can't put g-d in a box

http://www.examiner.com/x-14414-Columbus-Interfaith%20Spirituality-Examiner~y2010m5d5-Spirituality-sky-and-Sufism-101

Spirituality, sky and Sufism 101 continued . . .

Pir-o-Murshid Hdayat Inayat-Khan says, ‘For a Sufi, the diversity of religious names and forms are like veils covering the phenomena of the Spirit of Guidance manifested at all levels of evolution. This explains why one of the great ideals of the Sufi is the awakening of a broader outlook, with deeper insight into the tragic misunderstandings which divide earnest followers of various cultural and philosophical traditions.’ http://www.sufimovement.org/teach_m_hidayat.htm Very much in sympathy with the mystical element in all religions and beyond, he continues . . .

‘All religions are in their origin of Divine inspiration, but, like the image of water poured into different coloured glasses, as soon as Divine inspiration becomes formulated in human thought it acquires the image of one's thinking. We then call one religion Hinduism, another Buddhism, and still another Zoroastrianism, while others are called Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as many other religious denominations, known or unknown to the world at large.’

In other words, you can't put G-d into a box. Buddhist and Eastern thought are not 'theistic' by nature-envisioning G-d as a 'Being', but more as an 'IS'; experience based. ‘A Sufi, by definition, is a religious soul whose nature is to be freed from imposed theories, and who is perfectly conscious that life is not necessarily just what one might think it to be. For a Sufi, life is not only lived at the level of physical experience, nor only at the levels of thought and feeling, but also, and most importantly, at a still higher level of consciousness where the self is no more a barrier separating reality from illusion.’

In her latest book, An Altar in the World, A Geography of Faith, Barbara Brown Taylor echoes similar sentiments. She says, 'I do not have to choose between the Sermon on the Mount and the magnolia trees (p13). . . . The House of God stretches from one corner of the universe to the other. I am not in charge of this House, and never will be. I have no say about who is in and who is out. I do not get to make the rules. . . . Human beings may separate things into as many piles as we wish-separating spirit from flesh, sacred from secular, church from world. But we should not be surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we make between the two. Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.’ P 15.

For Brown-Taylor most of us have forgotten that the whole world is the ‘House of God’. In this sense, celebrating the creation of 'sky' isn't so strange (nor any other wonderful integral component of our lives-water, plants, creatures, etc.). The problem became that, ‘Somewhere along the line we bought –or were sold- the idea that God is chiefly interested in religion.’ (p6) In leading a workshop on ‘Spirituality of Place’, only one person said they sensed/felt the presence of ‘G-d’ in a religious setting; for everyone else it was a peak moment outdoors. What natural elements/symbols/settings fill our sacred stories? Lilies? Rocks? Flame? Streams? Mountains? Where do you most feel a sense of Transcendent Presence? As I struggle to find the words to capture the fleeting essence of a lilac-scented afternoon in May, I can assure you . . . It's not restricted to a vacant building for one hour a week.