Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 9

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 8 with:

 

(p.248) " This comes very near to the doctrine of Ibn al Arabi. He expresses

almost the same view in his teaching that everything in creation and everything

in man exists eternally in God. Creation comes forth eternally in God as God,

without any difference, and then it comes forth differentiated in time and

space. Originally it is God in God. So the image of God exists eternally in God,

in its archetype. Ruysbroeck says, " God utters himself in the Spirit eternally

without intermediary and in this Word he utters himself and all things. " In the

utterance of the Word which comes forth from the Father eternally the whole

creation, the whole of humanity, you and I and all created things, are present.

Everything and all beings are present in that eternal Word, eternally present

with God, in God and as God. We are all participating in the Infinite at that

stage, beyond creation. This is what is meant by our uncreated being in the

Godhead. Eckhart had the same idea but he expressed it less carefully while

Ruysbroeck puts it extremely well. He speaks of " a waylessness and darkness in

which we never find ourselves again in a creaturely way. " We lose ourselves in

that divine darkness. And he goes on to speak of God, this " God beyond " , as it

were, as " a simple nudity, an incomprehensible light " . (p.249) The one who has

reached this point " finds himself and feels himself to be that light, gazing at

that light, by that light, in that light. Here one has entered totally into the

Godhead and one knows in the light and by the light. This is exactly how it is

put in the Upanishads and in the 'Bhagavad Gita', where it is said that one

knows the 'atman', through the 'atman'. The 'atman' cannot be known by any other

means. God is grasped and held through God. "

 

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

Chapter 11, P.248-249

 

Here now, is Part 9 - the conclusion to 'Christian Mysticism in Relation to

Eastern Mysticism'.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 9

 

(p.249) Ruysbroeck then asserts that we have our eternal archetype in God which

comes forth forever from the Father in the Son and returns in the Spirit. But

then we have a created existence as we come forth from God in creation, in time,

and in our created existence we reflect an eternal archetype. In the depth of

our being that eternal archetype is always being reflected. So each of us has

that reflection of God in the depth of our being, and that is the true image of

God in us. So he says, " All creatures come forth from the Son eternally and they

are known as other, yet not other in all ways because all in God is God. " So all

creation comes forth in God and is other than God in one sense, but yet is not

other for it is still God in God. There is no created difference at this point.

" Our created being abides in the eternal essence and is one with it in its

essential existence. " Our created being has its eternal being in God, which is

exactly the doctrine of the most profound thinkers in Hinduism, Buddhism and

Islam. It is important to realise that this is not simply the teaching of a

particular person but of a universal tradition. When the human mind reaches a

certain point of experience it comes to this same understanding and this is what

constitutes the perennial philosophy, the universal wisdom. " It has an eternal

immanence in the divine essence without distinction and an eternal outflowing in

the Son in distinction. " It exists without distinction eternally in the essence

and then it comes forth eternally in the Son from the Father in distinction.

(p.250) So Ruysbroeck can say, " The image of God is that in which God reflects

himself and all things, and in this image all creatures have an eternal life

outside themselves, in their eternal archetypes. " All creatures have this

eternal archetype in God, beyond themselves, and we come forth from the eternal

ground of the Father in an unmanifest state into manifestation in the Son. In

the eternal ground of the Father we are unmanifest and in the Son we come forth

into manifestation. " And in the divine light they see that as regards their

essential essence they are that Ground from which the brightness shines forth

and they go forth from themselves above reason in an intuitive gazing, and are

transfigured into the light which they see and which they are, and they behold

God in all things without distinction in a simple seeing, in the divine

brightness. " This is a coming back to the original unity. Everything comes forth

from that original unity, from the Father, in the Son and the Spirit. We come

forth in time and space with all our differences, all our conflicts, with all

the sin and the evil of the world, and then we are drawn back by the love of

God. Love is drawing us out of our sin and out of the limitations of this world

to the inner image, to the archetype within, and then in that image, in Spirit,

we return through the Son to the Father and we reach unity again. We know

ourselves in God, as God.

 

Ruysbroeck goes on to say that " the wisdom with all that is in it turns towards

the Father, the ground, and then there comes forth the Holy Spirit and this

mutual love enfolds and drenches both in action and fruition, the Father and Son

and all which lives in both. " The Son comes forth from the Father as his eternal

wisdom and then there is this return in the Spirit in the mutual love which

enfolds them in one. So within the Godhead there is the distinction, the coming

forth, and there is the return. That is eternal, not, as it were, spread out in

time but it is one act, both coming forth and returning. (p.251) " In this return

in love in the divine ground every divine way and activity and all the

attributes of the persons are swallowed up in the rich compass of the essential

unity. All the divine means and all conditions, and all living images which are

reflected in the mirror of truth, lapse in the one-fold and ineffable

waylessness, beyond reason. Here there is naught but eternal rest in the

fruitive embrace of an outpouring love. This is the dark silence in which all

lovers lose themselves. "

 

This is the rhythm of the universe. Everything comes forth eternally from the

Father, the Ground of Being, in the Son, the Word and Wisdom of the Father and

returns in the Spirit. The Father, the ground, is pouring itself out eternally

in the Son, knowing itself and expressing itself in the Son, and the Father and

the Son return to one another, unite with one another, eternally in the embrace

of the Holy spirit. We are all enfolded in that love. One particular passage in

Ruysbroeck brings this out well. " All things are loved anew by the Father and

the Son in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and this is the active meeting of

the Father and the Son in which we are lovingly embraced by the Holy Spirit in

eternal love. " We are taken up in this communion of love in the Spirit. " This " ,

he says, " swallows up every divine way and activity and all the attributes of

the persons within the rich compass of the essential unity. To this the persons

of the Trinity and all that lives in God must give place. " He goes on, " The

abyss itself may not be comprehended unless by the essential unity, so the

persons and all that lives in God must give place, for here there is naught else

but an eternal rest in the fruitive embrace of an outpouring love. And this is

that wayless being which all inferior spirits have chosen above all other good

things. " This is the climax of Christian mysticism, as of all mysticism, where

there is a return to the original unity of being beyond all distinctions and yet

embracing all distinctions.

 

To conclude I would like to make some points about Christian mysticism as a

whole. (p.252) First of all it embraces all creation, matter, life, time,

history, man, woman. The whole of humanity is taken up in Christ into the life

of the Godhead and is restored to unity. The whole creation is gathered into one

and in and through Christ the Word, all things and all people return to the

Father, in the Spirit. That is the total reintegration of everything, the

recapitulation, or gathering into one, of all things. That comes at the end of

the world.

 

Secondly, creation is not a fall and it is not God. Creation is often said to be

a fall. Ken Wilber, for instance, in his very remarkable book 'Up from Eden',

holds that ultimately creation is a fall from God, but in the Christian view

this is not so. The world is created by God as the sphere in which human

experience can be worked out, which is essentially God giving himself to the

world in love and drawing the world back to himself in love. That is the essence

of creation. So rather than a fall, it is an outpouring of love. Sin comes in,

of course, and brings disintegration and death but the grace of God comes to

restore it and bring us back to God.

 

Thirdly, the spirit of man is a capacity for God. It is not God. My 'atman',

myself, is not God, but rather it is a capacity for God which can be filled by

God and can be transformed into God and this is a gift of pure grace.

 

Fourthly, this capacity is fully realised in Jesus in the resurrection, and so

made effective in the Church and the sacraments. In Jesus this outpouring of the

Spirit of God was complete. In him, as St Paul says, " dwelt the fullness of the

Godhead bodily. " [8] In him human nature was totally transformed, and in and

through him we return to the Father. The resurrection and the ascension release

a power in the universe so that now it is working throughout the whole creation

and the whole of humanity to bring back creation and humanity into life in God.

The Church is the sphere in which this divine power is at work, particularly

through the sacraments. (p.253) The sacraments constitute the means by which

this power, released at the resurrection, is made present to us, first in

baptism, then in confirmation and then renewed each day in the Eucharist. In

this way, through the Church, we are united as members of the mystical body of

Christ and in that mystical body of Christ we return to the Father.

 

Fifthly, the human person is not lost in the divine but enjoys perfect oneness

in love. Again and again the tendency is to lose the person in the Ultimate. In

both Hinduism and Buddhism this tendency is always at work, so that ultimately

there is no individual left and everything dissolves in the pure oneness of

being. But in the Christian mystical understanding each person is unique. Each

is a unique expression of God, a unique manifestation of the divine, and each is

in all and all are in each. There is a total transparency. All are one in God

and one in each other. But we are not lost in this oneness; we are found in our

total being. " He who will lose his life shall find it. " [9] When we lose

ourselves totally in that abyss of love, we find ourselves. Perhaps the

fundamental difference is this: that the heart of Christian mysticism is a

mystery of love, whereas both in Hinduism and in Buddhism it is primarily a

transformation of consciousness. 'Brahman' is 'saccidananda', being,

consciousness and bliss. It is not specifically love. Love is included, and was

marvellously developed as 'bhakti', but this is not so central either in

Hinduism or in Buddhism, whereas the essence of the Christian experience is an

experience of love, not primarily of consciousness or of knowledge, though

these, of course, are included, and love is self-communication. The nature of

love is such that we become persons by loving. We have a capacity to transcend

ourselves in love, to go out of ourselves and to experience one another in love,

and grow as we communicate in love. It is all a matter of interpersonal

relationship. In this understanding the basic need of human existence is growth

in interpersonal relationships, in love, and that is so basic that we are called

into being by love. (p.254) The love which is given to mother, father, husband,

wife, children and friends, all this is simply a created manifestation of a love

which created us in the beginning and is drawing us to itself. All created love

is a manifestation of the uncreated love from which we come and to which we are

moving. In this we do not lose ourselves, just as in a human relationship of

love you do not lose yourself. If you love someone you become one with him or

her and they become one with you, but you do not cease to be yourself. If that

happened it would no longer be love. So it is a communion of love, an experience

of oneness in love, and that is the end and meaning of life. This

interrelationship in love is the reflection of the life of the Godhead, where

the Father and the Son give themselves totally in love and are united in the

Spirit in an unfathomable unity. So the interpersonal relationships within the

Trinity are the model and exemplar of all interpersonal relationships on earth

and ultimately also of all interrelationships in the whole creation. We saw in

chapter one how the contemporary physicist describes the universe as a complex

web of interdependent relationships. Everything is interdependent and

interrelated on the physical level, on the psychological level and finally on

the spiritual level; and the Trinity, as far as can be expressed in words, is

the exemplar of all interrelationship and the unity of all being in love.

 

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

Christian Faith) Chapter 11, P.249-254

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Notes:

 

[8] Colossians 2:9

 

[9] Matthew 10:39 ff.