Cosmology

 

I have already presented the Hebrew Cosmology with four dimensions in the cosmos..  However  practically all cultures have developed similar concepts.  One such interesting cosmology is the Jain Cosmology.  Jainism is an old Indian Science system which developed into a religion.  Jainism is an Atheistic religion.

 The Universe in Jainism is defined as a conglomeration of six substances (DRAVYA).  It has a shape which resembles a man standing erect with the legs parted and the arms bent at the elbows and hands tucked at waist. This is very similar to the Hebrew concept of Cosmic Man.  It consists of the following different worlds:

1.  Nether world (ADHOLOK) The abode of the animal nature

2.  Middle world (MADHYALOK)  The abode of the Humans

3.  Upper world (Urdhava Lok or Dev Loka)  The abode of demi- gods

4.  The Supreme Abode (Sidha Slla) The abode of the liberated souls

Compare this with the Hebrew conception given below:

 

This multidimensional existence of man is portrayed in Indian thought as sheaths around the person that are not visible

 

       

Paul talks about the four dimensions as the body, and three heavens.

(2Co 12:2)  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago,   such an one caught up to the third heaven.

“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Psa 8:5  For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honour.

The genealogy of Christ Jesus in Luke 3:23-38 ends with Jesus and starts with Adam who was the son of God.  Thus every man should have the God gene within him and Man was supposed to be in all the four floors of existence.  However the fall of man changed the arrangement whereby Man was not permitted to enter the divine realm for his own good until redemptive process is complete.

Hence After the fall man was  thrown out of paradise.  For a little while limited within the three Lower realms.

Heb 2:7  You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor  and set him over the works of Your hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reinstatement involved the new birth as Jesus pointed out to Nico.

The division of man as individuals with their selfishness has split up the hologram of God into tiny, dim images.  The Kingdom of Heaven is reestablished with the union of the whole mankind and the sentient beings and also with the whole cosmos.  Then the fullness of creation will emerge.  This recovery is accomplished through the cross and its constant reminder through sacraments.  This process is termed as Theosis in the Eastern Churches.  Here the individual loses his identity as a separate entity and becomes part of the cosmic intelligence.  In the reformed churches this is known as Sanctification. Thus evidently Sacraments are a means of sanctification as the individuals merge into Church as an organism.

 

Because of who he is and of what he did for us, we have the opportunity to become by grace what he is by nature. That is, we can put on the divine, becoming partakers of the divine nature.  A life of repentance and participation in the sacraments is the means by which man cooperates with God.  This cooperation is termed synergeia (synergy).

 

In theosis, man becomes filled with the divine life. He takes on God's attributes, but he does not become merged with the Holy Trinity. There is union without fusion. This is simply because the whole is always greater than the parts. Thus, a classic patristic image of theosis is a sword held in a flame—the sword gradually takes on the properties of the flame (light and heat), but remains a sword. 

 

 

“But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 

(2Co 3:18)

“till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:” (Eph 4:13 )

We are to “grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (4:15).

Rom 8 procedes to greater extent to say, we are “sons of God” (v. 14) who have received a “Spirit of adoption,” crying (as Jesus did) “Abba, Father” (v. 15). The Spirit bears witness “with our spirit”—union—that we are “children of God” (v. 16). We are children, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ . . . that we may also be glorified together” (v. 17).

 

Man is an image of God

 

The Class of Man is different from the Class of God, the former being a subset of the latter with direct communication from the latter to the former. These two classes are connected only through the twelfth dimension.

“We are constituted by the intersection of two flows—one direct, from the divine, and one indirect, from the divine via our environment and history. We can view ourselves as interference patterns, because the inflow is a wave phenomenon, and we are where the waves meet.”

Rev. Dr. George F. Dole,
Professor of theology at the Swedenborg School of Religion in Newton, Massachusetts

 

In Sacramental Symbols which are in our present language and forms, the brain interprets it in terms of the universal dimensions and codings.  These form part of the future person, behavior and decisions. Sacraments thus form the anchoring force of faith and beliefs. The sacraments are rituals through which the grace of Christ is communicated to persons by the power of the Holy Spirit operative in their administration. It is understood as an experience of grace, subsequent to salvation, with the effect that the Holy Spirit takes full possession of the soul, sanctifies the heart, and empowers the will so that one can love God and others blamelessly in this life.  One is justified and then sanctified-understood as communing with God with the result that the holiness of God is actually imparted, not just imputed on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

 

Even though the human brain seems to be bound to the material realm and it receives its impulses from the material world, the ultimate image formed in the brain is a complex product of the multidimensional existence of the holographic brain.  Formation of the image as seen by a man is due to the interaction of the light rays received with the neural causes and correlates of consciousness and the neural representation of the object itself.

The decoding by our brain is a complex process. The external input interferes with the reference beam to get an output.  The reference beam contains both conscious levels and the unconscious levels.  The complex interaction between external object beam and the internal reference beam produces the final image and consequent expressions.

Thus the external symbols undergo a transformation within the conscious and sunconscious mind to produce an image which depends on the God gene activity.

The Neurological Linguistic Program model

The Neurological Linguistic Program model thus produces a simpler model as follows:

 

 

The Values and Belief systems are beyond the material realm.  They delete, distort and generalize the input along with other experience to produce an internal representation.  The ongoing such activity produces the state of the person which determines the final current behavioral response to external inputs.

 

Here is how the Tangible Sacramental rites and ritual finaly result in the Fruits of the Spirit in real life leading to Sanctification.

 

Thus Sacraments are the means of communication whereby grace is conferred onto the individuals under given conditions.

How external sacraments leads to greater understanding of God and causes transformation of conduct and behaviour is represented in another form below.  The Spirit of God within transforms the Christian into the likeness of Jesus.

Transformed into His likeness

In the Sacraments God is reaching down in love and Man is reaching up for mercy and grace.

The Sacraments, or Sacred Mysteries are the most important means  by which the faithful may obtain
union with God, provided they are received
with faith and appropriate preparation.

 

God is present everywhere and fills all things by his Divine grace, and that all of creation is a "sacrament."   In that sense there is nothing profane. We set apart some of the ordinary and make it sacred.  It is the purpose and act of man that make the profane sacred.