I recently shared my conceptualization of God, using an analogy of one day last summer finding a tiny hummingbird’s nest with two tiny little eggs inside.
I was also recently introduced to the concept of God as a verb—which, being one who has never claimed to be atheist, but also doesn’t conceptualize God as a deity (particularly with human traits)—for the first time made sense to me.
UPDATE: I just came across this description in Charles Fillmore‘s lesson Spiritual Substance, the Fundamental Basis of the Universe, which I think helps convey my abstract thinking on the subject:
“God is substance, not matter, because matter is formed, while God is the formless. God substance lies back of matter and form. It is the basis of all form yet does not enter into any form as a finality. Substance cannot be seen, touched, tasted, or smelled, yet it is more substantial than matter, for it is the only substantiality in the universe. Its nature is to “sub-stand” or “stand under” or behind matter as its support and only reality.”
As for self-control, I recently read a passage by James Allen in Mind is the Master, in the Light on Life’s Difficulties chapter, sub-chapter Light on Self-Control: The Door of Heaven, and was compelled to share:
“Self-control is the Door of Heaven; it leads to light and peace. Without it a man is already in hell; he is lost in darkness and unrest. Men inflict upon themselves far-reaching sufferings, and pass through indescribable torments, both of body and soul, through lack of self-control; and not until they resort to its practice can their sufferings and torments pass away, for it has no substitute, nothing can take its place, and there is no power in the universe that can do for a man that which he, sooner or later, must do for himself, by entering upon the practice of self-control.”
“When men both depart from and refuse to practice self-control, then they fall into the great and dark delusion of separating religion from conduct; then they persuade themselves that religion consists, not in overcoming self and living blamelessly, but in holding a certain belief about Scripture, and in worshiping a certain Saviour in a particular way; hence arise the innumerable complications and confusions of letter-worship, and the violence and bitter strife into which men fall in defence of their own formulated religion. But true religion cannot be formulated; it is purity of mind, a loving heart, a soul at peace with the world. It needs not be defended, for it is Being and Doing and Living. A man begins to practice religion when he begins to control himself.”
In addition, James Allen implores his readers to read Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s Self-Reliance, which I did, and found the final quote relevant to this idea:
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”
And Samuel Johnson is credited with the quote:
“The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove”.
And finally, I’d like to add a relevant post I shared on Facebook a while back:
For years I’ve shared the mantra “Liberty Begins Within,”…but more recently, I’m becoming profoundly astonished at how, through my ongoing personal studies, that mantra has begun to so closely correlate with “The Kingdom of God is Within You“…[Luke 17: 20-21]
So obviously, a true religion (spiritual life), cannot be pursued without practicing self-control, or ultimately self-mastery.
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