Mystic Signs

Inseeing

(i)
Come with me, I shall reveal
the secret of divining
our ancestors knew.

I shall take you to the hallowed spots
where stand pyramids and astrofields
to show you the rim of the cosmic orb
where existed an observatory for all space.

These hieroglyphs tell of a lost civilization
of those who could commune through signs,
masters of geometric anagrams and schemes.

No thinking pigmies
like the jet-set, computer-brained, robots,
no automatons sans feeling or emotion,
who worship only the machine.

The aborigines possess to this day
the knowledge of invisible paths;
locked in their secret science
the treasury of ancient wisdom.

No unfeeling savages
but visionary beings
who knew where to build
the great pyramids.
Who knew the unified field
of quadrangles and triangles
that form the invisible grid
encircling the globe.
Who knew well the movements
of prevailing winds,
of cosmo-oceanic currents,
of hidden forces of the cosmos.

knew the spots of magnetic power
to locate the precise spots
for the countless megalithic structures
to predict the rising and setting of the sun;
made the magnetic field retain the sunstones
in the ordained positions.

Who had the ability to commune
with beings from far-off constellations
we are still struggling to find.
Many a mysterious sign on the ground
be it a bridge over the sea
or an airfield
or the markings of Nasca-
tell of the intelligence
behind the perfect architectural plan
of astroports
for visitors from outer space
to land to consummate
an unknown mission.

The mystery of Ande lines too
points to the invisible hand
of the unknown denizens
from far-aff galaxies.

(ii)

Ancient men possessed
the unerring inruition
to locate the spots
for their minarets and pagodas,
their circles and parabolas.
They had the innate ability
to catch supranatural frequencies
a power modern man has lost.
Sensate values have taken a toll
a sure sign of man's fall.
They were also masters
of the art of dream-divination.
Knew that from coarse erotica
to archetypal myths,
from racial memory-roots of aborigines
to the consciousness of superman,
dreams span the legendary lore.

We sleep to dream,
we dream to sleep
till we are shaken
by a knock at the door.

We shuttle from bliss to horror
breaking the sequence of space-time,
hourly undergo a sea change.

We leave the corporeal frame
to travel by the astral pathways.
After a spell of relaxation,
go to sleep again.

Many a time have I dreamt
in a wakeful state,
seen and thought three-dimensionally,
oblivious of my fourth dimension
the basis of all creativity
that guides the artist's insight,
lets him see the hidden beauty
in the darkest night.

Sleep is a relaxation
a state of receptive passivity,
for paranormal communication,
for entering a trance.

I climb the chestnut,
become the tree,
stand with my peers,
proud of my ancestry.

Oblivious of the hallowed past
that gave meaning to my thoughts,
beneath the banyan I lie.
My roots go back in time,
I recollect each one
who stood there.

I become the wood,
bound to every one ,
stretching my arms in every direction.

I understand the heart
of cyclones and storms,
of creativity and creation,
in my soul's calm.

Travel from trunk downards
far away in space-time,
in my crystal costume
I become all that I see.
Breathe the air of new skies
hopping from sphere to sphere.

Buffeted by electromagnetic weves,
I cross
many a sound barrier,
many a starlit dame,
winging from the earthly roof
to my celestial home.

there I meet my father,
my father's father
and onto the Father.

In His lap I rest a while
to take my place with the pole-star
to guide the stranded.

Go back home
to know the source
I strayed from
to live my mortal destiny.
(v)
In my trances,
in mine circles of the moon/
I unrolled the scroll
of my previous lives.

I relived the crucial roles
of my previous births,
having a bearing on my present,
as if I were acting in a film.
Till my thirties I was a witness
to my thirties I was a witness
from disjointed episodes
from my previous lives
reflected on a screen.

Suddenly, in early thirties,
a strange dispassion entered my being.
I started shunning all men
retreating to lonely spots
for meditations deep and long
till I was summoned to shirdi
by a celestial call.

There I met a realized soul
who transferred the yogic powers
to create and uncreate at will,
to see beyond space-time,
to commune with spirits divine,
to hear the first sermons
of ancient saints and divines
in their original tongues.

My precognition in that state
was marked by precision,
my prophecies were fulfilled,
I was the star of the great
I heard Christ's golden sermon
in his own sonorous voice
in a language alien to my ear;
its music haunts

I was roused
from the sleep of ignorance
to tread the seeker's path
played in my previous births.

Golak and shirdi
Gurcharan and Sat Sai,
wrapped in effulgence,
entered my inmost being;
I was filled with translucent light
They awakened me to my mission,
conferred the mystic sight
to bear the godly light,
to carry the cross of human woes.

From the meshes of worldliness freed,
longing to walk by His light
making it burn into a steady slame,
in my dark cavern I dwell.
Hear the call
to join my voice
to the choir of God.

I sing of the faith,
of the earth as one family,
of unity permeating all,
of service as love made visible:
the destination of every man,
of soul's deliverance,
of its merger with the One,
the source supreme.

(vi)
Ecstasy is a gateway to eternal
from the void of oblivion
to eternities of memory.
It is an invitation
to life divine.
The sages of yore
who sing philosophies to redeem,
prophet, poet and philosopher, rolled in one,
to them I look for inspiration.
Science has to be a hymn to the Creator,
no more a preserve of godless men
or it will become a device
heaping untold miseries upon men.

Reason and spirit interacting mould
the force of personality
that ordains the route mankind will take
when the spirit is caught in a fix.
" To be or not be" is not a question
confined to a mythical person
but the haunting obsession of every epoch
in search of a breakthrough.
No forecast is possible in reverse,
neither about the past nor the future.
History is a graveyard of all prophecies,
of all " ifs" and " buts".

Spirituality is the last retreat
for science and religion to meet;
when clash of creeds alarms,
realization has to drawn.

The savage and the scientist share
the same substratum of intelligence,
the same gene,
yet in the chain of natural progression
savage remains the archetypal man.

Psychokinesis and clairvoyance
belong to every man
in psychic reservoir locked.
What you need is the right intelligence
to attune yourself
to the unified field
of human awareness,
encircling the universe,
hissing for recognition.

I travelled to distant lands,
unknown to my physical mind,
in contemplation firm-fixed
yet moving faster than light
A mental falcon following,
retaining the memory of things I see,
of the sights and sounds
that Lapped around me;
reviving the ability or remote -seeing,
natural to every one.

I have experienced levitation,
materialized out of thin air
sultanas and sacred ash.
Also, solid balls out of nothing,
and let them fall to the ground
without bouncing or making a sound.
Twisted metal spans and knives,
made eerie signs.
Pulled out fires from the walls,
saw flowerpots hanging in midair,
automatic writing on a clean slate,
a shadowy presence in the room.

(vii)
What we do in this life
determines what we gain
in the next.
Good or evil we do
forsakes us not
on our journey to the unknown,
neither in the course of flight
nor on reaching the destination.

What we are, we shall be,
all determined by our deeds.
The universe is not a game of dice
but a mathematical paradigm.
but a mathematical paradigm.
Each and every step of the design
squares well with the pattern of the theorem.
Everything depends on our actions.

Karma and reincarnations
monitor the cosmic mechanism.
Cryptompesia explains
the truth of transmigration,
our turning away from the sun,
our striving for salvation,
an integral aspects of total organism
that inheres in the cosmic unconscious:
the extension of microcosmic self.

We cannot explain
the totality of the human person
by physio-neurology alone,
the truth lies in prenatal existence.

Many a time
meeting a person,
passing through a situation,
or reading some piece,
the sensation of " already seen"
haunts us
as if our double had been to the place
and had met the person.

(viii)
Stuck by weithtlessness
I levitate in space in a state of trance.
In my upward glide swil,
turning in air itself,
into the tunnel,
cross the little hill,
to arrive where my father sleeps.
I too shall sleep there
after I shuffle off my worn-out coil,
cut the umbilical cord that joins
the causal to the mental-physical sheath,
all over the globe to fly.

I follow the music,
cross the astral paths,
the sun and the moon,
cross the river of mortality
needling my way through invisible tunnels,
through inaccessible mountain passes
dotted by sunspots and black shadows,
well-marked by ethereal poles.

Out-of-the-body experience is not the same
as the fact of being out of the body
but an altered state of consciousness.

(ix)
The spirit never dies,
in various incarnations it survives
drinking the bliss sip by sip
till we attain nirvana.

I know reincarnation to be a fact
fro sage Bhrigu unfolds the scroll
of my previous births
spanning many aeons.

In one birth I was King Yayati,
the ancestor of the solar race.
I carry with me Brighu's curse
for my infidelity
to Devayani,
daughter of the mighty sage.

She cried
for restoration of her conjugal rights,
for her son's succession to the throne,
brought upon my head
decrepitude too soon
and a straw bed.

Twenty-nine births from the present one
I was the sage Madan
and lived
in the Hemkund mountains
absorbed in Sat Chit Anand.

In my last birth
was I a scholar-saint
honoured by courts and kings.

In this life reborn to the one
who was no God-man
but true man of God,
free from the taint of worldliness.
The Jiwan Mukta, by Brighu proclaimed,
the liberated while living
and not to be born again.

Father bade me stop
the out-of-body journeys
to confine myself
to ordained duties and affections,
to quicken the liberation of man,
to imbibe earth consciousness,
to make earth-citizens,
to relive the religion of man.

Father touched me by chance,
instantly I went into a trance:
neither a sleep nor a dream was it
but the light of bliss.

Through many a secret pathway
I travelled to unreachable realms
shortening distances
of many million light years.

Suddenly I see something flicker
with a pair of eye-glasses
in a far-off gloom,
my sense of discernment returns.

I retrace my steps ;
a black dog,
tucking at my knees,
coaxes me home.

MYSTIC SIGNS--INVITATION TO LIFE DIVINE

Secret Science OF INSEEING
(i)

Come with me, I shall reveal
the secret of divining
our ancestors knew.

I shall take you to the hallowed spots
where stand pyramids and astrofields
to show you the rim of the cosmic orb
where existed an observatory for all space.

These hieroglyphs tell of a lost civilization
of those who could commune through signs,
masters of geometric anagrams and schemes.

No thinking pigmies
like the jet-set, computer-brained, robots,
no automatons sans feeling or emotion,
who worship only the machine.

The aborigines possess to this day
the knowledge of invisible paths;
locked in their secret science
the treasury of ancient wisdom.

No unfeeling savages
but visionary beings
who knew where to build
the great pyramids.

Who knew the unified field
of quadrangles and triangles
that form the invisible grid
encircling the globe.

Who knew well the movements
of prevailing winds,
of cosmo-oceanic currents,
of hidden forces of the cosmos.

Who knew the spots of magnetic power
to locate the precise spots
for the countless megalithic structures
to predict the rising and setting of the sun;
made the magnetic field retain the sunstones
in the ordained positions.

Who had the ability to commune
with beings from far-off constellations
we are still struggling to find.

Many a mysterious sign on the ground
be it a bridge over the sea
or an airfield
or the markings of Nasca-
tell of the intelligence
behind the perfect architectural plan
of astroports
for visitors from outer space
to land to consummate
an unknown mission.

The mystery of Ande lines too
points to the invisible hand
of the unknown denizens
from far-aff galaxies.

(ii)

Ancient men possessed
the unerring intuition
to locate the spots
for their minarets and pagodas,
their circles and parabolas.

They had the innate ability
to catch supranatural frequencies
a power modern man has lost.
Sensate values have taken a toll
a sure sign of man's fall.

Knew that from coarse erotica
to archetypal myths,
from racial memory-roots of aborigines
to the consciousness of superman,
dreams span the legendary lore.

We sleep to dream,
we dream to sleep
till we are shaken
by a knock at the door.

We shuttle from bliss to horror
breaking the sequence of space-time,
hourly undergo a sea change.

We leave the corporeal frame
to travel by the astral pathways.
After a spell of relaxation,
go to sleep again.

Many a time have I dreamt
in a wakeful state,
seen and thought three-dimensionally,
oblivious of my fourth dimension,
the basis of all creativity
that guides the artist's insight,
lets him see the hidden beauty
in the darkest night.

Sleep is a relaxation
a state of receptive passivity,
for paranormal communication,
for entering a trance.

I climb the chestnut,
become the tree,
stand with my peers,
proud of my ancestry.

Oblivious of the hallowed past
that gave meaning to my thoughts,
beneath the banyan I lie.
My roots go back in time,
I recollect each one
who stood there.

I become the wood,
bound to every one ,
stretching my arms in every direction.

I understand the heart
of cyclones and storms,
of creativity and creation,
in my soul's calm.

Travel from trunk downards
far away in space-time,
in my crystal costume
I become all that I see.

Breathing the air of new skies
hopping from sphere to sphere,
buffeted by electromagnetic waves,
I cross
many a sound barrier,
many a starlit dome,
winging from the earthly roof
to my celestial home.

there I meet my father,
my father's father
and onto the Father.

In His lap I rest a while
to take my place with the pole-star
to guide the stranded.

Go back home
to know the source
I strayed from
to live my mortal destiny.

(v)
In my trances,
in nine circles of the moon
I unrolled the scroll
of my previous lives.

I re-lived the crucial roles
of my previous births,
having a bearing on my present,
as if I were acting in a film.

Till my thirties I was a witness
to disjointed episodes
from my previous lives
reflected on a screen.

Suddenly, in early thirties,
a strange dispassion entered my being:
I started shunning all men
retreating to lonely spots
for meditations deep and long
till I was summoned to shirdi
by a celestial call.

There I met a realized soul
who transferred the yogic powers
to create and uncreate at will,
to see beyond space-time,
to commune with spirits divine,
to hear the first sermons
of ancient saints and divines
in their original tongues.

My precognition in that state
was marked by precision,
my prophecies were fulfilled,
I was the star of the great.

I heard Christ's golden sermon
in his own sonorous voice
in a language alien to my ear;
its music haunts.

I was roused
from the sleep of ignorance
to tread the seeker's path
played in my previous births.

Dattatreya and Sai
Gurcharan and Golak
Zen patriarchs and Babaji
wrapped in effulgence,
entered my inmost being;
I was filled with translucent light.

They awakened me to my mission,
conferred the mystic sight
to bear the godly light,
to carry the cross of human woes.

From the meshes of worldliness freed,
longing to walk by His light
making it burn into a steady slame,
in my dark cavern I dwell.

Hear the call
to join my voice
to the choir of God.

I sing of the faith,
of the earth as one family,
of unity permeating all,
of service as love made visible:
the destination of every man,
of soul's deliverance,
of its merger with the One,
the source supreme.

(vi)

Ecstasy is a gateway to eternal
from the void of oblivion
to eternities of memory.
It is an invitation
to life divine.

The sages of yore
who sing philosophies to redeem,
prophet, poet and philosopher, rolled in one,
to them I look for inspiration.

Science has to be a hymn to the Creator,
no more a preserve of godless men
or it will become a device
heaping untold miseries upon men.

Reason and spirit interacting mould
the force of personality
that ordains the route mankind will take
when the spirit is caught in a fix.

" To be or not be" is not a question
confined to a mythical person
but the haunting obsession of every epoch
in search of a breakthrough.

No forecast is possible in reverse,
neither about the past nor the future.
History is a graveyard of all prophecies,
of all " ifs" and " buts".

Spirituality is the last retreat
for science and religion to meet;
when clash of creeds alarms,
realization has to drawn.

The savage and the scientist share
the same substratum of intelligence,
the same gene,
yet in the chain of natural progression
savage remains the archetypal man.

Psychokinesis and clairvoyance
belong to every man
in psychic reservoir locked.

What you need is the right intelligence
to attune yourself
to the unified field
of human awareness,
encircling the universe,
hissing for recognition.

I travelled to distant lands,
unknown to my physical mind,
in contemplation firm-fixed
yet moving faster than light.

A mental falcon following,
retaining the memory of things I see,
of the sights and sounds
that lapped around me;
reviving the ability or remote -seeing,
natural to every one.

I have experienced levitation,
materialized out of thin air
sultanas and sacred ash.
Also, solid balls out of nothing,
and let them fall to the ground
without bouncing or making a sound.
Twisted metal spans and knives,
made eerie signs.
Pulled out fires from the walls,
saw flowerpots hanging in midair,
automatic writing on a clean slate,
a shadowy presence in the room.

(vii)

What we do in this life
determines what we gain
in the next.

Good or evil we do
forsakes us not
on our journey to the unknown,
neither in the course of flight
nor on reaching the destination.

What we are, we shall be,
all determined by our deeds.
The universe is not a game of dice
but a mathematical paradigm.

Each and every step of the design
squares well with the pattern of the theorem.
Everything depends on our actions.
Karma and reincarnations
monitor the cosmic mechanism.

Cryptompesia explains
the truth of transmigration,
our turning away from the sun,
our striving for salvation,
an integral aspects of total organism
that inheres in the cosmic unconscious:
the extension of microcosmic self.

We cannot explain
the totality of the human person
by physio-neurology alone,
the truth lies in prenatal existence.

Many a time
meeting a person,
passing through a situation,
or reading some piece,
the sensation of " already seen"
haunts us
as if our double had been to the place
and had met the person.

(viii)

Stuck by weightlessness
I levitate in space in a state of trance.

In my upward glide swill,
turning in air itself,
into the tunnel,
cross the little hill,
to arrive where my father sleeps.

I too shall sleep there
after I shuffle off my worn-out coil,
cut the umbilical cord that joins
the causal to the mental-physical sheath,
all over the globe to fly.

I follow the music,
cross the astral paths,
the sun and the moon,
cross the river of mortality
needling my way through invisible tunnels,
through inaccessible mountain passes
dotted by sunspots and black shadows,
well-marked by ethereal poles.

Out-of-the-body experience is not the same
as the fact of being out of the body
but an altered state of consciousness.

(ix)

The spirit never dies,
in various incarnations it survives
drinking the bliss sip by sip
till we attain nirvana.

I know reincarnation to be a fact
fro sage Bhrigu unfolds the scroll
of my previous births
spanning many aeons.

In one birth I was King Yayati,
the ancestor of the solar race.
I carry with me Brighu's curse
for my infidelity
to Devayani,
daughter of the mighty sage.

She cried
for restoration of her conjugal rights,
for her son's succession to the throne,
brought upon my head
decrepitude too soon
and a straw bed.

Twenty-nine births from the present one
I was the sage Madan
and lived
in the Hemkund mountains
absorbed in Sat Chit Anand.

In my last birth
was I a scholar-saint
honoured by courts and kings.

In this life reborn to the one
who was no God-man
but true man of God,
free from the taint of worldliness.
The Jiwan Mukta, by Brighu proclaimed,
the liberated while living
and not to be born again.

Father bade me stop
the out-of-body journeys
to confine myself
to ordained duties and affections,
to quicken the liberation of man,
to imbibe earth consciousness,
to make earth-citizens,
to re-live the religion of man.

Father touched me by chance,
instantly I went into a trance:
neither a sleep nor a dream was it
but the light of bliss.

Through many a secret pathway
I travelled to unreachable realms
shortening distances
of many million light years.

Suddenly I see something flicker
with a pair of eye-glasses
in a far-off gloom,
my sense of discernment returns.

I retrace my steps ;
a black dog,
tucking at my knees,
coaxes me home.

MYSTIC SIGNS--INVITATION TO LIFE DIVINE

Secret Science OF INSEEING
(i)

Come with me, I shall reveal
the secret of divining
our ancestors knew.

I shall take you to the hallowed spots
where stand pyramids and astrofields
to show you the rim of the cosmic orb
where existed an observatory for all space.

These hieroglyphs tell of a lost civilization
of those who could commune through signs,
masters of geometric anagrams and schemes.

No thinking pigmies
like the jet-set, computer-brained, robots,
no automatons sans feeling or emotion,
who worship only the machine.

The aborigines possess to this day
the knowledge of invisible paths;
locked in their secret science
the treasury of ancient wisdom.

No unfeeling savages
but visionary beings
who knew where to build
the great pyramids.

Who knew the unified field
of quadrangles and triangles
that form the invisible grid
encircling the globe.

Who knew well the movements
of prevailing winds,
of cosmo-oceanic currents,
of hidden forces of the cosmos.

Who knew the spots of magnetic power
to locate the precise spots
for the countless megalithic structures
to predict the rising and setting of the sun;
made the magnetic field retain the sunstones
in the ordained positions.

Who had the ability to commune
with beings from far-off constellations
we are still struggling to find.

Many a mysterious sign on the ground
be it a bridge over the sea
or an airfield
or the markings of Nasca-
tell of the intelligence
behind the perfect architectural plan
of astroports
for visitors from outer space
to land to consummate
an unknown mission.

The mystery of Ande lines too
points to the invisible hand
of the unknown denizens
from far-aff galaxies.

(ii)

Ancient men possessed
the unerring intuition
to locate the spots
for their minarets and pagodas,
their circles and parabolas.

They had the innate ability
to catch supranatural frequencies
a power modern man has lost.
Sensate values have taken a toll
a sure sign of man's fall.

Knew that from coarse erotica
to archetypal myths,
from racial memory-roots of aborigines
to the consciousness of superman,
dreams span the legendary lore.

We sleep to dream,
we dream to sleep
till we are shaken
by a knock at the door.

We shuttle from bliss to horror
breaking the sequence of space-time,
hourly undergo a sea change.

We leave the corporeal frame
to travel by the astral pathways.
After a spell of relaxation,
go to sleep again.

Many a time have I dreamt
in a wakeful state,
seen and thought three-dimensionally,
oblivious of my fourth dimension,
the basis of all creativity
that guides the artist's insight,
lets him see the hidden beauty
in the darkest night.

Sleep is a relaxation
a state of receptive passivity,
for paranormal communication,
for entering a trance.

I climb the chestnut,
become the tree,
stand with my peers,
proud of my ancestry.

Oblivious of the hallowed past
that gave meaning to my thoughts,
beneath the banyan I lie.
My roots go back in time,
I recollect each one
who stood there.

I become the wood,
bound to every one ,
stretching my arms in every direction.

I understand the heart
of cyclones and storms,
of creativity and creation,
in my soul's calm.

Travel from trunk downards
far away in space-time,
in my crystal costume
I become all that I see.

Breathing the air of new skies
hopping from sphere to sphere,
buffeted by electromagnetic waves,
I cross
many a sound barrier,
many a starlit dome,
winging from the earthly roof
to my celestial home.

there I meet my father,
my father's father
and onto the Father.

In His lap I rest a while
to take my place with the pole-star
to guide the stranded.

Go back home
to know the source
I strayed from
to live my mortal destiny.

(v)
In my trances,
in nine circles of the moon
I unrolled the scroll
of my previous lives.

I re-lived the crucial roles
of my previous births,
having a bearing on my present,
as if I were acting in a film.

Till my thirties I was a witness
to disjointed episodes
from my previous lives
reflected on a screen.

Suddenly, in early thirties,
a strange dispassion entered my being:
I started shunning all men
retreating to lonely spots
for meditations deep and long
till I was summoned to shirdi
by a celestial call.

There I met a realized soul
who transferred the yogic powers
to create and uncreate at will,
to see beyond space-time,
to commune with spirits divine,
to hear the first sermons
of ancient saints and divines
in their original tongues.

My precognition in that state
was marked by precision,
my prophecies were fulfilled,
I was the star of the great.

I heard Christ's golden sermon
in his own sonorous voice
in a language alien to my ear;
its music haunts.

I was roused
from the sleep of ignorance
to tread the seeker's path
played in my previous births.

Dattatreya and Sai
Gurcharan and Golak
Zen patriarchs and Babaji
wrapped in effulgence,
entered my inmost being;
I was filled with translucent light.

They awakened me to my mission,
conferred the mystic sight
to bear the godly light,
to carry the cross of human woes.

From the meshes of worldliness freed,
longing to walk by His light
making it burn into a steady slame,
in my dark cavern I dwell.

Hear the call
to join my voice
to the choir of God.

I sing of the faith,
of the earth as one family,
of unity permeating all,
of service as love made visible:
the destination of every man,
of soul's deliverance,
of its merger with the One,
the source supreme.

(vi)

Ecstasy is a gateway to eternal
from the void of oblivion
to eternities of memory.
It is an invitation
to life divine.

The sages of yore
who sing philosophies to redeem,
prophet, poet and philosopher, rolled in one,
to them I look for inspiration.

Science has to be a hymn to the Creator,
no more a preserve of godless men
or it will become a device
heaping untold miseries upon men.

Reason and spirit interacting mould
the force of personality
that ordains the route mankind will take
when the spirit is caught in a fix.

" To be or not be" is not a question
confined to a mythical person
but the haunting obsession of every epoch
in search of a breakthrough.

No forecast is possible in reverse,
neither about the past nor the future.
History is a graveyard of all prophecies,
of all " ifs" and " buts".

Spirituality is the last retreat
for science and religion to meet;
when clash of creeds alarms,
realization has to drawn.

The savage and the scientist share
the same substratum of intelligence,
the same gene,
yet in the chain of natural progression
savage remains the archetypal man.

Psychokinesis and clairvoyance
belong to every man
in psychic reservoir locked.

What you need is the right intelligence
to attune yourself
to the unified field
of human awareness,
encircling the universe,
hissing for recognition.

I travelled to distant lands,
unknown to my physical mind,
in contemplation firm-fixed
yet moving faster than light.

A mental falcon following,
retaining the memory of things I see,
of the sights and sounds
that lapped around me;
reviving the ability or remote -seeing,
natural to every one.

I have experienced levitation,
materialized out of thin air
sultanas and sacred ash.
Also, solid balls out of nothing,
and let them fall to the ground
without bouncing or making a sound.
Twisted metal spans and knives,
made eerie signs.
Pulled out fires from the walls,
saw flowerpots hanging in midair,
automatic writing on a clean slate,
a shadowy presence in the room.

(vii)

What we do in this life
determines what we gain
in the next.

Good or evil we do
forsakes us not
on our journey to the unknown,
neither in the course of flight
nor on reaching the destination.

What we are, we shall be,
all determined by our deeds.
The universe is not a game of dice
but a mathematical paradigm.

Each and every step of the design
squares well with the pattern of the theorem.
Everything depends on our actions.
Karma and reincarnations
monitor the cosmic mechanism.

Cryptompesia explains
the truth of transmigration,
our turning away from the sun,
our striving for salvation,
an integral aspects of total organism
that inheres in the cosmic unconscious:
the extension of microcosmic self.

We cannot explain
the totality of the human person
by physio-neurology alone,
the truth lies in prenatal existence.

Many a time
meeting a person,
passing through a situation,
or reading some piece,
the sensation of " already seen"
haunts us
as if our double had been to the place
and had met the person.

(viii)

Stuck by weightlessness
I levitate in space in a state of trance.

In my upward glide swill,
turning in air itself,
into the tunnel,
cross the little hill,
to arrive where my father sleeps.

I too shall sleep there
after I shuffle off my worn-out coil,
cut the umbilical cord that joins
the causal to the mental-physical sheath,
all over the globe to fly.

I follow the music,
cross the astral paths,
the sun and the moon,
cross the river of mortality
needling my way through invisible tunnels,
through inaccessible mountain passes
dotted by sunspots and black shadows,
well-marked by ethereal poles.

Out-of-the-body experience is not the same
as the fact of being out of the body
but an altered state of consciousness.

(ix)

The spirit never dies,
in various incarnations it survives
drinking the bliss sip by sip
till we attain nirvana.

I know reincarnation to be a fact
fro sage Bhrigu unfolds the scroll
of my previous births
spanning many aeons.

In one birth I was King Yayati,
the ancestor of the solar race.
I carry with me Brighu's curse
for my infidelity
to Devayani,
daughter of the mighty sage.

She cried
for restoration of her conjugal rights,
for her son's succession to the throne,
brought upon my head
decrepitude too soon
and a straw bed.

Twenty-nine births from the present one
I was the sage Madan
and lived
in the Hemkund mountains
absorbed in Sat Chit Anand.

In my last birth
was I a scholar-saint
honoured by courts and kings.

In this life reborn to the one
who was no God-man
but true man of God,
free from the taint of worldliness.
The Jiwan Mukta, by Brighu proclaimed,
the liberated while living
and not to be born again.

Father bade me stop
the out-of-body journeys
to confine myself
to ordained duties and affections,
to quicken the liberation of man,
to imbibe earth consciousness,
to make earth-citizens,
to re-live the religion of man.

Father touched me by chance,
instantly I went into a trance:
neither a sleep nor a dream was it
but the light of bliss.

Through many a secret pathway
I travelled to unreachable realms
shortening distances
of many million light years.

Suddenly I see something flicker
with a pair of eye-glasses
in a far-off gloom,
my sense of discernment returns.

I retrace my steps ;
a black dog,
tucking at my knees,
coaxes me home.

ZEN GITA

ZEN SUTRA

The road to truth runs straight,
the twists and turns,
only prolong the quest.

Every fish breathes the needed air,
in low or high tide,
oblivious of ocean wide.

The wheeling universes
always on the run,
longing for soulful union.

Tired with turning beads
the realized know only one word,
love.

Love’s flame
shall open the secret door,
one step more shall make you free.

Fling these piles of books
in passions’ raging fire
to be the Zen.

Continence
the root restraint
on the path of ascent.

Calm of mind,
a heart that craves not,
makes you free, the living Zen.

Where you get to know who you are,
all your questionings cease,
fixed are you in your Buddha nature.

Futile this search
if it fails to give you equipoise,
the peace of Nirvana.

To obey the inner call,
to pass into life immortal,
death-in-Zen, the way.

No danger to go astray
on the path of Zen,
only caution, no vacillation.

Only intense love makes you see
Life’s hidden mystery,
lets you enter the deathless realm.

Zen will bestow the sight,
the ear to hear the unheard melody,
the joy of living creatively.

Not by ritual purification
but searching within,
the gates of illumination open.

Darkness lets us see
our true essence,
our Buddha nature.

A ceaseless yearning
to be out of the tunnel,
to see the Light.

Prayer is bathing
in pure waters of Zen
to wash the soul clean.

What you lose by excess,
recoup it by restraint,
zest once gone cannot return.

A prayer awakens in you
the hidden melody of existence,
flowers a whole spring within.

What holds the worlds together,
keeps the cosmic balance,
none but love.

Between man and man
the earth and heaven,
only love is.

Love the guide,
love the voyager,
love the destination.

Birth, death, love, time,
points in a unitive scale
to orchestrate life’s harmony.

Each speck in the macrocosm
has an appointed role,
no luminous sun without a black hole.

Life’s lustre lies
in living courageously
from moment to moment.

To the one in love
the whole world wears
the look of a royal feast.

Each one has to step
on one’s dead self,
to rise on to higher planes.

Dig up this fort of lower self
from the very roots,
to dig in the foundation of the higher self.

Smite with Zazen
all chords of your self
to let them emit sweet melodies.

The cross is not
what once shone in Bethelham,
but what shines in every soul.

Where no sense of separateness
there truth shines resplendent,
that's the moment for enlightment.

Light the pyre
to recover the immortal self,
to be filled and fulfilled.

Now and now alone,
descent ends, ascent begins,
the realisation dawns.

Who yearns for the whole
being flooded,
becomes the whole.

Heaven and hell within,
in-between an infinitesmal hair,
now the one, now the other.

Once on the vulture peak
you know the bliss of ordinariness,
your new found majesty.

No quivering restlessness,
no greed,
when dispassion sets in.

The sage enlightner
sets ablaze the fire divine,
burns away the karmic chains.

Close to the creator
in one plunge
touch the roof in one kick.

Renunciation,
of all acquisitiveness,
the way to Zen.

The way to deliverance
within every being,
only if he dives deep.

Your whole being a temple
effulging with loving devotion
the ladder to the ultimate.

The realm,
where forever flows the song,
where the eternal lights a million lamps.

Who tastes truth but once
he savours
its flavoured essence in every sip.

Every order, human or divine,
revolves round love’s nave,
it’s the very logos of life.

Love’s alchemy turns
every base metal into gold,
makes a new man.

The soul’s paradise
only for those who tread
on the razor-edge of life.

Past the flowing stream,
feel the light of bliss,
in all-enveloping darkness.

A million-eyed lotus
in every soul blooms
a thousand miracles in every wink.

Life acquires meaning
passing through love’s crucible
even death becomes divine.

Every moment a star of surprize
the questing soul’s choicest prize
a glow on the face .

The easiest way, the golden mean,
the avoidance of all extremes,
the key to all realisation.

ZEN GITA

ZEN SUTRA

The road to truth runs straight,
the twists and turns,
only prolong the quest.

Every fish breathes the needed air,
in low or high tide,
oblivious of ocean wide.

The wheeling universes
always on the run,
longing for soulful union.

Tired with turning beads
the realized know only one word,
love.

Love’s flame
shall open the secret door,
one step more shall make you free.

Fling these piles of books
in passions’ raging fire
to be the Zen.

Continence
the root restraint
on the path of ascent.

Calm of mind,
a heart that craves not,
makes you free, the living Zen.

Where you get to know who you are,
all your questionings cease,
fixed are you in your Buddha nature.

Futile this search
if it fails to give you equipoise,
the peace of Nirvana.

To obey the inner call,
to pass into life immortal,
death-in-Zen, the way.

No danger to go astray
on the path of Zen,
only caution, no vacillation.

Only intense love makes you see
Life’s hidden mystery,
lets you enter the deathless realm.

Zen will bestow the sight,
the ear to hear the unheard melody,
the joy of living creatively.

Not by ritual purification
but searching within,
the gates of illumination open.

Darkness lets us see
our true essence,
our Buddha nature.

A ceaseless yearning
to be out of the tunnel,
to see the Light.

Prayer is bathing
in pure waters of Zen
to wash the soul clean.

What you lose by excess,
recoup it by restraint,
zest once gone cannot return.

A prayer awakens in you
the hidden melody of existence,
flowers a whole spring within.

What holds the worlds together,
keeps the cosmic balance,
none but love.

Between man and man
the earth and heaven,
only love is.

Love the guide,
love the voyager,
love the destination.

Birth, death, love, time,
points in a unitive scale
to orchestrate life’s harmony.

Each speck in the macrocosm
has an appointed role,
no luminous sun without a black hole.

Life’s lustre lies
in living courageously
from moment to moment.

To the one in love
the whole world wears
the look of a royal feast.

Each one has to step
on one’s dead self,
to rise on to higher planes.

Dig up this fort of lower self
from the very roots,
to dig in the foundation of the higher self.

Smite with Zazen
all chords of your self
to let them emit sweet melodies.

The cross is not
what once shone in Bethelham,
but what shines in every soul.

Where no sense of separateness
there truth shines resplendent,
that's the moment for enlightment.

Light the pyre
to recover the immortal self,
to be filled and fulfilled.

Now and now alone,
descent ends, ascent begins,
the realisation dawns.

Who yearns for the whole
being flooded,
becomes the whole.

Heaven and hell within,
in-between an infinitesmal hair,
now the one, now the other.

Once on the vulture peak
you know the bliss of ordinariness,
your new found majesty.

No quivering restlessness,
no greed,
when dispassion sets in.

The sage enlightner
sets ablaze the fire divine,
burns away the karmic chains.

Close to the creator
in one plunge
touch the roof in one kick.

Renunciation,
of all acquisitiveness,
the way to Zen.

The way to deliverance
within every being,
only if he dives deep.

Your whole being a temple
effulging with loving devotion
the ladder to the ultimate.

The realm,
where forever flows the song,
where the eternal lights a million lamps.

Who tastes truth but once
he savours
its flavoured essence in every sip.

Every order, human or divine,
revolves round love’s nave,
it’s the very logos of life.

Love’s alchemy turns
every base metal into gold,
makes a new man.

The soul’s paradise
only for those who tread
on the razor-edge of life.

Past the flowing stream,
feel the light of bliss,
in all-enveloping darkness.

A million-eyed lotus
in every soul blooms
a thousand miracles in every wink.

Life acquires meaning
passing through love’s crucible
even death becomes divine.

Every moment a star of surprize
the questing soul’s choicest prize
a glow on the face .

The easiest way, the golden mean,
the avoidance of all extremes,
the key to all realisation.

HYMN TO MYSTIC FIRE

HYMN TO JYOTI

Jyoti - Tamas
incestuous pair
all space envelop:
light and darkness.

Jyoti, the formless first
the self-emanating effulgence
wombs in primal time, the Sun,
the source of light and life.


The Sun's first born, Agni
weaves the texture of life,
the warp and woof of creation,
binds the Earth and Heaven.


White milk of celestial cows
dusky, black or crimson
appear in the morning sun
golden hued, resplendent.



Swan-constellations, blue-backed
silhoutted against the black sky
glitter like gold
lit by a million suns.

On night sky's black carpet
Stars play checkers
bursting crackers
in all-enveloping gloom.


Savitur, Varun, Mitra
pave the way
to luminous dawn
in heart of space.

Black bull stokes
reeling dark clouds
making them burst
into hails of light.

In struggling to liberate Itself
from embrace of Tamas
Jyoti unrolls the scroll of time
and brings the universe to life.



O Jyoti, the all-powerful, all-prevading One
descend down on our earth to annul
darkness of Tamas in our being
tear asunder our veil of illusion.

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

There is an insightful write up entitled "Can mysticism lead to God?"
by Richard Bennett (former Catholic priest)which offers a new light on orthodox Christianity.

Mysticism is an attempt to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. The strong influence of Catholic mysticism has helped immensely to transform the New Age Movement from being merely a counter-culture sub-culture to becoming a new source of spiritual vision for the world. Catholic mysticism has very effectively and subtly invaded many facets of life without being recognized or critically examined.

This has been actively promoted through self-help medical, educational and psychological programs employing methods such as meditation, philosophical programming, and self-hypnotic contemplation.

In melding Eastern subjective spirituality with Western self-assurance, Catholic mysticism has done much to effectively hijack public and private religious life and to invert core beliefs and values of the West. Mystical God consciousness is an attempt to replace Christ's redemption and salvation.
Catholicism, Pagan Religions and Pantheism

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has assimilated to herself the mystery elements of pagan religions. Subjective religious experience, or mysticism, continues to be the meeting point of pagan religions and Catholicism, particularly so since Vatican Council II, when Rome changed her major strategy in an attempt to bring Protestants back under the papal fold.

The marriage between Romanism and paganism is documented in official statements from Rome. For example, in Vatican Council II documents she states,
"…In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to God in confidence and love. Buddhism in its various forms testifies to the essential inadequacy of this changing world. It proposes a way of life by which man can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or by the aid of divine help. …The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions." [1]

Jesuit priest William Johnston explains how it happened,
"Then came the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Overnight the Catholic Church which had been a Western institution exporting its wares to the East became a world community. Asian and African bishops and theologians assembled in Rome and, with their European and American confreres, acknowledged that the Spirit of God is at work in all peoples and in all religions. Since then, most theologians recognize non-Christian religions as 'valid ways'." [2]


It is on such a quagmire that Catholicism stands hand-in-hand with Buddhism and Hinduism, and out of which well-known Catholic mystics such as William Johnston and Thomas Keating have emerged. For example, Johnston describes the effect of enlightenment,
"Self-realization lies at the very heart of BuddhismIn self-realization I become one with God just as the object is one with the mirror and just as Jesus is one with his Father." [3]

The famous mystical monk, Thomas Merton, developed this pantheistic identification with God, as does his present day devotee, William Shannon. Merton states,
"now I realize what we all are. And if only everyone could realize this! I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could or see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other." [4]
[See: What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism?]

Shannon endorses the idolatrous self-identification with God and cites his mentor, Merton,
"A person of true faith travels, not without difficulty, towards the heart of mystery. Such a person, as Merton puts it, 'works his way through the darkness of his own mystery until he discovers that his own mystery and the mystery of God merge into one reality, which is the only reality.' DQ 180." [5]
These quotations are standard descriptions of the pantheistic myth that we are all in God. In their own minds, Merton and Shannon have literally transmuted God Himself into their own image, having exchanged Him for human beings as an object of worship. Have they not, in the words of Romans 1:23,
"changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"?
Leading Buddhists acknowledge Soul Unity with Catholicism

Leading Buddhists recognizes the marriage of Rome and paganism. Thich Nhat Hanh, states,
"Buddhists and Christians know the nirvana, or the Kingdom of God, is within their hearts [sic]. The Gospels speak of the Kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness [sic]. Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in every one's consciousness. The practices of prayer and meditation help us touch the most valuable seeds that are within us, and they put us in contact with the ground of our being." [6]

The Buddhist leader Dalai Lama on visiting the grave of Thomas Merton at Gethsemane Abbey prayed, "Now our spirits are one." [7] It is an appalling blasphemy to affirm of the thrice-Holy God that the Kingdom of God is "as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness" and that "meditation help[s] us touch the most valuable seeds that are in us" and that it "put[s] us in contact with the ground of our being."
Listen to the razor-sharp words of the Redeemer,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." [8]

The Holy Spirit's unique office is to lead true believers into all truth by convicting us of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." [9] It is not by the darkness of meditation on "the ground of our being" that leads us to the kingdom of Christ; rather in the words of Scripture, it is the Father "which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." [10]

“Evangelical” Endorsement of Pantheism

A leading Evangelical, Richard Foster, lauds this pantheistic identification with God. Foster states,
"Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism!Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." [11]
Foster asks rhetorically, "What is the goal of Contemplative Prayer?" And he answers,
"To this question the old writers answer with one voice: union with God. Bonaventure, a follower of Saint Francis, says that our final goal is 'union with God,' which is a pure relationship where we see 'nothing.'" [12]
Seeing "nothing" and the "wordless baptism" are just an Evangelical rehashing of Catholic irrational superstitious myth. Rather, as II Corinthians 4:3 states,
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The Catholic priest Thomas Keating agrees with Foster as he writes,
"Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions." [13]
Thus Keating depersonalized God to the nameless "Ultimate Mystery" in mythology. This impersonal, "Ultimate Mystery" is a non-speaking, non-judgmental, "god." Is Keating in the twenty-first century any better off than the men on Mars Hill to whom Paul spoke regarding their "altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship"? [14] Nor is any morality derived from Keating's "Ultimate Mystery".

Thus Keating Merton and Shannon with their pantheistic identification with God have attempted destroy God's self-sufficiency as Creator, and the Lord God Almighty. They have endeavored to clone God into the image of humans. According to Romans 1:25, have they not…
"changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever"?
No wonder Merton admits,
"If only they could or see themselves as they really are… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other."
In the place of the true worship of God, they have set about to establish pantheistic idolatry.

The Pope's Approval
In an official "Apostolic Letter" the Pope has endorsed Rome's own mystical tradition and the "great mystical tradition of the Church both East and West." His official teaching is,
"we are greatly helped not only by theological investigation but also by that great heritage which is the 'lived theology' of the saints. The saints offer us precious insightsthrough their personal experience of those terrible states of trial which the mystical tradition describes as the 'dark night'. Not infrequently the saints have undergone something akin to Jesus' experience on the Cross in the paradoxical blending of bliss and pain. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, God the Father shows Catherine of Siena how joy and suffering can be present together in holy souls:
'Thus the soul is blissful and afflicted: afflicted on account of the sins of its neighbour, blissful on account of the union and the affection of charity which it has inwardly received. These souls imitate the spotless Lamb, my Only-begotten Son, who on the Cross was both blissful and afflicted'.
What an illuminating testimony!Is it not one of the 'signs of the times' that in today's world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer? Other religions, which are now widely present in ancient Christian lands, offer their own responses to this need, and sometimes they do so in appealing ways.The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" [15]

This is a brilliant piece of political bridge building on the Pope's part. By citing experiences of "saints", he attempts to make these experiences universal standards of deep and authentic spirituality. Then he grants approval to other religions by stating that they meet the "renewed need for prayer" in ways which are "appealing", affirming the idea that the process of prayer can become so consuming that it "render[s] the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved."
High thoughts, vain imaginations, and carnal reasonings about the greatness of human efforts have always exalted themselves against the knowledge of God. If "a progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" were true, there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer. Scripture declares the reality and truth, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." [16]

In 1986, Pope John Paul II seized the inter-faith initiative by gathering 160 of the world's religious leaders for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy. They flew in from around the globe, Islamic Mullahs from nine nations, the Dalai Lama, (traditionally regarded by Buddhists as a living deity), native American Shamans and Indian cultists, African animists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Catholics and, of course, Protestants. "We will stand side by side asking God to give us peace," declared the Pope.[41]

The grand encore to this initial dramatization of Luciferian unity occurred in January 2002, as Pope John Paul II led 200 leaders of different religions once again at Assisi, Italy. By public demonstration, by official sanction, in countless books and seminars, as well as Web pages with broad ecumenical support, Popedom has set a mystical agenda, which the world loves and accepts. Any believer or confessing fellowship group that remains silent in the face of such bald-faced blasphemy inevitably lends credence to the Pope's deceit. For Rome still assumes her ancient legal principle to stand, "He who is silent is understood to consent."[42]

Truth Contrasted to Crafted Mythology
True Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in that it is a rational-historical faith. For the Christian, salvation is based on something entirely outside of man. Salvation is found in the faithfulness and perfect sacrifice of the Christ of history. Catholic and Eastern mystics claim to discover God in the depths of their being. The true Christian looks away from himself to the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

Before God, Christ's satisfaction for sin is a reality that is all-sufficient. It does not need to be supplemented by any other reality. God's verdict of justification is not grounded on any state of being within the believing sinner, rather it is established on Christ Jesus alone. The principle that man can save himself by his experience and by his own life has been the foundation of every pagan religion, as it is of Catholicism. What is so sinister about the present communion of Rome with paganism is that it is contaminating our entire society.
The deadly deceptions of mysticism arrogantly advertise a way of direct access to the All Holy God and thereby repudiate any need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and men. The believer's worship and approach to God is in the Lord's own words to be with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." [17]
In the words of the Apostle Paul,
"I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." [18]
The same Apostle warned believers,
"Let no man beguile you of your reward intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." [19]
The censure of the Lord God remains on those who have issued lies,
"Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" [20]
Because of this debasement of Christ and His Gospel we again outline the essentials of historical faith.

Objective Salvation in the Lord of Glory

As Mediator, Christ Jesus is the only means of union between God and man,
"that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in him." [21]
Christ Jesus is exalted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high" [22] as the One Savior. He and His Gospel are objective and real! This Gospel is not an idle tale, nor a piece of incomprehensible mysticism; rather it is the proclamation of the awesome historical work of redemption accomplished by God Himself.
The Father appointed Christ Jesus as the guarantee of real salvation. Christ Jesus was glorified in finishing the Father's mightiest work. In Christ's own words, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." [23] He had fulfilled all the Father's will and so gloriously honored the Father. As Savior He is exalted high above "all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." [24]

He alone, and not some mystic charm of Rome or Buddha, has been given all authority in heaven and in earth. He has been given power over all flesh that He should in His own words, " give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." [25] He alone has been given a name, which is above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." [26] It is God's commandment that we trust on Christ, "This is His command, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." [27]
True faith involves a repudiation of the self-deceit of experiential mystical means of reaching God, "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." [28] The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive every sinner who will throw away his rebellion and pride and trust in Him alone for salvation!
Preaching the real historical Christ and His Gospel is the answer to the mindless adumbrations of Rome and the ecumenical mystics. Thus alone can the true Church, God's People "go forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." [29] The Gospel is a mighty deliverance from the groveling religious subjectivism of Rome and her pagan mistresses. To know God is life itself to a Christian, in the words of the Lord Himself, "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [30]
Knowledge of God, and faith in Him, are the means whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to the true believers.
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." [31]

The Fulfillment of the New Age Aspiration?

The goal of the New Age Movement has consistently been to bring in the Age of Aquarius when all will recognize "the God with themselves". A major step towards this in the words of the New Age prophetess Alice Bailey, is "the regeneration of the churches." [32] Her vision was that…
"The Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished." [33]
In a word, she desired the time when the "Christian churches" would embrace the New Age concepts of illumination and self-realization. The New Age plan to bring in world peace cannot fully establish the Golden Age of Aquarius until Biblical Christianity is outlawed or destroyed.

Now that the Church of Rome has entered into liaison with paganism, she has again concocted another successful work of syncretism. As Catholicism has become the religion of the European Union,[34] the desires of New Age leaders appear to be coming true. Even at the local parish level according to William Shannon "contemplative spirituality" has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.[35]
With New Age convictions being voiced by leading Catholics and Evangelicals, it appears that the desired goal is closer to being achieved. The New Age aspiration to establish a one-world order lead by "a Christ Leader" is being met by the Pope and his Church. All of this ought not to surprise any believer, for the Bible has persistently warned believers of the enormity, growth and prevalence of the apostate church system and her mistresses.

The ruin of the Antichrist's kingdom is declared by the Apostle Paul,
"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."[36]

Conclusion

What has been shown here regarding Catholic mysticism's outright invasion of Evangelicalism and its commandeering of New Age verbiage and paraphernalia, should cause serious individuals to examine carefully the foundation upon which his or her hopes are built. A mere "I hope I am saved" is not enough, nothing short of the full assurance of faith on the solid Rock, the Lord Christ Jesus, will suffice. It is in God's light, and in it only, that "we see light."[37]

True Christians interpret all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for them in the Holy Bible. The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light! Mystics have not scrupled openly to equate the true God with "the god" within. They have thought to divest themselves of God Himself by turning to inward self-realization and enlightenment. Rather, the values that they set are based on personal inner feelings that are often incapable of reasoned explanation.
The Gospel is the exact opposite, the historical message of the Cross of Christ for a lost world. The Gospel proclaims Christ Himself, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His love gave His Son to die for sinners. There is no valid excuse for true believers to be deceived by "false apostles," who transform themselves into the "apostles of Christ," "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."[38]

There are many false prophets gone out into the world, if we study diligently these things, which God has recorded for our safeguard against the subtle deceptions of Satan, we will not mislead nor be misled. True believers in Christ must take to heart solemn warnings of the Apostle Paul,
"Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."[39]
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."[40]

Footnotes and References

1. Vatican Council II Documents, No. 56, Nostra Aetate, "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,", 28 Oct. 1965, Vol. I, Para. 2, p. 739.
2. William Johnston, The Mirror Mind (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990) p. 7.
3. Ibid., p. 33, 39.
4. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image edition Dec. 1989 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966) pp. 157, 158. This book has official Roman Catholic approval.
5. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace Contemplation and Non-Violence (New York: Crossroad Publ. Co, 1996) p. 73.
6. Thich Nhat Hanh, Introduction to Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton, Image Book edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996) p. 5.
7. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jan1997/feature1.asp 10/8/2002 The website also states that Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968, apparently electrocuted by a faulty room fan.
8. John 3:3
9. John 16:8
10. Colossians 1:12-13
11. Foster, Richard J., Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: Harper, 1992) p. 155.
12. Ibid., p 159.
13. Thomas Keating, "The Method of Centering Prayer" http://www.thecentering.org/centering 10/22/02.
14. Acts 17:23
15. OFFICIAL APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL II "NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE" www.vatican.va/holy_fa ther/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-mill ennio-ineunte_en.html+Novo+Millennio+Ineunte - Para 27, 33 Bolding in any quotation indicates emphasis added in this paper.
16. Titus 3:5
17. Matthew 22:37
18. I Corinthians 14:15
19. Colossians 2:18
20. Ezekiel 13:3
21. Ephesians 1:10
22. Hebrews 1:3
23. John 17:4
24. Ephesians 1:21
25. John 17:2
26. Philippians 2:10-11
27. I John 3:23
28. I Timothy 2:5
29. Song of Solomon 6:10
30. John 17:3
31. II Peter 1:3
32. Alice Bailey, Problems of Humanity (New York, NY: Lucis Publ. Co., 1964) p. 152.
33. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy (New York, NY: Lucis Pub. Co., 1957) p. 510.
34. This fact of syncretism in the EU we wish to deal with in our next newsletter.
35. Shannon, Seeds of Peace, p 25.
36. II Thessalonians 2:10b-12
37. Psalm 36:9
38. II Corinthians 11:13-14
39. II Corinthians 6:14,15,17
40. Ephesians 5:11
41. L'Osservatore Romano, English version of the official Vatican newspaper, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 1.
42. "Qui tacet consentire videtur."
43. Ephesians 2:3
44. 2 Corinthians 10:5
45. Malachi 3:18

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/mysticism-bennett.html

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

There is an insightful write up entitled "Can mysticism lead to God?"
by Richard Bennett (former Catholic priest)which offers a new light on orthodox Christianity.

Mysticism is an attempt to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. The strong influence of Catholic mysticism has helped immensely to transform the New Age Movement from being merely a counter-culture sub-culture to becoming a new source of spiritual vision for the world. Catholic mysticism has very effectively and subtly invaded many facets of life without being recognized or critically examined.

This has been actively promoted through self-help medical, educational and psychological programs employing methods such as meditation, philosophical programming, and self-hypnotic contemplation.

In melding Eastern subjective spirituality with Western self-assurance, Catholic mysticism has done much to effectively hijack public and private religious life and to invert core beliefs and values of the West. Mystical God consciousness is an attempt to replace Christ's redemption and salvation.
Catholicism, Pagan Religions and Pantheism

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has assimilated to herself the mystery elements of pagan religions. Subjective religious experience, or mysticism, continues to be the meeting point of pagan religions and Catholicism, particularly so since Vatican Council II, when Rome changed her major strategy in an attempt to bring Protestants back under the papal fold.

The marriage between Romanism and paganism is documented in official statements from Rome. For example, in Vatican Council II documents she states,
"…In Hinduism men explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately defined insights of philosophy. They seek release from the trials of the present life by ascetical practices, profound meditation and recourse to God in confidence and love. Buddhism in its various forms testifies to the essential inadequacy of this changing world. It proposes a way of life by which man can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or by the aid of divine help. …The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions." [1]

Jesuit priest William Johnston explains how it happened,
"Then came the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Overnight the Catholic Church which had been a Western institution exporting its wares to the East became a world community. Asian and African bishops and theologians assembled in Rome and, with their European and American confreres, acknowledged that the Spirit of God is at work in all peoples and in all religions. Since then, most theologians recognize non-Christian religions as 'valid ways'." [2]


It is on such a quagmire that Catholicism stands hand-in-hand with Buddhism and Hinduism, and out of which well-known Catholic mystics such as William Johnston and Thomas Keating have emerged. For example, Johnston describes the effect of enlightenment,
"Self-realization lies at the very heart of BuddhismIn self-realization I become one with God just as the object is one with the mirror and just as Jesus is one with his Father." [3]

The famous mystical monk, Thomas Merton, developed this pantheistic identification with God, as does his present day devotee, William Shannon. Merton states,
"now I realize what we all are. And if only everyone could realize this! I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could or see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other." [4]
[See: What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism?]

Shannon endorses the idolatrous self-identification with God and cites his mentor, Merton,
"A person of true faith travels, not without difficulty, towards the heart of mystery. Such a person, as Merton puts it, 'works his way through the darkness of his own mystery until he discovers that his own mystery and the mystery of God merge into one reality, which is the only reality.' DQ 180." [5]
These quotations are standard descriptions of the pantheistic myth that we are all in God. In their own minds, Merton and Shannon have literally transmuted God Himself into their own image, having exchanged Him for human beings as an object of worship. Have they not, in the words of Romans 1:23,
"changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man"?
Leading Buddhists acknowledge Soul Unity with Catholicism

Leading Buddhists recognizes the marriage of Rome and paganism. Thich Nhat Hanh, states,
"Buddhists and Christians know the nirvana, or the Kingdom of God, is within their hearts [sic]. The Gospels speak of the Kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness [sic]. Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in every one's consciousness. The practices of prayer and meditation help us touch the most valuable seeds that are within us, and they put us in contact with the ground of our being." [6]

The Buddhist leader Dalai Lama on visiting the grave of Thomas Merton at Gethsemane Abbey prayed, "Now our spirits are one." [7] It is an appalling blasphemy to affirm of the thrice-Holy God that the Kingdom of God is "as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness" and that "meditation help[s] us touch the most valuable seeds that are in us" and that it "put[s] us in contact with the ground of our being."
Listen to the razor-sharp words of the Redeemer,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." [8]

The Holy Spirit's unique office is to lead true believers into all truth by convicting us of "sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." [9] It is not by the darkness of meditation on "the ground of our being" that leads us to the kingdom of Christ; rather in the words of Scripture, it is the Father "which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." [10]

“Evangelical” Endorsement of Pantheism

A leading Evangelical, Richard Foster, lauds this pantheistic identification with God. Foster states,
"Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism!Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." [11]
Foster asks rhetorically, "What is the goal of Contemplative Prayer?" And he answers,
"To this question the old writers answer with one voice: union with God. Bonaventure, a follower of Saint Francis, says that our final goal is 'union with God,' which is a pure relationship where we see 'nothing.'" [12]
Seeing "nothing" and the "wordless baptism" are just an Evangelical rehashing of Catholic irrational superstitious myth. Rather, as II Corinthians 4:3 states,
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

The Catholic priest Thomas Keating agrees with Foster as he writes,
"Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions." [13]
Thus Keating depersonalized God to the nameless "Ultimate Mystery" in mythology. This impersonal, "Ultimate Mystery" is a non-speaking, non-judgmental, "god." Is Keating in the twenty-first century any better off than the men on Mars Hill to whom Paul spoke regarding their "altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship"? [14] Nor is any morality derived from Keating's "Ultimate Mystery".

Thus Keating Merton and Shannon with their pantheistic identification with God have attempted destroy God's self-sufficiency as Creator, and the Lord God Almighty. They have endeavored to clone God into the image of humans. According to Romans 1:25, have they not…
"changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever"?
No wonder Merton admits,
"If only they could or see themselves as they really are… I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other."
In the place of the true worship of God, they have set about to establish pantheistic idolatry.

The Pope's Approval
In an official "Apostolic Letter" the Pope has endorsed Rome's own mystical tradition and the "great mystical tradition of the Church both East and West." His official teaching is,
"we are greatly helped not only by theological investigation but also by that great heritage which is the 'lived theology' of the saints. The saints offer us precious insightsthrough their personal experience of those terrible states of trial which the mystical tradition describes as the 'dark night'. Not infrequently the saints have undergone something akin to Jesus' experience on the Cross in the paradoxical blending of bliss and pain. In the Dialogue of Divine Providence, God the Father shows Catherine of Siena how joy and suffering can be present together in holy souls:
'Thus the soul is blissful and afflicted: afflicted on account of the sins of its neighbour, blissful on account of the union and the affection of charity which it has inwardly received. These souls imitate the spotless Lamb, my Only-begotten Son, who on the Cross was both blissful and afflicted'.
What an illuminating testimony!Is it not one of the 'signs of the times' that in today's world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer? Other religions, which are now widely present in ancient Christian lands, offer their own responses to this need, and sometimes they do so in appealing ways.The great mystical tradition of the Church of both East and West has much to say in this regard. It shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" [15]

This is a brilliant piece of political bridge building on the Pope's part. By citing experiences of "saints", he attempts to make these experiences universal standards of deep and authentic spirituality. Then he grants approval to other religions by stating that they meet the "renewed need for prayer" in ways which are "appealing", affirming the idea that the process of prayer can become so consuming that it "render[s] the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved."
High thoughts, vain imaginations, and carnal reasonings about the greatness of human efforts have always exalted themselves against the knowledge of God. If "a progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" were true, there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer. Scripture declares the reality and truth, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." [16]

In 1986, Pope John Paul II seized the inter-faith initiative by gathering 160 of the world's religious leaders for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy. They flew in from around the globe, Islamic Mullahs from nine nations, the Dalai Lama, (traditionally regarded by Buddhists as a living deity), native American Shamans and Indian cultists, African animists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Catholics and, of course, Protestants. "We will stand side by side asking God to give us peace," declared the Pope.[41]

The grand encore to this initial dramatization of Luciferian unity occurred in January 2002, as Pope John Paul II led 200 leaders of different religions once again at Assisi, Italy. By public demonstration, by official sanction, in countless books and seminars, as well as Web pages with broad ecumenical support, Popedom has set a mystical agenda, which the world loves and accepts. Any believer or confessing fellowship group that remains silent in the face of such bald-faced blasphemy inevitably lends credence to the Pope's deceit. For Rome still assumes her ancient legal principle to stand, "He who is silent is understood to consent."[42]

Truth Contrasted to Crafted Mythology
True Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in that it is a rational-historical faith. For the Christian, salvation is based on something entirely outside of man. Salvation is found in the faithfulness and perfect sacrifice of the Christ of history. Catholic and Eastern mystics claim to discover God in the depths of their being. The true Christian looks away from himself to the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

Before God, Christ's satisfaction for sin is a reality that is all-sufficient. It does not need to be supplemented by any other reality. God's verdict of justification is not grounded on any state of being within the believing sinner, rather it is established on Christ Jesus alone. The principle that man can save himself by his experience and by his own life has been the foundation of every pagan religion, as it is of Catholicism. What is so sinister about the present communion of Rome with paganism is that it is contaminating our entire society.
The deadly deceptions of mysticism arrogantly advertise a way of direct access to the All Holy God and thereby repudiate any need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and men. The believer's worship and approach to God is in the Lord's own words to be with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." [17]
In the words of the Apostle Paul,
"I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." [18]
The same Apostle warned believers,
"Let no man beguile you of your reward intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." [19]
The censure of the Lord God remains on those who have issued lies,
"Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" [20]
Because of this debasement of Christ and His Gospel we again outline the essentials of historical faith.

Objective Salvation in the Lord of Glory

As Mediator, Christ Jesus is the only means of union between God and man,
"that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in him." [21]
Christ Jesus is exalted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high" [22] as the One Savior. He and His Gospel are objective and real! This Gospel is not an idle tale, nor a piece of incomprehensible mysticism; rather it is the proclamation of the awesome historical work of redemption accomplished by God Himself.
The Father appointed Christ Jesus as the guarantee of real salvation. Christ Jesus was glorified in finishing the Father's mightiest work. In Christ's own words, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." [23] He had fulfilled all the Father's will and so gloriously honored the Father. As Savior He is exalted high above "all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." [24]

He alone, and not some mystic charm of Rome or Buddha, has been given all authority in heaven and in earth. He has been given power over all flesh that He should in His own words, " give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." [25] He alone has been given a name, which is above every name, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." [26] It is God's commandment that we trust on Christ, "This is His command, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ." [27]
True faith involves a repudiation of the self-deceit of experiential mystical means of reaching God, "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." [28] The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive every sinner who will throw away his rebellion and pride and trust in Him alone for salvation!
Preaching the real historical Christ and His Gospel is the answer to the mindless adumbrations of Rome and the ecumenical mystics. Thus alone can the true Church, God's People "go forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." [29] The Gospel is a mighty deliverance from the groveling religious subjectivism of Rome and her pagan mistresses. To know God is life itself to a Christian, in the words of the Lord Himself, "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." [30]
Knowledge of God, and faith in Him, are the means whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to the true believers.
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue." [31]

The Fulfillment of the New Age Aspiration?

The goal of the New Age Movement has consistently been to bring in the Age of Aquarius when all will recognize "the God with themselves". A major step towards this in the words of the New Age prophetess Alice Bailey, is "the regeneration of the churches." [32] Her vision was that…
"The Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished." [33]
In a word, she desired the time when the "Christian churches" would embrace the New Age concepts of illumination and self-realization. The New Age plan to bring in world peace cannot fully establish the Golden Age of Aquarius until Biblical Christianity is outlawed or destroyed.

Now that the Church of Rome has entered into liaison with paganism, she has again concocted another successful work of syncretism. As Catholicism has become the religion of the European Union,[34] the desires of New Age leaders appear to be coming true. Even at the local parish level according to William Shannon "contemplative spirituality" has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.[35]
With New Age convictions being voiced by leading Catholics and Evangelicals, it appears that the desired goal is closer to being achieved. The New Age aspiration to establish a one-world order lead by "a Christ Leader" is being met by the Pope and his Church. All of this ought not to surprise any believer, for the Bible has persistently warned believers of the enormity, growth and prevalence of the apostate church system and her mistresses.

The ruin of the Antichrist's kingdom is declared by the Apostle Paul,
"Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."[36]

Conclusion

What has been shown here regarding Catholic mysticism's outright invasion of Evangelicalism and its commandeering of New Age verbiage and paraphernalia, should cause serious individuals to examine carefully the foundation upon which his or her hopes are built. A mere "I hope I am saved" is not enough, nothing short of the full assurance of faith on the solid Rock, the Lord Christ Jesus, will suffice. It is in God's light, and in it only, that "we see light."[37]

True Christians interpret all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for them in the Holy Bible. The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light! Mystics have not scrupled openly to equate the true God with "the god" within. They have thought to divest themselves of God Himself by turning to inward self-realization and enlightenment. Rather, the values that they set are based on personal inner feelings that are often incapable of reasoned explanation.
The Gospel is the exact opposite, the historical message of the Cross of Christ for a lost world. The Gospel proclaims Christ Himself, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His love gave His Son to die for sinners. There is no valid excuse for true believers to be deceived by "false apostles," who transform themselves into the "apostles of Christ," "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."[38]

There are many false prophets gone out into the world, if we study diligently these things, which God has recorded for our safeguard against the subtle deceptions of Satan, we will not mislead nor be misled. True believers in Christ must take to heart solemn warnings of the Apostle Paul,
"Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you."[39]
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."[40]

Footnotes and References

1. Vatican Council II Documents, No. 56, Nostra Aetate, "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,", 28 Oct. 1965, Vol. I, Para. 2, p. 739.
2. William Johnston, The Mirror Mind (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990) p. 7.
3. Ibid., p. 33, 39.
4. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Image edition Dec. 1989 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966) pp. 157, 158. This book has official Roman Catholic approval.
5. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace Contemplation and Non-Violence (New York: Crossroad Publ. Co, 1996) p. 73.
6. Thich Nhat Hanh, Introduction to Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton, Image Book edition (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996) p. 5.
7. http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jan1997/feature1.asp 10/8/2002 The website also states that Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968, apparently electrocuted by a faulty room fan.
8. John 3:3
9. John 16:8
10. Colossians 1:12-13
11. Foster, Richard J., Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: Harper, 1992) p. 155.
12. Ibid., p 159.
13. Thomas Keating, "The Method of Centering Prayer" http://www.thecentering.org/centering 10/22/02.
14. Acts 17:23
15. OFFICIAL APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL II "NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE" www.vatican.va/holy_fa ther/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-mill ennio-ineunte_en.html+Novo+Millennio+Ineunte - Para 27, 33 Bolding in any quotation indicates emphasis added in this paper.
16. Titus 3:5
17. Matthew 22:37
18. I Corinthians 14:15
19. Colossians 2:18
20. Ezekiel 13:3
21. Ephesians 1:10
22. Hebrews 1:3
23. John 17:4
24. Ephesians 1:21
25. John 17:2
26. Philippians 2:10-11
27. I John 3:23
28. I Timothy 2:5
29. Song of Solomon 6:10
30. John 17:3
31. II Peter 1:3
32. Alice Bailey, Problems of Humanity (New York, NY: Lucis Publ. Co., 1964) p. 152.
33. Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy (New York, NY: Lucis Pub. Co., 1957) p. 510.
34. This fact of syncretism in the EU we wish to deal with in our next newsletter.
35. Shannon, Seeds of Peace, p 25.
36. II Thessalonians 2:10b-12
37. Psalm 36:9
38. II Corinthians 11:13-14
39. II Corinthians 6:14,15,17
40. Ephesians 5:11
41. L'Osservatore Romano, English version of the official Vatican newspaper, Oct. 27, 1986, p. 1.
42. "Qui tacet consentire videtur."
43. Ephesians 2:3
44. 2 Corinthians 10:5
45. Malachi 3:18

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/mysticism-bennett.html