POSTSCRIPT
During the week following September 11, 2001 I spent several days in the hospital with a kidney infection, blockage and stones. As fate would have it one of my nurses was a middle-aged man who was studying for his Doctor's degree in History. When I told him that I was retired he asked, "What do you do with all your free time?" I told him that I had just finished writing a book. This seemed to arouse his curiosity and he started asking me questions about the book. He asked, "What's the subject?" I replied, "Spiritual psychology or practical spirituality." Then he said, "Do you have a name for the book?" I responded that over the years I had worked with several names. He asked what they were so I told him.
The next day when he returned for his shift he told me that he had been thinking about my book and he thought the best name was "Generic God." He also said that he wanted to buy one of the books when it was published. I suggested that if he were willing to give me some feedback I would be pleased to give him one of the pre-publication copies.
When his shift ended he handed me a piece of paper with his name and address on it so that I could mail him a copy of the book. Then he turned around and as he left the room he said, "I'd call it "Generic God." Some days after I returned home from the hospital I was sifting through my old files and I stumbled onto the following piece. Because I had already purchased the domain name, "genericgod.com" several years ago, I decided to add these notes to the Book under the title, "Postscript." (This Postscript in the final addition of our Book was transferred to the Appendix under the title, "genericgod.")
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genericgod
On that summer day in 1973 when I left my family, my friends and my job, I also left my church and my belief system.
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With this as my legacy as far as faith was concerned and after eight years trying to get it all back together, I found myself once again back in the throes of active alcoholism. At this point I finally surrendered to the authority within. At that time it was only an inkling, a memory of a spiritual experience that had taken place eight years earlier. However, it was right there with that memory and that inkling that I started to build a new life.
The first plank of my new life was, "You can't put your faith in a belief system. At best you can only trust what the belief system may be pointing to." The second plank was, "In as much as I have turned my life and will over to the authority that I have found within, I will then have to wait for it to reveal itself further before I can come up with any more planks." In other words, I had to trust in the integrity of what I was experiencing and I couldn't rush it and couldn't turn it into a teaching or doctrine or concept. I had to let it BE.
During the past fifteen years I have added another plank to my new life or if you will, my new belief system. It is: Relying on the power and authority within works." Pure and simple, "it" works! I put quotes around the word "it" because people ask me, "What is this 'it' you are talking about?" I tell them that I'm not sure, but I think it might be what other people call God, it might even be what other people call Christ. I don't know for sure, but "it" has revealed some things to me and as best I can, I will share "it" with you.
As I have indicated throughout this Book, I have come to know the authority within as my SELF. You may ask, "Why isn't that a plank in your belief system?" The answer is that what I experience as my SELF is totally unexplainable. It is something beyond human vocabulary and human comprehension. I can't put it into words but my experience of my SELF does remind me of some of the things I used to say about God when I was preaching from the pulpit. Should I put in a new plank in my belief system that says my SELF is God? I don't know, but I have given that a lot of thought. My best answer to this date is captured in the words of Henry Bergson, who said of consciousness: "if not God, it is of God."
I haven't put in another plank in my system because when I experience my SELF I am also experiencing the unseen reality which is beyond my self, an expanded SELF that is somehow connected with each of you and with all of nature. I can't put another plank in my system based on this awareness because there are no words adequate to describe the experience of this awareness.
That's where I'm at. But because I want to communicate with you about this stuff, I feel like I need to give "IT" a name. I've given this a lot of thought, years of thought and what I have come up with is the name, Generic God. This name works for me, because it is my belief that you have within you the ability to experience your true SELF and that when you do, it won't be long until you will sense that your SELF is God or connected to God and this God stands apart or at least transcends your belief system.
Now, let's explore the word, "generic." Funk and Wagnall says, "having a wide general application and applicable to every member of a class." The class that applies in this particular case is Homo species. Generic God then would be a God with a wide general application and applicable to every member of the Human Race.
Now, let's look at the term, generic, as popularly used in the retail industry. A generic product is one that is not sold under a brand name. It is sold under its generic name. If it is wheat cereal, it is sold as "wheat cereal," and not "Wheaties" or any other brand name. If it is laundry soap it is sold and packaged as "laundry soap" and has no brand name such as "Tide." The generic product could well be the same product as the name brand; it is even possible that it could be a superior product. The real difference is found in three areas: the packaging, the promotion and the cost. The cost is determined largely by the demand and the demand is determined in part by the success of promotion which includes its packaging. As we all know, God also has some brand names; names that are promoted, sometimes very aggressively. These names are packaged by various denominations and religions. These names include names like Jesus, Allah, Jehovah and Vishnu.
My experience tells me that the same God deep in the psyche of every human being is the one being packaged. The one being packaged is Generic God. The problem with promotion and packaging is that it can get carried away.
When I was in sales, I was told over and over again, "don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle." What that meant was, don't sell the product, sell what it will do for you. I believe that this kind of philosophy has crept into religion. That is why we are being sold salvation. Salvation is the sizzle, not the steak. But as I found out that the power within me, the power I call Generic God is more than any concept of heaven or salvation. Generic God needs no promotion, no packaging. Generic God is not subsitute God. Generic God is real God and each of us already has an ample portion deep within.
I honestly believe both society and the individuals in it are suffering because religions are selling the sizzle and not the steak. They are selling the box, not the product. They have lost sight of the product now hidden beneath promotion, the doctrine, the rituals, the socializing and their collective ego.
Consider the following in the light of the above: I assume the experience of "realized expanded SELF," is common to all who enjoy higher states of consciousness. I also believe that most, if not all people, have access to these higher states. Furthermore, these higher states of consciousness are desirable and should be coveted by all. I believe that this is the correct way of understanding the message of Jesus and other spiritual leaders. My limited experience of such states tells me that when speaking from the position of "the realized expanded SELF" it would not be at all difficult to say, "I and the Father are one." Nor would it be unusual to say the words written in the Bhagavad-Gita, "I am that, thou art that, all that is is that."
When I first started experiencing some sense of the "expanded SELF" I returned to reading the Bible and found it to be all new. Today I see in the Bible the same message that I have been talking about throughout this Book. When I read that Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a "mustard seed," I think of the seed, I think of that inkling, that glimmer within, that seed that has grown in me and become my SELF. When He says that the Kingdom of God is like a "pearl of great price," I say Amen! I would not and could not trade this experience of knowing my SELF for anything. The Gospel of Thomas says, "The Kingdom of God is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty and you are the poverty." (Page 172, Five Gospels, Thomas 3:3-5)
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