It’s not cool to create an image of God; the Bible tells us so. Some might interpret this to mean we shouldn’t build a statue of God, or try to draw a picture. And that may be partly correct. But if we think this through a bit more, we’ll come to the conclusion that this couldn’t be all the second commandment was implying.
The source of our confusion
As always, we must look closer, go deeper, and find the link within. In this case, what we’re talking about is an inner image. For with all our wrong conclusions and irrational ideas, we are bound to have a badly distorted inner impression of God. Just like we do regarding all the other important subjects of our lives.
We might call this our God-image. It stems from early childhood experiences in which we run into conflict with authority. As children, we learned that the highest authority—even higher than our parents—is God. So it’s not a surprise that we bundle up all our painful subjective experiences with the people who say no to us, and put them on God. This is how our God-image gets created. Later, whatever our adult relationship with authority turns out to be, it’s bound to further color and influence the way we see God.
As children, authority figures were cropping up everywhere. When they stopped us from doing whatever it was we enjoyed most, we viewed them as hostile. But when authorities such as our parents indulged us, letting us get away with whatever it was we fancied, we looked upon authority as being benign, or nonthreatening.
One of these options may have been the kind of authority we were more familiar with. As a result, our unconscious reaction to that kind of authority turned into our unconscious reaction to God. More likely, we received a mixture of the two. In that case, our God-image includes a combination of them both.
To whatever degree we experienced fear and frustration, to that same degree we’ll fear and be frustrated by God. It’s not hard to imagine that for many people, God is punishing and severe. We might also believe that God is unfair and unjust—a contrary force we must grapple with.
In our conscious minds, we may not see that this is so. But in our emotional reactions, it’s an entirely different story. And the greater the gap, the bigger the shock when we discover the discrepancy.
Why we turn away from God
As children, practically everything we enjoyed the most was forbidden, or at least restricted. This may have been for our own good, but try to convince any child of that. Plus, parents aren’t perfect. And many may tamp down pleasure out of their own ignorance or fear.
What gets impressed in the child’s mind is that the most pleasurable things in the world are subject to God’s punishment. Because God is deemed to be the highest and harshest authority.
As we go along in life, we are bound to run into human injustice, experienced when we were young as well as when we get older. We may very well witness these injustices being carried out by people we perceive to be in a position of authority. This means they drop into the same slot we associate with God. As such, our previously created unconscious belief about a severe and unjust God will be strengthened.
Such experiences make us fear God just a little more each time. Before we know it, we will have grown an inner image of God that makes God out to be a monster. This version of God, which lives and breathes in our unconscious, is really a lot more like Satan, the ruler of Hell.
The root cause of atheism
Each of us must do the painstaking work of uncovering how much this holds true for us. Are we in fact filled with such untrue concepts about God? What often happens is that along the way we become aware we harbor such wrong concepts. But we don’t know they are false. Believing them to be true, we turn away from God altogether, wanting nothing to do with that monster in our minds.
This is often the real reason someone turns to atheism. But that turning away is in just as much error as our fear of a god that is cruel, self-righteous, stern and unjust. It’s simply the opposite extreme.
Some may hold onto their distorted God-image, rightly fearing the monster they have created. They will then resort to cajoling the dragon deity for favors. In either case—following whichever opposite extreme we choose—we are not in truth.
Indulgence is not the answer
Now let’s look at what happens for the one who experienced an overindulging authority in childhood. When doting parents give in to every whim, they don’t instill a sense of responsibility in the child. At first glance, the God-image cascading from a life of getting away with anything is a truer concept of God. For then God is loving and indulgent, forgiving and “good.”
In such a person’s eyes, God will let us get away with anything. So we can cheat life and skip out on responsibilities. Certainly, we might know less fear. But since life can’t be cheated—our own life-plan can’t be cheated if we hope to accomplish our task—our wrong concept is going to take us down a road to conflict.
And where there’s conflict, there’s always a chain reaction involving hurt feelings, wrong thinking, bad actions, and yes, fear. As such, a confusion rises up that essentially asks, “Why isn’t reality matching my belief (albeit unconscious) in an indulgent God?”
As is so often the case, our personal God-image will have subdivisions and nuances. But it will in some way be a combination of these two main categories: strict and harsh, or permissive and coddling. For example, let’s say there was a hostile, domineering authority in our house growing up. The atmosphere of our home, then, may have been filled with fear.
At the same time, the other parent may have been a pushover. Although outwardly weaker, the permissive parent might have made a stronger impression on our soul substance. Or this could flip around and a weaker but harsher parent could have left a bigger impression. However it was, our God-image will somehow reflect all of this.
The more our soul has developed in this area during previous incarnations, the less will our childhood put a dent in our current unconscious thinking. But to whatever extent we have been affected, and correspondingly our image of God has been shaped, we want to fully investigate our souls. We must look for both alternatives, even if one appears to overshadow the other.
Because none of us gets only one kind of authority, no matter how much one may have outpaced the other. Even if both parents were indulgent, we may have then had a taskmaster of a teacher who instilled fear in us. And that’s what could have tipped the scales. Or maybe it was a relative or a sibling. No, it’s never just one kind of authority.
Consider too that we don’t simply add the notion of a pampering God on top of a monster-image. Rather, these two concepts will have to struggle inside us, as we try to ascertain which one is right. But we’ll never win this inner battle because both options are untrue.
Surfacing our buried beliefs
The way to find our God-image is by examining our emotional reaction to authority. This requires we delve below what we think we think and discover what we really feel, deep down. Then we must figure out how to dissolve our mistaken convictions. Because our God-image is so basic it taints all our other attitudes about life.
It pushes us into hopelessness and despair, believing we live in an unfair and unjust universe. Also, it launches us into self-indulgent behavior where we reject self-responsibility because we expect God to pamper us.
Once again, we are reminded that the first step in addressing any distortion is becoming aware of it. This may not be as easy as it might sound. Even if we have a sense of our God-image, we may not realize just how far-reaching it is. Or we might be aware of it, but aren’t yet fully aware that it is false. Some part of our mind hangs onto the conviction that it’s partly correct. But as long as this is the case, we won’t be able to let our false God-image go.
The next step involves setting our intellectual ideas in order. To do this, we can’t just superimpose a right idea over the top of a still-lingering wrong one. That’s the textbook definition of suppression. On the other hand, we don’t want to allow our wrong conclusions to rise up and take over our psyche. In a subtle way, this is often what happens.
So the submerged ideas must get pried up from the depths of our unconscious thinking. We must nurse their awareness as they come fully into our conscious mind. At the same time, we must keep in mind that these thoughts are false, instead of saying “Yes, that’s exactly what I think is true.”
Forming proper concepts
At this juncture, we must formulate a right concept and compare the two beliefs. If we check in with our emotions, we will be able to gauge to what extent we still deviate—in our gut-level emotions—from what we now know to be true.
This is not a quick process. We need to go slow, working quietly and without inner urgency. It helps to remember that our emotions don’t always follow a shift in thinking as swiftly as we might like. We can give ourselves time to adjust, while we maintain a steady pressure to perceive the truth.
Given the opportunity, our emotions will gradually grow up and out of previously erroneous reactions. We can also watch ourselves resisting the processing of growing. This helps us remember just how cunning the Lower Self can be in its quest to keep us in the dark. We must become wise to it.
Sometimes new concepts are easy to formulate. They become clear with just a little thinking through. But while some correct concepts will be obvious, others will not come quite so readily. Those will require development from the inside if we want to gain inner enlightenment. And this we must earn in order to formulate the proper concepts in our intellect.
But our underlying emotions really don’t care whether the proper concept was easy to come by or not. Emboldened by our Lower Self, our emotions will resist changing. Because avoidance aligns perfectly with the agenda of our Lower Self. This is why prayers will be so important. We must pray for the recognition of the right concept, as well as for help in removing the blocks of our inner resistance.
We can observe how sincerely we desire the things we ask for. Perhaps we want to know the truth but aren’t all that committed to overcoming our resistance to it. Then at least we should realize that we’re the ones obstructing the light and our own freedom, not God.
This way, we can come into relationship with the part of ourselves that desires to remain childish and unreasonable. We can dialogue with this aspect and learn more about the beliefs it’s holding onto.
Seeing what’s really going on
Gaining a proper concept of God is one of the hardest awarenesses we can come by. Why is this so? Because it’s by far the most precious. The path to getting there begins by recognizing whatever our image of God is at this very moment. It’s possible we look around and only see injustice. In this case, we can’t even see that theoretically this conviction must be wrong. Then we’ll find the remedy by looking at our own life. How are we causing the happenings we deem to be so unjust?
It’s important we understand the way images work. To see that they magnetically attract to us experiences that seem to validate their wrong belief. From this perspective, we will be better able to understand the truth in these teachings. And once we find the cause and effect in our actions—both the inner and the outer—we’ll sooner or later become deeply convinced that, in the bigger view, there is no injustice.
Humans are peculiar in the way we enjoy dramatizing the apparent injustices in our lives. This lets us focus on how wrong others are. Frankly, this is not that hard to do. What we often fail to do is find our part. But with half an effort, we could uncover the connections of our own law of cause and effect. And that alone can set us free.
Once we see that there is no injustice, we will be able to realize that it’s not God or the fates that force us to suffer due to others’ shortcomings. It’s our own ignorance, our own fear, and the pride of our own weak ego. These are what make difficulties come our way. And this happens without our seeming to have been the one who attracted them.
If we find this hidden link, we will come to know the truth. For one thing, we’re never a prey to circumstances or other people’s imperfections. For another, we really are the masters of our own destiny. Our thoughts and emotions are powerful creators, and we constantly overlook this.
It’s the contents of our unconscious that strongly affects the unconscious of the other person. And once we realize this, we’ll see how we call forth everything that happens in our lives, for better or for worse.
This awareness is what will help us dissolve our God-image. Until we do, we will fear being held hostage to circumstances over which we have no control. Or else we will hope to avoid self-responsibility, thinking God will swoop in and fix everything. The realization that cause and effect is on us, not an angry or indulgent God, is one of life’s main breaking points.
About the breaking point
We are often handicapped by our own guilt. More correctly, we are hampered by a wrong attitude toward our guilt. The issue is our attitude about our own shortcomings, or faults. Due to having a wrong attitude, we become too depressed to face ourselves.
This is a vicious circle that we must work on before we can make further progress on our path. Because if we feel guilty about the possible wrongs we must uncover, we will dodge reality and cause ourselves more harm.
With the proper attitude though, we will realize that we don’t commit our faults out of malice or because we wish evil things for others. Every fault—every act of selfishness—is nothing but a great misunderstanding. It’s a wrong conclusion. Our fear paralyzed us into not functioning properly. As a result, we made errors in judgment. The resulting actions and reactions set forth effects in our life that we no longer connect to our original fear.
We may shy away from unraveling all this out of a misguided attitude that says we’re better off not facing this. But then we’ll never find that breaking point. And it’s that breaking point alone that could release us from this notion that we’re a victim. It could give us back our power over our life. This happens through an understanding that God’s laws are truly good and just, loving and safe. And that the laws of God don’t turn us into puppets. Quite the opposite, they make us whole and set us free.
A bit about God
In an effort to help us find a proper concept of God, here is a small attempt to speak about God. Of course, such words can never do God justice, for God is unexplainable. And yet, God is all things. Perhaps we can create a starting point from which to cultivate a deeper inner knowing.
Keep in mind, all our inner deviations work to limit our perception. So how can our capacity for understanding ever be enough to sense the greatness of God? The only way is to go step by step, stone by stone, eliminating everything within that hinders us. As we go, we’ll glimpse more and more, the light that is infinite bliss.
Clearly, talking about God is not easy. And yet, let’s try. One major stumbling block for all of us, despite all the wonderful spiritual teachings we may have taken in from various places, is that we think about God as a person. God is someone who makes random choices, acting at will in an arbitrary sort of way. Stacked onto this is the idea that all this must be just.
Consider for a moment that even this notion of a just God is false. For God is. He (she, it, they) just is. God’s laws function automatically.
Our wrong concept about all this stands in our way of being filled with the truth about God. Which is that, among other things, God is life. God is also the force that enlivens life. This life force can be likened to electricity that’s endowed with the most supreme intelligence ever. Through us and all around us flows this powerful “electric current;” it’s up to us how we want to use it.
We can use this electricity for healing and improving life. Or we can just as readily use it to quash life. That makes the current itself neither good nor bad. We’re the ones who make it good or bad. This perspective, though, can lead us to believe that God doesn’t care about us. And we are apt to be even more fearful of a totally impersonal God, which by the way, is not in truth.
God’s infinite love for us is totally personal, while at the same time it is impersonal. We can find evidence that God’s laws are completely objective in the way they always, eventually lead us back to the light. This is true regardless of who we are or how much we may have strayed. How can we think God doesn’t care about us personally when God created such an elegant plan designed to guide us back to him?
The way spiritual laws work, the more we deviate from them, the more we live in misery. At some point, this misery causes us to turn around and realize that we ourselves are the source of our misery. Not God and God’s laws. We can see the love that is built right into the laws.
Just look at the way deviation from spiritual laws is the very medicine we need to cure us of our pain. And remember, we cause ourselves pain through our own deviation. In other words, self-initiated deviation causes pain…which leads to a course correction…that brings us closer to God.
To love the laws is to love God. Further, nestled in these loving laws is God’s willingness to let us deviate from divine laws, if we wish. We are made in God’s likeness, which means we’re welcome to exercise our free will. No one is forcing us to live in light and bliss. But we can if we wish.
All this is a reflection of God’s love for us. If this seems hard to comprehend, know that one day we’ll all see the truth in these words.
Our approach to God
One thing that might aid our understanding of God is to stop referring to God as “he.” Of course, since God can do anything, God can appear as a person. But the point is, we might be better served to think of God as a great creative power that is perpetually at our disposal. It’s not that God is unjust, as our unconscious might have us believing. Rather, we aren’t doing well in managing the power available to us.
We can build on this premise, meditating on the truth about who or what God really is. Also, we can ask God to help us see where we ignorantly abuse the power current coursing through our being. If we ask, we’ll get an answer. This is a promise from the Pathwork Guide as well as from God.
We need to have the courage to search for answers and sincerely desire to know them. We can do this without coming undone by our own guilt for realizing where we’ve been in error. In this way, we’ll become aware of what’s causing the effects in our lives.
We’ll see how we have come to believe that the world of God is a cruel and unfair one. Where it seems we have no chance, and that we should be scared and hopeless. Where grace is meted out in small doses to only a select few and we weren’t selected. But with our newfound realization that the law of cause and effect is working, such unfounded views of God will fall away.
One easy test to know if we are harboring an image of God is to ask ourselves: Do I fear God more or love God more? Obviously, if we have more fear than love, we’re under the distorted illusion of an image. Some believe the life force only works in a negative way. If that’s us, and we’re deeply convinced of the absolute futility of life, we will find ourselves coming to life only in negative situations.
Then we need a fight, a quarrel or some kind of disharmony or unrest to feel fully alive. By contrast, smooth waters make us go flat. Whenever we feel more alive in a negative situation and more dead in a quiet one, we can be sure we have a God-image going on.
What a marvel, these laws that let us do as we please. And what confidence will infiltrate our souls when we land in the absolute knowledge we have nothing at all to fear. One thing’s for sure; we won’t find our images by looking at the distortions in others.
We can start by listing all the injustices we feel in our own life. Then sift through all the factors surrounding our various complaints. The more resistance we have to doing this, the bigger will be the victory party when we break through. One can hardly imagine how free this will make us feel—how safe and secure.
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