(July 17, 2011 at 5:11 pm)FaithNoMore Wrote:(July 17, 2011 at 4:57 pm)Nick_A Wrote: Remember that Paul is speaking to people and families that are united in the common purpose of awakening. They have experieinced something the world doesn't offer. In order to build upon it, a Christian cannot be guided by blind earthly egotism but rather by attempts to further consciousness.
I'm not sure why it would matter who he is talking to. The verses are clearly meant to be interpreted literally.
Nick_A Wrote:You are applying Christian principles to earthly circumstances which cannot be done,
This sentence makes no sense to me, because if this is true, then what is Christianity doing on Earth?
I consider Christianity to be a perennial tradition which means its purpose for Man always was. Christianiy is on earth to help man be free of inner slavery to the earth so as to realize man's conscious potential: to become himself.
To conclude, the great Christian theologian, Saint Augustine in his Retractiones, wrote “The very thing which is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients also, nor was it wanting from the inception of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, at which point the true religion, which was already in existence, began to be called Christian.”
Christianity like all the great traditions initiating with a conscious source begins at the transcendent level of and gradually devolves down into the exoteric level which is called the "World" or Plato's Cave.
I know this seems surprising but consider the diagram Thomas McFarlane, a trained scientist, uses to illustrate the theme of Frithjof_Schuon's book: "The Transcendent Unity of Religions. They are the same at the transcendent level but devolve onto the exoteric level, losing their conscious origin, and become diversified. These two levels of are connected by the inner esoteric direction.
http://integralscience.wordpress.com/199...religions/
All the silliness occurs on the exoteric level. A person having experienced the truth of this seeks the esoteric direction leading to the conscious source of a tradition.
