Читать книгу Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah - John Van Auken - Страница 7

This book contains the Christ–centered teachings of Edgar Cayce, and even though Cayce’s Christ is universal, one may rightly ask how such a source can contribute to a traditionally Jewish wisdom. Let’s read two Cayce statements that may help. These passages were a result of an ongoing study of the macrocosm and the microcosm, of how outer life is reflected in our inner life. Such perspectives go back to Hermes and his teaching: “As above, so below. As within, so without.” Cayce gave these discourses from a meditative, trancelike state of consciousness. They were stenographically recorded and published. His records are archived at the Edgar Cayce Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), and have been computerized for easy access on a CD–ROM and an Internet database at edgarcayce.org. Here are the two statements:

Q: Would the history of the Jewish race from Abraham to Jesus parallel the development of the embryo from conception to birth?

A: Rather would the history of man from Noah to Abraham; while that from Abraham to Christ would be the mental unfoldment of the body. For, that which leads to the Christ is the mind. And the mind’s unfoldment may be that indicated from Abraham to the Christ.

EC 281–63; italics mine

Clearly, Cayce acknowledges and honors the historical role of the Jewish tradition in the spiritual journey to reunion with God, our Creator, including the role of the Jew Jesus. He is affirming that the mental “unfoldment” (a term reminiscent of the Eastern unfolding of the lotus blossom, one petal at a time) was the journey of the Israelites.

In this next Q and A, Cayce expresses a Christian belief but takes it to a more universal level that includes all religions and all souls seeking reunion with God.

Q: How may we regard the truth regarding Jesus in relation to the Jewish and Christian religions, and to all the other religions of the world?

A: In that the man, Jesus, became the ensample of the flesh, manifest in the world, and the will one with the Father, he became the first to manifest same in the material world. Thus, from man’s viewpoint, becoming the only, the first, the begotten of the Father, and the ensample to the world, whether Jew, Gentile, or of any other religious forces. In this we find the true advocate with the Father, in that He, as man, manifests in the flesh the ability of the flesh to make fleshly desires one with the will of the spirit. For God is spirit, and they who worship Him [God] must worship in spirit and in truth, just as Jesus manifested in the flesh, and able to partake of the divine, for making all laws susceptible to the mandates. For the will was one with the Father, and in this we find He takes on all law, and a law unto Himself. For with the compliance, of even an earthly or material law, such a person is the law. And in that Jesus lived as man, and died as man, and in that became the ensample to all who would approach the Throne of God.

As we see in all the religions of the world, we find all approaching those conditions where man may become as the law in his connection with the divine, the supreme, the oneness, of the world’s manifestation. In Jesus we find the answer.

EC 900–17

For a Christian mystic, Cayce’s answer is so Jewish, expressing the law structure of the Torah as the foundation that aids all seekers to align their will with God’s, making them one with the Divine Spirit while still in the flesh, while still in the world.

Historically, Christian Kabbalists have been known to exist since the twelfth century. Later, in 1694, Johannes Gottfried Seelig (later changed to Selig) arrived in America with his Christian mystical treatise, “Secrets of the Psalms,” which was clearly based on the older Jewish text Shimmush Tehillim (“On the Use of Psalms”). Both contain magical phrasing of the Psalms as protective and healing spells. (More on this in chapter 9.)

The initial financier of the Edgar Cayce Center in Virginia Beach was Morton Blumenthal, a Jew and one of the brightest questioners of the famous “sleeping prophet,” as one of the bestselling biographies of Edgar Cayce was also titled, an epithet given to Cayce because he mostly answered questions asked of him while in a deep meditation, appearing as if sleeping. Without Morton Blumenthal, we would not have some of the most profound discourses Cayce ever gave, because Morton’s questioning garnered the deepest insights of all of Cayce’s 14,000–plus readings. (They are called readings because Cayce felt that he was reading from the Book of Life, or the akashic records of Eastern teachings.) Morton received more than four hundred readings from Cayce, many of them dream interpretations. Here is an excerpt from one of Morton’s dreams that reveals how universal he was—and a Kabbalist, whether he knew it or not:

Saw Rabbi Wise in pulpit and recalled his lectures on Christ—particularly those admitting Christ to be a perfect man—but not a God. I seemed to want to get up on that platform. Awakening then I found myself reasoning as though continuing right on from dream: Christ represents the Evolution of this Spirit Energy into Flesh Man—the Perfect Flesh Man, Wise concedes.

EC 900–147

Such terms as Spirit Energy and Perfect Flesh Man reveal that Morton had at least some knowledge of the mystical concepts found in Kabbalism and Gnosticism.

An example of Cayce’s universal view is his natural comfort with the idea of souls incarnating multiple times in their journey toward enlightenment and soul growth—certainly not a standard Christian teaching; however, this concept fits with the Kabbalah, which also teaches that souls reincarnate. (More on this in chapter 2.)

Another exceptional concept found in Kabbalah and in Cayce’s teachings is the curious concept of “the Word,” “the Logos,” “the Son,” created by the heavenly Father and Mother, this Logos giving life to all souls. This is expressed in the first lines of the Gospel of John:

In the beginning was the Word [in Greek, Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through this One [the original Greek text does not use the masculine pronoun him, as most Bible translations do]. Without this One was not anything made that has been made. In this One was life, and the life was the light of humanity. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it . . . The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Kabbalah teaches that there is a primordial being that is so one with the infinite, unseen God (Ein Sof) that it is the bridge between our souls and God. This first being is called Adam Kadmon. In Lurianic Kabbalah (a system that includes elements of Indian philosophy, Platonism, and Gnosticism) the original Adam soul is the Logos from which all souls have emanated.

Some schools teach that the great “I AM” emanated masculine wisdom (Chokhmah) and feminine understanding (Binah), and the two blended to conceive the Logos, the Soul–Consciousness, within which all souls were conceived (more on this in chapter 5 and throughout this book.)

With the Logos concept and that of reincarnation in mind, let’s read another of Cayce’s discourses:

Q: What part did Jesus play in any of His reincarnations in the development of the basic teachings of the following religions and philosophies? First, Buddhism:

A: This is just one.

Q: Mohammedanism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Brahmanism, Platonism, Judaism.

A: As has been indicated, the entity—as an entity—influenced either directly or indirectly all those forms of philosophy or religious thought that taught God was One.

In the first, as one that associated with—in the meditation or spirit of—that one guiding same, and those things that have been added to are much in the same manner that was added to in Judaism. Whether in Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Confucianism, Platonism, or what—these have been added to much from that as was given by Jesus in His walk in Galilee and Judea. In all of these, then, there is that same impelling spirit. What individuals have done, do do, to the principles or the spirit of same—in turning this aside to meet their own immediate needs in material planes, or places has made for that as becomes an outstanding thing, as a moralist or the head of any independent religious force or power; for, as has been given, “Know, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one!” whether this is directing one of the Confucius’ thought, Brahman thought, Buddha thought, Mohammedan thought; these are as teachers or representatives, or to make more of the distinct change—as was in that as given by the apostle to the Gentiles: “I hear there are divisions among you. Some say I am Paul, another I am Apollos, another I am of Caiaphas. Paul may minister, Apollos may have watered, but it’s God that gives the increase!” The Spirit of the Creative Force, and as such the Son represented in the spirit in that as was made manifest in the earth. Not as only one, but the only one; for, as He gave, “He that climbs up any other way is a thief and a robber.” As the Spirit of the Master, the Spirit of the Son, was manifest—as was given—to each in their respective sphere. As it is today. As it was of yore. God calls on man everywhere to seek His [God’s] face, through that channel that may be blessed by the Spirit of the Son—in whatever sphere this may take its form. Because there are contentions, because there is the lack of the giving and taking as to others’ thought, does not change God’s attitude one whit; neither does it make one above another; for, as has been given, there is only one—the others are as those acting in the capacity of the thought that was given to them through that same power, that “In the last days has He spoken unto us through the Son, as one born out of due season.” We find the same contentions arising in that called in the present denominationalism, and each one crying, “Lo, here is Christ—Lo, this is the manner of approach—Lo, unless ye do this or that ye have no part in Him.” “He that loves me will keep my commandments.” What are the commandments? “Thou shalt have no other God before me,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” In this is builded the whole law and gospel of every age that has said, “There is one God!”

EC 364–9; italics in the original

In this discourse Cayce reaches beyond religions and isms, capturing the essence of all spiritual pursuit: There is only one God, and that God is the God of all people. Love God and love one another (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18). Cayce often called God the “Universal Consciousness” and the “Life Force,” further revealing his universal view.