Western Esoterism vs. Buddhism

 Since my previous post was about Finnish Esoteric Organizations, and if you read introduction page of this blog, you know my spiritual background lies heavily in Western Esoterism (or "esotericism"), but nowadays I am Nichiren Buddhist, I thought it might be a good idea to explain in few points what is often wrong about Western Esoterism, in my opinion. They were published here and there in my Finnish blogs, and I just rounded them up for this presentation. 

When I became a seeker for truth in my 20's, I was first very interested, among other things, in some "messengers of the Great White Brotherhood", namely, Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Ananda Tara Shan, who were known in Finland in those days of the 1990's, gathering followers. Already then I was wondering about the contradictions I saw in their teachings. 

Also, I once took part in a course led by Denise Linn in Helsinki, named "Past lives for your help". We were supposed to see our "past lives" in meditation. I got impression some participants actually "saw" something, but I had to imagine things, and Denise herself said that's okay too.

Then I suddenly found Lectorium Rosicrucianum, Gnostic Mystery School, and even though after few years I abandoned it through hard and painful process, and later became convinced it was a cult, there was some sense about its teachings, that I have found valuable until this day. 

They taught that the Great White Brotherhood never approached people personally, and never appealed to their ego. That leaves no room for "messengers", or "master-this-and-that". It was also told, that some deceased people in afterlife, who should move forward, try to extend their existence in that state by abusing the living people, stealing their life force through mediumism. 

Now, in Buddhism there are also many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but they are generally understood as Archetypes of the Mind. By the way, Mme Blavatsky's original non-ascended masters, Koot Hoomi and Morya, whoever or whatever they were, at least according to so called "Mahatma Letters" they supposedly wrote, were without a doubt Buddhists. I can still revere Blavatsky: see, for example, "Original Theosophy and Later Versions", and "The Danger and Deception of Channeling". 

Later I was involved with Anthroposophy, and it started to bother me how Rudolf Steiner inhabited the whole universe with spiritual beings. That kind of thinking seemed so medieval. And I certainly don't mean I don't believe in Spiritual World at all!

About Reincarnation Lectorium Rosicrucianum taught that you have never ever lived before, and you will never ever live again. Teachings referred to "microcosmic predecessors", instead of past lives. There is this idea in Anthroposophy, that kind of reminds of Buddhist concept: There is no personal soul that lives forever. Frankly, Christian "hope" of everlasting life seems very twisted and egoistic to me: what kind of person wants to preserve their imperfect personality forever!? It is because of fear of death. So it was not difficult to me to embrace Buddhist idea of no-self and impermanence. However, in Anthroposophy there is Spirit above soul, I am, that is not your earthly personality, but something higher, and sometimes this belief seems to lead only to highly cultivated egoism. 

My transference to Buddhism was very smooth. My thinking was already gradually leaning more and more towards Eastern philosophy. I think for many believers of Reincarnation it is unclear what exactly is reincarnated. I don't even use a word "Reincarnation" anymore, because it is so misleading in Buddhist context. As Sagharakshita said: According to a strict orthodox Buddhist view, there is Reincarnation, but no one who reincarnates. I love paradoxes! Especially in religion, they are often the best way to explain something (and at the same time leave it a mystery). 

How about Karma? At one point of life I was having a hard time, and then an old Rosicrucian said to me it was my karma, I had done something to deserve what was happening. I didn't mind back then, but if someone more vulnerable had been told that... Not only was it heartless, but unwise as well. It seems to me, that for Western karma believers it is often too simplified, black and white. Karma is not a mathematical mechanism.

When I was already in transition from (Esoteric) Christianity onward, I was satisfied with teachings that unified Christian concept of "sin" and karma. Through the four Gospels we are told that every deed has its consequences, either here or in Heaven. Every deed is seen and weighed, you can't hide anything. Karma simply means "action" and sin ("hamartia") means to err, to miss the mark. So, all action is erring. From Esoteric Christian point of view, I have published two posts in this blog in 2007: Reincarnation and Karma, and What I have come to learn about Karma & Grace. 

Again, to credit Lectorium Rosicrucianum, it was taught that death as a victim of violence is never part of human destiny meant to take place, it's always premature. And I think Rudolf Steiner understood karma better than many Theosophical authorities. He said:

Many events we encounter in our lives do not result from good or bad past actions. Such events will find their karmic compensation in the future. If I am blameless of what now befalls me, I will find compensation in the future. The fact that nothing remains without karmic adjustment is unequivocal. However, whether a man's present experience is the effect of his karmic past or the cause of a future karma must be determined individually. 

But none of us is able to see it, so we are not qualified to judge. In Nichiren Buddhism, a metaphor of lotus is used: it's blooming and seeding at the same time, a cause and effect are simultaneously present. Despite of past karma, we must focus on present: our deeds now effect our future situation, we deepen the good causes, or change our tendencies, setting the course of our life. 

Buddha said that if you really try to figure out the origin of every karmic consequence, you might get mad. He didn't teach that everything happening to us is a consequence of previous karma. Buddha's teaching on karma is not deterministic, nor it is nihilism; it is the middle-way, including awareness, that effects of previous deeds are experienced all the time, and understanding, that we can always choose how to act. 

About Anthroposophy, one point of disagreement for me was the status of Rudolf Steiner. His followers raise him high above averaged person, and judged by his own writings, he was not innocent for that himself. Yes, he claimed that everyone can train their clairvoyance, but practically he was - and still is - the only approved authority in spiritual matters among Anthroposophists. His every word is taken as divine truth. We see here an example of "guru" in Western context. I have rather admired people on spiritual path, who were not claimed to be flawless supermen, like H.P. Blavatsky. "Perfection" is suspicious to me, and something I dislike. This "guru-attitude" is also one thing I don't like about Soka Gakkai International: I have got  inspiration from Daisaku Ikeda's writings, and  I gladly receive inspiration from wherever I find it, but I refuse to focus on one teacher specifically. As I have told before, Pekka Ervast was my spiritual mentor for many years, I don't deny that, but now I follow the voice of my heart (emphasized by the fact that I'm an independent practitioner). Shakyamuni Buddha conjures up the image of golden statue in lotus position, with blissful expression on his face. He is the high ideal, surrounded by myths and legends, whose teachings were written down much later (but at least he is not claimed to be god). That's why he is also quite distant to me. I always say I'm Buddhist first, then if necessary I specify, Nichiren Buddhist. Nichiren is kind of closer to me, both in time and humanely, and he did write himself. I don't worship him, yet I would like to exchange the Buddha statue on my altar for the statue of Nichiren Shonin. But even statues basically point towards the within, just like Nichiren's calligraphic mandala Gohonzon. Nichiren himself criticized some Buddhist schools of his time for overly relying on gurus and masters. 

Buddha didn't deny existence of gods, he only made it clear it is insignificant for us to contemplate here and now. Long ago I stopped praying to higher power, in hope that some fairy godbeing grants my petty wishes, changing the laws of the universe for my sake (and I must say there are branches of Nichiren Buddhism, that are seemingly prone to similar magical thinking). The Lord's Prayer used to be important to me, and I have composed an explanation of it in relation to Chakras. Interestingly enough, similar chart has been made of Daimoku (Nichiren's mantra), below...

 Nowadays I often spell "god" with lowercase (and sometimes with parenthesis). No, I don't believe in god, if by "god" we mean omnipotent being Christianity (and other Abrahamic religions) portray. So I guess it actually depends on definition of "god", but I rather leave that open. The word in itself is so loaded with cultural imagination, that it is best not to use it at all. However, as many Western Buddhists tend to be Atheists - at least that's how I have understood - and although Atheism in itself simply means not believing in god, generally it is understood in broader sense as denial of everything spiritual, I don't consider myself an Atheist. In Nichiren Buddhism we have this concept of "myoho", mystical law, spiritual aspect of life intertwining with the material aspect of life, not in Western dualistic sense, but as unity. And I do believe in rebirth, if that was unclear. Buddhism didn't completely change my beliefs, rather they were strengthened and clarified.

So I have gone to the source, where many of those ideas, introduced to me in my 20's by Western Esoterism, originate from, and today I must strongly state that I can no longer accept the fact that Westerners take Eastern ideas and concepts, and mix them with their own worldview. They even take Buddha, but give him entirely different role. I mean, for instance, Anthroposophical idea of Buddha as the forerunner and preparer of the way for Christ. NO WAY! That is almost offensive to me! Let's take Buddhism as pure Buddhism, an independent philosophy, standing on its own. Of course I know it has developed differently in various cultures, forming many more or less differing schools. Even Nichiren interpreted its teachings in his own way, but still within Buddhism and in terms of its own. 

LIFE AFTER DEATH

Following thoughts are gathered mostly from Pekka Ervast.

THEORIES
What would Masters say about life after death? - "Everybody's right; Materialists are right, Christians are right, Buddhists are right, Sceptics are right and Theosophists are right; everybody's right, because all these theories represent some aspect of the truth and they all fit into reality itself. Man is such a complex and remarkably composed creature, that there is both life and death in him, and also everlasting life. There is something that will be born again and something that will not. Therefore all theories are right, but right within the limits of their own; they are not right alone but all together. Alone they only solve small part of the riddle of man's everlasting life, but together they give more complex picture of this everlasting life.

SLEEP
Death has been compared to sleep, dream is a younger brother of death, it is said, and there is a clear analogy between sleep and death in perspective of death and our physical or bodily consciousness. When laying down to sleep at night, man as a conscious being vanishes out of the visible life - his consciousness is transferred to astral body while asleep - and waking up in the next morning he comes back here in the visible life, as if he was born again here, yet this rebirth is not complicated for he's still got the same body - he will soon become conscious to continue his life from yesterday. When a man dies he leaves the visible life but will be born again after some time. Reincarnation and going back to Spiritual World is same as change between daily work and rest at night. If a man could stay "awake" - conscious from one life to another - he would remember being in Spiritual World and what life after death was like.

SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY
St. Paul says man is spirit, soul and body. Spirit is the third one, practically unknown for most of us. It's not of this materiality but of higher source of life. When we keep in mind that man is threefold in nature, and all these aspects are independent in him, we understand we're spirits, souls and bodies at the same time. Life after death is life as a soul, life without visible body. But if it's not life as a spirit it cannot be eternal because only one is eternal and it is spirit. Life after death as a soul is temporal, it will vanish. When a physical body dies, man is wearing another body that is nowadays called an astral body. St. Paul calls it flesh, sarks; When he speaks of physical body he uses a word soma. In flesh dwell all our desires and feelings. Therefore we understand how St. Paul could speak of the physical body with respect, calling it the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sarks, this flesh, is evil spirit, tempter, devil at everyone's heels.
In death man departs from the temple of the Holy Spirit and is torn by his own flesh. We are not angels. In this body we may very well cover up many things - it takes awhile until we can turn it into such a dwelling place of demon that all might see it. On the contrary, when a physical body - the temple - suffers, it is great reconciliation, a blessing. After death man lives in sarks, he is what he is. Man is like possessed by his own thoughts, mental images and feelings. He cannot satisfy his lust.
Man is a soulful being, he thinks, he feels and he wills, and even though he does all this through his body, he himself is other than this body. When a man dies, there is no more thought, feeling or willing; no more soulful life left in the body. As long as we live in the body, we live as soulful being, souls. If something exists after death, it cannot be anything else but this soulfulness of ours, which has to be objective in its own way, because it's not same as universal life, which is formless, eternal and infinite. Ability to say "I" suggests that man is formal and limited being. If we have a body in afterlife, it is woven of "thoughts and feelings", thus much closer to consciousness than this physical body - so close that thought immediately affects it. If we have such an organism then, we must already have it as mediator between body and soul. Consciousness in itself would be unconscious and thus not existing unless it had a form in which and through which it would manifest. It is a metaphysical axiom that our thoughts, our beliefs, are thousand times stronger in that world than ever here.

"PHANTOM"
We have a spiritual-physical body, invisible "phantom" which grants us the form and keeps the sunbstance together - substance which is only burrowed form nature and same essence as for instance the mineral kingdom. All cells of the body are renewed from time to time, but the body remains the same. Man loses his body in death.
This phantom was originally created for support to his spirit and base for his soul. In consequence of the fall it has ended up in too close connection with the material substance and goes the way of natural destruction. This body and its karma must be carried til it's all accomplished, til immortal body has been born and formed out of that body. We don't have immortal body yet, we only have a body in which we can live in another world, until the second death in astral level. Without the force of phantom keeping together and giving form, man is threatened before long by "vanishing" into the infinity of the Spiritual World. This forces him to look for another incarnation on earth to strengthen the power of his ego and to experience a sense of a body. Christ Jesus spiritualized his body, his phantom, inside out; he conquered it form the grip of death to make it possible for all of us one day: that is the resurrection of the body on the last day.

LAST JUDGMENT AND RESURRECTION
As H.P. Blavatsky taught, man is not perfect until he's made himself perfect. Though he forgets his vices after death, entering heaven, it's not his own before he has truly overcome himself in this visible world. Therefore it is grace of nature, God's grace, that man may be born again here on earth. Death is like a last judgment for everyone, for each personality. That last judgment concerns man as a personality. It cuts man in half with a big sword. On one side there is left evil, on the side of damnation, and good goes to heaven. But then comes the resurrection. Man is born back in his flesh and receives new temple of the Holy Spirit for a loan.

SUN AND MOON
Just as we, the living, live on the face of the earth, yet we may work in the mines underground or rise up to the sky on airplanes, so are the dead, so to speak, "underground", on earth, and high in the sky "until the moon". In Spiritual World "far" is that which repels, is disagreeable or makes no difference. "Near" is that which attracts, makes you feel sympathy or makes you interested. Symbolically speaking we may say, that first the life after death is spent in the Moon and then in the Sun. In purgatory man's soul is under the influence of the Moon. We live in the middle of the Moon where everything glows (the word "astral" comes from aster, a star); It's a star world where everything glows with weak but clear light like stars and moon. That astral life is like a night life. Life in heaven is transferring from moon and its influence to the Sun.

HEAVEN
Everyone has definitely deserved heaven on the basis of years one has spent on earth, where life - despite of dreams - so far is all but rosy. Short earthly life is followed by shorter heaven, rich earthly life is followed by weaker heaven. But spirituality and goodness naturally lead to long and intense life in heaven, even if one was happy also on earth, because then one's happiness was inward and spiritual by its quality. Selfish and evil person is preparing for oneself thin and short heaven, because on the fields of bliss evil is not feeling at home. Whatever good man has willed during his earthly life, it is there for him in heaveanly life. Heaven is wonderful: Man's personality is like enormously wiser - even though he won't begin anything new, everything old he got in earthly life, developes as far as it can.
Heaven is the innermost mystery of life after death; It is man's real life. It is as if a man lived his earthly life over again, but this time without its sorrows, disappointments, contradictions. He is what he was at his best on earth, when he loved, willed good, did good. Heaven is also a state of soul which can be compared to most wonderful moments of happiness one has tasted on earth. Everything he dreamed on earth will come true to him in heaven, without earthly sorrows and concerns. Heaven is a thought-world, manifestation of ideals. Wise men say, earthly life is more real: In heavens we reap the fruit, but on earth we sow. Part of us - the best of us - always abides in heavens, whether we were on earth or in hell.
Heavens are like great batteries, thoughtforms, hovering above our humanity in its secret consciousness and inspiring still the modern people. It is right that people remember the dead with love, but if it is only manifested by decorating their graves, that is for ourselves, that's our vanity. The dead are pleased only when we remember them with love. They know nothing about tombstones and material flowers, but our loving thoughts are roses going up to them.

PURIFICATION
In earthly time hell is much shorter than physical life, just as heaven is much, much longer. Purification only applies to evil which was manifested in man during his life. It won't dig up any latent evil out of his being. Man's inner possibilities for good and evil will eventually rise up on the surface through the course of lifes; today this and tomorrow that. After Jesus Christ came to earth, everyone who's heard of him, every Christian, has had a kind of "mark of Cain", he's been marked, so that he knows in his heart that the secret of life is selfless love. And when a Christian dies he meets his Judge - the Christ: "I did not follow love at all, didn't understand anything about love. I have been a selfish man; my life has gone to waste; it was a lost life."
Thus man judges himself. But he won't be lost. He will go to heaven and be born again on earth. When a man comes to life beyond, feeling only a sinner, when he's been scared to tremble before the justice of God, he's possessed with suffering and pain. Man can overcome death by dying here and now away from his selfishness and ignorance and becoming a spiritual being he in fact is, conscious citizen of another world. And when a man follows the footsteps of a Master, growing brighter and brighter in this spirit-being, he will arrive at the psychological state we call eternal life, nirvana, tao.

LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN
The Kingdom of heaven is for those who become like little children. Little child is the most sensitive about the truth; as long as he sees his parents telling the truth, he believes them. But he always wants to explore and try everything by himself, making mistakes too. Besides, a child who lives "in heaven" here and now, at the same time enjoys the world and life through his senses and cannot see anything essentially bad about that. Child-likeness is a quality of soul, not a matter of reason. Souls who are like innocent children feel that there is so much sorrow and misfortune in the world that they don't want to increase it in any way. On the contrary, they would like to carry the cross of others, to lighten the heavy burdens of others, to do anything for others, but never cause anything bad in the world.
Child symbolizes the developing aspect of man. Jesus says: "Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (Mt.18:10). If we mean by "child" forces of human soul, then an angel in heaven is the spiritual core of the soul: Through the eyes of our spiritual Self we always see the face of Father, because it is one with His essence. Spirit of God is living and affecting in us, we are His children and we receive fatherly help, guidance, comfort, forgiveness from Him, as in the story of the Prodigal son. But child grows and Father expects us to become adults some day.
Marko Pogacnik has explained the parable of the lost sheep (Mt.18:12-13) so that the 99 sheep faithfully following the pack are people not awakened spiritually, who won't listen to their innermost being but "go with a flow." The sheep which wandered away symbolizes man's individualizing process: The one who walks his own way must be ready to get lost too. "The Shepherd of humanity" supports man's personal independence.
What do children have what adults don't have? (Mt.18:3, 19:14) Children are open, trusting and honest. They accept the words of their parents as absolute. Adults are introverted, suspicious, and dishonest. We hold things and don't share our feelings, our mind or our heart. We tend to question everything and accept very little. You must learn not to care for the head when it comes to spiritual matters; Only listen to your heart, for heart is a center of love. Spirit dwells in hearts of us all, expecting us to notice and to listen to it.

LOSE YOUR LIFE
One must lose his life to find life - to lose selfishness to find his true Self. Selfishness is that which darkens man (Mt.6:23). We won't be released from our faults by analyzing darkness but bringing them into the light of understanding. Whatever we wish to keep for ourselves, we'll lose. What you give, you get. We have to live, let life flow through us, help others to live while constructing our own life. There is no life without death, no regeneration without death of the old. Grapes must be crushed to make wine. We must let go of old thoughts and make space for new concepts, to die away from ignorance and illusion, before we can be born again in spirit.
The last sacrifice of Christ on the cross - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - the last sacrifice we must offer, is my God - ego's image of itself expanded to God. Old Rosicrucian confession says: We were born of God, We die in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit we are born again; That is, We die while living and are born again in the Spiritual World. Salvation has two meanings, says Paul Brunton: To free you from your destiny and rebirths to physical body caused by that, and to lift you up from spiritual ignorance you are in.
Grace is very misunderstood word; Usually we have an image that it is a favor the Higher One can do to the lower one, as if it was an opposite to cruelty. It's not an amnesty granted by Tyrant for a criminal. It is just bliss, happiness, harmony hidden in the universe, which everyone misses and everyone is called to participate with. Religion isn't actually more than shouting at the people: "You don't have to live in the darkness and suffer all these things without knowing what they are, because you can be set free, to be free from both all suffering and all ignorance. You can overcome that suffering by knowing what it is, where it comes from, and what is its purpose. When you take right attitude to all suffering you will discover you may keep inner bliss, happiness - in the middle of all suffering."

HIGHER SELF
In order to be able to understand this everlasting life and life after death, one must first of all get the idea that there is in man something called "Higher Self", divine aspect, real immortal ego etc. Whatever name is used, even if we said Christ, Saviour, they mean there is within man something hidden in him, which is higher, eternal, immortal. It is this Higher Self that makes man a man. It's manifested first as a conscience. Secondly, it's manifested by man's search for truth, his dreaming and philosophizing, and his love for beauty. Thirdly, it's manifested through pure, selfless, noble love that wants the best for others. During physical life we have along this companion, an angel. In death this true Inner Self which was tied up with visible personality, is released and lives its own life. After death man is not free as he is here. If you don't look for God now, it's nearly impossible to begin after death. Man is inwardly bound, or forced to continue life he lived here.
It is a natural fact that in death we lose connection with our Higher Self. We are not connected with it in this visible world just like that, without any effort. The light of Higher Self is not far. It is hidden in our heart. Sincere and devoted effort will open for us the gates of the kingdom of light. But after death it may take hundreds of years; However, ultimately man will reach this connection in life after death, but often after such an intense efforts that almost whole past personality will vanish. Man forgets all bad when he's purified. He walks through the lonely, hot desert of soul until he becomes more and more like a child. From darkness to light! He has had to give up selfishness completely - and then there is nothing much left of the personal human being. His own personal consciousness becomes thinner and thinner, and more transparent; the radiance, the light of truth, the beauty attracting him there is so intense that he will in a way fall asleep out of himself. Therefore we cannot remember anything when we are born again on earth; We have a whole new soulful personality. Heavenly state will end with last judgement when Divine Ego of man draws to itself from personality that which is holy and high.

TREASURES IN HEAVEN
It is extremely significant for the development of human soul that men gather the treasures which no moth and rust will corrupt, not for any external causes, not in order to do better here on earth or after death, but just because truth and goodness are worth it.
The most of his life man spends after death and therefore his natural life must be that in the Spiritual World. He should prepare for that life where weight and length and money etc. don't matter, but only the spiritual values. That's the life we were created for, that's what we exist for! In our real human life only the truth, goodness and beauty - ideas that cannot be measured in dollars and cents - do matter. This visible life is so short and transient that it would not be worth while to exist for.
People who had a clear idea of life after death during their physical life, are in different position after death than others. It's like a man who travels to foreign country and has read many books about it, perhaps discussed with someone from that country, and knows the language. We are unwise if we don't want to find out about the world we're going to.
A man who keeps his eyes open while entering a state after death, who tries to keep his awareness, is in such a special position that he can be helped more than the other deceased, he can even be taught in such a way that he may be useful in invisible world. He may become a helper for the deceased who come poorly prepared or through a sudden death.

MANY ROOMS IN FATHER'S HOUSE
"There are many rooms in my Father's house" said Jesus and he meant: "In my Father's kingdom there are rooms of all religions." All religions have as if their own conditions after death, Christian religion is not special in invisible world, no more "favored by God" than any other. The faithful deceased of religions and churches form equal worlds of their own in the life after death. And there are also conditions outside of religions for those who didn't want to belong to any of them.
All religions are like roads to Christ. In old religions there was highly moral world view which did not pay so much attention to evil or which emphasized more goodness. No religion takes man to Christ or God just like that. Man must take a real position on his religion. It cannot be like a cloth he takes off or it's nothing. His religion, his faith must be his life. Not all religions are equally suitable for anyone, that Christian might as well become a Muslim. Equality of religions doesn't mean this at all.
Jesus Christ has his own heaven, outside and independent of heaven of Christians, above all other heavens. Yet in this particular room in Father's house there are all other great teachers, Buddha, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Moses etc. None of the wise men in the old covenant or saviors of the religions had loved men as much as Jesus of Nazareth... Jesus brought Father's love to humanity so that the Son of God lives in our humanity and it is immediately close to each individual human being. By the power of his love Jesus Christ had a chance to change immensely those so called mysteries concerning physical life and life in purgatory, hell and heaven after death. He brought something new into all that.
Invisible worlds and life after death are closer to his conscious influence and so it is natural that in the invisible world he's able to do more than in the visible one. Therefore, he has brought a new stream of force, new impulse to the life after death and karma after death. Faith St. Paul was preaching to so called heathens was faith in Jesus Christ being a friend of humanity, a lover and miraculous helper, that whoever believes and trusts in him will be helped by him after death.
While Christ's heaven is above other heavens of the atmosphere, at the same time it is also within, around and outside of them. Heaven after Christ's death is the heaven of love embracing everyone. The deceased who enter Christ's heaven, come through heavens of groups of all different religions and those outside of religions. They are not Christians alone, not all of them have even heard of Jesus Christ. Some of them have even denied all supernatural. Those who enter Christ's heaven have got in touch with Christ in their souls during life, often without knowing. God has always been the God of all people.
But in new covenant Christ through Jesus has descended into the physical world, so that the consciousness of Christ is living already behind this visible life, and anyone of us may in one's soul get in touch with Christ-Consciousness or the Son of God. It is now required that man in one way or another, will forget his own tiny personal ego and at least momentarily is filled with human feelings, for example hearty love for another one or something higher. New covenant is just that: "Covenant with God" nowadays is closer to humanity than before.

PRAISE THE GOD OF LIFE!
We feel how in our souls we go down on our knees. We cannot but praise life and God of life, who is so infinitely higher than our ideas of him. We are used to think here in this physical world that one religion is more right than the other, and ours is perhaps the only right one... Life itself, God, is above all, life won't make difference between people. Life loves everybody. Jesus says: "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good." We truly humble in the spirit before the great neutrality of life. No one is blessed more specially with mercy before life, just because he belongs to certain religion. If a man is an atheist but he - even in secret from himself - listens to the language of his heart and obeys its command to be merciful, helpful and gentle, then he in fact is connected with Christ and is taken after death to the gate of the Kingdom.
The help religions wish to give people during their final hours can be compared to sleeping pills. Man has lived in the visible world mostly without remembering the death and life after death - death has been a distant issue for him. The younger he is, the more impossible death seems to him. Therefore, it is good Churches have developed these sleeping pills of death to calm human soul, to turn the mind of dying one away from visible life, to attach his mind to blessed thoughts of peace.

What I have come to learn about Karma & Grace

When it is said that the Christ suffers " for men", that His strength replaces their weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom their ignorance, a truth is spoken; for the Christ so becomes one with men that they share with Him and He with them. There is no substitution of Him for them, but the taking of their lives into His, and the pouring of His life into theirs. For, having risen to the plane of unity, He is able to share all He has gained, to give all He has won. Standing above the plane of separateness and looking down at the souls immersed in separateness, He can reach each while they cannot reach each other. Water can flow from above into many pipes, open to the reservoir though closed as regards each other, and so He can send His life into each soul. Only one condition is needed in order that a Christ may share His strength with a younger brother: that in the separated life the human consciousness will open itself to the divine, will show itself receptive of the offered life, and take the freely outpoured gift. For so reverent is God to that Spirit which is Himself in man, that He will not even pour into the human soul a flood of strength and life unless that soul is willing to receive it. There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness of the higher to give. That is the link between the Christ and the man; that is what the churches have called the outpouring of "divine grace"; that is what is meant by the "faith" necessary to make the grace effective. (Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries by Annie Besant.)

I consider quote above quite useful, as the whole book by Besant, no matter what one might think of her twisted Christology - a reason that caused Rudolf Steiner to leave the Theosophical Society for good and found his own Anthroposophical movement.
In his Lecture in Münich, 3rd May 1911, titled: The Concepts of Original Sin and Grace, which I have found very enlightening, Rudolf Steiner explains how Luciferic influence came when a man was on the point of receiving his ego, so at that time still a child-like man could not discern between right and wrong: "This temptation was a deed to which man yielded before the period of ego-development but which has cast its shadows into the whole of this development."A man sinned with his astral body, for he had not his ego yet: "That is the radical difference between the sin we now incur as men and the sin which at that time crept into our human nature." [...]
"What the astral body has become as the result of the temptation of Lucifer is a perpetual cause of degeneration and deterioration of the human race."
This has continued through the course of the incarnations, since Luciferic impulse was implanted in heredity causing increasing deterioration in that process, says Steiner, and that is the true meaning of the "Original Sin", Inherited Sin in some languages like Finnish."This sin which, in its consequences, is inherited, which represents sin in man of which he is not guilty in the real sense, must be counterbalanced by the possibility of re-ascent, also without merit of his own. Just as without guilt of his own, man was obliged to fall, so he must be able to re-ascend without merit of his own — that is to say, without full merit of his own. We fell without being ourselves guilty and we must therefore be able to ascend without merit of our own." [...]
"Just as man has worsened his astral body through incurring Original Sin, so he heals it again through the Christ Impulse. An inflowing power repairs the astral body to the same extent to which it has deteriorated. That is the Atonement, that is what in the true sense is called ‘Grace’. Grace is the concept that is complementary to that of Original Sin. So the Christ Impulse has made it possible for man to become one with Christ, to say with St. Paul: ‘Not I, but Christ in me’, thus giving expression to everything that is designated by the concept of Grace."
Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer (1872-1938), a well-known Protestant Minister in Germany, who became a first leader of The Christian Community in 1922... "Tells us of his experiences with Rudolf Steiner over a period of ten years of apprehension, critical investigation and cautious scrutiny of the new body of thought, and his final conviction of the unparalleled greatness of Rudolf Steiner's spirit" (note by D.S. Osmond, translator of his book, Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life). Friedrich Rittelmeyer writes among other things about karma and grace:

But - Sin and Grace? This was, after all, the most fundamental experience in Luther! "Rudolf Steiner has not understood that at all," - so say the theologians. - He understood it so little that he spoke more profoundly and poignantly than all his contemporaries of the actuality and influence of Evil. He investigated the history of the Fall into Sin and perceived its consequences on the one hand in nature itself and on the other in thought, which has become abstract, vapid, dead, wherever one looks in theology. A later epoch will be faced with the remarkable phenomenon in history that the man who spoke as none other before him - not subjectively but objectively - of the terrible havoc wrought by Evil, should have had to put up with being reproached by theologians that he did not know the meaning of Sin.

And Grace? He understood it so little that, as none other before him, he taught the Christ-Deed - that act of Grace unmerited by us and far transcending all our thinking - as the all decisive event in human history without which the whole of mankind would have been lost, but which they could not have brought to pass of themselves - an event so decisive that upon it rested the whole future of humanity and of each individual. He understood "so little" that he said: "The higher one rises, the more does everything become Grace." But he said little about it, and he did not speak in the language of the theologians.

Karma and reincarnation - the laws of destiny and rebirth. They are exactly contrary to the Christian experience of Grace and the biblical Gospel of salvation - so it is said. Over against this let it be stated with all emphasis that in our time both these truths, although they are not found in the Bible, can be recognised as Christian truths. For me they are not so much scientific results of spiritual research with which Christianity has to come to terms - although they are that too - but far rather actual demands of Christianity when it is rightly understood.
Think of it for a moment: a man passes into the higher world. How will it be with him? For a time he may rejoice to find himself free of the earth and all her misery. But then, if he is allowed a prayer - what will it be? He will surely wish again to meet all those human beings whom he wronged in earthly life, and he will crave for the opportunity to do good to those whom he wronged on earth. "Grace" will lie precisely in this, that he asks if this may be granted him. The law of Karma may have appeared in the East as irrevocable world-necessity - in the light of Christ it becomes an act of Grace, our own free wish. But that act of Grace - the only one of which we usually hear mention - namely that a man has been seized by the reality of Christ, that act of Grace must have gone before in order to make such a wish possible at all.
And now suppose the man in the other world is allowed a second request - what will he wish? He will wish that he may help the Christ where His task is heaviest and most menaced, where Christ Himself suffers and has to fight most bitterly. This wish, if it were fullfilled, would lead the man back again to the earth.
It is not Christian to long for the rest and blessedness far from the miseries of earth. It is Christian to bear within one the consciousness which once brought Christ from Heaven to earth, to find one's joy in being like unto Him and to work with Him wherever He may need us.

Rittelmeyer adds however, that there are no dogmas in The Christian Community, so reincarnation certainly is not one either. Together in devotion to Christ one can even reject that.
James H. Hindes, a priest in the Christian Community, summarises Steiner's ideas of salvation in his excellent book, Renewing Christianity:

The weight of sin through the ages would have already destroyed the earth and with it our possibility of any future existence as human beings were it not for the intervention of God in the person of Christ Jesus. In uniting with the earth he has taken on the consequences of human misdeeds which burden the earth. He is the one who 'takes away the sin of the world.' When Christ says to the sick man in Chapter 9 of Matthew's gospel 'Your sins are forgiven' this means, according to Steiner's interpretation, 'Christ has forgiven you so completely that even the destructive spiritual consequences for the earth have been eradicated.' What we by ourselves cannot do - to undo the consequences of our sins for the earth - Christ has done for him. [...]
What is here essential is that the personal consequences of our sins be transformed into destiny. To take away this aspect of sin would be to rob us of the possibility of advancement, ultimately, of salvation. Salvation cannot be a purely passive process or we would be robbed of our freedom.

You may also want to meditate these Bible passages:
"A man reaps what he sows." - Gal.6:7
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." - Mt.7:2
"For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." - Mt.16:27
"It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of pen to drop out of the Law." - Lk.16:17
"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'" - Mt.9:13
"Love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Pt.4:8
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world trough him." - John 3:17
Also consider this: A Greek word generally translated as "judgement" means actually crisis; Crisis is a turning point with a possibility for something new!

Paul Brunton wisely said that Buddha was born in a country where priests had made people to believe that all sins can be redeemed and their effects on karma deleted through some payed ritual, or sacrifise, or magic. Therefore Buddha wanted to lift the morality of his people and denyed forgiveness of sins affirming the strict and unchangeable rule of the law of karma.
Jesus was born in a country where religion declared "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Because he was as wise as Buddha, he emphasized the forgiveness of sins and God's mercy. He might have acknowledged Buddha's view but he would have added, "There is also the law of love for those who have faith to call it and will to obey it."
There is no jugdement or punishment in destiny, it is a neutral and impersonal force. God's Love is not sentimental; it is tough love seeking the ultimate Good for us, therefore it won't protect us from experiences we need in order to grow. Man is an active participant in his life, not just an unwilling observer. Life is a sum of countless opportunities and choices. Past influence only provides the frames for possibilities and probabilities. In God's "Blue print" there are only outer limits of the building, not details or materials for interior decorating: that's left for the man himself.
Same difficulties may make one man bitter and another man may see them as an opportunity. Reactions order how things evolve. Good deeds are followed by contentment and bad deeds are followed by sorrow.
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us." This is the law of balance and harmony, doctrine of cause and effect. As karma is one side of the coin, so are the compassion and grace another aspect of the same universal law: too much and too little - sin to grace - vices to virtues.
The immortal I-amness, real center and source of our consciousness, preserves all lessons that our earthly, ordinary self cannot comprehend. It is the vine and personalities on earth are the branches.
"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouds and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head." Mark 4:26-28
Here sleeping means the sleep of death, but the seed is growing night and day. It won't result fast and suddenly but nothing goes backwards - everything goes forward.
In another parable of Jesus (Mt.21, Mk.12, Lk.20), Vineyard is earthly life and man is only a tenant not an owner. He must pay the rent, to bring some fruit to the Giver of Life, that is, to find something in his experiences of life that will nourish his eternal being, or else he's wasted his life.

See also: Karma & Grace by John Van Auken (Edgar Cayce's viewpoint),
and Grace and Mercy - Wisdom words (quotes from various authors).

Thoughts after the School Shooting in Finland

Yesterday Finland rose to the Headlines globally, and unfortunately in a tragic way. I won't repeat the story and I don't try to speculate the reasons...
Violence is never acceptable, yet I may have a point of view which some people might find offensive, and I'm sorry for that but it has to be stated too: If it is true what was said, that the shooter was harshly bullied at school, then - in a strange way - I can sympathize with him.
For me the last three years at primary school - at the ages of 14-16 - were just living hell, every single day! I was quiet and that was enough to make me a target. I can affirm that no punches hurt like words - they make deep wounds which take time to heal, perhaps the rest of your life! The Student Counsellor treated me as a problem. Teachers just laughed at the bullies and their ongoing joking in the class-room. They didn't see or didn't want to see what was going on. So, you could say they were partly responsible.
Somehow I managed to survive through those three years but immadiately after that I got very depressed and wanted to kill myself. However, I was not left alone and I got help. Since that one fall and winter I have never been depressed again and suicide would be totally out of the question. For same reason my younger brother later stopped going to school for good and completed his degrees from home!

Much has changed in my life - not least the fact that I found that "one special person" by my side. My self-esteem was crushed for so many years and I was convinced that I'm ugly and nobody could love me. Making friends and trusting people is not easy even today.
Over twenty years have passed. Last year there was a class re-union. I didn't go. I e-mailed to my old buddy that I would only come with a bomb. That was a bad joke of course. I never recollect those days. Never! If sometimes a memory comes to mind, I feel anger and I've even had killing fantasies at that moment. The only way I was able to protect myself back then, was to withdraw to my own inner world. I didn't allow myself to show that I was hurt. I cried alone at home and in turn treated my younger brother badly - thing I regret the most in my past! I didn't want to admit to any adults that I was bullied so much, because I felt it was my weakness! And another defence mechanism I created was to start to think that I was in fact intellectually above those who bullied me!

What comes to the extreme world view of the shooter, like idealising Hitler and Stalin... Well, on my behalf I can say I have learnt to understand the conclusions upon which Anton LaVey based his satanic philosophy, according to which there is no Supreme Power above man; man is just the highest animal; Satan is a symbol of his bestial side; The weak shall perish and only the strong survive, and so on. I'm not saying I believe any of that - no way! And neither this is to suggest that an average satanist is not a decent citizen just as much as any atheist!
However, when such a tragedy occurs, there is another perspective to be considered seriously: The sphere of invisible forces that effect our material world and some of which we can call demonic. Person who is able to do an evil act like that, is not quite himself - his I amness is ousted and he's "possessed". It is indisputable fact that there is a connection between similar acts in America and elsewhere, only it's not on material level but spiritual. One could imagin it's like a supernatural virus infection. I think those who lack the spiritual concepts of world and man in their thinking, are more vulnerable: For instance, young people who can't find any meaning of life.
We need to put on a full armor of God as St. Paul says in his epistle, because the dragon was hurled to the earth with his angels (Rev.12).

I'm happy in my present day life and my attitude towards the future is positive. Only my past is shadowed by the dark cloud. Even though I sincerely believe I have needed also all those painful experiences to become the one I am today; An easier life could have made me a shallow person - a kind I wouldn't like. As a christian, "love your enemies" and "forgive those who have tresspassed against us", mean the world to me, and God knows I have tried! But being a christian does not make you less human.

What I am trying to say is, obviously that person was a very disturbed young man and there is absolutely nothing to justify what he did... And at the same time I can possibly comprehend what kind of circumstances led him to the dead end. It could have been me in the 80's. It might be anyone who's been bullied hard enough, long enough, til something irreplaceable finally breaks in one's soul and the hell is breaking loose - the same hell one has been living in... When the vessel is broken it can no longer hold the contents.
How about a little bit of Compassion to the school life - to the lifes of each one of us - in stead of competition, criticism, comparison..?

Nowadays News reach the whole world in no time at all - bad news even faster, and it seems as if the bad news were the only good news. Is this constant flow of images from wars and disasters - not to mention the violent movies and games we call entertainment - made us to get used to it all, so that if something is to catch our attention and make us care at all it has to be huge? Minor personal tragedies happen everyday, everywhere, they just don't make it to the news and even if they did, they don't touch us; we have seen too much already. And the world didn't stop this time either.
Modern world is becoming increasingly artificial, effective, and faster. I know what I am talking about. I only need to look back to my childhood in the 70's.
In my early years we didn't even have a television, and when we got it, it was black and white and there were only two channels in Finland at the time. I didn't have much toys but I practised my imagination a lot. And my mother taught me to love books. One memory I cherish is when we had relatives visiting and ex tempore we made up a play of The Sleeping Beauty; Both adults and children alike were participating joyfully and we had so much fun!
Now there are TV-channels more than enough, children's cartoons are full of "Crash! Boom! Bang!"-action, and if nothing is on TV there is always DVD. They have plenty of ready-played plastic junk as toys. Almost everyone in Finland has a mobile phone (even I think my friend who doesn't want one, is just being difficult!). There is internet and console games. Don't tell me it doesn't effect children! This is why I very much support steinerpedagogy - my heart tells me it's right!

I just learnt that Finland is ranked third among the most-armed nations: I have never seen a real gun in my life!

Tonight I will pray for the victims and I will also pray for the killer - a kind of victim too. And he will have to face the results of his action in the Afterlife and that's not going to be easy! He has created his own hell - that's the only hell there is, a state of mind. His victims instead will be embraced by the angels and passed loved ones, in their tender and loving care!
Those of us who believe in reincarnation and karma, know that the consequences of his action won't end in the spiritual world - the bitter fruits of his deed come back to himself and he will reap what he sowed here on earth. It will come as a lesson to learn, an opportunity to grow, tough love as Lord will use his rod and staff as stated in Psalm 23.

His parents were threatened after the incidence and they needed police protection; For heaven's sake - did they not lose their child, too?! As if they didn't have a right to grieve in peace. Like it woudn't be enough that they must be accusing themselves and feeling shame. Local people were quoted saying that Jokela is such a small place where everyone knows each other - as if it was a good thing: I grew up in a place like that and it was distressing. People were nosy and gossiping and they thought they knew you! Lord have mercy, if you are somehow different - or feel different.

I don't believe that violent death is God's plan for anyone, it is always premature and meaningless; but that's exactly why it will be balanced for the victims of such a death in the future and their cups will overflow with gracious happiness, and they may be born again rather soon (usually we would talk about hundreds of years in earth time, between death and new birth). I know this won't comfort their families. I can only say: may God bless them.

For a few days afterwards I was feeling distressed; Am I a bad person, because all I could think of were my own painful experiences? Then, in The Act of Consecration of Man, I felt just immensely relieved: Christ Jesus took my burden away. And after that I met a friend of mine, with whom I was able to talk about the issue; He had similar experiences and feelings, so he understood me, unlike my partner (whose love is my primary source of comfort anyway, right after the love of my Lord).

Reincarnation and Karma

I believe in Reincarnation and Karma. I see them as the laws of nature that God has established and even He won't break them. They are the most logical explanations of the world and they are not only suitable for christianity but they belong to christianity as well. When understood correctly, Reincarnation is not in conflict with the christian belief in resurrection of the body on the last day; neither is karma in conflict with grace. And yes indeed, Jesus Christ is "The Lamb on God who takes away the sins of the wolrd" and He has the power to forgive sins! Of course I realize that this would require a lot of explanations but I'm not going to do that. I can only say that I don't want to preach the Reincarnation as the truth to anyone: it's not a matter of Salvation - "no pearls to pigs" - for me it is more than just a belief: It's a profound, inner confidence, that has been tested in life and found unshakeable!

And I must add that homosexuality in the light of reincarnation is not such a big deal! There are two considerable theories: According to one that looks into the past, when you live several lifes in one sex and then are born to opposite sex, change is somehow incomplete (it doesn't mean you are less human!). According to another theory that looks into the future and which I've learnt from my "spiritual teacher" Pekka Ervast (he was ahead of his time, 1875-1934), in distant future two sexes will unite and today glbt-people are the first sign of this - the mediators between two sexes. In fact, when Genesis is read with esoteric understanding, the name of The Creator-God, Elohim, is both masculine and feminine word and a plural form: "Male-Goddesses"(according to Rudolf Steiner these are the angelic hierarchies working as instruments of God's Will) created Man in their own image, male and female - there was one androgyne Being, Man-Woman. This is the first creation in Chapter one and in chapter two man is created again from the dust of the ground. In chapter one creation is accomplished in Higher Worlds, now the solid substance is added and sexes are separated. On earth our purpose is not to become more male or female but more Human!

"It's hard to understand why God allows this", the Lutheran bishops often say when something terrible happens. I understand - that is the foundation of my faith! It's more than mere blind belief in things you've learnt. As Pekka Ervast has thought, First comes the seeking for truth "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" - doubt is purifying your mind from the service of idols. Faith awakens when the conflict between reason and feeling has been overcome. The power of faith is kind of decending from thinking to feeling and from feeling to physical body. Then the Good deeds can come forth from the necessity of Higher Nature. The Crucified Christ is resurrected in our physical body!

God gave us the free will - otherwise we would be the robots under his controll. God who personally directs everything on earth is not "Almighty" but just a puppet-master and the Tyrant! He has restrickted His almightiness for us. Christ is the King who waits for his people to give Him the Throne freely! Man is not a passive object in Salvation but an active co-operator. The Prodigal Son himself decided to return to his father and took the first steps.

There is one thing in christian dogmatism I fiercely oppose and that is a concept of eternal punishment in Hell! It's absolutely against the love of God. God is made Satan - or at least it seems that Satan is partially the winner if anyone should go to Hell. Again Pekka Ervast has pointed out how Salvation is seen purely as an act of God's mercy but damnation is precisely man's fault alone! I believe in Hell as a state of mind one chooses to live in already on earth, and as a process of healing and purification for Heaven after life.