The
Mystical meaning of Easter
Christian
mysticism may be defined as the encounter and experience of our union
with the divine as Jesus. This in fact partially defines my
spirituality, as a mystical experience and understanding of Jesus has
been very helpful to me in my journey to authenticity and the
“all-knowing” of my divine self. As we approach the Easter
season, I am considering the mystical meaning of it.
Traditionally
the season celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus, and
consequently his substitutionary death on the cross and atonement for
our sins. His resurrection gave us the power to live a new
life, free of sin and spiritual death. To the mystic, that is “too
much information”, as the mystics would answer: What does that
mean to me?
All
the points and experiences of Jesus’ life represent some aspect of
our own journey. The story is not about a “God out there”
named Jesus, but it is about my journey, my spiritual incarnation, my
death and resurrection.
Jesus
did not come to be the God, the savior of the world, the atonement
for my sins. He came to do a greater thing: to show me
how to save myself from the illusion of duality. He shows me that my
feeling of separation from everyone and everything was false. He
shows me that love is the very essence and fabric of human action,
and that my compassion is the sweet incense which will awaken the
world. After all of the illusions are stripped away, after all the
programming stays hanging on my cross, after all the charged emotions
and behaviors are exposed so that I can be healed, then I see it!
. God is not outside of myself. My resurrection shows me truly WHO I
AM.
When
I consider Oneness, I now realize that Oneness is the nature of
all things. This concept may be felt as the dance of God in the
garden and in the dance of God in the swamp. It is my worship of the
new born child, and the worship of the beggar outside of my local
store. It brings absolute non-judgment, and the acceptance of what
is. Death and birth are cycles of reality, not things to be feared.
All things are perfect, and where we see need, that activates our
compassion. It can help me to say, “Forgive them, for they know not
what they do”.
When
the stone is rolled away and I walk out of the tomb, love is
waiting there for me, and so are people suffering. The balance
and experience of equanimity and compassion helps me to do my own
divine dance.
This
experience is perhaps expressed well in the Bodhisattva vow.
The bodhisattva is the representation of the God realized person, who
knowing they have experienced bliss in existence and consciousness,
forsake the immersion experience of bliss for the sake of alleviating
the suffering of the world. Their intention is simply to be there for
all of those suffering souls, to point the way out of suffering. The
vow is here:
Creations
are numberless
I
vow to free them.
Delusions
are inexhaustible,
I
vow to transform them.
Reality
is boundless,
I
vow to perceive it.
The
awakened way is unsurpassable,
I
vow to embody it.
from
Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe, NM
Jesus
was a realized Bodhisattva, and his intention was to awaken that
spark and intention in us all. This vow is experienced in duality as
a ritual vow, a ceremony. But in non-duality it is the
nature of our existence. It has always been our vow, we
just had to awaken to realize it.
My
intention is that I not allow some old stone of resistance to
keep me in my tomb, this year, or today, or in this moment.
That is the mystical meaning of Easter for me.
Virginia
Stephenson 03/08/2013