God and me: a like-minded pair?
Part 5: Oneness with God as a simple reality, experienced now
If all this is sounding simply like fatuous metaphysics, I would object. I am not pursuing some phantasma, as opposed to engaging in the real business of living; I am seeking empowerment for living. If I can understand the truth about human existence, and what the true relationship with God actually is then – quite apart from wasting energy in false pursuits – I can give myself entirely to the task of seeking full union with God. I can end the anguish that so many people feel when inherited beliefs about God do not tally with the evidence of what reality is actually like. I believe it is possible to show that faith in God is, indeed, the ultimate human experience – as has always been claimed – but that this faith can be fully integrated into our understanding of the reality of the universe and the reality of what we know being human to entail. It is a faith that offers complete fulfilment here and now in this lifetime (regardless of whether life after death may be possible) and is a faith that can be embraced by all people, for it entails nothing that is reliant on unfulfilled belief or a promise that it will only be fulfilled in the life to come, after death. Complete union with God must be the ultimate goal, and it is that which is open to us through the idea of our mind becoming one with the mind of God.
Of course, we did confess that this will never be fully achievable in this life, yet we seem to be opening ourselves to the possibility that it is achievable on at least some points. And being the same as God – fully one with him, even if only on some points, seems quite something. And as a little bit of God is traditionally understood as being the same as the whole of God, perhaps there is a never-ending dimension to even our partial or momentary union with God. God is understood to be the ultimate. And oneness with God must count as the ultimate “achievement” for human beings – the ultimate fulfilment.
Spiritual Devotion 