Guest guest Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Dear All, We concluded Part 8 with: (P.167) Jesus, on the other hand, manifests the infinite God in historic time and place and in his historic death, dying on the cross. There are many ancient myths of the god who dies and rises again but these are symbolic figures and their meaning is deep but different. Jesus' death, on the other hand, is not simply symbolic. He was an historic person, and the descriptions we have of his suffering and death, in the four different accounts in the Gospels, are given in minute detail. On that historic death and on the resurrection the whole Christian faith centres. The experience of the disciples after the death of Jesus, that the body was not to be found in the tomb and Jesus' appearances to them, convinced them that he was risen from the dead. They understood that, unlike Lazarus who was raised from the dead but simply carried on with his limited life in this world, Jesus was alive for evermore, transcending this world. What this means is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus the matter of this world was transformed. In other doctrines, in other great faiths, matter is often conceived simply as an appearance and the appearance disappears when we have reached the one reality. But in the Christian understanding the matter of the universe is transformed. The atoms, the molecules, the cells of Jesus' body, which are part of this cosmic energy, were changed. Matter is a temporary condensation of energy and that structure of energy which made up the body of Jesus on the cross was transformed into a new structure. It maybe suggested that in the resurrection that structure of energy became a psychic body, which is a more subtle body. His body was first of all what is called a gross body which anyone could recognise, and then it became a subtle body, which could not always be recognised. This subtle body could appear and disappear, as we know from the Gospel narratives. Finally he becomes a spiritual body at the Ascension. (P.168) He transcends matter at both the gross and the subtle levels and enters the spiritual level and, with that transformation, the matter of this universe is taken up into the Godhead. That is the Christian mystery. It is amazing when we begin to grasp it, that the matter which exploded in the so-called Big Bang fifteen or even twenty billion years ago at that point was finally transfigured. In fact the transfiguration has been going on all through history and we ourselves are involved in this transformation of matter, as consciousness is working on matter. The Christian understanding is that in Jesus consciousness finally took possession of matter, and this means that matter was spiritualized. In him the matter of the universe was, in other words, made totally conscious and became one with God, in the Godhead. A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith), Pg.167-168 Bede Griffiths Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois ISBN 0-87243-180-0 Here now is Part 9. Enjoy! violet God and the World - Part 9 (P.168) It is also important to emphasise that the soul of Jesus did not disappear. In the view of Shankara and so many others the 'jivatman' disappears at death. You simply realise yourself in the total reality and there is no 'jiva', no individual, any more. But the soul of Jesus, that unique Jew of the first century with all his personal characteristics, is eternal in the Godhead. It is not that he disappears into the Godhead. Rather, both the body (soma) and the soul (psyche) are taken up into the spirit (pneuma) in the transcendent one and are totally transfigured in the One. This is beyond our comprehension but we can perhaps try to conceive how it takes place. We see that in Christ the world of space and time is not annihilated; it does not disappear but it is transfigured, and that is precisely what St Paul means by the New Creation. The New Creation is this present creation transformed into the spiritual creation, matter no longer obeying the present laws which, as we know, are related only to this particular stage in evolution. All material laws are simply stages in evolution. At the inorganic level there are certain laws operating, and then new laws come into being as the earliest living creatures emerge. (P.169) Later, new laws develop pertaining to the animal level and, later still, other new laws develop pertaining to human persons. The next stage is the transcendence of finite being, as we enter into the divine consciousness and into the divine mode of being. That is the New Man of St Paul, which is also the heavenly Man and can be related, as we saw, to the perfect Man of the Muslim tradition and the 'purusha' of the Hindu. But there is this great difference here in Christianity, that the individual human being of Jesus does not disappear in the Ultimate but rather is fully realised. As with Kashmir Shaivism and Mahayana Buddhism, the Christian tradition recognises interrelationship in the Absolute. Shankara denied any relationship or differentiation in the Absolute. For him the Absolute is 'saccidananda', pure being, pure consciousness and pure bliss, with no differentiation whatever. Kashmir Shaivism, on the other hand, maintains the differentiation into Shiva and Shakti which we have discussed, and the 'spanda', the pulse or stirring of will between them which is self-conscious within the One. The One is totally one without duality, yet there is also differentiation. This is expressed in the gospel when Jesus says, " I am in the Father and the Father is in me. " (John 14:11) If Jesus had been an 'advaitin' he would have said, " I am the Father " or " I am God. " Jesus never says that. In saying, " I am in the Father and the Father in me " , " I know the Father and the Father knows me " , " I love the Father, the Father loves me, " Jesus is affirming total interpersonal relationship. It is very significant indeed that physics now sees the whole universe as a web of dynamic interrelationships. When we come to the human person, our lives are also a network of interrelationships. At the human level the child is related to the mother and then to father, brothers and sisters, friends and so on, in a web of relationships. The question is, do these relationships disappear in the ultimate? (P.170) In this Christian understanding there are relationships in the ultimate and Jesus himself expresses this by saying, " I am in the Father and the Father in me " , and also when he prays " that they may be one as thou in me and I in thee, that they may be one in us. " (John 17:21) Jesus' prayer is that as he is in the Father in his personal relationship, so we also may be in him and he in us, which means that we also enter into that interpersonal relationship within the Godhead. A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith), Pg.168-170 Bede Griffiths Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois ISBN 0-87243-180-0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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