For the Week of October 27 - November 2 : Theosis

For the Week of October 27 - November 2: Theosis

Quantum Inner Life

"One of the reasons why contemplatives have always been in the minority in this world is because contemplation involves a surrender of one's whole self, not just a period of time set aside each day for some form of prayer or meditation. It is a commitment of immense proportions and requires an eminent trust that God will bring us where we hope to go, if we submit to this inner conviction or urging that we have to start. It does not matter how many difficulties there are, we have to go. … [W]e surrender to God's transforming process."
- Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God

"God has given us, through these gifts, precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the fragmentation that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature."
- 2 Peter 1.4

In recent weeks we have explored the overall theme of "possibilities of development." In this section of our curriculum, our aim has been to deepen our understanding of several profound and interlinking ideas related to what is possible for our human development. To briefly review, we explored: (1). The higher centers, Higher Emotional and Higher Intellectual. (2). The Second Conscious Shock. (3). The Seven Types of Man, with particular emphasis on Man Number 4, 5, 6 and 7. (4). The Levels of Consciousness. And with this email, we are introduced to a new idea, one that is both thoroughly conceptually at home in the overall scheme of the Gurdjieff Work, yet also an idea that moves beyond the boundaries of Mr. Gurdjieff’s, or even Mr. Nicoll’s lineage and intellectual corpus. This crucial idea we speak of is the grand subject of theosis.

Musings Toward a Christian Definition of Theosis

Theosis is the Greek word used to describe the spiritual process of transformation into God. It is rooted in the Greek word for God, Theo, where we get such related words in English as theology. That said, the essence of theosis is the process and possibility of becoming God, or, to use a well-known analogy, the process of remembering and rediscovering the many ways the ocean is in the drop and the drop is in the ocean. But in this case, God is in the details. And we are wise to ponder in what manner this remembering and becoming occurs and to what extent one can become God in this lifetime. Is there a uniquely Christian way of becoming God? Is it even possible to remain human and become God?

The overarching answer to such aforementioned questions is, at least to our current understanding, that human beings can’t ontologically (at the level of our essence or what-ness) become God or acquire the Essence of God. However, it is our understanding and the experience of many people, that humans can partake in the Energies of God and in so doing, participate ever increasingly in divine qualities and characteristics. While we are created in the image of God, which can’t ever be taken away from a person – the image of God that is our basic core of goodness – we can become more and more partakers of and participants in the divine likeness. This process occurring through life is also variously called deification, sanctification, or simply becoming a saint.

For further help sketching the contours of a definition of theosis and answering a few of the questions related to such a vast subject as theosis, let’s first listen to several early Christian sources:

Clement of Alexandria (150CE – 215) understood theosis as our "assimilation to God as far as possible."

Origen (145CE – 254) noted that "human deification is possible because of God’s prior humanization in Jesus the Christ. In the descent of divinity, a spiritual merging occurred – human and divine began to be woven together, so that by prolonged fellowship with divinity, human nature might become divine."

Gregory of Nazianzus (328CE – 390) compared the process of theosis to the polishing of a mirror. He believed that the image and likeness of God within humanity, could become so clear and polished that it more accurately reflects its divine source of Light.

Maximus the Confessor (560CE – 662) taught that theosis is a kind of indwelling, a union of God’s Logos and Spirit with human nature.

Ephrem, a fourth century Syrian Christian poet and teacher defined theosis by way of a compelling image, further articulating the notion that divinity descends so that humanity might ascend:

A bird grows up in three stages,
From womb to egg,
Then to the nest where it sings;
And once it is fully grown, it flies in the air,
Opening its wings in the symbol of the Cross.

The wisdom contained regarding the process of our spiritual journey articulated in this little word-picture from the birds of the air is worthy of pondering. Can you discern the connection between the three stages and the classic process toward theosis generally spoken of as: purgation, illumination, contemplation

Modern contemplative Bernadette Roberts also provides extraordinary insights into the nature of theosis and deepens our understanding of theosis within the Christian context and lived spiritual journey. In her book, The Real Christ, chapter twenty-five, she dedicates twenty pages to the subject, wherein we find this radiant and helpful guidance, and yet this excerpt only scratches the surface of the possible meaning(s) and importance of theosis:

"Prior to the revelation of Christ, the goal of some of the Greek religious cults, was deification, which meant become one with the One. In their view, the ascent to this goal entailed a process of purgation, illumination, and union, three stages that, it seems, Origen adopted and bequeathed to the Christian spiritual tradition. Whatever the Gentiles’ understanding of this path, however, it was [now] given a Christian understanding. So having defined Christ as the eternal union of God and man, to attain this same union, to become Christ, entailed purgation, illumination and union. Thus, a standard formulation of this process are three stages – katharsis or purification, theoria or illumination, and theosis or deification, also referred to as union with God. Referring to man’s transformation as deification first entered the Christian vocabulary with Clement of Alexandria, a convert from Stoicism…In general, however, the term deification referred to the process of becoming one with God which meant to become Christ – eternally one with God. No father, of course, believed Jesus or any human being became God – such a belief falls outside Monotheism. For the church fathers, man’s transformation and deification was the rock-bed of Christ’s revelation and what the Incarnation was about. As one author put it, salvation was always defined as deification, this was the whole theme of Christian faith and the whole, true, biblical message. Thus, for Irenaeus, Athanasius and all the early fathers, the purpose of God becoming man was man’s deification: God became man so that man might become God – become Christ, that is, eternally one with God…The terms deification and theosis, however, are not familiar terms used in Western Spirituality – such as they are used in Eastern Spirituality. It seems the Eastern Church retained the term Theosis for the state of being one with God, while the Western Church would refer to this as a Unitive State or Mystical Union..."

While one may feel bogged down in such theological jargon and feel such historical background as mere intellectual slush, it is useful to expand our understanding. Perhaps the primary takeaway from Bernadette’s teaching is very uplifting. It seems to come down to this precise, practical point:

What Jesus the Christ was by nature, we can become by grace.

And God’s grace works in us in such a way that our lives are, little by little, consumed and transformed into a quality, a quiddity, a what-ness that can only be called Christ – the union of divine energy with universal human nature, freed from the veneer of self and released from the ridgepole of ego. This is true spiritual freedom. True psychological apatheia. And is the way to embodied selfless love for all and everything, for the glory of God and the joy of a lifetime.

If, as Thomas Keating reminds, motivation is nearly everything on the spiritual journey, it is important to say that just because we are invited to the process of theosis or to the journey of the Work, it does not mean that we are anti-human or think that being human is something to escape or belittle. Being human is a gift of a lifetime! We are not trying to escape human embodiment or life on planet earth. Rather, the wish is to be fully human by consenting to the divine, by consenting to higher influences, by Self-remembering and discovering the fullest, most mature and developed way(s) of being human. This tends to keep the focus on what is possible and positive, versus trying to escape what we perceive as being negative or "wrong."

Resonance and Similarity

As far as we know, the Work never uses the word theosis. That said, we can find deep resonance and similarity among key Work concepts with the core ideas implicit within theosis. We urge you to find your own connection points. Explore the Work ideas and see where you find resonances and dissonances. What follows are a few hints for your personal exploration.

To begin, we draw attention to one introductory comment: whereas Christianity uses (as one would expect) primarily spiritual, religious, and philosophical terms to describe the process of human transformation, the Work creatively uses mostly secular, non-spiritual, physiological, and cosmological, even industrial terms to describe a very similar kind of transformation. Thus, centers, I’s, parts, machines, mechanical, rolls, et. all. The Work seems to focus on acquiring a higher, more integrated, and organized consciousness, and crowns the journey of development with the name and state of being Man Number 7, a person who has moved beyond being just balanced Man Number 4, and who perhaps predominately lives in the state of Self-remembering.

While Christian theosis resonates with a similar process of development, theosis places the emphasis on the diminishment of self, and little by little, in place of self, arises a new being, a new creation: the old has gone the new has come (2 Corinthians 5.17). The center (divine energy) has consumed the circumference (the self) and what remains is Christ – the union of the divine and human. In contrast, the Work envisions a process of gradual awakening, of gradual psychological transformation, of the arising of a new quality of Being, by way of various practices and efforts.

So, looking at both the Work and theosis side by side, it turns out that the fruit of Christian theosis and the fruit of the Work might be very much the same, even though the mode and means to such fruit may be pointedly different.

Bearing all that in mind, we can begin to articulate a few core areas of resonance between the Christian teaching of theosis and the Work teaching of transformation.

(1) The cosmic resonance: the Work ideas of the Great Ray and the Side Octave, and the many related ideas to these conceptual frameworks such as the Food Octave, the Table of Hydrogens, and the general concept that humankind is created as a self-developing organism. These, and many other Work ideas related to the cosmological side of this knowledge, clearly resonate with the teaching of theosis; particularly its claim that the divine comes from above by way of a mediator, Jesus the Christ (son of God), which in the Work can be represented by the side-octave, initiated at the level of the physical sun, our solar system’s center.

The Great Ray or the Octave of the cosmos and the Octave of transformation are modern, "scientific" expressions of how earlier cosmological models attempted to structure the spiritual journey. One need only think of the classic works of Pseudo-Dionysius’ Celestial Hierarchies, or John Climacus’ The Ladder of Divine Ascent, or Dante’s imaginal realms, or John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Certainly, in the light of that rich history, Gurdjieff’s cosmology is a further conceptualization of the creative impulse to map the journey emerging from earlier manifestations. And such imaginings will surely continue today as we gaze at recent images such as from the James Webb telescope. Let us feel inspired and grateful to live in such times to see such things.

(2) The transformative psychological resonance: the Work ideas of the Four Bodies, the Levels of Consciousness, and the Seven Types of man, are among the strongest Work ideas that resonate with the teaching of theosis. The difference is that whereas theosis might be more nebulous in the exact mapping of the stages of transformation, the Work provides a very clear conceptual map, i.e., levels of consciousness, levels of Man, etc. Also, whereas theosis entrusts much of the transformation process to silent grace, and a passive consent to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit through various means of grace, such as the Eucharist, the Work emphasizes the call to intentional, conscious efforts and exercises. At the same time, the Work and theosis both share a similar harmony when it comes to intentional suffering, which Christian theosis has preferred to call "taking up one’s cross" or "dying to self."

It seems that one way or the other, what the Work teachings, Christian theosis, the teaching(s) of Bernadette Roberts’ spiritual journey and the spiritual journey model provided by Thomas Keating all have in common, is a progressive healing, unloading and transformation of the self. The self is being consumed energetically, and being replaced, like water to wine, by something else; something higher, deeper, more real, more connected. This something else can be called different things, such as – Real I, Man #7, Christ, or the Divine Indwelling.

Whereas the Christian models might emphasize the downward movement of the divine to us lifting us up in grace, the Work model(s) tend to emphasize the upward movement of human effort and will rising upward and through various states or levels of consciousness, or at the very least, reaching for the rope. Either way, it is our conviction that the Aim of both, Work or theosis, is higher being, the deepening conscious connection with the ground of Being, which is variously named Christ, God or the Absolute.

Dissonance and Contrast

In general, for the good of the community, we feel it is best to focus on points of agreement and harmonization. However, intellectual honesty also invites us to acknowledge that there are significant dissonances and contrasts between the teaching(s) of Christian theosis and the Work. Nevertheless, we believe these contrasts only serve to make the uniqueness and union of Christian theosis and the Work stronger, so much so, that we tend to call our hybrid expression of the two:

the Work of Inner Christianity.

As best we can tell, theosis and the Work are simply two simultaneous truths and processes. Theosis and the Work are like the difference between an X and Y line; their maximal power and beauty emerge as the unique X and Y lines, moving in different but similar ways and directions, converge.

Theosis, with its signal tones of love, grace and truth revealed in the face of Christ. The Work, with its signal tones of consciousness, effort and understanding revealed in the cosmological and psychological body of knowledge through the Gurdjieff lineage.

This point verge, this matrix of wisdom, this happy coherence of opposites, all set within the sapphire of silence, is our enduring hope and joy:

Homework

During this week, aim to read this email three times. Read slowly. Digest what you can. Disregard what you can’t. Take notes. Return to the email and re-read and notice what lands in your mind, heart and body differently as the week unfolds.
What attracts you to the idea of theosis? What questions arise about it? Aim to recognize points of resonance and dissonance. Make an effort to deepen your understanding of both theosis and the Work and their similar and different ideas.
Watch Bernadette Roberts thirty-minute teaching on one aspect of the spiritual journey, which she refers to as The Marketplace, where we can spend the unitive state in selfless service.
What does it mean to be awake from sleep? And how does that relate to Jesus’ teaching, "they will know you are Christians by your love."
If you are looking for further guidance on how theosis and the Work integrate, see Robin Amis’, A Different Christianity and Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis, Books 1, 2 and 3.

Further Reading on Theosis

If you are so inclined, the best overall introduction to the Christian perspective on theosis for lay readers is a collection of essays by world renowned theologians compiled in the book Partakers of the Divine Nature edited by Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung. For a global perspective, David Litwa’s book Becoming Divine provides a general history of the subject, from antiquity to the present, and the future.

October Practice: Standing Under Stars

For the few remaining days of October, we are invited to take time at night, after 9:00 pm and before 6:00 am, to stand or lay underneath the stars on a clear night. Let the silence of the stars and their radiance speak to you in a wordless wonder about the holy Being underlying the universe. Can you sense it?

Attend The Journey School Thursday Class Tonight: All are encouraged and welcome to attend tonight's class for a review of these teachings and, importantly, to produce a container of beings seeking to be more conscious and whose efforts assist one another: 7:00 pm Central Time via Zoom only.

Click on this link and Zoom should open automatically on your laptop or tablet: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9961019778?pwd=aVFLZVQwNGZSNkQ4TDRTUW9yU1Ywdz09, or
Open Zoom, click on Join Meeting and enter this meeting ID: 996-101-9778, passcode: CCH