God and Buddhism

Question: My impression is that Buddhists believe that everything is emptiness. Nothing substantive or permanent exists, such as a soul or God, and therefore all things are empty by nature, that is empty of self, or "zero." Yet at times I sense the existence of a soul and of God. Can you comment on this?

Aaron: I can promise you that God exists but this will be meaningless to you until you discover it for yourself. I believe you have begun to do this, and must learn to honor what you feel with your heart. As to the belief that everything is empty, how can I explain to you that the Buddha was correct, and that God and soul do still exist. Empty! What is emptiness? Do you understand that everything and nothing are the same. I see that you know this in an intellectual way, but your heart will not accept it.

Learn about this idea of everything and nothing being the same from silence. You understand when you meditate that the silence is full. The deeper you go into the stillness, the more you find there. This is the same in all things. The deeper you go into the emptiness, the more you find, until you suddenly understand that God is there. This is not self, nor anything of form or consciousness, nor any of the aggregates of self. It is far deeper and is an impersonal level, in a sense.

It is the level where there is no concept of self, as the Buddha taught. And it is empty of self, as he taught. But that part of you that is no self, that is part of the One, resides there. It is through your life in this heart we all share, this soul we all share, that you find deathlessness.

This is not a soul with consciousness and continuity, but when you reach this level, is simply oneness. Truly we are all one.

I have been in this space. I have chosen to leave it, to teach. Always we learn, on any plane. This is my own learning now, to teach others and grow in compassion and wisdom as I do so. It is my choice, even as your learning in this lifetime is your choice. And yet, although temporarily I have chosen to assume the cloak of personality and consciousness, I dwell in this oneness too and it is my constant experience, as you try to make mindfulness your constant experience.

It is simply a matter of degrees. Bound as you are by physical form, it is hard to go as deep. This is fine. You are always in the right form and the right plane to learn what you have chosen to learn. Trust this, and honor your heart's wisdom. Please meditate on this. My words can take you only so far. The true understanding must come from within your own heart.

Q: You have talked about God and prayer, yet much of what you teach is Buddhism and there is no mention of God in the Buddha's teachings, nor of prayer. Why does the Buddha deny the existence of God and soul?

A: I feel the confusion behind your questions. Let us take them one at a time. We are not concerned with an "ism" here, but with truth. You are not fundamentally a Christian, a Moslem, a Jew or a Buddhist but a spiritual being, in human form. Through your many lifetimes you have been in all the major religions, and many lesser ones. What is the truth that runs through all these religious beliefs and practices? The truth is Love, and God is Love!

There is now a form of engaged Buddhism called the Tiep Hien Order of Interbeing. It began in Vietnam during the war. Tiep means to be in touch; hien means the present time, the "now," which is all that is real. The essence of Tiep Hien is our relationship with each other and our world. When we are in touch with our deepest being in every moment we cannot help but be aware of our constant interrelationships with all else that is.

The first precept of this Order is "Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth." I ask you to look at the meaning here. How often do we look at an issue through our identity as a Buddhist or Christian and lose the truth behind what we see to be real because we're so locked in to the "ism" that has become part of our identity, part of the filtered lens that shades our reality.

You can only find what is real for yourself. If I tell you that God is real, I must also tell you not to believe me, for nothing is real until you know it for yourself, from your own experience.

You ask why the Buddha did not teach of God or soul, why he said all is emptiness. While I explain this, please keep in mind those lines in the Heart Sutra, "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form."

The Buddha taught a path grounded in reality and experience. You cannot know the soul; it must be felt with the heart and accepted on faith. From the space of egolessness there is perfect freedom. That much is clearly experienced by any being reaching this space. The samsaric cycle is broken, and suffering is ended. That is as far as he saw it necessary to go. What difference does it make whether Nirvana includes God and soul or is only empty, in so far as the Buddha's teachings of freedom? We are back here to my often repeated statement that everything and nothing are the same, which is no different from "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form."

You seem uncomfortable with this. Can you formulate the question?

Q: It's just that leaving God out of it seems a denial. And the Buddha says there is no soul.

A: The Buddha was a man. He lived on the human, earth plane. He had great wisdom and compassion, but he was not God and never claimed to be. This is what makes his teaching so beautiful. He learned nothing that is beyond the reach of any human.

Q: If I can see past lives and learn from them, and KNOW myself as a spiritual being, then why is he denying this knowledge. Obviously he had access to it too.

A: Because of his compassion for other suffering beings. You can move yourself into this awareness because of your faith. You know it as reality, but cannot prove it, nor can any on your plane. It is not meant to be proved, or the whole experience of faith would be denied you. If you ask beings to accept on faith, and make that faith a necessity for their liberation, then you exclude many. The Buddha limited his teachings to what could be known by human experience, not out of short-sightedness, but out of compassion. While his teachings are interpreted today as no-soul, no-God, from my perspective I believe that he simply knew the matter of God and soul to be irrelevant to freedom from the samsaric cycle.

Q: It seems that I could prove "God" or "soul" in the same way I can prove egolessness, by my personal experience.

A: You are not being totally honest here. Look more closely. When you experience egolessness, you see the wheel of karma stop. You understand that you always have choice. The real-life effects are evident and obvious. When you experience soul, it is very vague, just a feeling of oneness and continuing awareness. Your direct knowledge of God is even less. Light, love. What reality have these? I am NOT denying their ABSOLUTE reality, in spiritual terms, but am talking about them in relation to human experience. Do you see that it is the veiled glimpse, and your faith, that allow you to know God. Few beings have been so graced as to know His reality while in human form. Even for Jesus a veil was laid across when he accepted human birth.

The Buddha is NOT making faith a condition of freedom. This has nothing to do with the reality of God! It is simply a statement of the Buddha's love and compassion.

Q: You've told us often that one of our most important lessons on this plane is faith. So why take away the need to learn faith?"

A: I cannot really explain this if you don't yet see it, child. You find God at the end of your path because you have faith that He is there. Think how much greater faith it takes, though in a different direction, to accept egolessness, no-self, Anatta, without the knowledge of God. This is truly facing annihilation and accepting that such annihilation is okay. It is having the faith to step out into total unknown. The lesson of faith is different, but no less profound.

Please return now to the precept I mentioned. As I speak, try to move past that lens that clouds your clear vision of reality. "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form." When you finally reach the place on your path where there is no self nor any notion of self, where there are no longer defined edges to your being nor any notion of separation between self and other, you may find total emptiness there. Or you may find fullness there, that it is a space that includes all that is, including God. Do you see that it is the same thing. God, Himself is "zero," is emptiness, and the emptiness is God. It is simply the totality of all that is.

The more you open your heart, the more you find fullness and love. If you choose to acknowledge, with faith, that this love is God, that is fine. If you choose to simply call it love, that is fine too. The truth here is love and it is at the end of your path, whichever route you choose. God is Love, by whatever name you call Him. Do not judge another because he uses a different word to define the same experience.