Reality has a fundamental layer that pervades and connects all things. The Hindus call it Brahman; the invisible essence that permeates the whole universe. The Chinese call it the Tao. Buddhists call it the Dharma. Scientists might call it the quantum field. 

In Eastern tradition, God isn’t a higher being that intervenes in our lives, altering and manipulating them. They believe that God is the spirit, the essence, present in everything around us. To them, God isn’t a personified overlord, with a magical kingdom waiting for us when we die; if we are morally good, it is the universe. It is the energy present in all things, that connects everything. 

This essence of spirit, this eternal life force, is the basis for human consciousness too. It forms our sense of self, and from this we can aspire to achieve our atman; our scared spiritual self which we find through meditation, yoga and by practising compassion, understanding and virtue. By transcending our preoccupation with the self, by getting rid of selfishness, greed, and anger, we can be liberated and released from suffering. This is what the great Eastern mystics taught. Through meditation and deep focus, we can rise above our usual self and become at one with the universe. 

To only search for knowledge about the origins of the universe, or of the nature of reality, misses the greater truth. We have to search for how to live, how to navigate the practicalities of daily life. In this way, God isn’t external; it is intrinsic to everything around us. 

In the West, we are too preoccupied with a senseless struggle between religion and science, as though either of the two has incontrovertible answers to all things. But this misses the point. We can never know where things come from, only understand what they are. Again, Eastern philosophy has been teaching this for millennia. For example, a microbe living inside the stomach of a small child might wonder where this stomach came from, who made it, and what its purpose is. The microbe cannot know, and is not able to ever properly know the answers to those questions, but it can be sure that it is living inside an organ, which has certain behaviours, regulations, and principles as part of an even greater, living whole. The microbe grew in the stomach, which grew in the child. The child made it, therefore, but not as a deliberate act of creation, but rather as a by-product of a greater, fundamental process. This is what the universe is. It is a living thing. A giant, living organism, of which we are part. Asking where it came from is like the bacteria wanting to know where the heart or lungs came from. It is the wrong question because, even if it could be answered, the bacteria wouldn’t understand the reply. The right question, the only question, is to ask what is the nature of my existence here, in the environment I find myself in? What are the foundations of existence which underpin my being, and that of all living things? Knowing the answer to these questions will help us lead more fulfilled lives and this makes them the only true answers to know.