As Peter Russell explains about atheism in his book "From Science to God"

No God

Along with the transition from polytheism to monotheism came the emergence of atheism, or “no God”. It might seem contradictory to have a religion without s god, but several major traditions have arisen around this time.


In India, in the sixth century B.C., a young prince named Mahavira became disenchanted with the traditional Vedic religion, which advocated the sacrifice of innocent animals, the performance of meaningless rituals, and the belief of fictitious man made gods. Renouncing the grand lifestyle of his palace, he wandered penniless for thirteen years seeking a better way. Then one day while absorbed in deep meditation, he experienced a unity with all creation and a liberation from worldly woes. He consequently proclaimed himself Jina, “the Conqueror” – the conqueror of the mind – and encouraged his followers, the Jains, to attain a similar liberation through righteous living, nonviolence, and harmlessness.


Shortly afterward, another Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama, likewise left the luxury of his palace and set out to find a way to end suffering. Six years later, in deep meditation, he too attained liberation, and was called Buddha – “the Awakened One”. Buddha realized that suffering was self-created and unnecessary, and began teaching others how to wake up and find true freedom.


During the same period, two atheistic religions arose in China. Like Jina and Buddha, Lao-Tzu and Confucious both taught that people could discover truth and find inner peace without believing in any deity. They too, advocated lives of simplicity, virtue, honesty, and above all, kindness.


This fourth religious paradigm lacked some of the benefits provided by a benevolent deity. There is no longer a supernatural agent to intervene in human affairs; one’s destiny is now in ones own hands. But much of the rest remained. Love, kindness, and right living were important; salvation from the sufferings of the world was still possible. In a sense there was still even a devil, but now the devil was within oneself. The goal was to liberate the mind from its self-imposed limitations- from desires, attachments, delusions and a false sense of self.


- Peter Russell.

Intelligent Onion

 One layer upon another
Many are there altogether
A simple onion never struck me before
That it holds the secret of Life at its core

Equating each layer to all we possess
Vanity as gaudy as a concubines dress
As each layer is one by one stripped
With the sword of intellect, possessions be ripped

The core of the onion seems to be empty
Evident though from here sprouts plenty
Deceptive emptiness, within hidden a shoot
In “Nothingness” Life takes root

“Nothingness” is not empty, creation begins from here
It is not empty at all as it does appear
Timid hearted will not find out how, the Truth is for the bold
Even in the present moment, liberation exists behold

An onion when cut, brings forth tears
Upon Self Realization the effect is the same, say the seers.
Intelligent is the onion, on this we can ponder
In every bit of matter Truth is hidden. What a wonder!

- Pepal Tree

A simple way to understand what consciousness is as told by Peter Russell in his book "From Science to God".

What is consciousness? The word is not easy to define partly because we use it to cover a variety of meanings. We might say an awake person has consciousness, whereas someone who is asleep does not. Or, someone could be awake, but so absorbed in their thoughts that they have little consciousness of the world around them. We speak of having a political, social, or ecological consciousness. And we may say that human beings have consciousness while other creatures do not, meaning that humans think and are self aware.

The way I shall be using the word consciousness is not reference to a particular state of consciousness, or a particular way of thinking, but to the faculty of consciousness - the capacity for inner ecperience, whatever the nature or degree of experience.

The faculty of consciousness can be likened to the light from a film projector. The projector shines light onto a screen, modifying the light so as to produce any one of an infinity of images. These images are like the perceptions, sensations, dreams, memories, thoughts and feelings that we experience - what I call the "forms  of consciousness". The light itself, without which no images would be possible, corresponds to the faculty of consciousness.

We know all the images on the screen are composed of this light, but we are not usually aware of the light itself; our attention is caught up in the images that appear and the stories they tell. In much the same way, we know we are conscious, but we are usually aware of the many different perceptions, thoughts and feelings that appear in the mind. We are seldom aware of the consciousness itself.

As Eckhart Tolle says in "Power of Now"

This is one passage from Eckhart Tolle's book"power of Now" which I loved reading and appealed to me most.

If you are drawn to an enlightened teacher, it is because there is already enough presence in you to recognize presence in another. There were many people who did nor recognize Jesus or the Buddha, as there are and always have been many people who are drawn to false teachers. Egos are drawn to bigger egos Darkness cannot recognize light. Only light can recognize light. So don't believe that the light is outside you or that it can can come from only one particular form If only your master is an incarnation of God, then who are you? Any kind of exclusivityis identification with form, and identification with form means ego, no matter how well diguised.

Who Am I

Who Am I

I am not the name my parents gave me 

I am not a university degree 

I am not what I seem to be 

“Who Am I”, “Who Am I” 

 Whatever I posses will one day wither 

Yet I scurry about hither and thither 

I am that which is subtler than ether 

“Who Am I”, “Who Am I” 

 My physical body changes every twenty one days

 My mind tricks me in so many different ways 

Only my soul cries out constantly and says 

“Who Am I”, “Who Am I” 

 I do not have one identity 

Many roles I have played throughout eternity

I ask this always and hold on to my integrity 

“Who Am I”, “Who Am I” 

 There is no one but Me to answer this query 

It will be revealed to me when my ego I bury 

Reverberating until, with my Source I merge and marry 

“Who Am I”, “Who Am I”

Eons have passed, time is high 

My heart is heavy and deeply I sigh 

In the guise of happiness internally I cry

 “Who Am I”, “Who Am I”

- Pepal Tree