Our
being is God’s being. It can be none other. There is none other. But we can
only access and be conscious of this universal being or uncreated part of us
through the individual soul. We, like God, are a trinity, a three in one, no
part of which can be considered separately from the rest, and the Father is
only known through the Son on the microcosmic level as on the macrocosmic
one. So you cannot isolate one aspect of the trinity of your being and see it
out of context with the rest. That is what Buddhism and advaita do. They take
the spirit aspect, the uncreated part, and use it to deny or, if you don’t like
that word, ignore the rest. But this is an error. We are a composite of being
(spirit), soul (individuality) and body or appearance (akin to truth, goodness and beauty). The former is above
sexual differentiation but the latter two are not and all are essential parts
of the totality of what we are even if there is a hierarchical aspect to this
as well in that we should view them from above downwards. But that does not
mean that the ‘lower’ parts are unreal or unimportant or not a vital part of
who and what we are.
One
of the things that Christ did was demonstrate the perfection of the
trinity of being. Before him the Buddha showed the way to the uncreated part of
ourselves, the uncompounded absolute. But Christ reconciled being and becoming,
bridging them in himself and perfecting the latter, and showed our true
spiritual goal. More, he actually opened the door to its possibility, a door
that until him had been shut. The spiritual end before the advent of Christ was
not the same as after his appearance in this world.
In contradistinction to
many Eastern religions and some Gnostic Western ones, I do not see the
spiritual goal as rediscovering an already existing reality within ourselves.
Rather, it is transformation into something new and not yet existent. The
metaphor of a seed that grows is the one that best describes the unfoldment of
the soul. This does not mean that spirit as such grows but soul grows into
spirit and becomes ever more aware of its limitless possibilities.
I said that the advent of
Christ changed the spiritual goal for humanity. Jesus was greater than any prophet or avatar because he was not just a
projection of divine being manifesting on Earth but the Word Incarnate come to
redeem the whole world. After him the spiritual goal was not simply
to free the spirit from entanglement in the body and matter, and the absorption
of the individual by the universal as in Buddhism. It was the
marriage between earth and heaven with the former being saved and restored to
truth rather than being dismissed as illusion or evil. The old saying that God became man so
that man might become God means that man does not just realise he already is
God, and only has to detach himself from the outer coverings that obscure
this, but he can grow into a spiritual oneness with the Creator that
preserves the integrity of his soul and has no end.
In this
state there is a duality. It is not the absolute oneness of Eastern
non-dualistic philosophies. But that very duality means that is capable of ever
greater development. Complete oneness is a spiritual dead end. You have reached
the final state of absolute being and that is all there is. But the Christian
idea of union with God is a dynamic conception and means there is an eternal
and ever deeper fusion of soul and spirit with the two playing off each
other to drive spiritual unfoldment on into unimaginable glories. Creation is
seen as fulfilling the purpose of God rather than being the pointless aberration
it would be in a strict non-duality, as it is in Buddhism if we take that at its
own estimation.
Real Christianity
does not deny other religions but it shows itself to be bigger than they are. It
cannot be encompassed under the umbrella of a universal spirituality for it
goes further than any other form of spirituality. With the advent of Christ, God has shown something utterly new and different. But this does not negate
the old spiritual ways which can be incorporated into this new reality. However they
must be baptized and now seen in the light of Christ who illumines them with a
deeper reality unsuspected before.
17 comments:
This echoes strongly a book I have just read by WL Walker, 'The True Christ and other studies in "Whatsoever Things are True"' (1910).
You might find it worthwhile, so here is a link to an online PDF copy,
https://s3.amazonaws.com/truthunity/assets/books/wl-walker-the-true-christ/wl-walker-the-true-christ.pdf
I bought a hard copy for 11 pounds, but I note that the only copy available on Amazon just now is 34 pounds. But here is a link to it and to some of his other works,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_i_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=k%3Awl+walker%2Ci%3Astripbooks&keywords=wl+walker&ie=UTF8&qid=1532634107
The book is easy to read, and it all feels true. I recommend it.
Tobias
Thanks. I´ll have a look. A lot of old obscure books are well worth unearthing as I have found before.
"However they must be baptized and now seen in the light of Christ who illumines them with a deeper reality unsuspected before."
"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
2 Corinthians 3:18
"In contradistinction to many Eastern religions and some Gnostic Western ones, I do not see the spiritual goal as rediscovering an already existing reality within ourselves. Rather, it is transformation into something new and not yet existent."
The idea of 'transformation into something new', and 'rediscovering and already existing reality within ourselves' don't seem to me to be mutually exclusive. If I contain a 'seed' of God, or the Holy Spirit within, which I hope I do, then may I not remember what I once was, and at the same time, develop or change into something better?
The thing is that I find the one life belief of main stream Christianity a very hard doctrine - unless we believe and repent in this life, we are doomed. Reincarnation, and the chance to change over many lifetimes, with Christ's central message of love God and one another, as the key to overcoming sin (or karma), and eventually becoming a Christ like him, seems to me to be kinder and more loving than the one chance/single life scenario described by main stream Christianity.
I am drawn to some aspects of Gnostic Christianity, and it seems to me that some of what Gnostic Christians have to say is reflected in this blog, and also in Bruce Charlton's 'Notions' blog. Not that I think either of you is a Gnostic Christian, clearly you aren't, but you both sometimes express thoughts with which a Gnostic would not disagree. You are both drawn to, and revere, the gospel of John, which to me, seems Gnostic, or at least lends itself to a 'hidden meaning' interpretation where Christ is saying to those who are able to receive knowledge, 'this is how you do it if you want to become like me'.
The following link to Christian Gnosticism may be of interest -
https://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/history/early-christianity.html
I hope that I haven't offended you in making these comments, that was not my intention. I am a seeker after the real, and I am finding ideas everywhere, trying to sort through them to come to a right understanding. It is not easy.
Tobias
I don't see how you could have offended me since I pretty much agree with you! I believe in reincarnation for instance and some aspects of Gnosticism make sense to me too. On the other hand persistent rejection of God will have its inevitable effect so I don't believe that everyone will eventually become what God intends us to be. Free will remains paramount.
My belief is that human beings have the divine within them but through experience in this world and probably elsewhere evolve to bring that out and develop it or become more fully conscious of it. But if you turn your face against God then you take a different path. At the moment many people are doing that and I consider this period in history to be one of sorting out the sheep from the goats. Those who respond to God now will go on to develop a deeper consciousness in the higher worlds. Those who either reject or deny or pay no attention to him will go elsewhere to experience the consequence of that rejection though I couldn't say what that will be. God is always merciful but there is justice too.
"Those who either reject or deny or pay no attention to him will go elsewhere to experience the consequence of that rejection though I couldn't say what that will be. God is always merciful but there is justice too."
When I was a small boy at Sunday school, a minister read from Matthew, including Matthew 3:12,
"...and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
It was clear from what the minister said after completing his reading that he believed that God will separate believers from unbelievers, and that the believers will be saved, and unbelievers will burn forever.
I sat there thinking, no you are wrong, each grain of wheat is one person, and that person is made up of the good kernel, and the useless husk. It is the husk of each grain that will burn in unquenchable fire, but the good stuff will be rewarded.
I was very young, but it is something that I remember well because it was so clearly true to me. Only in later years, did I realise that it is one of the texts that universalists quote to support their views.
It may be that the 'unquenchable fire' is the fire of karmic suffering that keeps burning to destroy the sins committed in each earthly life until all lessons are learned, and only love remains.
As you will no doubt see, I am trying to work things out for myself.
Anonymous above = Tobias. Sorry, I forgot to sign off.
There is always this contrast between truth and love or justice and mercy. Some people tend to one side, some to the other. But clearly many people nowadays reject both truth and love, real love that is, which has nothing to do with the all men are equal sentimentalised version of it, popular nowadays.
I understand the universalist hope but I don't think there's any Biblical justification for it and several passages go against it. My feeling is that people might be given several chances but opportunities to repent and turn to God are not endless.
"My feeling is that people might be given several chances but opportunities to repent and turn to God are not endless."
This makes me sad. I shall have to get out my copy of Julian of Norwich to see if I can find some inspiration and comfort.
I take what you say about scripture and universalism, but when I look at the three following texts, it seems to me that John’s gospel is saying that God has given all things to Christ, and all that God has given him will come to him, and he will not cast any out. All are given; all shall come; and none shall be cast out.
"The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." John 3:35
“Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John 17:2.
"All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." John 6:37
For me, the problem is not that my heart leans towards universalism, but how to reconcile free will with “All … shall come to me”. The only way I can do so is to assume reincarnation as a fact, and that God will return us to earth in body after body until we accept and turn to Him. Free will is exercised in every life, but ultimately, given enough lives, even the darkest of the darks will exercise that free will to repent, and make that 'shall' the truth.
Perhaps everybody is eventually given what they want. Some people don't want God, whether for reasons of pride, fear or whatever it might be. If the story of the fallen angels is anything to go by we can see that some beings want something else more than they want God.
Hi, William. I really enjoy reading your blog. I think it definetely offers a lot of interesting insights about a variety of topics. I hae one question though - what’s your take on “chakras” and similar stuff in hindu philosophies? Do you believe in such things?
I do believe in such things as chakras and other aspects of esoteric anatomy but I don't think they are that important in terms of following the spiritual path, and can actually be a distraction if you focus on them too much. After all, they are effects rather than causes in that the chakras will develop if the spiritual qualities do, not the other way round.
It's like occultism in general. Interesting as it may be, the study of such things is not going to bring you closer to God. They being to the world of creation and we are endeavouring to know the Creator.
Thanks for your reply. I am curiuos also what’s your view on law of manifestation? Do you believe it being a real thing?
If so, to what extent we create our own reality and to what extent God does it?
I'm not sure what you mean by the law of manifestation but, with regard to your 2nd question, I would say it's a bit of both. Objective phenomenal reality is God-created, though to what extent directly and to what extent through intermediaries, angels, is another matter. It also develops and changes according to laws God has set up. But our own minds also have an impact, both collectively and individually. We don't create our own reality but we can affect it by our thoughts and actions. Also, our quality of perception determines what we perceive, how much of reality we are responsive to.
The phenomenal universe is real but we can affect it too. though it does have its own laws so the way we affect will have consequences
So in general you’d disagree with people who say that the world is a collective illusion and is basically a product of mind?
The world is not an illusion. It is a product of mind but God's mind not ours. Our mind can have some influence but that's very much secondary.
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