In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I'd get this one out of the way. I hadn't been studying the Course too long before I went online to see what people were saying about it. I was just kind of curious–I'd been listening to the CDs that we got from the library and was finding them quite fascinating. So I poked around here and there on several occasions, and kept running into this book called The Disappearance of the Universe, by a guy named Gary Renard. Now this guy had kind of a crazy story, about how in 1992 these two people, two "Ascended Masters" who claimed to have been disciples of Jesus back in the day, just showed up out of nowhere on his couch.
Now, I've read and experienced some things that some people (including probably myself in my earlier days) would think were pretty nutty in the last–let's just say 6 years or so. So while I wasn't sure that I believed this guy, I thought it might be worth checking out. So I found a used copy online and ordered it. And I have to say, I think this book is very much worth a read. I think it did a great job of putting the message of the Course into an easy to understand form. It also offered an explanation for something that had confused me, about the subject of enlightenment. I've spent a goodly amount of time pondering the question of a) what enlightenment is, and b) whether it is a worthy goal, not just in general, but for me. Like, why should I bother trying for something that apparently so few people succeed at?
I've felt this kind of awe for the person of Jesus for a long time, even after the church I was involved with filled me with so much fear that for years after they kicked me out for falling into a depression, I couldn't hear the word "Jesus" without my heart rate and breathing accelerating out of leftover fear. I didn't think too much about him as a miracle worker–more about Jesus as this dude who had many wise things to say about life. But I started thinking more about the reported miracles of Jesus in recent years, and started to wonder if there might really be something to them. And I began to suspect that maybe at least some of those stories weren't just made up. So then, what set apart a person like Jesus from some of the gurus running around claiming they were enlightened? I felt like there was some difference there that was important.
To make a long story short, The Disappearance of the Universe offered an interesting and compelling explanation, by contrasting what they called "non-duality" and "pure non-duality." In the book, they explain that what we think of as enlightenment, "non-duality," is more like a step on the path to true liberation, which comes with true knowing of our unity with God, which the Course says is our real state. The Course says that this life is a dream of separation from God, from which we will one day awaken. The Course bills itself as a way to "save time" (which it says is also part of the illusion) so that we can wake up faster, instead of staying stuck in the dream.
I have now also read Gary Renard's book Your Immortal Reality, and was especially touched by what Pursah, one of the Ascended Masters, said was the true form of her gospel, The Gospel of Thomas.
I think these books are well worth checking out. They are fascinating, and I think they make the Course more accessible.
Link:
The Official Gary Renard Website
Wikipedia article on The Disappearance of the Universe
No comments:
Post a Comment