No, I haven't suddenly learnt theology, I've been posting items written by Nick Roach, my spiritual teacher, in the religion room and elsewhere since I saw him last year, and as this piece was far too long to post in religion I thought I'd share some of his teachings over here as well. This is an official role he agreed I could do before I started.

He teaches enlightenment, and everything he says in his shorter lectures can also be found on his website where I copied this from. web page He's only just put this item up, and as it covered many topics I'd been talking about recently I thought it was a particularly good one to start with. My own thoughts had pointed to that idea already, but that would also have to depend on their existence in the first place, which is another debate.

Is God the Devil?

Is this a stupid question? Everyone knows the Devil, if anything, is opposite to God and opposing God. That the Devil is the bad force that causes all suffering and God is the Good force that supports us in our hour of need, and when things are wonderful we can often be heard to shout 'Thank you God!' and when times are tough 'Help me God'.

Well, if you read the earlier page 'Is God the Ultimate?' you may have understood that God is the essence or energy that needs to exist. That God is the creator of all separation and thus the cause of all pain and suffering. We pray to God to make us complete in our hour of need, not giving a thought to any consequences that may result to others. 'God help me win', we all pray. 'God give me what they've got'. 'God give me everything'! The fact that for us to win means another must lose is of no consequence to us at the time. We then blame God when all goes wrong. We ask 'Why God, Why?' and have sayings such as 'God works in mysterious ways'. We need such sayings now, because we are seeing that God is responsible for all that happens, both the good and the apparent bad. Whether we win or lose are both down to this 'being' we call God.

And why does this 'Being' seem to like to win or lose equally? Because it has created this existence to experience being separate and this includes losing as much as winning. In fact one could say, it involves losing more with the hope of winning, rather than winning itself, as this often generates more feeling and more sensations; which is what this game is all about. This wonderful creation God has provided is a playground for feeling. You feel good one day and down the next, often with no understanding of why you feel that way; but it doesn't matter, the fact is you feel.

I had always believed, or accepted without question that, when it came to spiritual matters it could be said the ultimate is God, and the need for experience, the need to be separate, could be said to be the Devil. However, as we have seen, the fact that God created the world, created separation means it was not the Devil after all. Or if it was, it is not something separate from God.

Can you see this? Can you see how this means the very thing we worship is the same thing that we fear? In fact how could it be any other way, when we consider we say God is the ultimate and in everything and omnipotent? The fact that we do say he is omnipotent means he must be in the Devil too.. mustn't he? It is God which was the original force that created this existence, not the Devil, and it is the same force that drives it and governs all that happens here. It is this force which drives us to experience, to want, to hope, to fear, to hate, to love and to kill. It is the one force driving all existence and it is what we return to when we realise 'God'.

To realise 'God', in the sense of Enlightenment or Self-Realisation, is not to realise 'good' as opposed to 'bad'. In this state there are no opposites, there is only what is; and what is, is perfect. Each moment provides exactly what is needed here to satisfy the need to experience, whether the mind labels it as good or bad. Neither matters as both satisfy the same need; the need to be. The 'ultimate' cannot be experienced here as there is nothing to experience there; and when it occurs it is because there is no need left to experience or be anything, thus nothing to know or be known. Until then we continue to live the drama as it is played out.

So, God and the Devil are both opposite ideas of the same force. Neither is the truth as you, the essence you can feel now, are both (the one and only). There is only the ultimate which cannot be known and the need for experience being satisfied in its own world. There is no God as a separate creator of all that is Good, and no Devil as a destroyer of Good. Both are the same need to experience which you are living now.

by Nick Roach

Interesting piece.

In regard to God's perception, I tend to view that there is no 'good' and 'bad'... but 'is' and 'isn't'.

Good and bad is a perceptional rating that we measure against ourselves and own experiences. It exists because of a linear perception of time. As God (or any ultimate being) exists beyond linear existence, 'good' and 'bad' is not relevant.

A little of my theology. LOL!