Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 6 with the following:

 

(p.268) " On the other hand, just as the physical universe is an integrated whole

and the whole psychological universe is an integrated whole, so the subtle world

is an integrated whole. In the great religions it is always seen that all these

powers, these gods and angels, are under the control of one supreme power. This

leads to the sense of the cosmic Lord, the cosmic Person, who rules over all.

(p.269) In each religion, as we have seen, the point is reached when the cosmic

Lord is acknowledged. But now the next stage is to go beyond that and to realise

that in and through the cosmic Person the whole of this universe, physical and

psychological, is being reintegrated into its source. When we come to the

Supreme, everything returns to unity. Everything comes out of that original

unity, exploding into a universe and evolving through all these forms that we

see. That outward movement is called 'pravritti', the whole universe coming out

from the Supreme, manifesting in all these worlds and in all these forms. But at

the same time there is another opposite movement, the movement of return or

'nivritti'. These two movements act together, sending forth the universe and

drawing it back to its source. And so everything in the universe is all being

drawn back to its source, back into its original unity. Or, using a different

image, just as everything came forth from an implicated whole into explication,

so now it goes back from explication to the implicate and everything is

fulfilled in that One. The whole universe is implicated in this unity and exists

eternally in a state of absolute oneness in this being. The whole universe, and

everything and everybody in it, exists eternally in that one infinite being

without any differences, in a total oneness. "

 

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

Chapter 12, p.268-269

 

Here now, is Part 7.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

Synthesis: Towards a Unifying Plan - Part 7

 

(p.269) In Christian understanding this absolute ground of being from which the

whole universe comes is known as the Father, the One, the Source, the Godhead.

These terms and others are used to signify the Absolute from which everything

originates. The understanding is that from this ground, from this source, there

springs a Word, a wisdom, an image of the Godhead, and that is this cosmic

Person, who reveals the Father, the Source. In that cosmic Person, in the Word

or Son, all the archetypes of all created beings are contained. The archetype of

every being in the universe is contained eternally in the Word, in the Godhead;

it is, as it were, implicated or enfolded there. (p.270) These exist eternally

in him and are implicated in his being, and of all these archetypes, which are

in an integrated order, the supreme is the archetypal man, whom we have seen in

Hinduism, in Buddhism, in Islam and in Christianity. The archetypal man contains

within himself the whole universe and all humanity. He is the cosmic Person, who

is recognised as the Lord of creation, the 'tathagatha' of Buddhism, the supreme

'dharmakaya' of the Buddha, the 'purushottaman' or the 'paramatman' in Hinduism

and the " universal Man " in Islam. According to the Christian understanding he is

that archetypal Son of Man, the supreme Person, who took flesh and was

manifested in Jesus Christ. The understanding is then that from the original

ground springs this eternal Word, this Wisdom, this image of the Godhead,

containing the archetypes of all creation in himself and uniting the whole

creation in one.

 

In Christianity we also speak of the Spirit, understanding that from the

original ground there springs the Spirit which is uncreated energy. As the Word

or Son is the source of all form in nature, so the Spirit is the source of all

energy. It is the uncreated energy which flows forth eternally from the Godhead

and which then brings into being the energies of matter and of nature. So nature

and matter arise as created energies springing from the uncreated energy of the

Spirit. The universe can be seen as coming into being as an overflow of this

energy, which is love. The love-energy of God is precisely what the Spirit is,

and that love-energy flows out to express itself in the universe. God calls into

being all the creatures of the universe to express himself, to manifest himself,

to manifest his love and to bring forth that love in them. And so the Spirit

flows out in this love to cause the whole creation and the Word organizes all

those energies of matter and the creation, gradually building up the universe as

we know it and bringing it back to its source in the cosmic Person.

 

(p.271) In the Christian understanding there are contrary forces both in the

cosmos and in the human psyche which cause disorder in nature and disease in

man. The question is often asked as to how there can be all this evil in the

world if everything flows from the love of God and is organized by the wisdom of

God. The answer is that there are forces of evil, cosmic forces and psychic

forces, which are due to freedom. The Christian view is that God creates a world

of free beings, because freedom is the greatest blessing one can have. Freedom

is a condition of love and the world was created by love and for love. Without

freedom there can be no love.

 

So the world is created with free beings, both angelic and human, but freedom

means capacity also to fail, to fall away from love, to centre on the self and

to cause disintegration. One way of talking about this is to speak of the fall

of the angels resulting in negative, hostile cosmic powers which work against

the order of the universe. These are the powers of darkness. In contrast to

these are the powers of light, the angelic powers, which are responsible for

organizing the matter of the universe. As a result of these cosmic and

psychological forces human beings fall away from the life of the Spirit and

centre on themselves, forming cells of disintegration like a cancer in the body,

in this body of mankind. It must never be forgotten that mankind is one. The

archetypal man contains in himself all humankind and all the universe. We fall

from this order of the oneness of man into a state of disintegration. Through

sin we fall away from the Spirit, from the Word, from the Truth, and we fall

into ourselves, into separation, becoming isolated individuals in conflict with

one another. That is like a cancer in the body; it is the disease of mankind. It

is into this fallen world that we are all born. On the other hand, as the human

race falls into disunity and disintegration the redemptive power of the Spirit

is also at work. (p.272) The one goes with the other. At the moment of fall the

redemptive process already begins, to restore this unity. So the Spirit is also

at work from the beginning. In every human being there is a presence of the

Spirit which is drawing us back from our disintegration, from our

self-centredness, into the life of the Spirit, the life of God. And the Spirit

is gradually rebuilding human nature in the likeness of the archetypal man, the

Supreme Person. We are all part of this process in which, even while we fall

away from the truth, from the perfect man, into our disintegrated state, we are

all being drawn back by the Spirit, by love, to the likeness of the perfect man,

the likeness of Christ.

 

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

Christian Faith) Chapter 12, p.269-272

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0