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A minimal white and gold graphic with the title ‘The Essence Beneath the Names’ and a soft gold arc symbol, used as the featured image for a Transient Harmony reflective essay.

The Essence Beneath the Names: How Humans Define God

By Braddon Damien White

There are moments when a simple comment opens a door into reflection.

Recently, after my mom finished reading an early draft of my book, she shared a brief note in which part of it stated: “It feels like you don’t believe in God.”

At the time of writing this, I have yet to sit down to explore her thoughts together — and I’m looking forward to that conversation. Her framework, shaped over a lifetime of faith, devotion, and experience, has supported and strengthened her in ways I deeply respect. Her belief has given her courage, meaning, and comfort throughout her life.

But her comment stirred something in me.

Not disagreement, and not defensiveness — awareness.

It reminded me how easily two people can use the same word, God, while meaning something entirely different. How the language we inherit from our traditions shapes what we expect to hear, and what we think someone else is saying.

This essay is not a response to her. It is a reflection on the larger question her words awakened:

How do humans define God — and what lies beneath the names we use?

The Human Impulse to Name the Divine

Every culture across time has reached toward something beyond itself — an origin, a guiding presence, a sense of purpose, a place of return.

To make sense of that mystery, we name it.

But names are shaped by the frameworks we were born into:

  • Some traditions describe God as a loving parent
  • Others as a universal consciousness
  • Others as an awakened nature within
  • Others as the natural law governing all things

The metaphors differ. The structures differ. But the function is the same:

  • Where did we come from?
  • What guides us?
  • How should we live?
  • What is the purpose of this life?
  • What do we return to when this life is done?

The differences in definition are real.
But beneath them lies a shared human longing.

Christianity – Including the LDS Tradition Within It

Within Christianity — including the Latter-day Saint tradition my mom comes from and I was raised in — God is defined as a loving, personal Father.

In this model:

  • God is the creator and source of life
  • Humanity is His family
  • Life is part of a divine plan
  • Commandments offer guidance and protection
  • Prayer creates relationship and comfort
  • Heaven is the place of return

It is a framework built on relationship, purpose, and belonging.

This worldview gives people a sense of being known, guided, and loved. It answers the longing for meaning and moral direction through connection with a divine parent.

It is a beautiful and powerful way of experiencing the sacred — one that has supported countless lives, including my mother’s.

Hinduism: God as Universal Consciousness

Hinduism offers a different architecture—less personal, more cosmic.

At the highest level:

  • Brahman is the ultimate reality, the infinite consciousness behind everything
  • Atman is the soul, the individualized expression of that same consciousness
  • The many gods are reflections of Brahman’s infinite aspects
  • Liberation comes through realizing the unity of Atman and Brahman

In this view, God is not a parent but a presence. Not a being you petition, but a field you awaken to.

Yet the same needs are addressed:

  • Origin
  • Guidance (through dharma, right living, inner truth)
  • Purpose (awakening, self-realization)
  • Return (not to a Father, but to the fullness of consciousness)

A different map.
The same search.

Buddhism: Awakening Without a Creator God

Buddhism takes another approach: non-theistic rather than atheistic.

It does not deny that gods exist; it simply does not place them at the center of spiritual life.

Instead, Buddhism emphasizes:

  • Dharma — the natural law of reality
  • Karma — cause and effect shaping experience
  • Buddha-nature — the innate potential for awakening
  • The Eightfold Path — a compass for living with wisdom and compassion
  • Nirvana — liberation from suffering

Though it does not rest on a creator God, it still addresses the fundamental human needs:

  • Where we come from (the flow of causes and conditions)
  • How to live (through compassion and clarity)
  • What guides us (inner awakening, not external command)
  • What we return to (our original awakened nature)

Here, too, the essence is the same, expressed through a different lens.

The Shared Essence Beneath All These Views

When we look past the metaphors, the continuity becomes clear:

Every tradition, in its own way, tries to articulate the same truth —
that there is something eternal, meaningful, and guiding at the heart of existence.

Christianity describes this through a loving Father.
Hinduism through infinite consciousness.
Buddhism through awakened nature.

Different languages.
Different stories.
Same essence.

We use the words we understand.
We inherit the metaphors our traditions give us.
And each framework can be deeply meaningful and life-giving to those who walk within it.

Returning to the Word “God”

Before exploring where Transient Harmony fits, it’s worth returning to the word “God” itself.

For many, “God” means:

  • The source of life
  • The foundation of morality
  • The giver of strength and comfort
  • The origin of purpose
  • The point of return after death

Even in non-theistic traditions, these functions appear through different names:

  • Dharma
  • Brahman
  • Buddha-nature
  • Spirit
  • Consciousness
  • The Divine

The word changes.
The essence does not.

Understanding this allows us to honor each tradition’s language without reducing or dismissing it. It also creates space for frameworks—like mine—that use a different vocabulary while speaking to the same eternal truths.

Where Transient Harmony Fits

Transient Harmony describes the divine through the lens of consciousness and soul.

  • The Celestial Soul is the eternal, complete version of ourselves
  • It carries our wisdom, our resonance, and our purpose
  • It selected this life for reasons tied to growth and experience
  • It guides us through intuition, resonance, and inner knowing
  • It connects us to the larger field of consciousness that holds all souls
  • And it is the aspect of us we “return” to after mortal life ends

In other words:

What many traditions call God or Spirit, Transient Harmony describes as the Celestial Realm and the Celestial Soul — the divine within us and the divine we arise from.

This is not rejection.
It is reframing.

Some people seek God above.
Some seek God around.
Some seek God within.
In Transient Harmony, the divine is woven through all beings — unique, connected, eternal.

We each carry a spark of the whole, expressed through our own resonance.

Closing Reflection

I don’t believe the sacred is limited to one description.

My mom’s framework has sustained her through joys and losses, giving her strength and courage in ways that honor her journey. Others find the same support through different metaphors, different scriptures, different languages of the divine.

One of the core tenets of Transient Harmony is that each soul’s journey is unique, and each person develops a framework — consciously or unconsciously — that resonates with their path.

So when someone asks, “Do you believe in God?”
I’ve learned the real question is: “What do you mean when you say God?”

Because beneath every name for the divine — Father, Brahman, Buddha-nature, Consciousness, Light, Spirit — there is a shared human truth:

We are seeking connection with the eternal essence that gives our lives meaning, guidance, and purpose.

And the beauty of this journey is that each of us finds our own way back to that essence, through the language that speaks to our soul.

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