Article by Doug Esse
The following is an email exchange with a friend who had read my article, Each Person Is an Encounter of the Universal Christ. My friend made some good comments and had some questions. I used the opportunity expound on some thoughts regarding a more concise synthesis of the Law of One, mystical Christianity, and the Perennial Tradition. As always, my distortions--which are considerable--are at play. If this is helpful to anyone, then I am thankful.
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Friend: I agree with most of that [Doug's Article]. However it sounds like it might be classified as *pantheism, whereas I am a panentheist. But I could be misinterpreting your writing. I am a panentheist due to a mystical experience I had where I merged into a larger Source. It was a homecoming for me. I don’t often speak of it because it is hard to describe properly.
*Doug: Pantheism--> all things are God. Panentheism-->all things are in God.
Doug: Thanks for taking the time to read the post and for your comments and questions. I'm not sure if I'll be very clear because I'm still on the journey and learning. Here is what I've got:
The very fact that you say "panentheist" means that you really get it! Thanks for sharing your mystical experience. I've had similar experiences and I believe it is the nature of reality. Creation is Beings within Beings within Beings, infinitely. There is always a transcendent quality to the divine Creator that is beyond manifestation. The particular nuance of panentheism that I like is that not only do we dwell within Another but that Other indwells within us. There is always mutual indwelling! Moreover, that "Other" is also not different than us. The wave is not different from the ocean at all, but one wave can merge with another wave and thus we can speak of two waves colliding while it is assumed that both waves are extensions of one united body (of water).
As to pantheism, I do believe that's true, too. How could it not be if all things are part of a unified field, part of the One Infinite Creator? Manifested things are some form of congealed spirit, of light, of energy. That's "God," too. It's God's "body," as it were. So, I hold that all things are God, all things are in God just as God is in all things, and God transcends all things. Ultimately, panentheism is the most expansive definition of reality, but it is important to point out that the nature of manifested things is not different from the Creator. Conventional Christianity as you and I have been taught insists that creation and the Creator are different at the level of essence. I don’t think this is true.
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Friend: But about your article, a part of me wonders if it is a form of exclusion to use “Christ” and “Jesus”. This language leaves out the rest of the non-Western world. Is it your belief that the Bible is the primary representation of the process of ascension and return to oneness with the divine? Or does Law of One acknowledge Krishna, Buddhists, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, indigenous belief systems, goddess-worshipping etc?
Doug: I don't mean to be exclusive in using the words, "Jesus" and "Christ." I can see how this would be off putting. Let me set those words aside for right now. Instead, let's use, "particular" and "universal."
The Law of One material does not refer to Krishna, Taoists, or goddess-worship specifically. It does have references to Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, white and black magic, astrology, Kabbalah, tarot, Judaism, and native people's spirituality. It also refers to Christianity a little more because the "instrument" was a Christian and Ra used concepts and words that would be familiar to her (and the other two people present). Moreover, Don, the questioner, asked specifically about Jesus in some places. Scott Mandelker, PhD, is a serious spiritual scholar and seeker who identifies much more with Eastern thought and religions. His entire exploration of the Law of One is replete with similarities with Buddhism, as he sees it.
The concepts illuminated by Ra in the Law of One material are not Christian, in terms of the religion, but "perennial," in terms of the wisdom, tradition, philosophy, and truth behind the world's different religions, including those you mentioned. There is only the cosmic "law of one," or "way of one," or the truth that all things are one in some mysterious way.
Each culture and religion at their deepest levels are trying to say this same thing albeit through their respective cultural and historical lenses, including the level of consciousness from which religious doctrines emerge. That message of oneness often doesn't get through the historical and cultural lenses and doesn't often lead to transformation or raising of people's levels of consciousness. This is true for Christianity, it seems to me.
Christianity as it has been taught and interpreted by the third density mind is not the Law of One. The dualistic mind will interpret a nondual event like the Jesus Event from a dualistic standpoint and thus makes it an exclusive kind of club to join. That wasn't the point, as far as I'm concerned.
For fun, let me approach this from a visual standpoint. Imagine senior members of the Confederation of Planets in the Service to the Infinite Creator conferring with one another, together with angelics, and the Council of Saturn (the seat of our solar system's governing body) about the fact that Earth humanity has some special circumstances that need to be addressed.
First, most of humanity's souls are third-density repeaters coming from elsewhere in the galaxy. Secondly, humanity has created a collective thought-form environment that keeps people entrapped in third density and destined to keep needing to experience it over and over again. Third, the Orion Empire has done quite a bit of work to enhance those collective thoughtforms which belong energetically to the service-to-self path.
This is fine if a human has chosen the negative path but most of the souls on Earth are positive, says Ra. This means that they would just keep needing to be recycled on other third density planets over again. The senior members are Gardeners and gardening is actually a part of their evolution, as it will be Earth humanity’s role in many millions of years from now; to garden a new crop of third-density “other-selves.”
The Confederation members want to aid Earth’s humanity because they hear the cries that echo unto the edges of the universe and feel the pain caused by our third-density anguish and confusion. As Ra says hauntingly in session 7.7, “[There is] a great calling which we of all creation feel and hear as if our own entities were distorted towards a great and overwhelming sorry. It demands our service.”
Several senior members of the Confederation, including Ra and Yahweh, tried all kinds of things over 75,000 years to help humanity "graduate," or "harvest," to fourth density. They realized to their chagrin that most of what they tried did not work and made things worse. These senior member groups then became karmically entangled with Earth's humanity and their own evolution depended upon how well they could help their "other selves" in third density continue to grow. The gardener and the garden got entangled. [Although from my point of view, this is what was always meant to happen. What lessons the senior groups didn’t learn all that well when they were the crops in the garden can now be learned as they tend another garden.]
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So, what to do? What's the best way to help people make the choice of polarity and to unite hearts and minds together so that they birth fourth-density consciousness? How do you get this crazy, lovely, messy, and beloved motley Earthly crew to begin resonating with universal love and to realize that they are not separate from each other or from the Creator? To encourage them to act and behave towards each other and towards the planet in a way consonant with fact that all things and all beings are one? What would work to get people to serve one another so that each person's heart is activated (a requirement for harvesting to fourth density) and to create the new world, the fourth density on earth? And to do it all while respecting free will?
Well, they needed to teach the Law of One (the way of oneness) in a manner that would not only be understood intellectually but also perceived at the bodily level, by communities, and by cultures. In short, the Gardeners ever-present question before them was how to impart the law of one to a group of people who have repeated third density many, many times, and who don't seem to be able to get it?
First they had to define what they were trying to convey. They needed to impart the Perennial Truth in a most clear, concise manner that: 1) would not ultimately be culturally bound, 2) would not ultimately be historically bound, 3) would not be a philosophy that just stays at the head level, 4) would be accepted at the heart level, 5) would lead people towards greater open-mindedness, 6) would activate their hearts enough to increase their chances of harvesting to the fourth density, and 7) would lead to a collective transformation so that Earth, itself, becomes home to the new age, the new world, the fourth density.
And we keep in mind that all of this needed to be done with the utmost respect and maintenance of Earth humanity’s free will. So whatever needed to be done, had to be given as a free gift...given as an invitation. And due to fact that the clock was ticking since the Earth was moving out of third-density vibrational frequencies from the Galactic Sun and into fourth density vibrations, Earth's third density experience was about up and very few people were harvestable.
The law of one, or the Perennial Tradition, roughly states (and this is my own interpretation) that:
1) There is only Oneness. This is the Universal. This is Infinity.
2) Infinite, or the Universal, is sentience, itself.
3) The Concept of Finitude and Free Will: The Universal wanted to experience Itself and came up with the concept of the Particular. The Particular was gifted free will to choose how to evolve.
4) The Particular is the Universal In Material Form. The Universal poured Itself into particular manifested elements of Itself. This was creation. The Particular is the Universal in manifested form. The atom is the Universal as the atom.
5) The Particular dwells within the Universal. Beings within Beings...
6) The Universal dwells within the Particular, too. There is a mutual indwelling presence. At the level of the human, the Particular can access the Universal through going inside and discovering the universal wholeness within.
7) Transformation is evolution. Evolution unfolds as the eternal dance of life and death. Life leads to death and death leads to rebirth. Rebirth is transformation.
8) Separation is an illusion. The particular elements are not separate from each other. They are also not separate from the Universal. They are always one. There is only unity and union.
9) The illusion has meaning because it allows the Universal to learn about Itself through the experience of the Particular's journey in discovery of its oneness with the Universal. God learns about Godself through the rock, the bird, the human, the fourth density being, etc.
10) The illusion has meaning also because it allows the Particular to develop and evolve as it seeks to become one. At the level of the human, the Particular's yearning for oneness leads to the development of faith (trust+hope) in God and in other humans. The "onening" begins!
11) The Scapegoating Mechanism. At the level of the human, the Particular doesn't know it is one with other Particulars or with the Universal. The greatest obstacle to learning about the universal truth of oneness is to "other" other people. That is, to scapegoat others and hold them as different; other than; less than.
12) Relationship is key. Compassion and empathy towards other "Particulars" leads to a lessening and eventual dissolving of the illusion of separation.
13) The Cosmic Law of Karma. Karma is important for the Particular to learn how to love so that eventually a person can live in such a way that honors how each person is an encounter with the Universal.
14) As Above, So Below. As Below, So Above. As Within, So Without. As Without, So Within. It’s a holographic universe.
15) Masculine and Feminine: These two principals are present and at play in all things, even in the divine.
These above statements are some of the main ingredients of the Perennial Tradition and you’ll find some of them or all of them in different spiritualities and in different cultures all over the world. Different faith traditions emphasize different points, too. Now back to our group of Cosmic Gardeners, the Confederation’s senior members. They wonder... is there a way to package up all of the elements of the Perennial Tradition in one place, one event, and then tailor it especially for Earth humans?
The tailoring would need to take into account that Earth’s third density master cycle of 75,000 years was ticking away quickly. Hearts needed to be activated soon and at the global level. (By "soon," I mean in the next 2000 years or so.)
Whatever package or event this would be would not overturn or replace any existing spirituality. Instead, the event would clarify and affirm the Perennial Tradition everywhere. If something is always and everywhere true, then it should be recognized and celebrated somewhere, at some time. And that’s what the Jesus Event is, at the global level.
The Jesus Event grounded the Perennial Tradition in an embodied way so the package that contained the whole thing was not an idea, nor a philosophy, not a theology, nor academic, nor esoteric understood by the few, but rather, it emerged in a human life so that we could see it lived out fully. Ideas, philosophies, theologies, academics, and esoteric approaches could all emerge from the Jesus Event (as they have for other spiritual leaders and faith-tradition founders), but none of those things would be necessary because most of humanity until more recently could not have had access to those heady things. No... the Jesus Event is relational at its core, and this is something that every human could understand at some level.
I’m not saying that Jesus was God in the way that has been taught in conventional Christianity. In fact, Ra says that the being that was given the name Jesus was a fourth density Wanderer who had graduated but decided to incarnate to do a mission in Earth’s third density rather than go on to fifth density. What was that mission? To become the human face of the Perennial Tradition so that we could see that what was true of Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension was true everywhere else on Earth, true for the entire universe, and in fact, true for all of reality.
The Jesus Event was a revelation of what happens everywhere and how it happens anywhere. All the above ingredients are there in the Jesus Event. And they may also be present in many or most of the other spiritualities in the world, too.
Moreover, the Jesus Event added an important nuance to the Perennial Tradition that may not have been as emphasized to the same degree in other faith traditions: the Universal is personal. That is, the whole Universal Truth of Reality (aka God, Brahmán, the One Infinite Creator, Source, the Great Holograph, etc) could be given hospitality within a person’s heart and this results in a most radiant intimacy. In short, the Particular could have a relationship with the Universal.
Secondly, there is an urgency to identify with the marginalized and to get busy building (actions) the fourth density here and now. This leads to social justice, compassionate service, and outreaching to other-selves who are hurting. It's taking the Confederation's mission and making it Earth-specific with an emphasis on active compassion and healing.
This path is a spirituality of descent rather than ascent. It is "incarnational" where ascension is not achieved by 1) doing it right, 2) becoming more pure, 3) escaping the messiness of life, 4) or any private salvation project. Rather to ascend to fourth density is ironically to descend more fully into third density and to engage with love, forgiveness, compassion, and acceptance. Ascension takes care of itself as it is the result of living a full incarnational life. That's the "Christian lifestyle" and many non-Christians do it better than many Christians, I'll say.
To sum it up, I am not sure anything metaphysically really changed by the Jesus Event but everything was revealed in one place, in one face, and in one time. I would say that the Jesus Event was a full revelation of the same ages-old truths (Perennial Tradition) about reality packaged up not only in the teachings of the being named Jesus, but also through this being's life. The course of his life was also the Perennial Tradition, enfleshed and embodied.
Unfortunately, it has taken over 2,000 years for a few Christians to see how little they understood the Jesus Event.
Lastly, the Jesus Event was not only about Jesus, the man, but in fact finds its full power emanating from the relationship between him and his beloved, Mary Magdalene. Much more could and should be explored there.
I don't think that the Bible is the only sacred scripture or the best, per se. When I read other sacred scriptures or writings and teachings from other spiritual traditions, I am always struck by the ungirding message and truths there that are also revealed in the Bible. That's one of the reasons why I have trusted the Law of One.
Thanks for reading this.
Doug
Reblogged this on Blue Dragon Journal.