In the East, the way to 'God' is within; in the West, despite the teachings of Jesus, it has become externalised. Though Jesus taught that the Spirit of God dwells within you, and Paul quoting him writes, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God", institutionalised 'Christianity' prefers to accept the blasphemy of original sin.

The Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, is not a person, nor is it an object, and it does not have its location in the physical but in the mental. It resides in all consciousness. As we think of consciousness, it resides not in our physical consciousness, sub-consciousness, nor in our collective consciousness, but within our Spiritual consciousness; and the only way we can seek it is by first having the need, the hunger for union, and second, by intense meditation and prayer. It cannot be reached through worship, rites and rituals, songs of praise, good deeds or other external means. That is not to say that such things do not serve a purpose or fulfil a need.

Union with the Spirit of God is available to all people, simply because it IS within all people. It is not the exclusive possession of any single person, sect or religion. It has existed within every new-born child long before the physical appearance of the Buddha and Jesus. The Spirit of God does not have religious preferences and all children are its chosen children, whether their parents be atheist, pagan, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist or Christian. No one is born into a religion. Your parents may choose to bring you up in one. Generally, it is not your own choice.

It is an arrogance, a spiritual vanity and a blasphemy to believe that only one particular religion has a monopoly on God. Most religions have degenerated into creating God in their own image, few attempt to seek the Spirit within.

Carl Jung wrote, "It seems to me that we have really learned something from the East when we understand that the psyche contains riches enough, without to be primed from outside, and when we are capable of evolving out of ourselves, with or without Divine grace; but we cannot embark upon this ambitious enterprise until we have learned how to deal with our spiritual pride and blasphemous self-assertiveness." He goes on to say that because of our resistance to penetrate deeper levels of consciousness, we doubt the very thing that seems so obvious to the East.. "The self-liberating power of the introverted mind."

The Christian mystic, Meister Echardt, wrote the following: "Who does not hold God as an inner possession but must, with every means, fetch Him from without... truly such a man has Him not, and things come to trouble him easily."

You will not find God in any of your churches, shrines or temples. If you cannot find it within yourself, you will not find it externally. You will only find a concept of God.