"Christ Consciousness" Emerging in "Contemplative Christians"

Email from researcher who wishes to remain anonymous:

Dwayna,

The link I am pasting below and its text, which I am pasting also, had an interesting part of the picture in particular relation to Brian McLaren who bases his understanding of emergence theory on biological emergence as seen in emergent wetlands, the emergent growth of trees as they add rings to the outer trunk, which are added on top of each inner ring so that no rings are ever thrown out but just subsumed under the new ring, and Ken Wilber's intergral theory of emergence that is pure New Age evolution of the soul toward cosmic Christ consciousness. This is the section that put me immediately in mind of McLaren: "The fundamentals of faith remain, upon which the new religion is to be built. For this emergence, it is unnecessary to destroy that which has met its spiritual demand. Only the non-essentials need surely to disappear. The foundations are laid upon those truths which have stood the test of ages and which have brought assurance and comfort to men and women everywhere."

This is why so many seem to allow the old beliefs to stay in place as long as they don't get too bothersome. They just then change the paradigm by shifting the weight of the spiritual practice from the old foundation of doctrine and onto the new foundation built of poles that lift the church up onto the new supports of contemplative mysticism. This a very clever method of gutting the Christian faith while still retaining the title of "Christian" as they build a new religion in place of the biblical faith. This method also minimizes the outcry of believers since they do not directly deny the essentials of the Christian faith. They just shift the focus away from the essentials to their vision of "practice" of spiritual disciplines. The basics then move into the realm of things assumed through the consensual memory.

Rick Warren uses this exact method. I heard a web interview a few years back as he talked to the Synagogue 3000 leaders who are trying to turn their synagogues "emergent" and are facing opposition. Warren used the illustration that I allude to above of thinking of the existing synagogues as houses built on poles in a region where they experience flooding. He taught them to use the method used by people who live under these conditions. When the old poles start to rot, they do not pull them out and start from scratch. Instead they bring in the new poles and put them in place right next to the old poles, but then lift the entire structure up just slightly so that only the new poles actually serve as the support system for the structure. Warren advised using that method to get around the opposition to the changes. What a crafty and clever way to bypass having to deal with objections. This is the same thing he teaches churches in how to deal with making the paradigm shift in ministry. It fits really well with McLaren's paradigm of just adding another tree ring to the existing paradigm in order to shift the spirituality to something new.

http://www.maitreyasangha.org/MaitreyaSangha.htm (New Age/occult site; see what I have bolded for emphasis--notice the quotes of Scripture...--Dwayna)

Religion is the name given to the invocative appeal of humanity and the evocative response of the greater Life to that cry. The moment any idea enters the religious field, it gains immediate momentum from the fact that the outstanding characteristics of the human consciousness are the sense of the innermost or the Real, a recognition of subjective destiny, and an innate knowledge of reaching out to the Unknown God. Therefore, any truth or presentation of truth or method that has in it the possibility of producing a nearer approach to divinity or a more rapid understanding of the “deeper Being” evokes an immediate response and reaction. Creating and vitalising the new world religion embodying a universal and inclusive platform is an activity which all true servers for humanity should be engaged in at this time, no matter what other planned service activities are being rendered. This is an inevitable response to the spiritual potency of the fact of the Presence of the Lord Maitreya, or the Christ (as He is called by Christians) now among us. For those who can see, the outlines of the Universal Temple of the Lord of Love are definite, and indicate not only the fact of His Presence but that He comes not alone. He comes forth from the secret place of the Most High and together with His senior Brothers from that spiritual Center of divine energy brings fresh revelation, fresh hope, and a fresh incentive towards fuller spiritual living. The new group of servers have prepared the way before Him; the senior Brothers have emerged and drawn closer to humanity, and of this approach the great concepts of freedom, the dream of brotherhood, of fellowship, of world cooperation and of a peace based on right human relations is an inspired testimony.

From this inspiration likewise does the idea of the Sangha arise. The Sanskrit word “sangha” denotes a “spiritual community.” The title, Maitreya, means “Loving One,” from the Sanskrit, maitri, meaning radiant kindness and love. The same great Initiate Who is adorned with this title is the same great “Teacher alike of angels and men” Whom Christians call the Christ. However, His radiant love is not that of the meek and mild kindness portrayed by the theologians and ecclesiastical minds, but an inclusive energy of exceeding potency and radiatory power, a solar energy which He can focus through His all-inclusive radiatory Will as a center of magnetic power so great that it can “draw all men and women unto Him.” It is the hearts of men and women that respond to the call of the Maitreya and those hearts today are invocative of His coming, thus marking a significant turning point in human history. Through the livingness of His Presence, the principle of love is stimulated in every human heart. Thus it may be said that the world today is more spiritually inclined than ever before. The religious spirit of humanity is today more definitely focussed upon Reality, thus making possible a vision of a new and vital world religion, a universal faith which has its roots in the past, but which also clarifies the new dawning beauty and vital revelation hovering over mankind. The fundamentals of faith remain, upon which the new religion is to be built. For this emergence, it is unnecessary to destroy that which has met its spiritual demand. Only the non-essentials need surely to disappear. The foundations are laid upon those truths which have stood the test of ages and which have brought assurance and comfort to men and women everywhere.

These foundations are (1) the fact of Deity; (2) the fact of man’s essential and intrinsic relationship to the divine Source; (3) the fact of immortality and eternal persistence, involving necessarily the recognition of two great natural laws: the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect; (4) the fact of the continuity of revelation and the divine approaches, leading necessarily to the recognition that never has Deity left Itself at any time or world period without witness. To these facts must be added (5) man’s assured, innate knowledge of the existence of the Path to Deity and of his ability to tread it. The keynote of the new religion of the Age of Maitreya is Divine Approach, sounding forth in new and clear tones. The theme of the new religion is the recognition of the many divine approaches and the continuity of revelation and spiritual teaching which each of them conveyed.

The platform of the new religion has three major presentations of truth: 1. The fact of the Spirit of Deity, both transcendent and immanent, and also a similar fact in relation to man. The mode of their approach to each other, via the soul, is indicated through the emerging truth that might be called Transcendental Mysticism. 2. The fact of the divine quality of the Forces in nature and in human beings and the method of their utilisation for divine purposes by man himself might be called Transcendental Occultism. 3. The fact, implied in the first, that Humanity, as a WHOLE, is an expression of divinity, a complete expression, plus the allied fact of the divine nature and work of the planetary Brotherhood of Light (of Whom the Maitreya is the Head), and the mode of approach of these two groups, in group form, to each other. This might be called Transcendental Religion. The method employed for these Approaches is the scientific and intelligent use of Invocation and Evocation. By the use of the word “science” it is not meant the purely intellectual thing so oft depicted. It is in reality the intelligent organisation of spiritual energy and of the forces of love, and these, when effective, evoke the response of certain spiritual Beings. Invocation is of three kinds: (1) The invocative cry of massed demand, unconsciously voiced, appealing from the hearts of people to that power outside themselves which they feel should come to their aid in moments of extremity. (2) The invocative spirit, evidenced by sincere persons as they participate in the rites of their religion and take advantage of the opportunity of united worship to lay their demands for aid before Deity. (3) Scientific Invocation through the trained disciples and aspirants of the world who use certain forms of words, certain carefully defined invocations, and focus the invocative cry and invocative appeal of the other two groups, giving it right direction and power.

This new invocative work is the technique of the keynote of the new religion, and falls into two parts: (1) The invocative work of the masses, trained by the spiritually minded people of the world to accept the fact of the approaching spiritual energies focussed through the Maitreya and his Senior Workers. (2) The skilled work of invocation as practised by those who have trained their minds through right meditation, who know the potency of formulas, mantrams and invocations, and who work consciously. The truth lying behind all invocation work is based upon the power of thought. The form of the new religion, though a living ethic, is built up around certain stated festivals wherein certain great Approaches are made to the world of Reality. These periods are the Full Moon, the Equinox and Solstice periods, and the Solar and Lunar Eclipses. Thus, the momentum of “world religion” is not only in the idea of right relationships to be established upon our globe and to the spiritual life of our planet, but also in our relating consciousness to solar and celestial spiritual influences. The ritual of the new world religion is therefore established by reference to a synchronicity with the celestial ritual of the Heavens, and universally enacted upon the basis of approach, invocation, and meaning in connection with the particular divine aspects or attributes indicated by the influencing constellation. The establishing of a certain uniformity in the world religious rituals by keeping the same holy days aids people everywhere to strengthen each other’s work and enhance powerfully the thought currents directed to the waiting spiritual Lives. The universal platform of the new world religion is built by many groups and workers in the religious field, working under the inspiration of the Maitreya. It is formulated by loving synthesis, emphasises the unity and fellowship of the spirit, and offers true spiritual guidance. Thus must the needs of the progress of the human soul be met on its long pilgrimage from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real, from death to immortality, from ignorance to wisdom, and from chaos to Beauty.

A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE

The glory of scientific attainment and the magnificent evidence of creative art­, both modern and ancient­, leave no room to question man’s divinity. The divine spirit of the Maitreya in the human heart can be expressed in many different departments of human living­ in politics, in the arts, in economic expression and in true social living, in education, science and in religion. We now stand on the threshold of all that is new. The reappearance of the Christ is a spiritual event, appearing under cyclic law and invocative demand to bring about great changes and major restorations, to inaugurate a new civilization in the Age of Maitreya and to restore the “ancient landmarks.” The uniqueness of His impending mission is that He is able ­in Himself­ to give expression to two divine energies: the magnetic potency of love and the dynamic effectiveness of the divine will. He is the World Teacher and not the teacher alone of one particular faith. His new teaching will provide the skeleton structure of the new world religion, thus giving us a fresh view of divine intention and living insight into the minds of Those Who implement the divine will. From the Secret Place of the Most High the fiat has gone forth: “The hour has come.” From the spiritual Center of Light and Love, where reigns the Lord Maitreya, the answer has returned: “Father, Thy Will be done.” From the struggling center of the heart of Humanity the cry has ceaselessly risen: “May Christ return to Earth.” Under the impulse of the divine will, He must therefore reappear and preside over the materialisation of the Kingdom of Souls upon Earth, to reinstate the Mysteries of Initiation in such a form that they prove the basis of the new world religion, and above all, to reveal the nature of the will of Deity. His sphere of activity is in the human heart ­in all circumstances and places of the world ­and not in some stone edifice or ecclesiastical pomp.

THE SANGHA

What is this Sangha of Maitreya? Essentially it is constituted of all those in whom the life of the Christ or what has been called the “Christ consciousness” is to be found or is in process of finding expression. It is the aggregate of all who love their fellowmen, because to love one’s fellowmen is the divine faculty which makes us full members of the Sangha of Maitreya. It is not the accepting of any historical fact or theological creed which places us en rapport with Christ. The citizens of the Kingdom of Souls are all those who are deliberately seeking the light and attempting (through self-imposed discipline) to stand before the One Initiator. The simple conviction is that the soul is ONE with all souls, that divine revelation is continuous and ever new, and that the divine Plan is working itself out and can be consciously cooperated with.

Organised group forms of Maitreya Sangha exist and are operated by the members of the Lodges of Ancient Universal Mysteries. Their activities are freely offered to all and include Solar Fire Festivals at the periods of the Full Moon, ceremonial rituals at stated periods, teaching, occasional conferences, activities to support the spiritual welfare and education of children, and the fostering of science, culture and the arts.