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Return to handout section in the presentation New Belief «
2010-04-24, by A.D. Vander Vliet.¹)
1. In my talk 'In Search of the Sacred' of 2006-Spring, I introduced the idea 'Existence Divine', of the sacred being present unrestricted in place and time. What followed was a series of presentations on various religions, which was concluded by 'Jesus the Man' a year ago.
Last October I followed up with a talk explaining some now better defined ideas about 'Existence Divine'. These were the principle of all inclusiveness of all that exists, all experience and behaviours, be they good, bad or indifferent. This is the principle that we can acknowledge 'things' without approving or condoning them; such judgements were actual discoveries of by humans and so recorded over time.
2. This process of development was explained and illustrated in my talk 'The Olympic Torch' with the subtitle 'A Trace of Existence Divine'. This presentation traced and illustrated the revelations of 'Existence Divine'in time, place, people and circumstance as recorded in and by the religious traditions of human kind. It showed that such revelations as discoveries and insights, also take place in modern time.
The emphasis here was on the collective and social aspect of these revelations, as these informed the societies of human kind through the millennia right up to modern time.
3. Today we want to look at what and how the idea of 'Existence Divine' would inform our personal lives at this point in history. All religious traditions have and have had the dual aspects of the community to be served and the individual experience to be sustained and placed. The personal experience of the revelation of the 'Existence Divine' has been named 'mysticism' of various types. It deals with the person experiencing a connectedness to the totality of existence, which is often beyond words or description. Western Christianity knows such figures as Eckhart, Teresa in the past and Henri Nouwen today. These individual experiences were usually contained within the established religious structures.
4. We can trace the experience of the individual experiencing the revelation of 'Existence Divine' in the stories of the religious scriptures and the literature of mythology. Whereas the religions would often be the source of authority that bound the communities together, the individual often took on the role of the change bringer. We have the well known example of Abram, Socrates, the Buddha, many Greek hero figures and prophets such as Jesus Christ and Mohammed. In more modern times the reformers, both Roman Catholic and Protestant emerge as examples of the individual being the bringer and explainer of the new revelations and truths that have become relevant at this time, place, people and circumstance.
Particularly in Protestantism can we recognise the increasing importance of the individual who now has become the bringer and experiencer of the new revelation. This shift toward the individual away from the collective institute of the church reduced the power of the latter as sole authority.
5. The development leads eventually to the modern judicial state as the source of authority as we know it today. This new institution allows for a greater freedom of religious beliefs to exist within one community. In addition to this loss of judicial authority, the traditional church now also has to compete with science regarding the origins of being and the 'world'.
For our times this has resulted in seeking of the 'spiritual' outside the old established traditions. This is where the modern person seeks the experience of the connection with the larger frame of reference and the mysterious. Traditionally such experiences took place under the auspices of the 'church', which guarded against excesses. Today such restrictions are not present in the more secular settings, where traditions are often ignored and avoided. The absence of historical roots in the modern spiritual movements tends to lead to confined and limited perspectives, often morphing from one tendency to the next. These self confessed spirituality movements are so named in order to indicate that they do not want to be conceived as a traditional 'denomination'. In that sense they offer an opportunity for people to come loose from such more traditional groups, and so also leaving behind the old well established views and convictions.
6. The idea of 'Existence Divine' at the personal level includes any of the handed down wisdoms and/ or traditions. And it aims at the integration of all of the life experience of the individual. This is analogous to the accommodation of all human traditions in a social and cultural sense setting. This personal individual uniqueness must be founded on and supported by tradition and integrate all personal experience, without a splitting off or partitioning. The individual person here is not one of perfection, but one who accepts and lives with its own shortcomings and those of others, honouring the traditional values as they have been taught us. (See also below after point 8.)
7. In finding this acceptance of one's own life experience and the relating decision and their consequences, it is then possible to look for and discern the trace of 'Existence Divine' within one's own life. This is so in part, because we can now recognise what we learned, but did not seek and yet benefitted us all the same. I for myself, have discovered some treasures that I never looked for, but were delivered to me so to speak, while I pursued the traditional life goals of family, career and social success.
On the grounds of the traditions and our integration process you and I can now validate our own experience, which then serves as a guide in judging new and different insights and revealed truth, which will need to be tested. This then can be the process through which we can learn to recognise for ourselves the validity of the newly revealed experiences, which are mystical in their nature. All experience is valid experience and cannot be dismissed out offhand, but must be evaluated. Traditions and integration provide the basis for this evaluation, and if there is mistaken judgement, then there is forgiveness and pardon if we are willing to accept that.
8. Using these criteria and aspects, we may now look at each individual life as a unique expression within 'Existence Divine' and in this perspective the life of each human becomes a revelation itself, informing us about aspects and the nature of the Mystery that is Existence Divine. And more over, as conscious beings we humans can then also experience the connectedness that exists within this 'Existence Divine' in which we are participating participants, recognising that there is wholeness in diversity through this our conscious awareness.
End
Last, but not least I would like to share some criteria that have guided me over my life time:
At first I started with the rule as taught to me: 'Love your neighbour as yourself, and God above all.' It was the part that I did not need to love my neighbour more than myself that struck me, but also that we must start with trusting the other as I also and I expect to be trusted. This does not have to prevent you from 'making sure'!
The second criteria I came across a few years ago, when reading about Spinoza. He said: “Don't condemn, criticize or ridicule, but try to understand.” This has helped me as a guide and I have added: Convert the legitimate criticism into a helping hand.
The third rule I use is this:“Don't call yourself a fool, but say: I am a person who sometimes does a foolish thing”. You might paraphrase Spinoza here by saying that you should not condemn yourself either.
That's it.