God Has No Personality and What Pain Has To Do With It.

God Has No Personality ©2015 Joan M Newcomb

I try to talk about spiritual subjects without using religious references.  I even try not to use the word spiritual. I've been talking a lot about Consciousness lately because, to me, it's a more accurate description of who we are, both individually and collectively.

I was raised in a religious family. We said prayers at every meal, at bedtime, and went to Church every Sunday. For my mother it was an internal experience, and she lived her faith. My father did his best to show our religion externally.

"God" by Moyan Brenn on Flickr

My own definition of God went through many incarnations, peeling away the layers to what Essence felt like.  My biggest stumbling block was the Christian 'God The Father' which, in my experience was not compassionate nor benevolent. My biggest breakthrough was calling it Universe. My prayers were conversations while driving.  I always began with 'hey, U'!

For years I'd also journal my conversations, writing my questions and then scribing what I perceived was the response.  The replies weren't verbal, but more impressions. It was frustrating because I'd list all my complaints and the answers would be very benign. I realized that my grievances were like standing in front of a tree with my face pressed into the bark, and God was showing me a forest, with many pathways.

At some point, the Universe itself became a feeling, an impression. When I shifted my attention, the world around me changed. Colors became brighter, everything came into sharp focus.

There's been several spiritual awakenings, when I'd be enveloped in Love. In Love with the Universe, with my life, with myself. I'd still have the same problems, but I knew all would be very, very well. No matter what drama was going on, I remain centered. The longest this lasted was for nine months.  It would be wonderful to tip over into it again permanently.

One time I was struggling, and resisting the concept of an external God. After all, I AM Spirit, I AM my Inner Being. The answer came to me that it doesn't matter how you interact with the Divine. You can have God the Father, God the Authority, God outside of yourself, God inside, many Gods, and no God/s at all. It's all go(o)d.

So now I dance with Consciousness. With the awareness of my Self as Consciousness, knowing this is all a creation of Consciousness.  And this morning, my journaling started to veer off into personality level narrative. Painful emotions arose.  I shifted my perspective, and felt Consciousness flow through my body. Pain dissipated.

This stayed with me as I walked my dog. What I noticed was an impassive appreciation for the world.  We created this reality to experience the opposite of who we really are. Emotions are part of that experience. Bodies are our vehicles to feeling this reality. Personality is what we create in order to be visible to others and distinguishable by others.

If it has emotions and a personality, it's a physical level projection.

Consciousness has no personality. Consciousness feels immense, and clear. The body delights in Consciousness, there's an absence of pain when fully embodied. And yet pain comes up in the process of embodiment. As we come into form, we feel more. When you shine more light into a place, it reveals emotions and physical sensations. I am now finding that pain disappears when fully Conscious.

What does pain have to do with it? Pain makes the body feel real. Pain is a physical reaction. We've used pain to anchor us here. Pain is a reminder to focus within. When your fully focused within, pain goes away. Or, your definition of pain shifts, and it doesn't feel painful, or bother you any more.  It's not denying, resisting, or ignoring it. It's bringing full awareness to it.

Becoming fully conscious requires anchoring into the body. You miss the point of being here by leaving the body or going outside it in order to be more spiritual. You're already Spirit, you don't need to be more so. You just need to be more here.

You can get there by focusing inward, by connecting to to 'anchor points' within form. You can anchor in the lower abdomen. You can anchor in your solar plexus. You can anchor deep into your heart. You can anchor in the center of your brain. You will find, as you bring your full attention into any or all of these places, that it's quite spacious inside you. These anchor points aren't fixed, they go on and on, deeper and deeper. You are still here, and also there.

Play with all of this for the next 7 days and see what happens!

Guidance and Prayer

©2008 Joan M. Newcomb

I just completed a submission to the Oprah Show on Prayer and Healing (see it on my Mystic Musings blog ) which inspired me to write more on the subject of prayer.

I don't pray, at least in the way I assume people pray, although I do enjoy standard prayers such as St. Francis' and the Serenity Prayer. I have a metaphysical approach to prayer (of course). I see it as focusing energy more than communication with the Divine. For instance, the Lord's Prayer from a mystical viewpoint actually helps one run energy through your chakras!

My communication with God or the Universe is more casual, and usually starts with my saying "Hey U"! I don't ask for anything, although sometimes I request clarity on things.

The other day I was in a meeting and we were reading a story where the person prayed for guidance for her marriage. What a great idea! So me, being me, closed my eyes and shifted my focus, intending on prayer for guidance, too, and instead found myself relaxing into a greater awareness of the energy in the room. Things became brighter and sharper and clearer. Which is how I feel when I'm connected to Source.

What kept running through my head was the phrase 'sought through prayer and meditation to increase our conscious contact with God, prayer only for God's will for us and the guidance to carry it out'. I thought that was an interesting response to a request for guidance for one's marriage.

Except that I have been aware of wanting to focus more on my partnership with Source, in which case it was a pretty clear answer.

Then I felt a little resistance to praying for God's will for me, but that's because of the language. Any time I've aligned my will with Source, the higher Will, I've felt much better and in agreement with whatever is going on at the time.

I thought about 'the power to carry it out' and how it was similar to the Serenity Prayer's 'Courage to change the things I can' (which I've always considered to be me). Courage and power. When I'm aligned with Source, my energy feels clear, I feel empowered (inwardly, rather than dominantly powerful).

Writing this I recognize my resistance was my little ego wanting to run the show. It's a chihuahua thinking it's a mastiff. It's a mini-will with a Napoleon complex.

My current growth phase concerns de-energizing patterns in the morphic field that have been blocking my experience as Spirit. My little will thinks they're real, so I end up battling with windmills. (Don't you love how I'm mixing metaphors today)? Which only solidifies them, or brings more experiences that reinforces them.

So, without formally going down on my knees, I'm coming to see that my prayer is being answered. I was wanting navigational tips, but the guidance I'm getting is to focus on my inner connection with Source. It feels like what to do is to turn within and the patterns will naturally evaporate from lack of attention.

Notice that my experience with prayer is more empathic and unstructured. It's intuitive rather than intellectual, I feel it more than think it. Notice what your natural tendency is; are you visual rather than verbal? Maybe your form of prayer is in drawing, and your guidance comes through mental images rather than words. Are you musical? Perhaps your connection with the Divine is in playing some good tunes. And when a song goes through your head, the lyrics could be communication from Source.

Have fun with this, and see what happens!