Oversoul World Ministries
New Consciousness and Spirituality
As we enter the new millennium we need to embrace a New Consciousness and the awareness of the Planet we live on and the Universe we share with all of Nature. In searching for answers about our future we will come to understand the value of our own religious beliefs and how these traditional teaching have always looked to the Heavens to find the answers. In its simplicity the knowledge of Spirituality directs us to a New Consciousness. Emerson: "Knowledge is the Antidote to Fear"
Spirituality is about the existential attitude with which a person tries to respect the will of a power superior to oneself in addition to his or her own will in making decisions. This power may be invisible, yet can be experienced. Such a religiously existential attitude assumes that the person holding it has the "certainty" that such a power exists, that this power is kindly predisposed towards humans. But this power can also hold a human responsible and exact punishment.
To attain such certainty is not a task for one's intellect. Thus, it cannot be taught. Instead it results from experience - albeit from a special kind of experience. It cannot be acquired through conscious volition, such as medical experience or gardening skills. The kind of experience that leads to spiritual certainty just happens. That it happens at all depends upon the action of an intra-psychic dynamism completely inaccessible to one's will, which theology called "grace." Even though "the granting of grace" is not under an individual's control, one can prepare the soul for "grace" to take place. In archaic times spiritual schools were created for just this purpose. Mastering spirituality consisted primarily of acquiring the knowledge of how to go about preparing one's soul for "grace" to take place.
Modern mankind has acquired empirical knowledge over the obsolete, archaic world view. Today, the question is trying to find the type of spirituality that would be right for the modern level of consciousness - or New Consciousness.
Thomas Paine: "We can know God only through His works. We cannot have a conception of any one attribute but by following some principle, that leads to it. We have only a confused idea of His power, if we have not the means of comprehending something of its immensity. We can have no ideas of His wisdom, but by knowing the order and manner of which it acts. The principles of science lead to this knowledge; for the Creation of man is the Creator of science, and it through that medium that man can see God, as it were, face to face. The Almighty is the great mechanic of the Creation, the first philosopher and original teacher of all science. Let us, then, learn to reverence our master, and let us not forget the labors of our ancestors."
With these thoughts in mind, one could conclude that the Divine Plan of God is the constant evolution of the Cosmos. One life pervades the Universe and sustains it. The Universe is not just a place where Nature's forces operate by chance. Every event that has happened from the beginning of time has happened according to certain laws inherent in the Universe. These laws are the expressions of a consciousness of Life. Everything that exists, from the electron to the largest star is impregnated with this consciousness.
The Spirit of Man (often called the Soul) is in essence identical with the Supreme Spirit, all pervasive Consciousness. The Unity as Emerson described it. It is the Over-Soul within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all others. The gradual unfolding of this latent divinity takes place in accordance with the Cyclic Law, seen everywhere in Nature. There are periods of activity alternating with periods of rest and assimilation..
The Nature of God resides in every man and woman, and we are not these bodies which perish; these are only our garments which we wear for a while and cast aside. The perfection of God dwells in us also, for we "live and move and have our being" in Him. But we are unconscious of our Divine Nature.
Our birth is as the entrance into a workshop or laboratory. We work slowly to unfold our faculties and realize our true nature. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Each individual can become the master of his/her future by what he/she does in the present. As we live and act, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail. We do good and we do evil - guided by our altruism or our selfishness. It is a law of readjustment of forces which a person sets into motion by everyone of his thoughts, words and deeds. Since all the units of consciousness of the souls are divine, all souls are equal. There are young souls and old souls, according to their experiences but all are brothers and sisters. In spite of every difference in birth, capacity, environment, race, creed, sex, caste or color - of goodness or wickedness - all individuals are part of an indivisible fellowship. All of us, high or low, ignorant or wise, make a chain - the stronger grow by helping the weaker. Fellowship is the law of growth for all individuals.
But this fellowship extends to all - animals, birds, fishes, even the planets, mountains, lakes, rivers and seas. We grow by our unity with all things. The Divine Nature, which is latent in them as in us, helps our inherent Divinity to step forth in beauty.
