MYSTIC CHRISTIANITY
YOGI RAMACHARAKA
THE NINTH LESSON
THE INNER TEACHINGS
The first and main phase of the Inner Teachings of
Mystic Christianity is that connected with the Mystery of the
Life of Jesus. The outer teachings give but an imperfect view
of the real life and nature of the Master, and theologians
have built up an edifice of dogmatic theory around the same.
The Mystery of the Life of Jesus forms the subject of some
important Inner Teachings of the Mystic Fraternities and
Occult Brotherhoods, and is considered by them to be the
foundation of the other teachings. And so we shall consider
this phase of the subject at this point.
In the first place we must remember that the soul of Jesus
was different from the souls of other men. His was a "virgin
birth"--not in the commonly accepted sense of the term, but
in the occult sense as explained in the second lesson of
this series. His soul was fresh from the hand of the
Creator--His spirit had not been compelled to work through
repeated incarnations, pressing forward for expression
through humble and ignoble forms. It was free from taint,
and as pure as the Fountain from which is flowed. It was a
virgin soul in every sense of the term.
This being so, it follows that it was not bound by the Karma
of previous incarnations--as is the case with the ordinary
soul. It had no entangling ties--it had no seeds of desire
and action planted in previous lives, which were pressing
forward toward expression in His life. He was a Free
Spirit--an Unbound Soul. And therefore He was not only
unbound by any Karma of His own, but was also free (by
nature) from the Karma of the race or of the world.
The absence of personal Karma left Him free from the selfish
personal Desire which binds men to the wheel of action and
personal ambition. He had no desire or thought for personal
aggrandizement or glory, and was perfectly free (by nature)
to work for the good of the race as an outside observer and
helper, without suffering the pains and sorrows of
race-life, had He so wished. But He chose otherwise, as we
shall see in a moment.
The absence of Race-Karma, or World-Karma, freed Him from
the necessity of the pains of humanity, which are a part of
its collective Karma. He would have been perfectly able to
live a life absolutely free from the pains, trials and
troubles that are the common lot of Man, owing to the
Race-Karma. He would have escaped persecution, physical and
mental pains, and even death, had He so elected. But He
chose these things of His own free will, in order to
accomplish the great work that He saw before Him as a
World-Savior.
In order for Jesus to enact His part as the Redeemer and
Savior of the race, it was necessary for Him to take upon
Himself His share of the Karma of the race--virtually taking
upon Himself the "sins of the world." Before He could lift
the burden from the race of men, He must become a man among
men.
To understand this more clearly we must remember that to a
being such as Jesus--a soul free from Karma--there would be
no such thing as temptation, longings, desires, or any of
the mental states of the ordinary man with the Karma of
successive past incarnations resting within him as seeds of
action pressing forward ever for unfoldment and expression.
Jesus, the free soul, would have been practically an outside
observer of the world's affairs, and not influenced by any
of its ordinary incentives to action. In this state He could
have aided the world as a teacher and instructor, but He
would not have been able to accomplish His great task of
Redeeming the world, in its highest spiritual significance,
as we shall see as we proceed. It was necessary for Him to
take upon Himself the burden of the earth-life in order to
become the Savior of the people of the earth.
The occult teachings inform us that during His sojourn
abroad, Jesus was simply a teacher, with but a dim
perception of His real mission. But gradually He began to
experience periods of Illumination in which He recognized
His real nature and the difference between Himself and other
men. Then came to Him the conviction of the mighty work that
lay before Him in the redemption of the race, and He began
to see the necessity of entering into the Karmic circle of
the race in order to carry out the plan. This came
gradually, by slow degrees, and the final sacrifice was made
only in the Wilderness after His Baptism by John.
In the Wilderness, after His long fast and His days of
meditation, the way opened up for Him to take upon Himself
the burden of the Karma of the earth people. In that scene
of the most tremendous spiritual struggle that the earth has
ever witnessed, Jesus deliberately bent His shoulders that
the weight be placed upon His back. From that moment the
earth-souls received a blessing far beyond the comprehension
of the mind of the ordinary man. Into the Karma-bound circle
came this mighty soul, animated by Pure Spirit, for the
purpose of lifting a great portion of the burden, and of
joining in the work of the actual unfoldment and redemption
of the race.
For be it remembered that, being a free soul animated by
Pure Spirit, Jesus was A GOD--not a man, although inhabiting
the fleshly garments of humanity. His power was superior to
that of many of the high intelligences scattered throughout
the universe, and playing important parts in the cosmic
processes. Jesus was Pure Spirit incarnate in human form,
with all the powers of a God. Although of course
_subordinate in expression_ to the Absolute--the Great
Spirit of Spirit--He was in His essential nature the same in
substance. Verily, as He Himself said, "I and the Father are
One."
His youthful mind was not able to grasp the truth of His
real nature, but as that human instrument became perfected
by age and training, He realized the Truth and perceived His
own Divinity.
But even a God, such as he, could not raise up the world
from its burden of Karma, by acting _from the outside_.
Under the Cosmic Laws, established by the Absolute, such
work could be performed only _from within_ the circle of
earth-life. And so Jesus saw that to raise up Man, He must
become a Man. That is, to help lift the earth's Karma, He
must enter into it, and place Himself within its Circle of
Influence. And this He did .
We wonder if our readers can realize, even faintly, just
what this sacrifice meant? Think of a Pure Spirit--a Free
Soul--so filled with the love for the race of men as to
renounce deliberately, for aeons of time, total immunity
from all mortal existence, and willingly to place itself
under the burden of pain, woe, misery and sin which formed
the earth-people's Karma. It was a thousand-fold greater
sacrifice than would be that of a Man of the Highest
spiritual and mental development--an Emerson, for
example--who, in order to raise up the race of earth-worms,
would deliberately place himself within the being and nature
of the Group-Soul animating the race of earthworms, and then
stay within its influence, striving ever upward and onward
until finally, after aeons and aeons of time, he was able to
bring up the earthworm Group Soul to the level of Man. Think
of this, and then
realize what a sacrifice Jesus made of Himself.
In the Wilderness, when Jesus took the final steps of
renunciation and sacrifice, He at once passed within the
circle of the Race Karma and laid Himself open to all the
pain, misery, temptations and limitations of a Man. His
power, of course, remained with Him, but He was no longer a
God outside of the world-life, but an imprisoned God working
from within the race, using His mighty power, but bound by
the Karmic Law. He became open to influences from which
previously He had been immune. For instance when He was
"tempted" by the Devil of Personal Attainment, and urged to
seek worldly glory and renown, He was tempted only because
He had taken on the world's Karma and was subject to its
laws. As a God, He would not have felt the temptation any
more than a man would feel the temptation of the earthworm.
But as a man He was subject to the desires and ambitions
that perplex and "devil" the race. And according to the rule
that the greater the mental development the greater the
power of such temptation toward self-aggrandizement (because
of the mind being able to see more clearly the
opportunities), Jesus was subjected to a test that would
have been impossible to an ordinary man.
Jesus, knowing full well that He had in His possession the
power to manifest the things with which He was tempted, was
compelled to fight off the temptation to place Himself at
the head of the race as its ruler--as the King of the World.
He was shown this picture to compare with the other whose
last scene was Calvary--and He was called upon to feel the
desire of the race for such things, even unto its highest
degree. Imagine the desire for personal aggrandizement of
all the world thought beating upon His mind demanding the
expression which could be had through Him alone. And then
imagine the struggle required to defeat this opposing power.
Think of what the ordinary man has to meet and overcome to
conquer the desire for Personal Aggrandizement--and then
think of what the Master had to fight, with the focussed
desire of the entire Race-Thought striving to express itself
through Him! Truly the Sins of the World bore down upon Him
with their mighty weight. And yet He knew that He had taken
upon Himself this affliction by entering upon the Life of
Man. And He met it like a Man of Men.
It was only by fixing His mind fully and firmly upon what He
knew to be His Real Self--the Spirit Within His soul, and
holding His mind "one-pointed" upon the fact--that He was
able to fight the fight and conquer. Seeing the Truth, He
could see the folly and illusion of all that the world had
to offer, and He could put forth His mighty Will bidding the
Tempter retire from the scene and from His mind. It was in
this full knowledge of His Spirit--His Real Self--that He
was able to rebuke the Tempter, saying, "Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord, thy God!" He held fast to His realization of
the God Within--the Spirit that was within Him and all
men--and thus denied out of existence the power of the
earth-things--the illusions of mortality--the
maya of the race.
But not alone this and other weaknesses of man's mortal
nature were constantly besieging the mind of the Master
after He had taken upon Himself the Karma of the Earth. He
had also taken upon Himself the mortal life consequent of
the human frame which He inhabited. He must live, suffer and
die--even as all men--and according to the law of mortality.
And so He moved forward toward the end, knowing fully what
lay before Him. He, a God, had taken upon Himself all these
attributes of mortality, in order to be able to perform His
work as the Redeemer and Savior of the race.
And so, He lived, and suffered and died--even as you and I.
He drank the cup to the dregs, suffering as only such a
finely organized mental nature could suffer. And, men, poor
creatures, speak of His sufferings as terminating with the
last breath upon the cross. Why, they only began
there!
For know ye, that Jesus the Christ is still within the race
of men, suffering their woes, paying with them their
penalty, every day, every hour--yea, and must remain so
throughout the ages, until finally the soul of every man,
yea, even that of the last man; the most degraded man in the
world, is fully cleansed of the Karmic taint, and thus fully
"redeemed" and "saved." And within the soul of every man is
found the Christ Principle, striving ever to elevate and
lift up the individual toward that realization of the Real
Self--and this is what "redemption" and "salvation" really
means. Not a saving from hell-fire, but a saving from the
fire of carnality, and mortality. Not a redemption from
imaginary sins, but a redemption from the muck and mire of
earth-life. The God within you is like the fabled Hindu god
who descended into the body of a pig and then forgot
Himself. It is to bring you to a realization that you are a
god and not a pig, that Jesus, the Master, is working within
your soul as the Christ Principle. Have you never heard His
voice, crying from within your soul, "Come out--come out of
your pig-nature and realize the god that you verily are!" It
is this "recognition, realization and manifestation of the
god within you" that constitutes "salvation" and
"redemption."
The Occult Teachings tell us that Jesus, after His final
disappearance from before the eyes of His apostles, passed
on to the higher planes of the Astral World where He rapidly
discarded all of His astral and mental vehicles which the
soul had used in its manifestation. The Astral Body and its
corresponding higher sheaths were cast off and discarded.
That is, all except the very highest of all. Had He
discarded every vestige of individual soul-existence His
spirit would have immediately merged itself with the One
Spirit--the Absolute--from which it had originally proceeded
and Jesus, as an entity, would have disappeared entirely
within the Ocean of the One Spirit. This highest state
of all He had deliberately resigned until the passage of
ages, in order that He might accomplish His work as the
World-Savior .
He retained the highest vehicle--the Spiritual Mind in its
highest shade of expression--in order that as an entity He
might labor for the race. And so, He exists at this
time--one in substance with the Father, but yet maintaining
an apparently separate entity-existence. But this must
be remembered, that Jesus, as Jesus the son of Mary
and Joseph , no longer exists. When He cast off the lower
vehicles of His personality, His personality disappeared.
But His individuality persisted--that is, He is
still HE, although His personality has disappeared, leaving
Him--the real Him--existing as the CHRIST PRINCIPLE.
By the above statement, we mean that when a soul reaches the
highest spiritual stage short of absolute absorption into
the One Spirit, it is no longer a person , but exists
as a principle . But that principle is not an
inanimate mechanical force--it is a living, knowing, acting
principle of life. This occult fact cannot be
explained in the words of men, for no terms have been coined
by which men can speak of it. It is only indirectly that we
can hope to have even the advanced student grasp the fact.
Jesus exists today, as the Christ Principle which
actually lives and acts, but which is not confined in
a body of any kind, using the word "body" in its accustomed
sense. As the Christ Principle or "The Christ" He is mingled
with the life of the human race, and may be found immanent
in the mind of every man, woman and child that has ever
existed, does now exist, or will exist so long as Man
is Man . Not only is this true of those who have lived since
His passage from the physical body, but it is equally true
of those who lived before His birth. This apparently
paradoxical statement may be understood when we remember
that these souls did not "die," but only "passed on" to the
Astral Plane, from whence they re-incarnated in due time.
The Christ (for so we shall speak of the present-state of
Jesus) even entered into, and still abides in, the Astral
Plane, as well as upon the Material Plane, for wherever the
souls of men abide--or whatever place their residence may
be--there is found The Christ, ever working for the
salvation and redemption of the race.
On the Astral Plane He is working in the minds of the souls
abiding there, urging them to cast off the dross of
earth-desires and to fix the aim upon higher things, to the
end that their re-incarnations may be under improved
conditions. On the Physical Plane He is working in the
hearts and minds of the earth-people, striving ever to
uplift to higher things. His aim is ever toward the
liberation of the Spirit from its material bonds--the
Realization of the Real Self. And so, in the hearts of all
men, Christ is living, suffering, and being crucified every
day, and this must continue until Man is redeemed and saved,
even the last man.
This wonderful sacrifice of Christ far surpasses the
physical sacrifice of Jesus, the man. Try to imagine, if you
can, even the faintest pangs of a being so exalted compelled
to dwell in the world of the hearts and minds of a humanity
so steeped in materiality as our race, knowing always the
possibilities of the souls if they would but reach upward to
higher things, and yet constantly suffering the knowledge of
the base, carnal, material thoughts and acts flowing from
these souls. Is not this the extreme refinement of torture?
Does not the agony of the cross sink into insignificance
beside such spiritual agony? You rail at the cruelty of the
Jews who crucified their Savior, and yet you crucify
your Savior, with a thousandfold degree of torture,
every day of your life, by your persistence in the
carnalities and foolishness of mortal thought and action.
The mighty uplift of the world since the death of Jesus, of
which the present is but a faint prophecy of the future, has
been due largely to the energizing influence of The Christ
in the hearts and minds of the race. The sense of the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, which is now
manifesting so powerfully in the world of Men, is but an
instance of the work of the Christ--the Savior and Redeemer.
And the highest dreams of the exalted souls of this
generation are but inadequate visions of what the future
will hold for the race. The work is just beginning to
bud--the blossom and the fruit will render this earth a far
more glorious place than even the highest ideals of heaven
entertained by the faithful in the past. But even these
things of the future will be poor things, when compared with
the life of the higher planes which await the race when it
has demonstrated its fitness to pass on and on and on to
these greater glories. And ever and ever The Christ is
working, and toiling and striving and suffering, in His
efforts to raise humanity even one petty degree in the
spiritual scale of being.
The Christ is always with us, and if we but recognize His
presence we shall be able to feel that warm, loving response
to our soul-hunger and spiritual thirst which will result in
our being given that we are so longingly craving. Here
within us dwells The Christ, ever responding to the cry of
Faith, "Believe in Me and ye shall be saved." What a promise
this is seen to be when properly understood! What a source
of power and comfort is opened up to every human soul when
the Inner Truth underlying the teachings is understood!
Mystic Christianity brings this Message of Truth to each and
all of you who read these lines. Will you accept it?
We would ask our students to pause at this point and
contrast the teachings of Mystic Christianity regarding the
doctrine of Christ, the Savior, with the corresponding
teachings of the current Orthodox Theology.
On the one hand we have Jesus the God-Man deliberately
choosing the work of the World Redemption and Salvation, and
descending into the circle of the World-Karma, relinquishing
the privilege of His Godhood and taking upon Himself the
penalties of Manhood; not only undergoing the sufferings of
the physical man, but also binding Himself upon the Cross of
Humanity for ages, that by His spiritual presence in and of
the race He might lift up humanity to godhood.
On the other hand, we have a picture of an angry Deity,
manifesting purely human emotion and temper, bent on
revenging himself upon the race which he had created, and
demanding its eternal punishment in hell-fire; then the same
Deity creating a Son whom he sent into the world, that this
Son might be the victim of a blood-atonement and death upon
the cross, that the Deity's wrath might be appeased and the
blood of this Divine Lamb be accepted to wash out the sins
of the world.
Can you not see which is The Truth and which is the
perversion? The one is from the pure fountain of Spiritual
knowledge--the other originated in the minds of ignorant
theologians who were unable to grasp and understand the
Mystic teachings, but who built up a system of theology in
accordance with their own undeveloped minds; making a God
who was but a reflection of their own cruel animal natures,
demanding, as did they themselves, blood and pain--physical
torture and death--in order to appease a most un-Divine
wrath and vengeance. Which of the two conceptions seems most
in accord with the intuitive promptings of the Something
Within? Which brings the greater approval from The Christ
within your heart?
THE CHRISTIAN CREED.
There are three creeds recognized by the Christian
Church--the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the
Athanasian Creed. Of these, the first two are commonly used,
the third being not so well known and being seldom used.
The Apostles' Creed, which is the most commonly used, is
believed (in its present form) to be of later origin than
the Nicene Creed, and many authorities believe it to be a
corrupted rendering of the original declaration of faith of
the Early Christians. It is as follows:
"I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth; and in Jesus Christ his only
Son our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified, dead and
buried; he descended into hell; the
third day he arose again
from the dead; he ascended into
heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father
Almighty; from thence he shall
come to judge the quick and the
dead. I believe in the Holy
Ghost, the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting."
The Nicene Creed was drawn up and adopted by the Council of
Nice in
the year A.D. 325. As originally adopted it ended with the
words "I
believe in the Holy Ghost," the present concluding clauses
being added
by the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381, excepting the
words "and
the Son," which were inserted by the Council of Toledo, A.D.
589. It
is as follows:
"I believe in one God, the Father,
Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and all things visible
and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all
worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our
salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was
crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and
was buried and the third day he rose again according to the
scriptures and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with glory
to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall
have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified, who
spoke by the prophets; and I believe in one catholic and
apostolic church; I acknowledge one baptism for the
remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the
dead and the life of the world to come."
Let us now briefly examine the principal statements of these
creeds, which were compiled centuries after Jesus' death,
viewing them by the light of Mystic Christianity.
"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven
and earth, and all things visible and invisible."--( Nicene
Creed .)
The form of the above fundamental principle of Christian
belief is taken from the Nicene Creed, which is somewhat
fuller than the similar declaration in the Apostles' Creed.
It requires no comment. It is a statement of belief in a One
Creative Power, from which all things have proceeded. There
is no attempt made to "explain" the nature of the Absolute,
or to endow it with any of the human attributes which
theologians have delighted in bestowing upon the One. It
merely asserts a belief in the existence of One Supreme
Being--which is all that is possible to man--all else is
ignorant impertinence.
"And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost."--( Apostles' Creed .)
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light
of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of
one substance with the Father."--( Nicene Creed .)
In this declaration, the belief in the Divinity of Jesus is
made. The Apostles' Creed shows the cruder conception,
rather inclining toward the perverted idea of the conception
of the Virgin by the aid of the Holy Ghost, similar to the
origin of the hero-gods of the different religions in which
the father was one of the gods and the mother a woman. But
the Nicene creed gives at least a strong hint of the mystic
teachings. It speaks of Him as "begotten of his
Father"--"begotten, not made." The expressions, "God of God;
Light of Light; very God of very God," show the idea of
identical spiritual substance in the Spirit. And then the
remarkable expression, "being of one substance with the
Father," shows a wonderful understanding of the Mystery of
The Christ. For, as the mystic teachings show, Jesus was a
pure Spirit, free from the entangling desires and clogging
Karma of the world. Identical in substance with the Father.
"The Father and I are one," as He said. Is there anything in
the Orthodox Theology that throws such light on this subject
as is shed by Mystic Christianity's teaching regarding the
nature of the soul of Jesus?
"Born of the Virgin Mary."--( Apostles' Creed .)
"Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and
was made man."--( Nicene Creed .)
The Nicene Creed here gives a surprisingly clear statement
of the Mystic teachings. "Who for us men and our salvation
came down from heaven" shows the purpose of the incarnation.
"Came down from heaven" shows pre-existence in the bosom of
the Absolute. "And was incarnate" shows the descent of the
Spirit into the flesh in the womb of Mary.
"And was made man" shows the taking on of the physical body
of the infant in the womb. Does not the Mystic teaching give
a clearer light on this statement of the Creed?
"Was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell; the
third day he rose again from the dead."--( Apostles' Creed
.)
"He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again
according to the scriptures, and sitteth on the right hand
of the Father."--( Nicene Creed .)
The "descent into hell" of the Apostles' Creed of course
meant the passing to the place of disembodied souls--the
lower Astral Plane. Even the orthodox teachers do not now
pretend that the term "hell" meant the place of torture
presided over by the Devil, which theology has invented to
frighten people into the churches. "The third day he arose
from the dead" (and the corresponding passage in the Nicene
Creed) refers to the appearance in the Astral Body--the
return from the Astral Plane in which He had sojourned for
the three days following the crucifixion. "And ascended into
heaven"--this passage shows the belief that He returned to
the place from which He came, for the Nicene Creed has
stated that he " came down from heaven and was
incarnate ... and was made man."
The passage in both creeds stating that He then took his
place "on the right hand of the Father" is intended to show
that He took the place of the highest honor in the gift of
the Father. The mystic teachings explain this by showing
that The Christ is separated from The Father by but the most
ethereal intervening of spiritual substance, and that He is
a Cosmic Principle second in importance only to the Father.
Truly this is the place of honor on "the right hand of the
Father."
"He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
In this passage we see the intimation that not only with the
"quick" or living people is The Christ concerned, but also
with the "dead," that is, with those who "passed out" before
and after His time and who have passed on to the Astral
World, as we have explained in this lesson. Whether or not
the framers of the Creed so understood it--whether or not
they were deluded by the tradition of the "Day of
Judgment"--certainly the Early Christians, or rather, the
mystics among them, understood the teachings as we have
given them and spoke of Him as "living in the dead as well
as in the living," as one of the occult records expresses
it.
"The communion of saints" is the spiritual understanding of
the Mysteries by the Illumined Ones. "The forgiveness of
sins" is the overcoming of the carnal mind and desires. "The
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come"
is the promise of life beyond the grave, and not the crude
idea of the physical resurrection of the body, which has
crept into the Apostles' Creed, evidently having been
inserted at a later date in order to bolster up the pet
theories of a school of theologians. Note that the Nicene
Creed says merely "the dead" and not "the body." The version
of the teachings preserved by the Mystics has a
corresponding passage, "And we know the truth of
the deathlessness of the soul ." (The italics are
ours.)
The consideration of remaining passages in the creeds,
relating to the existence of the "Holy Ghost," must be
deferred until our next lesson.
