The Upanishads

I thoroughly enjoyed this passage. I smiled while I read it, and when I came to the end, I smiled and read it again. Their interpretation of God seemed fluid and intangible.

“The Self” was an interesting way to refer to God. This implied that God flows through, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, themselves and so on. This idea that God is a part of everything and everything is a part of God illustrates infinite fluidity. This reminded me of something else I once read. There was a comparison between God and man’s soul to the vast ocean and a cup of ocean water. It said that a soul is made up of God so both have always existed since God has always existed. Now, consider that like God, the ocean has always existed. Doesn’t it continue to exist as ocean even in a cup? This was the visual I had as I read the passage, “Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is perfect.” I also had this visual when Professor File held up a pen in class and asked everyone to consider the essence of the object. Was it a pen or a pluma? What was it 30 years ago and what will it be 100 years from now? I could picture the cycle of how everything continues to exist and never really ceases to exist. It only exists in different forms.

The intangible for me was the path to ‘eternal life’. Although the path didn’t include mysticism, magic or miracles, in order to grasp it we must go beyond our senses. This made me wonder, what senses can comprehend God if not the five we know of? Perhaps, the being that possess nothing and doesn’t attempt to articulate the ineffable will develop this extra sense and be on the path to ‘eternal life’.

I could appreciate many of the beliefs I read in this passage. Mostly, the idea that once you stop searching for God and trying to wrap your head around the concept of God you will realize nothing you can point to is either void of God or full of God. Nothing is good or bad, it’s simply perfect.