Thoughts about thoughts

Years ago an idea was imprinted on my mind, that even I could become wise by just living old enough and going through human experiences, my own and those loaned from others, as many times as necessary. But being wise encloses apparently a further demand, that I then should understand the true meaning of life at least in regard to myself.

Of course some ideas have already found home in me, become familiar and manageable, even somehow understandable. But could that be called wisdom or just a pile of thoughts, seeds of wisdom, mostly even non germinative?

The human mind is all the time trying to reach some object, whether a concrete or an abstract one, to which it can identify its thoughts and feelings in order to find itself useful or acceptable. To the mind empty or silent means the same as to become stupid and vain – a threat of losing itself!

The mind believes that thoughts, feelings, forms and sensory perceptions as a whole are a person himself, an individual identity worth holding on by all powers in order to maintain so called mental health!

But can the human mind ever be fully sane, if by sanity we mean seeing things really as they are? The history of mankind offers a convincing evidence of the collective madness of mankind, a history, which is entirely based on the unreliable functions of the human mind.

The common word man comes from the Sanskrit word manas, which in a broad sense means a principle of reason. The capability for reasoning is often said to separate us humans from other species of this earth in our favour. But is it really a sublime skill in the form and usage it appears among us today? Can it for example make us permanently happy? Or is it the thing that holds us imprisoned into continuous thinking, feeling and sensory processes with no peace and lasting happiness. Of course there are huge differences in the quality of human reasoning – from rude automatic reactions to highest inspirations.

Am I suggesting that we should entirely stop thinking and feeling so as to avoid going astray? Thinking with all its limitations is really a good tool in this material world. It can solve many practical issues, but it cannot give proper answers to any fundamental questions of life. What is life, why are we here on earth a little while and then in turn seem to disappear – who knows where? Can there be life after life, and what would it be like? If life is really eternal, so the previous question would evidently become a contradictory one – for in that case life is not either coming or going - it just is! This kind of view could even suggest that in some fundamental level every being is always alive, but not knowing ones basic state because of the identification to the functions of the mind.

At least one thing I have learnt. Digging up ones life does not lead anywhere – or why not – it could lead to fear of tomorrow, in the way that yesterday’s unpleasant events turn into shadowing threats for ones future. On the other hand waiting for better might become a reason to move the starting point of ones living from this moment to some distant period in the future.

I have come to the conclusion that all of us are mentally writing an autobiography, ones own story called ‘me and the others’. In that story I am usually a secret hero whom the world has not yet recognized, or in different circumstances an ill-treated martyr who is waiting for a great compensation sometimes in the future.

Secret authors, that is what we are, continuously interpreting ourselves to ourselves, sometimes even believing our sophisticated explanations.

But only a few have courage to make ones ideas public. Maybe we are afraid that others do not necessarily recognize us on the basis of our story. They could say that the story is a fake or even a quotation of some better author. It is often difficult to tell myself what part of me represents the real me, and what part is just an infection caused by other people.

To our little mind, the one that we call our self, this world of ours is an enormous mixer. How is it possible to separate good grain from husk, considering that a human mind hardly knows itself? The old request, that a man should know himself, does not help much, for even the greatest ideas tend finally to lead us to a dead end.

A common conclusion that everything in life is relative does not solve anything, especially if a human being wants to find something absolute and permanent.

A history of stupidity – that could be a name for the rambling of mankind. But history in itself is but dead words, and the future is just a huge pile of ideas based on yesterday. It is sure that we can live only at this very moment – not yesterday or today. For us humans this fact has always been utmostly difficult to accept, because we think we have a history. On the basis of the past we create an image of our future in which all our ideas should gain their fulfilment. This moment is just an ever open door to all the goals of our lives.

All the possibilities are waiting in the future, where we also can perform such fine works as the greatest figures of the human history. But we should see that history is often but a coloured story written by winners. Could we but ask about the greatness of Alexander the Great of the thousands who were crucified by his command during his famous works? And what would say about the idea of loving ones neighbour the numerous people who had to meet with the opposite of the principle, an extremely cruel religious intolerance?

I am fairly convinced that thinking, even stretched at its utmost, cannot ever reach anything absolute, free of the limits of time. Thinking should be stretched far beyond its breaking point so that it would by itself see its own limitations and would realize at last to be quiet.

But being entirely quiet seems to the human mind as its worst enemy; for it assures a person that he might end up as nothing or in a state where all his fears and feelings of guilt suddenly step forth. The human mind demands that the identity of a human being as a separate individual, would remain above all else.

It may well be, that in old women we could find the wisdom welling forth out of the depths of their souls from which all the self-centred feelings have been cried out and which is totally lacking the common manly illusion, that thinking can solve all things.

Many of the people that are considered the wisest of all have ensured us that life basically is sacred and divine. An everyday observation would certainly lead to a very different kind of conclusion. Perhaps all those wise men and women looked at life from a different angle leaving totally aside the perspective based on time. Maybe they saw everything from the eternal, timeless ground of all that exists.

One of the wisest advised us first and foremost to seek the kingdom of heaven. Only after finding this unchangeable realm or state all things can be experienced in the right light. But we human beings want to understand our heaven as a place where all our senses and other needs get a full satisfaction. And as we usually cannot get hold of heaven without time and other temporal concepts, we rather start seeking the warm and sunny beaches of this world than try to concentrate on something that lies beyond the ability of our everyday power of comprehension.

Our scientists are talking about the ‘big bang’ as the beginning of all that there exists. But in reality they cannot tell us anything about the state in where and what way this fundamental event of all events happened, because it was only then that time and space appear, giving the fundamentals of the thinking of our wise men and women.

Of course we could have a look at the Eastern ideas of how the universe comes into existence and how it in due course again returns to rest. Wise men in the East have said thousands of years ago that all forms are temporal, and that there is an interchange from formless to form even in the level of the universe. Eastern scriptures talk about manvantaras and pralayas, the former of which means the emanation in time and space the latter meaning a huge period of rest or non-existence from a material point of view. But do they say that life itself is a completely vanishing thing? No, in fact life is all that really is, an eternal life on which everything has its being – sometimes coming forth in time and space, but always being in the timeless and formless essence.

For our materialistic scientists all this is usually pure nonsense, for they rely on our senses not taking account that human consciousness could have some deeper abilities of knowing the things that cannot be explored by five senses or by any mechanical equipment.

Two thousand years ago this kind of knowing was called gnosis. It is very likely that not all the so called Gnostics were able to stretch their conscience into the basis of life, but it is also likely that some of them were much more aware of reality than the spokesmen of the Catholic Church declared.

It seems that I now have come to a dead end, because I am assuming that human ability of thinking for its conditional character never can explain the most important issues of life. Should I now accept the words of Tertullus, “I believe, because it is absurd”, and take more seriously all the so called sacred scriptures? Or is there for a human being available a completely different way of approaching these unresolved questions? Is it probable that beyond the entire thinkable things one could find an entire and total knowledge reachable to the human consciousness that can overstep all the limits of its ordinary mental processes?

I am pretty sure, that some of the finest individuals in human history really have found and experienced the essence of life and have tried to transmit something of it at least to their disciples. It is quite obvious that some of the followers have merely imagined having reached the ultimate goal, whereas they in fact had just taken the first step on the path leading to the realization.

A further conclusion of my thinking is that the ground of all must rather be found inside than outside of a conscious being, because all external things are but results and consequences of temporary nature.

The outcomes of mental imagination may seem lively and interesting, but to a great extent they are based on past thought forms, not on the essence beyond all.

One of the wise men said that all good things come from above, where there exists no change – in other words no time. If this is to be taken as a right conclusion so I should by all means try to lead my consciousness into a state where it could be able to draw directly from the ultimate source – being one with it.

This is what I believe, but unfortunately my belief has not reached this final goal and made me wise – not to talk about turning me blessed! And if I am not blessed in this very moment, so I have no reason to wait for illumination in the future, for future is but a pile of thoughts based on my past.

So the only thing for me is to avoid coming and going, so that I simply could be alive, in the timeless here and now – in eternal life.

Three stages of spiritual growth

Dear reader. When reading this text it is necessary to consider the fact that it is not meant to be taken as an absolute truth, but merely as a stimulus to your thinking. No human word, whether spoken or written, can tell you the truth. Words are just references to some possible directions to seek for paths to be proceeded. Let your own truth grow naturally in relation to the accessibility of the depths of your innermost being.

Where are you now?

Your starting point means your inner state at present, your personal being as it really is – not as you or your neighbors think of you. Our ideas of ourselves and others are usually much too shallow, at least when we are still young. It is, in order to get a firm ground for climbing, useful to produce a thorough inventory of ourselves before entering the first step on our spiritual path. This you can do by observing yourself a long time as an outsider:

-What is it that you appreciate in other people: knowledge, skills, degrees, status, or understanding.

-What is it that you cannot stand in them?

-What is it that you value in yourself: your looks, knowledge, skills, career, attitude towards others or to life in general, your diligence, discretion, impulsiveness, strength of feelings, etc.

-What is it that you cannot stand in yourself – and why?

-How do you react to the situations that you face: with feelings, thoughts, or actions.

-How do you see your own character: calm, inpatient, introvert, extrovert, helpful, guiding, fighting, leading figure, etc.

-Do you consider yourself honest and fair in all occasions?

-How do you think you have become such as you are: on the basis of your inborn qualities, because of circumstances, by mere chance.

-Why do you want to promote your inner growth: you want to step above other people, have strong feelings and experiences, want to escape from the dullness of your everyday life, your life in general does not give you any lasting satisfaction or peace of mind.

Those questions above are just a few of all the possible things that you can immerse yourself in trying to learn something about the contents of your mind. When analyzing yourself, write down your ideas and return to them as soon as you have got a new perspective or information on the subject in question. Of course it is not necessary to introduce your ideas to anybody else, especially if that kind of openness is not part of your nature. If you, however, want to share your ideas, be aware not to promote the growth of your ego, your personal self.

A fairly firm starting point is the view, that this world of ours is an immerse school for souls, individual units of consciousness, not just a pointless formation of countless accidents. And just as the world once got its form, so is your soul to be formed and shaped out of the fruits of this vast play of relative life. Life as it appears to us is relative in nature, even if it were based on the spiritual absoluteness.

It might be fruitful if you would try to go through your whole life for as long a period as you are able to remember, letting all feelings rise up freely without attempts to interpret them. Feelings in general are psychic energy. By letting the energy enter the light of your clear consciousness you can release the tension they have produced for example in your nervous system. 

Do not accuse anybody or anything of unpleasant feelings or memories, for those are meant to be surpassed and used to strengthen your mind and will. Even the most traumatic things are not worth invigorating, for they have no real life in them. The human mind has a tendency to wrap itself around unpleasant things so that it starts to reflect them as dark shadows over future expectations. Your failure today does not automatically lead to the same kind of failure tomorrow.

Before falling asleep it might be a good habit to go through your daily events, and then let them go by. Certainly you can always ask for more strength and wisdom for your coming challenges. All that you need is hidden in the depths of your being. From them can come forth, as you have experienced all that is meant for you, and cleared all futile things from the vast collection of your temporal mind. It is good to see that most of our prayers are full of selfish ideas, containing something favourable to us or people that are dear to us. A wise man has said that we humans often pray for the Highest Will to happen, but as it happens, we seem to become very angry and upset.

Maybe you are ready to face the demands of the first step?

THE FIRST STEP

You have now gathered enough courage and self-understanding that you can face a bit more demanding inner challenges. You should keep in mind here that it is not a question of creating your career, but cleaning and deepening your consciousness so that no external attractions can hold it in chains. 

In principle you can ascend to the height of consciousness, where the temptation of this worldly life is in balance with your longing for spiritual life – which you in this state cannot know anything real about. One thing is quite certain: nobody can do the inner work for you nor carry you or your burdens. It is just the contents of your own mind that can be formed to your steps.

Do not be afraid, for in reality there is nothing to be afraid of. Your judge is living in your depths, knowing all your possibilities and impossibilities. If you do your best, nobody has the right to ask more of you.

If thinking is the natural way for you, give it a lot of your time, but let as well your thoughts ripen in peace and silence to the state of understanding that you are able to reach at the time. Never fail to think that you by your reasoning could find the ultimate truth. Experiencing the truth takes place far beyond human perception, feelings and thoughts.

Do not be hasty or afraid even if days and years pass away. Let temporal things do their work in ripening you until they begin to push you out of their circle towards your inner self. Find the fears that are hiding in the depths of your mind and in the nodal points of your nerves. It is fear that forces people to lean to other people and fixed ways of thinking – the so called truths! Raise all those onto the table of your mind and to see whether they can stand the fire of your own consciousness. If you become fully satisfied with some of your conclusions, be careful to not at once try to convert others to your ideas. The value of your thoughts comes into light in your state of understanding, the amount of ideas as such does not tell much about the quality of your mind.

In this stage you should stop talking about fate – good or bad – for you probably have an intuition – as an old prophet in the Old Testament: that all things turn out well in due course. All the essence of life is meant for the growth of one’s inner self – soul, if that is the word you are accustomed to use – could gather proper nutrition to enable it to blossom.

It is impossible for you to live the life of somebody else. All your chances are hidden in your own life. Your only duty is to dig them up. If you in any respect find some personal progress, please do not ask for reward from any direction, for such expectations make you right away a kind of merchant. Be calm and satisfied when you are facing the things that are meant for you – those are your chances to ascend to higher stages of understanding.

Maybe feelings form the strongest element in your mind? In that case you should be careful not to identify too much in ugly things and events around you, trying desperately to change everything for better. It is an old psychological heresy that spiritual life is possible only in very pleasant and beneficial circumstances.

You can rely on the view that once your consciousness and will become so strong and firm that no temporal thing can affect your stability. Be careful when interpreting your possible inner visions. Remember that your mind is full of old thought patterns which will easily be mixed in your imagination with vague reflections from some inner levels. Striving at psychic visions has not necessarily anything to do with one’s spiritual growth – it could in fact prove to become a hindrance. All formal things in your mind may turn out to be illusory, so be careful not to overestimate them.

If you belong to those people to whom strong feelings are alien, it would be better not even to try to reach them. Your way is probably through mental processes – by clearing all your thoughts and striving to ever deepening understanding – ending finally at intuitive perception of the essence of things.

Some people rather practice their will for spirituality for the benefit of other people. For them it is essential to do all that from their hearts. Devotion is the name of their path, helping in all occasions where their help is needed and natural. In doing this one should be careful not to let one’s mind to become proud of anything, for in the end all the best worldly achievements prove to be rather insignificant. 

If you now - voluntarily and even gladly - are prepared to carry all the tasks that life is setting afore you, you may well be entitled to enter the second stage of spiritual growth.

THE SECOND STEP

To be able to stay and act on this stage requires that you can stand firmly on your own feet in both outer and inner things of life. Taking the whole responsibility of our own affairs should now be obvious, as well as honesty, which does not mean the right to be arrogant or even proud. The most important thing is to find one’s mental feet. 

You should have courage enough to examine all things in the light of your own consciousness and pick up the kind of content in which you find some permanent value. This of course does not mean that you would not listen to anybody else or read any books on matters that you are dealing with. But simply that you are boiling all things in your own kettle before accepting them to enter into your stock of thoughts. 

The growth of higher mental resolution should not lead to intolerance of any kind, even though it often causes dramatic changes in your circle of friends. Friendship is mostly based on the same kind of values concerning life – and if there is a huge change in your own attitudes, it often weakens the foundations of ordinary friendships. You may feel that you have lost touch with social life, even feel some guilt, but it seems to be evident, that there is no way back.

The paths of mental and spiritual growth are lonely; many disciples seek support and guidance – ending often in disappointment. In your moments of weakness you may have serious doubts that there is no love left in you anymore. But be sure that love has not gone anywhere – only the ordinary ways of mutual affection has become weaker in order to let a real love grow and ripen in the depths of your mind – the love that does not look at a person, for in its light you can see and understand the deep purposes of life concerning every individual you are facing. 

Be peaceful and merry even in your sadness, so you will pass over it in no time. The weakening attraction of temporary things naturally causes temporal sadness and melancholy, and some difficulties to motivate one’s everyday activities. Let all those dark clouds fade away and keep your mind clear and awake, for it is but your unconscious mind that reflects your old reactions to be wiped away.

You begin to understand, what the meaning of the saying “poor in spirit” might be: that material and psychic welfare is not worth striving for, until the peace and harmony of mind is achieved. You also know that mere literal renouncing of any kind of worldly things does not lead to any real advancement, for it is impossible to do business with spiritual realities. Your inner and outer wealth serves as means to learn how to use them wisely – so that spirituality in general gets an opportunity to rise up among human beings.

If the greatest spiritual messengers had worried, whether they will be accepted by masses, they would have certainly become just poor village politicians.

This stage regards strength and courage of mind, throwing away all crutches and railings, accepting oneself such as one appears at the moment, and utmost striving to realms, which are said to stand far beyond human reach.

Too many have spoken about losing oneself long before they have even found their own true nature! On this stage a feeling of the meaning of your personal self is becoming clear: what role of your inner self it is meant to realize, and in what way and reservations; which are its worst stumbling blocks and weaknesses of character, rooting out what by sound observation must belong to your everyday routines.

Remember that your personal self is to a great extent a formation of your experiences and circumstances, a historical compilation lacking all independent permanent being. Many of your qualities tend to give their own colour and distortion to your perceptions, so you must be careful in watching your actions and leisure.

There is nothing to be afraid of but your own weaknesses, but even they can in time be mended. Be merciful to yourself that you do not become hard towards other people, or that you do not hide your faults behind curtains, from where they surprise you as soon as your consciousness becomes exhausted for a moment. Remember that you can still make bad mistakes, and that our will is not as strong as it should become, for it is still leaning on human understanding.

It may well be that you are ready to try the third step in the growth of human consciousness. 

THE THIRD STEP

Have a glance at the path behind you. Is there still something left of your personal self? Are you going to stick to it? Do your worldly duties still hold you tight? Do you feel that you have completely drifted away from all attractions of common life? Is it now very unpleasant for you to be dishonest?

Have you lost all your desire for power and honour? Do not long for them to give motivation to your life. You should be quite sure that they cannot satisfy you anymore.

Maybe you have learnt to understand, what St. Paul meant in his peculiar claim, that he was strong every time he was weak? 

Are you waiting for something not knowing what it might be? Be patient, for life itself really knows, what you need, and gives you everything as soon as you are ready and free to receive.

Have you any idea what it is to become and be like a child? It means a state of mind which contains no hidden selfish terms or reservations, readiness to act right from one’s innermost necessity with creative powers of life. Very few of us people have become like children – instead, far too many have become childish.

The real likeness of children requires that one realizes in all actions the impersonal will – the very will that has become strong as your own personal will has weakened!

You can be sure that there is no external essence to replace the space that your personal will has left empty. All that is great is hidden in your depths, and to be found as soon as you are able to throw away all you personal restrictions. 

Your personality is just a womb, where your real being has had one of his opportunities to grow and ripen in all those things that human existence ever contains. And as your child is ready to be born, so shall it take place from the necessity of the eternal spirit. A pure consciousness in your depths is always ready and to be given to you requiring that you have experienced all necessary things in human life and that all your desires have faded away.

Be patient and happy, not waiting for anything, for there is nothing that the eternal reality would not know about you. You must take into account the fact that a process of spiritual growth is always a very complex one. Experiences in life usually grind many features of mind at the same time. A spiral like complexity is to be found in spiritual steps, too. Life is not like a normal school with fixed schedules for life continually alternates between lectures of different steps, so that it in the short run it might seem almost chaotic. So do not be hasty in charging where you, yourself, or somebody else is standing – it is not even human business to make such conclusions.

There is not much to be said about the third step: the more you learn of reality the less you can tell about it in words. Remember that real things are not feelings or thoughts, but pure consciousness without any means.

BEST LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY

Christianity - a blessing or a crime against humanity?

Christianity - a blessing or a crime against humanity?
Friedrich Nietzsche, a famous, but very often not well understood philosopher declared in his works that Christianity was a crime against humanity!
Many of us modern people would call that the words of a lunatic whose dreadful hatred towards Christian belief might have risen from his brains, injured by syphilis (if he had such a disease), or from his childhood in a vicarage - so, his ideas are not worthy of any further investigation!
By Christianity Nietzsche most probably meant the kind of ideas which the Christian Church traditionally considered the only true and allowed way of thinking - leading to salvation.
A little more biblical knowledge, however, is needed to understand the fact that there has always been a considerable gap between the real and authentic teachings of Jesus and the interpretations of later Christian generations - including the evangelists themselves - not to mention the final statements of creed. The Gospels were written 50 years and more after Jesus by completely different people than his first hand followers, the disciples. And while composing their texts on the basis of the pieces of traditions they also included much of the themes of the day - themes, that for example were intended to fortify the belief of the Christian communities in times of danger, and to lessen the pressure coming from the Roman side.
Much of the works and teachings of Jesus had already been forgotten, not to mention the details of his life, birth and childhood. Only the few years of public activities were noticed. So today most scholars admit that there is not much authentic knowledge of Jesus’s life - the only indisputable historical fact is that he was crucified during Pontius Pilate’s time - and on his orders.
The gospels depict Pilate as a person who is at least striving for truth and justice. This was just a way to soften the attitudes of Romans after the Jewish war, because of Pontius we know for sure that he was not a gentle man of honour - on the contrary - he was later dismissed of his duty for using far too brutal means. So, historians think that Pilate probably didn’t need any sleeping pills after condemning a Jew to death, had he not done that so many times before, even without a trial!

What Nietzsche, and very many intelligent men and women before and after him, really criticized so powerfully was not the activity of Jesus the Christ himself, but merely the views of the Catholic Church with all their later variations - in the sense that they did not well enough support the actual spiritual growth and mental development of the human race as a whole. Why? Because believing in an atonement through one special vicarious suffering sets aside the task of an individual human being in searching and struggling by himself to realize the fundamental meaning and aims of life, and finding the ways to become unfastened from identifying with the perishable phenomena of this world.
The idea of salvation by just believing can act as an excuse for neglecting one’s own mental possibilities as well as responsibilities.
From the first centuries there have been Christian sects - gnostics - or heretics, as the later winning branch saw necessary to call them, which draw quite different views from the same set of Christian traditions. A direct divine knowledge was their ultimate goal - a state of consciousness that does not need belief and assurances any more, for the ultimate sources of all are experienced on a level which professes only one unchangeable thing - the Truth itself!
In many of these branches people were equal, clergy and laymen, men and women. That was a horrible thing to men like Irenaeus, for the Church had adapted old Jewish traditions - in fact, there was harsh controversy on these matter already in the time of Paul. For women this subordinate state in church has lasted almost two thousand years - for laymen it may still take a further two thousand!
Some of these early religious interpretations and criticisms concerning the so called Catholic Church seem to be rather similar to Nietzsche’s views. But their ways were gradually pressed down by the "official belief" and its secular allies. The formerly persecuted Christian believers themselves turned in a few decades to persecutors of all those who had some different thoughts in religious affairs, especially in the matters of salvation and resurrection in flesh, the latter is today among scholars generally admitted as a clearly wrong interpretation of the texts - the texts in fact depict Jesus’s being after resurrection very "phantom-like", even difficult to recognize, but a few generations later it was modified to a much fleshlier mode - the mode, which was the most familiar to common uneducated people.
A clear hierarchic organisation combined with a common way of thinking, all cemented in simple confessions soon proved to be victorious, even embraceable by Roman emperors themselves as an effective means to strengthen their own rule.
But even at the time of crusades there were still cities and communities where people were trying hard to understand and apply in their every day lives the direct teachings of Jesus - just as they are found in the gospel texts. Not only in the four gospels familiar to us, but even in many other early interpretations of Christianity, many of which have come to our knowledge as late as 1945, when a hidden library of over 50 early writings was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Among these "heretical groups" it was common to take most part of religious texts as allegories, tales that had to be interpreted by some people who had more advanced knowledge in these difficult affairs. All these people were called heretics by the Church, worthy of oppression and persecution. Even today there is not much revaluation of these events, even if almost all outstanding bible scholars and historians today agree that most of the holy texts in fact were from the very first meant to be taken as pure allegories with very little, or no historical reliability.
The fourth crusade could well be called a cruise of a gang of robbers for they chose to drop in Constantinopel, another Christian city - not to pay a visit, but to conquer and pillage it.
One of the so called crusades succeeded in putting a violent end to all diverse thinking (the Albigenzes) in Southern France. The pope gave to the king of France a "holy excuse" to strenghten his rule in those Southern territories.
But there is at least one positive consequence of all this stupid fanatism: the idea of chivalry was imported to Europe from the leader of the Muslim enemy, the Egyptian sultan Sala(ha)din!
Even in the "darkness of the Middle Ages" there occurred much profound religious and philosophic thinking - searching for the ultimate sources of truth. Meister (or Master) Eckhart, a famous and beloved Dominican teacher and preacher, was one of the finest examples of guides who - like Jesus himself - emphasized the need to be born again in spirit in the ultimate summit of soul (where Eckhart locates the very birth).
But - just as Jesus suggested - there are usually many obstacles to prevent a human being from experiencing this mystical birth.
Loving this world means hating god in the sense that being united with the only true undivided ultimate oneness demands its likeness - and a person who identifies himself in any way with things, whether good or bad, cannot turn his mind entirely towards something that he knows nothing about. A human mind is busy with all the things one has even a slightest interest in - conscious or unconscious - and that is why "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God". And we must certainly take richness here as a parable, denoting to all kinds of physical and mental temptations and desires, both coarse and refined, found in the human mind.
So, according to a very universal view religious life in general means dressing out of attachments to worldly affairs - finally even out of himself! Losing oneself, the limited sense of a separate individual ego, which is the root of all selfishness, is said to end in finding the only real self. This is the crucial point of Eckhart’s teaching - and not only his, but the same principle can easily be found almost in all the fundamental religious texts and traditions of the West and the East.
But in his time Tertullus claimed that there was nothing to be found, and nobody to open doors for any too eager seeker - everything was taken to the possession of the Catholic Church, clearly stated, truthfully understood - for only this very branch of Christian thinking was based on the apostolic ground, a direct suggession up to St. Peter himself! The leading idea here goes like this: It was Peter who recognized Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God; it was Peter who at first met Jesus after his resurrection from the tomb (but the texts tell a different order) - and by all these virtues St. Peter was here on earth given the keys of heaven to let it to his successors, especially the bishop of Rome (for Peter is said to be crucified in Rome, but there is no real evidence of that)!

Being born again! We often think of it as a sudden overwhelming feeling which too many regard as a sure sign of final salvation - but not Eckhart, not the gnostics - because for them (and many others) a true salvation did not mean anything temporary, but a complete change from a limited way of perceiving to a constant experience of the ultimate, forever unchangeable source of all temporary things.
So, could a human being achieve this by his own efforts - against the Gospel texts? Not exactly, for a human being cannot by his own will get in touch with anything that he knows nothing about. And about God, or anything beyond the limits of time and space, people know nothing about, even if they have heard thousands of beautiful words and fairy-tales of all the wonders of heaven.
A heaven with you and me, even with us people and God Himself separately in it, should not be understood as an ultimate source of absolute life. Maybe there are lots of more or less temporary ideal places for tired souls to rest, but heaven, as it is found in Jesus’s words, must be understood as a complete unity where there are no bigger or smaller beings or things, no male or female, no sense of forms and other differences, no sense of time and space, nothing which establishes this world that we to some extent are able to understand.
On this basis we could in principle make such a conclusion that a person cannot guarantee his final salvation by any human means. His tak lies just in getting loose of temporary things by experiencing, understanding, getting bored and tired - and then just waiting without expecting anything. Just waiting, because expecting a reward would certainly mean that one is loving God still in a selfish way.
Putting all ones hope on the one person, raised above all in Christianity, would according to Eckhart be foolish - for "what good does it do to me if I had a perfect brother if I myself were a fool!"
But his clear reasoning doesn’t suit everybody’s ears. People are not ready to think by themselves in these fundamental religious affairs which they have just adapted in their childhood.
The idea of vicarious suffering is just a huge extention from a very old Jewish tradition found in the books of Moses - the trespass! Of course it is based on even older traditions and found in some form almost everywhere.
One thing is sure, people want to be saved - as easily as possible! But can it happen so easily? That is a question of fate to many. Jesus said: "Streight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it". The Church has taken the authority to widen the gate and way, so as to take all her true, literal believers in. It seems as if Jesus himself had exaggerated the requirements - or he had not been fully aware of the coming changes in them a few centuries after his death on a cross!
To gather as many people as possible to confess a set of ideas usually preconceives that the ideas somehow serve the interests of the audience and fit their level of understanding. This has always been well taken into account among politicians, as well as among those in the church who have taken seriously the doubtful command in the Gospel of Matthew: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..."
Promising much and demanding little forms an universal basis for popularity among great numbers, and that is the point in which vicarious suffering has always played an important role. A great number of the people in the Roman Empire who during the first and second century were converted to Christianity came from the lowest social classes - even from slaves. Their living had never been easy, so any kind of promise for a better life would have been welcome - even a promise for a better life after death!
When we look at the persecution of Christians and martyrdom, there were some astonishing features in the thinking of the so called fathers of the Church: Tertullus among many others suggested that people should change their flesh to eternal life by suffering a martyr’s death! Yes, that is an unquestionable fact which reminds us right away of the events in the Middle East of today: from where have the Muslims taken their ideas concerning martyrdom? Evidently from us Christians!
Of course it is very understandable in a human sense that leaders were trying to convince their parishioners about the benefits of standing horrible persecution, even when it led to tortures and execution. But were their convictions really based on true philosofical grounds, such as we can find in the New Testament? The gnostics said no! Anybody could make a verbal confession and become a martyr. The gnostics said that it wasn’t as simple as that with eternal affairs. One should be internally ready and free of temporary things before leaving or passing in one way or another this world of ours. For an immature person this world was the only chance to grow into spiritual understanding and life by learning from a suitable guidance and personal experience.
But the gnostics certainly set clear conditions - one should look for direct spiritual knowledge - verbal convictions and confessions didn’t bring a spiritual enlightment, not to mention final blessedness. And these conditions, increased with hostile aggressions from the side of their opponents, the "orthodoxes", the only true church, sealed their defeat in the battle for popularity. It is very clear that the gnostics were no politicians!
Ever since the first Chistian centuries it has been very difficult or even dangerous to propose religious interpretations which differed much from creed. We must come until Martin Luther who forced through the kind of views in which pure faith in atonement plays an even more prominent role than ever before. Of course many of the issues Luther criticized were worth attention, but much exaggerated and generalized in later Lutheran circles. But one could also get an impression of the Lutheran belief that it does not really aim at any increasing understanding, but contents itself with a simple outside purity and obstinate literal believing in the texts of the Bible.
For example in Finland, which is maybe one of the most Lutheran nations in the world, the church has lost its touch in people’s minds, and stands as a formal institution for weddings and funerals. Priests are reading the same worn-out texts to almost empty churches followed by their literal interpretations which do not feed the intellectual hunger of any mentally directed person. People rather gather to hear some popular philosopher (there are not many) or just watch their TV. The church is trying to sharpen its social profile, but that, not to talk about combining service and jogging, cannot in any case fill the obvious spiritual emptyness and ignorance of their message.
***
We started this with Nietzsche, a very bold philosopher who honestly tried to create a new view to the most important issues of life - not entirely new, for there has been deviant ways of thinking ever since the first Christian communities, as we have just seen. The church has in modern times evaded all serious discussions on these "heretical" questions, and it has had almost a monopoly to form public opinion during centuries, for all actual knowledge was edited in ecclestiastical circles, and almost all divergent material was burned - if such sometimes came out.
But today we have the opportunity to see the original texts of many gnostic branches, and to find out, what they in turn thought about the dominating Christian ways of thinking.
The same applies to Eckhart: His activities were forgotten for centuries, maybe because some of his writings were declared "heretical" a few years after his death, probably for some political reasons concerning the battle between the two organisations, the Dominicans and the Franciscans. But now a collection of about a hundred authentic sermons and a study have been published in many languages.
In his sermons we can find examples of the most refined interpretations of biblical texts - what for example did the purifying of the Temple really mean? It meant purifying one’s own soul - making it empty of all temporary things - so that God (or Jesus Christ as a representant of the divine nature) could enter it and be there all alone: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." This kind of mental purity, a state beyond all desires and human weaknesses, was the ideal and goal of Eckhart’s teachings. To reach a state where "the birth again" may happen - and basically that is the idea which is found almost in every deep and serious teaching of all religions and philosophies throughout the world.
So, one could say that the organisations of the later followers are responsible for most part of the differences in religious matters - these are much more common in the original ideas if they are purged from later tendencies and pieces of composition. In fact it would be much more fruitful to look for similarities in religious issues than to emphasize small literal differences. The latter way has often led or given support to oppression and wars, even among Christians!
It makes many of us sad, and should make us ashamed to see how Christians in Northern Ireland today communicate with one another - deliberately picking a quarrel! Here one could take an exract from the New Testament - "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit", and use that to confirm Nietzsche’s words - "Christianity is a crime!"
But in a coin there are always two sides, and we must have patience to look at both of them.
Somehow Nietzsche himself just proposes a different view to Christian tradition - his hard words might in fact be aimed at breaking common fear and excessive reverence towards scriptures and creed. All scriptures were certainly written by men of more or less weaknesses and ignorance - the words of god are something quite different - wordless, beyond all scriptures. For wasn’t it a very big lack for the utmost perfection and source of all to use tools as clumsy and limited in nature as words in the sense we know them!
Maybe it would have been wiser if men like Paul had never mentioned about their (lower or higher, temporary or permanent - who can tell) spiritual experiences, for accounts are just allusions, not meant to be taken literally, drawn down to look like a common discussion between two persons.
Oh yes, in churches we are asked to raise our hearts towards God, but very seldom we are taught what that really means! At least in Lutheran churches people are asked to stand up on their feet to hear the word of God - and the effect is in direct contradiction!
To raise one’s mind or understanding above all ordinary things, towards the only pure ground of all temporary life - that is the most probable meaning of these literal words: Why not to teach how it will be carried out? Of course there are some serious attempts to that direction, but far too many sermons remain on a literal surface. Swimming in deep waters demands a good art of swimming. A good theory doesn’t help much if one has no experience in that art!
And so it is with many theologians - Jesus would certainly have defined many of them as pharisees who were well educated in all the formal traditions of Jewish religion (some of them, among others Hillel, even had a very deep understanding in spiritual affairs). And if we for example look at the 17th century "orthodox Lutheranism", we could figure that it probably consisted more of old Jewish tradition, and in a much ruder mode than in the times of Jesus himself. For the Jews had at least some idea and tradition how to interprete and evaluate their own writings - the Christians 16 centuries later took it all as words of God Himself (as many of them unfortunately still do)!
Very few have taken seriously the statement of Origen in which he, a very well educated man, says that only a fool believes in Adam and Eve - that is to say in them as the first human beings made by God Himself ! For stories like that should be taken symbolically. Origen even said that many of the stories in the Old Testament included very odd features for just the reason that people would have to make some personal effort in order to catch their real meanings. In this respect Origen’s views are very close to the results of modern biblical research - and to the ideas of many who were slaughted or burnt as heretics by the Christian Church which accepted only the literal interpretations of texts.
It is often said that the Christians brought civilization to many pagan people. But what is a pagan? A person who has a wrong god or gods - an idolator, who has not heard about the Christian ways of belief - or cannot adopt these views. That is a Christian definition which unfortunately has taken a Jewish stand (found clearly in the Old Testament) in handling religious differences: pagans could be treated with no respect, even with utmost cruelty! Jesus’s words have always fallen on deaf ears in this respect (as well as in many others). Instead of promoting a brilliant civilization the fanatic preachers accompanied by greedy robbers have destroyed many fine human cultures - giving in turn diseases and strange new names for holy things.
But the Christians may of course defend their doings by saying that it was all meant for the salvation of those poor people - for salvation, at least according to the Christian belief, demands believing in Jesus the Christ, and exactly the way which is defined in creed!
But was Jesus the Christ really the only Christ ever seen here on earth? The Christians certainly think he was, but many in gnostic and Eastern circles are also talking about divine expressions, people who have internally become sons of God, that is to say - born from above to unit with God, the only God! To idols! A Christian answers, but mayby he does not dare to look carefully enough at his own texts, e.g. the Gospel of John, where there are clear messages of the ultimate aim for people once to become one with God, the Father. Even if the Buddhists are talking about reaching a state of the "Nirvana", there are no real differences between their views and the Christian accounts of the kingdom of heaven or god.
Maybe it is so that most disputes among Christians and other religions are due to an inordinate emphasis of words, probably coming from the unfortunate translation of the original Greek expression, "Logos" to Latin "Verbum" (a Word). Logos means a lot more than only a word. If we read the beginning of that gospel carefully, we certainly shall see that it is not talking about words in their literal sense, but about a foundation or a completely spiritual source of all that has come or will ever come into existense through some declining reflections in time and space. It could be described as a perfect image of all in eternity, in "principle" (basic idea), which is translated "beginning" in most languages. Philosopher Plato is also talking about "principles", original unchangeable modes on which all phenomena are based. These modes might just be those, included always in Logos, in the "Word".
We Christians have got from the Old Testament the idea that it was God himself who created the universe, including us people. Perhaps that view lies also on a base of a much too literal interpretation of Genesis.
According to most gnostic sources God himself did not create anything at all here in time and space. Meister Eckhart says the same, claiming that God created all into the highest angels, the Serafes, which in turn reflected these principles into lower levels. There it all was scattered into pieces, into separate forms and identities - into the world or "Sin"!
According to a common allegoric interpretation of Genesis people in principle are all from a divine origin, coming from the same eternal source, or as Jesus put it - "Ye are gods". Eckhart says that it was not the outer human expression that was made according to God’s image, but the soul at her purest nature ("... and man became a living soul, Gen.2:7") . "The kingdom of God is within you", says Luke in his gospel, but that account is not often heard in sermons (at least in Lutheran ones), for it denotes to a possibility and need to find the divine by individual human means without any mediation of outside saviours, not to mention the sacraments.
Of course this does not cancel the value of any divine masters ever found on earth - leading people towards the true saviour or Christ inside every human soul - towards rebirth in spirit.
That is how many men and women, religious thinkers, philosophers, writers and others will often take and have taken ever since the beginning of Christianity the great meaning of Jesus’s life and activities.
And that is how the majority of the Nikaia council (325 A.D.) took him, the supporters of Areios. But the Athanasius’s side won this battle by the powerful intervention of emperor Constantine (or the theologist of his court, Eusebius).
Of course we have no right to conclude that Areios’s views represented the original true Christianity for so many interpretations had already occurred long before that meeting, and the ultimate truth itself will never be a matter of political conclusions - however democratic or dictated they might be.
Anyway - this very event gives us a picture how most of our "divine" dogmas and selecting of appropriate scriptures were actually made: by political decisions which later on were strengthened with a sort of "divine guidance".
Overestimating of human thoughts often hinders personal considerations too much. All the more so, if it is labelled as dangerous for salvation. Nietzsche and many other daring thinkers have criticized any kind of setting blocks to free thinking, for it doesn’t do any good to the development of individual humanity, not to talk about real creative efforts in making ones own ways in all matters of life.
Even today there are many quarters in Christianity which do not favour any biblical research that one way or another goes beyond the narrow limits of creed. If they cannot prevent it, they try to keep silent of the results, and throw some shadows of doubts on them.
Of course they think that their intention is good, but does it really do any good? Many say no - for too many serious religious thinkers ever since Jesus himself have experienced persecution or pressure on behalf of the so called "good people" for their (even slightly) differing ways of thinking.
Nietzsche warned about these kind of "good people", for they cannot stand any creative thinking that would threaten their final and fixed foundations of life - and maybe show them that their standards regarding personal blessedness were not yet high enough.
For a Christian humanity it has ever since the first centuries been very difficult to accept any great men or women in spiritual and religious matters, or even in more common fields of life. We want to be so equal that we will try to pull down anyone who in one or another respect seems better than others. A truly good person serves just as a too clear mirrov which nobody wants to look at. Unfortunately there are always some good people to demand that this kind of mirrov should be broken down for its "infernal brightness"!
Fixed simple ideas, planted deep to multitude, serve easily as a means to knock down every single individual thought and thinker that openly comes forward.
Maybe it is important that there are obstacles in the way of those few that are mature enough to exceed the common limits, but it is not a wrong statement to say that in Christianity these limits have appeared in the way at far too early stages. Not everybody is a great spiritual heroe, but there are probabaly millions that could make good progress in opening up their understanding, if they were allowed to do it without fear, and given some proper guidance.
The Christian church of course gives its own guidance in religious matters, but somehow, and in many corners it seems even much more elementary than the education that was handed down in the dark Middle Ages. In those days people could get very advanced instruction even in the difficult matters of mysticism, as we can see through the sermons and writings of Meister Eckhart and many others.
From the very beginning of Christianity there have been disputes about the matter of who would be worthy of acting as a guide for others? Even Jesus himself is said to mention about the blind guides that’ll lead their followers into the ditch. What did he mean by blindness? That is an important question. Almost all leaders of the church have always claimed that formal theological studies and the ordination really fulfil all the requirements.
What if Jesus meant that a guide should himself have personally experienced all the things he is talking about? If he were talking about God, he should know what it really means to be in God or in Christ! How else could he give proper guidance? Many people have said and will say that they are in God or at least in Christ, for they might have got some kind of unusual mental experience.
But what is the real quality of each individual mystic experience? It is very difficult to find proper answers to questions like this.
But once again we could fall back upon the famous statement in the gospel of Matthew: "By their fruits ye shall know them". If a mystic experience is really fundamental in nature, there should occur a fundamental change in the consciousness of the person in question. Coming in touch with something divine may in most cases be a matter of a temporary feeling with very little changes in the ways of perceiving. In these, the most common cases it should be taken as a signpost showing that there lies a spiritual dimension to be found on the ground of all.
But being born again must be something totally different. It is said to change one’s whole consciousness into an eternal level where everything has its unchangeable nature without time and space.
There is just one, one unity behind all universe - " that they may be one, as we are". There is but one oneness in which all universe eternally has its ultimate roots, and in which all true saints have their communion, their common source of consciousness.
Every person who has permanently got in touch with this divine source, will be a saint for ever, and needs no kind of official declaration any more. Appointing someone to a saint is in principle quite stupid, but serves of course some human needs for a paragon of virtue. Most appointments of saints certainly were not worth the trouble of seeking the formal evidence, because separate formal activities can never testify for the inner perfection of any person: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father", says the gospel, but in almost all cases it is too hard for us people to free our minds from all temporary things - and besides get ready for something permanent.
The story of clearing the Temple of God in Jerusalem should also be taken, at least according to men like Origen and Eckhart, as a parable of clearing one’s own mind of all earthly bandages, of desires and selfishness. But people want to get more and more out of life - and of God - for they love God as if He were a cow: because of her milk (Eckhart’s parable)! And the more one gets the more one has in the long run to get rid of. That is why it is so hard for a "rich man" to enter the kingdom of God.
But this life evidently must have some meaning - and one should get rich enough in experience for once becoming "a last Adam, a quickening spirit" - for what could such a person create who had no personal experience in life at all?
Life is very likely meant for learning in one way or another, for understanding its temporary nature and its hidden wisdom as well. We cannot charge life properly according to the qualities of experience just as they are, for they may merely serve as a basis for future life. The only things that matter are the changes in ones consciousness, caused by events in life.
Jesus himself warned about judging, for people do not entirely know what in every separate case should be considered good and bad . Many events and doings look bad even if their future consequences proved favourable.
In almost every religion or even common tradition we can find the idea that some day or another, in one form or another, a person must meet the consequences of his own doings - maybe in a form, somewhat similar to the original.
This is an essential point especially in the philosophies of the East, but it is easily found in our bibles, too - even if the church has tried to cover it with the shadow of a cross, which has made it a relative law. One can break the law if one truly believes in salvation through Jesus’s death. But it is often taken as an absolute law of Nature among those pagans and heretics "which have no hope", as Paul says in a letter (1 thess. 4:13)!
Words like these are very hard and insulting if we should believe that every human being has the same origin and has got hidden in his soul the same ultimate possibilities to turn back into this eternal source. This kind of excluding hardness might have its roots in a very old Jewish tradition adopted by later generations in the leadership of the church, in the sources which Jesus himself so heavily criticized.
***
Back to the other side of the coin! The christian way of life has certainly given good opportunities for outer development, technical research and improvements, and for many kinds of social experiments. And these are certainly signs of practicing talents and creativity, even if the results do not in short term seem to be very admirable.
People have also to see the negative outcomings of their activities in order to grow slowly towards real wisdom. In the East people seem to concentrate merely on inner life, neglecting their concrete activities which in their understanding have no other meaning than creating unneccessary "Karma" for the days to come.
But there is still much to be developed in human the mind or understanding. And forever changing forms of life will force people to use their brains. Of cource the outcome of their thinking can very seldom be called wisdom. Usually it is but higher or lower human intelligence, which is useful only for temporary purposes of life. However, it can serve as an introduction towards better understanding and advanced creativity, and so in time also the outer expressions should not seem as threatening as they are today.
All that will take time, and time is the element that many Christians feel they have all too little of. For they have just one short lifetime to make themselves acceptable to their merciful God! It is no wonder that they have had a need to construct a detour to heaven through just one perfected representant of mankind.
It is considered heretical to think that an ultimate perfection might, however, be a long progressive process which is actually happening somewhere in a hidden inside nature of every human being.
Maybe an individual human being might be something much more than just a person who plays a short role here in these limited circumstances of earthly life. Maybe a person is just a vessel for a real human being, meant to get some more experience - "lay up for themselves treasures in heaven" - spiritual qualities to some spiritual level, endurable from "the first Adam to the last"!
According to Paul they all still looked like the first Adam in Paul’s own times - so it must take a lot of time for the whole of mankind to reach the highest stage of humanity.
It has never been very difficult to realize how slowly mankind will become ennobled. So it is no wonder that a need for mercy has arisen among people who think that one must get ready for God in just a lifetime. But what in fact is a lifetime? Just a short appearance in a limited physical body with limited senses, in a limited environment - that is how most of us Christians think!
But nothing in Nature comes from nothing - and not a single thing will totally disappear. "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men." Return! Where to return? Back to God, or back to life to learn more about the fundamental things that life in a human form can give - until one can oneself utter the famous words of Jesus: "It is finished". What is finished? All that life can give or take has done its work in a human mind and made it free of all human weaknesses, that is to say - of sin!
Really, a lot of mercy is needed before one can reach an adequate stage of purity. And very much faith, "Pistis", aiming at some target (but not always hitting the mark).
What if Paul, as Psalm 90, was talking about a development of millions of years? A horrible idea to many of us Christians, but the most natural view to very many. Was a human being the only thing that was created ready from the first beginning - "in the image of God" - or does this refer only to the Word, the perfect image of man in the depths of the soul? So that an outer human expression is to fulfil this image by degrees in time and space, working as a co-creator to god himself here on earth! And of course this applies to all creatures as well. They are all transferring some divine ideas (the word!) into temporary phenomena - and learning by experiencing the results of their doings, successes as well as failures.
If we are to take the bible seriously, we should notice that it points out the need of change inside one’s own mind, and in that change life itself plays the role of a teacher. But one must try to listen and understand it’s lessons, for if they fall on deaf ears, life must use other means - often by giving rise to suffering and sorrow.
Of course we should understand that reasons for suffering are always very complex. A mercy included in life might even bring these unpleasant things to be faced after a person is internally ready to carry them. If they were debts of the past, we should consider, which one is happier: a person who gets into debt, or a person who has a fine opportunity to pay at least some of his debts back. Of course this kind of thinking does not do justice to the real meaning of suffering: Unpleasant affairs gradually help us in detaching our minds from the ties of this temporary life.
If we always had only a good time, we would never even think of anything other than enjoying our every day life, staying here as the "prodigal sons" forever - never intending to turn "back home". This is why Jacob says: "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; the trying of your faith worketh patience...let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
O’ yes, Jakob expresses in short the state of mind one must achieve: Not wanting anything! For if a person truly loves god he should also internally resign himself to his fate, because it is just the life which is meant for him - or even made by himself!
This does not, however, mean sinking into inactivity, as it is understood in some of the Eastern traditions, but trying to do one’s best, accusing nobody and nothing - not to talk about getting bitter. Eckhart says that people often pray for God’s will to happen - and when it happens - they are very annoyed!
We are inclined to think that all good comes from heaven and ourselves, and that all bad is from hell and other people - that is how our minds usually work to keep us in balance - the central points of the whole universe!
Psychology talks about projecting when we see all bad things coming from the outside world - so that we have nothing to do with them. But we are weaved into the life of our environment and humanity as a whole - and in order to understand and surpass this limited state of mind we should really try to "deny ourselves, and take our own crosses, and follow him (or the way he and many others have shown us)."
This does not mean that we should look for death, but we should rather look for a completely different attitude towards life - an attitude that takes everything as equal, whether good or bad, familiar or strange, me or you: for basically it is all but one that has fallen into pieces in our minds - in Sin!
Impossible! Certainly it is impossible for a human being as long as he sticks to his own limits. But in time the limits are expanding and the events, as pure events, are losing their significance. For many in the East all events are nothing, but we should seriously try to understand their real nature - how they are trying to refine our mind and detach it from its conditionings to all temporary phenomena, this world of ours.

***

Let’s shortly return to the advantages of Christian culture. Communication is the word of today. All people can easily get in touch with one another by using mobile telephones or internet connections. Some people are even talking about a world of knowledge, but what is real knowledge?
Knowledge is said to represent power. But what kind of power, and what kind of knowledge is power? These are essential questions if we try to evaluate our way of life. What does a human life today aim at? To gather more and more information of all outer things, and to exchange more and more insignificant messages with one another?
Communion of saints was not based on mobile telephones or internet, but on one single net without a net! One single undivided divine consciousness of all! Who can really understand he is very near his target!
Real knowledge should not be taken as a sum of all thinkable affairs, for thinking always splits things into fragments, and that kind of a process will become endless.
Real knowledge is said to be something undivided - the essence of all in one. It is not a sum but a unity which is impossible to be caught by any thinking process. For thinking is not a sign of being really alive, but a sign of not being able to realize all in one. It is a good sign of mere human understanding - not of a divine knowledge!
The last time to the original question - a blessing or a crime? There will be no final answer to be given. For everything here on earth is all the time going towards temporary stages of development. The Christian faith is just one of many trails to travel a short while.
But if there are some symptoms of diseases to be seen in any human beliefs, we should certainly try to find a proper medicine for them. And medicine for all illnesses is found in Nature, if not in human nature, so at least and last in a divine one.
The importance of searching for ever is clearly expressed in Luke’s gospel: "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
For more information or discussion please contact (in English, German, Swedish or Finnish)


kalervo.mielty @netikka.fi

The Praise of Love

Kalervo Mielty
About St. Paul’s praise of love.
We all know the famous statement of St. Paul: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
We know this word for word, but it is likely that only a few of us can reach the true meaning of the sentence. The crucial point here is of course in the word charity. How does Paul understand it? Is it just a common human feeling that people are said to experience in their relations to other people, their love ones? Or is it meant to point at some far more essential concept beyond the commonplace usage of the word?
After writing this statement the apostle is trying to explain how he defines the charity: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things (King James version of the text).
It is easy to see that the charity here differs in many respects from a usual human love. We human beings are not very patient in loving but want to fulfil all our desires as soon as possible. Lovers certainly seek their own good – in fact they usually seek their own ideas of perfection reflected in the targets of their love. In too many cases this idea of perfection reveals in time to be fake, because it was just an idea not based on a real knowledge. After the idea starts to break down its owner also begins to get inflamed and then he suddenly sees unwanted and unexpected features in his partner. Thinking of evil becomes soon a growing feeling between two people who just a little while ago had uttered their solemn want to love one another as long as they live. George Bernard Shaw wrote in his book (The Importance of Being Earnest) in a very British way that marriages are made in hell! Maybe he had learnt that all too many devoted relationships end up in disaster, because they were based on false expectations, illusions.
Certainly we often think that we are rejoicing in the truth, but in fact we are just happy if things go according to our wishes. The truth here lies above all thought forms, even the finest ones.
Are we to understand that Paul merely set us a distant goal to strive for? So that we must try to develop our ways and manners to a more civilized and refined direction? It may well be that this was one of Paul’s aims, but certainly not the most important one.
We should see that he is writing of the fundamental basis of all being, of the life beyond all that we usually sense as life. By talking about sounding brass and tinkling cymbal Paul is characterising a normal human behaviour which is based on thoughts and feelings adapted in the course of this temporal life.
Now St. Paul lifts up charity above all other faculties, which also indicates that he is talking about the essence of life itself, about the charity which is to be found beyond time – in eternal being. Yes, it is the divine love that St. Paul is writing of here. Divine love that embraces all beings without distinction. One of the most popular spiritual teachers of today, Eckhart Tolle, would talk about being present in this very moment – loosing ones sense of time.
It is easy to say that in the daily life of a human being this kind of charity is totally impossible. That is a fact if we think of people in their normal state and understanding, strictly bounded with their inherited and learned thinking and feeling processes.
Everybody can see that people in their daily life don’t exercise Luke’s writing: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” But we love God as we love a cow – for the milk we expect from her (a statement of Master Eckhart)!
Further more people do not really follow the advice: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Because they do not know themselves, which means that they cannot reach the ultimate basis of love.
A human love can in time turn to its opposite, and it has an awkward inclination to insist some return service – in other words - to do business.
So we can see that also these two clear pieces of advice from the bible most probably characterise in the first place the divine love as the ultimate goal for the people who are getting fed up with being captured by the functions of their minds.
By defining charity in so many words St. Paul is trying to tell something about the life beyond all this ever lasting fluctuation, about the real life and love without any kind of opposites, not even the beginning or the end. He is talking about the only love where everything dwells timelessly in total peace and harmony. Maybe we can call it a state of consciousness where The Son and The Father are one, as said in the bible, and where we too, united beyond time in a secret moment, are in fact one with them as well.

Henkisen kasvun askelmia

HENKISEN KASVUN KOLME SUURTA ASKELMAA

Lukiessasi tätä tekstiä sinun on syytä pitää mielessä, että kaikki sanalliseen muotoon saatettu on luonteeltaan aina viitteenomaista. Tämäkään sanoma ei ole tarkoitettu uskomalla uskottavaksi, ainoastaan virikkeeksi ajattelullesi. Kasvakoon sinun oma totuutesi sen myötä, mitä syvyytesi kykenee ja tahtoo ottaa vastaan.

Missä sinä olet?

Lähtökohtasi tarkoittaa omaa sisäistä tilaasi tässä ja nyt, sinua sellaisena kuin olet. Harvemmin tosin sellaisena, kuin luulet olevasi, tai toiset katsovat sinun olevan. Käsityksemme itsestämme ja toisistamme ovat useimmiten varsin pintapuolisia, etenkin ollessamme nuoria. On kuitenkin tarpeen tehdä itsensä suhteen perusteellinen inventaario, ennen kuin astuu ensimmäistäkään varsinaista askelmaa. Tarkoituksena on rakentaa riittävän luja perustus, jolta voi ponnistaa ylöspäin. Perustaa voit etsiä katselemalla itseäsi ikään kuin vieraana tarkkailijana:
- mitä sinä arvostat muissa: ulkoista olemusta, tietoa, taitoja, oppiarvoa, asemaa, ymmärrystä
- entä mitä et voi sietää toisissa?
- mitä arvostat itsessäsi: ulkonäköäsi, tietämystäsi, taitojasi, uraasi, suhtautumistasi muihin, asennettasi elämään, ahkeruuttasi, harkitsevaisuuttasi, impulsiivisuuttasi, tunnevoimaasi
- mitä et voi sietää itsessäsi?
- miten reagoit eteen tuleviin asioihin: tuntein, ajatuksin vai ryhtymällä oitis toimintaan.
- millaisena näet oman luonteesi: rauhallinen, kärsimätön, vetäytyvä, esiin pyrkivä, palveleva, opastava, taisteleva, johtavaan asemaan etsiytyvä, jne.
- oletko mielestäsi rehellinen toisille ihmisille – entä itsesi suhteen?
- mistä syistä katsot tulleesi sellaiseksi kuin olet: omista sisäisistä lähtökohdistasi, ulkoisista olosuhteista ja tapahtumista, niiden yhdistelmistä, täysin sattumalta.
- miksi haluat edistyä sisäisesti: haluat nousta toisten yläpuolelle, haluat saada voimakkaita virikkeitä ja kokemuksia, haluat paeta arjen ikävyyksiä, maailma ei tarjoa sinulle mitään sisäisesti tyydyttävää.
Tässä vain joitakin mahdollisia kysymyksiä, joita sinun olisi hyvä asettaa itsellesi ja koettaa sitten vakavasti ja rehellisesti pohtia niitä, että oppisit jossakin määrin tuntemaan lähtökohtasi. Kun analysoit itseäsi, voit tietenkin kirjoittaa ylös ajatuksiasi ja palata niihin uudestaan, mikäli jokin oivallus on tuonut uutta valoa. Ei ole tarpeen esitellä ajatuksiaan muille, ellei sellainen avoimuus olennaisesti kuulu persoonallisuuteesi. Ja mikäli haluat ajatuksiasi esitellä, älä tee sitä saadaksesi aineksia egosi kasvuun.
Voit lähteä siitä, että maailma on suuri sielujen, eli yksilöllisten tietoisuuksien koulu, joka ei ole muodostunut ja sattumalta eikä turhan vuoksi. Ja niin kuin maailma on muodostunut, niin muokkautuu myös sinun sielusi suhteellisen elämän suuren näytelmän hedelmistä, vaikka sen perimmäinen olemus viime kädessä nojaisikin hengen ehdottomuuteen.
Voi olla hyväksi käydä omaa elämää läpi niin pitkältä ajalta kuin sitä muistaa ja antaa tuntemusten nousta esiin pyrkimättä selittelemään niitä puhki. Tuntemukset ovat pakkautunutta psyykkistä energiaa, joten on hyvä vain katsella niitä tietoisesti ja antaa niiden sitten purkautua. Älä syyttele ketään, sillä ikävyydet ja vaikeat asiat kuuluvat niiden koettaviksi, jotka ovat valmiita käymään sellaisten yli. Älä takerru traumaattisiinkaan asioihin, sillä on aivan turhaa elävöittää sellaista, jossa ei enää elämää ole. Ihmisen mieli kietoutuu helposti ikäviin asioihin ja alkaa heijastaa niitä varjoiksi tulevaisuuteensa, johon ne eivät kuulu. Eilisen epäonnistumisen ei tarvitse johtaa samaan huomenna. Käy illalla läpi päivän tapahtumat selittelemättä mitään parhain tai pahoin päin, ja anna niiden sitten mennä. Voit tietenkin hiljaa itseksesi pyytää voimaa ja viisautta kohdatessasi taas uuden päivän haasteet. Kaikki voima ja viisaus asuvat sinun syvyyksissäsi. Sieltä ne kerran voivat tulla esiin, kunhan olet kokenut koettavaksi tarkoitetun, ja raivannut kokoelmistasi kaiken turhanpäiväisen.

Oletko nyt valmis astumaan ensimmäiselle portaalle?


ENSIMMÄINEN ASKELMA

Olet varmaan kerännyt sen verran rohkeutta ja itsetuntemusta, että uskallat kohdata asteen verran vaativampia sisäisiä haasteita. Muista, ettei tässä ole kyseessä minkään maallisen uran rakentaminen, vaan oman tietoisuutensa puhdistaminen, laajentaminen ja syventäminen siten, etteivät ulkonaiset vetovoimat voi enää pitää sitä niin tiukassa otteessa kuin on yleistä ihmisen mielen suhteen.
Periaatteessa sinä voit sisäisesti kohota aina siihen tiedostamisen tilaan saakka, missä maailman vetovoima ja hengen kaipauksesi ovat yhtä voimakkaat. Kukaan ei tietenkään voi suorittaa mitään sisäistä työtä sinun puolestasi eikä kantaa sinua sylissään. Vain sinä itse voit rakentua omiksi portaiksesi.
Älä pelkää yrittää, sillä elämässä ei todellisuudessa ole mitään pelättävää. Tuomarisi asuu syvyyksissäsi ja tuntee sinun mahdollisuutesi mahdottomuutesi. Tee joka hetki parhaasi, enempää tai vähempää ei sinulta kukaan vaadi.
Mikäli olet taipuvainen miettimään asioita perin pohjin, niin ajattele paljon ja anna sitten ajatustesi rauhassa kypsyä siihen ymmärrykseen, joka kulloinkin on saavutettavissasi. Mutta älä sentään kuvittele, että kykenet parhaimmallakaan ajattelullasi saavuttamaan totuutta, koska totuuden suora kokeminen tapahtuu kaukana aistimusten, tunteiden ja ajattelun tuolla puolen.
Älä hätäile, äläkä hätäänny vaikka päivät ja vuodet vaihtuvat. Anna ajan ja ajallisen tehdä tehtäväänsä sinun kypsyttämisessä, kunnes se alkaa työntää sinua itsestään ulos sisäistä itseäsi kohden.
Paikanna pelkosi, jotka asuvat sinun mielesi syövereissä ja ruumiisi hermosolmukkeissa. Pelko panee ihmisen turvautumaan toisiin ihmisiin ja yleisesti hyväksyttyihin kiintoajatuksiin, niin sanottuihin totuuksiin.
Nosta ne kaikki mielesi pöydälle ja katso rohkeasti, kestävätkö ne sinun tietoisuutesi tulta. Jos saat muokattua omia käsityksiä sinua tyydyttävään muotoon, ei sinun tarvitse oitis yrittää käännyttää toisia ihmisiä samoihin uomiin. Ajatustesi oivallisuus punnitaan siinä, mihin ymmärryksen asteeseen ne tietoisuutesi kantavat. Ajatusmuotojen määrä sinänsä ei kerro vielä paljonkaan todellisen elämänymmärryksen laadusta.
Tällä askelmalla sinun olisi hyvä lopettaa kaikki puheet väistämättömästä kohtalosta – niin hyvästä kuin pahasta – aavistanethan jo viisaan Siirakin tapaan, että ”aikanaan kaikki osoittautuu varsin oivalliseksi”. Elämän rakennusainekset ja ulkonaiset puitteet ovat vain ja ainoastaan sitä varten, että kunkin yksilön sisäinen olemus saisi ravintoa ja puhkeaisi kerran arvoiseensa kukintoon.
Et voi, eikä sinun tule edes yrittää elää kenenkään toisen elämää – tässä omassasi löytyvät kaikki mahdollisuudet, kunhan vain jaksat kaivaa ne esiin.
Jos huomaat edistyneesi jossakin suhteessa, niin älä milloinkaan odota palkkiota mistään suunnasta - ei maailmalta, saati sen tuolta puolen - sillä odotus tekisi sinusta sen kuuluisan ”kauppiaan kaltaisen”. Ole tyyni ja tyytyväinen kohdatessasi sitä, mitä sinun on määrä kohdata, koska siinä kaikessa on kätkettynä sinun mahdollisuutesi kohota sisäisesti yhä korkeammalle.
Mikäli olet taipuvainen tuntemaan voimakkaasti, on sinun syytä varoa, ettet samastu liiaksi maailman ikäviin tapahtumiin ja koeta epätoivoisesti muuttaa omaa, tai toisten ihmisten elämänolosuhteita uskomalla siihen psykologiseen harhaoppiin, että henkinen elämä olisi mahdollista ainoastaan mukavissa ja suotuisissa puitteissa. Näin ei ole eikä tule olemaan. Mutta kerran tulee sinun tietoisuutesi ja tahtosi vakiintumaan siten, ettei mikään ajallinen voi sinua enää horjuttaa.
Ole varovainen tulkitessasi sinussa mahdollisesti herääviä sisäisiä kokemuksia. Muista, että mielesi syvyydet voivat tuottaa hyvin monenlaatuisia ilmiöitä, joille tietämättömät ihmiset antavat usein ylevämpiä nimityksiä kuin mitä ne todellisuudessa ansaitsisivat. On turha pyrkiä väkipäisesti psyykkisiin näkemyksiin, koska sellaisen asteittaiset avautumiset saattavat helposti mielikuvituksesi lentoon, ja näkemyksesi vääristyvät ottaessaan mukaansa mielesi syövereihin kutoutuneita odotuksia, toiveita tai pelkoja. Joten älä muodosta liian varmoja kantoja herkistyvän mielesi näkemysten pohjalta, sillä voit olla varma, että totuus löytyy vasta kaikkien muotojen, mielen, sekä siihen kuuluvien tunteiden ja ajatusten tuolta puolen.
Mikäli sisäiset tuntemukset eivät ole sinulle luonteenomaisia, älä yritä saavuttaa niitä pakonomaisesti, sillä sinun tiesi kulkee mahdollisesti puhtaan ajatuksen kautta yhä syventyvään ymmärrykseen, ja siitä asioiden ydinolemuksen intuitiiviseen tiedostamiseen.
Jos taas haluat lähinnä asettaa itsesi toiminnan kautta ihmisten hyväksi, niin antaudu toimiisi täydellisesti, sillä antaumus on todennäköisesti juuri sinun polkusi tässä ja nyt.
Kanna tyytyväisenä kaikki se, minkä tiedostat kuuluvan kannettavaksesi. Auta silloin kun apusi on tarpeen ja luonnollista. Älä anna mielesi ylpistyä mistään, sillä aikanaan parhaimmatkin saavutuksesi osoittautuvat varsin vähäpätöisiksi.

Mikäli olet valmis valittamatta ja iloisin mielin kantamaan kaikki elämän eteesi asettamat taakat, saatat hyvinkin olla oikeutettu astumaan toiselle portaalle.


TOINEN ASKELMA

Tällä portaalla pysyminen ja toimiminen edellyttävät sitä, että kykenet seisomaan omilla jaloillasi sekä ulkoisten että sisäisten asioiden suhteen. Vastuun kantaminen tavanomaisista omista asioistasi tulisi jo olla itsestäänselvyys, samoin kuin rehellisyys, joka ei tietenkään oikeuta öykkärimäiseen käytökseen tai ylimielisyyteen toisia kohtaan. Tärkeintä on omien jalkojen löytäminen aineettomissa asioissa. Sinun tulee uskaltaa tarkastella kaikkea eteesi tulevaa oman tietoisuutesi valossa ja poimia siitä ne ainekset, joilla katsot olevan pysyvää merkitystä. Tämä ei tarkoita sitä, ettet kuuntelisi ketään, tai tutustuisi kirjallisiin lähteisiin, vaan sitä, että keität kaiken löytämäsi omassa kattilassasi ennen kuin hyväksyt ne omiin ajatusrakennelmiisi. Henkisen erotuskyvyn kasvu ei tietenkään saa johtaa suvaitsemattomuuteen, vaikka se todennäköisesti aiheuttaa muutoksia ns. ystäväpiirissäsi. Ystävyys perustuu useimmiten samankaltaisiin arvostuksiin – ja jos omat elämänarvosi ovat käyneet läpi suuria muutoksia, jää moni aikaisempi ystävyyssuhde vaille kestävää pohjaa. Saatat tuntea vieraantumisen tunnetta ja syyllisyyttä, mutta tiedostat samalla, ettei paluuta entiseen ole. Henkiset polut ovat yksinäisiä, ja monet kulkijat etsivät tukea ja opastusta – ja useimmiten pettyen pahasti. Heikkoina hetkinäsi saatat epäillä, että sinussa ei enää ole rakkautta, mutta voit olla varma siitä, ettei rakkaus ole kadonnut minnekään – vain tavanomainen riippuvuussuhteisiin ja vastavuoroisuuteen nojaava vetovoima on heikentynyt alkaakseen mielen syvyyksissä kypsyä todelliseksi rakkaudeksi, joka ei katso henkilöön, koska sen valossa kykenet ymmärtämään elämän syvät tarkoitusperät kunkin yksilön kohdalla.
Ole iloinen murheellisuudestasi, niin kohoat nopeasti sen yli. Maailman tarjoamien virikkeiden merkityksen häipyminen aiheuttaa tilapäistä alakuloisuutta ja vaikeuksia ryhtyä ulkonaisiin toimiin. Anna pilvien mennä ohitse ja pidä mielesi valoisana ja valppaana, sillä kyseessä on vain alitajuinen mielesi, joka heijastaa aiemmin omaksumiasi reagointitapoja kuoletettavaksesi.
Alat ymmärtää, mitä ”köyhät hengessä” tarkoittaa: sitä että aineellinen ja psyykkinen yltäkylläisyys ei merkitse paljonkaan silloin, kun mielen tyyneys ja harmonia on saavutettu. Tiedät myös, ettei konkreettinen luopuminen ulkonaisista asioista johda minnekään, sillä henkisten todellisuuksien kanssa ei käydä anekauppaa. Ulkonainen ja sisäinen ”varallisuutesi” on sitä varten, että oppisit käyttämään viisaasti ”leiviskääsi” – niin että henkisyys nousee esiin ihmisissä ja heidän keskuudessaan.
Jos suurimmat hengen lähettiläät olisivat ajatelleet sitä, hyväksytäänkö heidät vai ei, olisi heistä tullut pahaisia kyläpoliitikkoja. Tämä askelma edellyttää kestävyyttä ja rohkeutta, kaikkien kainalokeppien ja kaiteiden poisheittämistä, itsensä hyväksymistä lähtökohtaisesti sellaisena kuin on, sekä hellittämätöntä pyrkimystä siihen, minkä sanotaan olevan ihmiselle mahdotonta.
Monet puhuvat itsensä kadottamisesta ennen kuin he ovat itseään edes löytäneet! Tässä vaiheessa sinussa kasvaa syvä tuntemus persoonallisen minäsi merkityksestä: millaista sisäisen olemuksen tehtävää tai roolia se on tarkoitettu toteuttamaan, millaisin keinoin ja reunaehdoin; mitkä ovat sen pahimmat kompastuskivet ja luonteen heikkoudet, joiden kitkeminen terveen tarkkailun kautta kuuluu luonnollisena osana sinun jokapäiväisiin toimiisi.
Muista, että minäsi on suurelta osin sinun omien kokemustesi ja ympäristötekijöiden luoma, historiallinen kooste vailla itsenäistä pysyvyyttä. Suuri osa sen ominaisuuksista on taipuvaista värittämään ja vääristämään havaintojasi, joten sinun on tarkattava niin toimiasi kuin toimettomuuttasi.
Sinulla ei ole muita pelättäviä kuin omat heikkoutesi, mutta nekin ovat ajan mittaan korjattavissasi. Ole armollinen itseäsi kohtaan, ettet kovettuisi myös toisten suhteen, tai painaisi heikkouksiasi verhon taakse, mistä ne yllättävät sinut silloin, kun tietoisuutesi hetkellisesti herpaantuu. Muista, että olet yhä erehtyväinen, eikä tahtosi ole horjumaton, koska se vielä nojaa inhimilliseen, ehdolliseen ymmärrykseen.

Voimiisi luottaen saatat nyt olla valmis kohottautumaan kolmannelle askeleelle.


KOLMAS ASKELMA

Katsahda vielä lyhyesti taaksesi. Mitä on jäljellä sinun persoonallisesta minästäsi? Aiotko pitää siitä kauankin kiinni? Pitävätkö maalliset velvoitteet sinua yhä otteessaan? Tunnetko ajautuneesi täysin irralleen tavanomaisen elämän viehtymyksistä?
Onko epärehellisyydestä tullut sinulle mahdottomuus? Oletko oppinut selvästi ymmärtämään, mitä Paavali tarkoitti sanoessaan, että hän olikin vahva ollessaan heikko? Ovatko vallan ja kunnian pyrkimykset kadonneet mielestäsi? Älä haikaile niiden perään rakentamaan motivaatioita toiminnoillesi, sillä sisässäsi tiedät, etteivät ne voi sinua enää tyydyttää.
Odotatko jotakin tietämättä kuitenkaan mitä? Ole kärsivällinen, sillä elämä itsessäsi kyllä tietää, mitä sinä tarvitset ja antaa sinulle kaiken, kunhan olet valmis ja vapaa ottamaan sen vastaan.
Tiedätkö todella, mitä olisi olla lasten kaltainen? Mieleltään taka-ajatukseton, valmis toimimaan suoraan sisäisestä välttämättömyydestä käsin, luovaa perusvoimaa käyttäen. Ani harvat ovat tulleet lasten kaltaisiksi – aivan liian monet jääneet laiskuuttaan lapsellisiksi.
Todelliset lasten kaltaiset eivät tarvitse motiiveja toimilleen, he vain toteuttavat sisässään olevan välttämättömyyden, persoonattoman tahdon – sen, joka on tullut vahvaksi sinun oman tahtosi tultua heikoksi!
Älä luule, että jokin ulkopuolinen täyttäisi persoonallisten piirteittesi väistymisen jättämän tyhjiön. Kaikki arvokas on syvällä sisäisyyksissäsi, kunhan karistat pois kaikki persoonalliset rajoitukset.
Tiedä, että sinun persoonallinen minäsi on vain kohtu, jossa todellinen olemuksesi on voinut kasvaa ja kypsyä kaiken ihmisyyteen kuuluvan suhteen. Niin pian kun lapsesi on valmis syntymään, tapahtuu se hengen ikuisesta välttämättömyydestä. Puhdas tietoisuus syvyyksissäsi on aina valmiina ja lahjoitettavaksi sinulle, kunhan kaikki pyyteesi ovat väistyneet sen tieltä. Ole iloinen ja kärsivällinen, äläkä odota mitään, sillä mitä sellaista voisit vaatia, jota ikuinen todellisuus sinussa ei jo tietäisi?
Henkisen kasvun kolmatta askelmaa ei sanoin voida paljonkaan kuvata, koska tilan tarkoituksena on toimia porttina kuvattavissa olevan ja kuvaamattoman välillä, tyhjänä ja tyhjentyvänä tilana sisäisyyksissäsi. Alati uutena astiana, johon uusi viini voidaan turvallisesti kaataa.

KÄRSIVÄLLISYYTTÄ JA MENESTYSTÄ SISÄISELLE POLULLESI!

Lasten kaltaisuudesta

Kalervo Mielty

LASTEN KALTAISUUDESTA


Matteuksen evankeliumissa (18:3-4) on kaikkien kristityiden hyvin tuntema kertomus, jossa Jeesus sanoo todellisen henkisyyden edellyttävän lasten kaltaista sisäistä tilaa:

”Ellette käänny ja tule lasten kaltaisiksi, ette pääse taivasten valtakuntaan. Sen tähden, joka nöyrtyy tämän lapsen kaltaiseksi, se on suurin taivasten valtakunnassa”.

Evankeliumi ei kuitenkaan ryhdy selittelemään sitä, mitä lasten kaltaisuus tässä todella merkitsee. Siten ei ole mikään ihme, että teksti joskus ymmärretään turhan suoraviivaisesti – niin että siinä tarkoitettaisiin jonkinlaista lapsellisuutta.
Tuosta ”lapsellisesta lasten kaltaisuudesta” on evankeliumeissa esimerkki niin Matteuksella kuin Luukkaallakin:

Lk. 7:31-32. Mihin minä siis vertaan tämän sukupolven ihmiset, ja kenen kaltaisia he ovat? He ovat lasten kaltaisia, jotka istuvat torilla ja huutavat toisilleen ja sanovat: 'Me soitimme teille huilua, ja te ette karkeloineet; me veisasimme itkuvirsiä, ja te ette itkeneet.’
Matt. 11:16. Mutta mihin minä vertaan tämän sukupolven? Se on lasten kaltainen, jotka istuvat toreilla ja huutavat toisilleen.

Myös Paavali valottaa asiaa omalta kohdaltaan 1. Korinttolaiskirjeessään (13:11):

Kun minä olin lapsi, niin minä puhuin kuin lapsi, minulla oli lapsen mieli, ja minä ajattelin kuin lapsi; kun tulin mieheksi, hylkäsin minä sen, mikä lapsen on.

Lasten kaltaisuuden varsinaisesti henkisestä tarkoituksesta voimme löytää esimerkin myös Tuomaan evankeliumista (log 46):

Jeesus sanoi: ”Yksikään naisesta syntynyt, Adamista aina Johannes Kastajaan saakka, ei ole Johannes Kastajaa suurempi eikä voi olla laskematta katsettaan hänen edessään. Olen kuitenkin sanonut, että jokainen teistä, joka tulee lapseksi, on tunteva valtakunnan ja näin oleva Johannesta suurempi.

Tuomaskin lupaa lasten kaltaisille taivasten valtakunnan tuntemuksen (kokemisen), mutta ei aseta sinne minkäänlaista eriasteisuutta, vaan esittää asian puhtaasti universaalisena periaatteena. Tässä ei evankeliumien kesken tosin liene kovinkaan suurta ristiriitaa itse sanoman kannalta, koska syy eroavuuteen löytynee lähinnä evankelistojen persoonallisuuksista – Matteuksella kun oli tapana ’panna hieman paremmaksi’, eli värittää kertomuksiaan voimakkaammin kuin muut.

Tuomaan viittaus Johannes Kastajaan lienee tarkoitettu lähinnä allegoriaksi, missä Johannekseksi luonnehditaan sellaista ihmistä, joka on henkisessä avartumisessaan päässyt aina siihen pisteeseen, mihin ihminen voi omin ponnisteluin parhaimmillaan kohota. Lasten kaltaiseksi tuleminen kuitenkin edellyttää ainakin viime vaiheessa sitä, että jokin selvästi inhimillisestä poikkeava on astumassa kuvaan. Tässä kohdin voisimme ammentaa lisäselvitystä Johanneksen evankeliumista (3:3):

Totisesti, totisesti minä sanon sinulle: joka ei synny uudesti, ylhäältä, se ei voi nähdä Jumalan valtakuntaa.

Lienee varsin perusteltua liittää tämä ’ylhäältä syntymisen’ edellytys lasten kaltaiseksi tulemiseen, inhimillisen ja jumalallisen kohtaamiseen – eikä vain tilapäiseen kohtaamiseen (tempaamisiin), vaan pysyvään yhdistymiseen tietoisuuden suhteen. Tilapäinen, tunneperäinen kohtaaminen ei olisi todellista tulemista joksikin. Näkeminen tällaisessa yhteydessä tarkoittanee jotakin aivan muuta kuin pelkkää aistinvaraista havaitsemista – lähinnä varmaan täydellistä kokemista.
Lopputulokseen viitataan myös Johanneksen evankeliumissa (17:21):

… että he kaikki olisivat yhtä, niin kuin sinä, Isä, olet minussa ja minä sinussa, että hekin meissä olisivat,

Yhtä oleminen ei tässä tietenkään tarkoita mitään ’pyhää yksinkertaisuutta’, tai edes yhdessä olemista, vaan ’pyhää ykseyttä’ – yhtäläistä olemusta ja tietoisuutta.

Lasten kaltaisuuden vaatimuksesta löytyy esimerkki jopa ’jumalattomalta’ filosofi Nietzscheltä, joka Zarathustrassaan kirjoittaa henkisen kehityksen kolmesta suuresta askelmasta: tulemisesta kamelin, leijonan ja lopulta lapsen kaltaiseksi.

Mutta mitä sellaista voi lapsi, jota leijona ei voinut? Miksi sen pitää vielä tulla lapseksi?
Viattomuutta on lapsi ja unohdusta, uusi alku, leikki, itsestään vierivä pyörä, ensimmäinen liike, pyhä myönteisyys.

Leijonan kaltaisuus tarkoittanee miltei samaa kuin Tuomaan evankeliumin Johanneksen kaltaisuus, valmiutta seisoa kaikessa itsensä varassa – ei tietenkään itsekkyytensä varassa – sillä itsekkyys on tässä vaiheessa pitänyt jättää taakse.
Nietzschen kuvaus lasten kaltaisuudesta ansainnee lähempää tarkastelua. Viattomuus eli mielen täydellinen puhtaus kaikista itsekkyyden muodoista on tietenkin ymmärrettävä vaatimus. Unohdus tarkoittanee sitä, ettei mieli tallenna kokemuksiaan ja heijasta niitä huomiseen ikään kuin automaattisiksi pohjiksi konemaisille reaktioilleen. Uusi alku viitannee saavutettavan tilan täydelliseen erilaisuuteen, johon liittyvät myös Markuksen ja Matteuksen evankeliumien kuvaukset siitä, ettei uutta viiniä saisi laskea vanhoihin leileihin. (esim. Mk. 2:22)

Eikä kukaan laske nuorta viiniä vanhoihin nahkaleileihin; muutoin viini pakahduttaa leilit,

Itsestään vierivä pyörä kuvannee tietoisuuden yhdentynyttä ja ylentynyttä tilaa, jossa persoonallisilla motiiveilla ei enää ole minkäänlaista vaikutusta toimintaan. Äärimmillään tämä tarkoittanee samaa kuin Jeesuksen ilmaisu oman sanomansa alkuperästä Johanneksen evankeliumissa (8:38)

Minä puhun, mitä minä olen nähnyt Isäni tykönä.

Voitaneen ottaa lisäksi Paavalin merkillinen väite 2. Korinttilaiskirjeestä (12:10)

…sillä kun olen heikko, silloin minä olen väkevä.

Lause tarkoittanee myös lasten kaltaiseksi tulemisen olennaista astetta – sitä, että oma persoonallinen tahto on astunut sivuun luovuttaen sijansa universaalille, jumalalliselle tahdolle, jota vasta voidaan sanoa todella ainoaksi väkeväksi.

Nietzsche käyttää hyvin kaunista kielikuvaa – pyhä myönteisyys – kuvaamaan saavutettavaa mielentilaa. Tässä ei varmaankaan tarkoiteta mitään tavanomaista positivismia, tietoista mielensä pakottamista positiiviseen ajatteluun, vaan jostakin syvältä kumpuavaa rakkautta, joka ei voi enää ulkoisten olosuhteiden myötä kääntyä vastakohdakseen.
Tästä voisimme varsin luontevasti siirtää ja samastaa lasten kaltaisuuden edellytykset myös Paavalin 1. Korinttolaiskirjeessään (13:4) esittämään kuuluisaan rakkauden määritelmään:

Rakkaus on pitkämielinen, rakkaus on lempeä; rakkaus ei kadehdi, ei kerskaa, ei pöyhkeile, ei käyttäydy sopimattomasti, ei etsi omaansa, ei katkeroidu, ei muistele kärsimäänsä pahaa, ei iloitse vääryydestä, vaan iloitsee yhdessä totuuden kanssa; kaikki se peittää, kaikki se uskoo, kaikki se toivoo, kaikki se kärsii.


Vaikka edellistä usein siteerataankin avioparien vihkitilaisuuksissa, lienee se todellisuudessa tarkoitettu kaikkea syleilevän, jumalallisen rakkauden määritelmäksi. Inhimillisen rakkauden suhteen esitetyt vaatimukset osoittautuvat yleensä mahdottomiksi elää todeksi, koska inhimillinen mieli nojaa toimintansa vastavuoroisuuteen ja kovin rajoittuneeseen käsitykseen totuudesta.

Johtopäätöksenä näistä katkelmista voitaneen sanoa, että lasten kaltaisuus on henkisessä mielessä käsitettävä tavanomaisen aikuisuudenkin selvästi ylittäväksi tilaksi, missä tiedostaminen ja toiminta juontuvat jostakin inhimillisen ylittävästä tilasta eikä enää inhimillisen mielen rajoittuneista käsityksistä, motiiveista ja asennoitumisista.

Lapseuden luonnollisena ehtona on tietenkin syntyminen. Ihmislapsi kehittyy ja syntyy ihmisessä, ihmisestä ihmiseksi. Jos johdamme edellisen toteaman nojalla analogian, joudumme ehkä myöntämään, ettei Jumalan lapseksi voida tulla liittymällä johonkin seurakuntaan, tai ottamalla mitä tahansa ihmisten suorittamaa kastetta. ’Niin ylhäällä kuin alhaalla’ – periaatteen mukaan Jumalan lapseksi synnytään Jumalassa, Jumalasta, Jumalaan (vapaasti mestari Eckhartia siteeraten)!