I just posted a hay-ku that pretty much sums up the above offering/data dump in "17 syllables" that should resolve the "tone-deaf to certain styles of argument" possibility.

It came to me (along with the normal 5 or 10 alternatives) while waking up this morning and I had to laugh after yesterday's "four hour, hay-ku impregnated, flow of consciousness effort to say the same thing (in 1262 versus 14 words).

Not that I anticipate stopping the "flow writing" (which sometimes produces some of the world's longest sentences) when the “Spirit Moves." There is so much “Life, Light, Love and Joy” associated with “getting lost in said flow” that I simply can't help myself. I’ll just temper when and where it gets shared.

So you and Guy (who was the one who trigger it), and any other readers who might be interested in a "17 syllable distillation/summation" of the above "data dump," are all invited to check it out on the Hay-Ku of the Day blog offered today.

A Bit of Intellectual (Gnana) Yoga with regard to the "Is there a God?" question.

[Rich Note: Before we start (and this isn’t necessarily for every one) my apologies for what I generally refer to as a “mini-data dump” (and this one isn't so mini - lol) -- something the hay-ku evolved to avoid. ]

re: "which doesn't leave much to be said about the possibility, or impossibility, of him, as far as I can tell."

To see Harmony
In Chaos or God in Man
Be mentally Still.

The Question is not
Whether there is a God but
Who’s playing the Role.

The House of the Lord
Is the Consciousness of God
In which we all dwell.

A non-dualist would say “There is no God; or, paradoxically (to the human mind at least), You are God,” [which is a very dangerous thing to say to an ego-identified State of Consciousness, which is already playing the role god in each of us and is a master of hi-jacking Spiritual Truth (so far as it can be expressed) in order to feather its own illusionary bed], but let’s dig a little deeper.

Let’s loosen the Absolute Standards of Logic (which would say that since the Absolute or Real is Absolutely Changeless that Nothing every really happens or truly exists), venture into the intellectual realm (since that’s where most of us hang out) of relative reason and logic, and chat about the possibility or impossibility of what most refer to as God.

Again (and this is nothing more than playing intellectual jazz on this end), this is really a simply matter of definition in so far as conceptual computation goes, Guy. For if we are to dare think about such things (which is what got us “mentally stuck in these apparent human states of Being” in the first place), we have to be extremely accurate and consistent in our definitions.

In this regard, I suggest starting from the top down with an Absolute Field of Infinite Potential to Be Any and All Things in All Time and Space,” but "No Thing, No One, The Void, Parabrahman, Ain or The Father” from a relative (one step down -- and its an extremely long one) and partial, bottom-up perspective.

(1) DADDY - So we've got this Absolute Field, which I prefer to call Pure Awareness or Clear Aware Space (again, only purposes of intellectual computational, for we must be sure not to confuse the “menu with the meal”). Okay, so how do all these appearances we find coming and going in our Consciousness get here, not to mention “me, myself and I” as one of those sticky states of relative Consciousness that got us here in the first place, and what is this Consciousness anyway?

(2) MOMMY - Well, there is this Primal Vibration (OM) or Movement in the Absolute Field (Why? Because given Eternity, and since probability of occurrence is a function of time, every probability eventually has to become actual), with the result that we now have the original “Zero-One Amazement” in which Pure Awareness (No Thing) become Self-Aware (or Conscious of Being Every Thing) through the self-mirroring effect of a Pure Vibratory (which may only be imagined from an Absolute Perspective) Condition or State of Itself.

The Father of All,
Aware as I AM, is the
Alpha Omega.

Still and Vibrant States
Of the Aware Space I Am
Give Birth to Being.

(3) CHILD - The Result is a Case of Absolute Self-Realization of Being or THAT IT IS/I AM and with That an attendant “Cosmic Big Bang” in which all Absolute Potential to Be becomes Actual All at Once (All at One Time or in No Time). And what then, pray tell, is the Raw Material of this Experience of Being Present and Aware of Every Where and Every Thing in All Time, and All Space (No Time and No Space might be better) actually Be, other than Pure Cognizant Energy (or Consciousness) that is Itself nothing more than a Vibratory State of Pure Vibratory Awareness, Aware-Presence, or the Clear Aware Space I AM, YOU ARE and ALL IS?

This Holy Instant
Awareness Knows Sensation
Consciousness is Born.

Centered in the One
Abiding in the Balance
Mindful of the Light.

[Rich Note: Really nothing more than a conceptually updated version of SAT-CHIT-ANANDA.]

Sailor Bob Adamson, for one, loves this Dzogchen (some have called it the Ultimate Buddhism) pointer to THAT: “pre-conceptual, self-shining, ever fresh, presence awareness, just this and nothing else,” as do I.

So, seen in this light and with respect to the God Question, “Pure Aware-Presence, Consciousness, Being (-ness), I AM (-ness), Brahman, Christ, The Anointed One, The Mind of God, God Consciousness, The Pure Light or Buddha Nature” would all be Names for the same One, Ultimate State of Existence or Being (one step down or removed -- by not really --from the Absolute), or the Supreme Being (Living in, through and as every apparent State of Sentient (self-aware) or Un-sentient (un-self-aware) Being. As such, I see all these Divine Names as simply alternative Pointers for what philosophers would call “God Manifest, Create or Incarnate” (or the Son of “God as the Absolute Father” from a more theological perspective) if one happens to be predisposed to relate to Reality through the Heart as Love, instead of the Head as Knowledge (which, of course, in the end are realized to be two sides of a single coin).

However, none of these conceptual Names refer (other than as “Gateless Gates” to the “Home We never left”) to the Absolute Source of All (which might also be called GOD, SOURCE, ONENESS, SELF or THE ABSOLUTE, depending on one’s particular conception of THAT) which is Itself, by definition, Un-Manifest, Un-Create, Trans-Conceptual and so beyond any and all such “conceptualize forms” -- however exalted said Expressions might be from a relative perspective. Even so, this Eternal Absolute One, never-the-less, remains “THAT by which One knows One Is” within every Heart and, as such, necessarily looks out from every Eye/I (and, as such, "nearer to 'me' than I am to myself").

Being Consciously
Aware as I Am is the
Father in the Flesh.

The Light of God is
The Pure Awareness I Am
Conscious of Being.

Being Here and Now
Still and Silent as I Am
One with the Father.

To Know I Am and
Just Be That is the Headstone
The Builders Reject.

The Way, Truth and Life
Is not a Man but the Pure
Consciousness I Am.

The Saving Grace of
God is the Knowledge I Am
Conscious of Being.

Back to the Absolute Perspective to which No One can relate relatively, this Absolute “One without a Second,” by Absolute Standards, would be the only Eternally Changeless, Still, Silent, Void, One True God, Real Self, Essence or Nature of All Being.

Having said all this, however, (now here comes the disclaimer) let us not fail to recognize that this entire discussion is no more than a rather “intellectually intricate pointer,” to THAT which can’t be said, but which ONE Always, Already is In Spirit, Essence and Truth.

A much simpler pointer follows:

“I Am and I Know
That I Am”** is “All That Is “
Being Pointed to.

[**Rich Note: And THAT is the One Doubtlessly Certain and Undeniable Fact in One’s Experience of Being Human.]

So again, I would re-emphasize that what the Name God points to (and some would say has the same Fundamental Vibration Quality) is simply “Pre-conceptual Aware Presence of Being One Is and All Are ” – Full Stop!!!

Dear Guy,

re: "Is belief in a god necessary to spirituality"?

That would depend on what the words "god" and "spirituality" mean to the one asking and/or answering the question? It should also be noted that "a belief" implies a "subject/self-object/other" relation to Reality that can't be Absolutely Real (re: Changeless).

In this regard, I would suggest:

A God seen to be
Other than I Am is not
An Absolute One.

Belief in a God
That is other than I Am
Is conceptual.

I've heard it said that one's true real religion (and in a least one case philosophy) is what one "thinks, feels and believes" Ones Ultimate Relation to Reality is.

Seen in this light, and taken to its logical conclusion, One is either "One With" or "Other Than" said Ultimate Reality; and, since it is logically impossible to be Other Than an Absolute Reality (the only One that would be worthy of the Name Reality), any seeming otherness (in thought, sense or feeling) must only be apparent and temporary.

So regardless of what "I as I believe I am" think conceptually or profess my particular religion to be, if I believe and act from a premise (or the idea) of being a separate, self-existent person or independent state of Being, my "true religion and faith" is in the apparent relative existence "partial thought, sense and feel" (which are themselves relative, partial, incomplete and imperfect) reports.

In this regard, a favorite haiku would be:

"Jesus died to save Us All from our delusion of Self-Existence."