The God who has no Image

An excerpt from “the Nature of God” by Alan Watts. I wanted to share this, as one of the most well worded descriptions reflecting my own belief regarding god; and for the benefit of those who are unsure, who are coming into understanding this way of believing but are a few experiences shy of the “aha” moment where you can understand your own self and your own beliefs. The entire lecture is much longer, you can find it on YouTube, if you like this part you’ll definitely enjoy the entire lecture.

...and that is to come into the presence of the god who has no image. Behind the father image, behind the mother image, behind the image of light inaccessible, behind the image of profound and abysmal darkness there’s something else which we can’t conceive at all. Diogenes called it “the luminous darkness. Nāgārjuna called it shunyata, “the void”. Shankara called it Brahman, that if which nothing can be said at all - neti neti. Beyond all conception whatsoever. And that, you see, is not atheism in the formal sense of the word, this is a profoundly religious attitude. Because what it corresponds to practically is an attitude to life of total trust, of letting go.

When we form images of god they’re all exhibitions of our lack of faith, something to hold on to, something to grasp. How firm a foundation what lies beneath us, the rock of ages or whatever. But when we don’t grasp we have the attitude of faith. If you let go of all the idols you will of course discover that what this unknown is, which is the foundation of the Universe, is precisely you. It’s not the “you” you think you are. It’s not the chronic sense of muscular strain which we usually call “I”. You can’t grasp it, of course not. Why would you need to? Supposing you could, what would you do with it? And who would do what with it? You can never get at it - as though there’s that profound central mystery, and the attitude of faith is to stop chasing it, stop grabbing it. Because if that happens the most amazing things follow. But all these ideas of the spiritual, the Godly as this attitude of “ngh! Must!” And “we have been laid down the laws which we are bound to follow”, all this jazz, is not the only way of being religious and of relating to the ineffable mystery that underlies ourselves in the world.