The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 2

[Guest guest]

The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 2

(Dialogue with Nicodemus, Part I)

 

True religion is founded

upon intuitional perception

of the Transcendental Reality

 

(p.240) All bona fide revealed religions of the world are based on intuitive

knowledge. Each has an exoteric or outer particularity, and an esoteric or inner

core. The exoteric aspect is the public image, and includes moral precepts and a

body of doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs to guide the

general populace of its followers. The esoteric aspect includes methods that

focus on actual communion of the soul with God. The exoteric aspect is for the

many; the esoteric is for the ardent few. It is the esoteric aspect of religion

that leads to intuition, the firsthand knowledge of Reality.

 

The lofty 'Sanatana Dharma' of the Vedic philosophy of ancient India--summarized

in the Upanishads and in the six classical systems of metaphysical knowledge,

and peerlessly encapsulated in the Bhagavad Gita--is based on intuitional

perception of the Transcendental Reality, Buddhism, with its various methods of

controlling the mind and gaining depth in meditation, advocates intuitive

knowledge to realize the transcendence of 'nirvana'. Sufism in Islam anchors on

the intuitive mystical experience of the soul. [1] (p.241) Within the Jewish

religion are esoteric teachings based on inner experience of the Divine,

evidenced abundantly in the legacy of the God-illumined Biblical prophets.

Christ's teachings are fully expressive of that realization. The apostle John's

Revelation is a remarkable disclosure of the soul's intuitional perception of

deepest truths garbed in metaphor.

 

The elite traditions of Western philosophy and metaphysics laud the intuitional

knowing power of the soul. The Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician

Pythagoras (born c. 580 B.C.) emphasized inner experience of intuitive

knowledge. Plato (born c. 428 B.C.), whose works have come down to us as a

primary foundation of Western civilization, likewise taught the necessity for

supersensory knowledge to apprehend eternal truths. The Neoplatonist sage

Plotinus (A.D. 204-270) practiced Plato's ideal of intuitional knowing of

Reality: " Often I have woken to myself out of the body, become detached from all

else and entered into myself, " he wrote, " and I have seen beauty of surpassing

greatness, and have felt assured that then especially I belonged to the higher

reality, engaged in the noblest life and identified with the Divine. " [2] He

died exhorting his disciples " Strive to bring back the god in yourselves to the

God in the All. " [3]

 

The Gnostics (first three centuries A.D.); the early Church fathers such as

Origen and Augustine; great Christian luminaries such as Johannes Scotus Erigena

(810-877) and Saint Anselm (1033-1109); the monastic orders founded by Saint

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) and Hugh, Richard, and Walter of Saint Victor

(twelfth century)--all practiced intuitive contemplation of God.

 

Illumined Christian mystics of medieval times--Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224-1275);

Saint Bonaventure (1217-1274); Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381); Meister Eckhart

(1260-1327); Henry Suso (1295-1366); Johannes Tauler (1300-1361); Gerhard Groote

(1340-1384); Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), author of 'The Imitation of Christ';

Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)--sought and received ultimate knowledge through the

light of intuition [4]. (p.242) Christian saints through the centuries--Juliana

of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and many

more known and unknown--partook of soul intuition in their attainment of divine

realization and mystical union with God.

 

British poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Traherne, and Pope aspired

to intuit and write about the all-pervading Spirit. Emerson (1802-1882) and

other American Transcendentalists sought personal experience of immanent

spiritual reality through intuition. The German Idealist philosophers Hamann

(1730-1788), Herder (1744-1803), Jacobi (1743-1819), Schiller (1759-1805), and

Schopenhauer (1788-1860) emphasized it; and the great modern French philosopher

Bergson calls intuition the only faculty capable of knowing the ultimate nature

of things. [5]

 

The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within

You) Volume 1, Discourse 13, pg. 240-242

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

Notes:

 

[1] See Paramahansa Yogananda's 'Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar

Khayyam'--A Spiritual Interpretation' (published by Self-Realization

Fellowship).

 

[2] 'Enneads', iv. 8.

 

[3] Porphyry, 'Life of Plotinus 2'.

 

[4] " Let no one suppose, " says the 'Theologia Germanica', " that we may attain to

this true light and perfect knowledge...by hearsay, or by reading and study, nor

yet by high skill and great learning. " " It is not enough, " says Gerlac Petersen,

" to know by estimation merely: but we must know by experience. " So Mechthild of

Magdeburg says of her revelations, " The writing of this book was seen, heard,

and experienced in every limb....I see it with the eyes of my soul, and hear it

with the ears of my eternal spirit. " --quoted in 'Mysticism', by Evelyn

Underhill, Part I, Chapter 4.

 

[5] An overview of exponents of intuitional experience in Christianity may be

found in 'The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism', three

volumes, by Bernard McGinn (New York: Crossroad, 1991). ('Publisher's Note')

[Guest guest]

Re: an edit

 

Dear Jagbir,

 

In the second paragraph, there should have been a period and not a coma, with

the following being the start of a new sentence:

 

" Buddhism, with its various methods of controlling the mind and gaining depth in

meditation, advocates intuitive knowledge to realize the transcendence of

'nirvana'. "

 

thanks,

 

violet

 

P.S. i have edited it on the document below

 

 

 

, " Violet " <violetubb wrote:

>

> The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 2

> (Dialogue with Nicodemus, Part I)

>

> True religion is founded

> upon intuitional perception

> of the Transcendental Reality

>

> (p.240) All bona fide revealed religions of the world are based on intuitive

knowledge. Each has an exoteric or outer particularity, and an esoteric or inner

core. The exoteric aspect is the public image, and includes moral precepts and a

body of doctrines, dogmas, dissertations, rules, and customs to guide the

general populace of its followers. The esoteric aspect includes methods that

focus on actual communion of the soul with God. The exoteric aspect is for the

many; the esoteric is for the ardent few. It is the esoteric aspect of religion

that leads to intuition, the firsthand knowledge of Reality.

>

> The lofty 'Sanatana Dharma' of the Vedic philosophy of ancient

India--summarized in the Upanishads and in the six classical systems of

metaphysical knowledge, and peerlessly encapsulated in the Bhagavad Gita--is

based on intuitional perception of the Transcendental Reality. Buddhism, with

its various methods of controlling the mind and gaining depth in meditation,

advocates intuitive knowledge to realize the transcendence of 'nirvana'. Sufism

in Islam anchors on the intuitive mystical experience of the soul. [1] (p.241)

Within the Jewish religion are esoteric teachings based on inner experience of

the Divine, evidenced abundantly in the legacy of the God-illumined Biblical

prophets. Christ's teachings are fully expressive of that realization. The

apostle John's Revelation is a remarkable disclosure of the soul's intuitional

perception of deepest truths garbed in metaphor.

>

> The elite traditions of Western philosophy and metaphysics laud the

intuitional knowing power of the soul. The Greek mystic, philosopher, and

mathematician Pythagoras (born c. 580 B.C.) emphasized inner experience of

intuitive knowledge. Plato (born c. 428 B.C.), whose works have come down to us

as a primary foundation of Western civilization, likewise taught the necessity

for supersensory knowledge to apprehend eternal truths. The Neoplatonist sage

Plotinus (A.D. 204-270) practiced Plato's ideal of intuitional knowing of

Reality: " Often I have woken to myself out of the body, become detached from all

else and entered into myself, " he wrote, " and I have seen beauty of surpassing

greatness, and have felt assured that then especially I belonged to the higher

reality, engaged in the noblest life and identified with the Divine. " [2] He

died exhorting his disciples " Strive to bring back the god in yourselves to the

God in the All. " [3]

>

> The Gnostics (first three centuries A.D.); the early Church fathers such as

Origen and Augustine; great Christian luminaries such as Johannes Scotus Erigena

(810-877) and Saint Anselm (1033-1109); the monastic orders founded by Saint

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) and Hugh, Richard, and Walter of Saint Victor

(twelfth century)--all practiced intuitive contemplation of God.

>

> Illumined Christian mystics of medieval times--Saint Thomas Aquinas

(1224-1275); Saint Bonaventure (1217-1274); Jan van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381);

Meister Eckhart (1260-1327); Henry Suso (1295-1366); Johannes Tauler

(1300-1361); Gerhard Groote (1340-1384); Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), author of

'The Imitation of Christ'; Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)--sought and received

ultimate knowledge through the light of intuition [4]. (p.242) Christian saints

through the centuries--Juliana of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of

Siena, Teresa of Avila, and many more known and unknown--partook of soul

intuition in their attainment of divine realization and mystical union with God.

>

> British poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Traherne, and Pope aspired

to intuit and write about the all-pervading Spirit. Emerson (1802-1882) and

other American Transcendentalists sought personal experience of immanent

spiritual reality through intuition. The German Idealist philosophers Hamann

(1730-1788), Herder (1744-1803), Jacobi (1743-1819), Schiller (1759-1805), and

Schopenhauer (1788-1860) emphasized it; and the great modern French philosopher

Bergson calls intuition the only faculty capable of knowing the ultimate nature

of things. [5]

>

> The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within

> You) Volume 1, Discourse 13, pg. 240-242

> Paramahansa Yogananda

> Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

> ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

> ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

>

> Notes:

>

> [1] See Paramahansa Yogananda's 'Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar

Khayyam'--A Spiritual Interpretation' (published by Self-Realization

Fellowship).

>

> [2] 'Enneads', iv. 8.

>

> [3] Porphyry, 'Life of Plotinus 2'.

>

> [4] " Let no one suppose, " says the 'Theologia Germanica', " that we may attain

to this true light and perfect knowledge...by hearsay, or by reading and study,

nor yet by high skill and great learning. " " It is not enough, " says Gerlac

Petersen, " to know by estimation merely: but we must know by experience. " So

Mechthild of Magdeburg says of her revelations, " The writing of this book was

seen, heard, and experienced in every limb....I see it with the eyes of my soul,

and hear it with the ears of my eternal spirit. " --quoted in 'Mysticism', by

Evelyn Underhill, Part I, Chapter 4.

>

> [5] An overview of exponents of intuitional experience in Christianity may be

found in 'The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism', three

volumes, by Bernard McGinn (New York: Crossroad, 1991). ('Publisher's Note')

>