The coming down from such a spiritual peak is the hardest part. We need to go on with life, which, by comparison, seems bland and mundane. The point of these experiences is to learn something, to gain insights into the realm of God, and then put those insights to work, as Paul did after his transcendental experience.
Some mystics attain such height that they don’t come down to where they were before. They remain on a high plateau, seemingly otherworldly, seemingly above us and aloof, but it is not really so. On their peak they attained union not only with God but with everyone and everything, and from then on they are servants of the whole. Such exalted beings are our masters as well as our servants.
There is little doubt that Jesus and his disciples, and probably the early community around them as well, were mystics of varying depths. I think Jesus was a deep master mystic of the type I just described, and his disciples and followers were mystics at various levels of practice. It seems very likely, though, that they all were part of the mystical movement around John the Baptist.
Mystical experiences of the transfiguration type actually are quite rare. More common are the spiritual experiences that we experience in a meditative state. These experiences are also known as intuitive. They let us experience the innate oneness and the creative intelligence that underlies everything.
The vital power that causes us to breathe, and our hearts to beat and our bodies to function, is an intuitive and involuntary power that does nor require our conscious effort but happens all by itself, as if by miracle. This inexplicable power that keeps the world alive is the heartbeat of God, and we can feel it in the pure, unthinking experience. Loss of sense of self as well as a feeling of universal at-one-ment and unconditional love usually accompanies such an experience.
Spiritual experience appears to have been a vital aspect of the early, pre-Christian movement around Jesus and John the Baptist. This movement can’t be called “Christian,” because that name came later. It was just a spiritual movement, loosely based on the Judaic faith, but also different from it because it was totally inclusive. It accepted everyone unconditionally, preached and practiced unconditional love, practiced baptism by immersion, and preached freedom, equality, and social justice. But mainly it preached the mysterious “kingdom.” This kingdom was variously described as the kingdom of God; the kingdom of heaven; or the kingdom within.
The “kingdom” actually was a subversive metaphor. It was a kingdom in which everyone was equal, in which all were one. In this kingdom, everyone was united with everyone else—and with God! Gospel means good news, and this was good news indeed for the downtrodden masses to whom Jesus ministered.
Although the metaphor of the kingdom was subversive, it was also safe. People could not be faulted for talking about the kingdom (wink.) Loyalty to the Judaic kingdom of King Herod, and to the Roman Empire, was expected of them. To praise the glorious kingdom (wink) kept them on the good side of the authorities.
Many passages in the New Testament tell what the kingdom is like, but not exactly what it is. What the kingdom really was probably remained an insider secret that was not discussed openly. Only the conspiratorial wink hinted at the knowledge of the kingdom.
Because the early movement around Jesus and John the Baptist was a spiritual movement, it is very likely that the kingdom was an allusion to spiritual experience. The kingdom was something they experienced: the at-one-ment with everyone and everything, including God. On the emotional level, the experience of the kingdom manifested itself in a feeling of universal love and deep and profound joy.
Spiritual experience can happen in deep relaxation, in meditative prayer or practice, during contemplation, in hypnotic or trance states, in states of sensory depravation, when chanting, singing, drumming or dancing, and sometimes just out of the blue.
There is nothing mysterious about spiritual experience, and it is easy to achieve because it does not require any thinking. It is an unthinking state of mind during which experience reality as it really is, not as we think it is. Far from being supernatural, spiritual experience is very natural!
The Oprah-approved New Age guru, Eckhart Tolle, describes spiritual experience as our life’s purpose. I think he is right. In spiritual experience, we not only experience reality as it really is, we experience the transcendental reality which is God. In other words, we experience God. What greater purpose to life could there be?
To Jesus, the attainment of the kingdom was life’s highest purpose. Although there are scholarly disputes as to the sayings attributed to Jesus, almost every scholar agrees that the kingdom was his primary metaphor, his foremost vision and mission, his life’s purpose, for which he actually gave his life. After his death, the kingdom with the knowing wink became our foremost vision and mission.
We are one week away from the beginning of the Christian Lent. Lent commemorates Jesus’ 40 days in the desert, during which he fasted, meditated and prayed, faced several temptations, and attained enlightenment. Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under the famous Bhodi Tree, and Mohammed received his illumination after the customary 28 day fast of Ramadan, the Islamic equivalent of Lent. And our indigenous sisters and brothers went out alone into the wilderness on their Vision Quest, which was their equivalent of Ramadan or Lent. They all did it for the same reason: to experience the ultimate Truth which we Christians call God.
In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the Christian faith was politicized and dogmatized. Christianity fell away from mysticism to dogmatism. Unquestioning belief in a fixed doctrine rather than spiritual experience became the essential element of faith, and remained so to this day. We lost the kingdom, and with it the meaning of the knowing wink.
The fall from mysticism to dogmatism was the metaphorical fall from paradise. In spiritual experience, we experience the kingdom of heaven: reality as it really is— paradise on earth! When we lost spiritual experience as the foundation of our faith, we lost our paradise. That’s why attaining or re-gaining the kingdom should be our primary vision and mission, our life’s purpose.
If regaining the kingdom is indeed our primary vision and mission, and our life’s purpose, then we have to investigate the various ways and means to bring it about. Meditation, contemplation, meditative prayer, any contemplative or meditative practice, any martial art, sensory depravation, singing, chanting, drumming, dancing, playing listening to music, creating art, contemplating art, spending time alone in nature—anything that gets our mind away from the incessant chatter of our thoughts can bring about an experience of the kingdom of God.
Accomplished mystics like Jesus are also able to transmit an experience of the kingdom telepathically. If the sender is an accomplished mystic who knows how to transmit telepathically, and the recipient is open to the transmission, then the sender can transmit to the recipient a profound experience of the kingdom of God.
The ecstasy of spiritual experience can trigger a massive release of endorphins, and this can alleviate all kinds of illness and pain. The people to whom Jesus ministered were very devoted to him, and therefore wide open to his telepathic transmissions and the resulting rapture and healings. All this must have seemed miraculous to the people of his time, and contributed to his reputation as a miracle healer.
Jesus, however, did not use his spiritual healing powers to propagate a particular dogma, as some charismatic evangelists of our day and age tend to do. Although he taught about the kingdom, he did so non-dogmatically. He took neither personal nor institutional credit for the kingdom, and did not misuse it to propagate a particular doctrine or denomination.
The movement around Jesus was not yet organized. It was not yet a religion; it was just a spiritual movement. Had he lived long enough to organize his movement, he surely would have made the attainment of the kingdom of God the focal point of his religious organization. His organized religion would be into spiritual experience and teachings, and into the practice of unconditional love, but not into establishing and perpetuating rigidly fixed doctrines or dogmas.
Today, our Church is in grave danger. Paul Smith, in his recent editorial in the United Church Observer, calls for a “bold transformation” of the Church. He writes that the United Church Moderator tells us that our survival as a Church will require a transformation so extensive that we likely won’t recognize ourselves after it is over. I am convinced that part of this transformation will be getting rid of dogmas, de-emphasizing doctrines, overcoming denominational differences, demonstrating not only social but also environmental responsibility, and returning to the spirit of unconditional love and acceptance of the original movement around Jesus and, most of all, regaining his kingdom.
What can we do to bring back the kingdom of God?
There is plenty we can do. Meditative prayer is a time honoured Christian monastic practice for attaining the kingdom. Eastern type mediation works just as well, and so do any of the various martial arts and meditative or contemplative practices. There are many practices that can bring about a spiritual experience. Experiment and find the one that suits you best.
Spiritual experience is not mysterious or supernatural but very natural. In spiritual experience, we do not experience reality as we think it is, but as it really is. Nothing could be more natural than that!
Spiritual experience alone, however, is not enough. We need to combine intuition with reason, mysticism with logic, as much as we need to combine the traditions of our 3,000 year old Judeo-Christian wisdom school with the insights of modern science.
As I said, the experiences and insights gained in spiritual experience are not sufficient in themselves, but they constitute an excellent foundation for creative thinking which, augmented by traditional wisdom and modern science, will lead to dynamic creative action. Then our thoughts and actions will spring directly from our experience of the kingdom of God, and from our experience of God, and, ultimately, from God. In this manner, we will transform ourselves and our Church—in co-creation with God.
Maybe this is what Jesus meant by “Thy will be done.”?
Rejoice, and be glad!
Blessed are you, holy are you!
Rejoice, and be glad!
Yours is the kingdom of God.
-Amen
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Hermann Harlos recently wrote “The Awakening – A letter-guided Quest for mystical experience” This Quest is pure in the aforementioned sense of the word, and is available on-line at www.hharlos.com or http://ca.msnusers.com/TheQuest Anyone who reads it and wants to contact him personally can do so by email at hharlos@live.com
