sainthood: Who are saints?

Saints, frankly, are persons who are able to be in direct contact with Pure Awareness (God) at least in moments of intense concentration. There are different approaches to judge who is a Saint. Most well-known Saints have been officially moved into Sainthood by the Roman Catholic church, which has a very long and complicated process of declaring someone a Saint. One of the first steps is called Beatification; one of the last steps is Veneration.

However, many religions have their Saints, who were in direct contact with God and, at times, also displayed powers of dramatic healing and other miracles. Jews have a hesitant approach to Sainthood. Generally, they believe in becoming better persons. They also insist that the most noble person cannot be a Saint if they are ignorant of the Bible and the Talmud. Then again, the Kabbalist declares: "The goal of the Mystic is to establish devekut, union with, or, as Jewish mystics prefer to define it, cleaving to God." (The Kabbalah Institute of the Galilee: Mysticism Collection)

If a Jewish Mystic, or any other Mystic, has united with God and knows his Self to be part of God's Omnipresence, what would be wrong to deem these people Saints and what would be wrong to declare the Rabbi,  or any other person to be ignorant of the truth, that God is everything? Thus, if we know God we are in possession of real knowledge, but if we don't know God we live in ignorance of the only permanent Reality.

Since knowledge of God is the key ingredient of Sainthood, I do not see any difference in a Saint who knows God and a Mystic who knows God. Of course, any knowledge of God or any contact with God refers to at least a temporary union with this omnipresent Awareness. It can never be like the meeting between two persons. God is not a person and our own Awareness is not a person. Person refers to the mind-structure and the body we erroneously identify with until we become One.

The halo depicted in older paintings are probably best sorted in under artistic expression. On the other hand, we now know that all animate and inanimate objects radiate. Therefore it is entirely possible that someone had a stronger radiation or that some were more able to see this stronger radiation than others. Here it might be interesting to point the medical mystery of synesthesia. People who have this "disorder" might feel shapes, hear light, see sound and so on.

So, the strongest argument for declaring someone a Saint must remain direct knowledge of God and everything else comes second and there are many passages in the Bible which clearly support that view. If we go by miracles alone, we could argue that this is just some psychic power which may be observed in regular people from time to time.

How are Saints becoming One with God?
Through intense Concentration by following the first and most important commandment: "You shall love God with ALL your Heart, with ALL your Soul, and with ALL your Mind."

God's Pure Beingness is experienced when the mind quits thinking because our Soul is also pure Awareness when there is no thinking. Our Soul is the part which is made in His image. That is why the Bible says in Psalm 46:10 "Be STILL and recognize that I am God." Or, in Psalm 4:4 "Commune with your own Heart (Center of the Soul; Beingness)..., and be STILL."

Likewise we read in the Bhagavad Gita 6:27 "Supreme Bliss comes to the seeker whose mind is COMPLETELY TRANQUIL and whose passions are QUIETED, who is free from stain and who has become One with God."

Note: If you are going to try this be advised that these people struggled for many years
until they achieved perfect concentration or, if you prefer, perfect devotion.