One of my friends on Facebook posted that he realized that he was arrogant when he was an evangelical pastor and that it was a waste of precious time. The arrogance came into play as he thought that God had given him a message every week and that it was important for the people to come and hear it every week. He went on to say that he was delivered from that. This caused a light bulb moment for me because I can recall doing the same thing. I too thought that God was giving me a weekly sermon that was spiritually important for those who I was teaching and preaching too. What I realized with this is that we all, humanity, are going through, and are at different stages of an awakening to deeper consciousness and deeper reality. It could be that this is because of the dawning of a new age, literally. The age of information, the age of Aquarius. I must admit that the presupposition that informs this idea for me is panpsychism. It is best described by the idea that was stated in the Kybalion, “the All is Mind, the universe is mental.” As the days go by, I become more and more convinced of this view of reality.
So, to differentiate me from my online friend, I’m not sure
that it was a waste of time. Rather it was a transition from one reality to a
deeper reality. I must take into consideration that I likely chose my life
path, which means that I chose to be born into a fundamentalist Christian
family in 1946 for a specific reason, and for a specific expansion of
consciousness having a material and corporeal experience of learning. I should
perhaps relate the nuance of the family I was born into. My mother, and my
older sisters were fundamentalist Baptists all the way, however, my father was
raised catholic but did not really attend any church regularly, and a childhood
memory I have had all these years, is when my mother would go off on a tangent
like, the Roman Catholics weren’t really saved, my dad would say. “Iva, I think
you’ll be surprised when you get to heaven who’s there. I guess that I sensed
that he did not take the fear of hell all that seriously, and that likely
rubbed off on me. You can find a more
in-depth explanation of my interesting transition from fundamentalist to
agnostic, to mystic, back to evangelical, and finally back to an eclectic and
syncretistic spiritual mystic that is probably more accurately a panpsychist. I
will post a link to it at the bottom of this article.
So, why wasn’t my foray into evangelicalism a waste of time?
That is the question that is the main point of this post. While I understand
that orthodox Christianity and especially evangelical orthodoxy is very toxic,
there is a fairly important mystical message within the Jesus Narrative. It has
nothing to do with sin and salvation, and for those who have suffered spiritual
abuse, and spiritual trauma by this concept, they are unlikely to be comforted
by this realization, at least for a long period of healing, but I will state it
none the less.
If one sees some type of spirituality as important, then
this realization is best found in a part of the Jesus story. Whether one
believes that Jesus was an actual historical person or not, (I believe he was),
this message or realization is important either way. I will readily admit that
myth is an important part of all religions and spiritual traditions. Some are
beneficial and some are not, but myth has proven to be important throughout
millennia in the upward spiral of humanity. So, without further ado let me get
to the two concepts. They are what has been called the KENOSIS, and the
resurrection.
I do not want to minimize the good teaching about ethics and
love found in the sermon on the mount or various other parts of the New and Old
Testaments, but the two elements that are missing, at least explicitly in other
spiritual traditions is the KENOSIS and the RESURRECTION. I base this on the
idea that panpsychism is correct, and therefore, it is most likely that an
eclectic, syncretistic spirituality is the best way to proceed. This requires
that one uses intuition, the presence of spirit within, to discern what is
beneficial from a wide variety of spiritual and religious traditions.
Let’s first examine the concept of KENOSIS. This is an idea
that Paul mentions in his epistle to the Philippians. I will quote it from the
NRSV. Php 2:5-8 “Let the same mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, (7) but
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And
being found in human form, (8) he humbled himself and became
obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” Orthodoxy has
limited this to Jesus, but that does not acknowledge what the verse actually
says. Paul emphatically states, “Let the same mind be in you that was in
Christ Jesus.” To literally take
Paul at his word would require that we have the same view about our deity as
Jesus did. Let that sink in. According to Paul in this passage, we as humans,
should think the same way about ourselves as Jesus thought about himself. What
did he think? He thought that he was the incarnation of the Logos, the
conscious, creative word of God. He thought that he was the son of God, and
that God was his father. This means that he thought that he was the offspring
of the creative energy source.
He also thought that he was the anointing (Christ) of the
Logos, and so if we have the same mind, then we would think that we as well are
the anointing (Christ) of the Logos. You may ask was Jesus unique in this
regard? I would say that his uniqueness is in the fact that he was the
firstborn of a new humanity. He was the first one to recognize that we are the
anointing of the Logos. The writer of John’s first epistle expressed it this
way, “as Christ is in the world, so are we!” It seems very clear that
Paul’s meaning was a lot more profound than orthodoxy had expressed. In fact,
in a lot of ways, orthodoxy has been a real detriment to the mystical
understanding that the Jesus Narrative provides to all. I am advocating for
using the mystical messages of Christianity to benefit people who are far more
eclectic in their spirituality. These two understandings of Jesus are a benefit
for everyone. You don’t have to embrace Jesus as the savior from sin to realize
that woven within the message is Jesus the mystical master that can improve
ones understanding of spiritual awakening.
Now let me bring this concept’s implications to the one who
accepts eclectic spirituality as a valid path. I mean, the one who draws from a
variety of spiritual traditions to inform their view of reality, and most
especially their place in spirituality. Many of the reincarnation beliefs teach
that we forget our past experiences upon arrival into the earth plane at birth.
That is a perfect description of Kenosis. In these traditions it is the goal to
remember past experience and knowledge little by little with expansion in mind.
Kenosis in the Greek is an emptying. Emptying and forgetting are the same thing
when it comes to past knowledge and experience. Further, if as some cognitive
scientists believe, we are conscious agents, or as Dr. Bernardo Kastrup
believes we are dissociative personalities of the one universal conscious,
while we are equal with creative consciousness, we empty that knowledge. The
Jesus story provides an explanation of how we forget former lives and former
information when we incarnate. It is via KENOSIS.
Now let's look at the resurrection. It also is an important
part from the Jesus narrative. The only way that we can be sure that we are eternal
is if we are resurrected. That is exactly what is claimed that Jesus did or had
done to him. There are no other religions the claim to have the resurrection
phenomenon. This is yet another place where parts of the Jesus narrative can
inform all religions and it isn't necessary to accept the orthodox position of
sin and salvation. Rather, one who is accepting of eclectic and syncretistic
spirituality can glean truths from various traditions and amalgamate them in
the one view of spirituality. So for instance, 1 can include kenosis and the
resurrection with reincarnation and form a better picture of spiritual reality.
It's possible that when Jesus spoke of being born again he
was referencing reincarnation. He was speaking in spiritual terms. Therefore,
being born again, could allow one to realize that they will have the
opportunity to experience many lives on the earth plane and forget the past
lives only to rediscover the important truths that carry over into the growth
of the individual spiritually. This adds additional experiential information
and knowledge to the whole and is likely the reason for our incarnating in the first
place. This idea allows Jesus to actually be revealing additional truth to what
was already present in other spiritual traditions. This could be true even of
Judaism if one realizes that the Kabbalah accepts many of the characteristics
eastern spiritual traditions.
While it is absolutely not necessary that one embraces the
Jesus narrative or for that matter studies it at all it is still true that
understanding kenosis and resurrection are important concepts in eclectic and syncretistic spirituality. It seems a shame to me that orthodoxy and
Christianity in general has developed a dogma so toxic as to make it impossible
for those who have been traumatized by it to adopt certain revelations into
their spiritual view.
Here is the link I promised to my story:
