It’s been a jam packed holiday season, and I find myself three segments behind where I should be today. With this in mind, I find it the perfect occasion to cover one of the biggest topics in Christianity: the Holy Trinity. The Trinity is interpreted differently by different denominations, with some claiming dire consequences for those who don’t believe in what is “right”. I don’t care about any of that dogmatic, dualistic nonsense. What I aim to do is explore what the Trinity means to me. I certainly believe in the concept and its power, but I don’t take my interpretations from any specific tradition. Sure, much of my view is informed by Christianity, but there’s a good portion of it that’s informed by metaphysics and esoteric thought as well. I don’t care if I’m “right” or “wrong”, I just want to explore these concepts and bring you along with me. It should be interesting at the very least.
Part I: The Father
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
- Colossians 1:16
What (or who) is God?
This is perhaps the most impossible question one can ask. God is not a “thing”. Language has no way of portraying the truth of what God is. If I’m relatively certain about anything, He is not a big, scary man-like being floating somewhere in the universe judging our every move.
That’s not to say the Father analogy is meaningless, especially during the time in which it was conceived. It’s actually perfect (and genius). The metaphysical and metaphorical role of the Father is the progenitor and the protector, and that’s essentially what God is. The progenitor and protector of time and space itself. Without God, this reality would never have started. Without God, this reality would not be able continue.
So, what is He? Again, there’s no word for the “thing”. He’s not a person, an energy, an essence or a force. He is. He is the formless and the nameless, that which exists behind and underneath all form. Ironically enough, the most accurate depiction I’ve ever found of God comes from a text that has nothing to do with Christianity: the Dao De Jing.
The Dao De Jing is an Eastern book of spirituality and mysticism that forms the basis of the Daoist religion. I don’t know much about the religion, but I certainly know about the book. The Dao De Jing describes the Dao (a.k.a. The Way) of all things and how it moves in the world. To this day, I have found no other text that uses language to so accurately depict this divinity. Here is an examples:
The dao that can be told
is not the eternal Dao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.-Dao De Jing, Chapter 1
It may seem a bit weird and confusing, and that's okay. We’re conditioned to think in polarities, so it’s difficult to wrap our minds around Unity. After all, that’s what God is: the One. What I mean is that all things, seen and unseen, are incorporated into this word “God”, and this includes non-physical things. I often hear people say things like “God is love” or “God is spirit” or “God is light”, and these claims would all be true. If God is All, then He must be All.
Why, then, does the Dao say The Way is darkness? In the context of the first chapter, the darkness is that which cannot be directly experienced through our senses. We are, after all, “in the dark” when it comes to experiencing God. This fact is often used by non-believer to explain why God doesn’t exist.
If He exists, why won’t He show Himself?
If He exists, why aren’t we able to experience Him and have proof of Him?
I have a few answers to questions like these. The first is that the questions themselves are meaningless. They position God as that decision-making man in the sky, who thinks and acts as a human would. What we’re talking about is something on a completely different plane, and attributing human qualities to Him just doesn’t work. He can’t “show” himself or give us “proof” because He is already everything. Your finger, this screen, the eyes that you’re using to read this - they are all proof in and of themselves.
The second part of my answer is built upon on the first. We can’t exist and completely know God, because if we knew God completely we wouldn’t exist to begin with. The whole point of our time here is to continually know and grow closer to “God”. Here, it doesn’t matter what name you use for God because we’re talking about the nameless. Our purpose in this life is continual growth, continual knowledge of ourselves and everything around us. Our purpose is continual self-surrender. The training ground, the space between us and the Perfect All, is what we experience each and every day. Without it, we’d have no need to exist.
I think it’s worth noting here that the finding over the last century in the quantum fields - mechanics, biology, etc. - are beginning to break down the previous dualistic paradigm. Words used to describe nature and reality are beginning to sound more like the Dao than I ever would have imagined. I’m not a specialist in this, so I won’t elaborate much further, but it’s my opinion that this is yet another step in the development of human consciousness in “knowing God”.
Of course, there are an infinite number of questions that one may ask from here, but I'll leave further exploration for further segments. God is The Way and The All - the rhythm and the melody of everything we experience. That’s at least my interpretation from now. I’d love to hear from you and know what you think…
Part II: The Son
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
- John 8:58
This is when things start to get a bit more difficult. Christ is the Son, which is different than God but the same as God at the same time. He is The Logos, The Word of God, eternally begotten of the Father.
The obvious question is, what the f*** does that mean?
Let’s start by looking at the word “Son”. Similar to The Father, it is metaphor for a much deeper metaphysical concept. The Son is the progeny of the Father, or that which is born from the All. The Son represents the perfect idea of man, the divine mind, one in being with the Father. Jesus Christ revealed himself to be the Son of God - the perfect, divine self. Similarly, we all have that divine self (a.k.a real self) within us. We are all sons of God in our own right, and the purpose of our lives is to, like Jesus, realize that divine self.
God, the All, is ever-giving and ever-giving. We know because the Universe is constantly changing and constantly expanding. These attributes are also with the Son - the divine self. Just look at Jesus. He was the perfect example of creation (literally changing water into wine) and perfect charity (living His life for the sole purpose of the salvation of everyone else). These hint at that which we are all meant to be.
This all sounds nice, but it’s more “out there” than I’d like it to be. It’s very difficult to describe this concept with words. At the end of the day, I think the concept of the Son is what links humanity to divinity. Being a son of God is a particularly human characteristic, whether we choose to realize it or not. God is within each and every one of us, and we have been given knowledge of ourselves (consciousness) to actually experience this. All other beings on this planet simply exist - we actually get the gift of mind and thought. Sure, these can often feel like burdens, but at the end of the day they are meant to connect us with The Way of All. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, knew this and was the living embodiment of it, and He taught us all to follow His path.
Part III: Holy Spirit
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
- John 14:26
The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. Once again, we’re not dealing with a “person” per se, but that which cannot be named or spoken. It is the “thing” which enables us to engage with The Father and The Son. It is that which enables us to realize our divine nature, a.k.a. The Kingdom of Heaven.
I believe The Holy Spirit is hinted at in many different faiths across many different cultures, called by different names but manifesting in similar ways. It is the Spirit that guides us into action and awakening, and it is the spirit that informs our conscience and intuition. It is the Spirit that sparks our curiosity and encourages us to seek. It is an intercessor and an advocate, eternally leading us towards the truth of the divinity that lives within us. When we pray and meditate, it is the Holy Spirit that we can actually connect to.
In the first part of this segment I alluded to the fact that God is unknowable, but that fact isn’t exactly true. Through the Holy Spirit, The Father and The Son are indeed knowable to us, but only in divine darkness. When we quiet our minds and silence the noise, we are able to recognize and encounter the divine through the Holy Spirit. I can’t tell you how it works or why, but I can tell you that I have experienced it first-hand. I’m sure many of you have as well. Perhaps it’s just one of those things can only be known through experience.
This was my first take at some pretty heavy theological concepts, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. Like I said, being “right” was not my concern, but rather exploration for the sake of exploration. I find these things fun to think about, no matter how messy my thoughts may be about them. Most of the truth of this stuff hides in the spaces between words, those things that language can’t quite get to. That, however, doesn’t mean we have to stop trying!