The following is a reflection on the Christian mystical path to enlightenment. It's a jaunt through thoughts on orthodox Christianity and Christian mysticism.
It offers a feminine-principled understanding rather than the traditional and orthodox masculine-principled Church which has been the dominant interpretation through the ages. The feminine is a sharing of the love-power, innate in us and among us as equals likened to sharing a meal around a dinner table. The masculine is a fear-driven, power-down model that literally starves people of the truth.
In my opinion, Jesus knew how radical his perspective was. It's no wonder the masculine Romans persecuted the Christians until they converted Jesus' message into masculine terms. Here, I share the message from what I believe is the original one, in the feminine perspective.
A Muslim friend recently showed me a youtube discussion between two Muslim women and a Christian man from whom they were seeking clarification about the basic teachings on the Trinity, Holy Spirit, and Jesus as Son of God.
As I listened, I felt an overwhelming urge to correct the man as he spewed Nicene creed theological dogma at the two young Muslim women who had no framework for understanding what he was saying. At one point he said, "It might be hard to get your head around this." You think? I wonder if rather than think our way to understanding, if a clearer and more helpful understanding would be found in our hearts. Isn't that where true wisdom is found?
I felt we need to translate what we find in our hearts into common analogies to help someone who is unfamiliar with Christ and Christian language to understand some of the awesome depth of the mystical path and not further confuse them, especially those who have been taught that following Jesus is idolatry.
I wanted to share how I understand what it is to be a Christian in language that makes sense to me, and language that I thought explained some of the depth to someone completely unfamiliar with its spiritual mysticism.
I asked my friend if he wanted to hear the short version? To my absolute amazement, he said yes. I asked him to please listen with an open mind.
I dove in. I explained to him that an authentic, fully realized Christian is one who is "Christed," enlightened, aglow with the light, love, wisdom and power of the divine. I said such an enlightened person would have resolved and overcome his issues to a considerable extent and dismantled the ego's negativity through self-acceptance, self-love, and acceptance of God's perfect, comprehensive, unconditional love.
I refrained from elaborating on the scriptural references we hear in the Gospel in which Jesus calls us on the way by confronting the "log in our own eye," and unbinding "the strong man within"* in order to see what is authentic, rather than the dark reflection of the inner ego projected outwardly. Then, we are able to see the truth and beauty of God's divine nature which would flow into us as "a stream of living water," a metaphor for the flow of authentic life, leading to an on-going heightening of consciousness and deeper awakening.
Instead, I simply told him he would know a mature Christian by the power of the love he or she radiated. It would be palatable, powerful, and magnetic.
As the ideas flew at me, I reflected privately that at some point, a person who is on the path taught by Jesus, could reach that high state of enlightenment, akin to a Buddhist who has reached Buddha-hood because he embraced Buddha's way to enlightenment. At that point, he might be considered Christed.
It made sense, perfect sense. Suddenly, all the pieces of the Christian message were coming together like a thousand-piece puzzle. I realized a Christian is someone who is on a path headed toward enlightenment or Christing, but may not yet be at full enlightenment.
The Church's idea that a person is Christed at their Christening, or infant baptism, doesn't fit. It doesn't call the person to actually do the work, the hard interior work of cleaning the inner sanctum and then intentionally and deliberately inviting in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Christing agency. Even in Confirmation classes, this idea is not presented clearly.
So, Christians are, in a sense, pilgrims or travelers on the way to enlightenment. That is their goal.
I turned to my friend, who remarkably was still listening, and said, Jesus realized he was the Son of God because he was enlightened. I added that I thought Jesus came to teach us the way to God, and might never have wanted us to worship him or focus our lens on him in an idolatrous way. He might have hoped we would learn from him as the Teacher that he was and join him on a level playing field. It makes sense that he wouldn't want us to elevate him above us and live in fear of him.
I realized He was teaching us how to love, exemplified as dining together, sharing a meal, rather than bowing down or trembling in fear of judgment and punishment. He wanted us to commune with Him and each other and share freely and lovingly. I think he was teaching us by example what authentic relationship is - with Him, ourselves, each other and with God.
He wanted a brother-to-brother relationship with us rather than a master-to-slave relationship. He wanted a relationship based on love and mutuality rather than fear and subjectivity. He wouldn't want us to see him as equal to God unless he saw us as equal to God as well. There's the awesome surprise in the Gospel. He wanted us to see ourselves as equal to God, not because we're so great, but because God's love is so great. "Did I not say you are gods?" remember, he asked in John 10:34.
It makes sense that you would only be able to accept such a seemingly grandiose notion if you were no longer enslaved by the belittling and highly critical ego. It seems only a humble, enlightened person can receive the gift this idea brings which may be why He challenged us to become authentically empowered by becoming genuinely humble.
He does not say His sonship is exclusive to Him. Again, He says, "did I not say you were gods?" He says we are also all sons and daughters of God, due to our innate original perfection, which remains buried under our egos, and therefore in a state of potential. Our divine nature is perfect as God is perfect. If that perfection is blocked due to a heavy ego, the light cannot or does not radiate outward.
The Jesus we meet in the Gospels had been "Christed" by the Holy Spirit during His baptism in the Jordan (a metaphor for the river of life) and is consequently fully enlightened. My friend, incidentally, is from Jordan.
Jesus is full of God's spirit yet is not the totality of God. This is like saying, "the glass is full of water, but is NOT the whole ocean." Neither is the glass the source of water, but the water within the glass is the same substance as the water in the ocean.
And, further, it seems the universe is holographic which means the whole nature or quality of its substance is contained in a fragment of it. There's more on that which is truly awesome and inspiring. Every aspect of the universe is magnetically connected to the whole. Fragments are in communication on some level with the larger whole. All of life is magnetic, magical, and alive with varying degrees and levels of consciousness. One's power is directly related to the degree and level of consciousness he or she has attained.
In a holographic universe, what is true on a cosmic level is also true on a microscopic level. A teaspoon of water has the same substance as an ocean. So, the Spirit of God who fills the universe and creates life, is the same substance, with the same catalyzing, life-giving wisdom and power, as if it were in a single human being. Jesus was full of God, or "fully God," but is not the whole universe. He contains, fully, God's spirit in his self-realized divine nature, a nature we all have. Needless to say, this is incredibly rare and unique. Maybe a handful of human beings have ever reached the zenith of enlightenment. Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and ?
If you are not enlightened, or even awakened - and few are - you may not be able to teach what enlightenment is. I think it has to be experiential to some extent. What these mystical terms really mean and how we can reach a high level of consciousness are complex. We are not going to be able to explain our faith to someone if we don't really get it and are unable to translate it in modern terms. And, even if we do fully get it, those who aren't awakened enough, may not understand what you're saying anyway. (That was what happened to Jesus).
I continued sharing what I see as the Gnostic way, which is equally Christ-directed. It reflects the simple idea that within all human beings are two natures. One is your instinctual nature, and the other is the Divine in-dwelling host or your eternal nature. The Divine nature is like a candle planted within you that is lit by our Divine parent. It is in all of us, and when it's lit, the journey begins. The awakening process, or way to enlightenment, is a long road full of twists and turns mostly due to the darkness and lack of love in our age. Through perseverance and wisdom, we can eventually reach higher levels of awareness, consciousness and spiritual wisdom.
My friend, who is usually resistant to engaging in religious conversations because of the potential of them becoming oppositional, listened to me for 10 minutes, and got it. He understood the idea that we all have a light within us that we can turn up. He thought about the idea of Jesus being a Son of God, as we all are. That was a new idea to him which I don't think threatened his belief in Islam. As we talked, we found there is a place where Christianity and Islam can be compatible. If we both go to where our faith leads us, we might find we have arrived at the same place.
The question I wondered aloud was, "should anyone worship religion over doing the hard work of moving toward enlightenment, where you would encounter and become one with God, and each other?" He replied, "We need religion."
"But, if we worship a religion, isn't that idolatrous?" I asked him, adding, "Then, who comes first? God or your religion? So, the question really is, 'What does God want?' "
It was dawning on me that worship, elevation, in a power hierarchy like the Church or a legalistic Sharia as some forms of Islam is the opposite of what God is really calling us to. It seems to me God just wants us to come commune with Him. So, the bottom line is, what's more important, the way we get to Him or getting to Him and being in communion, total immersion in Him?
I could see this idea might open us all to reach out to each other, without an agenda to convert the other, and honor God as we honor each other's unique path to Him. It seems obvious that it's the work of the ego to elevate oneself, and one's path, above another. That's separating and anything that separates the body of God, is not of God. So, this idea seems it might help us to enter into a loving dialogue for a mutual understanding that benefits us both.
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* another way of saying, "freeing the captive," or giving sight to the - spiritually - blind"
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