God isn't actually a person, you know. People have limitations, as do animals, tooth-brushes, apple trees and planets. God, if I understand the various writings I've skim-read properly, is, conceptually, an all-embracing, Universal consciousness, unhindered by divisions of nature or dimensions. Having consciousness ourselves allows us to become connected with God, though God is always connected with us. It is we who are limited or who limit ourselves.
Some philosophies, which I like, see Love as balance and Hate as imbalance. The more we balance our natures, the closer we come to understanding Love as a concept whose opposite is not Hate, but Fear. It's not unlike what Hippies have been telling us for years, but they were usually too distracted by hedonistic ego-pleasures to follow it to its ultimate extent. And who can blame them.
When Bible scholars talk of God being Love, some of them realise that they are really asking us to discard everything that creates imbalance and conflict and embrace only those things which bring balance and harmony to ourselves and others.
We are free to choose to do this. However, the influences and disturbances of the World we inhabit make it difficult and the vast majority eventually fail. For this reason, retreats and monasteries and isolated Tibetan temples sprang up to enable people to pursue their spiritual purposes without distraction.
How easy would it be to choose this simplicity of life and gain our souls? Except, of course, that by now most of us are really, really fond of our material distractions and think that the whole Spiritual Enlightenment thing is fine in theory, but....
