Esoteric Christianity

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by 17th Angel

I would say, that perchance these are christians ... not wishing to turn from their god, they hold on to christianity but, they want that little more .... They want that ritualistic mystical style in their religion, which christianity obviously isn't ...

Hi 17th –

Couldn't help myself on this one ... you'll find the process of stripping the Mystery out of Christianity began with the Reformation ... and the modernising and liberal tendency has done its damage even in my own Tradition, which is now under process of repair.

But if someone wants the 'real McCoy' in terms of a Liturgy ordered to the Mysterion (rather than a 'happy-clappy' celebratory self-congratulation), then look at a full-blown Latin Rite, or perhaps even better, an Orthodox (Greek or Russian) Synaxis ... a constant tradition for 2,000 years ... I know of people converted on the spot by the experience, for many a spiritual awakening so profound and so instantaneous as to be almost visceral.

The problem is not that it isn't there ... there problem is that people don't know how to find it, and often the answers in books, and the 'whoo-hoo' glamour of the 'esoteric' seems a short cut to what basically requires a hard work and a metanoia ... or in the case of conversion, metanoia and hard work ...

Thomas

[Bruce Michael]

Originally Posted by AndrewX

Welcome to CR, Bruce Michael!

Many people here are quite interested in Esoteric Christianity. I'm the taijasi of the above posts, for instance.

Could you elaborate on what Esoteric Christianity means to you?

Namaskar,

~andrew

Shalom Br. Andrew,
I would be pleased to elaborate on what Esoteric Christianity means. I would first suggest that there be a forum here devoted to it rather than just a thread.
Christianity is esoteric. There really is no such palaver as exoteric Christianity.


Greetings,
Br. Bruce

[Nick_A]

I believe that esoteric Christianity is one of the best kept secrets in the world today and yet its living presence is an essential spiritual influence within the world.

[AndrewX]

Originally Posted by Nick_A

I believe that esoteric Christianity is one of the best kept secrets in the world today and yet its living presence is an essential spiritual influence within the world.

Nick, I agree wholeheartedly. Recently I've grown more & more interested in the teachings of Gnosticism ... not necessarily as something that can be neatly sealed between the pages of a book from Borders (or even some kind of collection of texts decided upon by consensus) - but more along the lines of the `living Presence' you speak of.

What are your thoughts about the relationship between Gnosticism and Christianity? Especially early Christianity ... though I like to believe that a true Esoteric Christianity, like true gnosis, would be in some sense timeless (?)

Thanks,

andrew

[Nick_A]

Originally Posted by AndrewX

Nick, I agree wholeheartedly. Recently I've grown more & more interested in the teachings of Gnosticism ... not necessarily as something that can be neatly sealed between the pages of a book from Borders (or even some kind of collection of texts decided upon by consensus) - but more along the lines of the `living Presence' you speak of.

What are your thoughts about the relationship between Gnosticism and Christianity? Especially early Christianity ... though I like to believe that a true Esoteric Christianity, like true gnosis, would be in some sense timeless (?)

Thanks,

andrew

Hi Andrew

Gnosticism as I understand it is dualistic with some sort of a nasty demiurgic being creating the earth. The Universe is actually a triune creation and there is no IMO reason to assume such an evil demiurgic being creating the earth for an evil purpose.

My beliefs run similar to what is described in the following article.

Esoteric Christianity

Esoteric Christianity is a branch of a Perennial Tradition that is timeless. It speaks of re-birth into higher consciousness or conscious evolution.

Christianity has both an outer or exoteric level that must become distorted by society and an inner conscious teaching to help those who need it.

Gnosticism to me seems to be an interpretation of the experience of gnosis while esoteric Christianity seeks the experience of gnosis itself.

But Gnosticism seems to be a very broad term and definitely related to esoteric Christianity but I personally believe that the truth of conscious evolution does exist, it must be a timeless truth in accordance with the "Breathe of Brahma" or the complimentary "being" processes of involution or into creation and evolution or movement back to the source.

Do you find this offensive?

[AndrewX]

Thanks, Nick, for sharing your understanding. I'm pondering the idea these days that we may need to rethink this approach to Gnosticism. Gnosis itself, regardless as to who has it, reveals varying levels and dimensions, aspects of and perspectives within the many worlds. We can learn more about why we are here, how we got here, where it is that we are headed ... and in terms of mythology & symbolism, we can even speak a bit about the various hierarchies of Lives (Greater and lesser) Whom and which - in their & our totality - occupy Cosmos.

The Gnosis that is experienced is meant to assist us as we work our way Heavenward, yet as so well characterized in the various branches of Buddhism, there are a multitude of Nirmanakayas, or helpers ... from the humblest co-disciple and human or Deva server up to Buddha status and beyond, all learning to cooperate as part of something (and Someone, if we like) that is truly, Infinitely Greater.

Our Journey is a shared one, as we come to Know in ways which may not immediately be apparent to the five senses (or even to the everyday insights of intellect), and part of our Dharma -- our Sacred Responsibility to all life and to all beings in Cosmos -- is to assist others (both above and below on Jacob's Laddeer, the Great Chain of Being) as we travel the Path of learning and enlightenment.

The Demiurgos, literally meaning artisan, or "one with special skill" according to Webster, was described by Plato as a "subordinate deity who fashions the sensible world in the light of eternal ideas" (Webster). This does not sound like an evil being, or the work of one either appointed to do evil or choosing to do evil. This is a wonderful Angel (or Deva) Hierarchy, serving the direct WILL of God, and faithfully so by bringing LIGHT to the very worlds which have all been created. So when we speak of an evil demiurge, or when we suggest that the material worlds have been created for or by "evil," we are making no different a mistake than has evolved within conventional, mainstream western religion whereby God's world is taught as unredeemed ... or unreemable!

This is where I think we have misinterpreted the real discoveries of the Gnostics, just as contemporary western religion misinterpets the nature of God, or Godhead. What we had foisted upon us in the latter case is the false image of an angry, wrathful tribal deity of pettiness and jealously, instead of a Loving, Compassionate caretaker -- a Gardener, Whose beautiful garden contains billions upon billions of living, growing Flowers, all unfolding towards a perfection that can be known, and can be attained.

The same distortions and misunderstanding of Gnosis seem to have left us with confusion regarding the worlds of form (where materiality prevails over Spirit, instead of vice versa). Esoterically, the Redemption process that I have come to understand involves manifesting the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth, which is what Christ, other Christs, the Buddha, other Buddhas, and so many great Sages have taught us from time immemorial. This cannot be done without performing our Sacred DUTY here, the Dharma of Eastern Traditions, and that which the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Christs) have embodied for us precisely.

There is Christ, crucified upon the Cross of matter Cosmically speaking, or the same exact process mirrored into our own psyche as the individual Soul or Higher Self of an Esoteric Christianity (perhaps even spoken of loosely as "Christ consciousness") ... yet the worlds of material being have been created, just as have the "Higher" worlds, by Devas -- these being Servers, just as ourselves, of Light Itself ... the 3rd Person or Aspect of God. Even the least of the deva-lives that serves to create the material worlds is deserving of respect ... of the same Namaskar (a salute to the Divinity within) which we should properly give whenever we meet another human being.

The Redeemer, in my understanding, is actually the First Person, working through the Second, yet we are more occupied on the whole with learning to work thorugh the 2nd as we literally occupy the 3rd Aspect as our vehicle(s) -- being on a large scale the world and Great Life "in Whom we live and move and have our being." Deity, just as ourselves, consists of Spirit, expressing through an evolving (and conditionally Immortal) SOUL, using a threefold or fourfold personality instrument (lower mind, emotions, vital soul & dense body). The difference is scale, or quantitative, rather than qualitative. Even Christ, as we are taught Biblically, is presented as "the Eldest in a vast family of brothers" (Romans 8:29)... and not some kind of carrot on a stick whom or which will always beckon us, while never quite being approachable.

Perhaps the Gayatri of Hinduism is a good summary of what you're saying, Nick, about our emergence from the Godhead (or Brahman), our Journey through the worlds of form, and our gradual approach or ascent of the `stairway to Heaven' that we find ourselves upon:

O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the truth
And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.

Namaskara,

andrew

[Nick_A]

Thanks Andrew for your substantial thoughts. Since I believe in a conscious universe, the demiurge is just a part of it that serve to maintain the involutionary and evolutionary flows of being..

You mention Jacob's ladder and I agree it is a good analogy to the connection between earth and the level of reality above. However I'm not sure what you mean by:

The same distortions and misunderstanding of Gnosis seem to have left us with confusion regarding the worlds of form (where materiality prevails over Spirit, instead of vice versa). Esoterically, the Redemption process that I have come to understand involves manifesting the Kingdom of Heaven upon Earth, which is what Christ, other Christs, the Buddha, other Buddhas, and so many great Sages have taught us from time immemorial. This cannot be done without performing our Sacred DUTY here, the Dharma of Eastern Traditions, and that which the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Christs) have embodied for us precisely.

Here is where we see things differently. Why do you think Jesus was trying to establish a kingdom on earth when he says the opposite?

John 17

6"I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify[b] them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

John 18:

36Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

It is a clear Jesus mission is help those not of the world to atain their conscious potential. The world must hate this message so how could Jesus be expected to try and establish a quality of being on the earth that it must reject?

What do you believe our sacred duty is? Is it the same as our secular duty?

The Redeemer, in my understanding, is actually the First Person, working through the Second, yet we are more occupied on the whole with learning to work thorugh the 2nd as we literally occupy the 3rd Aspect as our vehicle(s) -- being on a large scale the world and Great Life "in Whom we live and move and have our being." Deity, just as ourselves, consists of Spirit, expressing through an evolving (and conditionally Immortal) SOUL, using a threefold or fourfold personality instrument (lower mind, emotions, vital soul & dense body). The difference is scale, or quantitative, rather than qualitative. Even Christ, as we are taught Biblically, is presented as "the Eldest in a vast family of brothers" (Romans 8:29)... and not some kind of carrot on a stick whom or which will always beckon us, while never quite being approachable.

Since I believe God to be ineffable for us I don't see the first person as Redeemer. Jesus paves the way for the Holy Spirit to help in Man's awakening. Jesus receives from the father and gives to Man. The soul of evolved Man can do the same but as we are, our inner chaos and lack of presence denies the growth of the soul that can serve to connect heaven and earth.

Connecting heaven and earth is one thing but establishing the kingdom on earth is impossible. Our collective being cannot allow it.