What is the nature of God according to Paul Tillich?

Question: Maneesha's question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, PAUL TILLICH, THE PROTESTANT THEOLOGIAN, ASSERTED THAT "GOD WILL REMAIN SOMEHOW REMOTE AND `OUT THERE,' UNLESS THERE IS A COMPLETE TURNABOUT IN WHICH ALL REFERENCES TO THE HIGH AND THE BEYOND ARE TRANSLATED INTO TERMS OF DEPTH. THIS INFINITE AND INEXHAUSTIBLE DEPTH AND GROUND OF ALL BEINGS IS GOD. THAT DEPTH IS WHAT THE WORD `GOD' MEANS. HE WHO KNOWS ABOUT DEPTH KNOWS ABOUT GOD." WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMMENT? Maneesha, Paul Tillich and all neo-theologians are trying their hardest somehow to save God, and there is no way to save him, he is already dead! Now he is giving another idea: take God from there beyond the clouds and put him deep down. But what is the difference? Deep down where? -- in America? Because from this place, if you go on digging you will suddenly see, My God!

Osho, is god really dead?

Remember, those who were ascetic people, who were ready to deny their nature, were very happy to believe in God. And the people who were more natural, more normal, were happy to believe that there was no God. The reason is the same: the natural person will feel afraid because the natural person will have sex, will have anger, will have jealousy. And God is going to punish him; if God is there then punishment is certain. It is better to say that there is no God; at least for the time being he can feel relieved. And the person who can repress his sex, his jealousies, his anger, would like to declare that God is, because all his investment is in God's existence. God's existence is very necessary for his asceticsm. The pathological people declare that God is and the natural people declare that there is no God. And…

Osho, what is god?

God has to be freed from all concepts of personality. Personality is a prison. God has to be freed from any particular form; only then he can have all the forms. He has to be freed from any particular name so that all the names become his. Then a person LIVES in prayer -- he does not pray, he does not go to the temple, to the church. Wherever he sits he is prayerful, whatsoever he is doing is prayerful, and in that prayerfulness he creates his temple. He is always moving with his temple surrounding him. Wherever he sits the place becomes sacred, whatsoever he touches becomes gold. If he is silent then his silence is golden; if he speaks then his song is golden. If he is alone his aloneness is divine; if he relates then his relating is divine. The basic, the most fundamental thing is to…

Imam muhammed baqir is said to have related this illustrative fable: 'finding I could speak the language of ants, I approached one and enquired, "what is god like? Does he resemble the ant?" 'he answered, "god! No, indeed -- we have only a single sting, but god, he has two!"'

So, an experiencing.... And what is an experiencing? What is the difference between experience and experiencing? The difference is that in experience you remain separate from the object. For example, you are listening to me. This can happen in two ways. For those who are here just as spectators, as listeners, as an audience, it is an experience. I am here separate from them; they are there separate from me. I am an object and they are the subject. They are there centred in their egos listening to me. And they are continuously judging whether this is right or wrong, whether this applies or not, whether this can be practised or not, whether this agrees with their scripture or not -- they are continuously judging inside. This will be an experience. But those who are in deep love with me, who are not standing against me, who are not there…

Osho, is god really dead, as friedrich nietzsche says?

Because the Jewish-Christian-Mohammedan idea of God is not of a very nice fellow; he is not a gentleman. The Jewish God who is at the root of both the Christian and the Mohammedan God says himself, "I am a very jealous God. Those who are against me, I will destroy them. Those who are not with me are against me. Those who are with me will have all the pleasures of heaven, and those who are not with me will suffer eternal hellfire.'' Nietzsche says, "Rejoice, God is dead! There is no heaven and no hell. Don't be afraid of hell and don't be greedy for heaven, because there is no God. God is dead, and man is absolutely free." This has been done in the East in a far more subtle, delicate way. Mahavira says there is no God -- for the same reason as Nietzsche. Mahavira says if…