by Ernest L. Norman
The dictionary defines religion as a code of ethics; however in a more generally accepted frame of reference, religion relates to the various interpretations of life, which are considered spiritual in nature; therefore religion assumes a certain transition of life or an interpolation of life values as they are concerned with various churches or deistic beliefs. It is also generally acknowledged, that at this time the Christian religion ranks among the greatest religions of the world; that is, numerically speaking, more than 800 million people profess in some manner or form to be Christian adherents. However, it is neither acknowledged nor conceded that the Christian religion is Christian in its interpretation. This can be historically proven and can also be seen to assume as its outward expression in varied church configurations, in deistic interpretations, as merely readaptations of old pagan beliefs or renditions in a more modern manner; but basically still remaining pagan in all various dispensations. This, in itself, presents an equally great paradox, for it is exactly opposite in all its content and rendition to the simple philosophical approach to life as was taught by the Nazarene, 2000 years ago.
To further study the life and the philosophy taught by Jesus, it can easily be seen that such a direct philosophical approach would defeat the entire context of Christianity as it is expressed in this present age. The belief in the various configurations as they are posed by present-day Christianity would, in effect – in fact it does in all effect – render this simple philosophy of Jesus, completely ineffective and incapable of operating in its effect with anyone who professes Christianity and practices its various beliefs.
Conversely, the existence of any Christian church or the entire context of Christianity, as a whole, would completely pass from the earth, should the various Christian adherents turn to the true philosophy of life taught by Jesus. It can also be reasonably assumed that the Christian religion would not have sprung into existence and flourished during the past 2000 years, unless it had somehow acquired certain elements which can be considered, in a psychological vein, to be coercive or mandatory in nature.
A point in case which demonstrates how well the church edifice has taken mental responsibility completely away from the individual, was carried in a recent story printed by a local newspaper. A woman who was, at a particular moment, in a confessional, drew a loaded revolver and threatened the priest with his life, saying that he and other priests had not prayed for her and her family, sufficiently strong enough to eliminate certain particular conditions which were then in existence in her family life. This story immediately suggests many implications; that this woman, along with some 500 million other Catholics, has been taught, since birth, that the numerous interpolations of life should be considered strictly the property of the church; that such munificent blessings which come to these various adherents are specifically handed out through the priesthood of the church; also, that any and all people must approach God or Jesus, through the priesthood. Moreover, it suggests that the keys to heaven and hell are held by the sundry priests in the church; these keys will unlock the various different doors to any person allowing him to pass through.
How different is this great hypocrisy from the teaching which was taught 2000 years ago, by Jesus; the one who was purportedly to be the keystone or cornerstone in the structure of Christian beliefs. For Jesus taught the simple philosophy of life which mandated that every person must, individually, assume a personal and moral responsibility, not only to himself, but to the Creative Intelligence which engendered his existence. The keystone to the arch of understanding in this simple philosophy is posed in that teaching of Jesus, when He said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven which is within, and all things shall be added unto you.” Obviously, the Kingdom of Heaven is within, and not within some church as is posed by the priesthood. This is further verified by another utterance of Jesus when He spoke and said, “The Father and I are one and the same.” This also clearly indicates that the Kingdom or the Father, which are synonymous, are personal property of every individual, and can be found within the confines of his own interpretation and from his concept of creation.
Obviously too, there seems to be some contradiction in a later quotation of Jesus when He was asked about performing miracles, and He spoke thusly, “Of myself I do nothing, but it is the Father within who doeth all things.” While this may appear to be a contradiction, it is easily explained when it is understood; when Jesus spoke of the Higher or Superconscious Self – as it is explained in the teachings of Unarius – this Superconscious Self was an abstraction, synonymous to the Father. For in detracting from the personal noun content of the word “Father,” Father became the Creative Intelligence which had, in effect, created the macrocosm and microcosm; and was, therefore, the inherent property of all substance both visible and invisible; and this “Father” was also a regenerative, progressive principle of evolution which propagated and fostered all forms of life, visible and invisible.
Therefore, here was the difference: when Jesus spoke in one manner and said, “The Father and I are one and the same,” He spoke in the metaphor of the connection of the Superconscious Self with the Infinite Father. And when He spoke of Himself as, “Of myself I do, nothing, but it is the Father within who doeth all things,” meaning that the physical man did nothing; but it is the Father in conjunction with the Superconscious Self which was responsible for all the seeming miracles which were wrought by His interpretation of the Superconscious Self into various illnesses and psychic derelictions of people who came to him.
An even greater contradiction is carried in that utterance and instruction of Jesus, when He spoke thusly unto His followers and said, “Do not worship as does the heathen, nor in public places, neither in temples nor in synagogues, but retire into the closet of thine own self and seek out the Father within, that He may reward thee openly.” How could it be then, that more than 800 million people who would profess Christianity, leave this all-important function of personal ethics, upon the shoulders of some priesthood; for should every one of these Christian adherents following the instructions of Jesus, start to retire into the secret closet of his own self and begin seeking out the Father within, it would soon be seen that the churches would pass from the face of the earth. And along with the passing of churches, would go the various other different heathen interpretations of life which are seen in the war-like attitudes of people against one another, the numerous parasitic attitudes, the demands that one ideology must be the ideology of all, the psychotic interpretations of life which so many individuals try to superimpose as the dominant interpretation of life upon thousands or millions of their fellow citizens.
It can be considered therefore, that any effect so far as the Christian is concerned in removing moral responsibility from the consciousness of the individual, or that the church has assumed this moral responsibility as its own interpretation or reference of life, people can, therefore, react toward one another as they see fit to do; that they may be sublimated into various reactionary differences, ultimately resolving all these varied subliminations by the right of intercession, as it is posed by the Christian Church.
How different this is from the simple direct philosophy of life as taught by Jesus; that we as individuals are, to ourselves, in reference to the great Infinite Creative Intelligence, directly responsible for all thought and action in our daily lives. This does not resolve itself into dispensations which are rendered from some priesthood in the temple. It is the closet of our own inner selves. It is where we find the Father within who dwelleth in the Eternal Kingdom, for the substance, the understanding of the Father and the Infinite Kingdom, does in effect, become the substance of life. With knowledge comes usage, in a direct proportion and equilibrium which is manifest throughout an entire lifetime, and extends into any lifetime in which the individual can be reasonably assumed to reincarnate, to occupy various intermediate lives in spiritual worlds where he will again polarize certain quotients of Infinite Consciousness, which will be worked out and polarized with the Higher Superconscious Self. This is true reincarnation or evolution.
The development of the spiritual consciousness – the personal entity of spiritual consciousness – which is the inherent birthright of every human being, and which, as part of the regenerative principle of life, is instigated and propagated by Infinite Intelligence, and must ultimately function through all dimensions and transpositions of life, irrespective of color, race, creed, or belief. For the earth as a whole, as seen in conjunction with an infinite number of terrestrial planets throughout the great cosmic universe, is, in effect, the first of many stages of development through which man begins this evolutionary flight to a higher state of consciousness.
Church systems, as they exist today on this earth, are to some degree, necessary in the first primitive and elemental stages of man’s development. However, they can never be conceived to be the more ultimate possibilities of concept which any individual can attain, should he pursue a constructive evolution. Infinity always poses the great challenge of infinite understanding, so that a person who is minded in a likewise fashion can always constructively expand his consciousness into horizons of understanding. How could it be that a Super Intelligence who was wise enough, sufficient unto himself through a regenerative principle of life to create planetary systems, galaxies, and even universes; yes, and universes beyond universes, be insufficiently intelligent to mandate the various transpositions of life into the priesthood of a few foundling priests, who had sufficiently coerced their fellow men into a false hypnotic belief in their supersedence of power over these poor souls, and mandated not only a somewhat more or less complete subjugation; but had also extracted from them a very affluent way of life. For these ministers, priests, monks, cardinals, popes, etc., all and sundry expressionists in these deistic configurations have set themselves up in power over their fellow men, knowing full well the hypocracy of their position.
In this respect, at one time I was discussing the various elements in the formation of the Christian religion with a minister, quite well known in this area. He professed that he knew, in fact was taught in the seminary, these sundry historical facts; but stated that the mother church did not allow him to teach or preach them to the congregation; but only in such aspects of life and their personal beliefs as would vindicate them in these respects. How great was the hypocracy of this minister that he had not the inner fortitude to even contrive within his own mind, a vocal expression or giving voice to his own personal opinions on his religion; that he was mandated to give a strict circumference of interpretation in various deistic concepts, which were familiar to his congregation, to again reapply a certain salve or ointment to the sore spot of psychic pressure which everyone has in his transposition of life.
The great human complex which fosters the greatest reactionary content in all human transpositions and which can be psychologically termed an escape mechanism, is the sum total of all inequalities, all guilts, all presuppositions, and his overt acts toward humanity; so that the individual is pressurized into a great escape mechanism which finds its outlet and his greatest relief within the doors of his church, where again his minister will apply the opiate of religious salvation and salve to the sore spot of his psychic maladjustment.
Yes, I know these statements may sound startling, for when any individual suddenly realizes that he has now reached, and is passing over this threshold of conscious reality of himself, in retrospect with the Infinite, he is now suddenly confronted with an infinite existence which is not predicated upon the age-old escape mechanism, as it was deistically conceived with various pagan dispensations in past religions, but which is now realistically conceived as a personal element of personal moral responsibility, and his course and action determine the evolutionary principle of his existence. Man must now, in the future, and forever, be morally responsible for all acts and all thoughts as part of his consciousness. These would, in turn, become the substance of his future; not that he would be confronted with the inevitable judgment day and be judged by some false god; but that judgment would be rendered by himself, unto himself, by realizing in the more abstract precepts of consciousness, the difference between consciousness and destructive evolution.
As these personal elements of life transpositions were so conceived and enacted by the individual, in the moment of their particular conception, they, in turn, become the material of his future. This was the way in which he found that he did truly seek and find the Kingdom within; that he had also found the regenerative principle of life which engendered all forms of consciousness, in personal reference to personal evolution, and the Father within, which gave the power of concept infinitely to each individual as he so conceived it within the dimension of his own life.
For in the future day when Infinity is so beheld and where moral responsibility is so predicated by an understanding of Infinity, then indeed the Father and I become one and the same. The Superconscious Self develops until it has become an entity of consciousness with the Infinite, into personal dimensions of reference in which it has endowed itself with certain regenerative and reconstructive processes derived from personal past experiences and mastery over these experiences in various material and spiritual worlds.
Nor is mastery to be misconstrued with such elements which can be considered egotistical in nature; for in mastery, function is attained infinitely, and according to the same lines of expression in which the universal Infinite so expresses Itself. For always in Infinity and with those who are so minded in evolution with infinity, so must principle always be constantly reactivated, as the harmonic, regenerative, principle which functions and which makes life possible to them as a personal function.
How different then is this approach, this realization, and this life in the Infinite, from that of the savage barbarian who approaches some deistic configuration which he has contrived in his own mind. Or that he has so set up for himself the vision of priesthood in one of his fellow men, to whom he gives the power over him in his interpolation of his deistic manifestations in his daily life; or that he should continually, negatively, subjugate himself on bended knee, and pray to this false deification as a separate entity endowed with all human vicissitudes and temperaments; and if he is not constantly placated, if he is not so constantly compromised, if he is not so constantly sacrificed to, and given reminders of personal felicity, then could this god deification become angry, and refuse such munificent blessings to the wayward subject! Such beliefs are indeed pagan in nature. They belong to the elemental mind of the savage barbarian who so contrived and conceived them. They do not belong in our modern new age in which mankind is supposedly functioning in more advanced dimensions of personal introspection, or that he is civilized; he is trying to abandon his warlike attitudes, he is trying to extend to his fellow man the concept of the golden rule.
So it must always be with each person who finds his pathway among the material worlds; should he wish to ascend to a higher life, should he be so spiritually quickened, and made aware of the possibility of a higher spiritual life; he will indeed have to find this way through the portals of his own consciousness. His interpretation of Infinite Consciousness into his daily life is not achieved through colleges, universities, nor in temples nor synagogues; neither in churches, nor in any other particular dispensations such as are found in the universal concept of material life; for these are, in turn, but their own relative personal aspects of interpretation which have been contrived from the barbaric past.
Educational systems as they exist in the world today are, as a whole, merely historical; that is, there is nothing futuristic in any of these educational dispensations, save perhaps, a few very prophetic utterances which are only relative and indicative of some particular individual’s more advanced perspective. There is nothing substantially proven in prophecy within the dimension of any person’s life, and such prophetic beliefs reside purely on an esoterical plane in which the individual hopes someday may be partially realized.
How different then, is the dimension of understanding, which, when from within the consciousness of the individual, a substantial facsimile of the Infinite and Its regenerative principle can be compounded and seen to be actively working and participating in all forms and transpositions of life; to also give to the individual the highest and most substantial aspects of a future prognostication, in which he can envision the perpetual continuity of his life into ever-expanding horizons, into ever-increasing dimensions of relationships to his fellow men, wherein all principles of Infinite Creation will be fully vindicated.
The promise of the future as a prophetic utterance can never be presented as a singular happening in any individual life, predetermined as an act of consciousness; the future must always be envisioned as principle in action which, when combined with personal introspection, personal participation with this principle, can promise to the individual, the continuity of everlasting life. And so, if any person wishes to attain the long-dreamed-of immortality, he cannot do so by presupposing intercession, or that someone has died for his wayward ways. Such beliefs must remain only in the infantile mind which presupposes salvation of life in the universal guilt complex of mankind.
The immortality of life is conceived in the idealism that participation is a natural consequence of understanding the principle of Infinite regeneration. So if you would seek the promise of eternal salvation, do not seek it in the manner and way of another man’s life; do not seek it in his temple or church; do not seek it in his college, or his school; but seek it as Jesus said you must, within the secret closet of your own self, for within this secret closet there will come to you the thread of continuity of Infinite Intelligence; an Intelligence which will superimpose Itself into your daily life. It will give you a direct understanding into all forms of consciousness about you; there will be a direct connotation with this Infinite Principle in all things which you so manifest as part of this regenerative principle in action.
When you have begun to acquire this function of mind which links you with the Infinite Principle, then you are finding the Kingdom of Heaven. And as you see Principle in action, you will see the Father at work, the true Father which has engendered all forms of consciousness; the Father who, when working as the Creative Power of the Infinite, has contrived not only all the atoms in your body and their function, but in combination with all other atoms in the terrestrial macrocosm, and the planetary systems, the galaxies, the universes; yes even far beyond all this, the great spiritual worlds which stretch out in a never-ending series of progressive evolutions which you will make to them, should you so continuously, within yourself, strive to seek.
For again as Jesus said, “Seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.” So the power of personal emancipation lies within the dimension of everyone. It is within the secret closet of your own mind, it is not within the closet of another man; nor in his church. It is the way in which you will find within the secret closet, the way in which the Father can reward you openly.
For in this ever-expanding understanding, the continuity of life will be expressed, not as reactionary principle of old pagan deistic beliefs, but as an ever-expanding principle of continuity, of resurgent expression, of revitalizing, ever-changing, regenerating life.
Excerpt from Infinite Perspectus