Meditation 11 - The Bible
The New and Old, side by side, back to back, coincidental or purely for the sake of comparison. The New Testament is a floodlight to the imperfections of the Old Testament. Through the lives of a colourful array of characters each testifies to a truth of its own. We are given an insight into the effectiveness of Intrinsic and Extrinsic routes to enlightenment, fulfilment and being at one with God.
In defining who we are we can look to the bible as an invaluable guidebook. The bible holds a message that is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. This is because it is written for all time, all people and all circumstances.
Today we have all manner of support mechanisms built into our lifestyles – money, education, status, family, friends, but can we guarantee that we can trust to any of them to stand the test of time. The very foundations of the bible are based on a doctrine that does just that. At the same time we are never asked to take on board anything at face value, but are instead constantly encouraged to experience its wisdom first hand so that in our own right each one of us can testify to its truth. The omnipotent power within that the bible testifies to is something that we can trust in to deliver us out of our adversity always.
We see the foundations of the New Testament emerge out of a promise steeped in truth and faith. This promise to David was not fulfilled in his lifetime and yet he was thankful. He felt privileged that God saw fit to lavish his descendants with such a bright future. He wondered why God had chosen him out of so many. Why God had singled him out to build such a great covenant with.
The promise was not fulfilled in David’s lifetime, his own naked eye did not see the promises fulfilled and yet he was grateful, overwhelmed with honour. He did not question, he believed. Blind faith? or did he experience something so inexplicably amazing that he was left without doubt of the ability of God to fulfil his word.
Diary entry 06.07.07
Today I awoke and as usual meditated at 3.00am. At first I could not get a clear channel of communication, but I persevered concentrating on my almost non existent quietened breath. All of a sudden I became aware of an object as immense as and higher than any mountain, deeper than any ravine, an impenetrable power denser than any stone and against which I felt proportionately insignificant. My situation changed and I found myself on the inside of this all consuming force. It was as though I was being crushed by the forces within for it was as though matter was not meant to exist in this state. I focused my mind on the sensations I was experiencing in every centimetre of my body until they melted away and I could not feel any part of my body. I was in a void. I was only aware of this intense presence and my attachment to it. It was hard to tell whether I was part and parcel of this magnificence or separate and simply the quiet observer. Yet I was compelled to remain in its presence, drawn in by its incredible charisma. I felt nothing but complete love, adoration, admiration, elation and honour to be allowed to experience its presence. In this state, there are no boundaries to possibilities; our realm of acceptance; perception and comprehension extend beyond the gates of this world. I could only ask myself if I was till now being deceived by my mind into and living a false sense of reality?
Who was Jesus? Was he philosopher, a visionary, a theorist, idealist, a promised messiah to be put on a pedal stool and ritualistically worshiped or was he very simply a man who lived his truth by example showing us the way to experience this truth for ourselves. I think he was the later opening our minds to a means of worship which completely purifies body, mind and soul.
Jesus came to rekindle a truth lost, a truth that has it’s essence in the story of the Garden of Eden. Jesus’ truth demonstrates to us that man has fallen out of consciousness and awareness of the power of the spirit within. We have lost the ability to live in the body and yet not be mastered by it. We are living by a wisdom that gives us a false sense of perception of who we are and does not serve us well in the long term for it is slowing punishing us, lulling us into a false sense of security. Within our grasp is the truth or the tree of life and yet we explore the realm of unconscious living first. This is because it is not possible to accept the truth at face value for it can never be your truth and perfection can never be understood as perfection unless imperfection is experienced.
Why are we so out of touch with out inner spirituality? We enter a world which has become a slave to unconscious living. Collective awareness is non existent, so we are born oblivious to the fact that we are mind, body and spirit. We have all but forgotten that we have a spiritual existence which far surpasses that which we experience in flesh. A baby has vague recollections, like a veil before its eyes, memories that it can not recall clearly shimmering before it like a waterfall, but the memories are vague, piecemeal and they do not make sense. After a while we forget entirely. The period of recollection is so brief and it’s at a point in time when we cannot communicate the experience to anyone.
Why is this so? The Garden of Eden tells of a place not simply of perfection, but a place that tests our ability to stay true to who we are in all our magnificence and glory. By making use of the term ‘staying true to ourselves’ I am referring to a state of enlightenment and consciousness of the spirit within us. The events depicted in the story of the Garden of Eden show how our minds gave in to pull of the body’s needs and so established our false perception of everything around us; a fall from Super-conscious spiritual awareness to being fully conscious of the flesh and it’s every whim. Our minds fooled us into thinking that we needed something outside of ourselves to make us complete.
