God and the World - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 6 with:

 

(P.161) " In Ibn al Arabi's view " the breath of the Merciful " releases all the

potentialities, but this leads in turn to reunion so as to overcome the

otherness. In releasing the possibilities the divine knows itself as other.

(P.162) The universe is " other " but at the same time it returns as " not other " .

So the Infinite manifests his otherness and at the same time realises that that

otherness is himself. This is both complicated and paradoxical but it does

enable one to see how this whole created universe and our personal lives are in

the Godhead, and how we are personal to him, and yet how none of this divides

the Godhead in any way. In the Infinite there is absolute unity. All this is in

him and yet he is not divided. " [break Quote]

 

[Note]: Shri Mataji sheds further " light " on this subject, that is " complicated

and paradoxical " :

 

" Whatever one is doing now, is relative in this modern world. In relative terms,

everything is working it out. This 'relative working out' is not going to give

any absolute results. Absolute knowledge only comes from the Spirit, and so,

unless we know the Self, the Spirit, we cannot know what is absolute, and what

is the absolute truth. While we live in the relative world, we will always be

quarrelling, fighting, and having wars. But if one is " in the Absolute " then one

knows that there is only " one Truth " for everything, and there will be no more

argument or discussion. Everybody will enjoy that truth, as it is absolute! "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

first small English book

Chapter 2 - Vishwa Nirmala Dharma

 

[Resume Quote]

 

" The result of this movement of going out and return is that the whole universe

returns to God enriched by the experience of self-consciousness. He wants to be

known and he brings out this experience of consciousness in life and

particularly in human beings, and again he brings us all back into his pure

consciousness again. So we are created to have this experience of otherness and

to return again to the One. There is always the other and the One, the two

opposites, and these poles are always being reunited. The perfect man, as we

saw, was conceived as the mediator between the divine subject and the object,

between God and the world. Ibn al Arabi describes it as " the eye by which the

divine subject sees himself " , and " the perfectly polished mirror that perfectly

reflects the divine light. " So the perfect man is the one through whom the Lord

looks out on the universe and knows himself in that perfect man, and the perfect

man is the one in whom the universe comes to a head and knows itself in God. He

is the mediator between the two and that is the point where we meet God and God

meets us, in that perfect man. The universe is the manifestation of the one

Reality in space and time and the perfect man is he who gathers the universe

into unity in consciousness and reflects the divine consciousness in the world. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pg.161-162

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

 

[What Bede Griffiths wrote in the last paragraph, is exactly the same message,

but just given from his own experience that Shri Mataji gave here. It shows that

when the truth is spoken, people are 'in agreement' as regards the truth itself.

This is always the case, that if you speak the truth, the truth always 'agrees'

with what is true!]:

 

" Whatever one is doing now, is relative in this modern world. In relative terms,

everything is working it out. This 'relative working out' is not going to give

any absolute results. Absolute knowledge only comes from the Spirit, and so,

unless we know the Self, the Spirit, we cannot know what is absolute, and what

is the absolute truth. While we live in the relative world, we will always be

quarrelling, fighting, and having wars. But if one is " in the Absolute " then one

knows that there is only " one Truth " for everything, and there will be no more

argument or discussion. Everybody will enjoy that truth, as it is absolute. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

first small English book

Chapter 2 - Vishwa Nirmala Dharma

 

 

Here now, is Part 7.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

God and the World - Part 7

 

(P.162) Now we come to Christianity. How do we situate Christianity in this

context of comtemporary physics and psychology and of this mystical tradition?

(P.163) The mystical element is a universal wisdom found in the three traditions

we have examined as well as elsewhere and is, in my view, the most profound

insight of humanity into ultimate Reality, into God.

 

Like the other great traditions Christianity also has the conception of an

absolute Godhead beyond word and thought, but unfortunately we have often tended

to overlook it. It is not very evident in the Bible but it is there. There is a

definite mystical tradition in the Bible. Although Yahweh is a very personal God

and although he is always seen in relation to the world rather than as he is in

himself, yet behind that, as it were, there is always a sense of his being also

the hidden God. He is hidden in clouds and darkness. This is expressed in one

way in the concept of the 'shekina', the presence of God in the Temple. Within

the holy of holies in the Temple there was the mercy seat and it was empty. It

was a throne and there was no one seated on the throne because God cannot be

figured or imaged in any way. This was the Hebrew way of conveying that God is

ultimately mystery. He dwells at the centre of the temple and of the universe

and is not imageable. So the whole idea that you cannot make an image of God,

which is so important in Hebrew thought, was primarily a mystical intuition. God

is beyond all images. Again and again, it was said that you cannot see God. No

man can see God and live. (cf. Exodus 33:20) That again is a way of saying that

he is the transcendent mystery.

 

In the New Testament this mystical tradition is implicit. Because in the Bible

it is not very explicit, Christianity generally has a much less developed

mystical tradition than Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam, but we need to be clear

that the roots of it are there in the New Testament. St. John declares

emphatically, " No one has seen God at any time. " (John 1:18) Again the letter to

Timothy speaks of God " dwelling in inaccessible light. " (1 Timothy 6:16) (P.164)

This expression, which is found towards the end of the New Testament period and

suggests the influence of Greek thought, reveals the absolute transcendence of

the Godhead. This was developed in the Greek fathers in the context of the

concept of the incomprehensibility of God. There was a tendency in Arius, the

author of the Arian heresy, and especially in Eunomius, who was one of the

principal Arian theologians, to say that God could be described, but the

orthodox Church Fathers opposed this and insisted that God is beyond all

description. All the words used to speak of God merely point to that which

cannot be described, that which cannot be uttered. So in the Greek Fathers, with

their deep metaphysical sense, this awareness of the incomprehensibility and

ineffability of God became fundamental. It is prominent in Clement of

Alexandria, in Origen and especially in Gregory of Nyssa who was the greatest

mystic among the Greek Fathers and who speaks of God being known in darkness. We

can know him in the light through all the ways in which he reveals himself,

through the Bible and the sacraments, and through Christ and the incarnation,

but in himself he is beyond the light and can only be ultimately known in the

darkness.

 

The theme of God's utter incomprehensibility was taken up by Dionysius the

Areopagite, who is a key figure here. He is generally supposed to have been a

Syrian monk of the sixth century who was a disciple of the Neo-platonists. He

speaks of the Godhead as beyond all names, all images and all concepts, beyond

being itself. Rather like the position held by Nagarjuna, this involved a

systematic elimination of all names, all images and all concepts. The only way

to know God is by unknowing, by going beyond concepts, beyond the rational mind

and receiving a ray of the " divine darkness " . This is mystical language. One has

gone beyond and experienced God in the darkness, as the light beyond the

darkness, and as the light in the darkness, as it were. So that is the essential

Christian mystical experience.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pg.162-164

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

 

[Folks, here is a fantastic scriptural passage i have found, from the prophet

Isaiah regarding the light and the darkness! The prophet Isaiah clearly

describes what we know to be the 'darkest of dark nights' - the Kali Yuga. He

also describes " the Lord " that will rise in human consciousness. This can only

be Sahaja Yoga, Union with the Divine, the kundalini awakening, spiritual

enlightenment, and spiritual evolution of humanity!]:

 

" Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon

you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. And nations

will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. " (Isaiah

60:1-3)

 

" But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship

with one another. " (1 John 1:7a)