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Charting the Resurrection UPDATED

Posted April 27th, 2009 by Greg Mayers in Integral Christianity

 

In the Community Post entitled “What are some possible interpretations of Christ’s Resurrection” I offered some reflections under the subject: “The Resurrection: Spirit’s ‘Highest Exterior’”. In summary I argued that if there is an interior and exterior (spirit and matter) from the beginning of the universe, then there must be an interior and exterior at the culmination of the evolutionary process as charted in the Integral model. I proposed that the “highest exterior” is Christ’s Resurrection.
In one of the MP3 telephone conversations offered on this site, Ken Wilber is talking about the interior and the exterior of holons and he says to the effect that he believes there is an interior to ever exterior all the way back to the beginning. In other words, Spirit (interior) is there in the vibrations of the Super Symmetry String Theory (exterior) before they get frozen into atomic matter in quantum physics. What struck me was the KW said he “believed” it is true, but that others may want to introduce Spirit at a later point in the inflating universe. Now, obviously what KW is talking about is way off the spiral dynamics scale, far, far prior to the infrared through clear light chart in the current Integral stage map. If KW is correct, then the infrared through clear light chart is analogous to the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which turns out to be about 1% of the total spectrum.
 
One thing that bothers me about the Spiral Dynamic Integral Theory is that Spirit seems to evolve into the highest realm of Clear Light and simply leave matter (exterior) behind. I haven’t seen this addressed in Integral Theory and I think it leave holes that beg to be resolved. The major obstacle to overcome is finding enough people stabilized at Clear Light to study, which isn’t likely to happen soon. However, the traditions, Western and Eastern are filled with stories that indicate some new kind of higher inter relatedness of Spirit and matter. Numerous historical reports of bi-location and levitation in the Western tradition come to mind.
 
I say it bothers me, because of its problems. If Spirit (interior) gets introduced into matter (exterior) at some point, even at the very start, then we have the problem of which is real? It’s the old ‘ghost in the machine’ problem of late Western philosophy and goes all the way back to Plotinus. If we dispense with this pesky problem by eliminating the Spirit (interior) we end up with scientific materialism so thoroughly repudiated by KW. If we say that only Spirit (interior) is real, then we end up with Manichaeism in its many expressions with its awful masochism.
 
This problem was resolved in Mahayana Buddhism with the formula from the Heart Sutra: Form is nothing other than Emptiness, Emptiness is nothing other than Form; Form is exactly Emptiness, Emptiness is exactly Form. In the final analysis the separation between interior and exterior is illusory, a mental fiction, the only way our minds represent reality but not reality as it is. The question now becomes: what will the form (exterior) of the future or higher, or highest stages/structures look like?
 
Oliver Clement in “The Roots of Christian Mysticism” in a chapter on Enstasy-Ecstasy under a sub-heading entitled ‘The Embrace of the Infinity; the Birth of the Glorious Body’ chronicles the changes the saints under go in their bodies when in the height of contemplation. “…There are numerous testimonies to show saints transfigured as Christ was transfigured on Tabor; the rays of divine light penetrated his flesh itself…. It is by sharing in his very flesh through the mysteries of the Church that the glorious body is awoken in us.” (pp. 252-253).
 
From the Sayings of the Desert comes this story. (Fire is a traditional biblical and patristic image for the divine). “A brother came to Abba Arsenius’ cell. He half-opened the door and saw the Abba as it were all on fire.” (Olivier Clement p. 253).  Another story from the desert fathers makes the same point. “Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him: Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer and meditation, and remain quiet and as much as possible I keep my thoughts clean. What else should I do? Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame and he said to him: If you wish, you can become all flame.”
 
One might think these are “magical thinking” stories like Santa Claus, but that is a pre/trans fallacy interpretation. These aren’t children play acting in a charmed world. These are highly evolved human being from one tradition transforming in their bodies as they ascend into the higher stages/structures on the Integral map. The early Church fathers actually had a label for these sorts of transformations: homo maximus, which may be translated as ultimately human. In other words, Spirit and matter (not just the brain, but all matter) can and do evolve to the maximum in human beings.
 
If KW is right that Spirit (interior) is there from the beginning, although there is a debate about whether there ever was a beginning, then the Resurrection (exterior) is there at the end, also with that same debate about whether there can be an end. (If there is no beginning, how can there be an end? The Inflationary Hot Big Bang Theory or Standard Cosmological model can explain only the atomic matter in the universe and doesn’t take into account the other 96% of the universe’s composition, dark matter and dark energy. There are some surprises ahead in cosmology). Just as Spirit’s exterior’s minimum is far, far prior to the current Integral stages/structures; so too the Resurrection, Spirit’s exterior’s maximum is far, far post the current Integral stages/structures, past indigo, violet, ultra-violet, clear light and beyond.
 
Of course the problem is the same one as with “proving” that Spirit is there at the minimum exterior expression, with the earliest matter or proto-matter. All we have is quantum physics theories, no observational proof. Too many twists, turns, leaps to enumerate have occurred between then, the Planck second, and the now of self consciousness homo sapiens sapiens. Why wouldn’t there be the same pattern of unexpected twists, turns and leaps to reach beyond homo maximus all the way to an entirely new form of human being, homo resurrectus?
 
We don’t know of people or saints currently stabilized at violet, ultra-violet or clear light. Although we may well imagine that there are such human beings, I doubt they would be waving flags drawing attention to themselves. We do have one report of one human being who resurrected. So maybe when all is said and done, the exterior never falls away from the interior. Or to say it another way, the Spirit (interior) never sheds matter (exterior) no matter how deep or high it evolves. The many is one and the one is the many. And as St Paul points out, the resurrection of the body doesn’t depend on the death of the body, (Cf. 1 Corinthian 15:35-58). (The resurrection is not an alternative to Buddhist rebirth. It is an alternative to Theravada Buddhism’s Nirvana and Mahayana Buddhism’s Parinirvana).
 
It is the Christian tradition that is holding this reality on our behalf, claiming that it makes all the difference in the world, in the universe. All is redeemed without exception. All of creation, as St Paul says, is groaning for this salvation; all, whether knowingly or not, are reaching out toward this Omega point, homo resurrectus.
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To make this post on the Resurrection clearer I’ve put together an integral table based on a Christian anthropology rather than a Vedantic/Buddhist anthropology. This is a first try and very much a work in progress.
 
Since that post, I’ve tried to make my thoughts clearer by putting together an integral table based on a Christian anthropology rather than a Vedantic/Buddhist anthropology. This is a first try and very much a work in progress.
 
Each level or stage/structure possesses perspective and experience that is beyond the reach and capacity of the previous levels. Higher levels can validate for themselves their perspective and experience. They can pass that knowledge on to lower levels, although the lower levels will be unable to validate the knowledge and thus the higher level perspective is hyper-gnosis, from the Greek meaning beyond knowledge, in relation to the lower level. This “transcend and include” understanding of KW fits well with the understanding of revelation and faith. Revelation is simply perspective, experience and knowledge from a higher level of development or of reality, validated at the higher level but enacted at lower levels only by trusting or believing a perspective it cannot have on its own.
 
Interior/Exterior: keep in mind that this is an arbitrary and useful way of looking at reality, but is not reality itself. Reality is not given to us divided up in anyway. I’ve left out singular/plural distinction for the sake of simplicity in the chart.
 
Stage/Structure: Those who are familiar with the Integral model need no explanation for the lower stages/structures. The higher ones in this table are different and a brief explanation for each new term, or use of an older term in a different way, is footnoted. There has been a debate in Catholic circles back to the 16th century over whether union with God (mystical levels) is a permanent or temporary condition, a stage or a state in Integral language. Within the last hundred years it has been pretty well accepted that it is both. The table only reflects the stage development of union with God. And keep in mind, the great the depth, the less the breath.
 
Tiers mark points of critical change in perspective and behavior. They are conversion points.
 
Evolutionary Eras: Although it falls under “Exterior” in the table, it is actually both interior and exterior. Anthropologists draw conclusions about the interior of a species by examining the skeletal structure and the tools at the archeological site. Lacking the opportunity or capacity to do sophisticated scientific studies on mystics, we do have a historical record of mystical phenomena that indicates something unusual can happen to the human body in the higher stages.
 
Social Order Age: Social order in this context is used in the broadest sense of “collective” and is not limited to interpersonal human relationships and structures.


Interior
Exterior
Stage/Structure
Tiers
Evolution Eras
Individual Age
Social Order Age
Christ Self[1]
New Creation[2]
Homo Resurrectus[3]
Timeless
Current & Future[4]
Ultimate Self[5]
4th Tier
Kingdom of Heaven[6]
Homo Maximus[7]
No specific age
 Future
Unknowns Possibilities[8]
Unknowns Possibilities
Unknowns Possibilities
Unknown Possibilities
Non-dual Self[9]
3rd Tier
World of Mystery[10]
Homo Mysticos[11]
 
Empty Self[12]
Archetypal Self[13]
Holistic Self
2nd Tier
World of Paradox[14]
Homo Sapiens Sapiens
30 years ago
Integral Self
21+ years
50 years ago
Sensitive Self
1st Tier
World of Competition[15]
15-21 years
150 years ago
Achiever Self
9-14 years
300 years ago
Rule/Role Self
7-8 years
5,000 years ago
Impulsive Self
3-6 years
10,000 years ago
Magic Self
1-3 years
50,000 years ago
Instinctive Self
Homo Sapiens
0-18 months
150,000 years ago
 
 
Homo Heidelbergensis
 
500,000 years ago
 
 
Homo Erectus
 
900,000 years ago
 
 
Homo Habilis
 
2.5 million years ago
 
 
Life starts on earth
 
3.7 billion years ago
 
 
The Hot Big Bang
 
-13.7 billion light years

 

[1] Christ Self: Is not a stage or structure. St Paul calls this being “in Christ”. Reality as it is for a Christian.
[2] New Creation: The ‘interior’ of the Resurrection. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 5.17).
[3] Homo Resurrectus: The ‘exterior’ of the Resurrection. Pope Benedict XVI said in his first Easter homily that the Resurrection is “…The greatest ‘mutation’, absolutely the most crucial leap into a totally new dimension that there has ever been in the long history of life and its development: a leap into a completely new order which does concern us, and concerns the whole of history.” (Quote courtesy of Cameron Freedom from his post on the Resurrection on his Integral Life blog).                                                                                              
[4] Current & Future: The Resurrected life has already begun, “Christ is the first fruits…” (1 Cor 15:19-21) and it is not yet completed (1 Cor 15:22-24).
[5] Ultimate Self: Not the mystic or sage, but the Saint, who is not concerned with a self, is the highest developmental stage in Christianity. God is all in all. (1 Cor 15:27-29).  Representative text: “A saint is a poor man who loves his neighbor,” St Simeon the New Theologian.
[6] Kingdom of Heaven: Life seen through and lived in the light of the Gospel revelation and Christian tradition.
[7] Homo Maximus: A term from Nicholas of Cusa, meaning ‘ultimately human’.
[8] Unknown Possibilities: Evolution has a random and chaotic character that needs to be taken into account. (Cf. Jesus @ the Edge of Chaos, by Cameron Freedom on his Integral Life blog.)
[9] Non-dual Self: The self is all manifest and un-manifest reality. Representative text: “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” Meister Eckhart
[10] World of Mystery: Lives without the need or the possibility of explaining what one experiences and sees. Accepts life on its own terms for what it is.
[11] Homo Mysticos: Marks some kind of physiological change. Johannes Tauler says about mystical knowledge: “one who would know much about these matters would often have to keep to his bed, for his bodily frame could not support this.” “The higher the love, the greater the pain,” a voice had consoled a 13th-century German mystic, Mechthild von Magdeburg. May manifest a variety of physiological phenomena such as bi-location, levitation, “Tabor Light” or “Luminous Rays” when the body becomes translucent with light or the head surrounded in rays of light, etc. Levitation and Luminous Rays when verified according to strict criteria are considered a sort of anticipation of the glorified body of the resurrection.
[12] Empty Self: Identifies with emptiness. A representative text: “I entered into unknowing and there I remained in unknown…without knowing where I was I understood great things…your knowledge so soars that you are left in unknowing…this highest knowledge lies in the loftiest sense of the essence of God.” St John of the Cross.
[13] Archetypal Self: Identifies with the Divine. Two representative texts: “My Being is God, not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being – God is my Being, my Me, my Strength, my Beatitude, my Good, my Delight.” St Catherine of Genoa. “We awaken in Christ’s body as Christ awakens our bodies…if we genuinely love Him, we wake up inside Christ’s body where all our body, all over, every most hidden part of it, is realized in joy as Him, and He makes us utterly real…” St Simeon the New Theologian. (Cf Homo Mysticos for an explanation of the exterior).
[14] World of Paradox: Sees the validity of all lower perspectives and tries to make sense of it.
[15] World of Competition: Competes with others for finite interior and exterior resources.