very similar to my beliefs! Anything you pray to - or just appreciate - is God. God is in all things and is all things - this must be true if God is to be God, the infinite and eternal. Nothing could be outside of God because if anything was outside of God, then the context would be larger than God, and that would be a contradiction. But anything you pray to is an image, which could be an idol if you think the image is the thing itself - even if that image is your best attempt at God. This is why I think prayer must be accompanied by meditation, which is the opposite of prayer. The prayer directs or preserves, while the meditation clears images.

What I would question is whether its actually right to try to return to the sea of God, and whether that effort is not yet more idolatry. God made you on purpose. It wasn't an accident that you need to fix. Your spirit wanted to be here and experience the phenomenal world, its polarities and differentiations, highs and lows. Its the hero's journey. Maybe it's enough to just know that there is a God and an eternity and it exists even if your ego-self doesn't exist.

I have that book. Same cover. I was initially very enthusiastic about it, but became less so as I've learned what Eastern Orthodoxy really is. The book makes some really great points, which I think Christians can benefit from more than Daoists, but also makes some errors, such as the Maryology nonsense. Its an interesting look into syncretism and how religions can speak to each other. Supposedly the Chinese artists who's art is featured all converted... Whether that's a good thing, idk - believing in the Spirit, which is the Way, without reducing it to an image of a man, seems like a more efficient path. The image of Christ can be an idol, and IMO usually is.