This is God

When the field of centers appears in something, its deep feeling appears and it is literally as though spirit is made manifest. This is a world with lazy bees buzzing, the summer wind, the light on the leaves of the trees, the warm smell of grass. This is spirit. This field of centers then makes a window onto some ultimate domain of I — it connects me to myself.

But it is even more concrete to think of this wonderful lazy substance — the quality without a name — as spirit made actual, spirit made manifest. So, when that quiet, happy, sad paste occurs in things, when the subtle harmony occurs in things, everything is at peace — then spirit is made real, the underlying spirit of the world, its potential, becomes concrete and real. Then, at that moment, we are face to face with that spirit. We are then face-to-face with God.

This quality, when it appears in things, people, in a moment, in an event, is God. It is not an indication of God living behind all things, but it is actually God itself. This is spirit made manifest.

It is very hard to take this literally. We are more often in a state of mind where we would like to say one of two things, either, Everything is God: God is everywhere, or, God lies behind things, this is merely the outward material world.

But in the view which I am explaining here, we must say, more nearly, that it is this special event, this kind of living breathing situation which appears in us, and in the material world, then this is God, it is God appearing, and we do not need to wait for any afterlife, because this wonderful transcendent thing happening before our eyes, is itself God, now.

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