David Marshall writes an intelligent response to one of my recent posts that I thought I’d share.
To my assertion that the Source of all agency might be a more accurate, albeit partial, representation of what we often call God, he says:
I think this is debatable if I am understanding you correctly.
Of course he’s right on this one. My opinions, especially according to my wife, are entirely debatable.
Some people see an “evolutionary impulse” or creative impulse that emanates from the Source and that they are really two sides of the same coin and that one can’t be called God and not the other. This impulse is neither the witness nor is it the personal will. Rather it is an impersonal, some would say “divine” will.
Fair enough. But the impulse is not any more or less of the Universe, or God, or Spirit, or whatever we may choose to call it. For that matter, it may not be “the witness” but it can be witnessed especially when we open to its divinity and consciously allow its impersonal nature guide our personal will.
Traditionally, people have said that the deep state is God. The “witness” is God or pure subjectivity is God. I think there can be a bias toward state training there, a bias toward Nirvana that is perhaps a little outdated. I am not saying that this is what you are saying, just that when people say that Nirvana or “pure subjectivity” is God but the evolutionary impulse is not is a little outdated.
Couldn’t agree more. Our concept of Nirvana and its meaning is outdated insofar as it’s ultimately a beginning not an end and this notion is supported when we come to recognize that all states are God. There is “no thing” on the other side of God. Both subjectivity as well as objectivity, pure or not, are equal expressions of the Infinite. The same is true for Source and agency, evolutionary impulse and egoic contraction.
David wraps things up by saying:
So I think we could say, from one perspective, that the personal will or ego is not God, but that the evolutionary impulse or creative impulse, arising out of emptiness, is God, though of course God language can be quite misleading.
This dualism is one of the many traps that can confuse and snare us as we navigate the Path. I talk about this toward the end of my recent book. The perceived separation of Spirit from its natural impulse to manifest is at the root of our suffering. Realizing this fallacy we Awaken into and out of a spaciousness that supports our ability to integrate the impersonal impulse of divine Selfhood into our daily lives.
Then we go make dinner.