It seems that Satan's
temptation is always the same. It is the one he succumbed to and it's the
one he whispers in our ears today when it speaks as much to the materialistic
technocrat as the magician or new age enthusiast or any person who takes to
spirituality without seeking to do God's will instead of his own. It is what he
says to the feminist as he leads her to disrupt the natural order of being for
her own ends, and how he appeals to the radical leftist whose resentment is
played upon to make it seem virtue in his eyes.
The thing is Satan is
right. We do have the potential to become as gods. But not in his way which is
the way of pride and ego. The only way is through Christ and this is the polar
opposite to the one proposed by the fallen angel. For it is not our
little self that becomes a god as in Satan's inverted distortion of the
truth. It is the seed of Christ within us that can grow when we align it
with its source. We can only become as gods when Christ is born within us. We
must go beyond ourselves to becomes as gods and we can only go beyond ourselves
through Christ. The old man is not deified. A new man must be born.
Have you read much from the Perennialists like Guenon and what is your view of them?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that has bothered me with them for a long time is is their preoccupation with the Intellect and the "the way of knowledge" without giving much due to personal devotion and grace. I can feel the attraction of that kind of spirituality, both because of my personality and when seen in the light of modern sentimental devotion, but I believe there is a destructive, unbalanced tendency in their writings that your post articulates.
Especially the figure of Evola, who in some ways may be inspiring, have an almost Luciferian thrust in his writings and in his self-image.
/AndreasB
I have read quite a bit of Guenon and a little Schuon and I agree with you. I think their analysis of the flaws of the modern world has a great deal to recommend it, and Guenon's revival of metaphysics was very important in the context of the spiritual wasteland of the 20th century. But, and it's a big but as far as I am concerned , they reduced the personal God to a lower level than the Impersonal Absolute (in line with advaita Vedanta which was their rationale for this) and this means they also reduced love to a secondary consideration. If they ever mention it they do so in an almost throwaway fashion which shows it doesn't really figure in their approach.
ReplyDeleteTheir problem is they abandoned Christianity for Islam, albeit Sufism, and this left them somewhat marooned from the full reality of Christ who alone successfully combines the full truth of the One and the Many. In Christ the personal is transformed into the spiritual but for the Perennialists the personal is what stands between the soul and truth. That's a mistake in my view because the separate ego is not the same as the God created individual soul.
As for Evola, he is also a fascinating personality but, as you say, there is definitely something Luciferian about him. The greatest spiritual virtues are probably love and humility and none of these people seemed to possess these to a sufficient degree.
Word for word, I think this is one of the most important posts I have read! It certainly resonated with me.
ReplyDelete"It is the one he succumbed to and it's the one he whispers in our ears today when it speaks as much to the materialistic technocrat as the magician or new age enthusiast or any person who takes to spirituality without seeking to do God's will instead of his own."
... or through time management, or many other more seemingly quotidian things!
Thanks for this post!
Thank you ajb. I'm very pleased it struck a chord with you. I think we're all tempted where we are weakest but the substance of the temptation is basically the same.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reply, Wildblood.
ReplyDeleteI also want to add that when I read the Bhagavad Gita the first time a year ago I was struck by how much it spoke about the importance of compassion and looking for God in all creatures. I was also surprised by the strong devotional elements as well as the view of God being different in his deepest essence from his creatures, probably in opposition to many Advaita teachings.
I´m not qualified to interpret this Scripture except personally, and by my own intuition, but I found it curious that most Perennialists ignore these themes to the extent that they do. It is probably for the reasons you mention but in my eyes that hurts their credibility in some respects.
/Andreas B
Yes, the Bhagavad Gita is a wonderful scripture that represents the best of Indian spirituality in my opinion. But its focus on Krishna as a personal God did not suit the Perennialist agenda and so they rather left it out of their reckoning. I see Krishna as a foreshadowing of Christ and wrote something along those lines here.
ReplyDeletehttp://albionawakening.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/christ-and-india.html