Preface 2
That one may find more of Jesus Christ in the teachings of the East than in conventional Christianity today should not be too surprising. After all, Jesus was far more a product of the Eastern spiritual tradition than of Western theological speculation. He inhabited a cultural environment with a moral perspective that would seem quite alien and restrictively austere to most contemporary Westerners. The recent discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi (Dead Sea) scrolls have contributed quite a bit of evidence to this line of reasoning. The well-known history of the Roman Church also underscores the indubitable fact that we do not have access to the complete, unedited Gospels. As a result, most objective religious scholars now agree that the content and style of modern Christianity owe far more to Paul, Constantine and Aristotle than to Jesus.
For example, there are many gaps, both large and small, in the biography of Jesus recounted in the Gospels. What did Jesus do between the age of twelve, when he strayed from his bar mitzvah party to confound the rabbis in the Temple, and when he was initiated by John the Baptist and began his preaching mission about the age of 30? Why is important background information—such as the social and religious contexts of Jesus’ appearance and activities detailed in the Nag Hammadi books, and the etymological derivation of the title ‘Christ’—absent from the Bible, and indeed the entire Christian scholastic tradition? Another serious omission concerns the most significant encounter of Jesus Christ with the Supreme Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of the Last Supper. Jesus goes from protesting, “Take this cup,” to acceding, “Thy will, not my will,” in about two verses. Why did Jesus appear to weaken in his hour of greatest tribulation? What happened to change his mind, ease his doubts and strengthen his determination? The astute reader may identify hundreds of such gaps and inconsistencies, large and small, in the books of the Bible.
This broadminded analytical viewpoint, unfortunately, has not yet filtered down to the average lay Christian. No doubt the leaders of churches and other Christian organizations find it convenient to shield their followers from these baffling questions and awkward truths, which certainly call for a complete reassessment of the core teachings and practices of the Christian Church. But again, it is not my purpose here to criticize or argue with anyone’s beliefs. Rather, I would simply point out to the reader who may never have thought along these lines before that there is a lot more to know about Jesus Christ and God than can be contained in any one book or any sectarian line of religious doctrine. Can we find clues to these gaps in our knowledge in the ancient esoteric traditions?
I would also like to highlight the existence of the field of meta-religion: those essential understandings and teachings common to most, if not all, bona fide religions that predate, permeate and underlie all religious, theological and philosophical paths of human development, often in the form of unstated assumptions. As philosophers often point out, we human beings have no independent method of ascertaining objective truth. Our own senses lie to us constantly. For example, objects that are close to us appear larger than those of the same size that are far away. The apparent color and shape of an object change with the angle of view, or with the light at different times of day. Our minds are no more reliable. Our values can and do change as we learn about life through experience. The theories and doctrines of science may seem solid and dependable, until one day a new theory is proven and displaces them. What seems like a wise and beneficial course of action to us today may appear foolish and destructive tomorrow, as material conditions change.
If we are ever to arrive at perfect knowledge and understanding, especially in areas beyond the jurisdiction of the human mind and senses by definition— such as the nature of the soul, the confidential purposes and ways of God and the eternal Truths of the spiritual world—this information cannot be discovered by human efforts but must be revealed to us from sources higher than human. Therefore all religions posit the process of revelation as fundamental. God must reveal Himself through some agency—whether directly to a chosen prophet, or indirectly through inspired Scriptures—if we imperfect, illusioned human beings are ever to know the real Absolute Truth.
Here lies the kernel of the conflicts among religions: each such revelation seems to differ with all the others, and each teacher’s interpretation of the same revelation also differs from others. Yet we can reason that God is, by definition, one. Therefore the Truth about God should also be one, and not admit conflicting revelations and interpretations. Certainly there is great significance in this line of thought, which I explore more deeply in my book Search for the Absolute Truth. Yet to reconcile the apparent disparity between the Absolute Truth—which reason says must be one, and one alone—and the endless variety of religious and spiritual teachings is not difficult.