What is God? That is one big nugget to grind down. Is there any question more profound? Everyone and anyone can answer it, depending on their point of view, but at the same time it can never really be answered.
I wonder what the different interpretations are, and what it might lead to if discussed? For my part, this is my take on the question.
The answer for me lies in the very first spiritual literature I came across, which has served me so very well all these years. These are the spiritual teachings and philosophies I personally believe in, hold dear, and try to live my life by.
These teachings were communicated from the spirit world itself (so from the horse's mouth), by the Native-American spirit guide Silver Birch, read by medium Maurice Barbanell. A series of books on Silver Birch were published in the early 20th century, in days long before 'AI' and the controversies of channelled material, and before spiritualism and the new age movement were co-opted. But why else do I trust them? Because they reflect logic, intelligence, and just common sense. And they resonate to the deepest level of the soul.
Silver Birch doesn't describe every concept perfectly and in its totality. If you read between the lines, you get a feeling that what's being said is worded, tailored very carefully for the ears of the time, as well as to the level of a relative spiritual novice. But it's still bursting with incredibly deep, and at the same time, simple wisdom. Silver Birch peals back the layers of spiritual reality and the great mystery that is life like no other I have ever found. If you want to cut through the crap, if you want to bypass all the human baggage that accompanies religion, faith, and ideology, if you want to go to the source, the spring waters of purest truth, if you will, this is surely it, and I cannot recommend it enough.
It feels as though I'm trumpeting Silver Birch, though this is more to share what this advanced spirit says of such big questions like God, or as he calls him/her/it, The Great Spirit, and spirit itself, and the nature of spirit. Because I feel these hugely important questions, on which so many differ, can and do have answers, human answers we can all at least appreciate and understand, even if not all of us will believe them.
Q. How would you describe God?
A. It is impossible to give you a complete picture. God is infinite. All language, concepts and pictures must be finite. The lesser cannot include the greater. You can obtain some idea of what the Great Spirit is like by looking at the universe. See how it is regulated by natural law, where provision has been made for every facet of life, even though these manifestations are multitudinous in their variety. Whether it be minutely small or majestically mighty all that lives, moves and breathes, all that exists, are controlled by natural law.Q. What of spirit itself? What is spirit?
Nothing is outside the orbit of natural law. The seasons follow one another, the earth rotates on its axis, the tide ebbs and flows. Whatever seeds you plant, what will grow is contained within it; it will be true to its nature. Law reigns supreme. Every new discovery, whatever it may be, wherever it may be, is controlled by the same natural law. Nothing is forgotten, nothing is overlooked, nothing is neglected. What is this power responsible for it? It is infinite. It is not a magnified man, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. It is not a deity who is full of vengeance and sends plagues because of displeasure. It is not a capricious, wrathful deity. History and evolution show that the world slowly moves forward, upward, revealing that the power behind it is benevolent. So gradually you get this picture of infinite love and wisdom that rule all, that govern all, that direct all and are within all. And that I call the Great Spirit.
A. Spirit is perfect in its origin, spirit possesses intrinsically the creative forces of all life. Spirit is not subject to age, infirmity, wastage or to any of the defects that affect the physical body. The line of spirit evolution is from immaturity to maturity. Part of its evolution is accomplished through a physical body, which it has created for that purpose. Spirit is dominant, spirit is king, spirit is the ruler. But here comes the paradox. There is an interaction between spirit, mind and body, and the body restricts the activity of the spirit on earth because the spirit can express itself on earth only through the body at its disposal.
Q. So spirit needs contact with the world of matter in order to gain conscious individuality?
A. Yes. In order to gain consciousness it must incarnate through matter and have the experience of matter. It evolves from matter into spirit. That means that its association with a body of matter enables it to express itself as an individual working through the personality of the physical. Spirit becomes aware of itself after it has incarnated into matter.Q. If so, is the Great Spirit gaining experience through us?
A. No. Your evolution cannot affect that which is already perfect.Q. But we are all parts of the Great Spirit. Does not the evolution of a part affect the whole?
A. It only affects that part which is manifesting through you, which in itself is perfect, but is not perfect in its expression through each one of you. In itself spirit is perfect. It is the primary substance of the universe. It is the breath of life. In its expression through you it is imperfect because you are imperfect. As you evolve, more of the perfection can express itself through you. You are not evolving the spirit, but you are evolving the consciousness through which the spirit can express itself.
[For me, that resolves the enigma that a perfect God created an imperfect world. SB explained further in another question.]
Q. If the Great Spirit is perfect, and we are of the Great Spirit, how and why is humanity so imperfect?
A.There is perfection and imperfection, but imperfection contains within itself the seeds of perfection, for perfection comes from imperfection. Perfection does not come from perfection, but from imperfection. Life is evolution, it is progress, a striving upward, a development, unfolding, extension, reaching out.Q. But evil... If evil is due to man's misuse of free will, then why should the Great Spirit endow him with that free will which He knows would be misused?
The Great Spirit is the Law and the law is perfect. But that part of the Great Spirit that is expressed in your world is subject to the evolution of that world so far as its expression is concerned. Remember that your world is evolving, and these things are the signs of its evolution. Your world was born in fire and tempest and is gradually evolving towards perfection.
You cannot say that the Great Spirit is responsible for the beauty of the sunset and the sunrise, for the myriads of glittering stars in the firmament, for all the delightful songs of the birds, and then say the Great Spirit is not responsible for the storm and the lightning, the thunder and the rain. They are all part of the great law of the Great Spirit.
In that sense, you might argue that the Great Spirit is responsible for those who are depraved, for those who are so unenlightened that they render harm to their brothers in your world. But to each one of you there is given that amount of free will which, as you evolve, you learn to exercise. The higher you evolve in the spiritual scale, the greater can you exercise your free will. You are your own limitation but, because you are of the Great Spirit, you can conquer all the difficulties and obstacles in your world.
Man is the gardener of his own soul. The Great Spirit has provided him with all that is necessary for it to grow in wisdom, grace and beauty. The implements are there, he has but to use them wisely and well.
A. How else could you have man fulfilling his destiny? Not all are evil, to use that word. There is a mixture in mankind. If you have to choose between a puppet, an automaton, and a being with potential powers of selfishness and saintliness, which would you prefer? Would you prefer man to participate in the infinite processes of creation? If so, he must have virtues and faults, for without the faults he could not have the virtues. Life is comparative. Man rises through struggle and difficulty; man attains, because attainment is not easy, but because it is hard, and that process refines the soul, purifies his nature and makes his character grow. Darkness is where light is not; evil is where good is not; ignorance is where knowledge is not. If all the world were good, it would cease to be good. If all the world had knowledge, it would cease to be knowledge. If all the world had light, it would cease to be light. You grow through comparative experiences. You achieve the heights because you have tasted the depths. That which is achieved without struggle is lightly prized. That which is achieved with struggle is counted as an endearing prize.
Of God, the Great Spirit, he summarizes:
The Great Spirit is not a person. The Great Spirit is not a deified individual. The Great Spirit is beyond personality. The Great Spirit is the epitome of law, love, wisdom, truth. It is the natural law of the universe; the creative force behind all life, whether registered in the plane of matter or in the plane of spirit.
The Great Spirit pervades all the universe, whether it is that tiny portion known to you or that larger part which, as yet, has not been revealed to earthly gaze. The Great Spirit fills all life. The Great Spirit is within all beings. The Great Spirit is within all laws. The Great Spirit is the Great Spirit. He is life. He is love. He is everything.