More on dwelling in the “now”

A post or so ago...in the series of posts I've been writing about Bonhoeffer, which was a digression from the series of posts I was writing about violence and non violence….which was a digression from the series of posts about mimetic rivalry....which was probably a digression from another series....I said:

Quoting Eckhart.....
Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now. Narrow your life down to this moment. Your situation may be full of problems---most life situations are---- but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do you have a problem now?

I know some will quibble about the wording but in Christianese, I think Tolle is saying...
Find the narrow gate that leads to life....which is "the Christ" that dwells within...the light that lights every man that comes into the world. Or what Preston Eby refers to as

the man’s “I Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him

In Christianese Tolle is saying as Galatians 5:25 declares

walk in the spirit. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Gal 6:8)

And so….

The topic of today’s post?  How does someone who writes from a much more Christian perspective….someone who speaks Christianese, word that? 

It means that man was created and formed with the wonderful capacity to LIVE IN THE SPIRIT and WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT. "For to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). One of man's inherent potentials was to know God within as the source and center of his life.

He goes on to say:

 It is a STATE OF BEING. It is a higher existence for man than this cursed state we find ourselves in by physical birth and mortal consciousness. It is the state of being that man was in when he was first brought forth from the creative hand of God and placed here upon earth. It represents man in the presence of God! Man with the incorruptible life of God available to him!

These words were "penned" by Preston Eby...taken out of context a bit from his writing on Job.  In the article, which is well worth reading, he talks about similarities between the book of Job and the book of Genesis. I love the way Eby describes the differences between the christman and the adamic man....now that I understand what he is talking about. 

He talks about the Garden and two of the trees in the Garden....specifically the two trees in the MIDDLE of the Garden. (Genesis also talks about “other trees” which would make an interesting look see into the spiritual significance of the other trees.  As a side note, after the Fall, Adam and Eve hid amongst the trees….the other trees no doubt…but I digress)  Anyway, the Garden is, of course, not a “piece of real estate in Mesopotamia”  but is (as Keith has said many times) right between your ears. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are planted right in the middle of your mind/brain/consciousness. 

First about the Tree of Life....

 It was IN THE MIDDLE — that is all that is said about it! It was right there in man's consciousness, in man's nature. The life that comes forth from God is in the middle. That means that God, the source of life, is in the middle. In the middle of the world that is at Adam's disposal and over which he has been given dominion is not Adam himself, but the tree of God's eternal and incorruptible life. Adam's life was to come from the middle which was not Adam in his self-consciousness, but in his Deadconsciousness. This means that with God as his center man would have life. It means that man was created and formed with the wonderful capacity to LIVE IN THE SPIRIT and WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT. "For to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). One of man's inherent potentials was to know God within as the source and center of his life.

So there you have it…right from the anointed pen of Preston Eby.  Man was created and formed with the capacity to live and walk in and walk after the spirit.  Eby says it is only through a Christian paradigm.  Others, like Eckart Tolle and Robert Rutherford (to name a few) say it is much broader than that.....

More on this….and the Tree of Knowledge in my next (few) posts....