09-29-2007, 05:09 PM
http://www.bedegriffiths.com/wisdom/bede...wisdom.htm
BEDE GRIFFITHS AND THE REBIRTH OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM
by Bruno Barnhart, OSB Cam
Keypoints from the article above:
Components that led to his personal religious synthesis -
1. "The first influence is romantic poetry: a tradition which he identifies immediately with his own spiritual initiation: his experience of the divine in nature,...."
> Many AUC members can identify with this.
2."The second turning point, or pivotal moment, was Bede's discovery of Christianity."
3. "The third great pillar in Bede's religious structure would be Hindu Vedanta....Bede seems to awaken as if for the first time and exclaim: now I have come home, this is who I am....he would continue to uncover what he felt to be the unitive root of the universal wisdom, the primal oneness."
4. "A fourth discovery, after twenty five years in India, began to turn him around once again. This was western science, but of a new kind: what is often called the 'new paradigm' science."
> Again...many Unitarians find much in common here.
Key contributions
1. "Bede's first contribution to the rebirth of Christian wisdom is wisdom itself."
2. "Bede's second contribution to a new Christian wisdom is that principle of non-duality, or advaita, and of a unitive absolute, the One. When Bede immerses himself in the thought of the Indian scriptures - particularly in the Upanishads - he discovers a perspective in which everything is one rather than multiple, in which all things are embraced within a single, ultimate reality. When Bede speaks of the perennial philosophy or the primordial wisdom or the universal wisdom, he can include within each of these expressions several levels of meaning - or several concentric spheres of meaning. The core meaning, however, is that unitive reality, or unitive absolute."
"That absolute Reality, or unitive principle - which lies at the core not only of Hinduism but of Buddhism and Taoism - becomes the heart of Bede's vision. Identified with 'God' or 'Father' the Source and first divine Person, it becomes a key for opening Christianity to its depths. What remains to be done, in continuing Bede's work, is to integrate that principle with the divine Word, or Christ-mystery. The nondual Absolute becomes incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the process of its embodiment continues in those who are baptized into Christ. The New Testament can be re-interpreted from this perspective."
> Many Unitarians would probably accept the first half but would have difficulty with some of the Christian aspects...it would depend on how it is done...how literal etc.
3. "The third contribution of Bede is the unitive self, or atman. As soon as Bede has written about the nondual Absolute, he usually moves to the atman, because it is through the Self that the unitive ground of all reality is experienced. The search for the Self, Bede writes repeatedly, is the heart of the Vedantin way. In this focus upon the Self, Bede joins Thomas Merton and Abhishiktananda."
"The point of intersection (East) with Christianity is baptismal initiation, I believe. That is the point in Christian spirituality where we are dealing with the self, the person, as a totality....Remember Jesus' words to Nicodemus, '...unless you are born anew, you cannot see the kingdom of God.' It's a matter of the whole self, which is sacramentally reborn in baptism. Abhishiktananda, in his last years, became very interested in the baptism of Jesus; he saw that as the moment, at the beginning of the gospel, where the divine 'I AM' was realized in the human person. His intuition, I believe, was correct."
> Interesting and of potential application.
4. "Bede Griffiths' fourth contribution to a recovery of Christian wisdom is his recognition of the divine dimension of the feminine. Bede writes some remarkable things about the feminine. Repeatedly he identifies the Holy Spirit with the 'feminine side' of God."
5. "A fifth contribution of Bede to the rebirth of Christian wisdom is something we have already noted briefly: the vision of total integration which Bede conceives in terms of the three levels of being: spirit, soul (or mind) and matter (or body) - or, roughly speaking, God, humanity and the universe."
Such richness here....Unitarianism could adopt much and move the faith along from the 18th-19th centuries to a more whole future faith. In fact, all faiths could stand to move along and come to closer general agreement...there can always be differences in practice and emphasis...but seeing The One / I Am experience as common / available to all is critical...not my God or your God.
BEDE GRIFFITHS AND THE REBIRTH OF CHRISTIAN WISDOM
by Bruno Barnhart, OSB Cam
Keypoints from the article above:
Components that led to his personal religious synthesis -
1. "The first influence is romantic poetry: a tradition which he identifies immediately with his own spiritual initiation: his experience of the divine in nature,...."
> Many AUC members can identify with this.
2."The second turning point, or pivotal moment, was Bede's discovery of Christianity."
3. "The third great pillar in Bede's religious structure would be Hindu Vedanta....Bede seems to awaken as if for the first time and exclaim: now I have come home, this is who I am....he would continue to uncover what he felt to be the unitive root of the universal wisdom, the primal oneness."
4. "A fourth discovery, after twenty five years in India, began to turn him around once again. This was western science, but of a new kind: what is often called the 'new paradigm' science."
> Again...many Unitarians find much in common here.
Key contributions
1. "Bede's first contribution to the rebirth of Christian wisdom is wisdom itself."
2. "Bede's second contribution to a new Christian wisdom is that principle of non-duality, or advaita, and of a unitive absolute, the One. When Bede immerses himself in the thought of the Indian scriptures - particularly in the Upanishads - he discovers a perspective in which everything is one rather than multiple, in which all things are embraced within a single, ultimate reality. When Bede speaks of the perennial philosophy or the primordial wisdom or the universal wisdom, he can include within each of these expressions several levels of meaning - or several concentric spheres of meaning. The core meaning, however, is that unitive reality, or unitive absolute."
"That absolute Reality, or unitive principle - which lies at the core not only of Hinduism but of Buddhism and Taoism - becomes the heart of Bede's vision. Identified with 'God' or 'Father' the Source and first divine Person, it becomes a key for opening Christianity to its depths. What remains to be done, in continuing Bede's work, is to integrate that principle with the divine Word, or Christ-mystery. The nondual Absolute becomes incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the process of its embodiment continues in those who are baptized into Christ. The New Testament can be re-interpreted from this perspective."
> Many Unitarians would probably accept the first half but would have difficulty with some of the Christian aspects...it would depend on how it is done...how literal etc.
3. "The third contribution of Bede is the unitive self, or atman. As soon as Bede has written about the nondual Absolute, he usually moves to the atman, because it is through the Self that the unitive ground of all reality is experienced. The search for the Self, Bede writes repeatedly, is the heart of the Vedantin way. In this focus upon the Self, Bede joins Thomas Merton and Abhishiktananda."
"The point of intersection (East) with Christianity is baptismal initiation, I believe. That is the point in Christian spirituality where we are dealing with the self, the person, as a totality....Remember Jesus' words to Nicodemus, '...unless you are born anew, you cannot see the kingdom of God.' It's a matter of the whole self, which is sacramentally reborn in baptism. Abhishiktananda, in his last years, became very interested in the baptism of Jesus; he saw that as the moment, at the beginning of the gospel, where the divine 'I AM' was realized in the human person. His intuition, I believe, was correct."
> Interesting and of potential application.
4. "Bede Griffiths' fourth contribution to a recovery of Christian wisdom is his recognition of the divine dimension of the feminine. Bede writes some remarkable things about the feminine. Repeatedly he identifies the Holy Spirit with the 'feminine side' of God."
5. "A fifth contribution of Bede to the rebirth of Christian wisdom is something we have already noted briefly: the vision of total integration which Bede conceives in terms of the three levels of being: spirit, soul (or mind) and matter (or body) - or, roughly speaking, God, humanity and the universe."
Such richness here....Unitarianism could adopt much and move the faith along from the 18th-19th centuries to a more whole future faith. In fact, all faiths could stand to move along and come to closer general agreement...there can always be differences in practice and emphasis...but seeing The One / I Am experience as common / available to all is critical...not my God or your God.