Gold fish, God and connection

Like a goldfish — does a goldfish know it’s in a bowl? Does it see the water? Does it know the water? The town takes its name from the river, yet the river is so ever-present it disappears into the background. I think my sense of God is similar.

If I were fully beyond time, beyond creation, before creation or after creation — what sense of God would remain? I think it’s only because I am human, because I experience separation from God, that I can perceive God at all.

If I were completely one with God, I don’t think there would be a “me” left to experience that. So when I sit in meditation, or sometimes in connection with another person, I experience moments of beauty, rightness, and deep connection. It’s almost as though I can glimpse God through the other person.

The love I feel in those moments feels like resonance with God. Not unity, but awareness of separation. That separation itself becomes the doorway to beauty, love, and connection.

When I practice circling, my approach differs somewhat from Circling Europe. My practice comes through the lens of Buddhism — being fully with the body, feelings, mental processes, and phenomena.

So when I share impact, it’s not primarily through the framework of the five principles, even if that may be the starting point. For me, it is a practice of becoming one with myself, and through that, one with God.

I hold this sense that there is a path toward God. When I am aligned with that path, I experience beauty, love, and grace. When I am suffering, it feels as though suffering pulls me away from that path — not away from God itself, but away from my alignment with that movement toward God.

That is what I bring into my practice.

I also think Buddhism is often misunderstood. People describe it as a religion, but to me it feels more like a philosophy or practice of direct experience.

My discovery of God is deeply personal.

I hope this brings some clarity to what I meant. And feel free to ask questions — because questions themselves bring me into that space, and I love being there.

I’ll see you later.

And I love you. I haven’t said that for a long time, but I do.