Limitless

Following Dr Wayne Dyer’s passing a couple of weeks ago, like many people, I felt a great sadness, even though I knew that it was always his choice when and how he wanted to leave this plane.  I was grateful, however, to read the message that Margaret brought through Gerry Gavin, which gave Wayne an opportunity to speak to all of us again.

http://gerrygavin.com/category/messages-from-margaret/

As I read this message, all the lights in the house blinked, such that my husband said: “What was that?”

I knew that it was Wayne making his presence felt.  I knew then that Wayne was not going to be limited by being in spirit, and that quite the opposite would be true.  If anything, he had been limited by the physical forces and cultural beliefs which restrict us all on this planet.  Now that he is free of those forces and beliefs, he is free to be his truly limitless self.  I get the feeling that Dr Wayne Dyer might just have a greater influence on a greater number of people, now that he has passed, than he had when he was alive.

I began to read one of Dr Dyer’s books that I had been looking forward to for quite a while: I Can See Clearly Now.  Although I had learned a lot about the man, Wayne Dyer, from his talks and other books, I knew that this book would give me even greater insight into the life of a man who had inspired in me, not only admiration, but love.

In this book, Wayne looks back at episodes in his life from his point of view within the last couple of years, applying the wisdom he gained in later life to incidents which may have seemed hard to understand at the time.

It is so clear to me today that everything – every event, and every person – is in some inexplicable way connected. There is no time; 1968 and 2018 are all one, even though our body-mind sees them as separated by 50 years. We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe. What I do affects everyone, and all of my thoughts and deeds are not only listened to by the great Tao but make an impact independent of time constraints.

This quote from his book epitomises for me the message from, not only this book, but all spiritual teachings – we are one, here and now.

The challenge for us all is in remembering this and applying it to our lives consistently.

It is easier when we realise that what connects us is love.  We are connected by the matrix of love that is God, the Tao, Allah, Source, whatever we like to call it.  But as Wayne would remind us: “the Tao that can be named is not the Tao”.

This is the reason that religions fall short of what they could be.  They try to name the Tao – to put God in a box and try to tell us: “This is what God is. We know what God is – God is this and not that.”  But how can they know the entirety of God, if God is everything and everyone?

I had been learning about this in my Biblical Studies course.  I have been learning about Pantheism and Panentheism.

Pantheism, according to Wikipedia, is the belief that the Universe (or Nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God.  Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic God.

It tells us that, with panentheism on the other hand, the divine is seen as interpenetrating every part of the universe and extending, timelessly beyond it.  Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are identical, panentheism maintains a distinction between the divine and non-divine and the significance of both.

It further tells us that, with pantheism, the universe and everything included in it is equal to the Divine, but in panentheism, the universe and the divine are not ontologically equivalent.

Obviously, there are some people who hold neither belief.  Some don’t believe in any divine creator; others believe that God is not immanent at all, but transcendent, meaning that God is not close to each of us, but somewhere above looking down on His creation.

I would be very interested in hearing your views on God.

My belief is that it is possible that God can be different things to different people.  To me, God is neither the God of Pantheism nor the God of Panentheism.  Although Panentheism more closely describes what I believe God to be, I believe that, just as the named Tao is not the Tao, any God that we can describe is not the real God.

I believe that God is everything and everyone, but like each of us, is greater than the sum of its parts.  I believe that God is both immanent and transcendent.  She is both a personal God, in that I can have a personal relationship with Her, but It is also impersonal, in that It does not favour one individual human over any other.  Nor does it favour humans over any other part of Its creation, loving every single part of Itself and Its creation unconditionally.

Perhaps we may not be able to describe or name the real God, but I believe we can experience God.  God is everywhere in the present moment.  The ego takes our focus away from God to the past or the future.  Meditation brings our focus back to the present moment, back to God.

Once we begin to experience God within us, now here (nowhere), in the present moment, we can begin to experience God everywhere and in everyone.

Whilst it is easier to see God within the likes of spiritual masters like Dr Wayne Dyer, once we know that we are all one, all part of the Divine, we begin to see God wherever we look, including within those we may have considered the worst of humankind.

Once we start looking on others as integral parts of God, we shine the light of God on the God-like part of them, such that they may start to notice God within themselves.  We start to have the same effect on others that Dr Dyer did on us.

Jesus led apostles who went out into the world to show the way to find God through him, and this is what apostle means: one who is sent forth, a messenger.

Perhaps our goal could be to be an apostle for the message of Dr Dyer – that we are one with each other and with the Tao.  I am hoping that Wayne will be there with us as we share his message.

(As I searched for an appropriate image to place in my blog, I realised that this is the reason that we cannot make graven images of God.  In choosing an image to represent God, we are attempting to limit God to that image.  There is no appropriate image for that which is “Limitless”.)