Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

Among our Sangha there are at least five people
who, because of their dysfunctional upbringing, did
not find sufficient love in their lives, and thus turned
to God for their source of love. Some often talked to
God as a person, or Jesus, and began to feel the love
of this inner entity they regarded as more real and
permanent than any parent or any human could ever
be, and often this attitude and belief persists until the
end of one’s life. The entity takes on an inner
existence and one loves oneself through this inner,
divine object, that is “permanent” and transcendent,
and thus absolutely safe and secure, that is, until the
inevitable Dark Night of the soul where one loses one’s
faith in that inner, permanent object.
It is so much more difficult to love a real, living
being, because nothing is guaranteed with such a love,
or such a dependency and neediness. God is so much
more reliable, and Jesus too, because so many people
share belief in both, or Buddha, or someone who lives
on after death. That is, God and Jesus, Buddha, etc.,
are accepted, institutionalized existences that gain
credibility through their wide acceptance.
People and animals die. People can betray you by
either dying physically, or their love for you will die
and someone else, more beautiful, smarter, richer,
“better” will come along and that love is taken away
and given to another.