Category: philosophy

EMPIRES OF IDEAS

In Carol Gilligan’s model of moral development

the order is: selfishness/care/universal care/integrated care –

the integration of masculine and feminine energies in the soul

 

dualism – separating things – causes us to project

our personal and social shadows onto goats –

scapegoats –

instead of integrating our shadow –

if all things are one, which they are –

you have to own your own shadow – you cannot escape it

 

the fact that nondualism is central to 3 major world religions –

Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity –

and that Christianity taught it for 16 centuries –

“I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”

(John 14:20) – proves that nondualism

is absolutely important

 

dualisms like spirit vs body/human vs animal/sacred vs secular

falsify the holism of life/nature/God – God works thru

both-and polarities

not either-or dualisms –

God is in the body/nature/secular

just as much as in the spirit/the human/the sacred

 

but atheists separate God and man – they cut God

out of the picture completely – as Wayne Dyer liked to say

EGO means Edging God Out –

the famous atheist Bertrand Russell

was even more cynical than John Calvin who professed

humanity’s “total depravity” –

Russell believed the soul’s foundation had to be built

on ironically soul-killing and unyielding despair

since every human accomplishment will be wiped out

because the universe will eventually disappear

 

but take courage  – for empires of ideas like dualism

just like empires of power and wealth

come and go –

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage

I have conquered the world – these things I have spoken to you

so that in me you may have peace” – Jesus in John 16:33.

PERSON/COMMUNITY/LOVE

Ken Wilber’s all-inclusive vision/”integral philosophy”

takes in the I/WE/IT we live/move/have our being in each day

when we are alone (I space)

when we interact with others (WE space)

when we interact with corporations/banks/governments/

organized religions (IT space) – we go from

personal/to interpersonal/to impersonal

and the IT space treats us like another  IT not a PERSON

 

Jesus was: not a cog in the wheel of organized religion/

a layman not a priest/in the streets more than in the temple

yet priests have created elaborate religious temple ceremonies/rituals

to worship a man who never once asked to be worshiped

only followed – organized religion has made Jesus

safe/institutionalized/an IT – an object of worship

 

organized/institutional/impersonal religion

does not equal or create COMMUNITY

because in the past 150 years Christianity has become

largely institutionalized/like a big business

and not only laity but also clergy

are dissatisfied with institutionalized religion

 

“Western orthodoxy has for far too long

had a too detached/lofty/oppressive view of God

imposed on it by a “docetic” – “not really human”

view of Jesus – which has made Jesus the God-man

impotent in peoples’ personal lives” – N.T. Wright

 

all this has come about due to an underlying philosophy

of “individualism” spawned by Protestant theology/

reinforced by the so-called “Enlightenment”/

doubly reinforced by IT-space capitalism –

Protestantism often addressed the Word of God

to the salvation of solitary individuals

rather than the social gospel

of the transformation of society

 

but there is hope since evolution thrives

on communalism not individualism – survival

of the most cooperative not the most competitive

and God is the dynamic of love

that gathers all beings together

into greater consciousness/unity/LOVE.

 

RELIGION TRANSCENDS REASON

Life and religion are deeper than rationality

and Christianity is not the only seemingly irrational religion:

“The first/most elementary fact about Zen

is its abhorrence of the dualistic division

between matter and spirit – body and soul are one.”

– Thomas Merton

Many of the beliefs of Christianity can be fully understood

only by contemplatives who know nondual consciousness

and its paradoxes: “Jesus is fully human and fully divine”

“Mary is both virgin and mother”

“Bread is still bread and yet it is Jesus.”

No wonder this faith seems irrational to the secular mind!

  

Bernard Lonergan, a brilliant Canadian theologian

thought it was ironic that scholastics exaggerated

the objectivity of truth since Thomas Aquinas

the Father of Scholasticism thought truth

was in the mind of God and in human minds

so Lonergan spent his life’s work emphasizing

the importance of subjective experience –

the internal mental processes by which we discern truth.

 

The truth of most spirituality tells us

we have forgotten who we are

therefore the main task of religion is to remind us

that we are original blessings: daughters and sons of God.

 

“Without God, what am I

except a guide to my own self-destruction.”

– Augustine

 

Naskapi Indians have always been guided

by their “Great One” – their soul

who appears to them in their dreams

and instructs them about when to hunt or lay low.

Lies/dishonesty they have found

drive their Great One away

and honesty/generosity draw the Great One near.

 

This shows the Cosmic Christ like life itself

transcends rationality and can be contemplated and found

in the joy of everything/everywhere/everyone

all at once.

 

SOLVING THE HUMAN DILEMMA

Henri Nouwen holds the mystical path

devotion to God

to be central to the life of the heart.

When morality gets too much attention

it subverts the priority of the mystical.

 

In any case, true morality flows out of oneness

the Law of Karma rules:

“You cannot do good or evil to your self

without doing the same for your neighbors”

– Catherine of Siena

 

To the extent we can look at our self

clearly/compassionately, we can confidently/fearlessly

look into someone else’s eyes – and into their soul

since eyes are the mirrors of the soul.

 

For Teilhard de Chardin love is not

an epi-phenomenon – something humans can acquire

rather it is what we constantly bathe in

something closer to us than our breath

which includes agape/eros/philia (brotherly/sisterly love)

and undergirds/supports the rise of consciousness –

deepening love and rising consciousness go together.

 

Similar to Teilhard, theologian John Macquarrie

illumines the human condition

by his main theme of self-transcendence

which simultaneously opens us to God the Infinite

while recognizing our essential finitude.

 

We humans are always a problem to ourselves

because we are finite yet longing for infinity –

longing for the Godhead, for Infinite Love

the living God beyond our images/idols of God.

 

This is where we need faith –

because according to Simone Weil

“Faith is the ability to hold creative tension

between paradoxes that are irresolvable

such as being finite but longing for infinity.”

 

Faith in God is the solution

to the otherwise unsolvable human dilemma.

MYSTICISM AND POLITICS

Mysticism is direct experience of God

but most mainline pastors are sceptical about experience

because they believe faith must have intellectual content –

and it must involve social justice –

true faith is not simply pentecostal or mystical.

 

Johann Metz’s theology of politics was influenced by

Catholic theologian Karl Rahner

existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger

marxist philosopher of hope Ernst Bloch

Jurgen Habermas’s critique of modern consciousness

liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez

and the base communities who

practically and politically implemented

the ideas of all these thinkers.

 

If Metz were alive today he would include scientists and mystics

since mysticism explores consciousness

and understanding consciousness is

the next big frontier for science.

 

What most pastors miss or forget

is that Divine Co-creativity works

within the evolutionary process

and within us –

the Spirit works primarily through

our mind/heart/gut’s consciousness and experience

rather than as an external agent of cause-and-effect.

 

“The universe is the primary Sacred Reality

and we become sacred by participating in it” –

Thomas Berry

 

This is how we get wholeness/salvation –

salvation by participation in the universe

since the whole cosmos was designed and created

with a view to the Cosmic Christ

the noble goal/perfection/center of the universe.

 

This is the starting point for Johann Metz

in his theology of politics.

 

 

UNITY OF COSMOS AND RELIGIONS IN CHRIST

We recognize now that Descartes’ “I think therefore I am”

reduces self and God to concepts

making it impossible to experience

the full mystery of God or self.

 

Beyond Descartes, the social and cultural living conditions

of modern humans have changed so much

through natural/human/social sciences/technology

we now literally live in a new age/new era of human history.

 

Quantum principle: concepts like ‘God’ and ‘divinity’

are human constructs used sparingly in quantum theology

because they may limit, not enhance, our understanding

of life’s ultimate source and meaning.

 

 

 

The Cosmic Christ was alive well before Jesus –

for indigenous cultures much of their myth and ritual

comes from the experiences of shamans

tuned in to the Universal/Great Spirit.

Having a psychic crisis is part of the training of shamans –

wounded healers can heal others undergoing a similar crisis –

the work of shamans foreshadows the Cross and Resurrection.

 

The purpose of the universe up to the time of Christ:

to produce Christ, the most excellent of all beings

incarnating the divinity of the universe.

The purpose of the universe since Christ:

for everyone to become/put on the mind of Christ.

The purpose of the universe is Christ and Christs.

 

A cosmos without Christ is a body without a head –

it cannot function nor hold itself together.

Christ is the head/exemplar of the universe’s purpose :

union and transformation in God.

 

 John Paul II in noting the commonality of religions

clearly saw the Cosmic Christ everywhere

and followed the concern of the Second Vatican Council

with world peace/world unity

because there can be no global peace

without peace between religions –

a peace that science and technology cannot give.

 

KNOCKING ON THE PEARLY GATES

On all the key issues in spirituality:

the equality of men and women/

the harmony of body and soul/

the holiness of being/the goodness of humans/

the compatibility of mysticism and prophecy

Meister Eckhart exceeded the Aristotelian Thomas Aquinas

and so Eckhart was definitely not a Neo-Platonist

as he is often portrayed – he sought the unity of opposites –

the unity of Heaven and Earth.

 

But Newtonian physics separated all things –

and thinking of matter composed of     hard     separate     atoms

impacted our view of self – the individual against community

and our view of Spirit – as somehow opposed to material science

and our view of nature – as a product to be exploited for gain –

the result has been massive alienation

from self/God/nature.

 

The Jewish world of Jesus thought of all things

as created/hierarchical/anthropocentric/

governed by fixed laws with a fixed beginning and fixed end.

But modern evolutionary physics sees reality

as a dynamic interplay of chance/law/interconnection –

Aristotle’s fixed reality of matter and form

has been deconstructed by relativity and quantum mechanics

into a never-ending/interconnected/flow

of energy and information.

 

The creative union of God and matter

is not a metaphysical doctrine as much as a

pragmatic explanation of the universe –

the religious paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

had an innate tendency/power to see God

not apart from the physical world

but in it/through it/as it.

 

The Kingdom/Queendom/Kindom/Presence of God

is within us and all around us

so we do not have to die

to get to the Pearly Gates

(owned, conspirists claim, by Bill Gates –

therefore the “Gates of Heaven”)

we only have to be fully alive with God

in this present spiritual/material world.

HEAVEN/HERE/NOW

By reversing the relationship between being and union

Teilhard de Chardin overturned classical metaphysics

and introduced a new principle of reality – hyperphysics –

being comes out of union not vice versa –

the whole/community precedes the individual.

 

According to the great Protestant theologian Paul Tillich

communal non-being threatens humanity in three ways:

  1. our ontic self-affirmation is threatened:

relatively by ‘fate’ (contingent/circumstantial/existence)

absolutely by death

  1. our spiritual self-affirmation is threatened:

relatively by emptiness

absolutely by meaninglessness

  1. our moral self-affirmation is threatened:

relatively by guilt

absolutely by condemnation.

 

And according to Richard Rohr’s Immortal Diamond

we cannot discover our True Self

until we overcome the four splits of the False Self:

  1. our idealized self split from our shadow self
  2. our mind split from our body
  3. our life split from our death
  4. our self split from others.

 

But Christ unites all/overcomes all non-being/splits

makes invisible visible/incomprehensible comprehensible –

God became human so that Christ may be first

not only in the spiritual realm

but also in the material realm.

 

If we could trust that “Your name is already written

in heaven” as Jesus said, it would immediately resolve

our most basic anxiety – that we are not good enough –

and would make all competing/criticizing/conquering unnecessary –

we would no longer suffer condemnation by ourselves/others/God.

 

Material things cannot dwell in each other

but spiritual things can: God/humans/all angels

dwell in each other in all joy and happiness

though we discern it not – unless we wake up to hyperphysics

and discover heaven/here/now.

 

THE NONDUAL BEDROCK OF RELIGION

The modern/postmodern/secular world is often struck

by its own power, and raises anxious questions

about humanity’s meaning/role/destiny in the universe

so, Christianity needs to bring its own vast resources

to bear on these questions.

 

If Christianity’s mission is to dialogue

with all people, it must begin

by creating mutual respect/harmony with all churches –

interdenominational infighting makes Christians

hypocrites when they try to reach out.

 

As a chaplain in World War II, John MacQuarrie

saw the basic goodness of soldiers

and grace operating in Muslims

which challenged his Calvinist negativity

about human nature’s “absolute depravity”

and led to his conversion from Presbyterian to Anglican

letting go of Calvin’s exclusivism, he found grace

everywhere, and became the stellar Anglican theologian.

 

Jesuits in Japan hung out with Zen monks

and readily participated in the quasi-religious

“Tea Ceremony” which looks from the outside

like a non-spiritual ritual, but internally

is about disciplined silence/simplicity/

self-effacement/contemplation.

 

There may not be a universal religion

but there is a universal wisdom

which Aldous Huxley wrote about in 1945

in The Perennial Philosophy – all religions

value virtues like patience/humility/kindness/

compassion/peace. Like John Henry Newman

who was a major influence in Vatican II

Huxley believed God’s Plan included all religions.

 

The fact that nondualism is central

to three major religions: Taoism/Hinduism/Buddhism

and underlay Christian mysticism for sixteen centuries –

Jesus said “You are in Me and I am in you

and we are in God” – means nondualism

unites both Western and Eastern religion.

 

UNITY SURPASSING MODERNITY

The Perennial Philosophy highlighted

the “Great Nest of Being”

which was the universal worldview of humanity

until modernity reared its methuselah head.

 

Going beyond modernity

since the turn of the millennium has been

a growing awareness of commonality

between religions, and unity of all sciences –

a general visioning of all things as interrelated.

 

However major dualisms still persist:

heaven vs Earth/spirit vs body/human vs animal/

sacred vs secular – all these dualisms

which falsify life/nature/God

since God works thru both/and polarities

not either/or dualisms – God is in and beyond

the Earth/body/nature/culture/life.

 

Photosynthesis, one of the key factors in life

happened when chlorophyll molecules served everything

by capturing solar energy and converting it into

food and energy for others

3,000,000,000 years ago.

 

Nature serves us and Law serves us

and so our will delights in Law

but we cannot fulfill all laws

so the Cosmic Christ emerged from within the universe

as Jesus the Christ who lived under the Law

and experienced all our temptations/compulsions

in order to redeem/liberate us from the Law

with the Divine Love that goes beyond Law.

 

Following Jesus, Christian social action

finds God in politics/work/social programs –

anything that betters human life –

because Christ became human

and every human is another Christ

and we cannot let Christ live

in physical/spiritual squalor –

“As you do to the least, you do to Me”

– Jesus the Unitive Thinker in Matthew 25:40.