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#2556 - Thursday, August 17, 2006 - Editor: Jerry Katz
This issue features an excerpt from a new book which could be called a work on nondual Christianity. Included is part of Chapter One. In the next issue further excerpts will be given.
This book is packed with biblical quotations, a thorough index, and an inclination toward the nondual teaching of self-inquiry and surrender. Anyone grounded in Christian tradition who is drawn toward nonduality and the writings from Eastern traditions will find this book useful and satisfying.
by Michael Roden "Look inside" at Amazon.com: http://snipurl.com/v4zp
1
Internal Experience in Christianity
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
—Isa. 35:10
Hidden Christianity
Hidden away in the most interior reaches
of Christianity is a powerful means of transformation of mind and
heart. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he had not
given them the full spiritual teaching of Christ because they had
not been ready to receive it:
But I, brethren, could not address
you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in
Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not
ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still
of the flesh (1 Cor. 3:1–3).
In this passage, Paul
notes the existence of two forms of Christianity: one for the
surface world, those “of the flesh,” and another for
those who are open to full spiritual understanding. In the same
letter, he says that, although he had previously come to them
preaching the simple creed “Jesus Christ and him crucified”
(1 Cor. 2:2):
Yet among the mature we do impart
wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers
of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret
and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for
our glorification. . . . [A]s it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
Nor the heart of man conceived,
What God has prepared for those who love him,”
God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit
searches everything, even the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:6–7, 9–10,).
Paul declares that he and his helpers
“impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God” among “the
mature,” or those who are made aware of the depths of God in
the Spirit. As you shall see throughout this book, the mystical
(literally, “hidden,” in the sense of internal and
spiritual) element is prevalent in the earliest sources we have
of Christianity, the books of the New Testament. Why it has not
been more fully accepted by Christians is a matter for debate.
The human being has a dual aspect. Much
of what it means to be human, in fact the entire inner world, is
hidden beneath the surface. Behavior provides information, but
cannot represent everything about a person. Intention rules
behavior, and the mind chooses what will be valued before it
decides what will be done. Thoughts are as real as the person who
thinks them, so that there is a hidden reality within.
Paul says that the secret and hidden
wisdom of Christianity is “revealed to us through the
Spirit,” that is, through spiritual experience. Experience
that transforms not only behavior but also intentions, not only
intentions but also will, and not only desires but also
deep-rooted values is truly mystical experience. The Christian
religion for Saint Paul was no mere guide to behavior; it was in
all its aspects a spiritual initiation into “the depths of
God,” from which point guidance would naturally step in.
Jesus, too, indicated that he saw the heart of religion and the
soul of humanity as abiding behind and beyond behavior, beyond
rules and laws, beyond creeds and beyond religious authorities,
as it rose all the way up to God Himself from Whom it came.
Where would such a secret wisdom be
hidden? In inner chambers that could be accessed only by the Holy
Spirit, in parts of the self known only to God. Where are “the
depths of God”? No one can say because words cannot convey
these depths, the mind cannot think of them from outside them;
but one may experience some at least of the depths of God through
His Spirit. Jesus is portrayed as informing his disciples that
there was a truth they could not yet bear to hear, but he
promised them that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12–13). Early
Christians believed in Spirit because they experienced it. They
believed in allowing themselves to be led and changed by the
Spirit into the all-knowing, all-encompassing truth that they in
Spirit shared with God.
There is great experience “hidden”
in Christianity, spiritual experience of a kind that can
transform lives and heal that which is broken. But it is not
hidden well. Though such experience cannot be described fully in
words, spiritual experience suffuses the scriptures and earliest
teachings of Christianity. In fact, the New Testament’s
mysticism is so pronounced that it would be difficult not to
emphasize it.
The Bible is filled with keys to the
spiritual and living kingdom of God. The Gospels show Jesus to be
charismatic, compassionate, intelligent, prayerful, and
miraculous, yes, but, even more, connected with God through a
shared Spirit and reaching out to touch the world through this
same Spirit. The evidence we have shows that Jesus was led by
experience of Spirit. Paul and John and other New Testament
writers show his transformative effect to have been as
far-reaching as it was deep. These early Christians shared
experience of the Spirit and felt connected with Christ and with
God in being so directly associated.
Jesus showed himself to be spiritual from the depths of his very
being. It was as if he lived in a different dimension, though he
partook of this one, asking others to join him as he walked the
countryside, entering tiny villages, speaking out about the
experience, healing through it, teaching by it, giving out of his
internal abundance of it. The Apostle Paul is so spiritual in his
essence that he was seen by first- and second-century Christian
Gnostics to be a conduit to the spiritual world. The Evangelist
John emphasized in his gospel and letters a transcendent
spiritual Knowledge and Love.
The Depths of Mystical Experience
Mysticism is the experiential
element of religion. Though it begins in the internal spiritual
experience of the individual, the ultimate destination for
mysticism is the Sacred Presence of God. Mystical Christianity
holds that there is a way to experience the Heart of God, for
full moments, in the midst of daily existence. It suggests that
human beings were created to experience the spiritual presence of
God, to live within it, to share it and so their joy.
Until such inner sense of joining
occurs, according to the psychology inherent in mysticism, the
human being will feel incessantly empty and deeply dissatisfied.
Underneath thousands of everyday feelings and opinions, there may
somehow be sensed access to a lost state of beatific original
grace. Mind and heart sense that they have fallen from it because
they cannot conceive of such grace, though they are told by
religion and sometimes by intuition that it is available. But
such grace—the illumination from God—can be more truly
known through experience of it than from any exposition.
How does one open to spiritual
experience? It involves becoming more individual but also more
than individual. The individual accedes to his or her heart for
guidance, for an inner light to shine upon the way. The interior
world takes on more importance than the world outside and, with
grace, everything inside and out begins to shine with supreme
significance. God must be near enough to know. Prayer and
meditation become means of communicating with God and reaching
Him directly. Simply being with Him becomes a way of knowing Him,
and knowing Him becomes a way of sharing more deeply in Being.
~ ~ ~
by Michael Roden http://snipurl.com/v4zp