Is the body an essential part of our true Self? Or is it like a temporary temple for the Divine to live?
Tag: Spirit
#42 Kundalini-like “First Vision” Account
A "First Vision" experience of a woman on the occasion of her father's death.
Bringing “God” into the 21st Century through Science and Mysticism
God does not have to be at odds with what we learn from science. We need to reinterpret our ideas of God from direct mystical experience, and I think we'll find our science and spirituality are One.
How I Welcome Spirit Into My Life: My Contemplative Practice & Retreat Experience
A few short thoughts about my contemplative practice, and what it does for me, in me, revealing Spirit.
Is Spirituality compatible with Science? Mysticism may be Key
At times these seem to be at odds, but at the deepest level they may be One.
The many "Christs" and "Messiahs" that preceded Jesus
And, what many may not know, there were many "Christs" who came prior to Jesus, and who were not Jesus, nor do I think they were prefiguring or foreshadowing Jesus. They were the "Christs" in their own right, who came in their own time, who developed what it meant to be a "Christ" or "Messiah" in ancient Israel long before the word was ever applied to Jesus. I think it may be helpful to become acquainted with these "Christs/Messiahs" to better understand who Jesus was.
The Two Deaths in Mystical Christianity
I think that Christianity may have conflated Jesus's mystical experience of an ego death, perhaps at the time of his baptism when the "heavens opened," in which his individual psychological self "died" and he was was "reborn" of Spirit, or "raised up" (resurrected) to his identity in Christ consciousness (a consciousness of nondual union in God/Reality), with his biological death on the cross. These two deaths seem to have been conflated at some point, resulting in a supernatural conception of the resurrection.
1 Thessalonians 1 BHT, Paul's First Words about the Word in the New Testament
An addition to the BHT, which may be the very earliest words written in the New Testament, around 50 AD, in Paul's letter to the family who are gathering in Thessaloniki. Paul is exuberant about their faith, and talks about how they knew it for themselves through the manifestation of the Spirit in themselves, after much suffering, just like Paul and Jesus. Their great example was quickly spreading abroad.
A Psychological and Mystical Interpretation of the Myth of Adam & Eve and the Garden of Eden
I think the story of Adam & Eve is a mythological allegory describing humanity's "fall" of consciousness into the dualities of self-awareness, subject/object relationships, and the opposites of existence. This is symbolized in the partaking of the "tree" of knowledge of good and evil, i.e. dualities.
Another “First Vision” Account from St. Symeon the New Theologian
St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022 AD) was a Byzantine Christian monk and poet, and was canonized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox church. He wrote much about Christian mysticism, including his own experiences.