Meister Eckhart, (1260-c1328) - Nondual Christian Mystic Sage

The deeply influential German Catholic mystic theologian and spiritual psychologist Meister Eckhart was the most illustrious spiritual instructor of his day. He was also unjustly condemned as a heretic by the papacy after an impressive career of writing, teaching, preaching, directing souls and serving as a high-level administrator of the Dominican Order. Eckhart, virtually forgotten by the Church for centuries, is seen by growing numbers of people in the modern era to be one of the world’s pinnacle “non dual” mystics. His influence is greater now than at any time since the 14th century. His chief interest was to invite any already advanced, pious souls into a profound state of God-realization in this very lifetime. He stated:”God alone is completely real; real in every sense—all else is only partially so. And that which is fully real in what is other-than-God is God’s presence in it. Thus from the divine perspective a sublime continuity reigns. Everything that is, to the degree that it is, is God him/her/itself, our pronouns do not fit”.

Eckhart’s mystic teachings were suspect to non-mystics who heard or read his works out of context.

Example: Eckhart’s words on “sin” from one of his earliest writings: “Love knows nothing of sin, not that man has not sinned, but sins are blotted out at once by love and they vanish as if they had not been. This is because whatever God does, he does it completely, like the cup running over. Whom he forgives, he forgives utterly and at once”.

Eckhart did not want people maintaining an ego-sense through guilt any more than he wanted them to inflate the ego through pride. An essential aim of Meister Eckhart’s teaching is selflessness and emptiness so that God can be one's only One.

Eckhart’s theology is that of radical pantheism (all in God, God in all), which goes far beyond mere theism, which can only posit a transcendent God up there. who sometimes personally intervenes. For Eckhart, God’s supremely glorious nature can only mean that God is fully transcendent and fully immanent, entirely beyond all and yet completely within all as the One Who alone Is, pure Spirit, the groundless Ground or Essence of all. For Eckhart, therefore, God is both the transpersonal God (Gotheit) and the personal Lord, i.e., the triune God (Gottheit) the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one non dual, indistinct Divine Nature.

Meister Eckhart says that the man who finds no taste of God wearies of looking for him. One of the criticisms of Christianity, and why many young Christians turn to the East, to Buddhism or to Hinduism, is that in Christianity there is no apparent method in how do to find God? Where does one even start? Eckhart is one of the Christians who looked at this and accepts it as a problem. Good intentions are not always enough. We need instruction in how to make ourselves fit to receive the revelation of God, to receive the eternal birth.

Eckhart said that when we go out of ourselves to find God or fetch God, we are making a mistake, because we do not find God outside ourselves, because God is in us. Our best chance of finding God is where we currently are.

Eckhart’s most distinctive teaching is probably his teaching that nothing separates our souls and God, and that the birth of our communion with God can take place in the depths of our souls at any time.

But what does it avail me that the birth of our communion with God can happen at any time, if it does not happen to me? That it should happen in me is what matters. We shall therefore examine this birth, of how it may take place in us that is, in our soul, whenever God the Father speaks His eternal word.

The eternal birth takes place in the depths of the Self, of the soul, beyond our senses, and he is saying that with God’s help we should acquire the capacity to inwardly empty the mind of all sense experience, of all that takes us out of our true Selves.

We should accustom ourselves to having God always present in our consciousness and our intentions and we have to believe that no one can come between us and the God, who is present in us.

Letting Ourselves Go

 If we can learn to let go of our self, we have to let go of everything. Total letting go is the way to gain all things in the God. God wants no more from us than that we should go out of ourselves, and let Him be in us. We need to go completely out of ourselves and let God’s love reign in us, and God will come when we are ready, in other words when we are totally empty of our little self. Empty yourself and you will be filled.

How do we discern the Birth in Us?

 It is in and through letting go, relinquishing and unbecoming, that the birth of the Word (voice of God) in the soul takes place. Detaching and birthing are not successive stages in a mystical path but two sides of the same coin.

But how are we to know that the Divine Word has been born in us?

We will know partly by the way we behave says Eckhart: “The one who rests on nothing, who is attached to nothing, though heaven and earth should fall, will remain unmoved.”

The more and more clearly God’s image shows in us, the more evidently God is born in us, but we know what has happened mainly from what we are aware of what has happened to us. In the words of Eckhart: “We must know that God is born in us, when the mind is stilled and our senses trouble us no longer. Whoever truly possesses God possesses him in all places: on the street, in any company, as well as in a church or a remote place or in their cell. Grasping all things in a divine way and making of them something more than they are in themselves cannot be learned by taking flight, but rather we must learn to maintain an inner solitude regardless of where we are or who we are with. Be still and know that I am God.

Possessing God in All Things

When counseling someone, he would say: “Either a person must find God in works or abandon all works, but, since one cannot in this life be without works, he must learn to possess God in all things, for in all things we notice only God”.

Eckhart on Praying

Never pray for any transitory thing: but if you would pray for anything, you should pray for God’s Will alone and nothing else, and then you get everything. If you pray for anything else, you will get nothing of importance.

In God there is nothing but one, and one is indivisible. If we seek or expect anything more, that is not God but a fraction of the one. We should seek nothing at all, neither knowledge nor understanding nor inwardness nor piety nor repose, only God’s will. If we seek God’s will alone, whatever flows from that or is revealed by that we may take as a gift from God without ever looking or considering whether it is by nature or grace or where it comes from or in what guise it appears. We need only lead an ordinary Christian life without considering doing anything special.

Eckhart courageously braved the charges of heresy by affirming that in every soul is the Divine Spirit ItSelf as its true Identity. Eckhart specifically declared that there is a non-creaturely “uncreated aspect of the soul,” which is always already perfectly one with God. A startling, shocking truth that elated the many mystics of his time who flocked to hear his sermons, and, predictably, angered the non-mystics whose stunted intuition could not resonate with what the Meister so beautifully spoke.

Meister Eckhart’s Quotes

“If the only prayer you said was thank you that would be enough.”

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”

“And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”

“Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.”

“Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”

“Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.”

“Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”

“I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.”

“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.”

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. ”

“Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this. Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are”.

“Your surroundings doesn’t matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you”.

“God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be.”

“A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.”

“One must learn an inner solitude, wherever one may be.”

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.”

“One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works.”

“If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.”

“If anyone went on for a thousand years asking of life: 'Why are you living?' Life, if it could answer, would only say, 'I live so that I may live.' That is because life lives out of its own ground and springs from its own source, and so it lives without asking why it is itself living. ”

The Christ 2

John 1:12-13 (KJV)

¹² But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

¹³ Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The light of God shines on all, but because of ignorance all do not receive, reflect it alike.

To be a son of God is not something that has to be acquired, rather one only has to receive His light and realize God has already bestowed it on us from the very beginning as spiritual beings. Unfortunately many people ensconced in materiality scoff at the idea of Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12 (NIV)

Concerning Spiritual Gifts

12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same

Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

1 Corinthian 15:50 (KJV 2000)

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

1 Corinthian 15:44 (KJV 2000)

The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

“Even to them that believe on his name.”

When even the name of God rouses one’s devotional anchors, one’s thought in Him, it becomes a door to salvation. When the mere mention of His name sets the soul afire with love for God, it will start the devotee on his way to liberation.

The deeper meaning of “name” is a reference to Cosmic Vibration (the Word, Aum, Amen). God as Spirit has no depicting name. Whatever we may call Him, can in no way describe Him.

God the Creator and Father of all vibrates through nature as the eternal life, and that life has the sound of the great Amen or Aum. That name defines God most accurately. “Those who believe on his name” means those who commune with that Aum sound, the voice of God in the Holy Ghost vibration. By listening to this omnipresent sound and merging in its holy stream, the consciousness of the body caged soul begins gradually to spread itself from the limitations of the body into omnipresence. Then the mental faculties renounce their boundaries and with the all knowing soul faculty of intuition, tune in with the cosmic mind, the intelligence immanent in the all pervasive Cosmic Vibration.

After listening to and feeling oneness with the cosmic sound of the Holy spirit emanating from every part and particle of God’s material, heavenly and ideationally conceived spheres of being, the consciousness of the meditating devotee will vibrate in all creation as his own cosmic body. When his expanded consciousness becomes stable in all vibratory creation, he realizes the presence of the immanent Christ Consciousness. Then one becomes Christ like; his consciousness experiences, within the vehicle of his expanded Self, the “second coming of Christ”, the presence within him of Christ Consciousness, even as Jesus felt the Universal Christ expressed in his body and taught his disciples to do likewise.

When one feels his consciousness one with Universal Christ, he realizes that Christ Consciousness is the reflection in his soul and in all creation of the Cosmic consciousness of God the Father existing transcendentally beyond all vibratory creation.

John 1:13-15 (KJV)

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 

but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

Yoga interpretation:

The son of man is the physical body, which comes out of another human body, but the son of God means the soul, the inherent divine consciousness of God. Thus in truth all human beings are sons of God, children born of God, made in His image.  

Essential, sons of God are clear reflections of the Father untarnished by delusion, but have become sons of man by identifying with the flesh and forgetfulness of their origin in Spirit.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The Word, the creative energy and sound of Cosmic Vibration, like the sound of waves of unimaginable power went out of the Creator to manifest the universe. That Cosmic Vibration, permeated with Cosmic Intelligence, was condensed into subtle element and all matters of rays and solids. The “Word became flesh” means vibratory energy producing that cosmic sound was condensed into matter.

Man is a threefold being: physical, mental and spiritual, a unique combination of forces and consciousness capable of fully comprehending divinity in himself and in the universe.

.“And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”.

We means advanced souls who have reclaimed their sonship with God, and who experience the Holy Spirit Cosmic Vibration and the inner Cosmic Christ Intelligence, the only begotten of the Father in all creation.

“John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me”.

The consciousness of John the Baptist was in tune with the universal Christ Intelligence and could witness from his own intuition the glory of Christ consciousness as manifest in the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit creative Light and also in the divine consciousness be saw incarnate in Jesus.

John 1:16-17 (KJV)

16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

All prophets have received of the fullness of the Christ Consciousness that permeates creation; all those who are in tune receive that consciousness without measure. Lesser men receive according to their capacity. All receive who make their minds pure.“ And grace for grace”: Every goodness in man is received from the eternal goodness of God.

The fullness of the Spirit is reflected evenly on all souls. But those who are sons of God receive and reflect the Divine Presence fully.

“And grace for grace” every goodness is an opening through which the light of God shines. Every expression of a dark mentality shuts out Divine Presence.

“For the law was given by Moses, but Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. This verse is not indented to define any difference in the degree of spirituality between Jesus and Moses, but to show, that ever one has a different purpose to fulfill on earth.  

“Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”: That is, all truth, the power behind universal law, flows from Christ Consciousness which was manifest in Jesus. The eternal laws are in fact maintained through the omnipresence of the Christ Intelligence. Jesus, through the consciousness of the Universal Christ within, came to show that grace and truth and goodness flow from that divine source.

John 1:18 (KJV)

18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 

It is the Christ Intelligence in all creation that has manifested the invisible God the Father transcendent beyond creation. We would have no idea of the transcendent God the Father were it not for the “only begotten “Intelligence reflected in all matter, declaring His existence.

About the word “seen”, one who is body bound, whose consciousness is limited to sensory perceptions and the thought that he is a mortal being, cannot see God. But to Jesus who was in tune with the Infinite Christ Intelligence, God no longer an unintelligible mystery. With the all seeing intuitive perception of his soul, he could see God in any aspect, either materialized out of the Vibratory light, or in divine oneness as the formless Absolute.

Jesus and John the Baptist

Malachi 4:5

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

These words foretell the coming of Christ Jesus and the rebirth of Elijah.

 Elijah

Elias is the New Testament (Greek) form of Elijah (Hebrew), as in Matthew 17:3–4, Luke 4:25–26, and James 5:17. In these instances, Elias was the ancient prophet Elijah whose ministry is recorded in 1 and 2 Kings.

13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

So he (Elijah) departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.

1 King 19:19 (KJV)

Jesus spoke of John the Baptist

But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they desired. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

Matthew 17:12-13 (KJV 2000)

Then the disciples understood that he spoke of John the Baptist.

It was Elisha incarnate as Jesus who recognized John the Baptist from past association as Elijah and Elias.  

When it came time for the Lord to end the earthly incarnation of Elijah, the great prophet said to Elisha:

9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

10 And he (Elijah) said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

12 ¶And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

13 He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;

14 And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.

15 And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

2 King 2:9 15

Modern church fathers don’t subscribe to re-incarnation. Yet, when we read

Jeremiah 1:5 KJV, it tells a different story:

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

(the early Christian church accepted the doctrine of reincarnation, which was taught by the Gnostics and by numerous church fathers, including Clements of Alexandria, Origen (both 3^rd century) and St. Jerome (5^th century). The doctrine was first declared heresy in 553 A.D. by the second Council of Constantinople. 

More scriptural support for reincarnation

Ancient writings were discovered in 1945 which revealed more information about the concept of reincarnation from a sect of Christians called "Gnostics".  This sect was ultimately destroyed by the Roman Orthodox Church, their followers burned at the stake and their writings wiped out.

A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the Gnostic texts discovered, describes Jesus performing secret initiation rites.  Before the discovery of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by Church Father Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 211 AD), which quotes this secret gospel and refers to it as "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected."

Gnostics were spiritual critics of the Orthodox Church of what they saw as not so much a popularization as a vulgarization of Christianity.  The Orthodox Church stressed faith, while the Gnostic church stressed knowledge (gnosis).  This secret knowledge emphasized spiritual resurrection rather than physical resurrection.  Indeed, the Gnostic Christians believed reincarnation to be the true interpretation of "resurrection" for those who have not attained a spiritual resurrection through this secret knowledge.

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus states that the Pharisees, the founders of rabbinic Judaism for whom Paul once belonged, believed in reincarnation.  He writes that the Pharisees believed that the souls of bad men are punished after death but that the souls of good men are "removed into other bodies" and they will "have power to revive and live again."

In the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells the disciple Thomas that after death those who were once believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory beauty" will be consumed "in their concern about life" and will be "brought back to the visible realm".

In the Secret Book of John, reincarnation is placed at the heart of its discussion of the salvation of souls.  The book was written by 185 AD at the latest.  Here is the Secret Book of John's perspective on reincarnation:

All people have drunk the water of forgetfulness and exist in a state of ignorance.  Some are able to overcome ignorance through the Spirit of life that descends upon them.  These souls "will be saved and will become perfect," that is, escape the round of rebirth.  John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain salvation.  They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and thrown into "prison", the Gnostic code word for new body.  The only way for these souls to escape, says Jesus, is to emerge from forgetfulness and acquire knowledge.  A soul in this situation can do so by finding a teacher or savior who has the strength to lead her home.  "This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit.  Then she will never be thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John)

Several Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and union with God.  The Apocalypse of Paul, a second-century text, describes the Merkabah-style ascent of the apostle Paul as well as the reincarnation of a soul who was not ready for such an ascent.  It shows how both reincarnation and ascents fit into Gnostic theology.

For the Gnostic Christians, resurrection was also a spiritual event - simply the awakening of the soul.  They believed that people who experience the resurrection can experience eternal life or union with God, while on earth and then after death, escape rebirth.  People who don't experience the resurrection and union with God on earth will reincarnate.  Jesus states the following the Gnostic Gospels:

"People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken.  If they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip)

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is saying that the resurrection and the kingdom are already here.  We simply do not realize it - or, in the Gnostic sense, we simply have not integrated with them.

The Christ

Jesus came to fulfill the mission of Divine love.

Without the intersession of God’s love coming to earth through example, guiding hand of his avatars, it would hardly be possible for humanity to find their way to God. Divine incarnations are part of God’s plan to make know his will.

Of the coming of Jesus several references are cited in the Old Testament.

Matthew 1:23 KJV: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

From the book of prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 52:13, 15 (KJV)

13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Divine intercession is to mitigate the cosmic law of cause and effect, by which one suffers for his errors, was at the heart of the mission of love Jesus came to fulfill. Moses brought the law from God to man, emphasizing the awful justice that befalls willful wrongdoers. Jesus came to demonstrate the forgiveness and compassion of God, whose love is a shelter even from exacting law. Similarly, Jesus was preceded by Gautama Buddha, the Enlightened One whose incarnation reminded the forgetful generation of the ever-rotating wheel of karma, self initiated action and its efforts, which make each person and not a cosmic dictator, responsible for his own present condition.

John 15:13 King James Version (KJV)

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Nature of an avatar consciousness or incarnation of God

To understand the magnitude of a divine incarnation, it is important to understand the source and nature of the consciousness that is germane to the avatar. Jesus spoke of his consciousness when he proclaimed: I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Those who unite their consciousness to God know both the transcendent and the immanent nature of Spirit, the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever new Bliss of the Uncreated Absolute, and the many manifestations of His Being.

St. John in the New Testament expressed the deep esoteric truth experience by Jesus who transferred it to John.

The One Spirit, source of all creation

“ In the beginning … with these words commence the cosmologies of the Old and Testament alike. Beginning refers to the birth of finite creation, for in the Eternal Absolute – Spirit – there is no beginning nor end.

When no object of any kind had come into being, Spirit existed. The unmanifested Absolute cannot be described except, that it is the Knower, the Knowing and the Known existing in One.

John 1:1-4 (KJV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Word means intelligent vibration, intelligent energy going forth from God. Any utterance of a word consists of sound energy or vibration, plus thought, which indwell intelligent meaning. Likewise, the Word that is the beginning and source of all created substances is Cosmic Vibration pervaded with Cosmic Intelligence.

Official church doctrine for centuries has interpreted the Word, Logos in Greek, to refer to Jesus himself (this interpretation became accepted as church orthodoxy mainly because of Irenaeus, second century bishop of Lyons and author of ‘Against Heresies’. This apparently was not originally indented by St. John who was familiar with the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as Targums (the Targums are interpretive renderings of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic. Such versions were needed when Hebrew ceased to be the normal medium of communication among the Jews).  Aramaic Bible:

“Lord Jehovah created me at the beginning of his creation and from before all of his works.”  Also, according to Church Fathers like Philo, Clement of Alexandria and Origin all associated the Logos with the Word of God in the Old Testament accounts of creation when ‘God spoke and it was done.’

Like the divine Wisdom, the Word symbolized God’s original plan for creation.

Another example:

John 1:3

All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. (KJV)

1. Trinitarians use this verse to show that Christ made the world and its contents. However, that is not the case. What we have learned from the study of John 1:1 above will be helpful in properly interpreting this verse.

John 1:1-3

    (1) In the beginning was the Word [the wisdom, plan or purpose of God], and the Word was with God, and the Word was divine.

   

    (2) The same was in the beginning with God.

    

   (3) All things were made by it [the Word]; and without it was not anything made that was made.

2. The pronoun in verse 3 can legitimately be translated as “it.” It does not have to be translated as “him,” and it does not have to refer to a “person” in any way. A primary reason why people get the idea that “the Word” is a person is that the pronoun “he” is used with it.

Meaning of Trinity compared with Hindu teachings

Unmanifested Spirit became God the Father, the Creator of all creative vibration. God the Father in Hindu scriptures, is called Ishvara (the Cosmic Ruler) or Sat (the supreme essence of Cosmic consciousness), the Transcendental Intelligence. That is God the Father exists transcendentally untouched by any tremor of vibratory creation, as a separate Cosmic Consciousness.

The vibratory force emanating from spirit, endowed with the creative power of Maya, is the Holy Spirit; Cosmic Vibration, the Word, Aum (Om) or Amen. All things, all created planets and living beings in the Holy Spirit, or Holy vibration, are nothing but frozen images of God. This Holy Spirit in the Hindu Scriptures is called Aum or Maha Prakriti (Great Nature, the cosmic mother that gives birth to creation).

These things saith the Amen (the Word, Aum), the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. The holy Cosmic Sound of Aum or Amen is the witness of the manifested Divine Presence in all creation.

The transcendent consciousness of God the Father becomes manifest within the Holy Spirit as the Son, the Christ Consciousness, God’s intelligence in all vibratory creation. This pure reflection of God in the Holy Spirit indirectly guides it to create, re-create, preserve and mold creation according to God’s divine purpose.

Causal, astral and Physical Manifestation

Cosmic creative force transforms matter by changing its rates of vibration. According to yoga teachings, it produces a triune creation: an ideational, or causal world of the finest vibrations of consciousness, God’s thoughts or ideas that are the cause of all forms and forces; an astral world of light and life force, a vibratory energy, the first condensation of the original ideational concepts and a material world of gross atomic vibrations of matter. These worlds are superimposed on one another, the grosser depends on the subtler and all three are ultimately depend on the sole support and consciousness of God.

As in the Macrocosm of the universe, so in the microcosm of man there are three independent bodies. Man’s soul dons these three coverings that serve 

as instrumentalities through which the incarnate spirit can perceive, comprehend and interact with God’s creation. The very first covering of the soul, which individualizes it from Spirit, is one of pure consciousness; it is composed of God’s thoughts or ideas that cause the other two sheaths. This it is referred to as the causal body. The causal idea emits a magnetic force of light and intelligence that form the astral body of man. The astral body is itself the life energy that empowers all the senses and function of the physical body. The physical body is merely a gross materialization of the causal ideas activated by the life and energy of the astral body and endowed with consciousness, self awareness and intelligence from the causal body. All of these vibratory manifestations of the macrocosm and microcosm are derived from the Holy Spirit Vibrations and the transcendent consciousness of God. 

The only begotten Son

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

One needs to look at the difference between Jesus the body and Jesus in the vehicle in which the only begotten son, Christ Consciousness was manifest. Jesus himself makes the distinction when speaking of his body as the son of man and of his soul, which was not defined by his body, but was one with the only begotten Christ consciousness in all aspects of vibratory creation, as the son of God.

God remained hidden beyond the vibratory realm that went out from His Being, but then secreted Himself as the Christ Intelligence in all matter and in all living beings in order to bring all things back to His home of Everlasting Blessedness. The Creator and Supreme Benefactor is never more than a devotional thought away.

John 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. The plural in son’s of God shows distinctly, from the teachings perceived from Jesus, that not the body of Jesus, but his state of Christ Consciousness was the only begotten son; and that all those who could clarify their consciousness and receive, or reflect, the power of God could become sons of God. They would be one with the begotten reflection of God in all matter, as was Jesus; and through the son, Christ Consciousness, ascend to the Father, the supreme Cosmic Consciousness.

John 14:6 (KJV)

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.   

No man can reach the transcendent Father beyond creation without first attuning himself with the Son or Christ Consciousness within creation.

Through yoga, divine union, God can be known not as theoretical concept but as an actual personal experience. When one becomes firmly established in God realization, delusion is transcended and the subordinate mortal consciousness is elevated to Christ like status.

John 1:5 (KJV)

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Darkness means delusion, ignorance. There are two manifestations of darkness: one is Maya, cosmic delusion and the other is avidya, which means ignorance or individual illusion.

Maya is the mass hypnosis of God by which He makes every human being believe in the same illusory reality of creation as perceived by the senses; avidya gives individuality of form, experience and expression (it supports the ego or I consciousness).

The light that shineth in the darkness is the light of God. God is light. In

1 John 1:5 King James Version (KJV)

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Unfortunately mankind is so dark with delusion; it annihilates all true perception, so that the darkness of ignorance cannot capture the light of God vibrating everywhere. However in meditation this darkness goes away and intuition prevails, revealing oneself as light in the greatness of a whole universe of light.

John 1:9 (KJV)

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

The light of the cosmic energy flowing out of the cosmic consciousness of God is the light that informs all beings and lights their consciousness. It is the omnipresent light of God that supports the many forms.

That light is the true light because it is infinite and everlasting, while man only borrows from it his temporary mortal existence from one life to the next. Through yoga one can join the immortals by contacting the light and realizing the unity of human consciousness with the ‘true light, which lighteth every man.’

John 1:10-12  King James Version (KJV)

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

The words ‘he’ and ‘him’ refer to the preceding verses, to the Light (which in actuality should read neuter or it), or omnipresent creative manifestation of God ‘in the world.’ The world means not just this little earth, but the entire cosmos was evolved from that cosmic light.

The world was made by him means that the whole cosmos was evolved from that cosmic light, not just this planet.

‘And the world knew him not’; that ‘true light’ was kept hidden by delusion, unseen by sentient beings.

John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

He was omnipresent immanent in creation, all things (his own) having been made or materialized from the cosmic light stemming from God’s consciousness, His own Self.

God objectified Himself as matter, life and mind. His spirit is thus reflected in ‘his own’ since matter, life and mind are direct manifestations of Spirit, just as man’s soul has manifested itself into body, mind instilled with life. It is because of the limitations on body and mind by delusion that man does not know his perfect, blissful soul, his true Self. He rather sees himself as form, name and specific characteristics subject to worries, troubles and other afflictions of delusion.