Yes, there is such a thing and most people these days are infected by it. It attacks the mind and the heart and renders those afflicted by it impervious to spiritual truth. It is a sickness that doesn't kill the body but harms the soul which, according to Jesus, is a much more serious thing. If untreated, it might damage the soul irreparably. And the reason it has made such inroads is because the human immune system has been ruthlessly compromised by the materialism of the last 2-3 centuries.
Western civilisation which was built on spiritual principles has been subverted by those who hate and fear Christianity. These people have used legitimate advances in understanding to destroy the foundations on which that civilisation stood. They have taken scientific knowledge and turned it against real understanding by cutting it off from its roots as the attempt to know something of God by studying his creation. They have taken the idea of freedom, a great gift through the correct exercise of which we may consciously know and love God, and perverted that to stand for freedom of the fallen self to do as it likes including, or even chiefly, to deny God. God becomes an oppressive limitation on human freedom. They have corrupted the imagination, which was intended to guide us into creative vision, and made of it a means to stimulate desire in its lower aspects. We were intended to expand our horizons but we have only expanded them outwardly not upwardly, and as we have expanded horizontally, we have contracted vertically.
Christianity and other religions, though Christianity most of all, are protections against spiritual disease. There are in the unseen universe the spiritual equivalents of viruses and bacteria. These will attack us and gain entrance to our minds unless there is some sort of defence that can repel them. This defence is religion without which we fall into sin which is spiritual disease. From sin comes alienation and from alienation comes despair.
Look at what has happened to the world over the last couple of months. We are so far removed from any understanding of the higher aspects of life, or let's just say life, that we have scurried into dark corners to hide away from a threat we are told is deadly but which even readily available statistics show to be mild in (currently) 97% of cases. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. And even the great majority of fatalities are elderly people who are well past their 3 score years and 10. It is not that anyone wishes a person to die before their time, and every precaution should be taken to safeguard the vulnerable at a time like this, but we are sacrificing the long term prospects of the majority for the short term prospects of a few. And we are doing this because governments have allowed themselves to be panicked by the media and the public which, in turn, has happened because we have no faith. The physical virus has affected us mentally as well as physically and it has done so because we have already succumbed to the spiritual virus.
What's the cure? Extending the metaphor, perhaps a bit more than it can take, you could say it's vaccination. Ultimately, it is vaccination by the Holy Spirit but more immediately it is vaccination by faith in Christ, real faith not belief which is a lesser thing often confused with faith. (If you want to know the difference, think of heart and mind.) This will immunise us against fear because it helps us see that the body may fail, one way or another it will fail, but the soul, the spiritual self, when turned towards the flame of eternal life which is Christ will rise up to glory.
Life in this world without belief in something beyond this world always ends in emptiness. This is why so many old people cling to life in any form rather than accept their time to depart. We should not wilfully seek to go before our time. That is rebelling against the will of God which is why suicide is forbidden by the Church. It is also right and proper to try to prolong life through medical help. This is a world out of kilter with spiritual truth and that means there will be sickness for which cures should be sought. But we should know that physical life has its own natural cycle and to try to extend that cycle beyond a certain point is refusing to grow. Worse, it is turning life into death. And that is what the spiritual virus does.
9 comments:
@William. Well said.
I have myself missed the point of the current crisis in the sense that I overemphasised that the epidemic is a fake - an excuse for totalitarian coup.
Whereas the key point is that *even if* this were a real plague; a spiritually healthy society would have continued with whatever spiritual activities it regarded as important, despite everything. It would have put the spiritual above the material. It would have recognised that any monomania is evil - and a health monomania a particuarly insidious evil.
Yes, I think you're right, Bruce. If the mind was properly oriented then attacks on the body would be seen in a better light. We would still seek to take effective action against the virus but our mental response would view it from a higher perspective and we wouldn't respond with this excessive alarm.
William,
Did you, while in contact with the spirit of Jesus Christ discover this - "materialism is what is corrupting the soul"?
As far as I can tell, you are adding more fuel to the fire.
I endorse asking these questions:
(1) are atoms to be seen as unreal OR are atoms to be seen as atoms? [IMPORTANT FOR YOU]
(2) are atoms included in the all/reality or excluded from the all/reality? [IMPORTANT FOR YOU]
[ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE DONE THE ABOVE TWO, AND COME TO AN AGREEMENT]
(3) are feelings to be seen as atoms OR are feelings to be seen as feelings?
(4) are perceptions to be seen as atoms OR are perceptions to be seen as perceptions?
(5) are consciousness(es) to be seen as atoms OR are consciousness(es) to be seen as consciousness?
(6) are personalities to be seen as atoms OR are personalities to be seen personalities?
(7) are feelings included in the all or excluded from the all?
(8) are perceptions included in the all or excluded from the all?
(9) are consciousness(es) included in the all or excluded from the all?
(10) are personalities included in the all or excluded from the all?
Note: you use the word "higher reality" -> in this case please modify the second question to "are atoms included in higher reality or excluded from higher reality".
Note: you use the word "lower reality" -> In this case modify the first question to "are atoms to be seen as lower reality or are atoms to be seen as atoms"
I'm sorry BSRK, these questions don't really have any meaning for me and I don't feel qualified to answer them. Do you think you might be over-intellectualising a little? The important thing is to know that this world exists in relation to a higher one, higher in this sense meaning more real, more fundamental, truer. Which is not to deny the reality of this world but to put it into context.
The primary thrust of what I was trying to communicate is that there is a way of looking at matter that is entirely consonant with the spirit of Jesus Christ [Here, I explicitly made myself sensitive to the spirit of Jesus Christ and made myself suggestible to actions]
That way of looking at matter - seeing solids as atoms or liquids as atoms or chemically active substances as atoms or gases as atoms.
It should be pointed out that this is exactly what a materialist does.
[Although they do see feelings etc also as atoms, which is a mistake that prevents poise/samadhi from arising].
Because this is true, It is consonant with the will of "the father in heaven" to see matter as stated above. Hence, the materialist's view is mixed with both right & wrong, in a way that can be built upon and corrected.
"Which is not to deny the reality of this world but to put it into context." -> My point is that seeing matter as stated above puts it into context in a way that is entirely consonant with higher reality.
You should try your usual meditation. There will be some parts of the body that has still not felt the influence of your effort, yes? You should try seeing the matter there as atoms. This is a concrete addition that would prove to be very useful for your efforts.
Religion is seen as superstitious but oddly enough this very 'superstition' is the most down to earth and humane antidote against the spiritual virus. That is, respecting nature and inherited tradition for what it is and adapting to it, recognizing that there is nothing external we can "add" to life to make it better. Life is God's spiritual 'technology' in that nature is much more complex than man-made technology can ever be. So ironically enough it is the progressive humanists that are driving humanity further from the earth and from real life into electronic no man's land. They can't help it because only God is strong enough to prevent man succumbing to the machine. Faith begins at the edges of understanding and technology has limits. But when it has reached those limits, will there be anything outside of them?
Nothing to add to that William, other than to say that I wholeheartedly agree.
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