Theological Musings
by C. Grey Austin, Ph.D.
Installment XIV -- March 1994
I began this quest with a muddle of ideas that didn't fit with one another.
My religious background hadn't prepared me to understand scripture as metaphor.
My sense was that what we know about the natural world should fit what we
believe in the spiritual realm. Anthropomorphism -- using human images for
God -- didn't cut it, but I didn't have other metaphors. I wanted to know
how the universe works. I wanted to know what is supremely significant and
ultimately real (a definition of God). And if I couldn't find an acceptable
definition, then I wanted to find metaphors and analogies that fit what we
know about the natural world and the human condition.
Ultimately, there is mystery. There is mystery about what existed before,
and what brought about, the Big Bang. There is mystery as to the nature
of the big, Big, BIG picture of how the universe works. There is mystery
about how this piece of the universe that I Am works. Although we have reduced
the unknown as we increase the known, mystery remains, because humankind,
however intelligent, educated, and equipped with sophisticated instrumentation,
is limited in its rational ability to access ultimate knowledge. And some
ultimate knowledge is, in my view, only accessible by non-rational means.
Scientists search for the single theory or process or particle that will
explain everything. They extrapolate and theorize from what is known, and
they experiment, in an attempt to push back the boundaries of mystery. Mystery
remains, and the quest continues.
The quest for understanding the human condition is less exact; theories and
doctrines are available for the choosing; scholars experiment, extrapolate
and theorize; individuals move toward self-understanding through experience,
observation, intuition, meditation, religious practice, therapy, dreamwork
and other disciplines. For me, the concepts of Carl Jung work best.
These quests are like the spiritual quest in that the rewards are in the
journey rather than the destination. My knowledge of how the universe works
is limited, but it is sufficient to let me look for parallels, metaphors,
analogies, consistencies that help me to make as much spiritual sense as
possible. I can't eliminate mystery, but I can formulate a set of beliefs
about it that work for me.
Here is some of that process:
In the physical universe, what we experience as matter, including ourselves,
actually consists of particles, so minute that they have no radius, moving
within empty space, and governed by 'laws' of electromagnetism, gravity,
and what physicists call strong and weak forces. The same principles apply
to the very largest and the very smallest of physical phenomena.
In the organic realm, there are principles and processes that govern such
factors as evolution, growth, diversity of species, genetic coding, photosynthesis,
and cellular structure, and allow for mutation and adaptation. Deepak Chopra,
in writing about how the mind-body relationship facilitates healing, suggests
that the intelligence and energy of the healing process reside within and
around us in much the same way as physical forces and organic processes exist
within and around all that they govern.
My picture of the cosmos, then, is one in which there flows in and around
and through all physical phenomena the energy of gravity, electromagnetism,
and the strong and weak forces; for all living organisms, add the basic biological
processes, including the healing process that Chopra describes; and for human
beings, add the life force of creative love that acts in the service of health
and wholeness. I equate health and wholeness with spirituality. (We've
moved, of course, from empirical knowledge and scientific theory to intuitive
knowledge, belief, faith.)
Creative love is our basic nature, our essential being. It is experienced
by individuals in physical and emotional healing, in the quality of relationships,
and in the wisdom of dreams. It is experienced collectively in archetypes
and in other facets of that unified vision that Jung called the collective
unconscious.
When I view the natural, organic, and human manifestations of the universe
in this way, I experience a sense of Oneness that I have longed for but not
found. I feel empowered as I participate fully in the magnitude and magnificence
and mystery of the universe. I believe that I have full access to that spirit
and flow of creative love just as I participate fully in the action of gravity
and benefit fully from the basic biological processes. ["God" has,
for me, until now, been Other. No matter how much I have tried to conceive
of the Kingdom of God within or the Inner Light or the Christ within, at
best I have felt like a dim reflection of something external and much greater.
That is, when I think of God, I find myself caught up in dualistic, rather
than unitary, thinking. Some persons appear to be empowered by entering
into a relationship with a perfect being to whom they ascribe human characteristics;
I don't. That image diminishes me.]
So what I am now able to state is a milestone for me -- seeing the universe
working through a set of principles, laws, processes that govern everything
that happens, the psychic/spiritual as well as the physical and organic --
seeing the Oneness of it and myself as one with it. I am not the first to
relate gravity (along with other forces) with creative love: Brian Swimme
(The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story, 44-47)
speaks of gravity as "a mysterious attracting force, the basic binding energy
found everywhere in reality," and he calls it "love in its cosmic dimension."
Each of these flowing forces -- creative love, each physical force, and
each organic process -- is a presence and a power, and each is available
to us unconditionally, affecting the just and the unjust alike. We don't
earn them; if we can find ways to counter them, and we do, then we must accept
the consequences. They act around and through us. They are unrelenting
resources. They are constants that are beyond our control; we can only choose
the degree of harmony with which we cooperate with them. This is the way
Chopra identifies the healing process: it is within us, waiting for our
willingness to let it work. I see the soul-making process in the same way:
we respond to the creative love that acts for our health and wholeness;
it is a force for good. My answers are to be found within me, just as I
am.
Can't I just say, "God is love," and get on with it? Maybe I can, now that
I understand it this way. I can, that is, up to the point where we endow
God with personal qualities that suggest that God chooses which prayers to
answer, or when a person is to die, or which side should win a war. Such
love is not unconditional, and my preference is to get away from those traditional
ways of speaking that suggest some whim in the way the universe works.
Jesus must have had a marvelous earthly father as his model for God as Father.
For me, God as parent does not portray unconditional love. Neither does
it accord with what else I know about the universe. But I can say, "Gravity
is," "Genetic Coding is," "Healing Power is," "Creative Love is," and in
that sense I can say, "God is," meaning these central powers of the cosmos
-- plus a modicum of mystery. And I can say, "I am," meaning that I have
full access to all of those powers and presences in my own life.
My task in life is to express the creative love that I am. It is the task
of integrating my shadow side, i.e., those parts of me that have been ignored,
undeveloped, or repressed, with the rest of who I am. It is the task of
developing both the anima and the animus and giving full and balanced expression
to them. It is the task of becoming as healthy and whole, and therefore
as spiritual, as possible. It is the task of becoming aware of how the universe,
in its physical, organic, and personal aspects, works, and working in harmony
with it. And if I have other lives, past and future, then I understand
the task to be continuous from one life to the next. The issue of reincarnation
is part of the mystery, along with the possible existence of guardian angels
and spirit guides.
We have role models -- Jesus, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Gandhi, and others who show
us what it is to be fully human. For me, to be fully human is to be fully
divine. Human/Divine is one of the dualisms that I would resolve in favor
of Oneness. I, too, can experience that Oneness. Jesus suggested that he
is not unique in his divinity when he told his disciples that they would
do greater works than he had done (John 14).
The Vision of Oneness --
I am one with the physical universe. I share
in its atomic structure and in being subject to its natural laws.
I and everything I become are further articulations of the primal fireball
(Swimme, 60). I am both a product of evolution and a creative factor in
its continuation.
I am one with the environment, with all life. I share in all of the processes
that affect other living beings.
I am one with all humanity. Neither gender, race, religion, ethnicity,
national origin, economic status, sexual preference, nor any other form
of human diversity can destroy my sense of oneness with all.
I am one within myself. I am most fully human when mind, body, and spirit,
anima and animus, are healthy and fully functioning.
Ethical sensitivity and action flow from the awareness
of Oneness. If there is an ethical imperative, it is not to serve, and certainly
not to control others, but to develop my potential for creativity and love
to a level of overflowing. The ethical requirement is to be fully human.
It is to turn within and find that I am, in essence, creative love that
seeks its expression in all relationships.
[I believe that "evil" acts can be understood as the energy of love misdirected
or blocked by those barriers to love -- fear, guilt, hate, inferiority --
that were learned at our mother's knee, where her love was, in turn, blocked
by the dysfunctionality she experienced in her childhood. This generational
process continues until there is a breakthrough of awareness sufficient to
alter it.]
Inspiration for my views is drawn from several religious traditions. I am
attracted to Taoism for its ethic of simplicity, patience, and compassion,
for its emphasis on living in harmony with the Tao (the way the universe
works), for stressing the futility of trying to control, for its counsel
to look within for answers to life's questions, for its emphasis on the
journey rather than the destination, and for its avoidance of dualistic thinking.
I find much of the same in Tibetan Buddhism, along with its emphasis on
finding the sacred in the ordinary and on the development of conscious awareness
through meditation. I find a wonderful sense of oneness with the natural
world, and an accompanying environmental ethic, in Native American religions.
To be sure, I can find most of this in my own Judeo-Christian tradition,
but it takes a lot of sorting and culling. I understand that the Bible is
an anthology of religious ideas and a record of the evolution of religious
and ethical principles, and therefore that it is not all of consistent value
as a guide for contemporary living. Some of the Old Testament reflects patriarchal
and tribal exclusivism that is superseded by the teachings of Jesus. Within
the New Testament, there are some wonderful passages in the Epistles of Paul,
along with some others that show considerably less Christian insight. (See
Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism for a discussion of
Biblical inconsistencies, and for the problems he finds in Paul's writings.)
The Gospels contain their own problems, primarily around the issue of which
parts are authentically the teachings and works of Jesus and which are not.
The Five Gospels, which includes "The Gospel According to Thomas,"
is the work of the Jesus Seminar which has spent several years with the task
of clarifying which of the words of Jesus are most likely to be authentic,
which he is less likely to have said, and which were added by authors and
editors to serve other agendas. I also like Stephen Mitchell's The Gospel
According to Jesus, in which he brings his skills as scholar, translator,
and poet to that same effort to present the authentic Jesus.
SOME BOOKS THAT I FIND USEFUL
Bolen, Jean Shinoda -- The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the
Self
Capra, Fritjof -- The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels
Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (especially the first
81 pages)
Capra, Fritjof and Steindl-Rast, David -- Belonging to the Universe:
Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality
Chopra, Deepak -- Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative
to Growing Old
Colegrave, Sukie -- By Way of Pain: A Passage into Self
Funk, Robert W., Hoover, Roy W. and the Jesus Seminar -- The Five Gospels:
The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus
Hoff, Benjamin -- The Tao of Pooh
Hollis, James -- The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
Kabat-Zinn, Jon -- Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your
Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness
Kasl, Charlotte Davis -- Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the
12 Steps
Lederman, Leon, The God Particle: If The Universe is the Answer,
What is the Question?
Mitchell, Stephen -- The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation
and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Nonbelievers
Moore, Thomas -- Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and
Sacredness in Everyday Life
Muller, Wayne -- Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of
a Painful Childhood
Pearson, Carol -- Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to
Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform the World
Small, Jacquelyn -- Awakening in Time: The Journey from Co-dependence
to Co-creation
Small, Jacquelyn -- Transformers: The Therapists of the Future
Spong, J. S. -- Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism: A Bishop
Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture
Swimme, Brian -- The Universe Is A Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation
Story
Tao Te Ching -- the Stephen Mitchell translation
Thich Nhat Hanh -- Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in
Everyday Life
Welwood, John (Ed.) -- Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual
Path
Zukav, Gary -- The Seat of the Soul
(Copyright 1997 by C. Grey Austin, all rights reserved.)
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