The Spiritual Life
The Spiritual Life has two main ingredients. The first can be described as an expansion of consciousness.
Each one of us is an entirely unique individual. This is how it ought to be. At the same time, there is a larger consciousness than our own individual sense of self that exists.
This larger consciousness sees all, pervades all, knows all, intimately from within.
We are meant to have a symbiotic and synergistic relationship with this larger consciousness, to be able to share freely in everything it knows, everything it has, everything it is, while at the same time retaining distinctly our own entirely unique, individual sense of self.
Sharing in this larger consciousness does not overwhelm or obliterate our individuality, but rather fulfills and completes it in the most natural and satisfying manner, conferring upon us simultaneously powers and abilities far beyond our present comprehension.
This brings us to the second ingredient of the Spiritual Life which can be described as Mind over Matter.
The material world which we have become familiar with is not ‘solid'. It has no solidity or permanence as we have come to understand the words but instead, is continually coming into being, over and over again, from microsecond to microsecond - creation ex nihlo.
It is said that, in the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth out of nothing. The thing is, God didn't do this just once at the beginning and from thence forth the Heavens and the earth simply continued to exist and change into what it is now. Instead, God continually re-creates the world out of nothing at every moment.
The only thing that gives the material world the impression of ‘solidity’ that we are familiar with is the fact that it keeps coming into being according to a similar pattern over and over again.
Except for this similarity in the pattern, matter is much more malleable than we have been led to believe.
Once we realize that it is Mind that sets the pattern and begin to understand how it is our thoughts that determine our lives, Matter becomes much more flexible, subject to change and improvisation.
Instead of the prison that Matter has become for us, (precisely because our mind has become imprisoned and so severely limited…), Matter becomes a medium of limitless creative freedom for us.
Once we are able to share freely in this larger consciousness and recognize the true nature of Mind over Matter we begin to realize that this extremely limited framework of Time/Space and the Laws of Physics that we are bound by, is not meant to be the ‘Be-All and End-All' of life, but merely a ‘stepping off place’ into another kind of reality altogether where whatever we Intend comes into being instantaneously.
At that point, Time/Space and the Laws of Physics, rather than being the bars of our prison, become the loosest of frameworks, if at all applicable, to be used as we see fit in an ongoing work of art.
This world is not our final resting place, but only a temporary framework, a convenient fiction within which we are meant to learn certain lessons about ourselves and about the nature of reality and then to grow beyond.
The obstacles we are faced with here, the galling limitations, the beings and forces that seem bound and determined to keep us estranged from the ground of our being and ignorant of our own natural abilities are actually of a pedagogical nature if only we were to understand them properly and how to respond appropriately to them.
This is in fact, the essence of the Spiritual Life and why we need to be actively engaged in one at all times if we wish to discover our freedom, attain to the Fullness of Being and to receive the Great Good Things that God has prepared for us.
The Path not taken
The Spiritual Life consists primarily of two interrelated factors - Mind over Matter (otherwise known as 'Creation by mere Thought') and Mental Telepathy (also known as 'Clairvoyance').
These two, working together, are the underlying principles upon which a genuine Spiritual Life is based.
It is impossible to understand correctly either the Bible or the teachings and Way of Life of the Orthodox Church without an understanding of these two principles and how they work together in a synergistic manner.
Thinking/Feeling/Willing taken together equals Intent.
Essentially, we have been given the power to create at will merely by intending that it be so.
Presently, there is a 'governor' placed on our ability to bring things into being in the form of Time/Space and the Laws of Physics.
This governor is only applicable as a guardian until we are able to handle this awesome power with responsibility. At that point this governor begins to recede and ultimately, to disappear entirely.
The only way to handle the power and ability to bring things into being instantaneously is to develop a symbiotic, telepathic relationship with God who is everywhere present and fills all things.
God knows all of creation intimately, knows how to bring things into being in complete harmony and balance with All-That-Is and is willing to share that Knowledge, Wisdom and Power with each of us if we so desire…
These principles are the means of understanding correctly everything written in the Bible and are at the heart of the Orthodox Way of Life.
Western Civilization on the other hand, has sought to understand the Laws of Nature from the much more limited perspective of logic, reason and extrapolation based primarily on the subjective evidence of our five senses and then, to bend nature to suit our own ends.
This temporal and extremely limited perspective can't help but be incomplete at best and at worst, be fraught with serious repercussions and a whole host of disastrous, unintended consequences.
In fact, the world that we have built with logic and reason with ourselves as the central focus is rapidly coming apart at the seams. The center cannot hold, the wholeness of things has been seriously disturbed and the chickens are coming home to roost, (whatever that used to mean...)
In other words, what goes around, comes around and as we have sown, so shall we reap. Not to mention that, as we approach the Singularity, Instant Karma gonna get us.
We live in a time most accurately described as 'The Decline of the West' and quite possibly as the 'Apex of Apostasy'.
It is quite likely that our present civilization, built on these limited and incomplete principles will continue to devolve into tyranny and barbarism.
Without the ability to reform human nature that a genuine spiritual life provides, the only logical solution may very well become a One World Government, a Microchipped Population and a Totalitarian set of extremely strict and comprehensive laws which will dictate our every move from the cradle to the grave, (for our own good, of course…)
Under the guise of 'basic human rights ', the masses will be provided with a substance living while the Elite, who suffer the burden of having to oversee the rest of us, will take the cream off the top before divvying up whatever is left to the rest of us.
What to do? What to do?
Well, no one in their right mind would ever suggest that living an actual Christian life might be the best solution because Christianity, especially here in the West, has stepped away from Orthodoxy for the last thousand years and henceforth, obviously become ineffectual and downright counterproductive.
The schismatic forms of Christianity that we have inherited here in the West have caused more harm than good and have given all of Christianity a bad reputation.
Even Orthodoxy, to one extent or another, has suffered from its exposure to modernity and has lost touch with its ability to be a constructive and positive influence on the world.
Nevertheless, a remnant still exists and always will continue to exist.
For this reason, it behooves us not to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' and to reexamine both, the Bible and the Orthodox Christian Way of Life in light of the two basic principles mentioned above.
In this way, we may very well discover an unexpected and almost unimaginable response to the crisis we find ourselves in, a response that has the power and ability to transform ourselves and our world entirely.
Now, I'm not saying that Orthodoxy is necessarily the only way to understand and accomplish these things, however, in my own personal experience, it is the best and most effective way, which contains extremely helpful elements not found anywhere else.
This world is meant to be a 'stepping off place' into another kind of reality altogether where whatever we Intend comes into being instantaneously and we were originally Created to be 'like' God and to become gods in our own right.
As counterintuitive as it may seem from the evidence of what the modern world seems to provide, this is still the case and still ours for the asking.
So be it! Amen, Amen, Amen!
https://stevenberger.substack.com/p/creation-by-mere-thought-why-havent