Theory and Concept

by Michael Colantoni

The hardest part of your spiritual journey is to rise above the concepts of God that you have always accepted. Whether your concept of God has come from a church, from your parents, or from your own experiences in life – regardless of where or how you acquired your particular concept of God and regardless of what that concept may be – it is not God.

There is nothing that you know about God that is God. There is no idea of God that you can entertain that is God. There is no possible thought that you can have about God that is God. It makes no difference what your idea may be or what your concept may be, it remains an idea or a concept, and an idea or a concept is not God. And so every student must eventually realise that he has to rise above all his concepts of God before he can have an experience of God.

Joel S Goldsmith – The Contemplative Life p21-22 (from 1961 letters)