Course XXXIV - Teaching 9: Theology of the Existence

The idea about the Absolute One, the idea about God, is the substratum of whole human mind.
But throughout the ages, and even simultaneously, Humanity considered the Absolute One from diverse points of view.
Even admitting, denying or keeping silent about Him, a position that ultimately is one and the same –since how can one affirm or deny that which human mind is unable to grasp?– men tried to find the Truth and explanation about their existence through themselves, the Universe and phenomenal world. In front of the phenomenal world, by affirming, denying or rejecting it, thinkers have taken diverse fundamental positions that, ultimately, became characteristic philosophies, theologies and religions. So, what makes the essential difference among diverse systems –formulated from the antiquity by men, which came to our days by becoming condensed as axiomatic theological concepts– consists of a different interpretation of the Universe and phenomenal world, and their relationship with God.
One of those currents that lasted till our days is that which can be called philosophy and consequent theology of the existence, that is, that of manifestation behind its aspect of permanence.
In fact, according to this conception, the phenomenal Universe is not the result of a unique and absolute force or manifestation: it is the outcome of a dual force.
These two forces act in a parallel and simultaneous way, by inter-flowing constantly one another, and never fuse together.
This play of two aspects, and its constant going back and forth, never achieving the Unity, produces always new aspects that never reach it and appear as infinite and similar new forces, which eventually engrave on the observer the concept of permanence in manifestation, that is, the concept of a phenomenal Universe.
But the fundamental idea about the Unity of God persists always in the mind of man.
So, this axiomatic truth, accepted and affirmed throughout the times, forces a logical and theological deduction: if certain created universe and manifestation exist, then there must be an original point. At a time, this axiom logically leads to deduce a new truth, which consists in affirming that there us certain fixed and permanent point behind any changing forms.
This deduction is forceful, as you can easily understand it. In fact, since the concept about an absolute unity is an unmovable fundamental axiom, you cannot apply to It the dual character of the phenomenal manifestation appeared as constant movement of two forces never balanced; so, you can think of It just as perfect equilibrium, harmony and lack of dual movement.
In other words, it is a fixed and permanent point underlying every changing phenomenal form.
Inevitably, the corollary of this conception, based on affirming the Absolute One in se and an apparent phenomenal duality, attributes a special character to this theory, since all existing things acquire a fundamental divine character because a permanent point –God– underlies every phenomenon.
Our precedent sayings are a synthesis of fundamental theological concepts in this current of human thought, and permit to glimpse right now its orientation in a practical speculative field.
A search for God will ever go toward knowledge of these aspects or forces, in order to discover, through this full knowledge, the true substratum, the final reality, because in the phenomenal world God underlies all changing forms emerged by the interaction of the so-called two fundamental aspects that, logically, use some vehicle, for instance, vibration of energies to influence each other. Thence, ultimately and particularly, certain schools remain constantly devoted to examine in depth diverse aspects of the phenomenal Universe, always in search of the Reality behind the phenomenon. As an outcome of this attitude sometimes produced by disappointment or frustrated efforts, certain schools tend to materialism and atheism as extreme forms deviated from the pure doctrine.
But see how philosophers and theologians think up originally this doctrine.
We said that two forces or active principles interact and produce all phenomena in the Universe, even life, manifested through innumerable forms and varied combinations.
They are: Primordial Substance or energy; all forms and energies, and the spiritual principle come from it.
These two principles are called Prakriti and Purusha in India.
The Spirit wraps up in the substance, and diverse differentiated forms come into being through this process in the phenomenal Universe.
Of course, diverse schools totally disagree about the appearance or manifestation of these two active principles, and even about their characteristics.
So, for instance, certain schools, instead of thinking up the Spiritual Principle as Universal Soul, consider it is an infinite composed by spiritual atoms or individual spirits, which constitute, as a whole, the Unity that is called Spiritual Principle.
According to this pattern, these two principles –Spirit and Substance– instead of being aspects of God –of the Absolute One–are mere finite and perishable emanations, that is, in fact non-eternal, because the two have to come back, re-absorbed in God at the end of each cycle of cosmic activity.
So, they are just primary forms of those two fundamental principles of phenomenal activity –Spirit and Body– observed by man as something obvious in every phenomenon.
Nothing can be said about the mechanism of the emanation, because it is beyond human possibilities. But we can emphasize that emanations are not aspects of God, and state that the said emanations are like thought forms of God; in this way, you cannot think about certain duality in the One, that is, in God. Also, schools disagree about concepts related to Eternity. In the event you connect Eternity with the concept of permanence, as the result of this idea, both principles would be eternal, infinite and self-existing.
But you can find an explanation of this if you make clear the concept of Eternal. In fact, God, the Absolute One, is Eternal; the phenomenal Universe is just relatively eternal, in the cycle of divine manifestation which admits its appreciation.
This clarification impedes the doctrine about the existence to be branded as being materialistic, even though one should admit, as we said, that ultimately some schools did not get rid from this tendency. Concepts of the most classical schools will be summed up next, for further clarification of the doctrine and its final outcomes.
We have seen that the so-called Spiritual Principle, instead of being interpreted as Universal Spirit in the sense of undivided Unity, it is translated as innumerable individual, free and independent spirits as a whole.
Otherwise, one would be unable to account for the infinite variety of aspects in nature, because even though one thinks up the One divided into infinite parts, each part would be of His one and the same nature in all, which puts aside the characteristic variability of nature.
Purusha, spiritual principle, has no attributes, is pure Spirit, and his existence can be thought up as perfect peace, rest and happiness till the time of his immersion in the Substance, influencing and guiding it like a magnetic field influences iron.
The so-called soul is determined by this act, that is, the Spirit wraps up in its manifested organisms, and then remains subject to the cycle of the existence.
Existence means hard and painful trial for the Spirit in prison, who longs for his early state of bliss. So, the doctrine aims mainly at giving liberation means to the soul, to transcend the karmic law and rebirths, and to recover, as an spirit, its original state of freedom.
According to the said school, individual spirits integrating the great Spiritual Principle were entirely free in the beginning, and then were in chains by the attraction and powerful influence of the Substance. As the result of this bondage, the individual spirit gradually lost its state of pure divine consciousness and fell in material deceit or delusion. As if they were real fallen angels, they go across the world, under the illusion of deceptive forms of “maya”, and eventually, after a long pilgrimage, sorrow awakens again in the soul certain vague memory of its true free origin. Then a fight begins to re-conquer its lost bliss, which does not come to an end till the time when the soul achieves this aim after innumerable incarnations.
They state that all aspects and life in the phenomenal world come from combined activities of two principles –spiritual and energetic-material– to such an extent that even each atom of matter is substance animated by an individual spirit. All phenomena in the universe find explanation in this way, from the simplest to the most complex ones.
A you see, this doctrine tries to explain the whole Universe and its changing manifestations, and mainly contains current science conceptions.
The so-called substance is just primordial cosmic substance or cosmic energy evolving, becoming condensed and transmuted again after centuries.
The mind is born of the spirit acting over substance (energy-matter); so, is character is material, such as it is thought still now.
Matter is active by its own energy, being lifeless and insensible if the Spirit does not illuminate it. By means of these statements, the pure doctrine rises over the materialistic conception about the world, by spiritualizing it with elements that ultimately try to explain the universal evolution. Substance-matter constantly evolves since its animation by the spirit. It has gone through so many changes and transformations that the individual mind is unable to recognize its own nature. It is still harder for the mind even to imagine the magnificent state of the spirit, which is free before being tied to matter.
But, as the last purpose of this system, they state that the mind can adopt such an attitude of higher understanding and can think up the true nature of the two dual principles that govern and constitute the Universe, through true knowledge, reasoned and scientific discourse, and right behavior, that is, by means of a suitable method of material, mental and spiritual life, and the defeat of passions. This system denounces the delusion and sham of the earthly living and attempts to free its adepts from chain reincarnations that subject the free spirit to a material and painful life on Earth.