There are a number of passages in the Bible that I would like to have permanently branded on my brain, or my heart, preferably both.
2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1 is near the top of my list of biblical passages I would like to drill into my being.
16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
5:1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
You might think of this as the Eckhart Tolle passage of the Bible. Eckhart Tolle makes a distinction in life between what he calls “form ” and “formless”. He suggests that much of the pain we experience in our lives comes from our attachment to form and our lack of awareness of the formless dimension of life.
Paul calls these two realities the “outer nature” and the “inner nature”. Earlier in 2 Corinthians 4:7 he calls them the “clay jar” and the “treasure” contained within the “clay jar”.
It is important, thinking about these two realities to make sure we do not put them in opposition to one another. Without the “clay jar” the “treasure” could not manifest in the physical realm. Without the “treasure”, the “clay jar” is just an empty pot, something vastly less than it was created to be.
Our “outer nature” and our “inner nature” are two different dimensions of being, two complementary realms of existence. Both are necessary as long as we live in this physical realm.
The problem is we tend to place more emphasis on the “outer nature” than the “inner”. The “outer nature” is so much more easily apprehended. The “outer nature” of life can be perceived by anyone. This is the realm in which we see, touch, taste, hear, and smell.
Because we are so conscious of it, the “outer” dimension of existence can be utterly overwhelming. It is tempting to locate our sense of identity in this “outer nature”, becoming obsessed with the surface details of our lives, our thoughts and our feelings.
When we attempt to solidify our sense of identity in the “clay jar” we always feel vulnerable, uncertain, and fearful. “Clay jars” are fragile. It is the “treasure” within the jar that is strong and “eternal”. As long as we stay connected to the “treasure” we know that there is a dimension of being in which we are not vulnerable, in which we are eternally strong and whole.
“What can be seen” is intended to be a portal to that which “cannot be seen”. When we stop at “what can be seen” we are focusing our attention and our energies on that which is “wasting away.” When we concentrate our energies on that which is “temporary”, our lives are beset by “slight and momentary afflictions”.
Paul wants to point us to the freedom of living in a “building from God not made with hands”. He wants us to discover that there is a transcendent realm that exists beyond time, beyond the ups and downs of which this “earthly tent” is the constant victim. He is pointing us to the possibility of a life lived beyond the likes and dislikes that hold us in their grasp when we are focused primarily with the “clay jars” that contain the deep “treasure” of God’s presence.
The challenge of life is to sit lightly to the “clay jars”. They exist to carry “treasure”. When we rest in the “treasure” we find within ourselves an “eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.” We are filled with the fullness and glory of God. There is nothing that can take from us the reality of that abiding presence. The jar is “being destroyed”. The reality of our true nature can never be destroyed. It only makes sense in this life to sit lightly to that which “is being destroyed” and attend to that which is “eternal”.
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Eckhart Tolle from The Power of Now
Suffering is due to identification with form. 164, 164
One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called: die before you die. 165
On the level of form, you share mortality and the precariousness of existence. On the level of Being, you share eternal, radiant life. 166
Ekchart Tolle from New Earth
Ego is a conglomeration of recurring thought forms and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of I, a sense of self. Ego arises when your sense of Beingness, of “I Am,” which is formless consciousness, gets missed up with form. 54
Why fear? Because the ego arises by identification with form, and deep down it knows that no forms are permanent, that they are all fleeting. So there is always a sense of insecurity around the ego even if on the outside it appears confident. 80
In the stillness of Presence, you can sense the formless essence in yourself and in the other as one. Knowing the oneness of yourself and the other is true love, true care, true compassion. 177
When you are seemingly diminished in some way and remain in absolute nonreaction, not just externally but also internally, you realize that nothing real has been diminished, that through becoming “less,” you become more. When you no longer defend or attempt to strengthen the form of yourself, you step out of identification with form, with mental self-image. Through becoming less (in the ego’s perception), you in fact undergo an expansion and make room for Being to come forward. 215
The twofold reality of the universe, which consists of things and space – thingness and no-thingness – is also your own. A sane, balanced, and fruitful human life is a dance between the two dimensions that make up reality: form and space. Most people are so identified with the dimension of form, with sense perception, thoughts, and emotion, that the vital hidden half is missing from their lives. Their identification with form keeps them trapped in ego. 219, 220
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June 10, 2012 at 6:52 am
jaqueline
This formless thing…it seems to contradict the whole idea of God creating material to reveal himself. It seems to contradict the idea that form is the expression of that which is unseen.
We assume that most people are overly invested in the manifestation of form (which is us forgetting from whom form originates, and forgetting what it is wanting to say)…but there are those who are invested in spirit at the neglect of form…( which is also us forgetting from whom form originates and what it is wanting to say ) No matter how much it is explained, it is too easy in the name of spirituality to say that focus on form is the mistake .
True, it is fading away, being destroyed..but not like so much rubbish. More like a flower fades to bring forth fruit, or a fruit to bring forth a seed, or a seed to bring forth a shoot, or a cloud to bring forth rain , or wood to bring forth fire, or a clay cast to bring forth a sculpture.
I could not help but think of the wisdom of Taoism that encourages us to meditate on a leaf or flower, or on some aspect of nature, to focus our attention there and allow it to draw us into an experience of spirit.
June 10, 2012 at 3:04 pm
jaqueline
As you were talking about this verse in your sermon today I realised what it was that was not sitting right for me about Eckhardt’s take about the invisible. Tolle apparently believes that if something is invisible it is automatically formless.
Why should it automatically follow that when Paul talks about the invisible he is talking about formlessness? That is our assumption. All Paul is saying is, is that from our perspective, we cannot see it…
June 10, 2012 at 5:44 pm
jaqueline
I am not being obtruse btw
…there is the idea of what Daniel sees in his visions and John in revelation implying that the invisible world has form that we apprehend if we are open…though weird and wonderful…
and there is Steiner..and his degrees of being …and there is always Plato.
June 10, 2012 at 9:31 am
Tress
You are beginning to connect things up for me!
I have understood the concept of advaita vedanta , that Eckhart Tolle and ,less popularly ,others have simplified.
This lacked the essential component of the the teaching of Jesus, expanded and interpreted by st Paul s . Jesus showed that we are not just random objects of creation, but personification of the creator in the sense of being his children,because love must expand.
Without love and its sister aspect of beauty, none of it seemed to have meaning .
The explanation of the universe makes sense , but by your showing the connection to the gospels ,comforts me and gives me joy,and incentive to
understand more that is written , with your help.
June 11, 2012 at 10:44 am
Steve
This is a timely and comforting subject for me and I shall pass it on to my wife. As I write this my 95 year old father in law lie dying, this morning he has stopped eating, he is not talking, and his body is shutting down. Chances are that within a week we will be spreading his ashes in the courtyard of the Episcopal Church he went to in the latter part of his life. He is making the transition from form to formless. Paul’s words count this life as but “momentary afflictions” preparing us for the life to come. This is not a moment to be bemoaned but rather to be celebrated. This truth is, as with other spiritual truths, contrary to human nature, we want to be angry, we want revenge, we want to satisfy the flesh, and we want to morn. Paul’s words give us a different perspective:
“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7. For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
I find it baffling and odd that you would bring to mind Eckhart Tolle in considering this subject and omit Jesus Christ. It is He that gives us that blessed assurance; it is He that has reconciled us to God, it is He that suffered for us and it is He that is the centerpiece of our faith. I don’t see what Eckhart Tolle can add to that.
“16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
June 11, 2012 at 5:20 pm
jaqueline
Steve, a lot of Christians are baffled by other Christians appreciating Eckhardt Tolle.
When I saw him on Oprah a few years ago I realised he is in fact not saying anything new… he is saying what we already know from the great traditions.
The thing is though, that some one like him is really valuable to open up again ears that may have been blocked by the foibles of Christendom or that have been shut because of familiarity. . He is not affiliated with a religion , but respects all of them….he may very well be one of God’s who is opening a way to spirituality in a hungry and thirsty world which is understandably wary of anything religious. Thankfully he does not do the usual New age quick fix approach.
Is there anything wrong with showing how this popular teacher relates to a tradition and can bring insight to it and vise verse? And as Jesus says, why not let him preach? If he is not against us he is for us.
I have not found myself drawn to read his books, feeling that the Christian and other traditions are enough for me…but I have appreciated what has filtered down through tellie and others though…..
Having said that, I have my own discomfort with what I have gleaned of his teachings…and cannot ascribe to the formlessness idea, or the idea of the pain body or at least interpretations of what I have heard others say about his idea of the pain body.
(my own fave para- religious teacher tends to be Joseph Campbell.)
June 11, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Steve
Mine is Wayne Dyer, I have come into a deeper understanding of the teachings of Jesus through him, he has some keen insights but like you said, he is only restating what we (Christians) have know for over 2,000 years. But that’s the point, just like you say, he is restating Biblical teaching in a fresh non threatening way. He explains Biblical truths in the vernacular. He also has a deep understanding of things spiritual and like Gandhi I don’t understand how he has such knowledge, way beyond about 90% of people calling themselves Christian and that includes ministers too. Yet he like Tolle makes no profession of a particular faith, he embraces all the major religions and that’s fine to a point. With Tolle, Dyer, and any of their likes stop short of embracing what makes Christianity different, short of the most remarkable and powerful heart of Christianity that is summed up in the cross. Christianity can be brought down to the level of religion and it’s a fine one at that. The founders of my country embraced Christianity just a a religion but did not recognize the deity of Christ. I am convinced ours must be a two level faith, to some it is religion, for others it is much more profound than that, it is beyond religion. It is religion internalized and replaced with two simple commands.
But everybody seems to sidetrack the revolutionary, scandalous, preposterous, claims of Jesus, as if they don’t exists. The truth is Jesus is either who He says He is or He is a liar and a fraud. He was not, is not, and never will be a prophet, a great teacher, a martyr, one among many. He would have been long since forgotten were that the case. Everywhere I see this truth overlooked, as if it doesn’t exist. Is it because I am one of the few who gets it? Is everybody else blind to it? I rarely hear Christopher make reference to Jesus, I rarely hear most ministers truly talk about the passion of Christ or the message of Christ in plain English. What is wrong? It must be me but I am confused. My one consolation is the classics of Christian literature. This is where I retreat to find the Jesus I know, all these great Christian writers from the past get it and I am comfortable with them and more and more with just the Bible. I am interested in knowing yours and anybody else’s thoughts
on this.
This gets me back to your original point and I understand what you are saying, Tolle, Dyer, and others are starting to do what Christian clergy are failing to do -talk plain English.
P.S. Christopher falls into a special category, I am not lumping him in with the mainstream. He and my own minister as well are an enigma to me- but they have an entirely different vantage point.
June 11, 2012 at 8:24 pm
jaqueline
so here is an article that you might find interesting Steve…brings some breadth to understanding Christian diversity even in what we call evangelical
http://thinkingpacifism.net/2012/06/11/should-anabaptists-be-evangelicals/#comment-1090
June 11, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Steve
Oh, and Jaqueline, you said “….he may very well be one of God’s who is opening a way to spirituality in a hungry and thirsty world which is understandably wary of anything religious.” I have had the same thoughts about Wayne Dyer, like maybe he is a “plant” or a closeted Christian and he knows if he “comes out” people will start running for the hills. That’s a little far fetched but then God’s ways are not our ways.