Today is the Holy Day of the Ascension of Christ
The Ascension is the fulfillment of Christ's statement that he would have to go to the Father before the Advocate, the Holy Spirit (Akal Purkh) would be able to come into the hearts of the Apostles (12) and Disciples (75) and others that came to the retreat he set up for them.
Part of this is that, while he was physically with everyone, it was really like the time of the Garden of Eden, in which you had God physically in your presence "and the Word was made Flesh." You might recall that Christ is supposed to be Adam as he was before being extricated from the Garden. Thus, from one perspective the coming of Christ was purposefully to return mankind to the consciousness of the ever present Garden that Christ lived.
The Apostles would ask Christ from time to time if they should fast, etc, but Christ told them that when the Bridegroom is with you then is a time to celebrate.
However, the physical presence of God is so overpowering that devotees have a difficult time realizing the Truth within themselves, which would give them the ability to see the Garden. Christ was also Risen, meaning that the Physical body they were seeing was also a fully transformed Spiritual Body. Yogi's have a special term for this.
Christ told the Apostles, "I would that you could be with me where I am now" to see His full Glory. Only Peter and James had seen Christ as he Truly was, when Christ went up to the mountains with them and asked them to wait while He met with Moses and Elias, an event that they called the Transfiguration, where the Light and Blessedness were so overpowering that Peter and James had to turn away and hide themselves.
The main teachings of Christ are in his short phrase, "The eye is the Light of the Body. When thine eye be single, thy whole body will be filled with Light." This is similar to John's statements, "In Him was Life and that Life was the Light of Men." These and many other texts indicate that Christ was / is the living exponent of Consciousness Itself. This is the meaning ofHis words "I am the Light of the world," which is to say "I am Consciousness Itself, a realization that He admonished the Apostles to awaken to.This is why he would say, "if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." from which follows "abide in Me (the True seer), as I abide in the Father (all pervasive Consciousness)."
Christ, as many Saviors had a number of tasks to perform. One of the main ones was to drive Satan back into hell, while establishing Pillars to support the advent of the experience of Heaven (God Consciousness) amongst mankind. He told the Apostles that they were the Pillar in the Kingdom of Heaven. Part of the transformational effect of realizing the True seer, is that the body and mind are outshines by this Living Light, that draws the mind inwards away from identity of thoughts and images to the pulsation of the "I" sense in the Spiritual Heart (nor the chakra), which sensation yogi's call atma sphurana.
In Kundalini Yoga, the term Yogi Bhajan used for this Heart is Ik Tar or One Star, the realization of which is the One Star Spirituality, probably because of the combined effect of the awakening both drawing in while radiating out, similar to a sun's simultaneous gravity and radiance. When this happens there is a polarization within the body of radiance that flows upwards forming what might be called a Pillar of Light. A number of people have experienced this in White Tantric, when they divert attention to look at Yogi Bhajan or even at his stilled image in a the Tantric video presentations administered by a 3ho facilitator. I mention it because I had the same overpowering experience at a White Tantric weekend in 1996 in NYC at the DoubleTree Guest Suites, where I had been staying for a year on the top floor overlooking Times Square, and was surprised to see the promotion for the event in the hotel lobby, signing up immediately.
Also the minds eye will see a multi colored flame rising from the base of the spine through the top of the head, much like the description of the experience of the Apostles at Pentecost.
Milarepa was also involved in clearing demons from areas throughout the Himalayas where he went to meditate. This was primarily through conversion. Rama also came to Earth to rid the area of Southern India and Sri Lanka of a demon race headed by Ravana, many of which demons were high beings that incarnated as demons specifically so that they could be killed by Rama and be released to final merging with the Godhead, Brahman.
Guru Teg Bahardur in his travels also extricated demons and converted them.
When Milarepa passed, there was a conflict as to where he should be cremated, so he manifested 2 bodies, one which was taken away and the other that remained emitting a glow day and night. They tried many times to light the funeral pyre without success for a period of 6 months. Only after his chief disciples Rechung finally came did the funeral pyre spontaneously light into the form of a temple. From it's center Milarepa sang his last teachings. Then his body rose into the sky and shone brilliantly until it finally disappeared, leaving over for several days the astral sounds and rainbows.
When Christ Ascended it was a similar event, where he rose into a brilliant cloud of light that eventually dissipated as well, but the effect lasted for more than a month, as the Apostles and Disciples remained in the area and were transformed by the Holy Spirit.
Still over the millenniums we hear stories of Christ physically appearing to people, who later became Saints. Saints in other religions have had these appearances of Christ as well.
Here in Thailand Christ is considered to be a Buddha. They call Him Phra Jesu, Phra meaning Buddha.
The power of the lives and teachings of the Saints, Sages and Saviors reverberates with the Word, bringing about an inner recollection of who and what we really are, which brings about a spontaneous experience of Transfiguration, where you abide as single pervasive being.
The Saviors have a unique role. They are all emanations of the Father. In Hinduism, you have Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, which are similar in concept to the Father Son and Holy Spirit, because it is Vishnu, who always incarnates as a Savior, such as Rama and Krishna, while Shiva represents the dissolutions of tie and space in the consciousness of the spiritual practitioner, the same effect as the Holy Spirit has, meaning that these are concepts expressed differently, which are actually the same. This is called the Trinity in both Christianity and Hinduism. In Hinduism this Trinity is the emanation of the non-dual Brahman. In Christianity the Trinity is seen as being mystically One.
When you read about the life of Christ in the Gospels, you have the same unearthly sensation as you have when you read the Ramayana, where it is very apparent that Christ is both knowing and living a script that the Father has given Him. He constantly provides insight to the Apostles as to when events are to happen, what they will be and when he has fulfilled them. In the Ramayana you have a similar read, where, for example in one instance Parvati, the consort to Shiva, says to Shiva, who is telling the story of the Ramayana, and comes to the part after Ravana has taken Sita"why is it that Rama, the Lord of the Universe, is running through the forest crying Sita, Sita where are you with tears streaming down his eyes?" Siva replies to Parvati that she should go and test Rama. So she descends from the Heaven where the story is being told to appear looking exactly like Sita along the pathway Rama is running. As Rama comes up to her, he stops and comments, "Parvati, why are you appearing like this?" to which Parvati has the sudden realization that Rama is living this script to its fullest, but is never deluded.
(The Ramayana of Tulsidas)
This also means that when the ego dissolves and we abide in our True nature, nothing is lost only the limited view of who we think we are.
Pieter
Message #2566 Christ and the Ascension Posted By: adityahrdayam Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:51 pm
The article was written by my daughter for an East-West Religion class at the University of Vermont in 1993.
Part I is to describe an Eastern Philosophy. (Non-Dualism) Part II is to describe, as a Westerner, what inner convictions or concepts one had to overcome to appreciate that Philosophy
Part III is to describe that Philosophy from the Eastern perspective Part IV is to find a correlation in the West to that Eastern Philosophy.
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