Source: Wikimedia Commons
Below is the first chapter from my metaphysical primer, Take Away The Stone: Resurrecting The God Within, recently republished on Amazon with updated content.
“I and
the Father are one.” John 10:30
“Now
that which is that subtile essence (the root of all), in it all that exists has
its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.”
Khandoyga Upanishad
“And
indeed We have created man, and We know whatever thoughts his inner self
develops, and We are closer to him than (his) jugular vein.” Quran 50:10
To
the average religious person – reared in the traditions of orthodox belief –
the idea that Divinity dwells in the human heart reeks of heresy. Having been
brought up with a picture of the Infinite as an angry old man in the sky,
dispensing rewards and punishments as he pleases, they regard with dogmatic
suspicion the notion that Deity is “closer than breathing, nearer than hands
and feet.” This sectarian attitude is personified vividly in the Gospel of John
as the group who sought to stone Jesus for uttering the above quoted truth.
“Because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:33)
To which the Master replied:
““Is
it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’?” (John 10:34)
Referring to the sixth verse of the 82nd Psalm:
“I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most
High.’”
This is only a reiteration of the truth given in the first
chapter of Genesis:
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
When we see through our eyes, not merely with them, we
discover the true spirit of the Scriptures stretched in smiling repose, behind
the stumbling block of the literal letter which kills true understanding; in
this instance the lesson being that, despite the seeming differences of race,
language, and religion, we are the progeny of “One God and Father… who is over
all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6) whether we know this Power as
Allah, Jehovah, Brahma, Tao, the All, the Absolute, Reality, Nature, or Life.
Science
reinforces this idea, showing us that the myriad forms of life share the same
fundamental building blocks biologically, chemically, and molecularly. “We are all one” as Nikola Tesla observed, conduits of the same vital energy in
which we “live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
Beyond
the bounds of biology, on every link of the Great Chain of Being, each form of
manifested Life – from the smallest pebble to the human genius embodied in an
Einstein or Shakespeare – possesses some form of consciousness;
which modern science is increasingly identifying as perhaps the fundamental
factor in our perception and experience of the physical world. It is that innate awareness animating the
vibrational orbit of the smallest particle, guiding the plant towards the
nourishing sunlight, serving as the instincts of our animal brethren, and
spurring humanity on to greater heights of creativity and ingenuity.
This intangible but potent power has been called Cosmic
Consciousness, Universal Mind, Buddha Nature, Atman, the Superconscious, the
subconscious, and the Oversoul among other names, but was known to the ancient
Hebrews as the great I AM or Yahweh, translated as Jehovah and rendered as the
Lord and God in subsequent English translations of the Bible. The name most
famously appears in Chapter 3 of the Book of Exodus, when Moses sees the
essence of God in the burning bush in the wilderness and, being tasked with
liberating the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, asks, “Suppose I go to
the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to
say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:13-14)
Throughout the Gospels Jesus expressed his understanding of
and relationship with this power, which he called “the Father within” and has
been dubbed Christ Consciousness by some spiritual schools, to differentiate
the man Jesus from the illumined state of consciousness he attained (Christ
being a title rather than a surname, derived from the Greek Christos, meaning
“anointed one”):
“Before Abraham was, I am!” (John 8:58)
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he
asked his disciples… “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13, 15)
As shown in the first example at the beginning of this
chapter Jesus didn’t claim to have a monopoly on access to this Power:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me (the I AM or
Christ consciousness) will do the works I have been doing, and they will do
even greater things than these.” (John 14:12)
The Apostle Paul expounded upon this same point in his
letters:
“God has chosen to make known… the glorious riches of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27, emphasis added)
“Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5, emphasis added)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live,
but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians
2:20, emphasis added)
“Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5 King James Version,
emphasis added)
Both Jesus and Paul are talking about an impersonal
spiritual power (Christ), rather than an individual human personality (the
historical man called Jesus of Nazareth). Taking the above literally (that the
physical man Jesus is dwelling in us) would leave us in the darkness of
confusion, but thankfully “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.”
(1 Corinthians 14:33, King James Version)
We’ll discover further how the Biblical writers, using the
story of Jesus, were trying to illustrate how every person could attain
conscious contact with the indwelling I AM to realize “the freedom and glory of
the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) Let us begin this eye opening process by
delving deeper into the nature of this eternal, omnipresent principle.
