The inner sanctum of the universal Mind, which is our own nature and the inheren

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“Whoever achieves gnosis becomes " no longer a Christian, but a Christ. "

 

We can see, then, that such gnosticism was more than a protest

movement against orthodox Christianity. Gnosticism also included a

religious perspective that implicitly opposed the development of the

kind of institution that became the early catholic church. Those who

expected to " become Christ " themselves were not likely to recognize

the institutional structures of the church—its bishops, priest, creed,

canon, or ritual—as bearing ultimate authority.

 

This religious perspective differentiates gnosticism not only from

orthodoxy, but also, for all the similarities, from psychotherapy,

for most members of the psychotherapeutic profession follow Freud in

refusing to attribute real existence to the figments of imagination.

They do not regard their attempt to discover what is within the

psyche as equivalent to discovering the secrets of the universe. But

many gnostics, like many artists, search for interior self-knowledge

as the key to understanding universal truths — " who are we, where we

came from., where we go. " According to the Book of Thomas the

Contender, " whoever has not known himself has known nothing, but he

who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge

about the depths of all things. "

 

This conviction—that whoever explores human experience simultaneously

discovers divine reality—is one of the elements that marks gnosticism

as a distinctly religious movement. Simon Magus, Hippolytus reports,

claimed that each human being is a dwelling place, " and that in him

dwells an infinite power ... the root of the universe " ...

 

How is one to realize that potential? Many of the gnostic sources

cited so far contain only aphorisms directing the disciple to search

for knowledge, but refrain from telling anyone how to search. "

          

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels

House Inc. New York, 1989, p. 134

 

 

" Enlightenment occurs when we awaken to the truth that everything is

higher consciousness, or Spirit. This realization, however, is not a

mere intellectual exercise. Rather, it is a bodily and mental

transformation that shatters all our intellectual presumptions about

it. It sweeps us up and grasps and transfigures our entire body-mind.

What gets blown to pieces is the idea that we are different from that

Reality — that we are an I, an ego, a finite personality. In our

realization of higher consciousness, we do not merely conceive it, or

speculate about it, or even intuit it. We are it. Or to put it

differently, it is all there is.

 

For the ego-personality, our ordinary self, this is a rather

frightening prospect. Indeed, for that realization to occur, we must

pass through and beyond the fear of our " own " death, the disappearance

of the ego-personality to which we are so attached. On the other side,

however, infinite bliss, delight, beatitude, and unqualified love

awaits us. However, these are not distinct qualities but merely

different ways of describing what is essentially indescribable...

 

In other words, enlightenment is not a new state that is called into

existence by our efforts. It is not even a state that is external to

ourselves and can be attained. The enlightened condition is always

true of us, but there are veils in our mind that prevent us from

recognizing this truth. These veils are energetic blockages that have

karmic causes. As we purify ourselves through spiritual discipline,

these inner obstructions are gradually removed, and then, one day, we

suddenly face the inner sanctum of the universal Mind, which is our

own nature and the inherent nature of everything else. "

 

Georg Feuerstein, Lucid Waking

Inner Traditions International, 1997, p. 128-43

ISBN-10: 0892816139

ISBN-13: 978-0892816132

 

 

" The Reality, considered as the innermost Self of any particular

creature or object, is called the Atman — as we have already seen.

When the Reality is spoken of in its universal aspect, it is called

Brahman. This may sound confusing, at first, to Western students, but

the concept should not be strange to them. Christian terminology

employs two phrases — God immanent and God transcendent — which makes

a similar distinction. Again and again, in Hindu and Christian

literature, we find this great paradox restated — that God is both

within and without, instantly present and infinitely everywhere, the

dweller in the atom and the abode of all things. But this is the same

Reality, the same God head, seen in its two relations to the cosmos.

These relations are described by two different words simply in order

to help us think about them. They imply no kind of duality. Atman and

Brahman are one. "

 

Swami Prabhavananda and C. Isherwood

The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, Penguin Books, Inc., 1969, p. 23.)