Gut Feelings

 

Do I want to know if there is a God? That is an excellent question, and the answer is complicated. As for a classical God—taken literally and seen as an easily angered entity—I dismissed that long ago. It seems myths designed to enlighten us have often had the opposite effect.

I have read the Bible plenty; in fact, I’d consider myself a scholar of it. I tend to read the King James Version for one simple reason: I think that in 1611, the desire for truth was a top priority. Do I think King James got it right? Not really, but the translators of that period were all-in. That dedication is palpable when you read the text, and that matters to me.

Tracing the Root: From "Ghut" to "Gut"

If we want to understand the concept of "The Unlimited Field of Potential," we have to look backward. Way back in prehistory, someone likely tried to describe a vast, unseen presence responsible for everything: What would one call this? God.

Ghut may have been how the term originally sounded, meaning "one who is called upon" in Sanskrit. The Greeks borrowed it, and early writers of antiquity followed. If there is a force to call upon, humans naturally imagined a man-like figure. Eventually, Ghut evolved into words like God.

If we can strip the dogma off our original Ghut, it might lead us to a better understanding of how the actual field works. If you trace the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins, our modern words remain linked. Consider these two:

 

God

 

Gut

 

Within the human body, the gut is where food goes for processing, but it is also where emotions are felt and poured out. In both cases, the original use of the PIE root likely referred to a feeling of fullness—whether a filled belly or a filled soul. Where would you feel this Limitless Source of Everything? In your gut.

What does it feel like to want food? There is an emptiness in one’s gut. What does it feel like to disidentify with The Source? There is a similar emptiness. As the old saying goes about revealing an absolute truth: people "spill their guts."

Paul said, “I am being poured out.” John 7:38 says: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Acts 4:31 adds: "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."

Where does the word ghost come from? The PIE root gheis, meaning excitement or amazement. Where is it felt? In the gut. And holy comes from kailo, meaning whole. To be filled with the Holy Ghost is to acknowledge the universe inside you. As Rumi wrote: "Do not feel lonely. The entire universe is inside you. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion."

The Menu Is Not the Meal

As one begins to see that the Infinite Field of Potential is both inside and outside the body, it becomes clear that we can—and should—share what we are: All There Is. Plato knew this. Jesus knew this. Paul wrote about it often, referring to the "Christ within."

This idea gets confusing when borrowed by fundamentalists who prefer dogma, but "Christ within" isn't as complicated as it sounds. The original word Christ was a reference to oil poured on the head, flowing down—functioning much like the word "imagination" does today. Our connection to the divine is through the imagination. God is not a man; if you have felt love, you have felt God.

Yet, words will always fail us because words exist in contrast to their background. If spoken, they contrast with silence. When we look at written text, black letters stand against a white page. But Love itself, or God itself, cannot be seen this way.

As John noted, "No man has seen God at any time." Every seeker figures this out: if you know the word, it is not the right word. Laozi captured this in the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." The menu is not the meal. The map is not the journey. The word God is not God.

Consciousness, Opposites, and the Mirror

Did God set things up to be mysterious? I think Consciousness did. Without consciousness, there would be no opposites, and without opposites, nothing and everything would cancel each other out. A thought depends on a surface unlike itself.

You cannot be aware of anything that has no opposite. This is why no man has seen God: God has no opposite, because there is nothing that is not God. You cannot look directly into your own eyes without a mirror. God found a mirror to finally see Himself, and you are that reflection.

As Meister Eckhart wrote: "The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.

The Power of Imagination

I have studied Neville Goddard a great deal, and he taught that Christ is the human imagination. Everything I read leads me to the same conclusion

When John wrote, "The Word was made flesh," it is easily mistranslated to mean Jesus became a man and lived among us. But if John meant Jesus, he would have said Jesus. Instead, he was discussing a deeper mystery: Whatever the unseen field of potential is, it chose to wear flesh. And that is what is inside of us

As William Blake famously replied when asked about the divinity of Jesus: "He is the only God, and so am I and so are you."

 

Selah