being. We know that the Law of Duality governs man’s daily life, which is the law of observer/observed. By keeping ourselves in that state of separation and division, we persist unconsciously in keeping ourselves apart from our own Center of Pure Being. So, if we focus solely on the external rather than going within ourselves to our Center of Pure Being, we will find it impossible to find that Center, since the presence of the unknown God is the same center as our Center of Pure Being.

 The Seed Within

So, what are we saying? Simply that any description we may have of God, be it contemplative or otherwise, with or without form, belongs to a world of duality where object and subject, observer and observed, challenge each other incessantly. However, to help us overcome this entrapment, God, with His unlimited wisdom, uses our imagination to open before us the gates of the conceptual world that serves as a bridge to link the world of duality to the world of wholeness and unity.

However, these two opposite poles—duality and wholeness—harmonize in a neutral zone within our being, a state of peace and silence in which the unknown presence of God resides as a seed within our psyche. All types of meditation guide us towards this zone, and teach us to gradually blend our consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness residing in the seed.

 God Is the Consciousness of the Present Moment

When you are in touch with your Center of Pure Being, you learn to weave and surf via the subtle and sublime energies existing within that intimate center. By this spiritual and subtle process, your ego is attracted to your Center of Pure Being. Then, an indescribable level of consciousness opens up, harmonizing and blending your ego with your Center of Pure Being to fulfill Ruysbroeck’s, “God devours us and feeds us at the same time.”

Your body is indeed your temple, so by blending your ego with your Center of Pure Being, your temple becomes holy. As a result of these transformations, you are made a perfect witness to your own awakening since, from that moment, your consciousness enters a new dimension, your ego no longer living a separate existence. You are reborn, twice-born, and your will effortlessly expresses God’s will in the miracle of your ordinary, everyday life.