In his best-selling book, 'The Power of Now', Eckhart Tolle writes: "The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly.

By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying.

This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false," or Nietzsche's famous statement "God is dead."

The word God has become a closed concept. The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer, perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of someone or something outside you, and, yes, almost inevitably a male someone or something.

Neither God nor Being nor any other word can define or explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only important question is whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you to experience That toward which it points. Does it point beyond itself to that transcendental reality, or does it lend itself too easily to becoming no more than an idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol?"

Some synonyms for 'God' -- Consciousness, Awareness, Beingness, Emptiness, Spaceousness, No-thing-ness, Is-ness, Such-ness, Spirit, Source, The Christ within, The Tao, The Now, The Void, The One, The Infinite, The Absolute etc.

These pointers also indicate our own true identity so one comes to understand or see oneself as, for instance, the Consciousness-I-am, the Awareness-I-am, the Beingness-I-am etc. What one really is has also been referred to as the essential or unborn Nature, the true Self etc.

When there is an abiding in the conscious awareness of our true identity, God is directly experienced, to a greater or lesser degree, as Tranquillity, Peace, Joy, Unconditional Love, Compassion, Happiness, Sufficiency, Energy, Detachment, Absence of Fear (of death etc.), Absence of Judgment, Absence of Resistance, Absence of Reactivity, etc.

The place within where God is experienced has been referred to in some sacred writings as The Center, The Heart, The Presence, The Light, The Secret Place of the Most High, The Holy or Holies, The Shekinah, The Kingdom of Heaven etc.

So what is God? Can we describe it? What are the attributes of the Absolute? The One has no attributes whatever. The indescribable cannot be described, but the great teachers have done their best, and if you poke around the literature of enlightenment you'll find a number of attributes consistently being assigned to God, to the One. According to those claiming to know first hand, God is ...

• Empty
  Immaculate. Pure. Clear. Transparent. Void. No-Thing.

• Unbounded
  Has neither size nor boundaries. Is neither infinitely big nor infinitesimal, nor both of these nor neither. Occupies no space..

• All-encompassing
  Totality. Everything. Capacity. There is nothing outside It. There is nothing It is not.

• Indivisible
  Inseparable. Unity or Unicity.

• Here
  The answer given to "Where is God?" Always here. Never elsewhere.

• Timeless
  Beyond the concepts of past, present, future and eternity. The present moment -- the Now.

• Intelligent
  Prior to mind, yet all knowing (without a knower nor anything needing to be known). Pure intelligence.

• Aware
  Alive. Vital. Alert. Wide awake Self-aware.
  "A No-Thing aware of itself as No-Thing is really quite Something." (Harding)

• Mysterious
  i.e. It is: Unexaminable. Inscrutable, Inexplicable. Ineffable. Pure mystery. It just IS.

Again, the mind finds questions in the answers, like: "Where is Here?" "Here is wherever I am," we say. "I am here, in this chair." Closer, though, where is the center of my experience of Here? Where is ground zero, the innermost Here? What do I find at zero inches? Is anyone home?

As many of you know, Douglas Harding has a series of experiments aimed at triggering a startling experience of Here he calls Headlessness. The most widely known of these is the pointing experiment.

Point at anything. Everywhere you point out you point at things. You can only point at things, things with names and shapes and apparent substance. Now point directly into your point of view -- right between the eyes. What does the finger point to now? Is there a thing there? Or does it point to no-thing?

Stop imagining a face. Can you see your face right now? For just a moment don't explain to yourself why there really is a face there but you can't see it because of anatomical anomalies or whatever. Use only your immediate experience, only the huge single-eye view you have right now -- not a memory of your face in the mirror, or imaginings based on what you see on other people's shoulders. Using only this view now, describe what your finger points in to.

If you're at a loss for words, you can refer to the list of God's attributes above. Are you not pointing to emptiness? An aware emptiness of unknown size that encompasses all? Are you not, in truth, That which has been described?

"That which is aware of you right now, is God. That which is your own innermost awareness, right now, is God. That which sees but is never seen, is God. That Witness in you right now, ever present as pure Presence, is God. That vast Freedom, that great Emptiness, that primordial Purity, your own present state of awareness, right now, is God. And thus, most fundamentally and forever, it is God who speaks with your tongue and listens with your ears, and sees with your eyes, this God who is closer to you than you are to yourself, this God who has never abandoned you and never could, this God who is every breath you take, the very beat of your tender heart, who beholds the entire majesty before your eyes, yet is never, never seen."

Ken Wilber -- The Simple Feeling of Being

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