Gnosis as Direct Knowledge
Direct knowledge—access to and the direct experience of something immediately present to us, is the form of knowing that is at the foundations of Yeshua’s teachings. It is a kind of knowing that is not propositional, but experiential. When Yeshua says, “The Abba and I are one,” he is not talking theologically or theoretically about a concept of non-duality. He is speaking about his own direct experience of knowing God from within.
Throughout his short life, Yeshua provided us with a model for knowing (or a way of experiencing) God that is the transformational knowledge that alters the network of connections between the microcosm within and the macrocosm of the universe itself (understood as Ultimate Reality).
It is this powerful form of knowing that is designated by the Greek word Gnosis found everywhere in both the early canonical and oriental Christian texts. Without this “wisdom way of knowing” (as Cynthia Bourgeault has said), we are without a true spiritual foundation on which to build and are left with only a doctrinal theory (or even an ideology) of what it means to be a follower of Yeshua.
Wisdom is a way of knowing that goes beyond one’s mind, one’s rational understanding, and embraces the whole of a person: mind, heart, and body. Bringing the human organism into balance, and … making use of an ancient body of knowledge about the physiology of spiritual transformation and a time-tested methodology for increasing our “receptivity to higher meaning” by systematically raising the level of our being.” (27).
Yeshua invites us to walk with him upon a path into this form of direct knowing. This is wisdom’s way, and the epiphanies of that internal vision, (the kardial seeing of that path) exceed the words that any theology gives to them. When theology forgets the difference between its own language and the direct experience of the soul, when it identifies its language with that of the knowing soul, then it cuts itself off from the direct knowing that is its proper domain, and “puts such knowing in its dogmatic pocket.”
Throughout his short life, Yeshua provided us with a model for knowing (or a way of experiencing) God that is the transformational knowledge that alters the network of connections between the microcosm within and the macrocosm of the universe itself (understood as Ultimate Reality).
It is this powerful form of knowing that is designated by the Greek word Gnosis found everywhere in both the early canonical and oriental Christian texts. Without this “wisdom way of knowing” (as Cynthia Bourgeault has said), we are without a true spiritual foundation on which to build and are left with only a doctrinal theory (or even an ideology) of what it means to be a follower of Yeshua.
Wisdom is a way of knowing that goes beyond one’s mind, one’s rational understanding, and embraces the whole of a person: mind, heart, and body. Bringing the human organism into balance, and … making use of an ancient body of knowledge about the physiology of spiritual transformation and a time-tested methodology for increasing our “receptivity to higher meaning” by systematically raising the level of our being.” (27).
Yeshua invites us to walk with him upon a path into this form of direct knowing. This is wisdom’s way, and the epiphanies of that internal vision, (the kardial seeing of that path) exceed the words that any theology gives to them. When theology forgets the difference between its own language and the direct experience of the soul, when it identifies its language with that of the knowing soul, then it cuts itself off from the direct knowing that is its proper domain, and “puts such knowing in its dogmatic pocket.”
posted by Lynn Bauman at 10:02 AM
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