The Kingdom of God and the Spiritual Intellect: A Mystic’s Journal: Entries June 29- July 12, 2005
Wednesday, June 29
1:30 a.m.
Two new young meditators joined class tonight. Also a message from the woman I taught to meditate a few weeks ago: “thank you”; her life has changed, improved. She will be in Ithaca again, before the end of the summer.
We again studied the Desert Fathers in class: The Book of Mystical Chapters (Shambhala, 2003). We only studied one short poem on page 79, number twenty five written by Evagrios of Pontus:
"The Kingdom of God/ is knowledge of the Holy Trinity/ filling the whole capacity of the spiritual intellect/ and carrying it into incorruptibility."
One of the shorter poems written by the Desert Fathers, but not the easiest to comprehend. We began by discussing the phrase “The Kingdom of God”. Serge said that the Kingdom of God included our entire universe. I then asked what Christ meant when He said that the Kingdom of God is within us. We agreed that Christ was speaking of meditation, and that to find this Kingdom of God, we must look within - i.e. meditate. That each soul mysteriously contains this Kingdom of God, or is connected to this Kingdom.
“Is knowledge”. We discussed the term “knowledge” in the context of the holy Father’s sentence, and decided that “knowledge” here did not mean intellectual knowledge. Or any knowledge contained in or arising from lower mind, i.e. thoughts. That Evagrios here was speaking of Divine Knowledge or mystical Knowledge, mystical experience.
“Is knowledge of the Holy Trinity” implies that the Holy Trinity is also contained within the soul. I mentioned that it was a very advanced mystical experience to recognize the Trinity that is within us. Nathaniel asked how humans had determined the existence of the Trinity, i.e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I said that the Father’s voice had been heard in the Old Testament - Moses and the burning bush, for instance. Within the New Testament, the Father’s voice was heard, the Son had Incarnated on earth, and the Holy Spirit had been both perceived as a dove and also as flames surrounding the disciples’ heads during Pentecost.
C. then mentioned that when the disciples spoke during Pentecost, they were understood by all present, and in their own languages. She spoke about the Tower of Babel: that languages were separated out by God, so that people could not understand each other. In other words, we should not be building a tower in order to find God outside of ourselves - but that He is within us. She said that at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, in a way, reunited languages and understanding between peoples. I said that Christ had told the disciples that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, would come to earth after His death as the Comforter. That the Holy Spirit was the Enlightenment and Healing aspect of the Trinity - although all three members of the Trinity had the ability to confer these Gifts. The Mystery of the Three being One was also discussed. We then spoke of Meister Eckhart’s “God beyond God”, the formless Godhead that was prior to the manifested Trinity. Then we discussed the Trinity as being the substratum, the very essence of this entire universe. That the Trinity was not restricted to the voice of the Father, the incarnated Son and the Holy Spirit perceived by humans as a dove or flames.
The “spiritual intellect”. I said that the spiritual intellect could only be reached in mystical experience, either in meditation or contemplation, or in infused contemplation. That it could not be reached by the intellect that is Lower Mind, i.e. all thoughts, all thinking, all human intellect in the usual sense. Nate pointed out that if the Kingdom of God was filling the spiritual intellect to capacity, then the spiritual intellect was limited. He said it would be like a glass dunked in water, filled by the water, but still surrounded by water. It would be experienced, while still in the body, as the Higher Mind infusing the lower mind to capacity. I said that in the High Mystical experience, there was no glass, there was no “around” the glass, we are in Mystical union. We are one with the Divine, standing fully in Mind, Consciousness. In the end, we decided that both statements were correct. That the spiritual intellect, while we were still in the body was limited, yet above the normal intellect of thoughts and perceptions. It itself was not the Trinity, and yet the Trinity was somehow filling it, had imprinted Itself mysteriously within the soul.
“Carrying it into incorruptibility”. Serge said that this meant we could no longer be corroded. That by meditating, we begin to identify with the soul rather than the ego, the physical body and our thoughts and emotions. That we carry that identity with the soul with us, and that peace and calm down into our lives. We also pointed out that while we are in the body, there cannot be total and abiding union with God. Nate then said that we cannot corrupt God. That God transcends all that is corrupting or corruptible, God is not affected by that which is not Itself. So the spiritual intellect, when filled with the Holy Trinity - would become beyond corruption or corrosion. I then added that this purity, this incorruptibility is not something that we can do on our own. Only the Divine Itself can bring the spiritual intellect to this point of incorruptibility. Maria added that in this Knowledge of the Trinity, the spiritual intellect is carried into incorruptibility, into Eternity.
The essence of this quote by Evagrios of Pontus: The Kingdom of God/ is knowledge of the Holy Trinity/ filling the whole capacity of the spiritual intellect/ and carrying it into incorruptibility for me, is that we can know the Kingdom of God in mystical experience, and that it is always within us.
Monday, July 4
Windgarth
Talking with Larry by the lake, after the main fireworks, a few ending across the lake, small and soundless. We spoke of many things. He asked me finally if I were told that I had only six months to live, would I fall apart like every one else would. I had not thought of that question. The times that I have been close to death, I have not been afraid. Instead, I have been exhilarated, anticipant, if that is a word. At those times, the foot that was already standing in those other realms was more than ready to bring the other foot with it. I answered that I would be joyful to leave for other realms, but also sad, because there is so much here on earth that I would miss. That which I was used to, that which I had grown to love here. Inertia, in a way. When I am asleep, I want to stay there. When I am awake, I want to stay awake. That when I “died” in my accident, for those four to six minutes, I knew exactly who I wanted to see and how to find them, where they were and how to get there. Larry looked surprised. I said that time is different there, space is different. I saw countless people and went countless places in those four to six earth minutes.
Sunday, July 10
M. and I were in the supermarket, shopping for food tonight. I finished a bit sooner, and was inwardly giving people Mary’s Blessing from Medjugorje, Yugoslavia as I left the market. As I passed an entrance to the body of the store, I inwardly said “I give you all Mary’s Blessing from Medjugorje” and a very strange thing happened that I can barely describe. In a way my vision changed, my consciousness changed - and suddenly the people there, in the store, pushing their carts and buying fruits and vegetables and wandering throughout the store seemed as though they were in another realm. I do not know how else to say this ... But suddenly they were no longer physical flesh and blood. They looked the same as before in terms of shape and size and feature - but their physical substance was suddenly gone ...
Monday July 11
3:30 p.m.
Walking down the street, saying my usual prayer: “Eternal Father, I offer you the most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today for the souls in Purgatory, sinners everywhere and sinners in the Universal Church”... This prayer was given to Saint Gertrude, and she was told that countless beings would be freed from Purgatory each time the prayer was said. Therefore, I often say it as I am walking into town. Today, as sometimes happens, I saw the Light growing in myself, as though the Cathedral of Light that Christ had placed in my Heart so many years ago was again visibly there, shining and transparent. When I first began saying this prayer, when I would get to the words “of the Universal Church”, sometimes I would see the Cathedral of Light outside of myself. The Trinity imprinted in the soul, the Trinity that is the true Church ...
Tuesday, July 12
Windgarth 11 p.m.
Was thinking more about my conversation with Larry by the dock the other night. My father. Our relationship was not always an easy one. There was a betrayal there, and when I now look back it becomes easier to define. It was not the sum of his emotions and thoughts and words and actions, not even that those were directed at the family, at me. But that a promise had been made - a vow made in another realm, before we incarnated, and that promise had not been kept. I had followed him to earth, that is evident. He was here first, and I had joined him. And now, tonight, with the sound of the wind and the waves for company - I see that this is always the true betrayal. Not the events and arguments and misunderstandings that we have with those we love. But that the promises made soul to soul have been broken.
Now when I clairvoyantly search for my father, the realm he is in is comprised of such brilliant Light that I am not allowed to enter - I can barely look in its direction. When awake, I stand as though barred from that realm, from such Light. Although, I sense that while asleep I have often gone there.
It is difficult not to regret that I left such a realm, in order to follow my father here to earth. And equally or more difficult not to rue that while on earth my father fell into this world and inadvertently dragged me, or almost dragged me with him into the emotions, the fears, the anger, the hurtful thoughts that formed certain aspects of my childhood and youth ... The various events have no real meaning for me now; to think of them only brings me closer to where I never wished to go. A review of them will not help me heal.
No, to truly heal, I must stand where we stood together before our relationship on earth. That is where the true betrayal can be clearly seen and felt. The rest - only adds to the confusion. The task now is to find that realm of almost unendurable Brightness here, while I am still on earth.
The Kingdom of God and the Spiritual Intellect: June 29-
Moderator: figaro