Some have the idea that God or the divine is omniscient and omnipresent.
As with any map, cosmology, and story, we can turn it around and see if we can find it here and now in our own experience. We can use it as a mirror for ourselves, for who or what we are, for our human self or our nature.
This particular story seems to more obviously reflect my nature than dynamics at a human level, and the “God” part of the story hints at that as well.
MY NATURE
First, what is my nature? When I look in my own first-person experience, what do I find?
At one level, I am this human self in the world. That’s not wrong, but it’s not the whole picture and it’s not what I more fundamentally am in my own first-person experience.
I find that more fundamentally, my nature is capacity for the world as it appears to me. I am what allows any and all experiences including of this human self, the wider world, and anything else.
I am what the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as.
OMNIPRESENCE
Here, I also find that my nature, to me, is omnipresent. I am what the world – all content of experience – happens within and as. My nature, to me, is everywhere and everything.
OMNISCIENCE
Similarly, I find that my nature is inherently omniscient.
There is a knowing of any experience before this knowing is reflected in thoughts and any conscious reflection on the experience.
FINDING IT FOR OURSELVES
How can we find this for ourselves?
For me, the most effective way is guided and somewhat structured inquiry, initially guided by someone more experienced. The Big Mind process and the Headless experiments are two of the most direct and effective ones I have found.
The initial noticing can happen relatively quickly and without much preparation. Continuing to notice it and live from it is where the work is.
NO SPECIAL POWERS
When we hear the words “omniscience” and “omnipresence” we may associate them with special powers.
In reality, it’s inherent in our nature. It’s what’s most familiar and ordinary to us, even if we may not consciously notice. And it looks quite different from what our thoughts and fantasies initially may have told us.
At the same time, there is something extraordinary in this. Thee is an extraordinariness inherent in existence and our nature and the nature of all beings.
CONSCIOUSNESS
I prefer to not put too many labels on our nature. Labels can help us mentally get it, and that’s not what this is about. It’s about what we find in our own noticing.
And if we are to use more direct labels, one is consciousness.
To ourselves, we are consciousness, and this human self and the world happen within and as this consciousness. All the content of our experience happens within and as what we are.
To us, as this consciousness, our nature is everywhere. The world happens within and as what we are. Consciousness, to us, is omnipresent.
And this consciousness knows any and all of its content, before any of it is more consciously reflected on and reflected in thought. It’s inherently and effortlessly omniscient.
INITIAL OUTLINE
God is omniscient / omnipresent
- Can understand literally
- And as a mirror
- What I am in my own first-person experience -> capacity + what the world to me happens within and as
- To me,
- my nature knows (perceives) the world as it appears to me – omniscient
- A knowing before any knowing reflected in thoughts etc.
- and is everywhere, IS the world as it appears to me (takes that form) – omnipresent
- my nature knows (perceives) the world as it appears to me – omniscient
Omniscient –
Omnipresent –
….
What is omniscient and omnipresent? God? Our nature?