We Are Cells in the Body of God
Note: I have three blogs because I want to have spaces for the different types of thinking and exploring I like to do. This blog is about ideas, consciousness, happiness, and God. So I’m bringing over this discussion that started in the comments of a post on Tao of Prosperity, because that blog is really about business and ease and creativity and God. (Yes, everything I do is about God somehow LOL.)
To recap, Angela referenced the idea of “being used by the Universe” toward some good purpose.
Does this happen? Yes and no. I see it differently.
I think people are like cells in the body of the Universe/God.
Does a body use a cell? Or does the cell use the body? Or does the question make no sense, because neither would be able to exist without the other?
It probably goes without saying that I vote for the latter. It makes no sense. God doesn’t use me or “work through me” exactly.
That implies God is out there, distinct from me, and he/she/it (see, we are getting into pronouns already, that is an indicator of a problem!), this God entity is pushing me around to make good stuff happen, or pushing good stuff out through me.
I think the idea of being “used by God” is an artifact of thinking of oneself separate from God. It’s a product of having bodies that walk around as seemingly autonomous units, and minds that think “I’m separate, yes I am!”.
Let’s think of cells in a body. If you were a red blood cell, and you thought of your body as “using” you to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body - that seems kinda makes sense. Except the body also uses all the rest of the cells to deliver nutrients to you. And there’s not really a distinct “body”, separate from you as a cell, that is in charge of it all. In fact, each cell is encoded with the instructions to do what it does.
So yes, I think we are “used by God” in a certain sense, but only in ways that we are already built for, for things that are inherent in our unique awesomeness.
Right now in our culture we have 5000 years of habitual belief that God is outside us, apart from us, like a galactic CEO or overlord. But that whole thought arose out of disconnection from God. It’s a tragic idea, which got codified and ossified and glorified and written down. It’s gotten lots of play but it’s bogus.
You are a cell in the body of God. You know what to do. You know how to be you. You always have and you always will. It’s written in your bones.
The best thing you can do, to be most “useful” to the rest of God, i.e. your nearby cells and the whole body of God, your community and your planet, is to be as true as possible to your own personal mission in the world. To understand it, to nurture it, to listen carefully to its instructions, to follow its whisper in your soul.
Your soul is connected to the larger body of God.
You, your mind, your ego/small self, is not always aware of this connection. It thinks it is separate and it tries to protect that separateness, because it thinks it needs to for survival.
And it does, to some extent - cells need cell membranes or cell walls and whatnot (I’m dredging up some high school biology here). But a membrane doesn’t make the cell separate from the body. It still belongs to and is inherent to the body.
The ego isn’t so bright about this distinction.
That’s why you’ve got to go inside and listen. Clear away the cruft in the way of hearing that pure, sweet voice of “this is how I was meant to love the world”.
You will never be able to connect to that feeling of being part of the body of God except through doing what you were meant to do. Then you become useful to the body of God, and you start feeling that sense of being part of all that glorious goodness that works together in a magical mysterious way.
Oh geez, writing about this stuff makes me all high and happy. =)
Immanence vs Transcendence
To be fair to the other half of spirituality, you can also listen to the whisper of the body of God telling you what your function is, guiding you where you need to go, through messages from other cells or by flushing you into some other, more suitable area of the body. (OK, I’m possibly beating this metaphor to death.)
The point is that you can open yourself up to listen to something outside of you, larger than you, as well as listening inside. This is the difference between immanent and transcendent spirituality. Transcendent spirituality emphasizes listening outside, and that’s the beauty and gift that is at the heart of the big religions and “God as a big dude in the sky” kind of thinking.
Immanent tends to makes more sense to me, as I have such a strong sense of internal mission, but they are both important.
What I mourn is that people have forgotten how to listen inwardly, because the outward has been so emphasized for so long. They think they need to go find an expert or read a book or “believe” something to find God. Nope.
You just need to do what your DNA tells you is yours to do, and open up those cell walls a bit and let all the other parts of God remind you that you are part of this body too and we need you, the real true you.
So if you feel lost, try both. Try listening inwardly, and try listening outwardly. Just don’t ignore the inward, OK? =)
We can all be vibrantly alive and happy. Here I discuss the ideas and tools that will get us there.
Thank you.
http://www.amsway.org/HTML/who-are-you/gods-body.html
nice analogy… which I agree with to a point… but so does this guy.. yikes : )
I was brought up as a churchgoing Christian until I was old enough to think for myself, at which point I became an avid atheist and sceptic. Then when I was 18, as the result of some mild drug experimentation with marijuana, I experienced a hallucination involving my childhood images of god and devil (both the big dude in the sky/underground type things).
The episode I had involved my subconscious playing an intricate “game” with me with lots of rules. All I could do was scrawl words down on any paper I could find and when I ran out, on my arms and legs. It was snippets of information and “rules” and bits of theories that were swirling around in my head, which had to come out. It was intense and scary. (real number 23 manic like). It lasted about 24 hours.
Interestingly one thing (or “rule” as I had written) was that “when I look at green and blue, it promotes positive thoughts which send positive and healing energy to all my cells, as opposed to looking at red and purple, which bring my thoughts back to the negative and scared.”
Turns out there is some truth in the effects of colour on the mind and healing. The human eye picks up a greater range of green/blue than any other colours in our spectrum. And coincidentally our delightful planet is green and blue too.
I am sidetracking though. My episode scared the bajeezus out of me and I spent the next few months trying to make sense of it all. I knew that there was something big going on but I didn’t know what. I did a bit of investigation into different religions, stories of near death experiences, shamanic consciousness and that kind of stuff, but I couldn’t fit anything together.
About 3 months after the event, I took my first plane trip. I had a window seat, and as we took off and I saw the world get further and further away, I got an incredible WOMP of perspective.
I suddenly saw my world through new eyes. The most perfect metaphor. (which you have worded so perfectly) I saw people as cells in the body of a higher power. And everything was so unbelievably, incredibly beautiful, I felt like I would explode.
We are the gods of every cell in our body. Ultimately we decide what happens to them, (we decide whether or not to pick our scabs, amputate our limbs, what we eat, and all that) but mainly we leave them to get on with their business, and don’t give them a second thought. Just as the cells in our body are not capable of comprehending what they are a part of, we will only ever be able to speculate as to our higher purpose. But we still function, create new life, heal the sick, bury the dead, build, fix, create beauty. Interact. What if human interaction is our gods thought process?
There is so much to think about. How many levels are there? Is the god that we are a part of just a cell in a higher entity again? There could be infinite levels of this pattern above and below us that our minds are too small to comprehend.
There is just so much to think about. Where does our energy go when we die? An interesting read is the story of Mellen thomas benedict. This scientist who was clinically dead for 1:30 hours. You might be sceptical of its authenticity, but its still very interesting, and I believe true. You know how everyone talks about that white light? This dude describes it as souls all holding hands.
What you said about people’s disconnection with god is so true. The word “God” conjures up images of the some dude in the sky, taking note of everyone’s sins, answering all prayers individually, blessing and smiting. Its about as believable as santa clause. Its pretty cringe-worthy. But more and more people seem to be opening their minds of late.
Im sorry this has turned into quite the long winded spiel. I was just so excited when I read your article. I wonder how many other people have had the same thoughts.
To briefly finish my yarn: not long after that plane trip, I decided that what little energy I had to offer to the world, I wanted to spend it doing something positive. So I quit my job working as a receptionist in a factory that made apple stickers… and now I am a bush regenerator. And I want to learn massage next.
One last thing I want to share with you. The fantastic lyrics of Tool:
“So familiar and overwhelmingly warm
This one, this form I hold now
Embracing you, this reality here
This one, this form I hold now, so
Wide eyed and hopeful
Wide eyed and hopefully wild
We barely remember what came before this precious moment
Choosing to be here right now
Hold on, stay inside…
This body holding me, reminding me that I am not alone in…
This body makes me feel eternal
All this pain is an illusion
We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment
We are choosing to be here right now
Hold on, stay inside…
This holy reality, this holy experience
Choosing to be here in…
This body, this body holding me
Be my reminder here that I am not alone in…
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion
Alive
In this holy reality, in this holy experience
Choosing to be here in…
This body, this body holding me
Be my reminder here that I am not alone in…
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal
All this pain is an illusion
Twirling round with this familiar parable
Spinning, weaving round each new experience
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing
A chance to be alive and breathing
This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality
Embrace this moment, remember, we are eternal
All this pain is an illusion” - Tool
One more:
“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I realized there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”
“I guess I could be really pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain. And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.” - American Beauty
Shine on, you wonderful human being.
hello I was told to check this blog out because it is sort of on the same wavelength of my thougt pattern. I think in a way we are all joint just like you have been saying and it has actually been proven scientifically that every atom is conneted to the next attom weather in solid form or not. I`m going to keep this very short because i`m not very good at explaining my thought But I would suggest to any and more so to all of you that there is a dvd out their you should watch witch explains this (your idea and more so proves it) the funniest thing is that it was made by scientist that were trying to prove it wrong but the deeper down the rabbit whole they went the further actually proved it right and that indeed we are all conected, and that every molicoule right down to the atom makes it own thought and decisions. If you watch an atom fly accross a room an a controlled experiment it will always land in the same spot….but if you turn away and let it go ….bye the time you turn around again it has landed in an infinite different locations. They call us the observers for god. Any way the dvd is called “what the bleep” and their is an extended version called “what happens down the rabbit whole” or possibly just called down the rabbit whole. I have both and they will blow you away. seriously it will show and explain so much abouot your thoughts and also show you that some of the smartest people in the world (top scientist) who did not bellieve have actually now do they have proved what your saying is right. Imagine science proving their is the god factor….anyway first blog ever on anything so hope this is ok THankyou. And keep an eye out for what the bleep. ASk for it at the dvd store