Esoteric Paths Reconsidered

 

Some of us (as was so common with the baby-boomer generation) get involved with various esoteric spiritual paths and "masters." This is quite understandable and occurs because of a disillusionment with the various denominations of the Christian and Judaic religions here on our Western home turf. The disillusionment might be due in large part to the state of a particular religion, as in "Catholics don't read the Bible but rely instead on their priests." But this truism, in itself, may have been due to an internal cancer that had already been eating away at the Roman Catholic Church for some time. (In a similar vein, compare Torah-based Judaism to Talmud-based Judaism.)

 

Disillusionment resulted from these Faiths being infiltrated and subverted. This occurred with special ferocity during the height of the Aquarian Conspiracy ('60s and '70s) and continues on with renewed intensity into our current age. This assault has prevented the devout from truly appreciating their own Faiths.

 

This author's journey is a case in point: I can say that I found the Vatican Council II changes to be a big turn-off. Then, I decided that Catholicism (and Christianity generally) lacked a required esoteric/meditative component. And so, for spiritual nourishment I looked primarily at the variegated vestiges of Sufism for the longest time. Others embraced Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Secret Societies, Rudolf Steiner, New Age Paths or some combination of these or others. We became convinced that the spiritual search could surely not end in "stuffy old, exoteric Christianity" that exhorts prayer over meditation, and the like. 

 

As a result, I wonder whether we all fell into a sort of "mystico-spiritual elitism." I do not say this to minimize the mountain of self-work seekers have undertaken over these many years, or to marginalize the significant esoteric insights gained over a lifetime from our personal "walk away from Omelas" (see 1st footnote below); nor do I seek to condemn the teachers from whom we learned throughout our lives. But I have always asked myself about everything (including Christianity)—"Is that all there is?" (Peggy Lee)

 

Not seeing the forest for the trees...

First-hand experience of discipleship indicates that it is overwhelmingly comprised of those who are obsessively hungry and needy for someone to tell us "what it's all about"—instead of doing the hard work that our "master" has done (and which so often ends in disappointment for both teacher and disciple). This phenomenon is worth looking at. 

 

Man seems to have a genetic defect that forever dooms him toward the propensity to be lost from his real self. And despite all of the admiration for and emulation of a chosen avatar via a "master", a disciple finally concludes that he or she can never quite measure-up to either; or perhaps the "master" or the master's teachings never quite suffice for the disciple. Is this right?—I ask this question of all of you out there to whom this applies.

 

It was this same apprehension concerning the Master/Disciple issue that caused me to admire Ibn al Arabi's seeking. He never had one specific teacher, but many, yet in a sense, none—finding his own teacher/avatar from within a dimension "out of himself." This has stuck with me a long time, and I still marvel at this Sufi saint (and I know of someone vaguely similar to him alive today).

 

But I must digress...

I recall the institution I attended for my Doctorate in Humanities: The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). This place (located in San Francisco [of course]) was founded upon the principle of integrating East and West. Yet CIIS promotes more the idea that the West has a lot to learn from the spiritual traditions of the non-Western, i.e., non-Christian spiritual traditions, e.g., the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and his wife, "The Mother."

Many have bought into this sort of "global ecumenism," which typifies the Rockefeller New World Order agenda. (Laurence Rockefeller was the main benefactor of CIIS.) The CIIS motto of "Body, Mind, Spirit" emphasizes "consciousness" as the prime mover instead of, e.g., The Holy Spirit of the Western way; students are taught to be indifferent, i.e., accepting the mantra that "there are many paths to God; we accept each as equally legitimate and viable!" (Fair enough, in a sense. But such programmed, "Club of Rome spiritual multiculturalism" is all the rage today, whether one affiliates with CIIS or not, whether one practices Satanism, whether one tends toward libtardism or whether one has begun to see the Light but is not quite recovered from the libtard disease—or, in the case of skeptical agnostics and hard-core atheists out there, one finds all spiritual paths to be equally ridiculous.) 

 

While at CIIS I recall that I was always looking for a more home-grown  spirituality that was more reflective of contemporary society (you know, slightly psychotic, with a tinge of Jimi Hendrix). This, I thought, is what I might embrace; this is what I might immerse myself in—a spirituality more meaningful to our current people, time, and place, rather than some moldy tradition meant for another people, time and place. In that sense I was always on the lookout for "My people, my people—where are my people!?"

Lately—and perhaps surprisingly to many who know me—I have found that my search has brought me back full circle to Christianity, or rather, to a Biblical perspective by way of really grokking Holy Scripture—and to the realization that this traditional path is not moldy at all (despite engaging with an archaic, often challenging text).

 

To understand what I am saying one needs to wrap one's head around this exemplar of Biblical scholarship: 

 

Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, by Chuck Missler

 

 

All 24 Sessions are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ3hESj__M8&list=PLRj8AJuzeJRwHdeFua3pzmwPB_JCS0mIq

 

And before scoffing, check out Dr. Missler's bio. As a boy he was infatuated with the Bible and carefully studying it became a life-long pursuit. Being mechanically and technically inclined, he went on to become an engineer who led an astonishing professional life at the cutting edge of science and business for over 30 years, before pursuing his avocation full time: http:/www.chuckmissler.com/biography 

 

This fellow's familiarity with the Bible is staggering. Again, as with most Catholics, I had never read, studied, and understood the Bible, depending instead on priests. I recently tried reading it and soon became discouraged. I saw that I needed a guide to help me but I did not want just any proselytizer. I then prayed for assistance and quickly stumbled upon Missler. He is non-denominational and only wants people—people of any and all stripes—to "get" the Bible. Discovering him has been and continues to be mind-blowing for me. (See the 2nd footnote below)

 

However, in order to be genuinely contributive to unveiling the real self, the baby-boomer generation that embraced exotic spiritual traditions likely finds the Biblical approach too "intellectual," too "fundamentalist," or perhaps "too bereft of a meditative and/or non-dual aspect, or lacking that all-important uncovering-the-God-within component." Or, stated differently, "Does the Bible really help us to discover the miracle of our origin, the secrets of our being, and the mystery of our destiny, our future?" 

 

Then, on the other hand, there are those who never had any Faith or who abandoned their Faith. Missler's fine work provides an opening for any and all who plunge into his engrossing and enlightening approach to unraveling Scripture and demonstrating its timeless significance.

 

The problem is that we were never properly instructed in the spiritual inheritance of our own Christian Faith. Instead, we got something that was a weak facsimile thereof (a wayward Catholicism or Protestantism). Gutted by the propagandizing of the Aquarian Conspiracy, and further transmogrified by jackass preachers (or those masquerading as Christians, whether well-intentioned or not) the Word of God got so mangled it became almost a parody of itself. The main problem was that those purporting to be properly informed about their own Judeo-Christian spiritual traditions were not properly schooled in its core text, The Bible. 

 

Even if those explicating the Bible have a working knowledge of ancient Hebrew and Greek (as Dr. Missler does) they still need the ability to connect everything up into an organically cohesive, living whole which presents the Bible as the transformative tool that it actually is. Predictably, all of the worst fakers and dilettantes were prominently held up by the ever-deceiving media (and similarly infiltrated universities) as spokespersons for Christianity and what it means to be a Christian. In this way we were turned against our own religion—a religion we "moderns" never properly understood. And I am not hailing Chuck Missler as the first to ever really "decode" the Bible. Especially since the mid-15th Century, when the printing press made the Bible accessible to so many, it was read, studied, and appreciated by the likes of George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Napoleon Bonaparte, just to name a few well-known historical persons.

To one degree-or-another some have always apprehended Holy Scripture. With the rise of secular modernity (particularly with the advent of radio, movies, TV and so many other organized diversions) reading itself has been eclipsed by "passive reception."

 

And yes, Man turned Jesus' legacy into another messy version of Omelas. The life and message of Jesus were not to blame; rather, Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity were and still are misunderstood, twisted, distorted, wrongly interpreted and unfairly accused.

Why?—because (1) the truth of the Word of God was purposely occluded and/or (2) people were encouraged NOT to do the hard work that it takes to fully grasp how both the Old and New Testaments work in harmony to verify the miracle of God-made-flesh. It is in knowing the integrated message contained therein that we are able to truly understand ourselves. As we get acquainted with God's real nature we see the incredible lengths to which our Trinitarian personal God has gone, and still goes, on our behalf in order to bring us along toward the realization of our full human potential—not to mention being made aware of the snares of evil and the nature of the world around us. 

 

The Western spiritual traditions of Judaism and Christianity are steeped in the written word; viz., of discerning meaning via written language, and in particular, divinely inspired texts. The sixty-six books of the Bible are "divinely inspired" because they "inter-relate and inter-lock" with one another (as Missler ingeniously demonstrates in a number of ways) even though written by over forty different authors over a period of thousands of years! 

 

Using our minds should not to be demeaned as being overly "intellectual." Rather, mental abilities—the full developmental capability of our reason—in tandem with our other faculties of knowing, should be hailed as an absolute marvel. I wonder whether mystico-spiritual elitism, tinged with that old counter-culture bias that favors other, more "esoteric" ways of knowing over reasoned intellect and prayer, has tricked and poisoned us against our own Western inheritance. It certainly seems so.

 

Apprehending the Bible is hard work. It takes time, energy, focus, and the ability to read and research. Fortunately, our load is lightened by its expositors, by Bible teachers such as Chuck Missler. Still, if Bible study is undertaken seriously, one cannot help but become an ardent believer in every conviction of the Apostles' Creed.

 

Thus, becoming a Christian is to realize the Mystery of Christ that lives within us and through whom we are led, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to Almighty God the Father; by this we learn what has come before, who we are, where we came from, where we are going and how to get there. I do not necessarily refer here to the exoteric trappings of Christianity, though institutional church structure, its sacraments and fellowship (in short, being "Church-going") might be indispensable for many.

 

Seek and you shall find, oh seekers: that the Western spiritual tradition remains the fountainhead, the essence of the occult adventure called esotericism. Its secrets are hidden in plain view if you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and an open heart-full-of-soul.     

 

______________

1. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, https://www.utilitarianism.com/nu/omelas.pdf 

(Omelas is an Earthly, man-made utopia which some forsake and yet those who do are not able to abandon it absolutely.)   

 

2. 

            The Bible consists of:

                                                66 separate books

                                                penned by over 40 authors

                                                over several thousand years

                                                that are an integrated message system.

 

            It can be demonstrated that the origin of this message is from outside of our dimensions of space and time.

The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed;

the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.

                                                                                         –Augustine

 

For example, Genesis 5 sets out the genealogy of the Patriarchs. This is the so-called “begetting” that can sound rather dull to modern ears. But wait! If we list these Hebrew names and translate their meanings from the Hebrew into English, what is concealed provides a message revealed:

                       

Adam	Man (is)
Seth	Appointed
Enosh	Mortal
Kenan	Sorrow; (but)
Mahalalel	The Blessed God
Jared	Shall come down
Enoch	Teaching
Methuselah	His death shall bring
Lamech	The Despairing
Noah	Comfort, Rest

 

“Man is appointed mortal sorrow; but the Blessed God shall come down teaching His death shall bring the despairing comfort, rest.”

 

            Now I ask you: How is it possible that each blessed man could have stitched together these particular names–by themselves and over ten long generations–to provide such an integrated future message that prophesizes the coming of Jesus Christ, Redeemer? Simple coincidence is trumped by Divine Inspiration, viz., the workings of the Holy Spirit laying out God’s plan of salvation–what might be called a “spiritual blueprint” for humanity And this is but one example of very many in the Bible cluing us in on how the New Testament is foretold, prefigured, foreshadowed, "concealed" in the Old Testament–and which is fulfilled in the New Testament. For as Jesus tells us, he came to fulfill the law and the prophets, not to destroy them. (See, Matthew 5:17) He goes on to describe and explain His New Covenant, which is a radical new revamping of most, but not all, of the Old Laws of Moses, now made possible through Him and His holy mission on Earth. (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) 

 

Thus, the Bible provides a mighty decoding adventure for those who seek to know God, to live lives of moral and spiritual rectitude, and (by so doing) to model the virtues of faith, hope and charity.       

 

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without

God and the Bible.”                –George Washington

“The Bible is worth all the other books

that have ever been printed.”  –Patrick Henry

“The Bible is no mere book, but is a Living Creature,

with a power that conquers all that oppose it.”

                                                –Napoleon Bonaparte