The ideas we have about God are not God. Any idea, thought, or concept never was and never will be God. They may be helpful symbols that point to God, metaphors, analogies, allegories, images, but they are not God as God is. They will inevitably conflict with one another and be fallible, as every symbol eventually fails at actually being the thing it is supposed to represent. The symbol is never the thing-in-itself.
An addition to the BHT, known as "The Lord's Prayer." (The painting above is "In the Wilderness" (2003), by Ron DiCianni.)
It seems to me that many people consider meditation to involve elaborate fantasies, imaginings, and visioning in the mind. This seems to be facilitated and encouraged by many guided meditations. I perceive that these kinds of meditation can have many positive benefits in creative pursuits, visualization, and problem solving, to go on adventures and vision quests in the mind. However, I think meditation can offer much more than this.
I don't think so. But I think it is deeply, absolutely, universally Real. Let me explain.
Mysticism seems to be largely misunderstood. It seems to be either thought of as a kind of ethereal and vague mystery that can never be really known, or as an impractical lofty exercise that can never truly be achieved, at least in this life. For me, it is neither.
There is a term that the scriptures use to refer to something in us that separates us from God. It is called the "natural man," or at times the "carnal mind." What is this? And how can a correct understanding of it help us commune with and become one with God?
I suddenly entered the heart of a reality so blindingly obvious, so total, so enlightening, so luminous, that I wondered how I had never before realized how easy this reality was to find and how easily I found myself in it.