Christian Confessions
“He who is called Jesus is also known as
Krishna, Shiva, Buddha and Allah”
“Father forgive me for I have sinned
I have searched without for what is found
within”
The Christian message at its richest contains
and reflects the Hopi knowledge of the
interconnection of all life, the Taoist sense of
balance and the mysterious conjunction of
opposites, the Hindu awareness of the grandeur
of the soul, the Buddhist devotion to compassion
and clear ethical living, the Greek adoration of
Divine Beauty and the Islamic passion for God as
the Beloved. This message is very clear when you
see it naked, stripped of all the patriarchal
body and sex hatred and wholly un-Christ-like
intolerance, and love of authority that have
clustered around and deformed it for almost two
millennia.
I have a few confessions to make.
Ever attended a typical Sunday church gathering
available on our islands, and cringed at the
obvious fashion parades and the relentless
gossip about Saturday night? Even in the days I
used to attend Sunday mass regularly I would sit
in the back catching a breath of fresh air,
while the priest (with a few well-known
exceptions) droned on in a way that generally
left you feeling completely disconnected to your
own inner spirituality. It always gave me a
heavy sense that I was being judged rather than
loved. This kind of religion just did not seem
right for me, and yet through the years I was
set on rediscovering the mystery in Christianity
and approaching it in my own way with a fresh,
child-like curiosity.
As a wise lady told me, it is our way of life
that is our true religion.
In many modern books it is being proposed that
there is a direct tradition of spiritual
practices within Christian Mysticism which has
been ignored and is even suppressed by the
mainstream Church.
They describe how one of the main problems of
Christianity as represented by the organized
churches and the various denominations is that
they have become so secularized that they have
banished that which as the very core of religion
– the reality of miracles, of mystery and faith
in the potentiality of every human being to
attain union with the Divine through systematic
methods of spiritual practice.
Most Western theologians, utilizing only the left
side of their brains, have bought totally into
the mechanistic view of reality, and they have
transformed Christianity into nothing more than
a system of ethical rules for social and
political action. Jesus of Nazareth is no longer
the miracle worker pointing out to humanity its
Divine origin and destiny, but simply a great
teacher of moral philosophy.
It seems that they do so because they are afraid of being perceived
as old-fashioned and superstitious by secular
scientists. But it is exactly for this reason
that there is such a surge of interest today, on
the part of so many people, particularly among
the educated and the young, towards new
religions that emphasise experiential
knowledge of spiritual realities.
Markides suggests that the Eastern Orthodox
mystical theology and practices can play an
important role in the regeneration of
Christianity. Apparently, the great medieval
Orthodox saint Gregory Palmas developed a
Christian theology of human sanctification and
transformation which is thoroughly consistent
with the yoga traditions of the East.
“Just as conventional science needs to make
drastic changes in its conception of reality,
organized, established religions will have to
make appropriate changes too if they are to be
relevant in the decades to come.”
-
Riding with the Lion, by Kyriacos C. Markides
Palmas’ theology held that man’s knowledge of God
could not be purely intellectual, but rather
must be direct, intuitive, and experiential.
Such direct experience of God is possible
because man is not an autonomous being in
himself but an ‘image of God’, therefore he can
experience such a birthright in actual practice
if he is restored to his natural state of
‘wholeness in being’. Perhaps this is the true
meaning of ‘holistic living’, as we learn to
integrate all the different fragments of our
selves into a ‘whole’ being.
According to Markides, only in such higher modes
of functioning of the human consciousness, or
more spiritually attuned states, can man indeed
hear the voice of God speaking from within him.
Man should not merely recognize the divine, but
become the divine himself, and that only through
such an initiation can Christianity become
actual on earth.
He goes on to explain how Christ is everywhere
crucified in the lower nature. When we overcome
the lower nature and get in touch with our
higher self the crucified Christ is awakened.
Thus, man’s purpose on earth would be to embody
the Son of God.
“Jesus on the Cross,
The lower self crucified,
Is a potent Archetype in our life
for the Christ in us to rise!”
During the period of the Mysteries, “Union with
the Spirit” was only for a few who had been
initiated, yet with the Essenes, a whole
community cultivated a “Union”. Through the
Christ event, the very deeds of Christ were
placed before the whole of humanity, so that
this “Union” could become a way of knowledge
open to all mankind.
In essence there has always been only one spiritual teaching,
although it comes in many forms. Unfortunately
some of the forms, such as the ancient religions
including Christianity, have become so overlaid
with extraneous matter that their spiritual
essence has become almost completely obscured by
it. To a large extent their deeper meaning and
transformative power is no longer recognized and
lost.
In “The Power of Now” Eckhart Tolle explains how Christ is your God
essence, or the Self, as it is sometimes called
in the East. Christ refers to the indwelling
divinity regardless of whether you are conscious
of it or not, whereas ‘presence’ means your
awakened divinity or God-essence. He holds that
many misunderstandings and false beliefs about
Christ will clear if you realize that there is
no past or future in Christ. To say that Christ
was or will be is a contradiction in terms.
Jesus was. He was a man who lived 2,000 years
ago and realized divine presence. Jesus said:
“Before Abraham was, I am”. It is a Zen-like
statement of great profundity, as he attempted
to convey directly the meaning of self-realisation.
And what is God’s self-definition in the Bible:
“I am that I am”.
Therefore, the Second Coming of Christ may well be a transformation
of human consciousness, not the arrival of some
man or woman.
A final confession:
I find it fascinating that an increasing number of people agree
that Jesus spent his lost years, between the
ages of 12 and 30, travelling through Egypt and
India, studying their sacred texts and being
initiated into their Mysteries. Elizabeth Clare
Prophets, in the “The Lost Years of Jesus”
offers documentary evidence of Jesus’s 17 year
journey to the East. This is corroborated by the
findings of the Russian-born painter, poet,
philosopher and mystic Nicholas Roerich. Have
you ever considered whether it is possible that
Mary Magdalen was really Jesus’s partner, as
suggested in “The Holy Grail and the Holy
Blood”, and that they were initiated together
into the Egyptian and Eastern Mysteries?
About a century ago such queries would have been
held as unquestionably heretical. (Being burnt
on the stake for such comments was a real
possibility back then…phew, its getting hot in
here! ;))
I am hoping that nowadays it may be considered a
healthy part of self-discovery, for individuals
interested in their spiritual roots to expand
the horizons of their search, and not to listen
blindly and solely to what has been dictated to
them by dogma.
Do you silently agree?
Come on confess!
You are Christs’ Hands
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
No hands but yours,
No feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men
now.
Teresa of Avila
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JEWISH JEWELS
As a primarily Christian country we may not know
(or care!) much about Jewish traditions or
teachings, yet hopefully we can still appreciate
the following Jewish Jewels as a precious part
of the world’s great spiritual treasures.
Especially since Judaism, is the forefather of
Christianity, and the oldest religion to teach a
belief in one single, all-powerful, all-knowing
God.
The Book of Exodus describes how the Jews spent
years in exile as slaves in Egypt until Moses
their prophet led them out of Egypt to the
Promised Land. On the journey God gave Moses the
tablets containing the Torah (the first five
main books of the Hebrew Bible) and the Ten
Commandments. To keep them the Israelites made a
wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant.
David who won fame as a military leader by
killing Goliath, was later chosen as the king of
Israel, and conquered Jerusalem. He brought the
Ark of the Covenant there and set it beneath his
tent. His son Solomon succeeded him as King of
Israel, and built the first temple in Jerusalem,
which housed the Ark of the Covenant and became
the center of worship, devotion and pilgrimage
for the Jewish religion.
Jerusalem has always been the most important
city for the Jews. It’s the site of Solomon’s
Temple and of a later temple, after the
Babylonians destroyed the first. It is a place
of pilgrimage and a devotional center for the
Jewish faith. Jerusalem is also sacred to the
Christian and Islamic faiths, which ironically
has caused disputes in the city for hundreds of
years, rather than bringing these different
faiths together, in the knowledge that all three
are different ‘paths’ to the same Source.
The Torah contains 613 commandments known as
Mitzvah, on which Jewish life is based. ‘Torah’
means “guidance” and “teaching” but it also
translates as “law”. Over thousands of years,
prophets and rabbis have added a huge body of
commentary to the Torah together with writings
that discuss the commentaries. However, the
whole essence of the Torah has been summed up in
one sentence:
“Whatever thou hatest thyself, that do not to
another”
Has a familiar ring to it no?
The first of the Jewish Patriarchs was Abraham,
followed by his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob,
and Jacob’s 12 sons from whom the twelve tribes
of Israel originate. The Jews are historically
called Israelites after the Patriarch Jacob who
after a mysterious struggle with God, was
renamed “Israel”, or “he who strives with God”,
and gave his name to his descendants.
In a dream God told Jacob that the land he lay
on would always belong to him and his
descendants. When Jacob dreamt of a great Ladder
stretching from Earth up to on High, he saw the
Great Chain of Being. He also saw Angelic
messengers going up and down indicating two
processes, one coming from above, the other from
below. Some Kabbalists see this as the descent
of souls to Earth to be born and the ascent from
death. Others regard the going up as the return
to the Divine.
The Kabbalah is the esoteric tradition within
Judaism. The term Kabbalah is the name given to
a collection of mystical ideas, passed on by
word of mouth and kept secret. The Book of
Splendor, or Zohar, is the main text of the
Kabbalah, written in Spain, by a 13th
Century Jewish mystic, Moses de Leon. The Zohar
introduced new rituals and describes the Sefirot,
attributes of God from which he created the
Cosmos.
Ein Sof is the hidden God which can not be
perceived, but which can only be deduced from
its emanations in our world. The Ten Sefirot are
the ten manifestations of God and reveal how He
interacts with the world. They are often shown
as the branches of a tree, and in fact the
Kabbalah is also known as the Tree of Life.
Dion Fortune in ‘The Principles of Hermetic
Philosophy’, explains how the Sefirot also form
a six-pointed star, “the traditional symbol of
the perfected spiritual man”. This is probably
the hidden meaning of the Star of David, the
symbol of Israel, which is represented by a
six-pointed star.
The last precious Jewish Jewel an Israeli
traveler friend shared with me, is that the word
‘Coincidence’ when spelt in Hebrew and
read the other way round translates as ‘God’.
Thus the well-coined phrase “there are no
coincidences’” takes on an even deeper
meaning. And for those skeptics out there, I’m
not implying there is no God, but that
coincidences and synchronicities are those
little signs sent along the way to show us we’re
on the right track!
By Erika Brincat © 7/2003
The Spiral Ladder
Our DNA
The double-helix
Within which our consciousness is encoded
Is being raised higher and higher
Upon the Spiral Ladder
to vibrate in synch
With Father Spirit in the Skies
Who appeared as a Cloud upon His Shroud
Like a Dream upon my Life’s Screen
And I thank Thee
For showing me that you are even here
For indeed you are Everywhere!
8.8.2003
Erika Brincat ©
THE GOLDEN RULE
BUDDHIST: Hurt not
others in ways that you would find hurtful
HINDU: This is the sum of duty, do
naught unto others
which if
done to thee would cause thee pain
CHRISTIAN: All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them
ISLAMIC: No one of you is a believer
until he desires for his brother that which he
desires for himself
JEWISH: Whatever thou hatest thyself,
that do not to another
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The
Islamic Verses
The long and difficult relationship between
Islam and the West entered a new phase in the
aftermath of the September 11th attacks on
America. The legacy of anti-Islamic sentiment
deeply rooted in the Western perceptions of
Islam and Muslims took a new dimension. This
makes it even more urgent for us nowadays to
take some time to acquaint ourselves with this
world religion and the truths it contains, which
to a great part have been debased and looked at
with suspicion by the Western world.
Many of my illusions and false judgements about
Islam were shattered when I came across the
Qu’ran one fine day and decided to leaf through
this mysterious book. Almost surprisingly I
found that it was full of sheer poetry, and
beautifully written verses which were very
uplifting to read.
Such as Surah 91, entitled The Sun, Ash-Shams
which reads as follows:
“By the Sun and his morning brightness
By the Moon as she follows him
By the day which reveals its splendour
By the night when it enshrouds him
By the heaven and its construction
By the earth and its spreading
By the soul and its molding and inspiration
With knowledge of wickedness and purity
Successful is the one who keeps it pure!”
So…..what is Islam? The word ‘Islam’ has the
dual meaning of ‘peace’ and ‘submission to the
will of God’. It traces its lineage right back
to the prophets Abraham and Adam and describes
itself as a continuation of the message of
Judaism and Christianity. Both Jesus and Moses
are seen as Prophets and have exalted positions.
The religious texts of Islam are the Qu’ran and
the biography of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Islamic pilgrimage, ‘hajj’, is seen in the
ritual of circumbulation seven times around the
Ka’ba, the sacred shrine at the center of the
sanctuary in Mecca, which every Muslim must
visit on a pilgrimage at least once. The large
cubic structure is believed to be a meteorite
received from the Angel Gabriel. It is
interesting to note that mosques around the
world are built so that if one were to connect
them all, they would form ever-expanding
concentric circles, with the Ka’ba at their
center.
Muslims believe that the Qu’ran is the Word of
God. It is also a commentary on the life of the
Prophet Muhammad. It is above all an oral text.
Just like the notes in a symphony, so the verses
in the Qu’ran are frequently repeated. That also
makes it very easy to memorise and recite. At
any given time, there are hundreds of millions
of Muslims who have memorized the Qu’ran. They
carry it, as the Muslim tradition says, ‘in
their heart’.
Roughly a third of the Qu’ran is devoted to the
discussion of the attributes of God, a third
devoted to extolling the virtues of reason,
thinking, reflection, study, knowledge and
wisdom, and a third devoted to issues of law,
legislation and public policy.
Here are some selected verses from the Qu’ran:
‘God loves those who judge equitably’.
(5.42)
‘And one of His signs is the creation of heaven
and earth and the diversity of your languages
and colours; surely there are signs in this for
the learned.’
‘Even if you stretch out your hand against me to
kill me, I shall not stretch out my hand against
you to kill you. I fear Allah, the Lord of the
World.’ (5:28)
Unfortunately, we can not escape from the fact
that some of the sayings and words of Prophet
Muhammad are quoted to justify the most extreme
behaviour. The word ‘Jihad’ for example, or
righteous struggle against all variety of
injustice, when the greatest jihad ultimately
refers to the struggle against one’s own
limitations. Even the Prophet’s own appearance,
his beard and clothes, have been turned into a
fetish, so now it is obligatory for example for
a ‘good Muslim’ to have a beard. Perhaps some
Muslims have yet to realize that the Qu’ran does
not provide ready-made and literal answers for
all their problems.
On the other hand, Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is
called in Arabic, is generally understood to be
the inner, mystical or psycho-spiritual
dimension of Islam. In spite of its many
variations and voluminous expressions, the
essence of Sufi practice is quite simple. It is
that the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over
and over; which involves embracing with love at
each moment the content of one’s consciousness
(one’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as
well as one’s sense of self) as gifts of God,
or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.
The definition of Sufism is the selfless
experiencing and actualization of the Truth. The
practice of Sufism is the intention to go toward
the Truth, by means of love and devotion. This
is called Tariqat, the Spiritual path or way
towards God. The definition of the Sufi is one
who is a lover of Truth, who by means of love
and devotion moves towards the Truth.
As Shebli said:
“One who dies for the love of the material
world, dies a hypocrite. One who dies for the
love of the hereafter, dies an ascetic. But one
who dies for the love of Truth, dies a Sufi”.
The mystical poet Rumi, is one of the most
well-known Sufis whose verses have reached and
touched the Western world. Here are a few
excerpts from his writings:
‘What characteristics do God and humans have in
common?
What is the connection between what lives in
time and what lives in eternity?’
‘Don’t grieve when something doesn’t come.
Some things that don’t happen
Keep disasters from happening.’
‘The body itself is a screen
To shield and partially reveal
The light that’s blazing inside your presence.’
‘Look carefully around you and recognize the
luminosity of souls
Sit beside those who draw you to that.’
‘Your deepest need and desire is satisfied by
the moment’s energy
Here in your hand.
And ‘You dance inside my chest where no-one
sees you’ which
reminds me of the Hindu texts where Shiva is
seen as dancing unseen within the chest of his
devotees.
According to Sufism, the existence of the
Beloved is not provable. The Friend, as Rumi
usually calls this presence within and
infinitely beyond the senses, is elusive and
nearer than the big vein on your neck, therefore
you need a mirror to see it. The sheik (ix-xih),
or sage one, is a mirror, a reminder of that
presence within you. The understanding that
comes through a sheikh gives nourishment and
transforming energy to many. Indeed, isn’t there
a wise soul in your life who you look to for
guidance when problems arise, and who you admire
for their presence and way of life?
I hereby hope to have highlighted briefly why it
is important for us, no matter what religion or
belief-system we may subscribe to, to
acknowledge the beauty found within the Islamic
verses despite the distortions which have
occurred throughout history, and to recognize
Islam, including its mystical counterpart
Sufism, as another significant path which can
lead to the heart, and must be given the respect
it deserves, even by those not converted to its
ways.
By Erika Brincat
June/2003
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