The Eight Aspects of God

From The Essence of Self-Realization

There are eight aspects in which God can be experienced: as Light, Sound,
Peace, Calmness, Love, Joy, Wisdom, and Power.

To experience Him as Light during meditation brings calmness to the mind, purifying
it and giving it clarity. The more deeply one contemplates the inner
light, the more one perceives all things as made of that light.

To experience God as Sound is to commune with the Holy Ghost, or Aum, the Cosmic
Vibration. When you are immersed in Aum, nothing can touch you.
Aum raises the mind above the delusions of human existence, into
the pure skies of divine consciousness.

Peace is an early meditative experience. Peace, like a weightless waterfall,
cleanses the mind of all anxiety and care, bestowing heavenly relief.

Calmness is another divine experience. This aspect of God is more dynamic
and more powerful than that of Peace. Calmness gives the devotee
power to overcome all the obstacles in his life. Even in human affairs,
the person who can remain calm under all circumstances is invincible.

Love is another aspect of God not personal love, but Love infinite.
Those who live in ego-consciousness think of impersonal love as
cold and abstract. But divine love is all-absorbing, and infinitely
comforting. It is impersonal only in the sense that it is utterly
untainted by selfish desire. The unity one finds in divine love
is possible only to the soul. It cannot be experienced by the ego.

Joy is another aspect of God. Divine joy is like millions of earthly joys
crushed into one. The quest for human happiness is like looking
around for a candle while sitting out of doors in the sun. Divine
joy surrounds us eternally, yet people look to mere things for their
happiness. Mostly, all they find is relief from emotional or physical
pain. But divine joy is the blazing Reality. Before it, earthly
joys are but shadows.

Wisdom is intuitive insight, not intellectual understanding. The difference
between human and divine wisdom is that the human mind comes at
things indirectly, from without. The scientist, for example, investigates
the atom objectively. But the yogi becomes the atom. Divine perception
is always from within. From within alone can a thing be understood
in its true essence.

Power, finally, is that aspect of God which creates and runs the universe.
Imagine what power it took to bring the galaxies into existence!
Masters manifest some of that power in their lives. The expression,
‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,’ describes only one side of Jesus’
nature. The other side was revealed in the power with which he drove
the moneychangers from the temple. Just think what magnetism it
took to combat single-handedly all those men, entrenched as they
were in habits and desires that had been sanctioned by ancient custom!

People are often appalled by the power they see expressed in the lives
of saints. But remember, you will never find God until you are very
strong in yourself. Power may exercise less appeal on your mind
than other aspects of God, but it is important to realize that divine
power, too, is a part of your divine nature.

Whatever aspect of God you experience in meditation, never keep it
contained in the little chalice of your consciousness, but try always
to expand that experience to infinity.