82 ... Return Inquiry at any point gets to the Truth, the only Truth. Truth has no second. The field of moral, spiritual and intellectual adventure is equally sweet in all directions. Some people prefer sugar in a ball, others in a waffle, others in a cube. Personal taste is accommodated. But that is the only difference. Sugar is uniformly sweet, no matter what shape it is given. Truth is uniformly delectable, no matter by which means one chooses to imbibe It. Truth takes many forms, forms past counting, but It is always the same Truth.

83 ... Return What is the difference between the great writers, speakers and artists and the mass of individuals who hold the public in thrall for name, fame and fortune by scribbling, squawking and scrawling?

Talent?  Luck?  Connections?

No.

The difference is that the former do not attenuate inquiry and the latter do. And that is why one is here tomorrow and the other isn't.

84 ... Return Truth is inclusive, not exclusive (please note the syntax). Better: Truth is not only inclusive, it is also much more than that. Truth exceeds and transcends any capacity to enumerate or specify.

Now we are heading in the right direction:

L A W «»  O F «»  E X P A N S I O N

Instead of saying,
'Truth is One,'
(Monism)
we say,
'Truth is not two.'
(Non-Dualism)

Neither formulation indicates Truth absolutely, with utter accuracy, but the second, negative formulation freights less inaccuracy than the first, positive one does. It hides the Truth less.

85 ... Return The via negativa is not only an option, it is also a necessity, and more .... So, as our discussion inclines more and more to negative formulations, please understand that we are forced to that by the nature of our subject.

We should be grateful for the tool. If we did not have it, we could not approach The Goal because our condition of Grace would be no more auspicious than that of animals. The via negativa is evidence of the capacity that distinguishes human nature, namely, the capacity called reflexion.

86 ... Return Now, we need to mention two phenomena that characterize life after a person has Turned Godward.

The first is, there is no going back. Once forward movement towards The Goal has started, once Turning Godward begins, the way forward cannot be forsaken. Apostasy cannot occur. Not does not, cannot.

Apostasy is possible at any point before one has Turned Godward. The most common profile of an apostate is a person who has repented their way back to a condition of innocence (zero, as we say here) but is afraid to move forwardly towards The Goal. Such a person glimpses what they will lose if they Turn Godward, and the thought of living without those things terrifies them so much as to induce apostasy as an option preferable to renunciation, which is the proper course.

Renunciation is the foundation of life.
But who can alter the dictates of Fate?!

Once God calls, or, what is the same thing, once one agrees to Turn Godward, God does not permit recidivism. The agreement cannot be undone. Once the journey is undertaken, the trip has to be stayed.

Jerome told the monks at Bethlehem, 'It is yours to say, "Yes" [to monastic vows]. It is not yours to say, "No," once you have said, "Yes." God is jealous. Neither He nor I will let you go once you have committed yourself to Him.'

87 ... Return The rate of travel and the kind of travel that occur between the primal experience called Turning Godward and the reaching of The Goal vary among the individuals who are in the way. Indeed, these things are absolutely unpredictable. But, reaching The Goal is certain once Turning Godward has begun.

88 ... Return The second phenomenon we need to mention is this: human agency cannot anticipate, understand or control the life of one who has Turned Godward.

A forward-moving person is entirely in God's Hands. And These are Jealous Hands! The person is His source. The nearer a person gets to God, the more they feel that they are He: not He per se but, first, not different from He and, later, the same as He.

Please observe the syntax.

A forward-moving person has entered the realm of Divinity. They do not grasp the fact and its significance as strongly early on as they do later. But they grasp it from the beginning, from the very first procession Godward.

The significance of entering the realm of Divinity is much and everlasting. I will not detail it. But note this: operation in the realm of Divinity cannot be anticipated, understood or controlled by human agency.

89 ... Return Parents, teachers, siblings, civil authorities, clergy, spouse, children -- none of these [provisionally] regular and appropriate attachments can lay claim to a person who has turned towards The Goal of Life. The person belongs to God. No ordinary agency can have them. The attachments such a person has are extra-ordinary, of another kind altogether. The person's attention is fixed more and more steadily on the supra-mundane and so, therefore, are their attachments. 'Where the heart is ....'

Carrots or sticks cannot induce a Godward-moving person to forsake their Goal. Threats, suits and abuse are of no avail. The pull of God is stronger than the pulls of the world. The sweetness of Divinity is more satisfying than the sensibility of society. The Savior of Life is more appealing than the savor of life.

90 ... Return To find out whether a person who seems to be moving forward, Turned Godward, really is, present that person with a carrot or a stick, with praise or blame, with a promise or a threat. If they respond to either, they are not moving forward. They are a charlatan. If they do not respond to either, they are moving forward. They are genuine. This procedure tests for the presence of Divinity, Sweetness, in a person.

Of course, the one who conducts such a test will be rewarded for their efforts, which comprise entrapment and blasphemy.

91 ... Return Life in Divine Hands is unpredictable. Consider the career of Martin Luther. Romans condemn Luther as an apostate. An apostate is one who denounces the allegiance, Faith, they once swore.

Luther took monastic vows. He gave his word to God: to not own property, to be chaste and to obey officers of the Order of St. Augustine. Romans charge that Luther left the Order after he was fully professed, sworn to God, and that by this act he broke his word. Breaking one's word in the spiritual realm may be compared to treason in the civil realm. It is called apostasy and is the most heinous crime that there is.

92 ... Return The Roman indictment of Luther includes the charge that he broke his vow of celibacy [Chastity] by marrying. Luther married a nun. This act and the life that followed it, a happy one for Brother Martin, are an especial occasion for Roman scorn.

Jerome said, a millennium earlier, 'God will not let you go.'

Now, the point Jerome was making is correct and essential. No one can fault the Sage for any reason, whatsoever, although many want to and try hard.

93 ... Return Please pay attention: two misunderstandings warp the Christian intellect as it accounts for the phenomena of marriage and celibacy. Each misunderstanding is embedded in Roman and most other Christian dogma.

The first misunderstanding is that monasticism involves physical celibacy. The second is that marriage is a spiritual estate lower than monasticism. The postulate informing both ideas is that marriage compels activity that involves a person in harmful attachments.

Because of these misunderstandings, Roman and most other Christian dogma asserts that when a religious marries, not only do they apostatize, they also devolve.

This dogma, however, does not reflect digestion of all the facts.

94 ... Return The truth is:

	monasticism involves one kind of physical celibacy when it is the career of a single
	person and another kind of physical celibacy when it is the career of a married man and
	woman who are or intend to be biologically productive, and,
	
	single-person monasticism and married-person [biologically productive] monasticism
	are of equal value for the pursuit of sadhana (spiritual discipline), and,
	
	the attachments occasioned by marriage are not more numerous or dangerous than
	those occasioned by any other activity that is appropriate for human capacity.

95 ... Return Some exposition is in order.

The four estates of personal culture -- Student, Householder, Recluse, Mendicant -- are equally auspicious. The Goal can be reached from any one of them. Talk of higher or lower is ignorant and unwarranted.

In addition, the activities associated with marriage do not inherently preclude admittance to advanced stages of sadhana (spiritual discipline). They no more necessarily occasion harm than any other regular and natural [Providential and Godly] human activity does. Every God- approved human activity is dangerous. Vigilance and detachment prevent harm. The activities associated with marriage occasion harm, including unchastity, not more than the activities associated with single-person celibacy do.

The teaching of Christian dogmatic tradition has been very wrong on this subject. Suffering has resulted.

96 ... Return Ignoramuses blame St. Jerome. They retail calumny instigated against this Sage, who is Moses and Paul come again, in the Fourth Century. But, Jerome's monitions about fidelity to monastic vows and Divine Jealousy regarding professed monastics are not to this erroneous aspect of Christian dogmatic tradition. They are correct and essential on their face and to their purpose.

On the relative value of [biologically productive] marriage and single-person celibacy for spiritual progress, Jerome declared the experience of Sages: they are of equal value.

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (St. Jerome) cannot be cited contra Martin Luther.

97 ... Return The estate of personal culture that an individual occupies, or better, is at a given moment is not apparent to ordinary vision. Some who appear to be householders are recluses. Some are mendicants! The inner tendention, not the outer appearance, indicates the nature of a life. And that changes through time ....

We should be cautious about claiming to know the estate of personal culture of an individual, including that of ourselves. A tight rein on the tongue, an individual's only enemy, prevents perjury.

98 ... Return Luther did not break his monastic vows. He did not renege on a commitment once sworn. He did not become unchaste. And he did not quit. He clarified the purpose of monastic vows by revealing their inner meaning.

The inner meaning of Poverty is: not having attachment to property. Swami Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba often says, 'Properties are not proper ties.' The inner meaning of Chastity, Celibacy is: the mind immersed in the thought of God. The inner meaning of Obedience is: the consciousness bound to Truth.

Luther rediscovered a forgotten aspect of monastic culture: the Sage with Consort and Children. He expanded monastic culture to include, potentially, one and all.

99 ... Return Monastic vows are constants of spiritual culture. They canalize the ubiquities of life for Christians, Moslems, Jews, Hindus, etc. They are in force for all aspirants: single, married, cloistered, uncloistered, male, female, young, old, etc.

100 ... Return Life is sets, contexts [Number] that are unique from moment to moment. For taxonomic purposes, these contexts are aggregated under the word history and collectively referred to by that name. The contexts that comprise history cannot be anticipated, understood or controlled by human agency. Humanity subsists as, by, in and for the prepotent whim of Divine Artifice. That Agency, alone, creates, sustains and consumes the contexts that are life and the institutions that are appropriate for those contexts.

101 ... Return We should not parade our puny pride:

'I choose ....'
'I create ....'
'I manage ....'
'I decide ....'
'I know ....'
'I own ....'
'I do ....'
'I am ....'

Jesus (Army of Nebuchadnezzar, 586 BCE, Army of Titus, 70 CE) tore down the Temple of Solomon/Herod because the real Temple is the heart of a believer, wherein He, or a believer's preferred representation of God, is installed.

Wise policy is to expect novelty and difference in the names, forms, places and activities over, under, around and through which God is present to His friends. This means you should not tyrannize those friends, contemn or condemn them .... unless you want trouble ....

Unwise policy is to try or want to try to wrest another's property ....

102 ... Return A person who has Turned Godward is God's property. They are answerable to their Owner and are never forsworn. They cannot be controlled by human agency. They do not abide by laws. They are the Law.

By means of His friends' sojourns to Him, God reveals His Own Glory. The Careers of Saints, Sages and Avathars are redolent monitions.

God is selflessness.
Self is Godlessness.

103 ... Return The second primal experience (passage) is called Crucifixion. It is a poignant moment for a life. It happens once. It is induced, usually, by a set of external circumstances, life- contexts, sitzen-im-leben that gradually and inexorably close around a personality and force a thorough crisis of its stochastic structure, cognitive, moral and physical.

104 ... Return Stories of this experience are not numerous. The reason is, the experience is not easily related and cannot be understood, except by Sages and Avathars. Since it is a thorough crisis of the stochastic structure of a personality, comprising every aspect of its being, its phenomenology is too vast to be recounted in the syntax of grammatical statements, even poetical ones. In other words, words are inadequate.

The experience is of a kind vastly different from anything most readers are aware of as existing, much less have experienced. There is the matter of not singing in tones an audience is unprepared to regard as music. There is also a question of safety.

105 ... Return Persons who have undergone the primal experience (passage) called Crucifixion are reticent about it. They do not desire to discuss it. They will not discuss it excepting with persons who are prepared to be sympathetic, or, learning. If they speak about it for public hearing they will use phraseology meant to induce foreboding or horror. This is a strategy for keeping away the curious. It is kin to Pythagorean strategies for misleading or fobbing off inanities on the frivolous.

106 ... Return God does not induce experience beyond what a person can endure. Crucifixion is undergone by the strong, not by the weak. Weak individuals cannot Turn Godward. How can they undergo this advanced course-work?

107 ... Return Like Turning Godward, Crucifixion is not undergone voluntarily. It is kin to the phenomenon that is called predestination: it happens to you before you happen ... and ... have happy day.

On the other hand, Crucifixion is not forced upon a person, as Turning Godward is not, either. It does not violate their desires. A person sees it coming and welcomes it as expansion, progress, forward movement.

108 ... Return Crucifixion is the gateway to the realm of non-duality, Adwaitha. A person cannot access that realm until they have undergone a complete stochastic crisis and restructuring called Crucifixion.

Crucifixion is turning self-ward, where self and God commingle and are finally recognized as not distinct. What Theologians at Nicæa wanted to describe as the nature of Christ as that relates to God is, in fact, the nature of the self as that relates to Truth. Mystics have always understood the Creed as an autobiography of every being. So it is.