‘Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs’ in Roma
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“I – luminous, open, empty Awareness –
am the truth of your Being and am
eternally with you, in you, as you,
shining quietly at the heart of all experience.
Just turn towards Me, and acknowledge Me,
and I will take you into Myself.”
~ Rupert Spira
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In some of the religious texts of the world, the subtlest expressions of truth are so deeply buried in the text that they have become unintelligible. The limitations of translation, the analogies and metaphors borrowed, the time in which these texts appeared, the audience for which they were written, the veneer of poetry or story-telling, all these concur to add multiple layers of confusing elements to the original idea. And these texts have also served such inappropriate religious purposes in the course of history that they are, for all these many reasons, rejected or misunderstood by many. The Christian Bible is one such text.
I have here attempted to find exquisite passages from the Bible, where the veneer is cracking and the hidden meanings shine more brightly. For a clearer understanding, I have selected two excerpts by Rupert Spira that will help focusing on one possible expression of truth and how it comes to be hidden behind the most innocent line in the Old Testament. They make for a necessary and beautiful introduction. They are borrowed from a video called ‘The Memory of Eternity’ in Buckland Hall, Dec. 2018. I hope you enjoy, for when we come to these texts with the right perspective or understanding, they come shining with a new glow of truth…
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“Our mind is just a temporary limitation or localisation of the only mind there is, infinite consciousness or god’s infinite being. So our mind is permeated with the memory of eternity, permeated by the memory of its origin. Why? Because it is made of it, although it is a limited version of it. So in everybody’s mind, there lies this memory of its own eternity. And that memory is felt by a person as the longing for happiness, or the longing for love. When we long for happiness, or we long for love, we are desiring to be divested of everything that limits us. We are designed to go back to our wholeness, our fullness, our sense of fulfilment, or completion. That’s why everybody longs for happiness or love. What people do to find happiness or love varies. But the actual longing itself is because there lives in everybody’s heart a memory of our eternity, the knowledge of our origin, or in religious language, a trace of God’s mind.
There is this beautiful line in the Old Testament, in the Book of Isaiah, where Isaiah says (Isaiah speaking on behalf of God): “I have called you by my name. You are mine.” I have called you by my name. I have planted my name in your mind. The name your mind gives to itself — that is the name ‘I’ — is the name of ‘me’. So the ‘me’ (God is saying) the ‘me’ in ‘you’ is in fact the ‘me’ in ‘me’. I have called you by ‘my’ name. That makes the ‘you’ of ’you’, ‘mine’ — or ‘me’. […] Everybody’s experience is permeated by what they call ‘I’. Experience is limited and individual, but the ‘I’, the self that permeates all experience doesn’t share the limits of experience. So Isaiah is saying that ‘I’ is God’s mind in our mind. It’s not even God’s mind in our mind. All there is to our mind is God’s mind, with a limit attached to it. That’s what seems to make it ‘me-the person’. But the ‘me’ of ‘me-the person’ is infinite consciousness.”
– Rupert Spira (‘The Memory of Eternity’ – Buckland Hall, Dec. 2018)
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All the coming excerpts are from the ‘English Standard Version’ translation of the Bible…
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[Says the Lord]
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by [my] name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.”
[…]
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
~ Isaiah 43:1-3 & 6-7
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“‘You are my witnesses’, declares the Lord,
‘and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
I, I am the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.’”
~ Isaiah 43:10-12
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“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
~ Revelation 3:20-22
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“I and the Father are one.”
~ John 10:30
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“I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
~ Isaiah 45:4-7
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“And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.”
~ Isaiah 35:8
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“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
~ Chronicles 7:14
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“Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.”
~ Isaiah 42:1
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“Therefore my people shall know my name.
Therefore in that day they shall know
that it is I who speak;
here I am.”
~ Isaiah 52:6
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“And Moses said unto God,
Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them,
The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;
and they shall say to me, What is his name?
what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses,
I Am That I Am: and he said,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
I Am hath sent me unto you.“
~ Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)
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“And [the Lord] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
~ Exodus 33:19-23
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“[The angel of the Lord] replied,
‘Why do you ask my name?
It is beyond understanding.’”
~ Judges 13:18 (New International Version)
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“There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free,
there is no male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
~ Galatians 3:28
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“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
~ Psalm 30:11-12
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“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
~ Romans 8:38-39
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“Look, I am coming soon!
My reward is with me,
and I will give to each person
according to what they have done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.”
~ Revelation 22:12-13
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“Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.”
~ Matthew 7:7
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“Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move and have our being.’”
~ Acts 17:28
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“I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I,
the Lord, the God of Israel,
who call you by your name.”
~ Isaiah 45:3
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“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-17
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“Let the one who is thirsty come;
and let the one who wishes
take the free gift of the water of life.”
~ Revelation 22:17
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Excerpts from The Bible (English Standard Version)
Introductory quote by Rupert Spira
Photos by Alain Joly
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Bibliography:
– ‘Presence‘, Vol. I & II – by Rupert Spira – (Non-Duality Press)
Websites:
– Rupert Spira
– Bible (Wikipedia)
– Bible Gateway
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