Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 5

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Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 4 with:

 

(P.236) For Origen and his generation, then, it was quite clear that the angels

were present in all the cosmos, ordering its course. Angels, of course were

regarded as both good and evil and this was held to explain the evil and the

violence which are so evident in the cosmos. (P.237) There are thus two contrary

forces at work in the cosmos, angelic and demonic. In Origin's view angels are

set over people and over nations. Every person has his angel, and Origen

believed further that we each have both a good and an evil angel. There are good

angels which are motivating us to good and evil angels which are tempting us.

These angels belong to the psychic world and we can speak of them in, for

instance, Jungian terminology, as forces in the unconscious. Seers, like Sri

Aurobindo of Pondicherry, have explored and studied the psychic world, and Sri

Aurobindo's conclusion was that the psychic level has a system of laws as

coherent as those operating in the physical world. This then was the world of

thought to which Origen belonged, and to understand him we must remember that

the whole ancient world generally accepted this vision of the physical world

pervaded by the psychic world and that beyond all these is the supreme Reality

which embraces both the physical and the psychic, creating the unity of the

whole.

 

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

Chapter 11, P.236-237

 

Here now, is Part 5.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 5

 

(P.237) In his understanding of the spiritual life Origen based himself on three

fundamental principles which are basic in Christian mysticism. The first was

creation. Whereas in gnostic systems creation is often seen as a fall of the

spirit into matter, in the Christian view matter is created by God and is good.

There are evil forces, certainly, as a result of sin but essentially the

creation as created by God is good. Secondly, providence was important for

Origen, and by this he understood that the creation is guided by divine

providence and not by fate, as the Greek philosophical schools generally taught.

His third principle was that of free will, and his doctrine of the spiritual

life centres on the free will of human persons and on their openness to the will

of God. Origen then sees that the whole creation and matter is good as given by

God, but everything is affected by the fall of human beings from the spiritual

into the material state. (P.238) Now the plan of redemption is to restore humans

to their original spiritual state and to restore the whole creation to its unity

in God.

 

Within this understanding human beings are seen to be created in the image of

God. This is a biblical concept and it becomes one of the main themes of

Christian mysticism. Origen identifies the image of God with the spirit in man

and speaks of it as being incorporeal, incorruptible and immortal. When we sin

we fall away from the image of God and we are restored to it by grace. The

spiritual life begins when a person recognises their dignity as the image of

God. At that point one awakens to the spirit within, realising that one is

created in the image of God and that God is present to you in that image. In a

beautiful phrase, Origen says that such a person " understands that the real

world is within. " That is exactly the doctrine of the Upanishads and of

Buddhism, that the real world is the world within. We project a world outside

ourselves which has an appearance of reality, but the real world is always

within. Through grace one discovers that in one's own self as the image of God

the whole creation is contained.

 

It seems then that Origen holds that the soul is naturally divine and partakes

of the 'logos'. This was a typically gnostic view which is found also in

Hinduism, that the soul is essentially divine, that it has fallen away from its

divine state and it is being restored to that divine state by grace. We are made

in the image of God to be restored to his likeness.

 

In Origen's teaching there are the so-called " three ways " of the spiritual life

which were derived from the Greek philosophical tradition: ethics, physics, and

'theoria'. Ethics or moral philosophy is the way of moral life, which is always

basic in all the great religious traditions. Physics or natural philosophy is

the knowledge of creation, the material world and the angelic worlds. 'Theoria'

or contemplation is the vision of God. The process is that we prepare ourselves

first by the moral life. We then open ourselves to wisdom, to 'gnosis', and come

eventually to the contemplation of God.

 

The first stage Origen describes, using biblical imagery, as the passage through

the desert. The children of Israel leave Egypt, which symbolises the world of

the senses and the passions, and they go out through the desert freed from the

passions and from sin. The first stage of the spiritual life is to attain

freedom from sin, from the passions and from attachment to the world, and that

is known as the purgative way. The next stage is when one ascends above

phenomena, beyond the external world and one discerns the divine Reality. Origen

speaks of " knowledge of divine things and the causes of human things. " One goes

behind the phenomena of the world and awakens to Reality and to the world of the

angels. That second stage, then, is the awakening of the mind and the

discernment of the Reality beyond. Finally, the third way of which he speaks is

ecstasy. For Origen this may have been only a sense of wonder, of awe. Ecstasy

in the full sense as it is spoken of later, for instance, in Gregory of Nyssa is

going beyond oneself and finding oneself in God. Origen, however, does not seem

to have been a mystic in the full sense. He certainly worked all this out very

carefully, but particularly when referring to the last stage it does seem to be

more an intellectual knowledge and, as it were, an intellectual love.

 

We move on to St Gregory Nyssa who was the great master of the spiritual life

and who laid the foundations of all Christian mysticism. [5] His teaching was

based largely on that of Origen, of whom he was a disciple, but he took Origen's

doctrine much further. (P.240) He represents the whole Christian life in terms

of the paschal mystery, that is to say, in terms of death and resurrection. The

process begins in baptism when we die to sin and are illuminated by grace. It is

confirmed in the rite of confirmation, which signifies the return of the soul to

itself and the awakening to the divine image within, and it is consummated in

the Eucharist when we are fulfilled by communion with God in love. The pattern

of death and resurrection, repeatedly enacted in the believer, emphasises that

this mystical path, this experience of God, is always connected with Christ and

the church. It becomes a total Christian mysticism in that sense.

 

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

Christian Faith)

Chapter 11, P.237-240

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Notes:

 

[5] The mystical theology of St Gregory of Nyssa has been studied by J. Danielou

in 'Platonisme et Theologie Mystique' (Aubier: Paris, 1944).