How did Spinoza connect God, nature, and everything that exists?

Benedict de Spinoza’s philosophy is defined by a monistic pantheism in which God and nature are essentially one. He argued that there is only one substance in existence, which he identified as God, and that everything else that exists is a modification or "mode" of that substance.12

Spinoza distinguished between two aspects of this reality:
* Natura naturans ("nature-creating"): This refers to God as the eternal, self-caused, and infinite substance.13
* Natura naturata ("nature-created"): This refers to the world and all individual entities, which are transitory modes of God’s attributes.12

Human beings understand this reality through two of God’s infinite attributes: thought and extension. Consequently, mind and body are not separate entities but different aspects of the same events. Because everything necessarily follows from the nature of God, Spinoza concluded that there are no contingencies in nature; everything is part of a necessary, unified whole. By cultivating the intellect to see the world "from the aspect of eternity," humans can achieve an "intellectual love of God," recognizing that all things exist within the divine.123