|
Message |
| Posted By: |
Soul Survivor |
| Date: |
20-Feb-2000 |
| Subject: |
Is God a part of creation? |
This post by Don't know Jack was buried deep in another thread and I thought it might be of interest to some who might otherwise miss it:
>This ("Is God a part of creation?") is one of my favorite subjects to
>ponder. I have a long-standing fascination with the Cathars, who took
>the "No" answer to even more of an extreme than the Roman church. For
>the Catholics, the world was created by God but Satan fucked
>with it, causing the fall from Grace. For the Cathars, the physical
>world was created by Satan, and thus spiritual fulfillment could never
>be found there. I have always wondered what would have happened if one
>of the Cathar priests/priestesses (over half of them were women)
>had begun experiencing direct cognitions of Unity, a la Eastern
>traditions. Talk about cognitive dissonance! :-)<
This is a favorite of mine too. There are actually quite a number of spiritual traditions throughout history that have subscribed to this view, including several who come out of Eastern traditions. For example, the Sikhs- the ancestors of the current religion who thrived from around 1400-1650 AD- produced some of the greatest Masters, including Kabir and Nanak, to name two... and also a great spiritual treatise, the Adi Granth, which is a great read even today. This was long before Sikhism became a sectarian religion. The same thing happened with them as happens with all great teachings, which is that the power of the teachings dissipated over time after the death of the founding Master, i.e. Christ or Buddha, or in this case Nanak. Rama liked the Sikhs and even visited them when he was living in Santa Fe. He admired their devotion to their guru, among other things.
Traditions like this believe that God is the Creator of all existence. There are multifarious planes, i.e. physical, astral, causal, mental, as well as higher planes of enlightenment, that all intersect in a non-hierarchical way, overlapping in a sense. Each of us, as soul, is a drop of consciousness in God's infinite ocean. As in the parable of Satan, who was cast down from grace into the lower worlds, so are we all separated in a similar way from the essence of God, and we wander in the lower ends of God's creation for eons, eventually evolving to a point where we desire to return home to God's grace, i.e. enlightenment. The important point is that God loves us as soul and wishes for each of us to realize our true nature once again.
But there is a catch, and it's a mindfucker. In these traditions, God has appointed an agent who masquerades as God, and who is commissioned by God to create the lower worlds, i.e the planes of dualism. The upshot is that the denizens of the dualistic worlds worship a God who isn't the real God at all! The true Creator exists beyond dualism and never ventures into the lower levels of His creation, which He has delegated to His agent, the 'fake God'. This adds many levels of illusion and maya to the picture, needless to say. So the God that religious people fear and worship and pray to, isn't really God (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain ;-) )
But, as with all truth, it's not black and white. God isn't up there and we down here. God exists in every atom and molecule of His creation and while He can't be contacted directly in the lower worlds, He does give us a way back to His doorstep. This is a hidden way that can only be discovered through a seeker's intense desire to know God through meditation and contemplation, and that desire is the key that unlocks the doorway to the Divine.
It's an interesting cosmology, which evokes some fascinating questions. For starters, is stillness the end, or is it still a partiality? Are there more aspects to existence than we previously thought? Is samadhi the be all and end all of spiritual practice?... and what is it that we are actually merging with when we stop our thoughts?
This is a spiritual science that goes beyond any specific discipline, i.e. Sikhism, and there are schools and paths that exist today. Christ's original teachings, which were greatly influenced from Eastern traditions of his time, can be seen in the same light, as can Buddha's. But before a person can even begin to embrace such radical ideas, they have to get to a point where they are so sick of running around in circles on the wheel of dharma that they throw up their hands and scream, spiritually speaking. And that's when they start noticing the guy in the corner of the Tibetan thanka who's pointing in the other direction, off the page.
|
The messages posted hear are those of the specific individual and may not represent the policies of Lila Publishing, the ideas of any other member of this bulletin board community or the teachings of Dr. Frederick Lenz. All copyrights are maintained by respective contributors and may not be reused without permission. By posting on this board you grant Lila Publishing a non-exclusive royalty free license under your copyright to use, store, display and reproduce your messages in whole or in part. All site assets, including these Perl scripts copyright © 1999-2002 Lila Publishing. These Perl scripts may not be directly linked to.
|
Communication Center - Version 3.50
© 1999-2002 Lila Publishing
|
