Whoever seeks to progress from their own
imperfection to promising qualities - with Jesus as a standard and help -
(compare the pages"...healing" and "...ethics"),
must first
- deal with themselves truthfully, and based on this think
about other people (instead of projecting everything onto others), compare
Mt. 5,3;
- listen to the impulses of one's conscience, and
nevertheless come out of one's shell (instead of suppressing these
impulses), compare
Mt. 5,5 and 5,9 ...;
- notice that one is here for others too, although one's physical
well-being may be a prerequisite für being able to help
others compare Mt. 5,7;
- seek the living Spirit of God, although forms may be
useful (instead of too rigid forms), compare Mt. 6,5-8...
and John 4,21-24;
- seek "to be" religious, and
behave adequately, (instead of mere appearances), compare Mt. 5,8;
- have courage, to live according to one's new insights, and
consider others as well (even if these insights are not
always appreciated in this world), compare Mt. 5,15;
- be modest and serve others - in spite of new insights (instead of becoming
conceited), compare Mt. 5,19 and Luke 9,48...'
This is a more loving and wise orientation. So one is no longer one's own obstacle on the path. One can observe that Christianity is not only a way of life, but a real spiritual path. On this path one can also have Jesus as a compass which allows us to find a new balance beyond the one-sided "wrong tracks":
table.
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Neither to be taken up only in outward appearances → But to be active in outer life → |
- nor to lift off into pure spiritual inwardness - and to be founded in inner life. |
|---|---|
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Instead of only thinking → To concentrate on the contents → |
- or only meditative emptiness - in conscious, meditative quietness. |
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To seek the "external God in Heaven" |
- and to let him take shape in one’s personality |
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To see the traces of the unchangeable Creator |
- in the changes of (free) life. |
|
To study the laws of the natural world |
- and to feel the order of creation behind them. |
|
Neither to live out urges fully → But to integrate them → |
- nor to dispel them - and to transform them. |
|
To use time, space and circumstances and the harmony that goes with them |
(FEELING |
|
To work outwardly |
- and to pray inwardly (a Benedictine principle). |
|
To try to understand the positive contribution of others (active tolerance) |
- and to enfold oneself from one's own faith. |
|
To use the rational-analytic hemisphere |
- and the "mythical" and synthetic hemisphere of the brain (feeling) – with the bridge between. |
|
To know about subjective perception |
- and to seek the differentiated truth beyond the various subjective considerations. |
|
To learn from (constructive) traditions |
- and let them become one's own living spirituality. |
|
Practise preparing exercises |
- and to hope for mercy (Christian mysticism). |
|
To speak to God personally |
- and in his powers. |
|
'To love our neighbours' |
- as we love ourselves. |
|
To keep up the intellect |
- and to look beyond it. |
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Neither to "dissolve into the universe" → But to be in the whole → |
- nor to harden one’s "ego" - as a conscious cell of it. |
|
To respect the body as an instrument |
- and to grow in mind and spirit. |
|
To accept fullness of life and responsibility |
- after the "narrow portals". |
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Struggle for right decisions in the consciousness on earth |
- and to suspect God’s plan existing on an other level (of consciousness). |
|
To give insights to others too |
- as it is good for them. |
|
To change in one's surroundings/in the society |
- that which has also improved in the individual consciousness. |
|
To be compassionate with the tribulations on earth |
- and to enjoy God’s guidance. |
|
To be in spiritual communities |
- and to make one’s way to God as an individual. |
|
To respect diversity among the peoples |
- and to let the general human core in everyone flourish. |
*... So the way of Christ shows itself to be a Third Way beyond
the apparent contradictions* of the world - a way to full life and
to real spiritual freedom in God. Some of the bold-typed parts of the
main text and the context will explain more about this. (See also John
17, and the apocryphal St. Thomas’ Gospel 22.) This
is no indecision – which would keep the apparent contradictions in place as a
problem – and so it equally does not mean confusing the two ("flogging
something to death"). To keep out of something completely - or to
decide for the one or the other, knowing that someone else may just as well
choose the opposite - would sometimes be better than indecision too. The
third way of thought involves searching for an overriding viewpoint beyond the
contradictions
instead, facilitating a new, free statement (postulate, affirmation,
thesis, decision, establishment, decree) – and thus resolves the problem.
He who holds his ground on this tightrope walk can now take the further
steps of Jesus in the Gospels (Passion) and in Acts (Pentecost) with greater
success. This ability of man to increasingly approach the
"true light" of God (Joh. 1:9) behind the appearance of the world
is both the starting point and the goal of this description of the tightrope
walk. (See our main text, part 1).
There is a relation between the individual steps in the Gospels and the development on the large scale in the Revelation.
*) "Dichotomies" too.
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