The goal of our spiritual journey is to explore what is True, pursue what is Good, and practice what is Beautiful. And this journey begins with the question: What is Truth? Some say that Truth resides in a Holy Book of some sort, or a set of infallible statements about Reality. Some claim Truth is found in an inner experience, while others say it is found in evidence gathered from our senses. And then we find great spiritual teachers, such as Krishna who says “no Truth is superior to me”, or Jesus who says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. Despite all of the apparent differences, these visions of Truth share some commonalities: They assume we are part of a greater Reality. And we come to experience Reality, as it really is, through many ways. These ways include books, and our senses, and inner experiences, and relationships with others. Through these ways we find Truth when our inner self conforms to what is really Real, and we are brought into harmony with Ultimate Reality. And in history there are enlightened persons-- like Krishna and Buddha and Jesus-- who are so filled with Ultimate Reality that they claim to be living embodiments of Truth.
So what is the greater Reality that we need to conform ourselves to, so we also can embody Truth? What is really Real in the world we experience? What is the Ultimate Reality which is beyond, or within, or underneath, the apparent reality we experience every day?
Different cultures have given us different images of Ultimate Reality. For the Greek Heraclitus and the Chinese Lao Tzu, Ultimate Reality was like water, constantly flowing and changing. For Democritus and modern Materialists, Ultimate Reality consists of particles of indestructible matter constantly colliding in space and time. For Plato what is really Real is a universal Mind or consciousness that shapes Reality. Many Hindus would agree and add that this Cosmic Self is like a great Ocean of Being we swim in. Jews and Muslims would concur that Ultimate Reality is a Personal Entity, but would say this Reality is not so much within this world as beyond it, never to be identified with anything in space and time. Buddhists would usually go even further and say that Ultimate Reality is so far beyond any category or concept or relationship we can only grasp it as pure “Emptiness”. Christians in turn try to integrate many of these insights into the concept that Ultimate Reality is a threefold Dance of Being which is beyond all, and within all, and personally responsive to all.
A Framework to understand visions of Ultimate Reality
So how can we know the Truth about Ultimate Reality if there is such a confusing tangle of concepts and images? If the Maps seem to disagree this much, how can we ever find our way? It is tempting to retreat into the comfort and security of exclusivism, and simply declare one way right, and all others wrong. But this could also be incredibly arrogant and simplistic, ignoring the many ways different cultures have experienced the Ultimate Reality we share in. So perhaps there is a way of organizing all of these visions that is more inclusive and integrated, and will allow us to experience the fullness of the Reality we inhabit.
Welcome to the wonderful and confusing topic that many philosophers refer to as "Metaphysics", and religious scholars call "Theology". Both of these are words with Greek roots. Metaphysics refers to the study of Ultimate Reality beyond or behind the physical reality we live in (from "meta" meaning "beyond", and "physis" meaning "nature"). It refers to the question of whether there is any greater reality within which the natural world operates. Theology, on the other hand, assumes that the Ultimate Reality which holds our world together is a "God" of some kind. And hence, this word means "reasoning about God" or "study of God" (since "God" in Greek is "Theos" and "Logia" means "rational study of").
While the study of metaphysics and theology seems confusing on the surface, we can begin organizing and integrating views of Ultimate Reality by creating a grid which sorts these views in two ways: First, we can sort by how they relate to Reality as a whole. Second, we can sort by how they relate to the persons who inhabit Reality. In terms of Reality as a whole, we mean everything: The entire Universe, or even the complete Multiverse. Every possible world that could ever exist in any conceivable Reality. The Ultimate Reality that is the Source or Cause or Ground or Explanation of all Reality can relate to everything in the world in one of two ways: As Transcendent, or as Immanent, or both.
Transcendence refers to Ultimate Reality as being beyond or outside of all things: Beyond matter and energy, outside time and space, exceeding concepts and categories. Ultimate Reality is that Source which is greater than all else, beyond which nothing greater can be conceived. Ultimate Reality relates to our world in much the same way an artist might relate to a drawing on a two dimensional piece of paper. Just as an artist can glimpse her drawing all at once, and take in everything in one instant of awareness, so also all of space is immediately present to the Source of Reality that transcends everything. Likewise, just as the artist is immediately aware of the length and width of the drawing, so also all time-- past, present, and future-- is present tense from standpoint of transcendence.
But there is another possible way Ultimate Reality can relate to our reality. It could be immanent. Immanence refers to being present everywhere, in everything: Within and throughout all beings. Here, Ultimate Reality is like the Ocean of Being we are all swimming in. And just as the water of the ocean is present within all the fish in the ocean, even down to the cellular level, so also this Ocean of Being is present within even the smallest spaces of our world, as the Being that gives existence to all beings. And just as the fish and the ocean remain distinct, even though the fish is immersed in, and filled by, the ocean, so also individual beings remain distinct even though “swimming” within Ultimate Reality.
Now, speaking of these beings: There is a special kind of being in the world that is unique from all other beings because it is fully conscious of itself, its motives, its choices, and the world around it. And these beings can communicate this awareness through language. These fully conscious, communicative beings are called "persons", and on planet Earth we only know of one species that is fully personal: Humans. There may be countless other persons on other planets, or in other dimensions. But we haven't met them yet.
How does Ultimate Reality relate to these persons? Well, some think of Ultimate Reality as impersonal: A force or energy or being of some kind that does not respond to personal communication. It does not react when spoken to, or prayed to. Yet, it can be sensed by "tuning into" it through meditation or spiritual practice, much like we might tune a radio into a radio broadcast. But Ultimate Reality would never "talk back" or express Love or anger or desires or plans to us. Others think of Ultimate Reality as personal: As a "he" or a "she" who is responsive to our communication, and not just an "it". When we speak of Ultimate Reality as personal, we are speaking of a "God" who we can know and love and pray to. And this God in turn may communicate with us, expressing God's Love and plans for us.
Visions that are Immanent and Impersonal
So, in the great spiritual paths of the world, how do these views of Ultimate Reality fit in this grid? Let's start with Ultimate Reality as immanent and impersonal. One view that fits this, which many of us have encountered in our culture, is Materialism. This is the view that Ultimate Reality is just matter: Stuff that can be sensed by our physical senses of sight and touch. And Ultimate Reality is simply the totality of the physical world. There is nothing that transcends beyond matter. No gods or spirits or souls. Just physical stuff. This seems to be a very common sense view, but when you probe it, there are some surprising twists and turns.
For instance: What is matter? We could define it as molecules. But what are molecules? Combinations of atoms. And what are atoms? Systems of subatomic particles. And what are subatomic particles? Here we lose the material trail. Because the basic units that make up all matter cannot be defined physically, but can only be described by mathematical equations, which describe fields of probability. They cease to be "particles" at all, and act more like waves or strings vibrating in higher dimensions than we can physically sense or conceive. The common sense idea that matter is solid "stuff" dissolves into higher dimensions of mathematics, logic, and reason. And suddenly tangible matter looks a lot more like an expression of an intangible rational Pattern which transcends our world, which is only grasped only by our rational minds, not our physical hands. Thus, the physical world begins to seem spiritual, having more in common with Mind than matter.
But modern materialism is not the only worldview to start with the immanent, impersonal processes of the material world, and find that there is an Ultimate Reality that is mystical, or even mental, at the Source of all things. In ancient China, the view we now call Taoism arose, which taught that nature flowed according to a certain Way called "The Tao". This Tao is "The Way" the world works, the unchanging cause of all change. It is the Pattern of Existence, which flows like water, and gives rise to the changing seasons, the combinations of elements, and the natures of creatures. Yet the Tao is also the Way of Life: The pattern we should follow to be in harmony with nature, other people, and ourselves.
This Tao expresses itself through the energy which animates the universe, which is called "Chi". Through the Tao, by the power of Chi, all things happen: Being and non-being, life and death, joy and pain, light and darkness. This Tao is usually not a Reality you can talk to or pray to, although you may come into harmony with it through study, meditation, and living according to nature. And yet, sometimes there are hints there is more to the Tao than this. In the classic text on the Tao, called the "Tao Te Ching", the Tao is usually spoken of as an immanent Pattern and Power in the world. Yet, sometimes it is also spoken of as coming from beyond the world. Likewise, the Tao is often referred to impersonally. But sometimes it is called "Our Mother", which is a very personal term indeed.
This idea of an immanent and impersonal Ultimate Reality, which holds in itself hints of mystical transcendence, and which seems to call us to spiritual awareness, can be found in many places. In philosophy, this is often called "Pantheism", from Greek words that mean "God (theos) is everything (pan)". The idea that Reality as whole IS God can be found in the Jewish thinker Baruch Spinoza and physicist Albert Einstein. Both used the word "God" to describe the impersonal totality of Reality. Yet both spoke of this impersonal God as the moral and spiritual value of Love, which we can come into harmony with. More recently, the movie series Star Wars has popularized a Taoist style vision of Reality in which "The Force" animates everything as an "energy field created by all living things". It "surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together". This Force has a Light and Dark side, and can be accessed by spiritual and physical techniques to focus its power in our lives.
Visions that are Immanent and Personal
So, we can see there is a clear tendency for views of Ultimate Reality which are immanent and impersonal to subtly shift toward a more mystical view of reality that includes transcendence and personality. One view which fully embraces this insight is Hinduism. For Hindus, the Reality that gives rise to all else is Brahman. This comes from a root word which means "to expand" or "to fill". It is "The Infinite" which fills all things, as the Ocean of Being that makes all beings exist. This Brahman has two aspects: The abstract and the personal. In the abstract, Brahman is a mystery beyond all attributes, definitions, and knowledge (called "Nirguna" Brahman). In this aspect, Brahman is transcendent, beyond time and space, life and death, being and non-being. It is the Divine potential that gives rise to all actual worlds.
Yet, there is another aspect of Brahman: The personal "Saguna" aspect, with attributes and personality, who fills the Universe and expresses itself in History and through the beings that live in the world. It is this personal aspect of Brahman, NOT the abstract, that is sought in most forms of Hinduism. In these forms, Hindus practice loving devotion to Brahman as a personal God who is Ruler of the Universe, and the Lord of Love. Brahman can be known and experienced and prayed to, and Brahman expresses itself through its Divine Energy, called "Shakti". While Brahman is the masculine side of God, expressed as pure being, Shakti is the feminine side of God, expressed as energy and power to make events happen in the cosmos.
But, since Brahman is immanent and personal, God is delighted to express Godself in infinite forms. Every being in the Universe is an aspect of the Divine, a window to glimpse God's Love through. God is the Soul of the World, and the entire Universe is the Body that Brahman works through. Thus, Brahman becomes personified in countless male gods (called Devas). The greatest of these Devas are the “Trimurti”— the “Three Faces” of God— who personify Brahman as the Creator named "Brahma", the Savior named "Vishnu", and "Shiva" who guides us through death into new life. Yet, Shakti is also embodied in countless female gods (called Devis). These Devis are all personifications of "Mahadevi", the great Mother Goddess. And all the female and male gods are paired to complement each other, as expressions of the Divine masculine and feminine. And yet, the mystery goes even deeper. Because not only do gods and goddesses embody the Ultimate Reality of Brahman and Shakti. ALL persons are embodiments of God, and EVERY human is a divine incarnation in their deepest self, after they have stripped away their selfishness and sin and ignorance.
It is not only Hindus who hold the idea of Ultimate Reality as a personal God who fills the Universe and guides History from within the cosmos. In philosophy, this view has been called "Panentheism" which sounds very similar to Pantheism. The difference between the two is that, while Pan-theism sees the world AS God, Pan-EN-theism sees the world IN God, as an expression of a personal God's creative desire. We find Panentheism in Greek thinkers as far back as Plato, who viewed God as a "World Soul" who directs the cosmos in the same way a human soul directs a human body. Enlightenment thinkers like GWF Hegel thought that world history was an expression of the Divine Spirit, as it worked through conflicts and possibilities, always evolving and unfolding, to become fully expressive and aware. Later thinkers would build on this and say that God is in process with the cosmos, and that we are expressions of God's self-evolution. God evolves and changes through us, as we evolve and change.
Visions that are Transcendent and Personal
So far, we have moved from Ultimate Reality as an impersonal force with hints of mystery and consciousness, to a personal God who is at work through all the processes of nature and events of history. In the concept of Brahman, we even glimpsed a transcendent dimension when it was considered as an impersonal absolute. Now we move westward to the Middle East, where three major religions arise from a common ancestor to fully embrace the transcendence of Ultimate Reality. These three religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, their common ancestor is a man from Babylon named Abraham. He is the great father from whom all of these religions claim biological and spiritual descent. According to tradition, Abraham was the first one to grasp the concept of Monotheism: The idea that Ultimate Reality is one personal God who transcends all possible worlds, and who is unlimited in space, time, power, knowledge, and goodness. Thus, these three religions are often called "Abrahamic Monotheisms".
Actual history was probably far messier than this. In reality, it seems that the view of Ultimate Reality among ancient cultures evolved slowly as those cultures evolved. Three millennia ago most people seemed to think that the major aspects of the natural world-- Earth, Sky, Water, Harvest, Fertility-- had divine powers which energized them. These divine powers came to be seen as separate gods who ruled these aspects of creation. Each god was seen as super-powerful and super-knowledgeable, but limited by the power and knowledge of the other gods. This is similar to how we view comic book superheroes: They may be super-powerful, but not unlimited. This view is known in religious studies as "Polytheism" which comes from the Greek words meaning "many" (poly) "gods" (theos). Inevitably, some gods seemed to be more powerful than others, or more loving and redemptive, or more representative of the world as a whole. Thus, some gods were worshipped more, while others were demoted, or even forgotten over time.
Eventually, many spiritual paths evolved to embrace Monolatry, which is the worship of one god above all the other gods (from the Greek "mono" for one, and "latria" for worship). This one god may be the most powerful and worthy, but there are still other gods around, and they are still limited by each other's abilities. However, the Divine vision of a few cultures evolved beyond even monolatry. They came to realize that the Ultimate Reality who embraces the entire universe must not be limited in any way by any other being. In fact, they moved beyond gods (with a small "g") to a singular God (with a capital "G"). What this means is that God is not a super-powerful being among other beings. God is Being itself: The Being that upholds the existence of all other beings. They came to realize that it is a grave mistake to confuse the countless beings with Being itself, or the many gods with the one God.
This realization about Ultimate Reality came to both Sanskrit speaking people who later become Hindus, and Hebrew speaking people who later became Jews. But what they did with this realization was very different. Hindus came to embrace the idea that all of the gods were just facets or personifications of the universal God-- Brahman-- who was immanent in all Reality. But in Judaism they took the opposite route. These gods were not worthy of worship at all, and were not to be confused with the one God who transcended all of them. In fact, these ancient Jewish people came to the radical idea that these gods were just spiritual servants of God (angels) or renegade spiritual powers rebelling against God (demons). But in a strict sense, no other gods existed at all. This is genuine Monotheism: Only God is real. As the Jewish prophet Isaiah said: "I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I strengthen you, though you don’t know me... There is nothing apart from me... I alone form light and create darkness, make well and create woe."
In Jewish monotheism God is personal and absolutely transcendent. Nothing in creation can be compared with God. This is shown by God's Divine Name, revealed to Moses in the burning bush experience in Exodus. In this passage, God tells Moses that his Name is "I AM who I AM" or "I AM what I AM". This means God is incomparably unique, unable to be named by any other name, concept, or category. Only God fully exists as "I AM", and all other beings derive their existence from God who is Being Personified. This Divine Name gets simplified into the Four Hebrew Letters YHWH, which is sometimes written as "Yahweh". Yet, for Jews the Divine Name is so sacred, they will not pronounce or write it, often choosing instead to translate it as LORD (in all caps), or pronounce it as "Ha Shem" (Hebrew for "The Name").
This transcendent monotheism is why the Jewish Commandments specify that we should not put any other gods before God, make images of God, or worship idols made in the image of created things. God is transcendent beyond all created beings, and thus it is harmful to our spiritual health to confuse our Creator with anything in creation. When Christianity branched off of Judaism after the time of Jesus, it modified this monotheism. For Christians, Jesus was also God's self expression in human form, and this leads to the idea of the Tri-Unity of God we will discuss below. However, six centuries after Jesus, the prophet Muhammad comes to the Arabic speaking peoples with a radical renewal of monotheism.
For Muhammad and later Muslims, God was simply Allah, which is Arabic for "The God". They rejected the idea that God was somehow a Tri-Unity, and the idea that a human could be an embodiment of God. Muslims sum this up in the idea of "Tawhid": The absolute oneness and transcendence of God. Allah has no partners, no parts, no separate persons, and no sons or daughters who are equal in any way to God. To assign anyone equal importance to Allah, or to make anything a partner with God, is to commit the deadly sin of "shirk" and become guilty of putting idols in place of God. And like Judaism, Islam prohibits anyone making any kind of image to depict God in any way. Allah transcends all images and concepts.
However, this radical vision of transcendent monotheism has interesting exceptions. In both Judaism and Islam, God wants to make Godself known to humans. So God reveals God's Will, and "speaks" God's Word, by sending Divine Messages to humanity. This "Word of God" is often carried to us by spiritual messengers such as angels. Yet, in the oldest Jewish Scriptures, God is said to become personified on occasion in what are called "Theophanies" (manifestations of God). For instance, God appears as three visitors to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18, and later as a man wrestling with Abraham's grandson Jacob in Genesis chapter 32. No definitive explanation is ever given, but these theophanies are not the only exception to radical monotheism. To make it even more interesting, in both the Jewish Bible and the Muslim Quran, God has a habit of referring to Godself in plural pronouns: We, us, and our. Explanations are given which uphold monotheism, but God calling Godself "we" and "us" is curious nonetheless.
Furthermore, both Judaism and Islam speak of God acting in the world through a Divine power called "The Holy Spirit". The word "Spirit" is Ruach in Hebrew, and Ruh in Arabic, and in both of these languages it is a feminine noun that originally meant "breath". Spirit is associated with motherly activities like giving life, healing, and comforting God's people. And the same Spirit is personified as Lady Wisdom in the Jewish books of Proverbs and Wisdom. Thus the Spirit seems to be the creative Energy that is immanent in the world, breathing new life into us as a Divine Mother who gives birth to the cosmos and nourishes it with Love. And so even in monotheism, we see God's masculine transcendence complemented by the Spirit's feminine immanence, similar in some ways to Brahman and Shakti in Hinduism.
Visions that are Transcendent and Impersonal
We've noticed how these views of Ultimate Reality don't tend to stay confined to their boxes. They ooze out into each other in big and small ways. We find hints of immanence in transcendence, transcendence in immanence, and personality in the impersonal. Into this matrix Buddhism comes to offer a vision of Ultimate Reality that is fully transcendent and beyond personality. Two and a half millennia ago, the original Buddha, or "Enlightened One", taught that beyond all realities, experiences, and planes of existence is Nirvana. Nirvana is literally the "quenching of the flame", and refers to the complete cessation of craving and striving, the end of disappointment and suffering. Nirvana is available through intense meditative experience, and once a person has experienced Nirvana, they transcend all categories of space and time, matter and energy, life and death. They even go beyond being and non-being. So it is improper to say a person united to Nirvana either exists or doesn't exist.
This is so difficult to conceptualize that Buddhists have used many different words and images to describe the true nature of reality. They say it is like crossing over a river from our reality to the "Beyond". This Beyond is the realization of the "Emptiness" of all reality (called Shunyata). What is really real is empty of any concepts or categories we could name. It is not being, nor is it non-being. It is the very possibility that allows for being or non-being in the first place. This Emptiness is not something, nor is it nothing. It is "no-thing" we could put into words: The realization that every being is actually an inter-being, only here temporarily as a phenomena or appearance that is interdependent on everything else.
Reality is like a net of interwoven threads, and without all of the interconnected threads, the net does not exist at all. In the end, we can only point to the Beyond and say "It is That", or "It is such as it is", or "It is what it is" (called Tathata). It is completely Different from, and totally Other than, anything we can think or imagine. In fact, the Buddha gave a parable about trying to put names and concepts to Ultimate Reality. He said "teaching is merely a vehicle to describe the truth. Don’t mistake it for the truth itself. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon." The finger refers to our concepts and words. The moon represents Ultimate Reality, which transcends all the empty words we use to point to it. And yet, the words are necessary, because without them we have nothing to point us in the direction of what is really Real.
Thus, the Buddhist vision of Ultimate Reality takes us far beyond this world and beyond personhood. And yet, certain insights push Buddhism back in the direction of immanence and personality. Later Buddhist thinkers developed the idea that the Buddha nature has "three bodies" (called Trikaya) which relate to the world in three different ways. First, the "sensible body" of the Buddha refers to the physical forms through which we encounter Buddha as a person, such as the original Buddha in India or the countless Enlightened beings since then. Second, the "bliss body" of the Buddha is the aspect which transcends all reality, and dwells within Nirvana, beyond being and non-being. Third, the "truth body" of Buddha (called Dharmakaya) is the immanent aspect that fills all worlds, and upholds the structure of existence by the power of the truth (or Dharma). Thus, a vision of Ultimate Reality that was originally transcendent and impersonal came to embrace immanence and personality.
But it was not only in Asia that a transcendent, impersonal vision of Ultimate Reality arose. In Europe during the Enlightenment, there arose a reaction against the concept of a personal God who was seen as meddling in history and human affairs. Many doubted that God ever came into History to do miracles, or to reveal Godself in human prophets and saviors. Some began to say that we needed the concept of a transcendent God to explain why the world came into being, why there were moral laws, and where we were going after death. But beyond this, they saw God as completely uninvolved in History. This view is Deism, and Deism says that God is to our universe like a watchmaker to a watch. God sets the rules, designs the system, and winds everything up. But once the world is ticking, God is not involved again, until perhaps we meet God after this life to reward or punish us for our ethical actions. A similar vision to Deism also arose in China centuries before among Confucian thinkers. For them, Ultimate Reality was the absolute God Shangdi, who established the universe and set in place the "Mandate of Heaven" to govern us with moral law. But other than this, Shangdi never directly intervenes in the world, leaving its management to humans, natural processes, and other spiritual beings.
In these ways, forms of Deism expressed a vision of a God who completely transcends everything, but because of not being actively involved, God is very impersonal. However, this was not the most extreme view that could be held. The most extreme, and perhaps simplest, view is this: Ultimate Reality is so transcendent, it simply does NOT exist. This is the view called Atheism: There are "no god(s)" at all (Greek "a-theos"). With all of the problems and objections that could be raised regarding the idea of "God" or "the gods", perhaps it is best to just jettison them all. While religion has been a source of much good in the world, much evil has also been done in the Name of God. And God is a very ancient concept that is outdated to many. Modern atheists think the Big Bang explains our origins, Evolution explains our development and ethics, and non-existence explains our destiny. So they jettison the idea of God, with all of the baggage (and hope) God carries. And let's be honest: There are many visions of God that are very exclusionary and even extremist, and not worthy of worship or belief.
While Atheism may seem to be deeply anti-spiritual, there is an aspect of it that is necessary to spiritual growth. The basic impulse of Atheism is to smash human idols, and get rid of visions of God that are not worthy of worship or belief. And for spiritual growth to happen, we have to say "NO!" to ideas of Ultimate Reality that are harmful to individuals and societies. Spiritual GROWTH implies growing BEYOND visions which are too narrow and exclusionary to contain all that is really real and deeply meaningful. And the fact is that early Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists were all considered "atheists" by their polytheistic neighbors precisely because they rejected their narrow visions of God. So, there is an impulse within Atheism which is deeply spiritual. Yet there are also problems associated with Atheism: Whether the world is "merely" material with no spiritual dimension; Whether our ethical values and spiritual hopes are “merely” expressions of biological evolution; And whether we “merely” cease to exist at the end of it all.
Methods for understanding Divine Attributes
This all raises the question: If Ultimate Reality is actually there, how can we conceive of a vision of it that is worthy of belief, commitment, and perhaps even worship? How would we identify this Ultimate Reality? What would be it’s attributes and characteristics? Even though all of the visions we have discussed so far vary greatly within the grid of transcendence, immanence, and personality, they often share a remarkably similar set of qualities. And not only that, but the methods used to discern these Divine qualities are similar across spiritual paths. In fact, there are three basic methods to understand the attributes of Ultimate Reality: Apophatic, Kataphatic, and Emphatic.
The Apophatic method comes from the Greek word for "negation", and it refers to speaking of Ultimate Reality by what it is NOT. This may sound confusing at first, but at the heart of this method is realizing that in important ways, God is NOT like anything in the Universe, because God transcends everything and every concept in the world. Thus we learn to speak of God by using negative statements: Ultimate Reality is not this, nor that. In fact, Hinduism does just this by insisting that Brahman is "neti neti", which literally means "not this, not that". Similar methods are used in Buddhism to speak of the Emptiness of Shunyata, and in the Abrahamic Monotheisms to speak of the indefinable mystery of God.
In all these forms of Apophatic spirituality, the list of Divine attributes is similar, and stated negatively using words that imply the opposite of some aspect of our world. For instance, many spiritual paths say Ultimate Reality is infinite: Not finite, not limited, and therefore an expansive reality that embraces and transcends all things. It is incomprehensible: Not able to be fully put into words or concepts. It is immaterial: Not to be identified as an object in the physical world. It is uncaused and unconditional: Not dependent on any beings or conditions outside of itself to exist. It is timeless: Outside of the flow of past, present, and future, and therefore eternal and unbound by time. It is immutable: Not subject to change or mutation. That means it is the uncaused Cause of all change and being, without itself changing or growing old. Finally, it is infallible: Never in error, and therefore the very foundation of truth which will never deceive or lead astray.
And yet, Ultimate Reality is so vast it can also be described by the exact opposite method as well: Kataphatic spirituality. This comes from the Greek word for "affirmation", and it refers to the way of affirming that God is the perfection or fulfillment of the positive qualities we find in the world. This is because Ultimate Reality is also immanent, and therefore fills and expresses itself through all the wonderful qualities of the cosmos. While the list of kataphatic Divine attributes could go on for quite a while, we will focus on three which are remarkably similar across religions and cultures. In Hinduism, the top three kataphatic qualities of Brahman are Sat Chit Ananda: Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss. Many forms of Buddhism also take up this list as a description of the Buddha nature after enlightenment. In Abrahamic Monotheism, God's main attributes are expressions of his Power, Wisdom, and Love. Ancient Latin speaking Christian theologians spoke of God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent: All powerful, all knowing, and all good.
All of these "lists of three" integrate well together. First, Ultimate Reality is the Source of all existence, life, and power. It isn't that God is a super-powerful being, but that God is power personified. If any being shares in any kind of power or existence or life, it is sharing in God's own nature. Second, God is conscious of all possible realities, and therefore all-knowing and perfectly wise. Again, this consciousness is not something God has, but what God is. And any person who is conscious is self-aware by sharing in God's own consciousness. Third, God is the source of all goodness, joy, and bliss. God values all beings, and enjoys all creation, and desires what is best for all people. If anyone experiences true Love or deep joy, they are experiencing God's own nature. There is no hint of evil or hatred or malevolence in God. Furthermore, a "god" who hates people or wants to torment them is no God at all, and cannot be worthy of commitment or worship.
This leads us to the final method to understand Ultimate Reality: Emphatic spirituality. This comes from the Greek words for "light" (phaino) "within" (en). It is to look deep within using meditation and prayer, to find the Light of God inside yourself through spiritual experience. This is the method used by mystics and saints in the Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. There is a remarkably similar experience of union with Ultimate Reality in all of these traditions, and it starts with a feeling of deep interconnection with all creation and all people, within a single universal consciousness of all. It is an emotional intuition or apprehension that we are deeply intertwined with all things, and interdependent within a greater Reality far beyond ourselves. This profound sense of interconnectedness leads to an experience of a universal compassion for all persons.
Thus the Hindu Scriptures declare Brahman to be the "Lord of Love". Buddhists stress that the truly Enlightened person will have Karuna-- deep compassion-- for all sentient beings in the Universe. Muslims begin the Quran "In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful." Jews declare that the LORD's faithful Love endures forever, and that God has compassion on all he has made. And for Christians, the Divine Compassion is displayed in the sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection, of Jesus. This leads them to declare "Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is Love." In all these spiritual paths, the most profound emphatic truth is this: Ultimate Reality is the Source of infinite Love for the world and all that is in it.
A Trinitarian Vision of Ultimate Reality
The Christian spiritual path has done a great deal to integrate the deep truth that God is Love with the diverse ways that Christians have experienced God. The earliest Christians affirmed that there was only one God and one Ultimate Reality, like their Jewish brothers and sisters had for centuries. Yet, these Christians also experienced this one God in three distinct ways: As a Father who cares for us and watches over us; As the Son Jesus Christ who embodies God's Love by healing us, overcoming evil, and rising from the dead; And as the Spirit who fills us with the power to love and heal like Jesus did. How was it possible for early followers of Jesus to still remain monotheists, but also do justice to the fact they really had experienced God through Jesus and the Spirit?
Christians wrestled with the oneness and threeness of God for several centuries, trying various ideas out, and discarding those that did not fit the evidence of Scripture and their spiritual experience. Christians discarded the idea that they worshipped multiple gods, like Roman and Greek polytheists. They also discarded the idea that only the Father was God, and Jesus and the Spirit were lesser, semi-divine figures. And they finally discarded the idea that God temporarily appeared behind three "masks", or "modes" of acting, never truly revealing Godself to humanity.
Instead, Christians insisted on the Trinity, or Tri-Unity of God, as one Ultimate Reality in three Persons. God is a Community of three distinct Relations within the Eternal nature of God. Or, we could put it in easier terms first developed by Saint Augustine. Christians affirm that God is Love, and three aspects are required for Love to be Love. Love requires a Source who gives Love, a Beloved who shares that Love, and the act of Loving which unites the two together. If God is Love eternally, beyond space and time, then God must possess these three aspects internally, as relations within Godself. This is precisely what the Trinity is: The Father is the Source of Love, the Son is the Beloved, and the Spirit is the act of Loving that unites them. The Trinity is a Divine Dance of Self-giving Love, with each Person fully sharing in each other, so that their diversity is fully expressed in unity. This Dance creates and sustains the Cosmos, as God's infinite Love overflows to share the bounty of God's Life with an infinite variety of living beings.
In the Trinity, the Christian vision of God goes beyond the impersonal and the personal, to affirm that God is super-personal. And what would a Being be like who transcended personhood? From our perspective, it would look like a Community of diverse Persons united in one Ultimate Reality. And not only does this idea of the Trinity integrate the personal and super-personal aspects of Ultimate Reality, it also integrates Divine transcendence and immanence. The Father is the relation of God who transcends all possible worlds, as the Source of Love who brings all things into being. The Son is the perfect Self-expression of the Father, who personifies the Purpose of God, so we can know and love and pray to God in a personal relationship. The Spirit is God immanent in the world, filling all of Creation with life and love, and working to bring all persons into union with the transcendent Father through the person of the Son. Together, the Father, Son, and Spirit are the omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent Ultimate Reality of Love.
A final way to integrate the Trinity with our spiritual experience is to speak of God working through time: Past, Present, and Future. God is our past Source, our present Strength, and our future Hope. We look BACK in time to God our Father as our Divine Source, the Love that brought all worlds into being, and who embraces us and sends us out to share in that Love. But we also look FORWARD in time to God the Son, who is the fulfillment of what it means to be fully human and fully divine, who calls us ever onward to grow into that Divine fullness through himself. In him, God's Future reaches back in time and shapes time and history into his image. And as we are sent from the Father, to strive toward the Son, we rely on the Holy Spirit in the PRESENT time, to fill us with the power of Love to overcome hate, and the strength of Life to overcome death.
Now it is your turn
You have been presented with many visions of Ultimate Reality, and we have hinted at ways they might be integrated into a Christian concept of the Trinity. But this is one of many ways to integrate these visions. People from diverse spiritual paths will view these issues differently, and sort the data in different ways. With that in mind...
Which of these views of Ultimate Reality do you find to be helpful and life giving? Why?
Which of these views do find to be unhealthy or deadly? Why?
What is your personal view? How would you integrate these visions into your own spiritual path?
And as a bonus, if you made it this far and you like the chart at the top of the essay, it is available in PDF here.
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