In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.
It is interesting that Hindus, when they speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God, the Vishnu lila, lila meaning play. And they look upon the whole manifestation of all the universes as a play, as a sport, as a kind of dance — lila perhaps being somewhat related to our word lilt.
How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.
If we cling to belief in God, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.
To be alive spiritually man must have union with God and must be conscious of it. Apart from this union his religious life will be an empty drudgery, a mere imitation of true spirituality.
But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.
You don't need to try to be God, you are! But if you try to be God it means you don't know you are.
Many people think that the Bible is the authentic word of God and they worship the Bible, making it an idol.
You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.
Jesus Christ knew he was God. So wake up and find out eventually who you really are. In our culture, of course, they’ll say you’re crazy and you’re blasphemous, and they’ll either put you in jail or in a nut house (which is pretty much the same thing). However if you wake up in India and tell your friends and relations, ‘My goodness, I’ve just discovered that I’m God,’ they’ll laugh and say, ‘Oh, congratulations, at last you found out.
If a flower had a God it would not be a transcendental flower but a field.
The style of God venerated in church, mosque, and synagogue seems completely different from the style of the natural universe.
The difficulty for most of us in the modern world is that the old-fashioned idea of God has become incredible or implausible.
Zen... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
To know that you are God is another way of saying that you feel completely one with this universe.
For we have never actually understood the revolutionary sense beneath them – the incredible truth that what religion calls the vision of God is found in giving up any belief in the idea of God.
But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is. If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself.
The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.