I've been listing to The Alan Watts Podcast (iTunes has some interesting stuff). During the introduction to Hinduism, he talked about the Hindu concept of god, versus the Western Monotheist concept.
The first group holds that, ultimately, we're all aspects of god. The identities that we call self are masks, roles that god plays in the unfolding of the cosmic performance. The universe isn't all that important. It's just the theater, the props, the necessary accompaniment. It just sort of happens, much as a discarded box becomes a child's fort. The second group holds that god is the architect, contractor, engineer, etc. of the world. God sets everything in motion, directly or indirectly, and the cosmos unfolds according to plan. The world is direct evidence of the plan, a manifestation of that plan.
It's interesting to ponder this alternative concept. But what I thought most interesting is what it does to the "Problem of Evil." If god is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, then why does god allow evil to exist? If god isn't those three things, then -- well, those three things pretty much define "god" for a Western Monotheist. Under the "Hindu" concept, though, the problem goes away. If we're all god, then we can't actually be hurting anyone. It's all just performance, special effects, and corn-syrup blood. There is no evil. I don't why, but I find this disquieting.
The first group holds that, ultimately, we're all aspects of god. The identities that we call self are masks, roles that god plays in the unfolding of the cosmic performance. The universe isn't all that important. It's just the theater, the props, the necessary accompaniment. It just sort of happens, much as a discarded box becomes a child's fort. The second group holds that god is the architect, contractor, engineer, etc. of the world. God sets everything in motion, directly or indirectly, and the cosmos unfolds according to plan. The world is direct evidence of the plan, a manifestation of that plan.
It's interesting to ponder this alternative concept. But what I thought most interesting is what it does to the "Problem of Evil." If god is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient, then why does god allow evil to exist? If god isn't those three things, then -- well, those three things pretty much define "god" for a Western Monotheist. Under the "Hindu" concept, though, the problem goes away. If we're all god, then we can't actually be hurting anyone. It's all just performance, special effects, and corn-syrup blood. There is no evil. I don't why, but I find this disquieting.
Hindus don't exclude the possibility of evil, it's just that people aren't intrinsically evil. The avoidance of the western traditional 'problem of evil' is more that there isn't a supernatural referee who one could posit as standing by while bad things happen.