The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 6

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The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 6

(Dialogue With Nicodemus, Part I)

 

" That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit

is spirit " (John 3:6).

 

Matter and consciousness:

the perpetual duality of

manifest creation

 

(p.247) These words of Jesus rest upon the truth that both consciousness and

matter are perpetual and self-perpetuating--they continue to propagate as long

as Spirit maintains Its creation.

 

The Transcendental Absolute has a dual manifestation: subjective and objective,

Spirit and Nature, noumena and phenomena. Objectively, vibrating Spirit

manifests as conscious Cosmic Light, which through progressive condensation

produces the triune causal, astral, and material creation as well as the causal,

astral, and physical bodies of man. Subjectively, Spirit is immanent in the

cosmic creative Light as Consciousness, the ultimate Source and Sustainer of

all: Christ Consciousness in the causal-astral-physical microcosm of man. [1]

 

The consciousness of God is self-perpetuating in the consciousness of man. Man

bequeaths salient characteristics of his consciousness to children or disciples,

and his physical characteristics are passed down in the flesh of descendents.

(p.248) Both the consciousness and the body are vibrations of eternal Spirit,

and there is no essential difference between them; but each perpetuates its own

nature according to the characteristic duality of manifest creation.

 

Man apprehends the phenomena of objective nature (more or less, according to

their subtlety) with his senses and reasoning intellect. The noumenon behind the

phenomenon--consciousness as the causal essence of man and creation--is beyond

the grasp of human intelligence. Human intelligence can give knowledge only of

phenomena; noumena must be known through intuition, the power by which

consciousness apprehends itself. The ordinary man therefore cognizes the natural

universe around him but not the immanent Spirit, and cognizes himself as so many

pounds of flesh rather than as pure consciousness indwelling as the soul.

 

Thus man is born of both flesh and consciousness, and flesh has become

predominant. The body born of flesh has the limitations of the flesh, whereas

the soul, born of the Spirit, has potentially limitless powers. By meditation,

man's consciousness is transferred from the body to the soul, and through the

soul's power of intuition he experiences himself not as a mortal body (a

phenomenon of objective nature), but as immortal indwelling consciousness, one

with the noumenal Divine Essence. [2]

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 13, pg. 247-248

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] " O Arjuna, by the knowers of truth, this body is called 'kshetra' ('the

field' where good and evil karma is sown and reaped); likewise, that which

cognizes the field they call 'kshetrajna' (the soul). Also know Me to be the

'Kshetrajna' (Perceiver) in all 'kshetras' (the bodies evolved out of the cosmic

creative principle and Nature). The understanding of 'kshetra' and

'kshetrajna'--that is deemed by Me as constituting true wisdom " ('God Talks With

Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita' XIII:1-2).

 

[2] Man's angelic astral body of light and life energy, which possesses an

invisible counterpart for all the physical organs and which interfaces with the

fleshly body through the brain and the intricate physical and astral pathways of

life energy, helps to explain the so-called " phantom limb phenomenon, " known to

persons who lose a limb through accident or surgery. Though physically missing,

that limb may remain intact in the astral body, causing amputees to feel

sensations and movements in the missing limb exactly as if it were still part of

the body. " For nearly 70 percent of them their missing arms, hands, legs, or

feet continue to experience all-too-real feelings of pressure, pain, warmth,

cold, tingling, or other sensations, " according to 'The Mind and the Brain' by

Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., and Sharon Begley (New York: HarperCollins, 2002).

 

In 'Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind' (New York:

HarperCollins, 1998), Professor V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the

Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego,

describes the complex neurological mechanism behind this phenomenon. His

research has revealed how amazingly lifelike are the sensations and kinesthetic

reality maintained by the brains of those with phantom body parts. These

experiments, he says, " have helped us understand what is going on in the brains

of patients with phantoms....but there's a deeper message here: 'Your own body'

is a phantom, one that your brain has temporarily constructed purely for

convenience....

 

" For your entire life, you've been walking around assuming that your 'self' is

anchored to a single body that remains stable and permanent at least until

death. Indeed, the 'loyalty' of your self to your own body is so axiomatic that

you never even pause to think about it, let alone question it. Yet these

experiments suggest the exact opposite--that your body image, despite all its

appearance of durability, is an entirely transitory internal construct....merely

a shell that you've temporarily created. "

 

In summing up the implications, Dr. Ramachandran quotes the 'Vivekachudamani'

( " Crest Jewel of Wisdom " ) of Swami Shankara: " You never identify your self with

the shadow cast by your body, or with its reflection, or with the body you see

in a dream or in your imagination. Therefore you should not identify yourself

with this living body, either. " ('Publisher's Note')