To speak, or not to speak, about God

My friend Kathrin sent me an email where she shared with me how hard it is to share with people the "mystic view", and especially how the word "God" turns people off almost systematically. I reply:

"Yes, you gotta NOT throw the whole thing in people's face, it doesn't work. Only when they're ready. You gotta go really step by step, i.e. figure out what they need and give it to them.

Especially, the word "God" is a complete no-no in our society (France, Germany, etc, Europe – or among intellectuals / white-collar people in general, unless you know that they share your understanding of all this, which generally takes some time, or knowing the people very well. If you say "God" and they think "religion" (and most people will), then you're screwed. NEVER mention God if you think they'll think that it has to do with religion. You do NOT need the pointer God to explain things – look at the Buddhists. You have to learn to understand what words will work with what kind of people. And give them JUST what they need, or even less. This is an art :-)

Give them something that can immediately improve their lives – often it does not involve TALKING actually but just DOING, providing an example. If they find peace and joy and love in you, they'll be attracted like flies and try to understand how it is you have that and they don't. If you exhibit anything less than complete peace and joy and love and light, then people will not listen to a word you say."

Later:

"I think a key to not trigger resistance is to avoid by all means the word "God" – a lot of people in the Christian world have been bruised by that word. Easier to point to the moon using the "consciousness" or "evolution" fingers. I was uncomfortable with the word God myself until, say, just about 6 months ago – and I'm cool with it now, but I know most people are not cool with it at all, so careful...

Ken Wilber is a very, very good author for people like us vs. "God" talk: he introduces us to the trans-rational/trans-logic using the rational/logic approach (vs. what most people associate with pre-rational/pre-logic)."