Thursday, January 15, 2009

The New Man

The scriptures say of human beings that there is an outward man and along with him an inner man. Within us all is the other person, the inner man, whom the Scripture calls the new man, the heavenly man, the young person, the friend, the aristocrat. The seed of God is in us. To quote from Eckhart you will read that the seed of God is in us. "Given an intelligent and hardworking farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seed into God."

Human beings have free will and we are at liberty to identify with whatever pleases us. This amazing ability to choose our interests creates who we believe we are. The average person may act one way all their life but when a serious illness personally happens to him, he behaves very different. He could have lived a life of fear and then when he realizes he is dying become serene and God centered. For some people, it is easier to behave selflessly in a time of crisis that when life appears normal. The difference between a saint for instance and a typical human is that the saint is one who knows that very moment of our human life is a moment of crisis.

Now, why would that be? It has to do with personal choice. Every day challenges or opportunities present themselves to us. How we respond determines whether we are moving closer to darkness, which is ignorance or opening to radiant light and life. The goal of human life is to finally arrive at a state of consciousness where there are no longer any God-eclipsing obstacles between what we think and believe we are and the Divine Reality. The aim is to be constantly and consciously aware of our spiritual identity and purpose as a lover of God regardless of what is going on around us or directed at us. To understand the words I write and live them is a form of spiritual training that eventually leads us to transcend the human personality and state of ourselves that we are not a man or woman and answer instead, we are a Buddha, Christ or whatever exalted title you prefer to use to describe your state of being as an awakened and new man. This may sound preposterous to some who read this. Get used to it. It is truth.