"No man can prove that God has spoken to him; the only possible proof is the inherent truth of the message, making it appeal to our feelings and our reason with a power that carries conviction with it. The Spirit of Truth shall convince you, said the master; and when this inner conviction of Truth is felt, it will invariably be found, that, by thinking it out carefully, the reason of the feeling will manifest itself an intelligible sequence of cause and effect. Short of realizing such a sequence, we have not realized the Truth.
It is a principle that no great system can endure for ages, exercising a wide-spread and permanent influence over larges masses of mankind without any element of Truth in it. There have been, and still are, great systems influencing mankind which contain many and serious errors, but what has given them their power is the Truth that is in them and not the error: and carful inquiry into the secret of their vitality will enable us to detect and remove the error." (Troward, Bible Mystery p.136).
Troward was a Science of Mind advocate and proclaimed that the power of Jesus, through Christ Consciousness (or Buddha Mind, take your pick), is available to all. However, this quote tends to highlight the idea that all major, or mass appealing, religious or spiritual belief systems tend to resonate that Truth (cap T meaning the one and only). Problem is most of the belief systems passed down through the centuries are also chock full of many erroneous holes. Because of this we spend a great deal of time examining and seeking out the holes and missing the Truth that the belief system initially was constructed from and this for some, becomes the focus of a lifetime.
Yet, it is not the holes or errors that inspire and move us, but the Truth contained within the thoughts and beliefs of the system. In other words it is up to us to separate the wheat from the chaff, dwell with the nutritive substance within and be inspired. In fact, sometimes we need to ignore the holes in order to absorb the wholeness.
I like what Ken Wilber and the Integralists have done in relation to identifying the holes in many of our religious-spiritual belief systems. Problem is, it seems that such deep penetration into the errors has sapped the vitality of the Truth as well. So much so, that it might be missed in the constant search for error.
Integral just doesn't move me. Oh sure, it's pretty damn smart, as intellectual systems go, but where's the inspiration?
I just finished reading Integral Spirituality and I felt like I did after completing my college statistics and research class - utterly exhausted and 'spent.'
I agree with Troward in that it will be the reasonable system of belief, one that resonates with the rational mind, that we will seek out. But it will be this and the systems abilty to fuel our deepest emotion that will lift us up to new heights and will be the path we choose. Thought without feeling is bland and lifeless, but thought infused with the emotion that only Truth can evoke (no matter where it's found), will take us farther along the way to bliss of Re-union with the Spirit we seek and may even re-create our world.
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