My next post will be strictly Biblical related, dealing with Judges chapter 11. But this morning I had some musings which I want to share, and I’ll leave it up to the reader whether worth further speculation.
“From what we are, spirit: from what we do, matter. Matter and spirit are one.” – Phillip Pullman
All esoteric teachings behind the exoteric major religions of the world teach something very important, which must be eventually comprehended as a cipher. To explain what I mean, we will briefly discuss two terms for reference: Purusha and substance, or, spirit and matter.
By Purusha, I mean the eternal witness which is never modified. This eternal witness, Purusha, sometimes known as supreme spirit, is the masculine side of the Absolute – in a manifested universe. It is CHRIST, or the Logos.
By substance, I mean the ever changing which is the feminine side of the Absolute – in a manifested universe. It is also CHRIST, or the Logos, with the potential to be exalted.
When unmanifested, which I believe science will eventually come to grips with, the male-female principle is neither male nor female, but THAT which is what is ONE, in eternity. Thus one can say spirit and matter, or Purusha and substance, are eternal throughout duration, either in the form of ONE, or manifested as a duality, because both the unmanifested and the manifested are co-dependent, ultimately as ONE.
During the period of manifestation, it is the job for all of us – the individual beings breathed out by the absolute, to acquire consciously the feeling of this ONENESS, from the highest spiritual being to the lowest, reflected in individual consciousness, as the bridge between spirit and matter.. And during the period of not being manifest, the ONE Absolute rests in IT-Self. This cycle is eternal. The great breath, with its metaphorical inhalation and exhalation never ceases, but reflected ultimately and literally in man’s physical life. Six days are creation, and the seventh is the rest. And the seventh is the synthesis of all six.
Another way of putting this to help the reader, would be to say that cause and effect are ONE during non-manifestation, and during manifestation Purusha is the cause and the modifications of substance are the effect.
The human mind is not currently able to speculate WHAT non-manifestation of ONE is as an experience, consciously, probably, unless one has totally merged the comprehending faculty, produced in manifestation, into the universal, during non-manifestation. What that IS, I can only speculate. Perhaps when the Apostle Paul states that some saints will SLEEP, it is analogous to dreamless sleep. At the same time, an inference can be drawn that some will not SLEEP, meaning some who have achieved, will have some type of self conscious awareness during the non-manifested universe, even without any form, spiritual or material, as a sort of blissful ultimate heavenly state.
But I digress a little :)…
Let’s get back to the manifested universe, which is what we conscious beings have to take ourselves seriously in for the moment as you read this.
Purusha, being the unmodified eternal witness of all thought, feeling, and action through substance or matter, is the ultimate cognizer. The reason this must be so, logically, is that only that which is not subject to change can cognize that which does change. But ironically, and paradoxically, this ultimate power, sometimes called Maya, or Shakti, Ishwara, Krishna, or Christ, needs a change to be aware of to cognize something. While Christ is the ultimate witness, capable of cognizing change because it changes not, without change, it would have no value to cognize. Yes, it is all power of cognition, and being, but what would it cognize without modification? So it is THAT principle in which we live, move, and have our being, but also why John states that Christ MUST come in the flesh.
I can’t help now then to understand why Sri Ramana made this statement:
“The world is illusory, Only Brahman is real, Brahman is the World.”
What he declares is that there is an evolutionary purpose in BOTH the real and unreal, because ALL is Brahman. Therefore the subjective idealist that only believes in Purusha, or spirit, cannot be correct, and also the materialists, who only believes in substance, or matter, cannot be correct, for BOTH in the ultimately reality are ONE.
Notice, if the above quote by Maharshi is correct, that the first “world” is illusory. It has a small capital “w.” It is illusory not because it is not real for a time, but because it is subject to change. Then “Brahman” with a capital “B” is real, and then “Brahman is the World,” with a capital “W” for World when combined.
In the Bible, God, speaking from the ABSOLUTE, states:
“Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool.”
Both Heaven and earth are included. Manifestation and non-manifestation. Subjective abstraction, and objective concrete. And these are ONE.
“Hear O Israel, thy Lord God is One. No God shall be before me (or THAT truth). Anything else is idol worship, either subjective or objective.