In my practice of three decades, I have heard many such questions from students who feel confused, even anxious, about their foggy understanding of the Divine. The quest for God is one of humankind's oldest stories. Philosophers, clergy, seekers, and non-believers alike have all sought out evidence of God's existence for thousands of years.
In the devotional prayer, "The Forever Constant," from Miraculous Silence, it is written:
I need no explanation,
I need not your eyes to see me,
but your heart to feel me.
I am all there is -
that which you see,
and that which you do not.
I am it all.
With this in mind, it is not necessary to search for God, for we need not search for something that is within and around us, and not apart from us. We cannot see the breath, yet we know it exists through every inhalation and exhalation. We cannot see joy, yet we know it exists as we experience it when we reunite with a loved one. And we cannot see the microscopic inner-workings of nature, yet we know they exist as we walk through the woods.
To continuously search for God is to close the eyes to what is, and not "see" through the eyes of the heart. When many students have asked me to prove that God is, I have said, "I need not prove it to you, for you only need to see with your heart, for therein lies the truth.”
When you look to the mountains or the sky, when you see the rain or the glowing sun, when your heart feels joy and love... all of this is God, no matter how you wish to define it; Universe, Source, or Light. So the real question becomes, How can we have a more conscious experience of God, even though God comprises every aspect of our existence? This is the basis of virtually any spiritual practice we might choose to pursue.
For example, through the practice of meditation, we learn to quiet our inner chatter. As we embrace this tranquil solitude, we connect to the seed of our soul and find self-realization. It is here that we may enter an almost trance-like state of connecting to something much greater than ourselves. In this higher-vibrational state of love and ecstasy, we connect to God and experience Him/Her in each fiber of our being. No need to look for God; only to allow the experience of God into the landscape of our being.
I once had a student who practiced meditation all the time, but he was searching for God like he was trying to find a scientific answer. “You can’t find God with an analytical mind,” I would tell him. “He resides in your heart center.” When you see with the eyes of the heart, you can see God in every small particle, for God is the Universal energy that comprises all things.
Another example would be a daily practice of prayer or reciting mantras. As we honor this time and delve into these sacred space practices, an unraveling of the self occurs. And in this unraveling, we open the closed doors of our heart and mind and find God awaiting us. Again, no need to search for the Divine, for it is in this deeper reconnection that we return "home" to our true self, to the essence of the Universe and this existence, and thus, to God.
This is the gift that is available to us when we allow our hearts to open, for it is in this sacred space that we find ourselves and know that God is with us always. From this understanding, we further recognize that God exists in our every moment, in our everyday observations and interactions. God lies in the space between each breath, in the whisper of the wind through the trees, in all acts of kindness, and in the eyes of a child.
As stated in Miraculous Silence:
Search not for me, between walls and borders,
but in the love that is between you.
I lie there…
