writings, which clearly explain the “what”—what is taking place and what needs to be done—there are few that successfully balance the preliminary “what” with the complementary and necessary “how.”
The third, and perhaps most important reason that I am writing this book, is to create a bridge that has for me (and may for you) revealed a meaningful continuity between our existing culture, our current stage of evolution, and our inherited spiritual roots. Who we are today is not happenstance. Until we understand and are reconciled with how we got where we are, our futures are hit and miss. Who and where we are have to do with the power of myth and our need to reinterpret the primary myth upon which our Western culture has been formulated and based, the Judeo-Christian myth.
Finally, as my intention is to share my thoughts in hopes that they will fuel yours, I have no intention of posing as an academic, I am not an ordained minister, and have no Ph.D. to hide behind. I hope that you will read this book more as a written conversation than as any kind of final word. Because the “what” has to precede the “how,” the first section of this writing will concentrate on my interpretation of what I surmise has taken place in the past and what it has led to in the present. This part is less personal and more factual. The later sections of the book are the more personal “how to” parts: How to use the tools we have been given through the ages in order to find the multidimensional and cohesive level of fulfillment that makes it possible for us to see that it is all God.
The Myth
It would be a mistake to claim that in referring to our Judeo-Christian tradition as a myth, I in any way reduce it to the level of fantasy. Its substance is grounded on actual experiences from which, in time, the central meanings or consciousness has been extracted. All of the world’s major religious myths began because some individual had a transcendental experience. Myths close the gap between fact and fiction precisely because they are not just made up stories divorced from reality. We refer to them as myths because in isolating the central meanings, they become symbolic examples of how “the Word” is made flesh. Contrary to common belief, myths have a literal basis in fact whereas allegories are defined as invented stories in which people, things, and events have a singularly symbolic meaning. Myths, like poetry, are attempts to reveal universal and profound truths via as few personalized words as possible. Our Scripture is, therefore, our mythological poetry.
Until those of us who are products of our Western culture review and are reconciled to the Judeo-Christian crucible, which has consciously or subliminally conditioned our present way of life, we won’t discover a meaningful approach to the future. We do not have to accept the interpretations of Scripture we have heard all of our lives; however, I do not believe we can consciously understand how we arrived where we are and become completely free unless we pry open the inner meanings of our traditional myth to see how they have consciously or subconsciously affected us. All those who were conditioned in families that attended church or synagogue regularly and were from infancy inculcated with Scriptural implants may have something to overcome. We all may be burdened with a subconscious that is still crammed full of Biblical distortions, sitting there waiting to be freed from stifling old theology—and ourselves along with them.
Throughout history, interpretations of the Judeo-Christian myth have been filtered by social circumstance and elaborately contorted by institutions in order to fit the viewpoint of a particular sect, or they have been manipulated to benefit an imposed power structure. It is no wonder that many Westerners have rejected our traditional myth in favor of foreign myths because, being unfamiliar, foreign myths seem less overloaded with contorted interpretations that have diluted the truths of our myth.
I happen to believe that many if not all of the stories in the Old Testament and the significant experiences of the man we call Jesus Christ were not purely fiction. In essence, our Judeo/Christian principles—secrets if you will—have the power to transform lives, whether the incidents in the Bible that led to them were literally true or not. It is not my mission to confirm or refute the validity of the Scripture. I do, however, want to show how we can work with them as they currently exist, and find our own spiritually inspired answers that have the power to erase past limitations and animate our lives. What’s more, after over fifty years of studying Scriptures, I am more dazzled than ever. I feel not only that we have barely touched the edge of the mystery they contain, but also that we are just now—finally—beginning to evolve into the consciousness they were intended to create.
I lump the Old and the New Testaments together and call them the Judeo-Christian myth because there is, or should be, a kind of symbiotic understanding between Jews and Christians that every idea in the New Testament is tucked away somewhere in the Old Testament if one can discern its evolution. To me, it is as though Jesus was a divine mechanic who chose various concepts from the Old Testament and knew how to assemble the parts in a way that created a vehicle that would work for him and his followers.
Underlining the inclusive nature of the twenty-first century, I want to express my appreciation for the oriental masters in India and Japan with whom I was led to study in my early years. I am grateful not only for their turning me on to the invaluable inspiration of meditation and for the wisdom they imparted, but also for an extra special bonus they gave me. Through their generosity, I was able to see what each of the world’s most widely accepted spiritual myths have contributed to the world, and, more importantly, being exposed to those other myths made it possible for me to discover what is unique in the Christian myth. By viewing life from different religious perspectives, I was able to see my own Christian roots from a fresh and illuminating viewpoint, freed of dogma, sect, exclusiveness or the misconceptions of my early conditioning. I was then able to see how we are just now only on the edge of the grandeur and the depth of what was revealed through the Master, Jesus the Christ.
My Personal Parable—The Double Thread
Jesus knew what he was doing when he camouflaged his wisdom via parables. Parables are built around identifiable human traits that experientially trick spiritual implications out of words. The Christian teaching would not have withstood time if Jesus had not hid his abstract truths in personalized allegories to which human beings could relate, stories which masked underlying truths so that only those who had the eyes to see or the ears to hear could mine the mystery.
In the past, most authors have resisted sharing their personal parables, fearing that if they revealed their imperfections, failures, and even successes, what they had to say would be considered superficial. Today, however, in order to be authentic, authors, both psychological and spiritual, must have the willingness and capacity to be totally honest. That means they must share their humanity, their human parable, as well as their knowledge and divinity. Today we are beginning to sense that we are all actually extensions of one being. That is why it is necessary for us to love each other enough to refuse the withholding of any nuance from each other, our shadows, as well as our brilliance. As such, both the concepts I include in this writing and the personal experiences I profile make up my individual parable.
If I had to choose a label that would summarize my lifetime parable, it would be the title of my first and foundation book, The Double Thread. I borrowed that phrase from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s prayer, “Lay hold on me fully both by the within and the without of myself. Grant that I may never break this double thread” (Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu, Harper & Row, 1960).
I won’t take time now to fully detail the breakthrough I experienced at the age of thirty-one in a meditation atop Haleakala, the giant extinct crater on Maui, which led to this double thread concept, because I have elaborated on it at length in my book, Homesick For Heaven. However, that experience opened the Bible to me for the first time and dangled a spiritual carrot before my eyes, which I have constantly pursued until this very day. At that time, I was astounded to discover that if there is one paramount secret in the Christian Scripture. It is hidden in a divine paradox, the significance of which has remained
