Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
The Immovable Spot & Mount Calvary
Silouan
Veteran
"The Buddha beneath the Tree of Enlightenment (the Bo Tree) and Christ on the Holy Rood (the Tree of Redemption) are analogous figures, incorporating an archetypal World Savior, World Tree motif, which is of immemorial antiquity. The Immovable Spot and Mount Calvary are images of the World Navel, or World Axis." -The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell p.33n
I have spent the last several weeks delving the deep well of Christian Mysticism the results of which are most difficult to describe, because they are about inner personal experiences that are transforming or transfiguring not observable by others.
However, if I might try, they are about breaking through and letting go of tightly held dogmas and doctrines, and of no longer clinging to myths and legends as concrete facts but rather seeing them as metaphors of spiritual truths shared by all religions which are born from them each in their own way.
It is understandable that as a child one must have a foundation that initial sees them as factual and concrete where the religions of others are seen as myth lacking the "real" Truth. It is in this state where we look to external validation and hope for some future enlightenment or illumination to be obtained. Once we transcend these notions and let them go we begin to realize that eternity and enlightenment are right here, right now, found within and nowhere else. This is it.
God is but a metaphorical name ascribed to what is essential a mystery of which we are a part of and have as our source. Given my Buddhist background another metaphor I quite like is "The Light of the Mind", and Saint Macarius said that the "Mind" is the Throne and Crown of the Holy Spirit.
I don't consider myself a Christian, Buddhist, or a Christian-Buddhist. Gandhi said that he did not claim perfection in himself, but he did claim to be a passionate seeker of Truth, which is but another name for God.
Drinking from the well no matter where it is found can be life giving as long one doesn't cling to the metaphors.
I have spent the last several weeks delving the deep well of Christian Mysticism the results of which are most difficult to describe, because they are about inner personal experiences that are transforming or transfiguring not observable by others.
However, if I might try, they are about breaking through and letting go of tightly held dogmas and doctrines, and of no longer clinging to myths and legends as concrete facts but rather seeing them as metaphors of spiritual truths shared by all religions which are born from them each in their own way.
It is understandable that as a child one must have a foundation that initial sees them as factual and concrete where the religions of others are seen as myth lacking the "real" Truth. It is in this state where we look to external validation and hope for some future enlightenment or illumination to be obtained. Once we transcend these notions and let them go we begin to realize that eternity and enlightenment are right here, right now, found within and nowhere else. This is it.
God is but a metaphorical name ascribed to what is essential a mystery of which we are a part of and have as our source. Given my Buddhist background another metaphor I quite like is "The Light of the Mind", and Saint Macarius said that the "Mind" is the Throne and Crown of the Holy Spirit.
I don't consider myself a Christian, Buddhist, or a Christian-Buddhist. Gandhi said that he did not claim perfection in himself, but he did claim to be a passionate seeker of Truth, which is but another name for God.
Drinking from the well no matter where it is found can be life giving as long one doesn't cling to the metaphors.
2
Comments
For example one can be in a condition of grace and humility, which you are probably familiar with. You have also no doubt seen the 'virtue' in suffering. You might also understand how Christ steals our heart for himself?
The important thing is finding the common ground with those undergoing similar insight from a different perspective.
What do you feel is the nature of your face in all this?
Cool