The Concept of “God” in Mysticism
Introduction
Mystic man did not represent “God” as a human figure
as in this painting by Michelangelo
They did not consider it morally ‘wrong’,
they just considered it wholly inaccurate
For any true mystic, ‘God’ bears no resemblance
to a portly elderly father figure with a beard and in Arab dress
Instead mystics simply stated
that there was no way God could be represented
and so like the Islamic religion and many Eastern traditions
no image was ever used
The void
When initiates needed to be taught,
mystics used [and use] the symbol of a Void.
The fifth element in the Japanese elemental system,
for example, is ‘the void’.
This photo shows a Natural Black Green Hetian Stone Doughnut
carved from Chinese Jadeite.
And this shows a Chinese bi - a type of circular ancient Chinese jade artifact.
The earliest bi were produced in the Neolithic period,
particularly by the Liangzhu culture (34002250 BCE).
They were also made in glass to better represent ‘spirit’.
Neolithic bi were undecorated
Stephen Hawking and Black holes
In one of the most interesting twists on the nature of ‘God’,
Stephen Hawking’s black holes
come closest to that of the mystics’ void
Hawking came to realise that
not only were black holes a mechanism of destruction
a bit like water going down a plug hole
But they could also be a mechanism of creation
they emitted particles as well as swallowing them
“I used to think that information was destroyed in black holes.
But the Ads/CFT correspondence led me to change my mind.
This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science”.
As such he probably discovered the reason
why mystics talk of God ‘breathing out and breathing in
‘the breath of God’
The Torus
This cycling of energy is represented in science diagrams as a torus
The Dragon and the doughnut shape are both
symbolic ways of showing the existence of the same thing
- a recycling of energy.
But scientifically the existence of this recycling energy has been proved
1 Planets have a magnetic field in the shape of a torus.
2 Our Sun has a large toroidal field surrounding it
the heliosphere that is itself embedded inside
a vastly larger toroidal field encompassing the Milky Way galaxy.
3 And a new study has shown for the first time
that a torus of gas and dust will naturally form around the nuclear
black hole as material falls in toward the nucleus.
4 Quasars, the counterpart of black holes, also form a torus.
So what mystics predicted symbolically is now appearing scientifically
this is a gold Celtic torc of 150 to 50 BC
And in mystic symbolism this is an Ouroboros,
the serpent that eats its own tail representing constant creation
and destruction as well as the recycling of Energy
Especially an ouroboros, with a tree of life
Other symbols
The other symbols used to represent this divine creator and destroyer
was the hub of a great wheel, forever turning
The name then given was the Unmoving Mover
Found at the centre of this wheel,
it did not move whilst the rim was constantly spinning
Representations of activity
In Hindu scripture the equivalent of God is Brahman.
Whilst Brahman is not depicted the three main activities of this entity are.
Whilst later depictions fall into the same trap that western traditions did,
making the images more like human beings,
earlier depictions show an entity having three heads functions or aspects.
The word 'trimurti' means 'three forms' and in the trimurti,
one form is the creator, another is the preserver or maintainer
and the third is the destroyer creation, maintenance and destruction.
Names
The name or term ‘God’ is rarely, if ever, used by mystics.
If I quote the entymology of the name God you may perhaps see why
"from Proto-Germanic guthan source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian,
Dutch god, Old High German got, German Gott,
Old Norse guð, Gothic guþ), which is of uncertain origin”
The same source also indicates the root is *ghut - "that which is invoked",
source also of Old Church Slavonic zovo "to call,"
and the Sanskrit huta- "invoked," from root *gheu(e)- "to call, invoke."
Instead the term used is Ultimate Intelligence
as it better describes the concept the term represents.
The Ultimate Intelligence
By definition the Ultimate Intelligence is the sum
of all the functionality and attributes of the forms created over time.
The ‘master package’ [in software terms] of the creation.
By virtue of the fact that this Ultimate Intelligence
is all function this Being is indeed
- a merciful, benevolent, just Being, but is equally well
- a destructive, unmerciful, angry, tyrannical, Being
- Furthermore this Being is heterosexual, homosexual, male and female
- black, white, coffee coloured, furry & hairless
- happy, sad, joyful, whimsical,
- dog function, cat function, human function, tree function,
plant function, water function, mineral function Being.
This Spirit Being is all possible functions,
attributes, relationships and activities in creation.
This Being is able to do everything and be everything
because it was the template,
the master version from which everything else was created.
This Being is in a position to understand everything,
because this Being is the sum total of everything
- every attribute and every function.
Fariduddin Attar from All pervading consciousness
Know then, that both this visible world and that
Which unseen is, alike are this Being,
Naught is, save this Being and all that is, is this Being.
Blind are men's eyes, though all resplendent shines
The world by Deity's own light illumined,
0 Thou whom man perceiveth not, although
To him Thou deignest to make known Thyself;
Thou all Creation art, all we behold.
As we are ‘the created’ - every dog, cow, tree, cloud, leaf of a tree,
blade of grass or human being, every single thing has been based
on a tiny tiny part of this Ultimate of Intelligences.
Sri Ramakrishna
“I look upon all human beings - in fact,
all creatures - as incarnations of this Deity.
I see this Being evolving into all things,
manifesting in everything - in Man and Nature.
I see this Being has taken these multifarious forms
that appear before our eyes in this universe.”
And this is why no mystic ever uses the word God
Asclepius Hermes Trismegistus
I cannot hope to name the maker of all majesty,
the master of everything, with a single name,
even a name composed of many names;
this Being is either nameless or all named .