In Search of Cosmic Consciousness

Reflections, such as these, I only write for ICUJP. (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace) 

I find, not too surprisingly, that they are at least partially governed by my prevailing mood. And while I can fully accept and acknowledge that, as such, my mood is essentially a personal thing that it is my own responsibility to manage and control, I am nonetheless, like all of us, influenced and impacted by the world around me. No man is an island, after all.

And so, in saying that, I find myself at this particular time, somewhat melancholic. I try to manage my own life well enough, and by and large I generally do, but right now I find it difficult not to feel a little overwhelmed. 

I won’t harp on. I’ve done that enough. But I will repeat the words spoken by Rev. Jim Lawson almost three years ago in this very room, who foresaw our worldly problems as being “almost insurmountable.”

Much more recently, last weekend in fact, an equally elderly and wise man, Dr. John Cobb, said much the same thing though more specifically with regard to the challenges posed by the global failure of mankind to address our human footprint on the planet and its potentially devastating consequences.

Here, in this community, the problems are more often foreseen as ones of ‘empire’, ‘capitalism’, ‘racism’, ‘government surveillance’, ‘war and violence’, ‘injustice’ and the like.

For myself, none of these individually or collectively fully express or capture my deeper concern for our world. I am compelled to dig further in search of a more malignant underlying cause to all these blights that so tarnish humanity and make such a sad travesty of our world.

This search began more than half my lifetime ago, when I found myself in spiritual crisis. In response, not having as yet recognized it as being spiritual in nature, I read the four Gospels. Had I been raised in an Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or any other faith tradition, no doubt I would have turned to that same scripture to which I had already been exposed in my youth; but I was a quintessential WASP and so the New Testament is where I turned and in general terms, it readily satisfied.

To boil everything down from those four Gospels, one could crystalize Christ’s message into just a few words: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you.”

However, it seems – ironically – that God is elusive. God does not so want to be found such that some – intellectuals especially – have sought to deny any existence of such a supreme Intelligence. And the consequence of our collective apathy or disregard – call it what you want – to make such a search is the free-for-all and, I would argue, inevitable dysfunction – to put it mildly – that we now have on planet Earth; as if there is no God, or at least none that can be found, or one which actually should matter. As such, not only do we fail to observe a fundamental unity that holds all life together in a most delicate and sacred way, but rather we espouse a virtual contempt towards one another and our planet that manifests in alienation and all the various ills and general degradation that we now find.

As most of you know, I did not remain entirely faithful to the more orthodox understanding of Christianity. Instead, I branched out into Eastern traditions and later into what are generally considered by the orthodox with a certain amount of skepticism and disdain as New Age, metaphysical, and esoteric, teachings. For myself, and more importantly, I am satisfied at the level at which it most counts, that I have been faithful to my own search for God and meaning.

Contrary to orthodox Christianity, those Eastern traditions, both Buddhist and Hindu, together with the esoteric teachings attest to the  “missing years” of Christ as having been spent in Northern India, Nepal and Tibet, Egypt and other ancient centers of spiritual learning, perhaps even Britain. They were spent in the deep spiritual practice called “yoga” more commonly associated with Eastern Adepts, Masters and Avatars such as Babaji, Gautama Buddha and Sri Krishna; yoga being a Sanskrit word meaning literally “Union with God”.

It is this same God, or “Kingdom of Heaven”, that Christ besought us to find, and to find within. In Sanskrit, the word used for this inner experience of God is “Samadhi”. In the West we more commonly use the term “Cosmic” or “Christ” Consciousness.

It is an experience well described in this book The Nine Freedoms: 

“There comes a stage when, at once, the consciousness of the individual soars to mighty heights, unlimited, unbounded by mind. High into the realms of Intuition, of Divine Inspiration it goeth. Through Space, where time stands quite still, non-existent, immobile. 

“Cosmic Consciousness, like the flower of God, breaks from a bud into full, lasting bloom. No longer does such a one regard itself as this sex or the other, for it is above such limitation. No longer does such a one take foolish pride in being born this race or the other, for it knoweth that it is a part of all the races.

“From the very depths it came unto this stage and now, it begins a great and mighty journey through Cosmic Truth.

“This is the real beginning of Freedom, for freewill is recognized for what it is, binding, breaking, individual. It is transmuted into That – which is collective, all embracing, knowing, changing, but this change above time. This change into – Cosmic Wisdom.”

“Terrestrial man is continually limiting these latent abilities within his real self. He is continually imposing limitation after limitation upon these glorious aspects of True Creation. What is the result? Racial prejudice, adherence and vain worship of some piece of multi-colored cloth, possession and family tie. He does not realize and cannot fully realize, until after lives of Service, that no one is a nearer relative to him than his enemy. He does not realize that he is a cell in the body of the Cosmic Whole until he has gained the Four Freedoms.”

Those Four Freedoms, or steps, which precede the experience of Cosmic Consciousness, are described as ‘Bravery’, ‘Love’, ‘Service’, and ‘Enlightenment’.

It is this seeking of deep spiritual experience – as the founders of all the great religious traditions have demonstrated and taught us to do likewise – that we, in my view, are most critically lacking if we are ever to realize our true potential as human beings; and enable all of the challenges that we face to become not merely fully – and even readily – surmountable, but utterly transformed.

When we do, or at least when this emerges as the overriding raison d’être of our collective being alive, then no less equally will all else be added unto us. Moreover, to quote Jesus again, “greater things than I have done, you will do.” Without such vision, I am in no doubt that despite whatever technological improvements and scientific discoveries we make, the moral, social, economic and environmental issues of our time will continue to further unravel, paving the way for absolute chaos – and even madness – to consume us all.