Did the Jewish people have a collective experiance of God at Mt. Sinai? Q #1047: Did the Jewish People have a collective consciousness experience of God at Mount Sinai when they received the Torah? Or were they tapping into some illusory transmission of a set of rules to guide societal living, perhaps even a close encounter, so it could have been a very real feeling experience but not one of God if He has nothing to do with our dream of separation? And if any group relates to the idea of separation/good/evil it is certainly the Jewish People! It just bothers me, as a 10 year convert to Judaism and as a new student to A Course in Miracles , that as long as one insists on the existence of good in the world, it continually recreates its opposite of bad, so one can be right about others being wrong. And yet God IS good, light, and love, correct? A: It can be fun to speculate on what the source may be for ideas and teachings that seem to allow mankind, or parts of mankind, to take steps forward in its thinking and understanding of where it has come from and where it is heading. But at this level of explanation, we can not go much beyond speculation. However, from the perspective of mind, as the Course describes it, there can be only two possible sources for all ideas that appear within the worlds dream -- either the right mind or the wrong mind. And regardless of the source, there are also only two choices for how those ideas can then be used and justified in the world -- either to reinforce or to undo the belief in separation and guilt. The Torah, like nearly all of the worlds spiritual teachings, no doubt drew some of its inspiration from the right-mind, translated into symbols that were especially meaningful to the specific time and place into which it was received, at a level at which it could be understood. Read symbolically, despite a theology very different from the Courses, the Torah can lead the individual to look beyond himself to Something that transcends his limited existence. But as its teachings over time became the foundation for codifications and rituals, it fell into the same spirit- denying strictures that have bedeviled nearly all of the worlds formal religions, elevating form above content to justify a belief in differences, specialness, and separation. There is no reason, by the way, to believe that the Course should be immune to such a fate, and it is not difficult to see how this is already happening with its teachings. Never underestimate the power of the ego to use all duality-based symbols for its own duplicitous purposes -- self-preservation after all is its only motivation. And that, as you point out, is the problem for any spiritual teaching that keeps its focus on the world and getting things right here. Once that is the premise and the purpose, there is no way to avoid the trap of opposites, and the egos continued existence has been assured. That is why the Course, in contrast to nearly every other spiritual teaching, insists so uncompromisingly that God has nothing to do with the world ( e.g., T.8.VI.2,3; T.11.III.3; T.11.VII.1,2; T.12.III.9; T.16.V.3:6) , for the Love that He is has no opposite ( e.g., T.in.1:8; W.pI.127.3 ; W.pII.259.2) , and this is most definitely a world of opposites and opposition. facimoutreach.org/qa/questions/questions215.htm#Q1047
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 14:29:17 +0000
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