Good News / The Four Precepts

With Reference to the Good
by Wayne Ferguson 12.08.2004, changed 25.11.2004

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The admonition to Follow your Bliss is an affirmation of individual freedom under God. Or put another way, it is the affirmation of individual freedom with reference to the Good.

The Good is our Divine essence which we are admonished to remember. And our bliss is that inner peace and satisfaction, seasoned with joyful expectation, which best orients us towards those pursuits and those activities through which the Divine will be more fully revealed in our lives. Although at first our recollection of the Divine may be little more than a mindful ascent to an abstract possibility, as we continue on our way-- mindfully following our bliss --our abstract ascent soon gives way to a living relationship. But if this is the case, it would seem that all we need do is Remember our Divine essence and Follow our Bliss and all should be well. What, then, is the reasoning behind the 2nd and 3rd precepts?

In one sense, perhaps precepts 1 and 4 are sufficient--similar in many respects to the Augustinian dictum: Love and do what you will. But alas, because life can be difficult and people can be vicious-- and because we so often fail to excercise our capacity for spiritual awareness --we must also to make it our habit to say yes to life unconditionally and to overcome the spirit of revenge. By doing so, we can more safely navigate these inevitable hazards.

Of course, we are always free to do what we will--there is a sense in which our right extends as far as our power. But in our ignorance and impatience, we often do violence to ourselves and to those we love by attempting to evade1 necessary hardships; or when in anger or resentment we seek to hurt and destroy to an extent unwarranted by any real concern for self-defense and without reference to the overarching good of everyone involved.

But if, as has been imagined, all that appears in this world is somehow bound together on another level-- i.e. on some higher plane that both transcends the world of appearances and also makes it possible --then it is easy to imagine that human beings, too, are joined together in some essential way and that we are, at the very foundation of our existense, members, one of another.2 And if, as we have elsewhere suggested, it is our intuition of and comportment toward this more fundamental Reality that constitutes the difference between living well or living poorly, then we would do well to prepare in advance for those recurring moments in which we are tempted to lose courage in the face of hardship; or those times when, in anger and frustration, we are apt to forget our intimate relationship to others-- allies and adversaries alike --under God.

The first step in such advanced preparation is to begin to understand the theoretical framework in which these ideas become intelligible. That framework suggests a hierarchical structure of reality that accounts for the world of appearances as emanating from, or in some way participating in, the more substantial reality of the levels above it. Below is a basic model that illustrates the theoretical framework I am referring to. This rather simple model is one of many that could be used.3 It is not without it's limitations, but it should provide an adequate point of departure:

-----------------------------------------------------------------==========
(1 ) ------------ The One --- Being --- The Absolute -------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------  (Eternity)
(2) |||||| Logos |||||| Eternal Creation |||||| Image of God ||||||
-----------------------------------------------------------------==========
(3) ++++ Temporal Creation ++++ Incarnation ++++ Falleness +++ (Time & Space)
-----------------------------------------------------------------==========

The dashes in the row (1) stand for the eternal power of the One with Whom we have to do. This is the Substance of all that exists. If you are religiously inclined, this is the Godhead. If you are scientifically oriented, you may think of it as the elusive unified field . Philosophically, it is the Absolute. All these concepts can be useful insofar as they make our world more intelligible and insofar as they position us to become aware of our essential relatedness to one another and to God. It is our spiritual awareness that is most important! The words we use to describe that reality are just the ladders or scaffolding that support us in process of coming to know and to be that which we already (essentially) are.4 Here is one way of describing it:

The One, as I imagine it, is aware of itself by virtue of the original, eternal creation. I understand this creation to be the image of God, so to speak, in which the One is eternally present to itself.5 This eternal Image and self-presence of the One contains the forms or original principles which give rise to the phenomenal realm (i.e. the temporal creation). It is equivalent to Plato's world of forms, but the forms should not be thought of as the sterile, static, merely abstract ideas that people usually imagine. Rather, they constitute the vital, living Realty that makes possible all that appears on the horizons of time and space. In Christian terms, row (2) is the mystical body of Christ--otherwise known as the Word or Logos. Of row (2) it can be said both that it is God and that it is in the beginning with God and also that all things (in row-3) are made by Him (cf. John 1:1-3). The vertical hash-marks in row (2) illustrate the transcendent unity of that which merely appears seperate and distinct in time and space (row-3).

The plus signs in row (3) stand for particular ex-isting entities in the apparent world--not only bodies, but minds, too, as well as complex events and occurances in both the physical and mental realms. As indicated above, these are things that stand out-- separate and apart --in time and space, but which exist, nevertheless, in an intelligible relationship to one another. Historically, the metaphores of "light", "form" and "reflection" have been used to describe the process of emanation that originates with the One and and proceed across the intervening levels into the world of our experience in time and space.6 I like to think of the One (row 1) as the light that projects the forms intrinsic to its own image (row 2) onto the horizon of space and time (row 3). The intelligible relationships that obtain between existing entities and events are the spatio-temporal re-presentation of an Eternal presence that transcends human understanding.7

As strange as it must sound to modern ears, I believe that this multi-tiered conception of reality makes extremely good sense. As individuals in row (3), we have the option of remembering the One with Whom we have to do and recollecting ourselves as we are in the Divine Image (row 2). Or, we have the option of choosing to live as if row (3) were the only reality, denying any reality but our bodily existence in time and space. And as suggested elsewhere, it is our collective choices in this regard that determines the degree to which the original creation (row 2) is revealed in the phenomenal realm (row 3) which is the image of that image--or, per chance, the degree to which it is concealed in a god-forsaken age.

While some people imagine that the single-tiered notion of reality is more rationally compelling, that is usually the result of their misunderstanding of science and their impatience with the moral demands (real or imagined) that the former conception seems to place on them. But modern cosmology and quantum physics has opened the door very wide to a multi-tiered conception of reality. And the moral demands implied by this conception, while real, have also been subject to much misunderstanding.

With regard to the latter, think of Jesus's words: "my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30) and "take no thought of tomorrow--sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34). In the Christian tradition, Jesus is the archetype of recollection. He remembers his relationship to the Father (I and my Father are one) and dwells, here and now, in the Kingdom of God (Luke 17:20-12, Gospel of Thomas 113). In contrast, the archetype of denial is Adam who forgets his relationship to God and abandons his place in paradise by eating the fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2:17, 3:1ff). As such, he begins to treat his relative existence as absolute and becomes preoccupied with the relative oppositions of good and evil which pertain only to his particular existence. But whereas Adam is "the fallen man" in whom the Image of God is obscured, Jesus is the incarnation and revelation of God. Whereas Adam fears death (which is construed as punishment for sin), Jesus takes up his cross (redemptively) and dies freely, innocently, and with out the spirit of revenge ("father forgive them, for they know not what they do"). By remembering our Divine essence we, likewise, participate in the incarnation and revelation of God. When we forget our Divine essence and live as if the meaning of our life is exausted by our bodily existence, we participate in the "fall of creation" which obscures the Divine image in this world.

Yes, life can indeed be hard and people do treat one another viciously at times, to say the least. But whatever the turn of events, you can find consolation in the fact that you are free to follow your bliss and that by doing so, you will contribute to the revelation of God in this world. The only qualifications to this are that 1) you do so with reference to the Good (Remember your Divine essence), that 2) you renounce the tendency to despair in the face of hardship (Say Yes to life uncondtionally), and that 3) you beware of the spirit of resentment and revenge as you respond to the violence and insensitivity of other human beings (Overcome the spirit of revenge). Along the Way, you are the sole arbiter of what constitutes the Good, what constitutes despair, and to what degree the actions you are contemplating are motivated by the spirit of Revenge. There is little doubt that you will make mistakes, but as you proceed in faith along this way, you will-- most assuredly --grow in grace and knowledge of the truth.


Notes


1. The word evade is meant to connote illicit avoidance, as in income tax evasion. It is perfectly appropriate to avoid taxes in whatever way we legally can. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with avoiding suffering and hardship whenever doing so does not compromise the authentic expression of our Divine essence.

2. "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another" (Romans 12:5). While St. Paul seems to distinguish between some human beings that are part of the body of Christ and some that are not, I do not make such distinctions. Rather, I presume that we are all members of the same spiritual body, but that we differ in the degree to which we are aware of that body and our place in it--and also in the degree to which we are true to that awareness. It is very difficult to judge our own heart in this regard, much less the hearts of others. Let us look for the good in every person and every situation--for each one has a place in our eternal life.

3. I am using 3 levels. Most people use 4 or more (cf. Ken Wilber, Huston Smith, and Sri Aurobindo). My purpose is to provide a very basic gestalt which is morally adequate even if it requires significant elaboration to be theoretically adequate. By morally adequate, I mean adequate to the proper orienting of ourselves toward our spiritual source and destiny. Of course, I am also influenced by the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and by The Three Initial Hypostases of Plotinus.

4. According to the neo-platonist, Proclus, "the One is known by the human mind but in a human manner, whereas the human appearance exists within the One Reality in its one real nature" (this is from the section on Proclus in the Collier-Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, page 480). The best manner in which to communicate the knowledge of the One to other human beings seems to vary from culture to culture and epoch to epoch. Also, people with different backgrounds and temperments will respond very differently to the same literal message.

5. The idea of two creations, though somewhat obscured in the popular mind, and subject to differing interpretations in the various theological traditions, can be traced throughout the Christian scriptures. As I understand it, the mystical Body of Christ IS the eternal creation, while the temporal creation-- the world of becoming and perishing --constitutes both "the fall of creation" and the "incarnation of God" (as we shall see, it is very much up to us which of these alternate aspects of the temporal creation we wish to contribute to). In addition, the idea of the image God, as used here, is in part derived from scripture, but is also related to its usage in Plotinus.

6. As before noted, many thinkers posit 4 or more levels. Other metaphores for the process of emanation are that of an overflowing fountain or concentric waves (See the Kheper web site for other relevant articles on emanation and involution).

7. The metaphore of light and reflection is used by Plato. Also, it should be noted (a la Kant) that the transcendent reality is not subject to the categories of understanding that we apply to the phenomenal realm. As such, we cannot know it as we know the world of things in time and space. Nevertheless, the perennial philosophy asserts that we can have a kind of intutition or recollection of it.