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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
This Irredeemable World
it cannot be saved,
wasn't meant to be saved
- only transcended |
return to main-page of the "Jesus" article
In the “Why Can’t We Achieve World Peace?” article, you’ll find a discussion concerning the irredeemable nature of this world:
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irredeemable world
Dr. Willis Barnstone, translator of the ancient Nag Hammadi documents, informs us that some of the Gnostic gospels predate the Synoptics by several years; as such, I feel they present a more accurate picture of Jesus. (See "The Wedding Song" for more discussion of the Gnostic documents.)
I really like the Gospel Of Thomas, in my opinion, one of the most spiritual messages. Jesus, as portrayed therein, emphasizes one's direct access to God -- which is why these documents were not included in a later Church-approved canon.
like trying to preserve a snowflake in hell, some problems have no solutions; not in this world
Adrian has studied Gnostic philosophy more than I, and he mentioned that many Gnostics (there were different sects) taught that this world is unredeemable. Human nature, being what it is, often taking orders from the “false self,” makes the social problems which bedevil us, essentially, unsolvable. It’s not going to get any better “down here in the trenches.” It may appear to for a while, but the “inner neediness” of "I am not enough," the craving of more and more, assures one more resurrection of “the evil empire.” And then another.
We talked about how the world seems to be slipping toward some sort of major conflagration. The “dark side” is becoming emboldened, throwing off restraint, just as it did before World War II. That’s how I see it. He agreed. But then I interjected that there’s no guarantee that, in this “irredeemable world,” we might not grant license to some oppressive neo-Roman Empire. Long term, I'm optimistic, but that doesn't mean we couldn't invite to ourselves a one-thousand year Dark Age. It's not as if it hasn't happened.
My view is that I wouldn’t be surprised given today’s level of incivility, made worse by our dumbed-down populace, venal and bribable, flirting with power-grabbing socialism and political hucksters. Ask David Kenyon Webster what he thought about this; he had a choice little speech for those who love servility.
getting back to normal
Few have any idea, nor do they care, about what the Founding Fathers gave to us. Adrian remarked that “we’re spoiled.” We think that having personal freedoms is just the way it is, there couldn't be anything else -- but the liberty we enjoy today is a complete aberration in history, just a little sliver of light amidst a vast, dark wasteland of totalitarian dystopia. We joked that we’ll soon be “getting back to normal.” The jungle always wins, you know.
Think of what “normal” means. The average person, during the last several thousands of years of recorded history, has lived under constant threat of oppression from governmental overseers; constant threat of invasion to privacy or personal freedom; constant threat of disruption to peaceful mode of living. The personal freedoms, now fast eroding, a legacy of the Founders, represent a tiny island of self-determination in a vast ocean of deception, brutality, and enslavement. Few today perceive the uniqueness of what we have, or had. Yes, we’ll soon be getting back to normal.
how then shall we live our lives
Anyway, I said, it doesn’t matter, Summerland is just around the corner – that’s the fail-safe in this world, no matter how bad it gets, we're just one missed heartbeat from being "shot from a cannon" into a new world, the "real world." Our task, while we’re still here, is to live an honorable life and not get sucked into the maelstrom of materialistic, cultish society.
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Irredeemable world. Yes - like trying to preserve a snowflake in hell. Some problems have no solutions; not on this planet.
Trying to “save the world” would be like praying that your son, about to enter Navy SEAL bootcamp, might be spared and saved from the rigors and hardships of that severe Spartan gauntlet. But this “saving” would likely become his execution when facing a future unforgiving foe.
you can't save a butterfly from its chrysalis
Trying to “save the world” – you may be familiar with this example – would be like cutting a chrysalis, attempting to help a butterfly escape from its straitjacket. But the butterfly needs to fight its way out in order to strengthen itself; without this ordeal, the butterfly dies.
we came to this world not to be saved - but to overcome the world, to transcend it, on our own; no one can save you but you
We came to this world for the express purpose of enduring its harsh environment. It’s part of the individuation process; it’s how we become autonomous persons. We need this in order to be ready for what comes next.
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the purpose of the brain is to filter out, from universal consciousness, anything not correlating with the body’s perspective; in this ‘step-down transformer’ process, separate egos, with separate personal identities, emerge
Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, PhD philosophy, PhD computer science, for many years worked at CERN, the large hadron collider in Geneva.
“… the function of the brain is to localize consciousness, pinning it to the space-time reference point implied by the physical body. In doing so, the brain modulates conscious perception in accordance with the perspective of the body.
a brain that filters implies the existence of unbound mind, a universal consciousness
"When not subject to this localization and modulation mechanism, mind is unbound: it entails consciousness of all there is across space, time, and perhaps beyond. Therefore, by localizing mind, the brain also ‘filters out’ of consciousness anything that is not correlated with the body’s perspective… like a radio receiver selecting [a particular station], among the variety [with] all other stations being filtered out and never reaching the consciousness of the listener…
"[T]he filter hypothesis implies that consciousness, in its unfiltered state, is unbound. As such, consciousness must be fundamentally unitary and non-individualized, for separateness and individualization entail boundaries.
Editor’s note: Father Benson from the afterlife speaks of a being, formerly mortal, five billion years old, so advanced as to enjoy awareness of all life-forms in the universe; in this, we see the future of the ‘unfiltered’ mind. Read More on the “500 hundred tape-recorded messages from the other side” page.
the filtering brain creates the illusion of separateness, of disconnected personal egos
"The emergence of multiple, separate and different conscious perspectives or egos, is a consequence of the filtering and localization process: different egos, entailing different perspectives on space-time, retain awareness of different subsets of all potential subjective experiences, the rest being filtered out. It is the difference across subsets that give each ego its idiosyncratic vantage point, personal history, and sense of personal identity.
Editor’s note: A brain designed to filter, and reduce to a trickle, experience does not substantively support a theory of reincarnation which exalts much experience. We do not come to this planet to gain experience, as such, but to individualize, to transform one’s tiny sub-set of universal consciousness into a personal ego. With this, we become ready for what comes next in the afterlife, even if we are not yet “good” persons, which can be accomplished later, but only after one becomes a person in one’s own right. Read More on this need for individualization.
"The subjective experiences that are filtered out become the so-called ‘unconscious’ mind of the respective ego. Since each ego allows in only an infinitesimally small part of all potential experiences … the ‘unconscious’ minds of different egos will differ only minimally… As such, the filter hypothesis, unlike materialism, predicts the existence of a ‘collective unconscious’; a shared repository of potential experiences that far transcends mere genetic predispositions of a species…
the likely origin of the mystical experience
"[A]nd most importantly, the filter hypothesis predicts that one can have experiences that do not correlate with one’s brain states. Since here the brain is seen merely as a mechanism for filtering out experience … when this [filtering] mechanism is interfered with so as to be partially or temporarily deactivated, one’s subjective experience could delocalize, expand beyond the body in time and space, and perhaps even beyond time and space [giving rise to what is called the mystical experience]…”
READ MORE of Dr. Kastrup's work on the “quantum mechanics” page
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The concept of “saving the world” is a bankrupt notion, rooted in the illusions and misteachings of Big Religion. Our task is not be rescued from all the mayhem here, but to supersede, to transcend, the base passions of the Little Me Ego, which has built all of civilization.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, “I have overcome the world.” This is not a spectator sport. We are to do the same.
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