There is much debate, though not in the mainstream media, about whether the severity of the Covid 19 coronavirus is sufficient to justify the current global lockdown with the disastrous effect that will have on the economy. Are the death rates so bad, or could they potentially be so bad, that we should cripple ourselves for what might be the foreseeable future?
I have come to believe that this is irrelevant. The coronavirus is not important. Whether it is just a bad flu or something more serious is really just a secondary issue. What is important is our reaction to it on a spiritual level. The fact is that we, the collective we, have no real spiritual beliefs at all and that applies to us whether we are the typical modern agnostic or the conventional religious believer or the 'spiritual' New Age type (or whatever the current version of that is). We all react to this crisis on a purely materialistic level, thinking only of the safety of our bodies. That is why we are so easily persuaded that protection, of ourselves and our healthcare systems, is paramount and everything else must be subordinated to that. It is why we willingly hand ourselves over to state supervision.
But what about our souls? Where do these come in? When we react in the way we have we are basically saying that the soul, even if it exists, is a side issue. We don't look beneath the surface to see what the spiritual meaning or effect might be of the current situation. In fact, any that do are regarded as bad people who have no concern for their fellow human beings because they are focussing on irrelevancies at a time of unprecedented national crisis. Spirituality is all very well as a harmless indulgence when everything is good, a sort of light entertainment really, but God forbid it actually means something, let alone the main thing.
The coronavirus can be viewed as a kind of stalking horse, intended to test humanity's response to a physical threat and see how much it is willing to give up to be protected from that. It is also a means to drive any real spirituality to the extreme edge of society, making it the concern of mad or even bad people who don't care about the health and well-being of others. Wicked fanatics. It is surely a sign of things to come. Spirituality, true religion, will only be allowed if it doesn't mean anything.
Note: When I say the coronavirus is irrelevant, that is precisely what I mean. I'm not saying it is not a real thing which does real harm but it is principally a front for a deeper purpose which is control of the soul for those who are willing to give that up. It's a test of priorities.
Excellent post, William! Really strikes at the heart of the issue. I couldn't help but think of the church closures as I read this because what you have expressed here is more-or-less what I was thinking when the churches closed. I thought, these institutions value bodies over souls.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I can excuse the average atheistic/secular/agnostic/hedonist type for never considering the soul, but churches? Unfortunately, I've seen many self-identified Christians - popular and respected writers and thinkers among them - behave in the same manner.
I am all for taking sensible precautions to curtail this thing but that is just a matter of externals. What interests me now is how people are responding inwardly because it's a test of things to come, of whether we remain free inside or see the increasingly ramped up levels of control as good and necessary things. Are we being trained to welcome enslavement? That may seem a melodramatic thing to say and I always try to avoid conspiracy theory stuff but once you accept that there is a supernatural level of being behind what is going on in the world you can see that this works through a gradual erosion of spiritual discernment and that is just the latest in a long process of cutting human beings off from their spiritual source in truth and freedom.
ReplyDeleteIt's a matter of priorities. That's it. The primacy of the spiritual - and that's being utterly neglected by almost everyone. The only argument coming from the secular voices these days is this - what's more important? Lives or money? Do we continue saving lives and sacrifice the economy or do we open the economy and endanger lives? Not a word about souls. Not a whisper about the spiritual.
ReplyDeleteThis is why writers and thinkers like you and Bruce are so important in this time and place. You help remind the rest of us of where real importance lies.
I've been harping on about the primacy of the spiritual in all of this for over a month. Yes, this is happening at the temporal/material level, but the temporal/material is merely a reflection of the deeper levels of the spiritual. What we do at the temporal/material level is directly connected to the spiritual, especially now. The choices we make, the thoughts we think, the actions we take - all of it has profound spiritual implications. And this remains true even if people don't believe it.
BTW - I shared this on me blog. Thanks again.
thanks Francis. We're probably just whistling into the wind and preaching to the converted but I think it is important to put out the deeper perspective so that those who sense something is wrong can know they're not alone.
ReplyDelete@William - What I see about the crisis is exactly as you say - that it simply does not make sense and cannot be correctly understood unless the soul and the spiritual become the focus of explanations.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am in no doubt that the crisis was initiated and is being sustained by those of evil motivation (not least because of the unbiquity and extent of lying involved) - and while the crisis has been a massive success for evil at the materialistic level of increasing human death and suffering; I am increasingly beginning to think that the forces of evil have made a mistake.
On the one hand, evil seems triumphant in people's attitudes; but this may well simply be an unmasking of how these people always have been (cowardly, selfish, short-termist etc). While on the other hand, there has been an awakening among some people who otherwise probably would not have experienced it; and I think this will almost certainly continue.
We may well find ourselves living in a society that is so over-controlled and coercive in soul-destroying ways, that it will trigger the awakening and conversion of huge numbers of 'secret Christians' - most who will never be detected or counted by anybody else, or only by a few close and trusted family.
I feel intutively that this has already happened, and will continue.
Let's hope you're right, Bruce. The one thing we can be sure of is that just as what might have appeared to Satan as his greatest triumph, namely the Crucifixion, was actually a massive turning point for the re-establishment of the Good, so God can always outwit the devil. As with the Crucifixion and Resurrection, though, whether we partake in God's victory or not is up to us.
ReplyDeleteHi William. Just found your blog. Do you think that when we die, we stay individuals? I then have sense of self and I can interact with other souls (mom, grandpa etc)?
ReplyDeleteDo you think it is our own choice if we want to come back on Earth again?
And do you have anything to say about Eckhart Tolle or Barry Long?
Yes, anonymous, I certainly do unless we don't want to. There may be some who voluntarily allow themselves to be reabsorbed into the all or who are allowed to experience the illusion of that. The purpose of life is love and in the spiritual world love is a magnet so you will assuredly meet up with your family.
ReplyDeleteI believe in reincarnation but whether that is a universal thing for all souls or some is open to question. But I think it is a means of spiritual development. I wouldn't think we are sent back here if that is not our wish.
I know of them but am not an admirer. They are basically non-dualists and I have written about how I think that is a flawed doctrine especially for Westerners who have a higher, more complete path in Christianity. To me they are imitation Easterners, teaching a second hand doctrine, the consequences of which they haven't thought through properly.
See here for my posts on non-duality.
ReplyDeletehttps://meetingthemasters.blogspot.com/search/label/Non-Duality
Thank you for answering me.
ReplyDeleteI have read Eckhart Tolle's book Power of Now (2001) and watched his Youtube videos. First I felt pretty good but then I started to be afraid of my own mind and ego. I also read Barry Long's book Only Fear Dies (1994). Tolle was heavily influenced by Long and those book are similar. I am thinking maybe Tolle and Long (who has passed away) are not enlightened. They both also imply "you need to wake up so you don't have to come back on Earth ever again". Tolle is clearly an egomaniac.
Statements like "you only need to stop filtering reality with your mind and you can see the Kingdom of Heaven) has made me panic. Why can't I see the Heaven where there is only Now? Why other people can see the wonderful world and I can't?
I borrowed a book called A Course In Miracles from library. I read couple of pages and stopped. (Tolle's favourite too.) The first pages made me panic too.
These non dual teachers and books imply that your own mind and ego is your enemy and it is something to get rid of. That's horrible. Why we have or have given mind if it is something that is so bad and wrong?
I don't know what to do. It is hard to even think about connecting with God and Jesus when people say this is dream and personalities are illusion. Jesus was a person too.
I want to know God and Jesus but not sure how to do that.
I think your intuition has guided you well. I have only read bits of Tolle and Long but enough to see that they are very limited in their spiritual understanding. They took many of their ideas from a teacher called Krishnamurti who did have many insights and was, I believe, a person of genuine spiritual understanding albeit limited by his background and lack of knowledge of Christ. But they were really just copying earlier teachers whose knowledge came from within themselves rather than being learnt and imitated. They don't understand that the self is real, a God-given reality which is not to be denied but dedicated to Christ. You don't have to kill the patient to heal him!
ReplyDeleteThe mind is not the enemy but it has been misdirected and needs to be brought back to God. Jesus taught the reality of the individual and even the Buddha, who can be taken as the source of non-duality was a person. If he wasn't, who was enlightened? And if individuals are not real then love is meaningless, just another illusion. Would Tolle say that? If not, he is inconsistent. Love is the meaning of creation, God shares himself with us through love.
This world is not a dream or an illusion. It is a place of learning which is real as a creation. Many things in it may not have a true spiritual meaning but these are mostly made by us.
To know God the best thing to do is to try to be aware of his presence through prayer and remembrance.Seek him through the imagination and above all through Christ who is his representative in human form on Earth. Meditation on Jesus, his words and his person, will bring you closer to God.