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Originally Posted by ethereal I'd be interested in learning more about how to integrate Christianity into a larger spiritual context, if anybody else has any additional insights to share on this topic. I think by doing so, people will be more willing to learn about Christianity, and they'll be understanding it at a higher spiritual level as well (so both sides win  ). |
It sounds like you are talking about
Christian mysticism. Where instead of taking the majority of Christian religious scriptures and teachings too literally, Christian mystics (I think) take them more as metaphors and attempts at describing various spiritual experiences and states of consciousness. (like eating from the tree of knowledge, the holy trinity, the Book of Job, Jesus' parables, etc...)
The only Christian mystics I'm familiar with are
Saint Thomas Aquinas,
Thomas Merton, and
Bernadette Roberts. But after looking at the Christian Mysticism wikipedia there appears to be
many more.
I'm not that familiar with Thomas Aquinas, only heard him mentioned a couple times in other books. But I do remember reading an interesting quote from Thomas Merton a long time ago, and which influenced me a great deal.
Quote:
The Lord travels in all directions at once.
The Lord arrives from all directions at once.
Wherever we are, we find that He has just departed.
Wherever we go, we find that He has just arrived before us.
-- Thomas Merton
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If you combine this mystical (paradoxical) view of a Christian God, and combine it with the Christian mystic desire to see, know, and eventually identify with this God...
Quote:
Two major themes of Christian mysticism are (1) a complete identification with, or imitation of Christ, to achieve a unity of the human spirit with the spirit of God; and (2) the perfect vision of God, in which the mystic seeks to experience God "as he is," and no more "through a glass, darkly."
-- taken from the Wikipedia Christian mysticism article
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... then I think you get a Christian spiritual view that can have a lot in common with various Eastern spiritual views.
Disclaimer: I want to mention that I don't mean to put words in other people's mouths. And I don't want to pretend that I know every Christian mystic's intentions just based on two quotes (and one being from wikipedia!), but it looks like there could be some overlaps between Christian symbolism and various eastern symbolism for describing similar experiences.
Also, judging by some of your other posts here, I think Bernadette Roberts is probably the main Christian you'd be interested in.
SpiritualTeachers.org - Bernadette Roberts Quote:
[Bold italics] are mine.
Bernadette Roberts' path is that of a Christian and if you have any affinity with Christian mysticism you must read her books. Her primary concern is with addressing the passage from what she calls the unitive stage [self-actualization?] to the no-self stage [self-transcendence?]. While the unitive stage (or stage of being one with God) is well known in Christian literature, that there is a path beyond this stage is virtually unknown. Bernadette Roberts writes from her experience of living in the unitive stage until the self and its experience of being one with God disappeared into a new way of knowing.
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Some comments and quotes from "The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey" (by Bernadette Roberts)
One last thing...
For anyone who's interested in the possible overlaps between various religious traditions, here's a cool diagram showing the various religious labels for "levels of perceived reality" and "levels of perceived self".
The Great Chain of Being in Various Wisdom Traditions