The other day I was flipping through some of my old journals and found this. I wrote it a few years ago - perhaps as a chapter of a "some day in the future" book....... enjoy..
Let me begin by saying that what follows is not a basis for forming a religion, cult or organization in the future. When my words leave my mouth - they should go to your ears - be processed, and interpreted by your brain and you should decide then and there whether you accept them or not. To reject them is just as valid as to accept them - there is no middle ground. I either speak the truth or I do not.
What I want to share is my understanding of reality - not that you should adopt it, but so that you can use if for a springboard for the development of your own understanding.
Everything that we hear, see, or read is interpreted by our thought patterns that have developed over the years through observation and evaluation. Usually we validate all things by something that preceded them. Truth cannot be new - it is always a re-statement or re-cognition of something that has preceded it. One cannot really "discover" a new truth - they can only re-interpret what already is.
If you're anything like me - you were raised with the idea that there is a purpose for our lives that we must seek in order to find. For some of us it may be a calling or vocation - others may just seek to better themselves and live a happy life. In all cases we are programmed by our culture that there is something that we must attain - something apart from us that requires effort on our part to reach fulfillment. No more is this apparent than in the search for spiritual awakening or enlightenment, or to use the more traditional term; salvation.
THE ENDLESS PATH OF SEEKING
The first point of departure is usually some sort of seeking - these days it's via web or via the library - to review our options. We also start attending various religious meetings and gatherings to see what they have to say. Each of them usually present a sincerely intentioned view of reality and solicit some sort of belief that what they say is true. Usually some kind of commitment is necessary in order to be fully included.
I have spent what is now the majority of my life seeking and finding - rejecting, then seeking and finding - and rejecting again, along all the spiritual paths in search of fulfillment of this longing to be complete as a human being.
I have had many false starts - I enter a path - join a religion, and find after a few months or years, that the religion is offering only more confusion and creating more obstacles in my path that create distance between me and the goal of my search. All kinds of hoops and ladders require my attention in order to get to the right level of acceptance within the community.
What I've discovered through all my searching is that all religions teach love, compassion and forgiveness. All religions teach that their founder is the perfect expression of the virtues of the practice - yet all members of the religion fall far short of the virtues of the founder, and rather turn the message of hope, love and fulfillment, into a means of dividing one group of people from all others. Each one has "scriptural proof" that all the others are false or corrupted.
So, I've come to the conclusion that although seeking is a good thing - the finding is a problem.
THE REVELATION OF SEEKING
Seeking has revealed a few things to me:
Seeking:
Shaykh Idries Shah has a wonderful saying:
"People seeking mystical attainment expect it on their own terms, and hence generally exclude themselves from it before they start. Nobody can hope to arrive at illumination if he thinks that he knows what it is, and believes that he can achieve it through a well-defined path which he can conceive at the moment of starting."
- Shaykh Idries Shah - The Sufis
Christianity, of which I am most familiar, is a religion about transformation of character - the traditional and quite beautiful message of Christianity is that Jesus Christ, both God and Man, chose to incarnate and die a sacrificial death in order to re-establish the pure divine nature in mankind that had been damaged and splintered by the sins of our primary ancestors - the mythical prototypes of humanity, called Adam and Eve. The uncreated, eternal and timeless God entered time to restore all things.
When I read the words of Christ - recorded a few decades after the event - I hear in them the loud announcement that heaven (the divine world) has come to earth - it is at hand - it is in our reach - it is here.
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" - Mark 1:15
The words of the "greatest" Apostles tell us:
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans Chap. 8:38-39
"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
- St. Peter, Second Letter to the Syriacs, Chap 1:3-4
When I read those words it seems to me that the Apostles were telling everyone that Jesus' manifestation had delivered everything, i.e. full salvation, or enlightenment to us, and that nothing can take it away from us. Yet, when I go to Church I hear that salvation is a process - that we must work toward it, strive for it.
The Church (that we know today) didn't really organize itself as we know it today until nearly the middle ages, some several hundred years after the events that the bible describes. Indeed, the Gospel accounts were written to support the churches and not the other way around.
So, is it possible that the bible and the teachings of Christianity do not reflect accurately the nature of the full teachings of Jesus? I'm not saying that they don't - I'm just raising the question.
Other religions have the same heritage. Their writings coming after their verbal expression, the writings support the traditions and not vice versa.
The purpose of these written works; these scriptures, appears to serve the thinking, questioning mind. To seek requires a tangible path to follow - a path built on written words is solid and indisputable.
I'd like to propose another possible way of looking at scripture. A way that doesn't deny them - but draws life from them.
What if we viewed scripture as an interpretation of the founder's words?
The words, instead of becoming dogma, then become the words that were recorded through the mind of another - just as you might be recording and processing my words - interpreting the meaning for you personally.
Thus a Christian should be a follower of the intentions of Christ - and not a follower of the bible's interpretations of Christ. I propose that the intentions of Christ are found clearly expressed through the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and in his interactions with others found in the gospel accounts.
How can I assume to understand the intentions of Christ? Is this presumption on my part?
Yes and No.
Yes, it's presumptuous on my part if I do it from my own volition.
No, however, if Jesus has promised that on his departure from our plane of existence that the Holy Spirit would complete his work and provide guidance for his followers.
True faith then would make it seem natural to let go of my own efforts and trust the Holy Spirit to guide the outcome of my well-intentioned actions. Religion in its traditional rule-keeping role then becomes unnecessary.
THE GOOD NEWS OF THE PRESENT MOMENT
All throughout Christian scripture there is the description of the element of process; gradual transformation from one state of being to another. Even Jesus is portrayed as "growing in wisdom" (Luke 2:52) and as "becoming" the source of salvation (Hebrews 5:9). Reality is always present - the Truth is not somewhere else that we have to go get it - it is always right here and right now. The process is not a movement but a coming into the ever present moment.
Did Jesus become the Son of God or was He always the Son of God?
This was a discussion that caused a lot of suffering and confusion during the first few centuries after Christ. The church councils decided that He was ALWAYS the Son of God; of the same nature as the Father.
Although I do not profess to know the answer to the debated question - I do agree with their decision - because, in reality, there can be no such thing as time; past, present and future - everything happens now. So in describing God, there can be no progression or expansion - logically that which defines perfection itself can have no process of improvement. The only thing about Jesus that changed over time was His awareness of his nature. In this I can see how we are created in the image of God. Imminently possessing the nature of God but unaware.
Jesus, in fact, quoted Psalm 82 when He said: "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'?" - John 10:34
Here's perhaps an alternate view of Christianity for you to consider:
Did Jesus became one of us that we might come to know that we are united (at One) with Him?
Is this the "at-one-ment" of salvation?