Question: How can I know God? I want desperately to believe in God!
Answer: From my perspective, belief in God is an obstacle to knowing God. When we believe in God, we create God in our image, and all we are creating is an illusion to make us feel safer. Belief is a function of the mind and we can only know God through direct experience. So how does one have a direct experience of God?
God is here now, but we are not! Mostly we are lost in the world of the mind. It is a world of the remembered past and the imagined future. It is a world of thought, memory, imagination, concept, opinion, idea and belief. When we are in the world of the thinking mind, the one place we are not is in the present moment. And yet, God is ever present. God exists as the silent presence at the very heart of all things present. God exists at the very heart of silence within each one of us. The present moment and all that is in the present moment is God revealed.
If we are to know God, we must bring ourselves to where God is. In other words, if we are to know God, we must bring ourselves fully present. At first, the experience of being present may seem ordinary. But as you remain present, and deepen into Presence, the hidden treasure is revealed. Slowly and gradually, you will encounter the living Presence of God in all things present. Everything that you see, hear, taste and touch is the body of God. If you bring yourself present with the body of God, you will begin to experience the living Presence of God in all things present.
