Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Conversation with God
Ok.. i know this is the title from one of the best selling books, but it isn't about that. Its about my experience. I've been holding back not to post this as it would be quite sensitive... but heck it, freedom of speech.
Alright, past few months i've been busy getting involved with Christian activities... going to church for services camps and so on. I wouldn't say it was very comprehensive, but i would say it is rather sufficient for my personal research on this issue "Conversing with God' which most or would i say all Christians claim to have.
What got me intrigued is that they can hear God speak to them and they believe that God is an Almighty being.<-- At least to the majority of Singaporean Christians.
Based on my understanding... you really gotta be a big shot if God had to speak to you and you could hear His voice. In Buddhism, only yogis with psychic powers could have a good chance of communicating with heavenly beings eye to eye. As for a lay person, our virtue has to be really good in order to attract guardian deities. Even so, making contact with them is very rare or almost impossible.
Speaking to God is no issue, anyone can do it. Of the Christians i met so far, most of them claim they can hear God speak to them. Being an open-minded skeptic, i thought of a few possibilities:-
1) Like what they said, God is really speaking to them word for word
2) Perhaps it is just an inner voice produced by the mind
3) Maybe some of them made this up in order to keep up with their peers
4) They might have over-exaggerated their testimonies
5) I could have misunderstood what they meant by 'hearing God'
For the benefit of doubt and for the sake of discussion, i'll remove option 3.
Ok... for option 4 and 5, some Christians claim that God speaks to them by giving them little signs here and there in everyday life to learn from. So they call it 'hearing from God' which is actually going through life experiences/challenges. Ok, kinda like Zen and Buddhist mindfulness and all, so i'll take that. Just different ways of doing it but same results... just like saying the lights are turned on vs the lights are not turned off.
Now lets talk about option 2... Cuz i believe this is the one that some Christians believe they are hearing... their own mind. We have lots of inner speech going on in our mind, we have thoughts going through our minds and manifests itself through subvocalisation.(voices). Surprisingly, most people speak to themselves... eg. some people swear to themselves when they do something silly.
Sometimes we have thoughts and ideas that we have never come across before in our life... that is where some people believe it is from someone else, probably a higher being. And since they like to speak to themselves, there seem to be a 2 way conversation taking place...
Our mind is pretty random and not ourself. We have not much control of what we wanna think. sometimes a whole movie can just play in our minds without us knowing it. Some people like to daydream because its free entertainment.
Nevertheless, i still feel its different labelling again... just like 'the lights are turned on vs the lights are not turned off' anology. They can call it God speaking to them, to me its just the inner voice of the mind. Everyone has their right to believe in what they want to believe.
One thing for sure is that the Buddhist training system will clash with this "conversation with God" in option 2. Because the Buddhist practice of meditation is to still the mind and not create noise. The truth will surface within the silence.
That is all for my personal research and conclusions so far with regards to conversation with God.
Alright, past few months i've been busy getting involved with Christian activities... going to church for services camps and so on. I wouldn't say it was very comprehensive, but i would say it is rather sufficient for my personal research on this issue "Conversing with God' which most or would i say all Christians claim to have.
What got me intrigued is that they can hear God speak to them and they believe that God is an Almighty being.<-- At least to the majority of Singaporean Christians.
Based on my understanding... you really gotta be a big shot if God had to speak to you and you could hear His voice. In Buddhism, only yogis with psychic powers could have a good chance of communicating with heavenly beings eye to eye. As for a lay person, our virtue has to be really good in order to attract guardian deities. Even so, making contact with them is very rare or almost impossible.
Speaking to God is no issue, anyone can do it. Of the Christians i met so far, most of them claim they can hear God speak to them. Being an open-minded skeptic, i thought of a few possibilities:-
1) Like what they said, God is really speaking to them word for word
2) Perhaps it is just an inner voice produced by the mind
3) Maybe some of them made this up in order to keep up with their peers
4) They might have over-exaggerated their testimonies
5) I could have misunderstood what they meant by 'hearing God'
For the benefit of doubt and for the sake of discussion, i'll remove option 3.
Ok... for option 4 and 5, some Christians claim that God speaks to them by giving them little signs here and there in everyday life to learn from. So they call it 'hearing from God' which is actually going through life experiences/challenges. Ok, kinda like Zen and Buddhist mindfulness and all, so i'll take that. Just different ways of doing it but same results... just like saying the lights are turned on vs the lights are not turned off.
Now lets talk about option 2... Cuz i believe this is the one that some Christians believe they are hearing... their own mind. We have lots of inner speech going on in our mind, we have thoughts going through our minds and manifests itself through subvocalisation.(voices). Surprisingly, most people speak to themselves... eg. some people swear to themselves when they do something silly.
Sometimes we have thoughts and ideas that we have never come across before in our life... that is where some people believe it is from someone else, probably a higher being. And since they like to speak to themselves, there seem to be a 2 way conversation taking place...
Our mind is pretty random and not ourself. We have not much control of what we wanna think. sometimes a whole movie can just play in our minds without us knowing it. Some people like to daydream because its free entertainment.
Nevertheless, i still feel its different labelling again... just like 'the lights are turned on vs the lights are not turned off' anology. They can call it God speaking to them, to me its just the inner voice of the mind. Everyone has their right to believe in what they want to believe.
One thing for sure is that the Buddhist training system will clash with this "conversation with God" in option 2. Because the Buddhist practice of meditation is to still the mind and not create noise. The truth will surface within the silence.
That is all for my personal research and conclusions so far with regards to conversation with God.
# posted by Chun Kiang @ 5:13 AM 
