I was actually preparing to write a post titled “Does the Church need Pagans?” when today something even deeper hit me like a ton of bricks. First I thought, If no one apprehends or approaches the Father (Brahma) except the Son (Vishnu) and vice-versa—and the same is true of the Holy Spirit (Shiva)—then this reveals the fact that “salvation” (whether in the sense of justification, liberation or enlightenment)  is not about doing or even becoming but truly realizing. It’s like a Bermuda Triangle that you’re either in or out of. This of course evokes images of monks “contemplating their navels”—a most appropriate application of what Jesus reveals, it at last seems to me! And this seemed to speak to my own walk in understanding how to relate to God, which if you read the Church’s fathers and mystics isn’t just as simple—nor as authoritarian quite frankly—as we’re often told in catechesis or in homilies in the USA. Because, as I put it over fifteen years ago, Why read when you can study? Why study when you can contemplate? Why contemplate when you can participate? Today, I might have said it differently, to get it more in line with the heart of contemplation as discovering that “You are the light of the world”, but at that time I was in a cult (the Legion of Christ, an order that, blinded by greed, mistakes mind control for contemplativeness), and I simply couldn’t admit this to myself in that season of germination. Anyway, it seems the bottom line is that you cannot be outside of the Trinity and know the Trinity. This sounds elitist—or actually forbidding—but it isn’t (unless you’re worldly, in which case it should be), and I’ll explain why. You must find a Divine Person you relate to. Are you creative? Are you caring? Are you motivational? Then that tells you which corner of the eye-triangle you should grab on to!

But wait—there’s more! Because after that I thought about Divinity itself, beyond all diversity. The Gnostics call it the Monad, the All-One, the All-Father. And to be honest, the Trinity (or Trimurti) isn’t simply an equilateral triangle—oh, “theologians” have turned it into that for job security purposes, lest more mystics be nurtured and drive these anal, systematic hacks out of the Church as a shaman might drive a demon out of a man. But what Trinity really is, is more of a whirlpool drawing us inward, or in more technological terms a telescope. Because the Father “is greater than” the Son, and of course the Son ascends before the Holy Spirit (a misleading name since “God is spirit” is Brahma, but anyhow) is sent. So before three-ness there is two-ness. And before two-ness there is the One. Because, while Jesus says he predates Abraham by perhaps a lot, he never claims to be co-eternal with the Father as later “theologians” will presume. (By the way, we’re not talking about the Israelite National Deities of the Hebrew Scriptures, whether Elohim or YHWH, whose names mean “might” and “being” respectively. Most of what Jesus teaches transcends nations, and a lot of the terminology he borrows from India and other mystery schools that aren’t as concerned with politics or even racial issues or land disputes that have a way of weighing the spirit down.) Because when we simply say “God”, we’re talking about a spiritual singularity.

Yet whether you’re talking Trinity or simply Divinity, the God that is All and One is within the core of each being that senses and perceives. (And don’t even assume this just includes our idea of biological life either.) Jesus says “God is spirit”, which is to say “God is breath”, since they are the same word in all ancient tongues, which really helps to understand why Yoga, Merkabah and Hesychasm were so important in the (you could say) Neo-Buddhist movements of Jesus and others of his time. Because of course when we breathe, we absorb the highest of elements, which have touched the heavenly ether itself—a very sacred thing, no matter what quirky, literalistic or politically whacked-out tradition you’re coming out of!

And I was going to say something about how the Gnostics never died out but were secretly absorbed into the monks, the priests and the secret societies of our time, but I think you can work that out drawing from your own information and experience. But just in case this isn’t ringing any bells, please comment below—I always reply sooner or later!

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