Enlightenment, a Christian Perspective Part 1

Most people would readily identify the term Enlightenment with eastern religion, for Enlightenment is not a word in the Christian language, even though it ought to be. However, many people of all ages have been blessed with enlightenment experiences.

Let’s take a look at the definition of Mysticism.

Mysticism is the belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the Absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge is inaccessible to the intellect, but it may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender. In Christian terms, it would translate to be a living experientially based on Oneness or union with God.

What are mystical experiences?

Mystical experiences are states of knowledge, insight, awareness, revelation, and illumination beyond the grasp of the intellect. One experiences awareness of unity with the Absolute or God, of immortality of the soul and of great truths. Time and space are transcended.

Mystical experiences of Eastern adepts

Some Eastern adepts are able to sustain prolonged periods of samadhi (enlightenment), a mystical state of one-pointed concentration. Some reportedly are able to sustain the highest states of nirvana (satori in Zen) and even the rarely attained nirodha ("cessation" or "removal”.) in yoga.

Patanjali used this term in his legendary definition of yoga in the second sutra of the Yoga Sutras: “yoga-citta-vritti-nirodha,” which can be translated as “yoga is the removal of the fluctuations of the mind.”

Orthodox Mysticism:

The mystics of the Eastern Church included the Church Fathers, for in those days the theologians were among the most spiritual of Christians, and the phenomena of mysticism were evident in all levels of clergy, monks, and laity.

In the Eastern Church, contemplation consisted not merely in negation and renunciation, but in a union with God's Spirit, in an experience of spiritual illumination after all intellectual activity had ceased.

A word on prayer of the heart as a union with God

"Prayer of the Heart" must be understood as a prayer of the total person. In using the term "heart" in the Hebraic sense, the earliest Christian mystics meant that prayer was not merely a mental activity, nor merely a physical one, but rather it was a prayer on all levels of one’s being. It was the total response of man to God, and one did not pray merely with the intellect, or merely with the lips. Through discipline, prayer became a spontaneous offering of the whole being of man.

In current Western practice humanity is primarily locked into an intellectual and or emotional, dualistic mind set, which has also crept into the Christian thought. The issue with this is that one focuses on the differences, which often leads to non productive disagreements. To demonstrate this, the dualistic mind separates spirit from matter, man from God, people from one another and from all of creation.

Yet when realized, that matter is an outflow of the manifesting Spirit, one can see, that everything in creation proceeds from the one Spirit.

In our relationship with one another if we see ourselves as being connected by Spirit we are no longer separate, but in union with one another.  Then nondual or Spirit guided consciousness transports us into a state of holistic knowing, where mind, heart, soul, and senses are open and receptive and non judgmental to one another at every moment. Or to what is, and not to what should be which allows one to love things as an expression of Spirit.

Jesus always talked of mercy, not judging, forgiveness, and grace, because these are the things that, if experienced, break down the idea of separation or dualism.

The voice of the Spirit can best be understood as

a subtle inner intuitive voice. It is a felt sense to which, if people pay attention, will come into communion with the Spirit of God.

In the bible we read John 14:26 (KJV)

“26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Experiencing of the Holy Spirit is a feeling of inner peace and joy in all circumstances.

We need to listen to one’s inner voice, trust and act upon it. Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God is within you”.

John 3:5-8

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

5 “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The experience of the Holy Spirits in one’s life is the humming sound that one hears in the inner ear in deep meditation, the Om, Amen, Revelation 3:14 (KJV) “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

Within this sound one is aware of the Christ intelligence present in all creation.

John 14:17-19 (KJV)

Jesus –“17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”.

The Holy Spirit can be received only by those who have the spiritual discernment. The unbelieving world, caring only for things of the senses, has lost its spiritual perception. It has no eye to see and no heart to know spiritual things, for they are spiritually discerned.

The spirit of truth is experienced in the heart, one’s inner essence, which needs to be awakened.

What does the Bible say about light?

Let’s take a look at John (KGV)

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world”.

Here we have God as the light that transforms itself into love and comes to all people who are open to receive it.

Does God love everyone or only Christians, the following passages speak for themselves.

1 John 2:2

2 He is the propitiation (conciliation) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 5:8

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:8

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Romans 3:23

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

John 8:12 (KJV)

Teachings of Jesus

“12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”.

All who live a Christ like life (follow me as He has taught) shall have the light of life. These words are a great comfort

Matthew 5:14-16 (KJV)

“14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid”.

We are the light which shines in the heart.

“15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house”.

“16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”.

 On the sermon of the mount, Jesus makes it clear, how we should participate in the world. “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others.”

1 John 1:5(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”.

Light in this instant is the true light by which we see clearly, because God is light.

Jesus also uses the term enlightenment in a very similar way as in Eastern religion; He used it as a shift in one’s seeing. It is not so much what we see, but how we see.

This is why meditation and or contemplation are important in one’s spiritual life. It teaches one to develop a different way of seeing, as it evolves into intuition. The cultivation of intuitive calmness requires unfoldment of the inner life. When developed sufficiently, intuition brings immediate comprehension of truth. Meditation and contemplation has nothing to do with being pious; it leads to a different kind of consciousness, or a different way of seeing in a more holistic way. It brings us into the moment, the eternal now.

Matthew 6:22-23 (KJV)

“22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”.

This points one to the need of concentration in the higher brain centre, leading to one-pointedness, and wisdom.

“23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness”!

Being intentional and being aware to what we pay attention.

We have to get our seeing right, or we distort the best teachings, even our love for God. In darkness we use our vision for ego satisfaction, with a sense of superiority, separateness or whatever it is.

We have an illustration of this in John 9: 3-5 (KJV)

A Man Born Blind Receives Sight

9 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”.

God and Jesus

The prompting of this paper is based on my great love for the Triune God and the apocalyptic view with which so many Christians are currently preoccupied.

My wish is that the Christian community expands its vision of God and Christ to embrace the whole of creation. I trust that in this paper I am able to keep the mystery of God alive.

Ezekiel 12:2

“Son of man, you are living in a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

Jesus sent his first disciples on the road to preach to “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19 (NIV) -19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” and Luke 24:47 - and to “all creation” (Mark 16:15) 15 “He was also training them to take risk by leaving their own security behind. This becomes even clearer in his instruction for them “not to take anything with them” (Mark 6:8)  "Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts and to submit to the hospitality and even the hostility of others” (Mark 6:10 -11). 10 “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them”. Jesus says the same of himself in John’s Gospel (10:7) where he calls himself “the gate” where people “will go freely in and out, and find green pasture” (10:9).

What an amazing permission! He sees himself more as a place of entrance and exit than a place of settlement. It is strange that pastors only notice the going “in” but never the going “out” message.

There is a place and time for being outside, or we never really understand or appreciate the inside. A gatekeeper keeps the gate open in both directions, and knows the right motivation and timing for opening both. Like a good shepherd, he/she leads one to the best pasture at the best time.

Jesus clearly was much more concerned with the journey and integrity, than with presenting mere ideas or belonging to the correct group. 

Jesus was not only teaching or maintaining a purity system (which is to say a “belonging system”); but Jesus used everything, even people’s mistakes and impurity, to bring them to God. That’s good news for everyone. He practiced a process of transformation more than a belonging system.

For example, he says lovingly to an inquisitive scribe, “And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. ”(Mark 12:34).

Jesus was affirming his particular stage on the journey, without telling him that he must travel all the way.

He wanted searchers more than settlers, prophets more than priests, He wanted honest journeyers.

All of these situations are describing the unique and rare position of one who is in tune with the Spirit of God. He/she is always on the edge of the inside. Not an outsider throwing rocks, nor a comfortable insider who defends the status quo, but one who lives precariously with two perspectives held tightly together: the faithful insider and the critical outsider at the same time. Not established safely inside, but not so far outside as to lose compassion or understanding.

The true disciple must hold these perspectives in a loving and necessary creative tension.  It is a unique kind of seeing and living, which will largely leave the disciple with “nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58) while easily meriting the “hatred of all”—who have invariably taken sides in opposing groups (Luke 21:16 -17) - 16 “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me.                   . 

The true disciple clings to God, and almost no one else.

People hiding inside of belonging systems are very threatened by those who are not within that group.  They are threatened by anyone who has found the answer to his/her being in places they cannot control. 

Matthew’s Gospel refers to this larger place as “the kingdom of heaven.” Where one has found his/her treasure, and is utterly grounded in the “passion” of the transcendent God, which is indestructible and uncontrollable by worldly systems. 

People being attached to the world, will seek their treasures and payoffs in the world. We need to let self centered opportunism pass and focus instead on loving God then all things will be given unto us.

Instead of loving God, many are watching life happen from afar and judging it in accordance with their limited understanding.

Yet God is inherent in life itself? God is the Life Force of everything? God is not an object like any other object. God is subject, the Life Energy in each and everything, which we call Love or Spirit.

No longer should we hold punitive images of God or one that impels us to think that God is apart from us, which has long dominated the Western churches. But instead of the triune God who flows through everything, without exception, and who has done so since the beginning of time. In this regard everything is Holy, for those who have learned how to see with their inner vision. The implications of such a spiritual shift are staggering: every vital impulse, every force toward the future, every creative momentum, every loving surge, every dash toward beauty, every running toward truth, every ecstasy before simple goodness, every bit of ambition for humanity and the earth, for wholeness and holiness, is the eternally-flowing life of the Triune God.

Whether we know it or not! This is not an invitation that one can agree with or disagree with. It is a description of what is already happening in God and in everything created in God’s image and likeness. This triune God allows us, impels us, to live easily with God everywhere and all the time: in the budding of a plant, the smile of a gardener, the excitement of a teenage boy over his new girlfriend, the loving nuzzling of horses, the tenderness with which eagles feed their chicks, and the downward flow of every mountain stream.

This God is found even in suffering and in death of those very things! How could this not be the life-energy of God? How could it be anything else? Such a big definition of life must include death in its great embrace, so that none of our labors will be wasted. In the chirp of every bird excited about a new morning, in the hard beauty of every cliff, in the deep satisfaction at every job well done and even in a clerk’s gratuitous smile to a department store customer or in the passivity of the hospital bed, “the world, life or death, the present or the future—all belong to us; and we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God,”

That’s the great moment in all divine revelation, when beautiful ideas drop in through intuition to the mind and to the heart, which happens when we move from the level of dogma to the level of experience; when it is not something that we merely believe, but in a real sense something that we know. This is how the divine dance of God can be experience by us all, believers and non believers alike.  

God’s joyous unveiling can melt even the most hardened constrictions, illuminating the way toward union of Spirit, Self, yes even society.

Let us be clear that God is not a being among other beings, but rather Being itself. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern even by our worst indiscretions. God is always winning, and God’s love will win. Love does not lose, nor does God lose. No one can stop the relentless outpouring force of the Divine grace.

God is relationship itself. Our task is to trustfully receive and then gradually reflect the inner image of God unto the world around us.

This divine mirroring will never stop; mirroring is how the whole transformation process is personally initiated and finally achieved. But we have to be taught how to “gaze steadily into this law of perfect inner freedom, and make this our habit.

Jesus the enlightened one:

John 12:35-37 (ESV)

35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

We must realize that we can know and love God on many levels. Some are the transpersonal level (“Father”), the Personal level (“Jesus”), and the Impersonal level (“Holy Spirit”) and never forget to love our neighbor and all of God’s manifestation.

May the peace that transcends all understanding be with us - Amen

Ethics and development of consciousness

Ethics typically focuses on defining right and wrong behavior. But despite centuries of work by major schools of thought disagreement about the nature and content of such criteria has proven to be the rule rather than the exception.

Two major approaches of ethics can be distinguished, duty based and happiness based. The duty based is supported by Kant which emphasizes performance and the following of rules; the happiness based depicted by John Steward Mill, emphasizes the promotion of general happiness and well being. Each of these approaches has its strengths and reflects and reflects deep aspects of intuition about ethics.

But there are problems with both. Advocates of the happiness based approach often point out that following rules and duty without consideration of other people’s happiness and suffering is too complex to be defined and used as a base for ethics and the life based on the pursuit of happiness makes one a slave to circumstances and violates human dignity.

Mill expresses his view on freedom by illustrating how an individual's drive to better their station, and for self-improvement, is the sole source of true freedom. Only when an individual is able to attain such improvements, without impeding others in their own efforts to do the same, can true freedom prevail. Mill's linking of freedom and self-improvement has inspired many. By establishing that individual efforts to excel have worth, Mill was able to show how they should achieve self-improvement without harming others, or society at large.

The theory, developed as a result of Enlightenment rationalism, is based on the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a good will; an action can only be good if its maxim – the principle behind it on which to act – is duty to the moral law. Central to Kant's construction of the moral law is the categorical imperative, which acts on all people, regardless of their interests or desires.

Kant an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.

German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel criticized Kant for not providing specific enough detail in his moral theory to affect decision-making and for denying human nature. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer argued that ethics should attempt to describe how people behave and criticized Kant for being prescriptive. Michael Stocker has argued that acting out of duty can diminish other moral motivations such as friendship, The Catholic Church has criticized Kant's ethics as contradictory and regards Christian ethics as more compatible with virtue ethics.