Did God have a face before his creation?
@innertalks (21916)
Australia
June 5, 2017 6:53pm CST
The great Chinese Buddhist master Huineng, (638 to 713) is said to have once come face to face with a mighty warlord, named Huiming, who had come to him in his mountaintop retreat, with the express intent to kill him.
As the great former general, Huiming drew near to him, with his mighty sword raised, ready to bring it down on the old master, the old Master looked at him directly into his angry eyes, and asked him then this question.
“Not thinking of good, nor thinking of evil, but just at this moment, what is your original face, before your mother and father were even born?”
It is reported that even as this question first hit Huiming, he at once then became enlightened.
Interestingly enough, this very koan, (or a question without an easy answer to it) is still one of the first ones that are given out to beginning students in Japanese Zen monasteries, for them to try to solve the riddle of.
Reading this tale above made me think of asking this other question then:
What is God’s original face, why did he turn himself around into a duality, so to speak, through his creation?
God never had a face, so to speak, in the terms, that we think of, as even the mentioning of a face gives credence to it in more aspects than one.
God’s oneness then had no faces in infinite ways until it allowed two main ways to be set up as mileposts in the distance, so to speak, from which other states were stretched and hung around.
Thus the dual world was formed.
{Koan: a paradoxical anecdote or riddle without a solution, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning, and to provoke, or more cause to emerge, enlightenment.}
4 people like this
4 responses
@AnthOcean (407)
•
6 Jun 17
this is a very nice topic. Probably none of us actually know the answer to it.
Such questions, i think, are brought to justify our faith and believes.
We all know that there exist a Super Power which we want to give a face. But in reality we fail to do so. And the other reality is that IT CAN ONLY BE FELT.
2 people like this
@prashu228 (37524)
• India
6 Jun 17
True..we give face to super power, .. according to our interests
3 people like this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
6 Jun 17
The wholeness of anything includes the parts so if God has a face he has a face.
Whether he shows himself to others is a mute point as Jesus Christ his son said that only he had seen his father, and so we assume he can be seen, by at least someone.
God's power can indeed be felt by all.
And when you feel this power, you feel him near you, in you, and around you, and so you see that he is everywhere. His face then is the face of your neighbour, and this is why we are told to love our neighbour, and to love God with all that we are too.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
6 Jun 17
Yes, we all do want to be able to pigeon hole God, and identify him, and know better who he is, so he doesn't remain so faceless.
2 people like this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
6 Jun 17
Thanks. Yes, I do not really know the answer either.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
17 Jun 17
@AnthOcean An interesting poem. Yes, I think that we all struggle with the "big" demon, as well as with all of our own little demons too.
1 person likes this
@AnthOcean (407)
•
11 Jun 17
watch this. i have written this poem.
this is the poem of a heart telling its feelings and senses when it came to know it has been taken by a Demon. It says the heart's prayer within the sufferin...
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
9 Jun 17
“Not thinking of good, nor thinking of evil, but just at this moment, what is your original face, before your mother and father were even born?”
I did not have a face as I did not exist.
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
11 Jun 17
@innertalks Jeremiah 1:5 could also mean that God knew the mission he was going to give Jeremiah from conception before Jeremiah had developed.
God often uses expressions that will make us understand certain thoughts by using words that we can grasp. Has God's face ever shone on you? I have yet to meet a person who saw God's face shine on them.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
11 Jun 17
@1hopefulman Well, yes, it did shine on me once, through his son Jesus. It was an experience and a half, which I can never forget.
In a way, God's face is the face of everything else around us, and when we look at anything that God has made more closely, not only will we feel God's face shining on us, we will also see God in it, as well.
God's face is the universal face of all creation, and yet individually God can also shine on people through the face of his son Jesus, recognisable by most people from paintings and visions of him, as was my own vision of God's son, Jesus too.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
10 Jun 17
Well, that is a good answer for most people, but ponder on this quote from the bible:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jeremiah chapter1, verse 5.
If God knew Jeremiah before he was born, we might assume that he had some type of a face, in whatever form he existed, and if this was true for Jeremiah, why not also for all of the rest of us.
Also, it mentions many times in the Bible that God, or the Lord also has his own face:
"The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you."
That above verse is from Numbers chapter 6, verse 25.
Here is one more reference to God's face.
Psalm 80:3
"O God, restore us and cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved."
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26681)
• Singapore
7 Jun 17
We tend to attribute a form that we can connect with easily.
If our god is the creator of the universe and everything not only under our sun, he should be beyond compare and our imagination.
We should think of the possibilities without belittling our beliefs; and one day the answer will present itself.
I feel he is in his creation and thus able to spread his tentacles, reach, everywhere - siva
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@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
7 Jun 17
If he really has such tentacles, maybe he will squeeze us with them even more now that we are straying away from him, hopefully still with a hug, though, and not with a deathly suffocation hold, as a punishment for us.
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@innertalks (21916)
• Australia
7 Jun 17
@Shiva49 I am sure God might have a trick or two up his sleeve to play in his hand still though. He played his ace card already, but I wonder what his joker might be.....
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26681)
• Singapore
7 Jun 17
@innertalks We cannot escape the consequences of our actions or inaction. It is ingrained in our soul forever.
He may also put an end to our misery! siva
1 person likes this