Have you ever pondered the problem of being as "we know it"? Our knowledge is extremely limited, and what is unknown at one moment in history may become known in the next, causing the body of knowledge to be constantly changing along the path of human dev

THE PATHWAY BEYOND

exploring the spiritual universeBy jerome stanley

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Jerome Stanley
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-0480-5

Contents

Preface.....................................................................................................................................xiIntroduction................................................................................................................................xiii1 The Ancient Search for Enlightenment Personal Experience; Religion; Individual Consciousness; Buddhism; Plato; Soul.....................12 Teachings of Buddha, Plato, and Jesus Reason; Ego; Jesus of Nazareth; Jesus, Buddha, and Plato..........................................63 Experiences of Emanuel Swedenborg Creation; Correspondences; Angels; Heaven and Hell....................................................124 New Interpretation of Christianity Mary Baker Eddy; Albert Einstein; Language; Dualism; Parallel Universes..............................175 The Ego, the Soul, and the Bible Plato on Soul; Genesis; Omnipotence; Enlightenment; Allegory...........................................236 Spirituality, Truth, and Love Thomas Merton; Zen Buddhism; Duality; Mary Baker Eddy; Ayya Khema; Love...................................297 Metaphor, Allegory, and Truth Reality; Paulo Coelho; Self-Discipline; Absolute Truth....................................................378 Light, Darkness, and Spirituality Duality; Garden of Eden; Time; Christianity; Swedenborg...............................................449 Cave Allegory, Illusion, and Spirituality Plato; Philosophy and Religion; Meditation and Prayer; Miracles...............................5010 The Universe, Science, and Religion Henry P Stapp; Quantum Theory; A Science of Christianity............................................5611 Quantum Theory, Experience, and Substance Pure Experience; Nonsubstance; Mathematics; Principle; Mind...................................6112 Quantum Theory, Consciousness, and Intuition Mind and Matter; Substance; Time; Fourth Dimension.........................................6713 Blind Darkness, Images, and Perception Helen Keller; Swedenborg; Phenomena and Noumena..................................................7214 Leonardo, Dreams, and Art Holistic versus Dualistic; Thomas Moore; Dreams; Art; Substance...............................................7815 Inspiration, Creativity, and Music Artists and Musicians; State of Consciousness; Creativity; Soul......................................8716 Consciousness, Experience, and Paradise Knowledge and Experience; Art and Paradise; Time versus Process.................................9117 Wholeness and Consciousness Teilhard de Chardin; Science and Religion; Wholeness; Werner Heisenberg; Love...............................9618 Science, Religion, and Process Alfred North Whitehead; Process Philosophy; Unity........................................................10319 Evolution, the Human Condition Mind; Love; Adam and Eve.................................................................................10720 Journey of Consciousness, the New Self Real World; Thoughts; Ideas; The True Man; New Dimensions........................................112INDEX.......................................................................................................................................119BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................................129

Chapter One

The Ancient Search for Enlightenment

A path is a trajectory, or course, along which movement occurs. For our purpose here, it might be thought of as being analogous to a line in geometry, which consists of an infinite series of dots without beginning or end. As measured by time, an individual human path is relatively short, occurring between birth and death, whereas the collective path of the whole human race has extended for millions of years with no clear end in sight, although various speculations about the end of the race have surfaced.

The dots along the course of an individual human path are that person's thoughts and accomplishments, whether recorded for posterity or not. The recorded thoughts of great thinkers and teachers have created the larger dots along the collective path of human activity, thus accomplishing the development and advancement of the race. But each human being has a kind of immortality rooted in his or her part in the ongoing flow of human history.

If we walk along a trail in the forest, our vision into the distance is limited by the trees and perhaps also by the terrain. As we ascend a hill, we cannot see what is on the other side of the hill. If someone were to tell us that a castle would be seen in the distance from the top of the hill, we might not believe it until we saw it, especially if no one else had ever told us of the castle. In fact, we would probably be skeptical. Meanwhile, our imagination would conjure images of what the castle might look like, just in case it was really there. This illustrates how dependent we are upon personal experience to confirm what we have been told.

Our minds are endowed with the capacity to reject the possibility of anything that goes against the laws of nature as we know them, unless a firsthand personal experience has convinced us to accept it. There is no substitute for personal experience. Indeed, concerning religion, some personal experience of it must occur in order for it to have any meaning at all. Religion does not exist on pages of books, in a meetinghouse, or in the words of a public speaker. It has meaning only in the heart of a practicing adherent.

If we ascend the path to the top of that hill and finally see the castle for ourselves, we will probably feel a sense of gratitude to the person who told us about it. We will stand in silence and awe, taking in the magnificent details of the scene. Then we will go on our way, ready to tell our friends about the experience. But we will find that they cannot connect with our enthusiasm, because they did not experience it themselves. Thus is the fate of anyone's deep religious experience: it resides solely within the individual's consciousness and can only be shared in a rudimentary way with others who have had similar experiences.

Through the ages, humanity has been graced by the lives of seers, prophets, and spiritual leaders whose personal experiences were so powerful as to uplift millions of people passing through the earthly journey. The great Buddha (ca. 563–ca. 483 BCE) was able to transmit to his followers his own experience concerning a path of enlightenment, teaching how this path gives its followers greater control over their own happiness. This focus upon personal happiness was further explored by the Greek philosophers who accepted reason as the supreme guide. Plato (c. 429–347 BCE) taught his students that reliance on reason is the way to achieve a balanced and harmonious life.

Both Buddha and Plato seem to have worked from the standpoint that their students were endowed with the faculties of reason and emulation of good that would enable them to avoid life's pitfalls and to make wiser choices for their own benefit. Arguably, Buddha does not focus as much on reason as does Plato, but one might surmise that his allegiance to reason goes without saying. He advises his students to see all mere phenomena as simply that, and nothing more. These phenomena pass by in a...