Php 2:5-8 “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, (6) who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. (7) Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, (8) he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.” ~CSB Version
If you can remove all of the toxic connotation that tends to
pop up from toxic evangelical dogma and look at what Paul realized in this
particular passage of his writing. He is saying this. YOU have the same mind
that Jesus did. Realize, that in coming to this earth plane you emptied
yourself of your divinity, that is you have forgotten it for a time, you have
lost track of your true identity. When you begin to gain it back by mystical
revelation, don’t exploit it with hubris, love and serve your fellow human, not
at the expense of yourself necessarily, but do not use it for prides sake.
So, what would that mean for us? First off it could mean
that the story of the fall in Genesis chapter’s two and three is an inept
metaphor for the condition here in material reality that provides fertile
ground for death and pathological behavior. The so-called fall could as easily
and in my view more correctly be explained as the kenosis or emptying oneself
of one’s divinity. The garden analogy could be a metaphor for our oneness in
the ALL or the creative source. We as a unified part of the whole is the state
where non-duality is experienced. Paul’s mention of the cross is in the general
scheme of things beside the point. Jesus, in emptying himself of his divine
status and incarnating in the earthly plane demanded that he experience death.
Whether at age 33 on a Roman Cross, or at age 70 as the result of natural
atrophy, death was inevitable, and I for one am glad because eternity in this
plane would be taxing, tiring, and ultimately exasperating.
However, stints within material reality can be challenging
and rewarding and can increase our body of knowledge. The only way it could be
challenging is if we emptied ourselves of our divine knowing. If we limited our
view of the eternal, put a big question mark at the end of what’s next, and allow
our challenges and life plan experiences to move us toward our recovery of
divinity. It appears from spiral dynamics, and the evolution of culture types
that it is a slow but ongoing process. The first challenges are to overcome the
natural consequences of material reality such as predators, poisonous plants,
earthquakes, violent weather, feeding ourselves, finding shelter etc. As we
develop technology to accomplish these basic survival tasks, we make room for
contemplating deeper questions.
It must be noted that during each of these advancing spiral
stages we are sent mystics from the creative source to awaken our knowledge of
who we are. Most of the time, this effort is stagnated by making a religion out
of the mystics’ revelation. And yet,
over time we are able to remember more and more of who we are. Thus, the
mystical revelation leads to greater and greater awareness of who and what we
are. Eventually we grow weary of exploring challenges and we simply rest only
to find a new challenge that will ignite our quest for self-knowledge.
This makes sense from the mystical revelation we have
already received. The concept of as below so above and as above so below,
stated differently on earth as it is in heaven, leads us to accept the fact
that cycles are natural occurrences both in the natural material world and in
the spiritual world of ultimate creative consciousness.
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