God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit: Anthropomorphic Symbolism
Doubting Thomas: Hello Sri Sri Chimpanzee, please don't take this the wrong way. I've enjoyed your writings over the past couple of years, but I do have a question.
Why does almost every non-duality author I read eventually become obsessed with God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? I can't even seem to enjoy your writings anymore. They are littered with religious references.
I became an atheist around seventeen years of age. I'm forty-two now. It seems to me like the concept of God is just as fake as the world that we create to try to cope with what we believe is real.
Do you have any thoughts on this? I'm moving back to Boston soon so maybe we can meet up sometime in the future if you have time.
Sri Sri Chimpanzee: They are anthropomorphic symbols. God or the Father is a symbol for the Absolute, Non-Dual Awareness. Jesus or the Son of God is a symbol for Universal Consciousness-Mind. The Holy Spirit represents the link between the Absolute, Non-Dual Awareness and Universal Consciousness-Mind. They are ideas represented by anthropomorphic symbols, and are used to facilitate a shift in identity from I am a separate self to I Am the One Self. The Self Knowledge books shown below illustrate the context in which the symbols can be understood. Without context the symbols have limited value; with context they can be helpful in transcending them.
The religious believer believes in his own ideas and symbols of God.
The atheist does not believe in his own ideas and symbols of God.
God is an idea in your own mind. You, Doubting Thomas, are an idea in your own mind. Do you believe in the ideas and symbols you have made of your self, and hold in your own mind?
Or have you become an a Doubting-Thomasist?
You don't believe that non-duality is real do you? Non-duality is as unreal as God and Doubting Thomas.
There is no world, no God, no Doubting Thomas, no duality, no non-duality, no theism, no atheism apart from the mind of the perceiver-believer.
Why would you believe or disbelieve, accept or reject your own self-made ideas, symbols and concepts?
The religious believer and the atheist both hold onto their beliefs and disbeliefs in order to maintain their own separate ego-self. The believer says, "I am a believer in God!" The atheist says, "I do not believe in God!" The non-dualist says, "You fools, I am a non-dualist, superior to both!" And, ahh, now we know who we are!
I don't know if that answers your question. A thorough answer is in either of the PDF books - Self Knowledge Diagram with Key Terms, or the Notes on the Text of ACIM.
There are many ways to say, "I love you." We can say it in English, French, Spanish, Greek, Latin; the words and symbols represent the Love of the One at the source of all. We can pick a language we love to hear and read. When we have understood one, we have understood them all.
Peace, Sri Sri Chimpanzee
"[Talking of and using Hindu approaches and imagery] is my way of talking, a language I was taught to use. [I use them] because you want words where no words apply. (c88p458)
"The mind shapes the language and the language shapes the mind. Both are tools; use them but don’t misuse them. Words can bring you only unto their own limit; to go beyond, you must abandon them. Remain as the silent witness only. (c87p451)
"In the attentive and thoughtful reader [these published conversations] will ripen and bring out flowers and fruits. Words based on truth, if fully tested, have their own power."(c75p377)
Nisargadatta Maharaj - I AM THAT
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PDF BOOKS
Notes on the Text of A Course in Miracles - Full Version
Notes on the Text of A Course in Miracles - Condensed Version
Paperback of Notes on the Text of ACIM Condensed Version on Amazon
Self Realization Key Terms - from Nisargadatta's I AM THAT
