Perennis

Board,

A debate continues to exist between mankind on whether morality is fundamental or relative. Does underlying foundational truth define our moral actions or does civil indoctrination determine our morality and ethics; are actions truly good or evil?

I believe both a foundational truth of good and evil and our relative understanding and adoption of the truth of good and evil exists. What say you?

Sincerely,

Eretz Israel

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>Thank you again for graciously responding to my questions in your blog. These are my comments:

Thank you for the polite tone of the questions. I fully understand it must be difficult not to make a few more editorial comments right out of the gate

>1. Much of what you have written in response 1. and 4. sounds like the beliefs of Rudolf Steiner. Are you a student of Steiner?

No. I’ve not read anything of his and have only seen his name in passing.

>2. A concern that I, as a practicing Catholic, have regarding the Shema Israel, and the fact that Jesus does not fit into the concept, revolves around certain Jewish groups who are promoting the Noachide Laws as a system of morality for the world. According to material I've read on the web, idolatry under the Noachide Laws will be punishable by death, and belief in the Trinity is considered to be idolatry. These groups will not tolerate belief that Jesus is God and intend to prosecute anyone who proclaims that belief. I don't know how widely held this idea might be. I do know that the Sanhedrin has recently been formed once again, and that this would be the court of law that would try religious questions. Coupled with that are the predictions in the Book of Revelation.

I see your concern here, but as with most things, potential abuse does not invalidate proper use. Jesus quoted the Shema himself as the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29) No one would be more opposed than I to the global adoption of Noachide anti-idolatry laws. Personally I think the number of Jews who actually want to govern the world (much less Israel) according to the Old Testament is blessedly small – a small fraction compared to Muslims who would like to govern the world according to the Koran, for example. If Judaism ever gains that kind of power, it will probably be because the United States, and its Christian fundamentalist constituents, hand it to them.

>3. Condemnations of the Kabbalah from the Catholic Encyclopedia can be read here. The Encyclopedia entry for Pico is here, for Raymond Lully is here, for Reuchlin is here. You can also read a history of Rosicrucianism here.

While the CE article on Kabbalah (and the supporting biographies) were excellent summaries there wasn’t really much direct condemnation, other than to insist that the kabbalah wasn’t as ancient as claimed, and that it was not a good evangelism tool for Jews as some might have hoped. There are, of course, plenty of sources of wisdom that the Home Temple and particularly the Temple of the Holy Grail look to which would earn the condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church (such as Freemasonry or Theosophy). But I had asked the question because I was curious as to whether you were aware of any statements directly against the core teaching of the Kabbalah regarding the world as a series of emanations of En-Soph. This, it seems to me, is its primary contribution.As I said, I'm sure there are plenty of condemnations to go around without having to be so specific, so don't undertake a research project on my account.

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If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

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This project is an ongoing effort to gather those verses in the Bible, particularly the New Testament, which we believe have a hidden (or even direct) metaphysical or mystical meaning. We also hope to comment on these verses, as well as gather commentary from various mystical writers on these verses and topics, and parallel passages from the writing of other religions. The point of this project is to demonstrate that the “Perennial Philosophy” is, in fact, something that can be illustrated from the pages of the Bible.

In collecting these passages, we will follow the general outline of the “Perennial Philosophy” – which is described by Huxley as “— the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being” We have established, then, the following outline, into which we wish to collect and organize the passages in question. This outline is reproduced in the menu selections for the “Hidden Gospel” project. Please feel free to comment on any section, and we will consider your comments in future versions. :

Metaphysics: There is a Divine Reality behind the world of things and lives and minds It is uncreated It pervades all things It is paradoxical (panentheism) It uses both good and bad It leaves us free but compels us It is beyond reach or description, beyond all opposites

Psychology: There is something in the soul that is similar to or identical with the Divine Reality It is divine It is separate from the ego The ego is selfish, insatiable and craves divinity It is the true self It does not have the desires and limitations of the ego

Ethics: Man’s final end is knowledge of that imminent and transcendent Being. The ego must be killed By purification By detachment and selflessness By humility and obedience But it cannot be achieved by effort It is a gift It is by grace It is a realization Mystical union is achieved It is a rebirth It is the kingdom of heaven now Two kinds

Effects: Effortless morality Extraordinary powers Supreme peace and happiness Absolute freedom Identification with the divine

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Explorers of the “inner world” of human consciousness – mystics, shamans, monks, prophets and students of metaphysics as well as (in more recent times) scientists in such areas as psychology and congnition – have discovered and mapped out a number of very interesting states of awareness which human beings can achieve.

These states of awareness can involve experiences like the following:

A profound experience of the essential unity of all things.

The dissolving of boundaries between self and other, object and subject.

An experience of a profound stillness underlying all things.

A sense of absolute love.

A sense of complete bliss.

A sense of great intelligence and purpose underlying all things.

I’ll keep the list short for the time being. To explorers returning from these states, the normal world, and the normal state of awareness can seem, in comparison, to be an illusion, or even an illness. With practice, the inner explorer can learn to carry some of this awareness with him back into normal life. Some people, in fact, achieve this awareness in a sudden, shocking experience and retain much of it on a semi-permanent basis.

Individuals with this altered perspective offer interesting observations about our normal human problems. Our real true, essence and identity, say these teachers, is this universal, loving, interconnected reality. Nearly all our human problems, say the teachers, arise from our seeing ourselves as separate entities, cut off from and in competition with, all the other separate, isolated entities.

To the mystic, pride makes no sense. All things are one. No imagined part of the whole is more important than any other part..

To the mystic, greed and theft makes no sense. Why take from one part of the whole to give to another part of the whole?

To the mystic, violence makes no sense. Do the branches of one tree war with each other? Why should one part of the whole hurt another part of the whole?

Now it’s true that by teaching social mores, it is possible to instill a minimum standard of behavior in most people. You can make people afraid of the law, or afraid of the wrath of God, or afraid of public ridicule. You can promise them rewards for obedience and punishments for failure. This will work to some extent (and is probably critical for society to survive at all) If you are particularly successful, you can get quite a few individuals motivated primarily by pride – by the desire to see themselves as decent, moral people and collect the psychological reward that the mores permit to such people.

But with all your mores, you are still contending against the basic limited, isolated perspective of the individual ego. Individuals will still feel great motivation to break social mores when they can get away with it if those mores conflict strongly enough with their individual desires.

The mystic, on the other hand, is in an entirely different position. The mystic is loving and generous and humble and peaceful simply because these are the only behaviors that make sense in the alternate awareness. There is no need to enforce social mores on the mystic. In fact, the mystic, in the role of prophet – is likely to be one of the first to point out the injustices and inequities associated with whatever version of the social mores you are working with.

– Ok, moving to the realm of the religious It is my belief that experience of the alternate awareness is in fact a glimpse of the reality which underlies all higher religion. Different religions use different vocabularies to describe it, and add quite a few other trappings and extras. You ask whether when I say that the guidance of the Spirit is the key, whether by “Spirit” I mean the soul of the individual, or the Holy Ghost. But the problem is that at this higher level of awareness, the two tend to merge. The higher Self IS God, and is the Spirit, which is also the Holy Ghost. So when I say the guidance of the Spirit is necessary, I mean an openness to this alternate awareness.

Now it’s quite true that many religious people aren’t operating from a knowledge of the alternate awareness. For them, Christianity is simply a divinely dictated set of social mores, enforced with eternal rewards and punishments. And this isn’t a bad thing, from one perspective. God is a more omnipresent observer and enforcer, in this system, than any policeman.

But I think there is a lot of evidence in the scripture that Jesus and the prophets before him and the apostles after him were actually calling on as many as possible to make the jump to a higher awareness perspective of morality. A few examples:

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts [as opposed to outward law]; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31: 33–34)

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45)

“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Eph 3:16–19)

Turning at last to the point on which I believe we might disagree. I expect you would probably say “All this inner awareness stuff is fine – but it’s not real. It’s just something in your own mind”.

I don’t accept that things that the things in the “inner world” are less real than the things in the outer. In fact, I think the opposite is probably true. The outer world only has reality by virtue of being present in our own minds. The experiences of the inner world are capable of systematic, repeatable observation just as the experiences of the outer world are, and are just as “real” – although they are a different order of reality.

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