Welcome back to the Book of Gleanings, being a part of The Kolbrin.
In the last chapter we bade farewell to the enigmatic Yosira, our charismatic proto-Osiris – a showman, shaman, con-artist, magician, civiliser – interpret him any way you like, but he was pretty entertaining!
This chapter, entitled The Voice of God, is an altogether different kettle of fish. The Kolbrin itself describes it as a ‘difficult’ text that has, in all likelihood, been messed around since the original and had bits and pieces added and subtracted as successive copyist scribes saw fit to chuck in their own two-penny worth and tilt the meaning to their own (or, more likely, their patrons’ or masters’) agenda. As such, it’s pretty heavy going and full of pompous and portentous sentiments, so I’ll go through and sift out what’s relevant to our aim of finding self-help gems in amongst all the white noise.
The passage appears to have come into being through the time-honoured socio-religious practice of comparing the versions of ‘The Word of God’ as vouchsafed to various ‘prophets’ by their deity, and publishing the bits on which they all agreed as ‘The Truth’ (the Council of Nicaea accomplished much the same end by selecting only the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from the many, many others out there as the Christian church’s New Testament version of events). According to The Kolbrin The Voice of God had been heard by certain of his servants long before three of his ‘Devoted Ones’ were honoured with a rendition in the splendidly named ‘ Cavern of Visions’; and it was those three that put their heads together and came up with a consensus.
Now, we’ve discussed the relevance of caves in earlier chapters; how they accrue mystical significance because they sit at a boundary and are neither one thing nor the other; are they an intrusion of the world above into the world below or the world below surrounding part of the world above? So, so many traditions have their sages and prophets receive divine revelation in caves – a good example is the oracle at Delphi where the voice of the god was heard through the mouthpiece of a high priestess, the Pythia, a lady who was probably off her trolley on drug-derived incense. To my mind, the riddle form in which the Delphic ‘revelations’ were delivered mirror the status of a cave as neither this nor that – the ambiguity of the words perfectly matches the ambiguity of the cave in which it was delivered as belonging neither to the world above nor the world below.
So, is this chapter of The Kolbrin the genuine thing? Is it really the ‘Voice of God’ as heard and recorded by three ancient disciples in a holy place? Or were our ancient recorders just three dudes off their faces on magic mushrooms in an underground room somewhere, dreaming up all sorts of pseudo-religious blarney derived from their trips? Or is this chapter an attempt by modern day disciples of the ‘Good Religion’ to get across a message of hope in a very crazy and mixed up modern world? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
We start off with the standard declaration of deific credentials – ‘I am the God of All men, I have many different aspects’ type of thing, followed by some stirring martial exhortations alongside a promise to guide and instruct in return for strict obedience and loyalty. But then it all turns a bit philosophical which, in my mind, is a nice change from the standard stick-and-carrot, fire-and-brimstone , do-what-I-say-or-else stance taken by too many of the other deities of literature. That attitude always makes them sound rather insecure and petulant, and insecurity and petulance are not, in my opinion, very becoming traits in a god.
So, what sets the deity written about in this part of The Kolbrin apart? Well, this god demands Love from his followers, but that Love must have substance. He/She/It (or some other pronoun of your personal choice – I’ll just use it from here on in for convenience sake) sees no point in sacrificial offerings or empty ritualistic worship – as the Creator of all things, how can killing something and offering it back to its maker as a penance for sin make any sense? (good point that . . . very good point).
No, this god sees the expression of Love as being able to differentiate right from wrong in our daily lives and taking action accordingly. Humans, the god says, turn to it only when they are in trouble that they cannot get out of, or else want to be told that the wrongs they’ve committed are forgiven. In other words, humans enter holy places in fear and want help in matters that are relevant only to worldly affairs. They come only when they want something. The god then adds (very handily from a proof-of-existence viewpoint) that it’s no wonder nobody ever gets a reply to their self-centred prayers and entreaties. This particular god demands only dedication and effort – a life led in the cause of what is Right – and no airs and graces or pretensions of grandeur if you please, because this deity can’t abide hypocrisy.
The next bit of advice from the god’s an absolute pearler, because it is so, so relevant to the times in which we find ourselves living, here at the dawn of the third millennium. Don’t shower offerings of food and sustenance on me, it declares, give them to those who need them. Poverty, it says, is a man-made condition – those who have wealth, power and plenty have a duty to address the problem at its root, not just try to make it seem to the world that they care simply because they’ve chucked a few alms at the needy. The god is pretty strong on that point; empty ritual and solemn festivals full of offerings are of absolutely no use to anybody – least of all the god – and we shouldn’t think it has escaped its notice that it’s a gross hypocrisy when human poverty and need are ignored in favour of appealing for some perceived reward from a god or to salve a guilty conscience. Blimey! There’re not many religions or super-rich around who don’t come under that category, are there?
And the god doesn’t stop there. It looks like it has seen straight through us and our little pretences of lives, and the comments and declarations that follow are all, in a way, very practical advice: Don’t waste incense on Me, it says, use it to calm human minds and souls. Don’t hold feasts in My honour, have them for your own benefit. Fasting and abstinence can have health benefits for humans, but don’t do them in My name because I don’t want to see people miserable because they are depriving themselves for no good reason. By all means pray, but only if it’s for the right reason which is to harmonise the human spirit with My own so that communication becomes possible (interesting one that, and I’ll have a bit more to say about it a bit later on). All in all, the god of this passage of The Kolbrin is communicating the message that humans should do what is good for them but not delude themselves into thinking any of it is in any way going to benefit the god because, in its own words: ‘I am the God Above and Beyond All’.
The deity bangs on along these lines for a bit longer, re-emphasising that worship, true worship, indeed the only worship that is not a complete waste of everybody’s time, is actively acting out our obligations to lead decent lives. A life that is genuinely dedicated to the god is one that is led in harmony with its fellow beings, harming none, serving and helping those less fortunate and stepping up to the plate to take on responsibility when it is required. Oh, and doing your best to understand the sacred texts is also a big plus point.
Hypocrites, though, are definitely not to the god’s taste. The world is full of people who preach one thing and do another (well that, at least, has never changed) and the deity is really really big on why hypocrisy is an abomination and an evil – in fact it has a bit of a rant about it for the next few sections and advises hypocrites not to even bother trying to open negotiations because it can see straight through them.
The next bit worth noting is really quite interesting because the deity starts to intimate that the God/Human relationship is not all one way traffic (and if you’ve been following the Gurdjieff thread on this website, you’ll come across a similar concept there). The god in The Kolbrin talks of the Law of Laws and intimates that humankind’s religious ‘impulse’ is, essentially, a kind of ‘tool’, the purpose of which is to encourage us to behave in a certain manner that will ultimately benefit the god. So I suppose that, at this stage, we have to pan out from the narrow concept of established and robotic religious practices, and begin to look at the whole God/Human thing as God as a kind of ‘machine’ (for want of a better analogy) within which humans are ‘parts’ that perform an essential function. The words that the deity uses are ‘For the whole purpose of life is not the service of God but the development of the soul of man. He who worships Me with empty ritual and vain ceremonial but neglects the wellbeing of his own soul does not serve Me well, for he thwarts My purpose.’ Wow! Powerful medicine indeed. There’s a bit more along the same lines there but it all boils down to the same point; that is, that every individual human’s remit is to develop his or her soul to the point where its energy is good energy that resonates with, and is therefore presumably useful to, the godhead – or source, or machine, or whatever else you want to call it.
The next few passages include some encouragement – and also some warnings – about finding the right ‘way’ to evolve your soul. Some methods lead to disillusion and even destruction, but others can be found in various belief systems that spring up at different times and in different lands that do offer a path to the One Truth (although even some of these can be a bit long-winded and dodgy, passing through some ‘dangerous territory’ on the way). Disputes between those systems and religions that offer such a path, says the deity of The Kolbrin, are not disputes about the One Truth at the end of the road, but about differences in the nature of each different path to the same destination (and wouldn’t it be nice if the belief systems and societies and religions of today’s sad, mad world truly understood that concept?).
In the next bit, the deity goes all quantum on us. It’s actually quite a lovely passage, but the gist of it is that Life, the Universe, and Everything around us does exist – but our human senses are inadequate to perceive Reality as it truly is. Everything that was, is, and shall be, exists in potentia – it always did. It was always latent, awaiting, in the lovely phrase used by the scribe in this passage of The Kolbrin, ‘the awakening kiss’. Only when we have developed to our full potential will we, as humans, be able to discern the true nature of the Cosmos. Really nice bit, that.
The deity then goes on to explain its cosmogony. This is it in a nutshell and in my own words: The deity created a controlled environment (the word ‘firmament’ is used in the text) within which Laws (which means ‘rules’, quantum or physical, in the scientific sense) could operate. It then sent out a wave of ‘creative’ energy through which – according to the dictates of the ‘Laws’ – material objects – including living beings – could come into existence. Everything, no matter what it is – all stars, all planets, all trees, all creatures, everything – is a manifestation of that same energy wave. We are all made from the same ultimate substance but – and the deity finds it important to point this out – although everything derived from it, nothing is it. Say what??? Well, in my opinion, it would have been nice for the deity to have enlarged upon that part a bit more as I have my own suspicions about why it went to all the trouble of creating a ‘firmament’ and everything in it, but unfortunately The Kolbrin moves the passage on, away from the more fascinating Why Are We Here question, and back to the more mundanely moralistic How We Ought To Behave area. Shame!
There is more, at this point, about true followers of this deity being ones who actively act out their belief by serving and elevating mankind and combatting evil both in others and inside themselves. In a nice touch, we are told that even if we lead our lives in a way that serves the deity’s Design (meaning, I suppose, that we aren’t necessarily aware of the deity itself or what it requires) then that is enough to be considered godly service.
We then move onto ground more familiar to us from other religions with the standard moan that there are too few naturally good folk around so the deity will periodically call upon one or two of them to spread the word (in other words, your common or garden prophet). The likely candidates read like those who possess the canon of Stoic philosophy; that is, they are serene seekers after wisdom; staunch, unshakeable, unbribable etc. etc. etc.
We then get a series of passages on man’s spirit or soul being discoverable within him- or herself if only we make the effort and that the starting point for that quest is self-discipline; that is, the ability to overcome unwholesome desires and passions and attune oneself instead with the divine chord within (standard religious-philosophical fare, that). And that, says the deity, is only the starting point.
On we go, with the deity claiming that, although it is ‘veiled’ to humankind, it is not indifferent to what humanity needs and it has created an Earth full of material distractions and temptations as a kind of spiritual testing ground (and that theme is one we’ve seen popping up all over The Kolbrin). Man, it says (and I think this is quite important as it ties in with the concept the deity is trying to get across of humankind playing an intrinsic, possibly even essential role in the deity’s own continued existence) must put in an effort because that is also what the deity must do. The deity goes on to warn mankind that if it, itself, stopped putting in an effort, then the Universe, as we know it, would cease to exist. Interesting that, eh?
The next bit’s quite an enlightened statement that it doesn’t matter to the deity what humans name it, or how they perceive it, as long as our lives reflect the correct way to live according to the deity’s standards. Materialism and the very earthly lust for power get a right old bagging from the deity who considers them very short-term pleasures.
We’re then told about the four types of human who are cool in the deity’s eyes: (1) Those who suffer courageously when life’s tragedies strike (2) Those who work for the benefit of the planet or fellow humans (3) Those who seek Truth (4) Those with vision and creativity. The problem is, though, the deity points out, that even when humans fall under one of those four categories, the vast majority still manage to foul the whole thing up by occasionally giving in to lust or some other wickedness. Apparently, truly good humans are extremely thin on the ground.
Again we get the accommodating statement that there are many religions and paths to enlightenment and that the deity’s not going to ping you if you don’t take its own one – all roads lead to Rome type of thing – but it maintains that its own way is best, and throws in a warning that there are some misleading ways out there to lure away the silly and easily led.
Then it gets a bit nastily fascinating, with the deity cautioning that humankind can bring dark gods into being through its ‘creative conceptions’ and, if we are of that bent, those dark gods and demons can claim us. I find this bit very interesting as it implies that humans can ‘create’ things; that is, we can bring them into being, give them existence, if we desire them enough. So be careful what you wish for . . .
The deity goes on to repeat (again, quite handily) that it is invisible and veiled by the ‘mists of mortal delusion’, again an almost quantum concept dealing in the true nature of reality. We delve into the ‘as above so below’ concept so beloved of just about every mystic school of thought (and quantum physicist) out there, with the implication that everything is a mirror of everything else (it’s just a matter of scale) and that the blueprint for everything is contained in the smallest particle. But that’s just the material Universe, says the deity, there is a ‘realm’, an eternal existence, beyond that, and it is to that realm that humans must aspire.
Apparently, there are only a few, enlightened souls who can conceive of the true, eternal nature of the deity. The divine spark resides slumbering inside each of us as a soul which somehow pilots the unconscious senses and receives the impressions which it then carries away with it (assumedly at death – the passage gets very muddled around this point, although I guess it’s trying to say that our soul is, to a certain degree, the sum of our experience and memory, and, as such, not connected to the mortal and physical body at all – that the senses, as it were, are simply machines, the function of which is to feed outside impressions to the spirit within).
The passage really starts jumping around all over the place now, with the deity saying that there are two basic types of human: the ones that opt for an easy, cruisy, yet ultimately empty and pointless life, and the ones that take the more arduous path to spiritual enlightenment.
The deity, it would appear, is not too happy about being called the God of Battles because war and fighting are caused by, and take place between, men. The aggro the deity gets involved in is far more meta-physical; helping out the sad and needful, being a shoulder to lean on – that type of thing.
There is an invitation to humankind that if individuals join with the deity in trust and love and devote their lives to achieving its aims, they will not perish. Standard human senses were designed for living in a material world, not for perceiving god, but we do possess another sense, an inner one, which, when awoken, can perceive (and, presumably, communicate with) the Divine. It will allow us to see that all things are interconnected; all things are born of the same divine spark. In short, it will allow us to see beyond the veil.
We then get a bit more about the deity’s cosmogony – a thought becoming a command of power which created a firmament from which matter was born, becoming ever more dense at it ballooned outwards (very ‘Big Bang’ that bit) and so on and so forth – a variation, in fact, of the many other creation stories out there. And then we go all meta-physical again with the deity stating that all its creations are based on Truth and Reality (with capital letters) the real nature of which humankind is unable to truly grasp (apparently we need to perceive beyond the clumsy medium of mere words). We mere mortals can’t actually perceive the true nature of the deity; all we get is an image (like a reflection of something in a clear puddle) which is often distorted or even hidden (wind causing ripples on the water, the sun going behind a cloud etc.) but that doesn’t alter the fact that the True thing that is being reflected still and always exists.
The deity once again reminds us that the answer to the Truth we seek lies within ourselves, not outside. Some blighted souls never see that and worship darkness and demons, or go through terrible periods of self-deprivation that were never demanded by the deity. Of those people, some even begin to actively enjoy the masochistic behaviour and those ones are truly lost souls. Others, continues the deity, are a bit better and follow gods who tend toward good deeds and shun evil, but, again, it says they would come to the end goal faster if they’d chosen the right deity (i.e. itself) to worship.
Men can be fickle but their ultimate destiny lies in their own hands. The deity describes itself as a god of Love and not vengeance and it differs from man in that basic principle, because, unlike man, the deity does not – indeed cannot – change its nature. It is, it says, in a phrase straight out of the Old Testament, what it is: “I AM WHAT I AM”.
The next bit is pretty cool (well, I think it is, anyway) and in line with a lot of thinking about how the Universe actually does work (that is, according to strict rules). There are Laws, says the deity, according to which the Cosmos must run. They are immutable and inviolable and, if you break them, there will be a reckoning. This, my friends, is another way of describing karma. The deity says that humans know this deep down, and if they break the rules that the Cosmos needs for its smooth operation, humans are not to go running to the deity to help them out when their lives turns to custard. The deity made the rules – it is up to humans to keep them. We know the guidelines so don’t blame the deity when we cross them. And although it’s left unsaid at this point in the narrative, I get the feeling that the scribe of this part of The Kolbrin (whether that scribe is the reporter for a genuinely ancient enlightened one or a modern copycat writing in our own times) is trying to get across the concept that although the deity made the rules by which the Cosmos must function, humankind was given free will to follow them or not, because if that free will is exercised correctly and the rules for a ‘good life’ are followed, then that somehow ‘feeds’ the deity. It is almost as if ‘free will’ is an energy vehicle. If we use it for good, we improve the quality of the energy and, somehow, the deity needs that (otherwise what would be the point?). That’s what I was trying to get across earlier when I suggested that the whole deity/humankind relationship is a two-way process.
So, humanity, it appears, is – as so many other religions and philosophies have pointed out – heir to divinity; we are capable of becoming gods in our own right (or so it is implied) but only if we are prepared to put in a lot of hard work to get there.
There are two ways to get to know the deity – a kind of ‘self-awakening’ by communion with the spirit inside ourselves (but few have the tenacity to endure the discipline required for that) or by following the moral code and teachings of the deity’s ‘servants’.
Humans that do not acknowledge the spirit within themselves, see only the physical body and are therefore drawn only to bodily and material pleasures. Such a person may be wise in earthly affairs but totally ignorant of the higher, spiritual realm. This type of person relies wholly on the basic senses – mistaking the body to be a complete and solid thing, believing it is his all and everything.
Only by imagining beyond the physical do humans have a shot at a spiritual awakening – only by asking ourselves if we are creatures of spirit can we truly progress. And when we do, then we understand that within lies everything else; that we are an expression of the totality of everything. Earthly life is a deliberate testing ground designed so that we can overcome it and move ever closer towards the Divine – that is its purpose.
Proof of the deity’s existence can only be found in union/communion with it. Only those who can truly open their minds will find the Truth. Those people understand the difference between staying and leaving, bondage and freedom, silence and speech.
The spirit of an enlightened human can transcend the Earth. But a balance must be maintained between body and spirit for a complete life while on Earth. Humans need to develop an extra sense, an inner one, which, upon discovery, is a beautiful and mystical revelation. It sounds like an all-consuming umbrella love for the entirety of creation.
The end goal for the truly enlightened human is the inheritance of Divinity. Consciousness expands to embrace everything that was, is, and shall be. Very William Blake-like sense of both ‘seeing’ and yet ‘being’ everything, beyond matter, freed from all Earthly bonds, yet allowed to be reborn if desired – a true child of god.
Well, that was a bit of a long one, wasn’t it, but I thought I’d get it all out of the way in one go as it does give us some basic insights into what this ‘Good Religion’ that The Kolbrin promotes is all about.
As far as self-help aspects of this chapter are concerned, probably the main one is the concept of doing something because it means something. Don’t do something just for appearance sake, just to make yourself look good, because, like the deity in this chapter, your fellow humans are not stupid and can see through hypocrisy and empty words and promises. Make sure that everything you do is for the right purpose because people will acknowledge that on some level, even if it is not immediately apparent.
Right, there are only two more, very short chapters of The Book of Gleanings to go and I’ll probably knock them out together. The first is called The Spirit of God and the second The Song of the Soul. I hope to see you there.
