Chalcedon Revisited
I said above when criticising a
passage in “The Cloud of Unknowing” that at level seven, two in union are not
experienced, but one only. In doctrinal terms, I should not like to be too hard
edged about it. As it happens, this question was raised at the Council of
Chalcedon in the year 451 in relation to Jesus. Those who said that he has one
nature were called monophysites. The council decided that there are two natures
in union.
For me the question is whether the Human Spirit and the Eternal Son are one or two. I talk of the Human Spirit in the singular, because I define anything specific to the separate individual to be soul or body. The Eternal Son is a Form that participates in all the fullness of the unity. Souls and bodies participate partially in the unity via the Form of the Eternal Son, and cause no problems.
The answer is, I do not know. Nor is it relevant in view of the experienced infinitude of the Human Spirit, whether the Human Spirit participates fully in the Form of the Eternal Son, or whether it is the Eternal Son and participates fully in the unity. The second of these is the simpler and so is my preferred solution. Also I am comfortable with the idea that without human experience there would be no Eternal Son, or at the very least that His consciousness is that of the Human Spirit. We do not need to think that the Eternal Son is incomplete even though human experience is continuing, for all the human experience of all the ages past and to come is present now.
In the last resort the question is meaningless. I could interpose 562 Forms between the unity and the Human Spirit and it wouldn’t make any difference. Perhaps I should make a rule that any intermediate Forms where the participation is total should be discarded. For although we are touching the Ultimate Reality, the question is at level five, and does not lead to enhanced understanding. So all the Chalcedonians can go home.
Although I have experienced something of the infinitude of the Human Spirit, I should like here to give an argument for it. You can only understand and define a thing in terms of something at least as great as that thing, great that is in the sense of complexity or profundity. A man can comprehend a steam engine, big though it is, but not the other way round. This is obvious. The lesser thing simply cannot comprehend the greater. An example is the inability of the faculties of level five to comprehend or express a level seven experience. Now, I have clearly comprehended the last Form, all the way up to the unity, and made it easy for anybody else to comprehend it too. There is infinitude in this alone.
You can try an experiment. It is said that the universe, having started at a point, is now expanding at the speed of light. Go to the edge, the very edge, and travel along with it at the speed of light. It is easier than travelling along a road at 30 mph.
Union is necessarily independent of creedal boundaries. “Tat tvam asi” is a statement from the Chandogya Upanishad. It says literally 'That thou art'. In other words Brahman which is the common Reality behind everything in the cosmos is the same as the essential Divinity, namely the Atman, within you. (1) To atheists who say “There, I always said there was nothing above the human”, I say I can agree for all practical purposes, as long as it is accepted that the human is unlimited at level seven.
I am as impatient with the external God of Islam as I am with the very similar Christian conception, with his commands and orders and his assignment of people to heaven or hell on the supposed last day, but it is evident that I am at one with the Islamic Sufi tradition:
What is a Sufi?
One who does not separate himself from others by opinion or dogma;
and who realizes the heart as the Shrine of God.
What does the Sufi desire?
To remove the false self and discover God within.
What does the Sufi teach?
Happiness.
What does the Sufi seek?
Illumination.
What does the Sufi see?
Harmony.
What does the Sufi give?
Love to all created things.
What does the Sufi get?
A greater power of love.
What does the Sufi find?
GOD.
And lose?
self. (2)
Also I am at one with the creators of the Buddhas in the China section of the British Museum. They are nothing less than level seven made present in concrete form.
As the fullness is in the unity and in the Eternal Son, there remains to be experienced a stupendous meeting of Spirit with Spirit, which is doubtless the purpose of the whole enterprise of creation.
1. From Wikipedia, a web based encyclopaedia.
2. Hazrat Inayat Khan
For me the question is whether the Human Spirit and the Eternal Son are one or two. I talk of the Human Spirit in the singular, because I define anything specific to the separate individual to be soul or body. The Eternal Son is a Form that participates in all the fullness of the unity. Souls and bodies participate partially in the unity via the Form of the Eternal Son, and cause no problems.
The answer is, I do not know. Nor is it relevant in view of the experienced infinitude of the Human Spirit, whether the Human Spirit participates fully in the Form of the Eternal Son, or whether it is the Eternal Son and participates fully in the unity. The second of these is the simpler and so is my preferred solution. Also I am comfortable with the idea that without human experience there would be no Eternal Son, or at the very least that His consciousness is that of the Human Spirit. We do not need to think that the Eternal Son is incomplete even though human experience is continuing, for all the human experience of all the ages past and to come is present now.
In the last resort the question is meaningless. I could interpose 562 Forms between the unity and the Human Spirit and it wouldn’t make any difference. Perhaps I should make a rule that any intermediate Forms where the participation is total should be discarded. For although we are touching the Ultimate Reality, the question is at level five, and does not lead to enhanced understanding. So all the Chalcedonians can go home.
Although I have experienced something of the infinitude of the Human Spirit, I should like here to give an argument for it. You can only understand and define a thing in terms of something at least as great as that thing, great that is in the sense of complexity or profundity. A man can comprehend a steam engine, big though it is, but not the other way round. This is obvious. The lesser thing simply cannot comprehend the greater. An example is the inability of the faculties of level five to comprehend or express a level seven experience. Now, I have clearly comprehended the last Form, all the way up to the unity, and made it easy for anybody else to comprehend it too. There is infinitude in this alone.
You can try an experiment. It is said that the universe, having started at a point, is now expanding at the speed of light. Go to the edge, the very edge, and travel along with it at the speed of light. It is easier than travelling along a road at 30 mph.
Union is necessarily independent of creedal boundaries. “Tat tvam asi” is a statement from the Chandogya Upanishad. It says literally 'That thou art'. In other words Brahman which is the common Reality behind everything in the cosmos is the same as the essential Divinity, namely the Atman, within you. (1) To atheists who say “There, I always said there was nothing above the human”, I say I can agree for all practical purposes, as long as it is accepted that the human is unlimited at level seven.
I am as impatient with the external God of Islam as I am with the very similar Christian conception, with his commands and orders and his assignment of people to heaven or hell on the supposed last day, but it is evident that I am at one with the Islamic Sufi tradition:
What is a Sufi?
One who does not separate himself from others by opinion or dogma;
and who realizes the heart as the Shrine of God.
What does the Sufi desire?
To remove the false self and discover God within.
What does the Sufi teach?
Happiness.
What does the Sufi seek?
Illumination.
What does the Sufi see?
Harmony.
What does the Sufi give?
Love to all created things.
What does the Sufi get?
A greater power of love.
What does the Sufi find?
GOD.
And lose?
self. (2)
Also I am at one with the creators of the Buddhas in the China section of the British Museum. They are nothing less than level seven made present in concrete form.
As the fullness is in the unity and in the Eternal Son, there remains to be experienced a stupendous meeting of Spirit with Spirit, which is doubtless the purpose of the whole enterprise of creation.
1. From Wikipedia, a web based encyclopaedia.
2. Hazrat Inayat Khan