God Within, God Without.

It seems at first glance that the Abrahamic religions have little in common with the Eastern traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, particularly because the former describe an external God and the latter emphasize the God-nature within all of us. Are these traditions speaking of different phenomenon? How can they be reconciled?

I contend that they are speaking about the same phenomenon. The primary difference being, the Western religions take the perspective of the ego, and the Eastern religions take the perspective of awareness. In the New Testament, Jesus references his "father who art in heaven". That God is nothing but awareness, and Jesus is the ego. In Buddhism, no such God figure exists. Instead there is Buddha nature, which all Buddhists hope to realize. This is done, essentially through the realization of no-self. So, from the Buddhist approach, instead submission of the ego, or personal self, to God, that ego is merely examined closely, and seen as illusory.

In Buddhism enlightenment means non-duality. The same message is present in The Bible. In John 14, Jesus says,

"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me..."



This passage show that Jesus didn't believe in a God that was separate from his own self. This is the same as the realization of Buddha nature. And in the gospel of Luke, Jesus talks about heaven on Earth. This is can be seen as the same thing as nirvana. "Knowing God", and similarly be thought of   as enlightenment. And according to the ancient Greek, Jesus is not "the" son of God, he is "a" son of God. In Buddhism there is a contrast between self and no-self; ignorance and enlightenment, whereas in Christianity, there is a contrast between God and man. The languages are a little different, but it seems to me that they express the same idea.

I think this fundamental concept of  unity is the keystone of most, if not all the world's significant religions. Likewise, it appears in contemporary spiritual traditions. Ramana Mahrishi, the great 20th Indian Sage of Tamil Nadu spoke of the same phenomenon. He implored seekers to find the source of the "I" thought, and to contemplate it. He and his teachings are responsible for the "Neo Advaita Vedanta" movement which is becoming popular on the American west coast. Eckhart Tolle, the author of the acclaimed Power of Now urges his readers to "aware in the present moment", and thus have the "self talk" dwindle away, and so removing the ego and seeing reality as it is.   

You can phrase the phenomenon is many different, ways, but the goal of spiritual traditions, is to recognize the difference between identifying with the isolated idea of the person you think you are versus the entire field awareness. There is no separate self, because that awareness is a verb, and not a noun. The idea, that noun, of who you think you are exists within that awareness, and it is dependent upon that awareness to exist at all.
It's like there are two selves: there is the fake self that an amalgamation of  personality, life story and your body; and then there is the real self which is formless, which perceives the fake self. The unreal self is essentially a conglomeration of thoughts that must be constantly maintained in order to continue to exist. The real self is formless and eternal. This is the essential message of all genuine prophets throughout the ages.

Realizing non-duality leads to extraordinary peace, because when you no longer see yourself as separate, there is no more "me vs them". Then if conflict does arise, it can be seen one immediately takes responsibility for it. Instead of thinking what a terrible world it is that has put me into this situation, one becomes empowered, and realizes that there is no separate world out there punishing oneself; there is only a particular circumstance, which has arisen of it's own accord. From this way of thinking there are no victims. Essentially this is the same as consigning your will to God. In my opinion, devoting one's self to God is not the full realization, because there is there is still a self to submit...but then again, if the submission is absolute, then perhaps there is no difference. 

When you realize that it's all just you, there is no longer need to attain anything. If you can see that wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you are complete, then it's a small step to realize that unhappiness is caused be the tension we create in the body when we mentally cling to the material things that we do not have. From there you can realize that you have the choice to hang on to your unfulfilled desires, or to simply let them go. It's mere choice. What is there to fear but death? And what is death but the breaking up of the body? No one knows what happens at the time of death, but it's only a problem if you're identified with the body. Therefore, even though I am not Christian, perhaps I can agree that when someone dies, he goes to heaven.

People have been realizing God consciousness and non-duality, at least since there has been writing--and it seems a bit silly not to assume they have been before then. The experience is constantly being rediscovered and expressed in different terms. But if it's genuine, it's the same phenomenon, of discovering one's own true nature:oneness; peace; love; whatever.