What is this thing called “Spirituality” any way? What do people think of when they hear “Spirit”? Is it the same thing that the Ancients meant when they wrote “Spirit”?
These are questions that I sometimes ask myself. Some people think of me as a very “Spiritual” person. But I don’t even know how they define that word.
I think a good place to start is to look at all the different things that “Spirit” can mean. “Spirit” might mean a thinking living entity; a Hollywood “Ghost” or “Demon”, something imbued with the “I Am” or Soul.
When I think of God, I think of an “I Am” with an infinite IQ. A Mind that is greater than even Einstein’s by quantum amounts. Then, I have a hard time understanding Einstein. I chuckle to myself when people try to tell me who God is when they can’t even tell me who Einstein is.
I watched a science fiction movie called “Starship Troopers”. A thing that interested me as much as the space ships and alien lifeforms, were the constant interruption by “Public Service announcements” that were carefully crafted propoganda pieces designed to imbue the viewing public with the “Spirit” of war. “Spirit” then, can be manipulated, in this definition, and the “Spirit” then takes on a life of its own, to manipulate the “Viewer”.
I am definitely a “Spiritual Person” by this definition, as I am a “Viewer” of all things spiritual; I strive to understand how people are so easily led; we are sheep by our very nature, even when we think we are not.
I have seen “Mean Spirited” horses; They would like nothing better than to sneak up behind you and bite a chunk out of you, and no, they were never abused in any way. Their stable mates were sweet as could be, just these aberrations were twisted some way in their nature.
I have seen people just as mean in nature. Twisted inside. Some were real dummies, others could give Edison a run for his money, so I know it’s not based on intelligence.
There is a spirit of empathy; this is when somebody relates to another person as though those persons experiences were their own. On the surface, this would seem to be a good thing. A big however, is that there are killers who can really empathize with other killers, so we must be looking for something more, some guideline or boundary.
There is the written Law present in the Old testament. But even when we take out the weird stuff, like getting rid of the mildew in your home by killing a pair of doves, the Apostle Paul warned that the written law was death itself. So even the apparent “Spirit of righteousness” in the written law, doesn’t provide adequate guidelines for dealing with “Spirit”.
The Gospel of Philip writes “Those who have gone astray, whom the spirit begets, usually go astray also because of the Spirit. Thus, by one and the same breath, the fire blazes and is put out.” I have witnessed this myself. Someone is hot on the trail of gnosis, a real go getter, then all of a sudden they are distracted by something else and their flame dies. It’s as if the Spirit gave them a taste, and She decided they weren’t ready for the real deal.
There is the “Spirit of Truth”, to which we have dedicated our church. This Spirit is supposed to be the comforter, whom the “world cannot receive”. Oh, yeah, I’ve witnessed that also. Given the choice between the truth and a comforting belief, people will generally go with the comforting belief every time. It seems funny that on the surface, a belief can be of more comfort than the “comforter”.
So then, there is a counterpart to “the Spirit of Truth”, the “Spirit of Belief”. Could this then be the counterfeit Spirit we were warned about?
There is the “Spirit of War”; This spirit is so powerful that it was anthropomorphized in a number of ancient religions. “War is Hell”, said Sherman. He also said, “You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I would say he was one of the leading experts of the time on the subject; So if those that want to bring Hell to earth aren’t under the influence of a demon, then demon’s don’t exist.
There is the “Spirit of Christ” to whom I have dedicated my remaining Life. Jesus was said to have received the Christ Spirit as His baptism; I won’t argue the point. Personally, I think he was prepared ground, as in the parable of the “sower”. How does one prepare the ground? I don’t think we ourselves can really do it. You are either good ground, or you’re not. If you are still reading this, well, you are probably good ground.
What does God look like? He looks just like the Spirit that was in Jesus. Accept that, and Yes, you ARE spiritual. Just beware of those other ones!
Hello soulgazer.Do you think gnostics believed at the time of john was the second time christ came to Jesus or the first time?Its hard to tell by reading Against all heresies,but what is your view? By reading Against all heresies and the Nagg Hammadi library it seems to me that he is born of spirit three different occasion,and the last time being when he ascended,correct me if i’m wrong: )
Gnostics, despite any claims to the contrary, believed what later peoples would believe, with a couple exceptions; They did not believe all of the Old Testament in particular, any part that attributed violence or calls for bloodshed to God. They also did not believe that the Father was the direct creator, but rather used a demiurgic figure. This is important when trying to view Christ from our point of view… The body, Jesus, or ours, is a creation of the Archons, forces of nature that include biology. The Archons are servants of the demiurge, or the blind god, “the god of this world”. The seed of potentiality from the Father is in all of us, but in Jesus, there was no seed but a mature spirit; He knew who He was, where He came from, and why He was here.
So,by reading the Nagg Hammadi library,do you view that there was a literal death of Jesus,or just symbolic death?I read somewhere that the Sethians believed Seth incarnated into Jesus?Sorry if I’m asking too many question LMAO.
There are a lot of things attributed to Gnostics, but mostly by their enemies. NHL “Gnosticism”, in general, is a way of knowing God through the words and deeds of Jesus. Taking off my preacher hat, and putting on my historian’s hat, They were in fact Christians who took the view that the God that Jesus represented, was entirely different than the way He had previously been portrayed. As far as how they saw Jesus, it varied from individual to individual then, just as now.
Hi Soulgazer!
It was nice reading your blog post.
I would like to differ in one thing you mentioned, that there are good grounds and bad grounds. I believe that all grounds are potentially good.
How to prepare the ground? It’s an easy thing to answer but difficult to practice. What does the farmer do with the ground after reaping the season’s crops? He just lays it aside for some time i.e. he doesn’t continue farming. The analogy for humans is limit doing the spiritual practices and allowing oneself to receive grace. This can be the easiest of things to do and also the most difficult. This is because while it is easy to do a spiritual practice to give the mind the acknowledgement that there is some progress being made, it is uncomfortable to let oneself under the grace of an external source. It’s as if one is standing naked before a worldly canon without any spiritual armour. I just read the other day at a Church that ‘We can prepare the horses but the Lord does the battle.” The emptiness that’s in a plain mind sucks in the grace automatically.
Regards,
Arvind
Even rocks are good ground if you pound them with hammer long enough. However, within a single lifetime, there are those that are ready, and those that are not. But it is good to see you Arvind!
True.