Chapter Ten: Elusive Reality

TEN

Elusive reality

In asserting a concept of spirituality, as the one I have thus far merely sketched, one may be thrown into confusion about one’s true place within reality. I should more precisely say that one’s sense of ‘corporeality’ stands at risk. It is certainly true that man is more grounded (not necessarily rooted, but definitely more at home) in a ‘worldly’ concept of reality. Until now, it all seemed rather solid and stable. All this about a spiritual side has made reality a bit - elusive.

Now we must ask ourselves, ‘what constitutes reality?’ Finding out will not be an easy task, seeing that the spiritual and the corporeal seem so much like oil and water. Rather, we speak expressly of ‘light’ and ‘dark’.

John 9:41 gives a little surface iridescence, “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” (This is another bit of the ‘fulcrum theory’). Of course, He meant ‘blind’ to their worldly preconceptions.

We have studied the spiritual side of our two-sided existence and deduced that it is the partner that leads in this dance of reality. What will be studied here is the preeminence of ‘light’ in application to both the individual and the ‘greater body of individuals’. We will endeavor to sleuth out the constitution of reality. We will employ terms such as ‘the body’ and ‘light’. We will embrace the higher concept of ‘purity’. Bottom line: our puzzle has two pieces. They are ‘corporeality’ and ‘spirituality’.

Our minds will labor under the strain of shifting between the concepts of ‘one’ and ‘two’, but we will exercise sweaty thoughts until our minds are buff.

The ‘individual’ concerns us: as we consider ourselves primarily individuals. We have a sense of ourselves apart and separate from others. Even highly gregarious people are aware of their individuality. So, wherein lies spiritual truth for us ‘solid’ types? How do we begin to see ourselves

for what we are?

John 11:9-11 says this, “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”

Read that again.

Light does not originate in the corporeal. All that a man possesses, in the way of judgment discernment and the making of good decisions, comes from the spiritual side of our being. It has already been determined that Christ is the ‘light of the world’. We, therefore, are given to understand that ‘day’ and ‘night’ are representative of ‘spiritual’ and ‘corporeal’.

In a more homogenous sense, the verse presented above points to our better nature, and to our less than better nature by way of contrast. If we are to praise something about ourselves, it should be the better part: the higher nature. Sadly, there are many on this plane who are artlessly contrary. They call ‘good’ ‘bad’ and ‘bad’ ‘good’. The things they lift up about themselves are the darker elements of their thoughts.

They exalt their own advancement at another’s expense: the ‘dog-eat-dog’ worldly principle; or, ‘you have to break some eggs to make an omelet’. They propose to stumble on their own rather than be instructed: the worldly concept of ‘my will: free will’. We have read already that everyone has the truth within, but some hold the truth in unrighteousness. I call this the ‘Reversal Syndrome’.

Christ warned against such when He said in Luke 11:35, “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.”

It is an easy state to fall into. Those who espouse such doctrines can be as persuasive as the dark nature that guides them. They have put themselves in subjection to “the Prince of the power of the air.” I need not tell you that communication can be both good and bad, but I will repeat it nonetheless: ‘communication is key’.

If you enter a group that espouses a shared doctrine, and you buy into it, the group grows by one. Groups are always in flux, either growing or diminishing through communication. That process becomes exponentially greater through mass communication. The world communicates worldliness through mass communication, through the Prince of the power of the ‘air waves’.

Dark groups, like tumors, grow wherever they are left alone to flourish. Without a controlling or countering action, weeds will soon overtake a garden. We see the news on TV: prayer taken from schools, the Ten Commandments (the basis of our legal system) shamefully put away, ‘In God We Trust’ attacked. We see darkness in our government growing because soldiers of the light have not yet rallied.

See Habakkuk 1:4, “Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.”

Light does not originate in corporeal man, but light may be seen and employed. There is an entrance from the spiritual into the corporeal; light gets in. It may be seen with a spiritual eye, just as the corporeal eye sees the light from the sun. The spiritual eye, turned toward the mirror, sees the light from the Son. The purpose of an eye is to bring light into focus. Focused light is an image; and what are we exploring but the communication of an image?

In our eye, the image of an upright figure is upside down. We have determined that we are the image and glory of God - it’s just that we are not exactly in sync, and again, I must stress that I am speaking of that part of us (the image) that may be communicated with.

Next higher vantage point: the mind is the image that exists on the corporeal plane, mirroring our spiritual body. Our minds reenact every posture of our spiritual bodies, as our minds are merely reflections of our true selves. If the true body has an eye, then it follows that the reflection has an eye. If the spiritual eye is singularly trained upon the light, the reflected eye follows suit. Since both sides of the equation must be equal, if the reflected eye looks away to behold darkness, the purity of the spiritual vision becomes muddled.

The concept of singularity, or purity, may be explained by a clear glass filled with cool spring water. There is but a single thing in the glass, and that is the water. Another word for pure is ‘one’. However, when a drop of ink is placed into the water, not only is the singularity immediately lost, but the ink spreads until every bit of the water is dark.

See Luke 11:34, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.”

The word ‘single’ is here used in contrast with the word ‘evil’. The combination has always intrigued me. I have come to see it like this: there is ‘single’ (pure; one), and there is ‘evil’ (multiplicity). That gives the constitution of reality a handle that we may grasp: it is either pure or mixed.

If we return for a moment to the issue of the two trees in the garden, we may now see the one as pure and the other as mixed. The tree of life was singular; the tree of knowledge mixed good and evil. I wish also to add that a single eye is an eye that is in agreement on both sides of the interface.

Luke 11:36 points to the reality of that agreement thusly, “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”

That candle is the spirit. The flame that burns upon it is God. The light that our reflected eye sees is Christ. The “whole body” is our physically housed mind in covenant with our spirit. Each of us is a spiritual person. On the other side of the mirror, we are inhabited by God. The true reflection of that spiritual person must also be inhabited by God.

See Acts 17:24, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”

Many people of a dark nature will communicate that spirituality runs counter to life as they know it. It is repressive, restrictive, a state that exists in denial of all things natural. But, of course, they seek the natural by way of excluding God. Reality is not some amputated thing; reality is composed of God.

With that in mind, 1 Corinthians 10:31 instructs us, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

In the true constitution of reality, There is no leveling up apart from God. Neither the universe nor mankind as a whole; neither the church nor the individual may grow without the concomitant growth of the spirit. The church, as a body, depends on God; the corporeal body, linked to the spirit through the mind, depends on God.

Colossians 2:19 points to that symbiotic relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual, “From

which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.”

It may be said that our increase is a reflection of God’s increase. There are a lot of overlapping concepts here, and each one demands our attention. We are composed of God particles. Yes, the reflection is composed of light because Christ is the light.

As we see in Colossians 3:11, there is really only one formula for the constitution of reality: “Christ

is all, and in all.”