Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 166 -
MAN'S UNIFICATION WITH GOD. EXAMPLE OF THE SEA AND DROPS OF WATER. THE SLOWNESS OF INTELLECTUAL WISDOM COMPARED WITH WISDOM OF THE HEART.
1
(Says John): "Dear friend, although you are very critical in this most important matter, some of your arguments are correct. However, they could lead you so much astray that you would scarcely ever reach the true destination of your existence. Therefore, in the name of the Lord, Who is now stopping for our sake, I shall give you more light on this subject.
2
In order to prove the correctness of your theory, you used a natural metaphor. I shall now use a similar one to prove you wrong and to give you more light than you could ever expect from your immense sun. Although I will not dive quite as deeply into the vast spaces, I am sure the Lord will help me to hit the nail on the head.
3
It is the sea in every world - be it small or large - into which all the streams, rivers, and brooks flow, and which also absorbs the greater part of all raindrops.
4
In every world, the sea is the basis for all the waters, including rain and dew. A world without a sea would be like a human being without blood and, subsequently, without any juices at all, and, therefore, must turn into a mummy or lifeless statue. The sea is as essential to a world as blood is to any living being.
5
Everything in a world that can be called a fluid, originates from the sea, performs certain services, and returns once more to the sea. And the sea dispenses its great abundance in countless tiny globules and drops to the atmosphere which is closely related to it and which envelopes every world. In this atmosphere, which is in constant motion, these minute particles of water are carried all over the world, and in places where they have accumulated, they become visible as mist and, eventually, as they amass, as clouds. In these clouds they unite and form into bigger and heavier drops, which then fall as rain onto the thirsty world, reviving and refreshing it.
6
Now you know what the sea is and what it gives forth.
7
You say: 'But this is already ancient knowledge.'
8
All right, if this is clear to you, then tell me what is actually older - the individual drops of water or the entire sea itself? Naturally, the entire sea was there first before a raindrop could rise from it into the air. However, when it left the sea as a particle of it, was it anything else but the sea itself? And when it has returned to the sea, will you find any difference between it and the sea?
9
You say: 'No, there everything is identical; for where a part of a whole is identical with that whole, both part and whole are the same.'
10
I agree; but when the same relation exists between Creator and creature, how do you explain the barrier you erect between them?"
11
(The sage is staggered by these words, and says only after a while): "Wisest friend, I now see clearly that you are right. There is nothing I can say to refute your proof for the identity of the Creator with His creature. It cannot be any different, for where else should the Creator find the matter for making creatures if not in Himself?
12
And, having been taken out of Him, the matter or substance must be identical with the Creator, even if the time during which the substance of the creature was separated from the Creator is, naturally, not identical with Him. Time is only a fragment of eternity, strictly limited on both sides, whilst the Creator is infinite and must be so, as nothing can come into existence without Him.
13
This question is, therefore, quite clear and could not be made any clearer by more profound proofs. However, this community likes to have detailed calculations for everything, and so it would be most useful to bring this into an equation.
14
I suggest to state the proportions as follows: The Creator as the collectivity of all the individual totalities separated from Him through His will is in the same ratio to the latter as, inversely, the totalities which keep going forth from Him, taken collectively, are to the Creator. Hence, it follows that the total of all the produced individual totalities is equal to the Creator's totality put into them. Or, the oneness of the Creator is completely contained in the oneness of the creature, and vice versa.
15
If the total oneness in the creature equals the oneness of the Creator, then also a separate oneness must be equal to the collective oneness being contained in it in a strictly equal proportion as the whole in the whole. Surely it must be quite useful to state this proportion?"
16
(Says John): "Yes, yes, the proportion is right. However, here I must point out to you that we, children of the Lord, Who is and will forever be our Father, have quite different ways of calculating.
17
All that you work out with your head, we work out with our hearts. And we always obtain the best results, which comprise all imaginable exceptions. But, here comes the chief master mathematician. He will show you quite different calculations!"
18
(Says the sage): "So that is the Lord, the very being of God?"
19
(Says John): "Yes, friend, that is the Lord."
20
(Says the sage): "To be sure, His external appearance does not reveal much glory. But, as He approaches, He awakens a very ardent love in my heart.
21
His appearance is good, very good. But it is practically unimaginable that this so natural-looking man, who may possess the deepest wisdom, is supposed to be the Creator of all infinity and the works it contains.
22
He is quite as limited as the two of us. How, then, can He, simultaneously, permeate and contain the infinite? However, wisdom has unfathomable depths; everything is possible. With this, I only want to express how peculiar I find this. But quiet now, He is bidding silence!"