What equality really means

• 5 May, 2021
• consciousness
• mindfulness
• religion

In many ways the Book of Genesis in the Bible, and the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the flood are a betrayal of much of what Christianity is really all about. Christianity evolved out of Judaism, arguably the oldest religion on the planet, but actually just like Hinduism, Judaism is far more than a religion. It's a complete culture, a set of philosophies and a way of life. Christianity is a stripped down version of Judaism packaged for export and started out as an esoteric cult for non-conformist Jews in Judea. Very much like Buddhism, and also Taoism, Christianity is all about 'The Way' and teaches you about the ground of being through parables and numerology. This is just my individual perspective but you get all the essential Christianity in the Book of John.

Please keep in mind that Christianity holds its position as a monotheistic religion and spiritual movement rather well because its been developed through centuries from two sources, Christian mystics and the Church. It's virtually impossible to dismiss Christianity as a belief system because it has a strong kabbalistic tradition evolved out of Jewish mysticism, which means it cannot be entirely believed, nor can it be completely dismissed. But from the perspective of a practical method of enquiry into mysticism, where insight matters more than knowledge and historicity, and practice and faith matter a great deal more than belief and dogma, Christianity holds water as a spiritual movement and that is all you need for a practical method of enquiry.

The ground of being

There are just two sources of the ground of being - the Kabbalah and the Hindu Upanishads. Consider that the two oldest religions on this planet, Judaism and Hinduism, are both far more than just religions - they are a way of life. The source for both is of course shamanism, ancient mysticism and arguably Taoism (via the I-Ching). I've already written about the evolution of religion in Religious attachments so what I want to focus on here is non-duality and self as the individual, as other, as the godhead and as the universe.

Between developing a path towards mindfulness and - generally speaking - your current mental state lie a series of traps or conflicts which require a lot of 'upaya' - Sanskrit for skill or insight - to navigate. There's nothing you can do, and nothing you can believe which is going to take you into that path of mindfulness. If you have looked into such matters say online, somewhere like YouTube, and listened to a couple of videos by either of the Krishnamurtis this is something which you should be aware of. It doesn't matter if you listen to Jiddu Krishnamurti or U. G. Krishnamurti the message is very clear - mindfulness is not your's for the taking.

"The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules - but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them."

--Aleister Crowley

Mindfulness means going out of your mind

Any religion or belief system gives you a basis for developing a meta-physic or a spiritual or existential dimension to your life, including Christianity. But it's also true that religion is never the complete deal when it comes to developing a meta-physic and can only take you so far. The onus is on you to not only find the mystical teachings but develop them through practice using your own life experience and individual conscious perspective into a meta-physic. Don't get caught up in any debate as to whether God exists or not, or whether religion is good or bad. These types of discussions are major distractions and serve no useful purpose. It's clear that for some people there is no God, but for others God exists, just as some people need a religion and other people don't.

You see all the time you're getting caught up in such debates and doctrines you're missing the point completely and you make it clear, no matter which side of the fence you're standing on, that you don't really understand anything about either life or existence. Good and bad, right and wrong, and even good and evil are all examples of moral reasoning which keep you locked into your belief systems, ideology and Ego. You need to get beyond this and assume the divine role for yourself, as Crowley was implying.

You see the Book of Genesis was one of the later chapters added to the Bible. Christianity started out in Judea around 5th century BC as an esoteric and illegal sect for non-conformist Jews to teach mysticism directly to people. Judaism is seen as one of the world's oldest religions, but Judaism is, like Hinduism, far more than a religion. It's a complete culture. Rather like Buddhism is to Hinduism, Christianity is a stripped down version of Judaism packaged for export. Exiled from Judea as a result of Jewish and Roman persecution, much of early Christianity developed out of Alexandria in Egypt, which was a major trading centre between East and West, and many of the early Christian mystics, St Cyril, Clement, Origen, worked out of Alexandria through the time of its legalization around 70 AD and beyond.

The development of religious, moral authority

But after the councils of Trent, Constantinople, and Nicea what was then the Church decided to obscure many of the mystical teachings and practices on which early Christianity was based. This was from around 300 AD. You see there's not much use for a Church or religious authority if everyone is free to explore and be their own mystics. Therefore by around 500 AD the Church completed the Bible and appointed itself as the moral arbiter of what is right and wrong in society and spirituality. The priests and ministers had won out against the mystics and this explains the whole point behind the Book of Genesis, to introduce the concept of sin and falling short of God's grace or divine grace.

This development by the Church is therefore inseparable from various Western social and cultural values - capitalism, the Profit Incentive (consider that the profit incentive according to Judaism was a sin known as usury), structural classism and inequality. These Judeo-Christian values today still manifest as a dichotomy between the Ego and external authority, moral reasoning, a process of socialization and education which reinforces these values and a widespread societal obligation of work and servitude to some contrived, arbitrary economic system. This is karma I guess, the law of unintended consequences, but it's fair to say that for some people God has become the Stock Market and perpetual economic, financial and material growth. This is a fairly modern religion for some people, despite the fact that it has got nothing to do with traditional Christian teachings or indeed, much of what religion is supposed to be about.

For much of what religion is about is the ground of being and cosmology. You are the world, and the world is you. You are the universe, and the universe is you. How big your house is, and how much money you have in your bank account, where you find yourself on the Forbes list, and your economic worth and personal fortune is irrelevant. Whether or not you have a job is also beside the point.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time

How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfil the book

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs, redemption songs, redemption songs...

Bob Marley, 'Redemption Song'

What matters the most to you in life?

So you want your freedom and liberation from the oppression and mental slavery you have been conditioned into as part of your life experience? Well okay, it's possible but you're going to have to create whatever practice and spiritual awakening and growth out of whatever religion you're following. You have to learn the mystical principles and teachings and learn them well and make use of them to transcend the invisible prison you're locked into based on the trilogy of Ego, external authority and ideology. You've heard the saying 'the truth will set you free'? Well you've got to become real to be free, and being real means walking your walk, talking your talk and actually living your truth.

Understand that you exist on so many different levels and dimensions. What I'm referring to here are levels or planes of consciousness which can also be understood to be different levels or planes of reality.

The physical appearance plane

What you see when you look at another human being is another physical body - man, woman, old, young, tall, short, slim, fat, and so on. You see yourself in much the same terms. This is the most basic dimension. What you have here is a young woman with blonde hair who is probably slim and rather physically attractive. This is the most basic, fundamental level - purely physical - the level at which people eye each other up and teenagers give each other a score out of 10.

The psychological plane

Then what you have when you meet someone, or what interests you is their psychology, how do they think, their demeanour, and how they come across to you. Are they happy? Depressed? Confrontational? Friendly? Open-minded? Intelligent? Ignorant? Some people in therapy are prominent on this level, and are preoccupied with their own issues, depressions, highs, lows, fears, anxieties, loneliness, hopes, and so on. This is somewhat more real, because this is a level which is closely related to trauma, so this is more the real you and the real someone else.

The social role plane

Then you have another level or dimension which relates to societal role or function and which also gives us clues towards their perspective, from such things as education, background, occupation, interests, and whether they are wealthy or poor, working or retired, or unemployed, and so on. Note that only in some cases you can get a sense of who someone really is on this level, but often it's no indication of who someone is, because, you know, circumstances and opportunities in life.

The worldview plane

Then you have another level or variable which relates to worldview, beliefs, interests, and this also influences their perspective and how they come across. The exact same thing can be said about you. What belief systems and doctrines do you believe in? What ideology do you follow? What do you value and what do you feel is important or what matters in life?

The meta-physical plane

This is a level where it starts to get interesting. When you look into another person's eyes what you will find, invariably, is another person looking back at you, with a similar physical body, functioning on the basis of some psychology, social role, worldview and going through experiences in life which are just as unique and individual as your experiences. This is what the spiritually minded and religious among us call a soul, or spirit. But fundamentally you see another soul, another being just like you. You see someone who is, in reality, not that much different to you and who you are when you put all the other minor differences aside.

The reflection plane

So we take this to another level or dimension and we have what I can describe as reflection, and this is based on the understanding that when you look at another person you're essentially seeing a different version of who you are. The only thing which makes you different from someone else or that other person is trauma, or death, and being reborn into a new life. If we're going to get into actual reality and what's really real then it's understanding that we are all different physical manifestations of the same collective consciousness. We are all part of one awareness which takes on a vast multiplicity of different physical forms, each one of them unique and individual and unless all the other physical forms.

As you can see all those labels and social markers you're walking round with and using to define your Ego - man, woman, male, female, black, white, old, young, rich, poor, professional, unemployed, able-bodied, disabled, healthy, sick, and so on are meaningless and irrelevant when it comes to a path of spiritual awakening and growth. All those labels come from just three of six of the above planes (I could have created 12 such different levels of planes, but I stick to six to keep it simple), and these are the most physical, coarser, more basic and immediate planes of consciousness. What about the others? The more refined, more existential, the ones which are closer to spirit?

What about them?

The real meaning of equality

Understand that you are in reality just one more human being who is born into life with a certain number of factors and a certain amount of karma to work out through your individual journey through life and your experiences. What you have been named, called, what other people think of you, what you think and believe about yourself and your life is only just part of the complete picture and the whole truth. It doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, where you come from, and where you feel you are going to in life, this is the truth. This is your reality.

What I want to make very clear to you is that you need to come up with answers and truth for all six of these planes or levels of consciousness in order to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Having answers or labels for just three or four is not enough. That's not going to save you from being in conflict with others, it's not going to save you from being hurt, being judged, being deceived or fooled, from suffering, misery, fear or anguish.

You are born equal to every other human being on this planet. You were born unformed, ignorant, not knowing, and not understanding. Understand that in the womb of our mothers we are all equal and when we die and our bodies become corpses we will all amount to the same amount of ashes in the crematorium furnace, we will still all be equal. But in the experience in the middle, what we understand to be life, we still remain equal, none of the labels or opinions we adopt ever changes this reality. All through our lives the only thing that changes and develops is our uniqueness, the originality of our incarnation, and this comes from the trauma we experience and how we individually respond to such trauma. No religion can teach you how to do this, neither can any method, you have to figure it out for yourself through trial and error, exploration, experimentation, learning and discovery.

Therefore understand that your freedom and liberation comes only from your spiritual awakening and evolution. This can only come from somewhere deep inside you. It cannot come from anywhere else, and no authority figure, be they religious, political, or philosophical, can ever deliver you out of the darkness of your ignorance into the shining light of enlightenment. Only you can do this for yourself. The only way you can do this is to connect to other people who are making a similar journey through life, because freedom and liberation is also very much about kindness, empathy, compassion and sympathy. It does not matter who you connect to and how, all that matters is that you connect and you experience the relationship that comes out of this connection. Understand it is only through connection and our individuality that insight can be gained which serves to give us our freedom and liberation.

This is the bottom line and the truth behind equality. When you start your spiritual awakening and how is up to you. Whether or not you make that journey is also beside the point. It does not change this simple and very fundamental truth. Truth does not need your participation to exist.