Author & Spiritual Scholar, John Phillips:
"The King James Bible was written using only 8,000 different words total. This was deliberate, to make it the simplest medium available by which to convey spiritual truths. The problem is, at such an elementary level of language the truths can only be like cartoons. People at this level are like children in primary school and they need to work upwards to attain more genuine spiritual insight."
As earlier noted, John Phillips is an author (of Caribbean biology texts), an inventor, an expert on nutrition, and also a spiritual scholar who has spent more than 40 years researching the spiritual and factual basis of major world religions and their sources of revelation. It was therefore interesting to have a conversation with him on various aspects the day before I left Barbados.
On God:
John: One has to realize and acknowledge that there is a source of higher power in the universe, certainly greater than mere humans. I see the universe as a place or medium in which there are very prosaic and ordinary beings (like humans) and where one finds exalted beings. Perhaps the latter type can mold whole solar systems to their needs, or fashion stars to support their energy, or maybe they are just pure energy. To primitive humans, we'd be like gnats. Also to them, our obsessions like about "saving" ourselves for an afterlife would be like a gnat trying to communicate such to us.
Me: Could this simply be an advanced alien life form that might regard us like we look at ants or roaches.
John: Of course! So, to us, these advanced forms would be construed as Gods, or God. Early primitive Man would have no way of making any absolute distinctions especially if the alien technology permitted them to levitate, or appear to violate basic laws of matter and energy. To them, those violations would be ‘miracles’ and those doing them, Gods.
Could a real God exist, not just as a more advanced life form?
Possibly. My view is that one must keep this possibility open and not close it prematurely. The problem is to find out if it exists, what kind of entity it is. I don’t believe this can be done easily or automatically but must be worked at or through as one might work through the levels of academia to reach a point where understanding matches what one might believe – or approximately so.
On the Bible:
Question: Do any of the sacred works come close to describing real events or the works of a real God?
John: Probably the Hindu Upanishads come closest because they don’t name it, or anthropomorphize it. Once one does that he loses the basis for God. He enters the realm of a fabrication which is purely man-made, so we can set it in human terms. This is why so many of the eastern religions warn of trying to pin down or grasp the concept too precisely. It can’t be done and if one tries, he ends up with a caricature of God, not the real thing.
What about the King James Bible?
John: This is the simplest of all the bibles, because it was designed to be written with no more than 8,000 different words in total. (Obviously, it has more than a million words, but only 8,000 words are used repetitively to make up the one million- no more). Thereby, it became the simplest medium available to serve the largest population possible. But as we know, being popular doesn't make it correct, or possess absolute truth. As a matter of fact, with such low verbal density or use it would be comical to even suggest the King James bible (or any other) comes remotely close to truth. What it does, for the masses, is present a cartoon version of reality.
Just as young children may grasp certain basic laws and principles by watching Sesame Street or the occasional Disney cartoon, so also the mass of people can grasp certain basic spiritual laws and principles by being exposed to the King James. But because one can grasp a cartoon, say about sea evaporation and the hydrological cycle, doesn' t mean he actually understands the underlying principle in its entirety. He only understands an approximate cartoon version. Likewise the bible reader, though getting a start, has much further to go up the ladder of spirituality to even grasp the basics. Salvation is not a basic and only a distraction for lesser mortals. We're all saved because we're all part of the same energy system that can't destroy itself.
So one must allow for differences?
Yes! Of course! We're all at different levels, spiritually! At the lowest or primary school level you will have many hundreds of millions following the King James bible, or the Koran, or the Talmud. These are like children watching cartoons about spiritual reality. At a higher level you might have the meditators in every one of the major religions. And at an even higher level in the spiritual seeking hierarchy you may find the yogis or people that can actually master some basics of time and space, because they have a deeper understanding. These people are capable of performing siddhis, such as bilocation, levitation, or transmutation of substances.
So, would Jesus Christ be one of these?
Yes, in fact. And we know that he spent from the age of about 12 to 30 in India studying the esoteric arts with yogis and spiritual masters. After all, you find no mention, not one, of any of his actions in the bible - King James or any other- in those intervening years. So, what happened? Why is there no documentation of his life from 12 to 30? But there is indirect documentation in some Hindu and other works.
Could Jesus' miracles be atributed to special training which we also could master?
Yes, but we'd have to work up to being an exalted master and that ...again, would take many years, and much spiritual discipline.
What do you make of the Hell and damnation claim?
Again, it comes from a childish understanding of spiritual reality so you would expect a childish or cartoonish afterlife image. But no serious yogi or even Hindu or Buddhist would contemplate this because it is so childish. It is a childish way of saying "My daddy is bigger and tougher than yours!" only in this case the daddy punishes by tossing those who disobey him into hell. It would be funny if not so pathetic.
Is there any chance for an atheist in your spiritual universe?
Always, so long as you keep searching you will find the spirtual truth unique to you. And yes, even atheists can be spiritual! Conflicts only erupt because people believe that THEIR spiritual truth and the level at which they believe it, must apply to all. This is false.
On God:
John: One has to realize and acknowledge that there is a source of higher power in the universe, certainly greater than mere humans. I see the universe as a place or medium in which there are very prosaic and ordinary beings (like humans) and where one finds exalted beings. Perhaps the latter type can mold whole solar systems to their needs, or fashion stars to support their energy, or maybe they are just pure energy. To primitive humans, we'd be like gnats. Also to them, our obsessions like about "saving" ourselves for an afterlife would be like a gnat trying to communicate such to us.
Me: Could this simply be an advanced alien life form that might regard us like we look at ants or roaches.
John: Of course! So, to us, these advanced forms would be construed as Gods, or God. Early primitive Man would have no way of making any absolute distinctions especially if the alien technology permitted them to levitate, or appear to violate basic laws of matter and energy. To them, those violations would be ‘miracles’ and those doing them, Gods.
Could a real God exist, not just as a more advanced life form?
Possibly. My view is that one must keep this possibility open and not close it prematurely. The problem is to find out if it exists, what kind of entity it is. I don’t believe this can be done easily or automatically but must be worked at or through as one might work through the levels of academia to reach a point where understanding matches what one might believe – or approximately so.
On the Bible:
Question: Do any of the sacred works come close to describing real events or the works of a real God?
John: Probably the Hindu Upanishads come closest because they don’t name it, or anthropomorphize it. Once one does that he loses the basis for God. He enters the realm of a fabrication which is purely man-made, so we can set it in human terms. This is why so many of the eastern religions warn of trying to pin down or grasp the concept too precisely. It can’t be done and if one tries, he ends up with a caricature of God, not the real thing.
What about the King James Bible?
John: This is the simplest of all the bibles, because it was designed to be written with no more than 8,000 different words in total. (Obviously, it has more than a million words, but only 8,000 words are used repetitively to make up the one million- no more). Thereby, it became the simplest medium available to serve the largest population possible. But as we know, being popular doesn't make it correct, or possess absolute truth. As a matter of fact, with such low verbal density or use it would be comical to even suggest the King James bible (or any other) comes remotely close to truth. What it does, for the masses, is present a cartoon version of reality.
Just as young children may grasp certain basic laws and principles by watching Sesame Street or the occasional Disney cartoon, so also the mass of people can grasp certain basic spiritual laws and principles by being exposed to the King James. But because one can grasp a cartoon, say about sea evaporation and the hydrological cycle, doesn' t mean he actually understands the underlying principle in its entirety. He only understands an approximate cartoon version. Likewise the bible reader, though getting a start, has much further to go up the ladder of spirituality to even grasp the basics. Salvation is not a basic and only a distraction for lesser mortals. We're all saved because we're all part of the same energy system that can't destroy itself.
So one must allow for differences?
Yes! Of course! We're all at different levels, spiritually! At the lowest or primary school level you will have many hundreds of millions following the King James bible, or the Koran, or the Talmud. These are like children watching cartoons about spiritual reality. At a higher level you might have the meditators in every one of the major religions. And at an even higher level in the spiritual seeking hierarchy you may find the yogis or people that can actually master some basics of time and space, because they have a deeper understanding. These people are capable of performing siddhis, such as bilocation, levitation, or transmutation of substances.
So, would Jesus Christ be one of these?
Yes, in fact. And we know that he spent from the age of about 12 to 30 in India studying the esoteric arts with yogis and spiritual masters. After all, you find no mention, not one, of any of his actions in the bible - King James or any other- in those intervening years. So, what happened? Why is there no documentation of his life from 12 to 30? But there is indirect documentation in some Hindu and other works.
Could Jesus' miracles be atributed to special training which we also could master?
Yes, but we'd have to work up to being an exalted master and that ...again, would take many years, and much spiritual discipline.
What do you make of the Hell and damnation claim?
Again, it comes from a childish understanding of spiritual reality so you would expect a childish or cartoonish afterlife image. But no serious yogi or even Hindu or Buddhist would contemplate this because it is so childish. It is a childish way of saying "My daddy is bigger and tougher than yours!" only in this case the daddy punishes by tossing those who disobey him into hell. It would be funny if not so pathetic.
Is there any chance for an atheist in your spiritual universe?
Always, so long as you keep searching you will find the spirtual truth unique to you. And yes, even atheists can be spiritual! Conflicts only erupt because people believe that THEIR spiritual truth and the level at which they believe it, must apply to all. This is false.
No comments:
Post a Comment