 Gnosis of the Creed –by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
Chapter Two—I believe
 Faith
The word translated “I believe” is a verb: in Greek, pistevo, and in Latin, credo. What is it to “believe”? Pistevo means both “believe” and “have faith.” Belief and believing are the identical thing. What, then, is faith? The following exposition from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews will elucidate.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. …By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,…. By faith Enoch was translated…. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he…became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed.… Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive,…. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them …. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph,…. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,…. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the passover…. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land:…. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down,…. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not,…. And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jepthae, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again….Of whom the world was not worthy…. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith….”
Faith Is Seeing
Notice how in this passage faith is equated with seeing–with spiritual vision and experience.
By faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon,…. But consider: in the instances cited were any of these people approached by another person–even a prophet–and told what to do? No. Were any of them directed in their faith and actions by holy scriptures? No. Did any one of them hear a sermon that inspired them to act as they did? No. Or did any of them ponder “the nature of things, of truth and reality” and then act? Not one. They all had a direct communication with God which produced their faith. Every one of them was a mystic. They knew how God and His angels looked, sounded, and “felt.” In short, they were Gnostics of the Spirit.
Faith Defined
What then is faith? Saint Paul defines it: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The two words here translated as “substance” and “evidence” are hypostasis and pragmation. “Being” and “actuality” are also acceptable translations. Pragmation–from which we get the English word pragmatic–also means “proof.” By this we see that faith is not simple hope or belief, but the result of experiencing the unseen. Experience and faith are as inseparable as fire and heat.
Faith, then, is the result of mystical experience, when the unseen has been seen and the unheard has been heard.
Faith Is Not A Set Of Beliefs
Faith is not belief in a set of conceptualized “truths,” but is a way of living, a way of seeing and acting. It is dynamic. Christian faith is Christian experience. It is a mystical life, a revelation directly between God and the individual, for “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
When we touch God, faith is the outcome. And faith in its essence is direct knowledge, the true Gnosis, which is not intellectual, but the living force of spiritual transformation spoken of by Saint Paul. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
The Goal Of Faith
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” In other words, we see God and in that vision pass beyond the human status into more glorious states of being, “from glory to glory,” until we attain the Source of glory and sit in the throne of Christ, with Christ, as Christ.
“Throne” is a symbolic term indicating state of being and consciousness. The “throne of Christ” is Christhood, the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer for us: “that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me.” This is the only way to truly be a Christian, for “Christian” literally means: “another Christ.” True (i.e. Gnostic) Christianity, then, is that which enables us to become transformed into Christ, to ultimately become “a god with God.”
What Must We Do?
If we would be true to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” we must strive to become saints ourselves to whom the Faith can once more be delivered. To accomplish this we must cultivate the interior, meditative life. There is no other way–not worship, prayers, disciplines, dogmas, or any such things. Our spirit is the mirror in which we shall see the face of God and pass from glory to glory. Therefore we must look into the mirror of our spirit, and that is possible only in meditation. Only those who have seen, heard, touched, and tasted, as Saint John wrote, can truthfully say: “I believe.”
Words Of A Hermit
But what is the “I” that believes? And how does it go about gaining faith?
Father Nikon, a Christian hermit-mystic, wrote these simple but profound words some decades ago regarding the capacity for spiritual attainment: “Whenever human consciousness begins to be alive to the questions: Who am I? Whence do I come? Whither do I go? then there arises the possibility of taking and following the narrow, long, blessed path to wisdom.” Let us consider each of these points in turn.
Evolving Consciousness
First of all, we are dealing with the question of human consciousness–not intellect or personality, but the fundamental component of our being. And what must this human consciousness “do”? Nothing. But it must become alive. Why would he say “become” rather than “be made”? Because this awakening is a matter of evolution. It cannot be forced by the individual or implanted from the outside. It must come to pass in its own time which has been set by divine law. Moreover, this awakened consciousness must question, must look both at itself and beyond itself to a hitherto consciously unknown destiny.
Mere Philosophical Speculation Is Useless
But we must not stop there. For us who wish to journey to the Homeland where our Father awaits us, there can be no time for mere philosophizing. We must understand that awakening to such questions is not in itself a great mark of progress, but only the beginning of “the possibility of taking and following the narrow, long, blessed path to wisdom.” We must also remember that in the thought of the Fathers, Sophia–Wisdom–is a name for God.
Our mystic counselor is saying, then, that when our consciousness wakes up and asks: “Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?” then there is a possibility of undertaking the pilgrimage of the spirit–but not before.
“Who Am I?”
It is obvious, then, that more fundamental than the question: “Is there a God?” is the question: “Who am I?” This is much more urgent, for God can take care of Himself and is doing so quite nicely, whereas we, having no idea about ourselves, are foundering in our own ignorance. So…who am I? Our own experience will show us what is true.
Not The Body
When someone loses or damages a part of his body, it does not make him any less a person. So the body is not “me,” the true “I.” Further, we know that through the continual death and replacement of its cells, the body is completely changed every few years. Therefore we have had several bodies during the span of our life, but we have remained the same person with a continuous memory and personality. Therefore, we cannot possibly be our body.
Not States Of Mind
When we fall asleep, we cease to experience this world, yet we continue to exist. We dream, and in the dreams, because most of our awareness-energy has been withdrawn into that level, we see our thoughts as well as think them, and they become the pictures in the dream dramas that we act out. In that dream state we exist as vividly as in our waking life. We have the same personality and outlook as always and retain the full memory of our waking experiences. By this we can be assured that, since our physical and mental states do not alter who we are, we are neither the body nor the mind, which are but instruments through which we are working out our inner impulses of life.
Dreamlessness
Besides the dream state, there is the condition of sleep in which we do not dream, when there is nothing being perceived by the mind. There are no images; nothing is heard; nothing is seen; nothing is felt; nothing is smelled or tasted. And yet, when we emerge from that state, we say: “I was out cold; I did not know a thing.” But we did. Otherwise we would not know we had been out cold, but would think that we had just closed our eyes and immediately opened them up, without any time passing. But we do know that time has passed. Often we will say: “Oh, I slept so well last night. I did not have a single dream.” Yet we were aware that we did not dream. When we enter a very dark room, we say: “I cannot see anything at all.” But we do. We see complete darkness. It is as much an optical experience as any other. Or again, sometimes we say: “It was so bright I could not see anything.” But we did see something–we saw the bright light.
Pure Consciousness
In short: we have the ability to perceive non-perception. Beyond waking, beyond dreams, beyond dreamless sleep, there is a fourth condition: pure consciousness. And that is self-awareness: the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, the perceiver of thoughts, the perceiver of perception, yet itself beyond perception, resting in its own being and knowing its own reality–and being known in its totality by God. Therefore in speaking of the attainment of Divine Consciousness, Saint Paul wrote: “Then shall I know even as also I am known”–that is, he sees himself with the eye of God, in Whose life he fully participates as a god within God.
Scientific Analysis
Let us step out of our regular experience and go to more objective observation–that of science. Scientific investigation has shown that nothing is solid and “real” as we imagine it to be. Instead, all things are aggregates of molecules. The molecules in turn are formed of atoms, and the atoms are formed of particles. When we look into the nature of these particles we discover that they are energy. And when we go even beyond that, we find that energy is light, which makes clear the Biblical statement that in the beginning “God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” If we penetrate into the light, we will ultimately discover that it is consciousness.
When consciousness is static and at rest, we call it spirit. When it moves and is dynamic, we call it light and energy. But it is in reality one and the same thing: consciousness. The entire universe is consciousness–not blocks or aggregates of consciousness stacked together or interlocked, but one Consciousness. There is only one Thing in the entire range of existence, and that is one great wave of Consciousness. Water, when agitated, will break up into many ripples and patterns, but there is always just one field of water. So it is with this universe. Saint Bernard saw this long before modern physicists propounded it. In a vision he perceived that God and the universe are but a single beam of light.
Manifestation, Not Creation
In the Holy Scriptures, the Greek word ktidzo, translated “create,” means “to form,” with the interesting secondary meaning of “to become the proprietor of.” Ktidzo therefore indicates that there is a primordial, eternal energy or matter which the Creator shapes to His will and purpose, thus making it His own.
The Greek word, ginomai, which is translated “made”–as in “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made”–means “make manifest” and has no connotation whatsoever of the later idea of creation out of nothing (ex nihil), for from nothing comes nothing. A primary meaning of ginomai is “to make arise.” Thus we have the image of waves arising in the ocean, waves that shall eventually return to their original, unmanifested state. This is the teaching of all the religions of the world which are based on authentic spiritual vision.
There is one great Light out of Which the images emerge that we see as solid forms, as “matter.” In one sense we may say that they are really only dreams, only mirages. When we look at a motion picture, we are seeing images of light. So it is with all our relative life. Right at this moment when we look around us, we are seeing light energy patterns that are being conveyed by the nerves into the vision centers of the brain. We are seeing only light, and never really see an object in its essence.
The Fathers of the early Church, especially Saint Athanasius the Great of Alexandria, taught that this universe and everything in it is unreal, a dream, and that God the Dreamer alone is truly real. How could they say this? By having directly perceived through mystic vision that God is the Ground upon which all things are superimposed, just as the light images are superimposed on the screen in a motion picture.
The Answer
The answer, then, to the question: “Who am I?” is: consciousness. The “I,” the spirit, is pure consciousness. A life which does not manifest and reveal this true nature of ours is itself an illusion.
Another Question
The next vital question is: “From whence do I come?”–that is, what is my origin? Since there is nothing else in the universe but God, we must of necessity have our origin in God, have “come out” from God. And since there is nothing but God, we ourselves must in some mysterious way be god. The spirit is a facet of God, a mirror in which the Infinite is caught and reflected–which is why we call it the “image” of God.
The Same, But Separate
This concept that we are part of God, one with Him, yet at the same time somehow distinct and different (the term “separate” implies too much) from God, is consistent with the original Christian theology which postulates that God is a Trinity–absolutely One and absolutely Three.
God is not more One than He is Three, nor more Three than He is One. The Unity is not more fundamental than the Trinity, nor is the Trinity more fundamental than the Unity. At no time does either of these, the Unity or the Trinity, overshadow the other. In the very essence of God, the Trinity and the Unity are simultaneous. Yet, there are not three great gods that work together; there is only one God, one Light, one Being.
If we are the image, a reflection of that God, then we and our essential relationship with God are also a mystery. Tennyson wrote:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower–but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
Notice, he says: “if I could understand.” It cannot be encompassed intellectually. But this is the way God exists–as many and as One. For this reason Tennyson uses the singular verb form: “what God and man is.” For God and man are one, not two. The Fathers and all the illumined saints of the Church throughout its history were insistent on this. One great master of the spiritual life has written: “Love of God begins with two and ends with one.”
The One Is Also The Many
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which was no doubt studied by Jesus during His “lost years” in India, it is written: “God said: ‘I am One. Let Me become Many.’” This is another way of expressing that the One has become the multiplicity.
The unity is now diversity, yet remaining One, for It cannot change. This is a mystery, the important thing being to understand that our life and God’s life are identical. But they are also different, for He is the Whole, and we are the parts. The ocean is the wave, but the wave is not the ocean. Therefore we cannot say: “I am God,” although we can say: “God and I are one,” as Christ did for our example.
God neither comes nor goes and never changes, but is always the same. Our present state of existence, on the other hand, is one of constant change, of endless goings (deaths) and comings (births). Once we became (seemingly) separated from the infinite “bosom,” the essential Being, of God, this was our fate. The Holy Scriptures are very explicit about this in various places.
A Clarification Of Terms
Perhaps we should pause here to clarify this terminology in relation to the status of the individual spirit’s union with God, lest it be confused with the monistic philosophy presently so much in vogue.
Theosis-Deification
The Gnostic Christian believes uncompromisingly in theosis, the “deification” of the individual spirit, as alone constituting salvation. This is not a simple rediscovery of a forgotten, already-existing condition, but the process of becoming capable of participating in the Infinite Life that is God. It is not a process of becoming God. In truth, we already are “gods with God”–“for in Him we live, and move, and have our being;…Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God.” The word translated “offspring” is genos, which carries the connotation that we are His “kind,” even His manifestation, having arisen from Him, not having been “created” from nothing. Although this is so, we are not Him, any more than an individual wave on the surface of the ocean can be said to be the ocean, though it is definitely a part of the ocean and therefore one with it.
The Bosom Of The Father
All spirits have existed from eternity in the depths of God’s Being, spoken of in the Bible as “the Bosom of the Father.” God, the Lord, is the inmost being of each spirit, the Life of their life, the Essence of their essence. Within the infinite God the individual spirits live, move, and have their being like sparks of light in an ocean of light.
Consciousness being their fundamental nature, the spirits are aware of themselves, the other spirits around them, and God. However, their awareness is greatly limited. Just as a diver in the sea can only see for a certain distance around him, in the same way the spirit can only perceive the spirits in proximity to it, and can only perceive the presence and life of God to an equally confined degree. However, since God is the spirit’s essential being, there is naturally an impulse toward Infinity as its primal dynamic.
Transcendence Is Possible
God is total and unique. Finitude is the irrevocable nature of the individual spirit just as infinitude is God’s unalterable nature–proper only and absolutely to Him. How, then, can the spirit possibly find fulfillment of its eternal urge toward transcendence of that which is its essential–and therefore unchangeable–quality?
The answer is found in the book of Revelation: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” From this we know that such a transcendence (overcoming) of the spirit’s innate limitations is indeed possible.
From the Christian perspective it is not only possible, it is necessary and inevitable to attain “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” to “grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” At the same time we must understand that it is as impossible for the individual spirit to change its nature–and therefore its finitude–as it is for God to change His. That which the spirit has been from eternity is ineradicable and inescapable. Where, then, is the possibility for this attainment promised in the above passage from Revelation? A careful analysis will reveal it. Christ does not promise that the spirit will be turned into God, nor does He promise that the spirit will become anything other than what it is. He does not say: “To him who conquers I will grant to become the Father” or Himself. Instead He says: “him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.”
As has been already said, “throne” symbolizes the status, the “seat” or position of consciousness of a being–in this instance the infinite consciousness of God which embraces the three “omni’s”: omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. By this scriptural statement we come to know that although the spirit cannot change the status of its essential being, it can change its capacity for states of awareness. The aspiring spirit can “become ‘god’” by expanding its capacity for identity and awareness to such a degree that it can actually come in time to identify with and experience the state of God’s infinite Consciousness and Being, while yet remaining finite and dependent upon Him.
One, But Not The Same
The illumined spirit never says: “I am God,” though indeed it can say with Christ: “I and my Father are one.” The perfected spirit is one with God, but is not the same as God–it is not the eternally infinite God. The perfected spirit participates in the Divine Life, experiencing fully–and wielding–the omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence that are native only to God (“And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”).
The spirit does not merge and disappear in God, but “sits in His throne” with Him, experiencing His limitless Consciousness as though it were its own, while never forgetting the reality of its true status. As the Lord Jesus said: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do,” even though “Verily, I say unto you, he [God] shall gird himself, and make them to sit [in His throne], and will come forth and serve them” by imparting the experience of His own Consciousness to their perfectly expanded consciousnesses.
This is only bestowed upon those who realize their true nature as eternal servants of God, totally dependent upon Him. Unto them alone will God say: “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” This is further clarified by Saint John’s affirmation: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
The purification spoken of by Saint John is the process of developing and expanding the individual consciousness until it can experience the Divine Consciousness. “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” Since God is the Source of all life, when we are centered in His perspective, His “throne,” we shall indeed see all things in their essential nature as light with the Light of His own “eyes,” His own Self-Illumination.
Attaining Infinite Consciousness
The spirit gains the capacity for experiencing Infinite Consciousness through learning to identify with a mode of existence and awareness not its own.
It begins with a mode of consciousness less than its own, and slowly progresses to encompass states of being greater than its “native” condition. To do this, it must (seemingly) leave the Bosom of the Father and its eternal status and enter into a relative mode of being. Through incarnating in a manifested form, it becomes, in time, able to identify with and experience the condition of that form to the fullest degree.
Since we can do nothing of ourselves, God has spread forth the manifold creation to function as a training ground in which the spirit can increasingly expand its capacity for identity and experience. Saint Paul wrote of this: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Descending through all the higher worlds, encasing itself in successive layers of conditioned energies, it finally appears on the material level as an atom of hydrogen. After manifesting through a series of increasingly complex gaseous forms, it passes into a phase of incarnation within the mineral kingdom. From mineral forms it progresses to plant life, and from plant to animal existence. Upon reaching the human level the spirit gains the capacity for self awareness, and after evolving through many human forms it comes to consciously begin working out its evolution. Eventually it transcends this material plane, the first rung of the evolutionary ladder, and ascends into Paradise. From Paradise it rises into angelic existence, from thence to manifestation within the archangelic worlds, and ever upward into vaster and more profound states of consciousness until it attains perfection in the realms of the Seraphim and Cherubim.
The Fathers have told us that archangels have the power to create and dissolve worlds, that in comparison to us the archangels are as God. What then, must be the consciousness of those in the Seraphic and Cherubic worlds? Such an attainment is so far beyond the human status our intellects simply cannot even dimly conceive of that condition.
From the Cherubic status, the spirit passes on to the “throne” of the Only-Begotten of the Father to actually experience the state of being immanent in all relative existence, established in the omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence of the Son of God, and in that Consciousness to behold the transcendent Face of the Father. Yet even that is not the end. Ultimately the spirit takes the final step back home into the Bosom of the Father to forevermore experience the fulness of the Godhead in the plenitude of Its consciousness.
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;…then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.…For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” This is the Gnosis we seek.
The Work Of Christ
For the Christian all this is effected through Jesus Christ Who petitioned the Father for us: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:…And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one;…Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me:…that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Apostles Question About Reincarnation
The Apostles asked Jesus: “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” He did not rebuke them for holding such a view, for the doctrine of reincarnation was a standard Orthodox Jewish belief then, as now. Instead, He simply told them that in this case it was not a previous sin, but the desire to reveal the works of God that had caused the man to be born blind. At the same time, it was understood that the decision for the man to be born blind was his own worthy decision to glorify God, made before he entered this life. This particular incident illustrates the truth of both reincarnation and the individual’s full power over his own birth and destiny.
Moreover, the Apostles’ question implies that we have existed before this life and that our actions in previous existences determine the conditions of subsequent lives. To have been capable of sinning, the man would have to have existed before birth as an entity that could think and will independently (separately) from God.
By this we see that the Apostles were quite convinced that human beings were not new when they came into the world–which is reasonable, because they knew the words of Solomon, the great king-philosopher, who had said: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.” From these words they learned several things: (1) it is the things and people of the past that will reappear on earth again as the future things and people; (2) it is the past actions which determine what the future actions will be (later expounded by Saint Paul as the law of reaping whatsoever we sow); (3) no thing is here for the first time (“new”) on the earth; and (4) none of us can claim that earthly life is something new for us–rather, we have lived here in the ages before.
Solomon And Moses
That was not all they learned from the wise Solomon. He had also written: “For I was a witty [wise, intelligent] child, and had a good spirit. Yea rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled.” So from Solomon they had learned that birth, position, and our attainments in this present life are all the result of merit or demerit accrued before we came into it. Even more, they had the authority of Moses, the Friend of God, quoted in the book of Psalms as saying: “Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.…Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.…[and] in the evening it is cut down” through the recurring cycle of birth and death.
Clement Of Alexandria
Not long after the days of the Apostles, Saint Clement of Alexandria wrote: “We were in being long before the foundation of the world; we existed in the eye of God, for it is our destiny to live in Him. We are the reasonable creatures of the Divine Word; therefore, we have existed from the beginning, for in the beginning was the Word.…Not for the first time does He show pity on us in our wanderings. He pitied us from the very beginning.…Philolaus, the Pythagorean, taught that the spirit was flung into the body as a punishment for the misdeeds it had committed, and his opinion was confirmed by the more ancient of the prophets.”
The Answer
So the twofold answer to “Where have I come from?” is: (1) originally from the Bosom of the Father, and (2) from many previous lives on this earth.
This was the teaching of the Church for centuries until the Byzantine Emperors re-formed Christianity into their own image as a state religion, adopting many of the ancient Greco-Roman beliefs (including everlasting hell and damnation) in place of these anciently-established truths. The belief was even put forth that we only come into existence at the time of the conception of our body, which is covert materialism and totally anti-Christian, no matter how orthodox its proponents and adherents may claim to be.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Since the Creator is a mystery and we are in His image, we are just as much a mystery as is He. God is the Sun, and we are rays of His light, rays of Him. We are distinct from Him, and yet we are not separate from Him. It is a mystery, as He is a Mystery.
That these things are true is proven by the Lord’s rebuttal of those who accused Him of blaspheming when He called Himself the Son of God. He quoted to them the words of God as recorded in the Psalms: “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”
We Are Not Human Beings
Vladimir Lossky, a contemporary Eastern Orthodox theologian, wrote that he was puzzled over there being no such thing as a Christian “anthropology,” no definition of the nature of the human being. Unfortunately, he missed the point completely: the illumined Fathers did not develop an anthropology because we are not anthropos–we are not human beings! This is a most important thing for us to realize. Our religion is useless without the understanding that we are spirits who have only temporarily entered into the human condition.
Where Are We Going?
Seeing that these things are true, Saint Peter posits the question: “What manner of persons ought ye to be?” For the third question of Father Nikon: “whither do I go?” must yet be considered. To figure out the answer cannot be too difficult, for if we realize that we came from God and even now live in God, it is patently evident that we are going back to God as our eternal Destiny. “After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Solomon tells us: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” And Saint John wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
We are beings existing from before the ages. Our many births are the products of our own actions, but we are really divine–we are really gods with a little “g,” having come out from the great God. Whither shall we go? Since there is only one Thing that exists, there is only one direction to go: back to God.
What Shall We Do?
And what shall we do to “get going” toward the Goal, to begin “taking and following the narrow, long, blessed path to wisdom”? Our return to God is not a simple return to our original state, but is a transcendence of that status to participate in the infinite consciousness of God. The words immediately following the previous quote tell us: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” To be truly purified is to be fully divested of and free from all illusions regarding the Who, Whence, and Where of our being.
The Prodigal Son
Realizing that all of this is true, we must live as those who know they are not human beings, but eternal spirits aspiring to experience Divinity. As is said in the parable of the Prodigal Son, one day “he came to himself.” He woke up, became alive, as Father Nikon would say. In his awakening he remembered that he was not some penniless pig farmer needing to live in a subsistence manner. He realized that he was the son of a great, wealthy man, a citizen of another country.
The parable is teaching that in this world the individual is in an alien sphere of existence, thinking that he is something that he is not. The Prodigal Son wanted to eat the swill the hogs ate, but was unable, for the spirit cannot be satisfied with the earthly swill that the body and mind delight in. Ultimately it has to say: “I will arise and go back home.” We have come out from God, eternal beings possessing eternal life. But we have entered into mortality, and through self-forgetful identity with it we suffer through endless births and deaths. Yet eventually we shall go back to God and be free.
We Should Become Gods
In truth, we ought not to be any “manner of persons,” in the human sense. Rather, we should strive even now to be gods, honoring the divine likeness which we possess inalienably. Our religion must be the process of return to Divinity, the true kingdom of heaven. We should want nothing so childish as streets of gold and gates of pearl and mansions of gems–nothing so pitifully small. God’s destiny for us is much more wonderful. As Saint Paul says: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
“For them that love him.” We are called to a union of love. But loving God is not believing that there is a God somewhere far away to be served and somehow loved, though He is unknown. No. Loving God is loving God-nature, loving God-ness. We must love and yearn for the status of being ourselves god with God. We must seek after that with our whole heart, for that is really loving God.
Christian religion is the denial of the lie that we are perishable human beings and the affirmation of the truth that we are immortal, eternal, spiritual beings. Christian life is the necessary struggle to throw off the shell of illusion and stand forth in our real being so we can ultimately “put on Christ.” It is purifying ourselves as He is pure.
Orthodoxy Orthodoxy (orthodoxia–right glory) is the regaining of the right (divine) glory which is within us. We must make our own the prayer of Jesus: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Yes, orthodoxy is the regaining of the glory we had with the Father before the foundations of the world.
To be truly religious is not merely to believe and hope and pray and sing and study. It is to take up the glory (doxa) that was ours before all time began. Otherwise it is heterodoxy, a glory that is other (hetero), separate from God. From this we can well understand that even going to heaven as saints and sitting around singing and being pious forever is a heterodoxy, as well, because that would be a glory of things separated from God rather than the true glory of oneness with God.
Another Aspect Of “Believe”
We have considered the deeper meaning of “believe” and “I,” but there is one aspect of “believe” that has not been mentioned, yet it is of utmost importance, for it transforms the Creed from a collection of words to a formulation of spiritual power. The Creed is meaningless without a corresponding mode of life which opens to us the higher, mystical experiences which are the ultimate source of the Creed. Each proposition of the Creed actually indicates to us just how to live and, perhaps even more important, what attitudes and valuations are necessary as we encounter the various aspects of our lives. We may certainly say that the Creed is meant to be a bridge to assist our passage to higher realms of knowledge and understanding.
As has been said, the Creed is not our faith but the symbol of that living faith which we will obtain when we pass out of earthly experience into the experience of divine realities. And that happens here in this world. Death is not a savior which makes us good and wise by the simple process of dying. If that were true, then the only rational thing would be to do everything in our power to die right away and become good. But we must not die–we must live.
Christian Life Is Practical
In essence the Christian life is a practical life–that is, a life of practice, not theory. There is an incident which illustrates this.
In the deserts of Egypt there was a monk who wished to understand the ways of God better. He could not read, so he went to another monk and asked: “Will you read the Holy Scriptures to me? I have heard our Fathers say that they are our instructors in the way of spiritual life, so I wish to hear their teachings.” The other monk agreed and, opening a book at random (for the Bible was not a single book in those days, but many scrolls), began to read. But he had read only two lines when the illiterate monk turned and went out the door. The monk who had been reading stopped and waited for him to come back. But he did not return! Seven years later he entered the monk’s hut and, without a word of explanation, said: “I would like to hear more of the Scriptures.” The monk asked: “What do you mean? Seven years ago I read only two lines–and you left. Now you come back saying you want to hear more? Explain yourself.” The illiterate monk replied: “You read the words: ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.’ I realized that I was not keeping watch and control over my heart as the scripture was commanding, so I thought, ‘Why waste the time of this brother and of God? Let me go away and learn to follow this commandment. Then I will be worthy to return and hear what more God might have to say to me.’” Unfortunately, we do not usually have such insight and conscience in spiritual matters.
We Must Have Mystical Life
If we truly realize that genuine pistis, genuine faith, is revelation between God and the spirit and not blind belief or hope, we will assiduously cultivate the interior, mystical life through meditation. Otherwise our “faith” is falsehood. To “be true” we must commit ourselves to an interior, contemplative life. Such a life is impossible only to those who do not wish to lead it. Let us not be such persons! Rather, with true resolve, let us with Saint Paul “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
More chapters of the Gnosis of the Creed:
• Chapter One—The Nicene Creed
• Chapter Two—I believe
• Chapter Three—In one God, the Father almighty
• Chapter Four—Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible
• Chapter Five—And in one Lord
• Chapter Six—Jesus Christ
• Chapter Seven—The Only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all ages. Light from Light, True God from true God. Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the Father; By Whom all things were made.
• Chapter Eight—Who for us men, and for our salvation
• Chapter Nine—Came down from heaven
• Chapter Ten—And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit
• Chapter Eleven—Of the Virgin Mary. And was made Man.
• Chapter Twelve—He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. Suffered and was buried.
• Chapter Thirteen—And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
• Chapter Fourteen—And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.
• Chapter Fifteen—Of Whose kingdom there shall be no end.
• Chapter Sixteen—And in the Holy Spirit, the Lady and Giver of life: Who proceedeth from the Father. Who together with the Father and the Son Is worshipped and glorified. Who spoke by the prophets.
• Chapter Seventeen—And in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
• Chapter Eighteen—I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
• Chapter Nineteen—And I look for the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the age to come. Amen.
1) Hebrews 11:1 [Go back]
2) Ephesians 2:8 [Go back]
3) II Corinthians 3:18 [Go back]
4) Revelation 3:21 [Go back]
5) John 17:22,23 [Go back]
6) Jude 3 [Go back]
7) “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (II Corinthians 3:18) [Go back]
8) “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (I John 1:1-3) [Go back]
9) In Indian philosophy and Yoga there are for states native to the human being: 1) jagrat (waking), 2) swapna (sleep), 3) sushupti (dreamless sleep), and 4) turiya (pure consciousness, pure awareness). [Go back]
10) I Corinthians 13:12b [Go back]
11) Genesis 1:3 [Go back]
12) John 1:3 [Go back]
13) Genesis 1:26,27 [Go back]
14) “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) [Go back]
15) Acts 17:28,29 [Go back]
16) John 1:18 [Go back]
17) Acts 17:28a [Go back]
18) Revelation 3:21 [Go back]
19) Ephesians 4:13,15 [Go back]
20) John 10:30 [Go back]
21) Ephesians 2:8 [Go back]
22) Luke 17:10 [Go back]
23) Luke 12:37 [Go back]
24) Psalm 2:7. Also in the parable of the Prodigal Son: “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.” (Luke 15:18-24) [Go back]
25) I John 3:2,3 [Go back]
26) Psalm 36:9 [Go back]
27) Robe of Light considers this matter in greater detail than is presented here. [Go back]
28) “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5) [Go back]
29) II Corinthians 3:18 [Go back]
30) I Corinthians 15:24,28 [Go back]
31) I Corinthians 13:9,10,12 [Go back]
32) John 17:21-26 [Go back]
33) John 9:2 [Go back]
34) Ecclesiastes 1:9,10 [Go back]
35) Wisdom 8:19,20 [Go back]
36) Psalm 90:2,3,5,6 [Go back]
37) For more information on the early Christian position on reincarnation, see May A Christian Believe In Reincarnation? [Go back]
38) John 3:8 [Go back]
39) Psalm 82:6 [Go back]
40) II Peter 3:11 [Go back]
41) Genesis 15:1 [Go back]
42) Ecclesiastes 12:7 [Go back]
43) I John 3:2 [Go back]
44) I John 3:3 [Go back]
45) Luke 15:17 [Go back]
46) Luke 15:16 [Go back]
47) I Corinthians 2:9 [Go back]
48) “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) And: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37). [Go back]
49) Galatians 3:27 [Go back]
50) John 17:5 [Go back]
51) Proverbs 4:23 [Go back]
52) Philippians 3:14 [Go back] |
