Odyshape

I have some problems believing in the possibility of an omnipotent God or deity. The way I see it an omnipotent being would not have a motive to create. The only reason anything would ever create or do anything would either be out of need, want, or curiosity; things an omnipotent being would not have. You would not want or need anything because fulfillment could not exist and infinite knowledge means no curiosity.
Is this fair to say? or am I missing something.
fixed* don't know how I messed that up

Janszoon

Are you asking about omnipotence or are you asking about omniscience? You seem to be using the two words interchangeably, but they don't mean the same thing.

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cardboard adolescent

I think this question is very similar to the question: why would a Buddha lead others to enlightenment? Aren't they already fully satisfied in nirvana?

Yes, a Buddha is fully satisfied, in total bliss. Similarly, yes, God has no needs, or wants, and knows everything. However, it is in the nature of the Godhead, which is nirvana, to overflow itself, to extend itself further and further, to give itself away.

It is in the nature of God to create because God is more than God, God always explodes beyond every boundary. Every moment of creation, there is more time, more space than there was before. Every moment of creation is a new beginning, absolutely unique even while inscribed in an infinite series of repeating cycles.

In Buddhism the image of the blooming lotus is very popular, consider God as the absolute stillness at the center of the flower, while the flower perpetually blossoms, always the same but always different, an eternal, ecstatic celebration of Being.

Osho makes a distinction between mind and no-mind: mind strives for things, mind is stuck in the past. The only future mind can envision, the only heaven it seeks is what it has known in the past, without the plaguing dissatisfactions and pains. By living in the past, mind limits the future to what it has already known. But even if the mind found its utopia, it would not be satisfied, because the mind also craves novelty, and getting stuck on a perfect moment is the absolute horror of the mind.

No-mind, on the other hand, lives in the perpetual present, it lives for nothing other than the moment, and so receives the perfection of the moment. The moment is eternal, it changes and does not change.

Mind is always caught up in the cat-and-mouse chase of subject and object, sometimes satisfied, sometimes frustrated. With no-mind, subject and object are one--the subject is the overflowing of the object, the object is the over-flowing of the subject.

Or you could think of it this way: a piece of music is an analogy for creation, the tonal center of the piece represents God, and every other note is a celebration of the center. Even a dissonant note simply reinforces the catharsis of returning to the center. When Buddhist scriptures say: emptiness is form, and form is emptiness, this is what they mean--every note exists only to return to the center, to cancel itself out, to dissolve back into the Godhead. A piece that leaves unresolved tensions hanging is not in good form, it doesn't provide the satisfaction of balance and wholeness, it distracts from the perfection and completeness of the moment itself.

And so, creation is a perpetual celebration of God, not because God needs to be celebrated, simply because it is in God's nature to overflow.

chiron

Except pretty much every description of god also indicates some altruistic tendencies.

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Nine Black Poppies

For what it's worth: how can omnipotence, omniscience (or omnipresence, for that matter) even exist without creation?

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Like carnivores to carnal pleasures, so were we to desperate measures...

cardboard adolescent

From the Wikipedia article on Brahman:

"When man tries to know the attributeless Brahman with his mind, under the influence of an illusionary power of Brahman called Maya, Brahman becomes God. God is the reflection of the Brahman in the environment of illusion (Maya), just like reflection of the moon in a pool of water. The material world also appears as such due to Maya. God is Saguna Brahman, or Brahman with attributes. He is omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent, Creator of the world, its ruler and also destroyer. He is eternal and unchangeable. He is both immanent and transcendent, as well as full of love and justice. He may be even regarded to have a personality. He is the subject of worship. He is the basis of morality and giver of the fruits of one's Karma. He rules the world with his Maya. However, while God is the Lord of Maya and she (i.e. Maya) is always under his control, living beings are the servants of Maya (in the form of ignorance). This ignorance is the cause of all material experiences in the mortal world. While God is Infinite Bliss, humans, under the influence of Maya consider themselves limited by the body and the material, observable world. This misperception of Brahman as the observed Universe results in human emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger and fear. The ultimate reality remains Brahman and nothing else. The Advaita equation is simple. It is due to Maya that the one single Atman (the individual soul) appears to the people as many Atmans, each in a single body. Once the curtain of maya is lifted, the Atman is exactly equal to Brahman. Thus, due to true knowledge, an individual loses the sense of ego (Ahamkara) and achieves liberation, or Moksha."