“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me.

“He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoner:

“To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and day of our God.

“To comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

“They will be called “oaks of righteousness”, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

“They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

“Strangers shall stand and feed your flock, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines; but you shall be called the priest of the Lord.

“You shall enjoy the wealth of nations, and in their riches, you shall glory.

“Because their shame was double, and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot, they shall possess a double portion, everlasting joy shall be theirs.

“For I the Lord love justice, I will faithfully give them their recompense and will make an everlasting covenant with them.

“Their descendants shall be known among nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are the people whom the Lord has blessed.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

“So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” ~Isaiah 61:1- 11

The Spirit is On Me

Isaiah says that “ The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,” which seems to many to be an odd way to word it. Most would say that the spirit is in me, not on me. But Isaiah may be saying it better than most because a spirit is not something that can be trapped inside the body like a bird in a cage. Spirits exist outside of the limits of time and space, so his spirit is just as much on him as it is in him. As for saying that it is the spirit of God that is on him, he means that his awakened spirit is aware that it is part of God and is linked to God. That does not mean he should call himself God, and Isaiah is too wise to do so.

Good News to the Oppressed

God always sends good news to the oppressed. He sends good news to all, but especially to the oppressed. Those who are oppressed, pushed aside, and ignored on earth, are often the ones who are failures at the false religion of materialism. That is a good thing, as far as God is concerned. Those who have earthly success and abundance rarely bother to even consider developing their spiritual Self. It is the downtrodden, the sick, and the poor who will probably turn to God and seek spiritual enlightenment.

Day of Our God

When Isaiah wrote this, he may have been talking about something in his own time, but this could have been written today. We are living in the End Times and are now under the Sun of Righteousness—the Spiritual Sun with the Presence of God. This is the time that the prophet Malachi wrote about. It is a time for spiritual awakening. It is the last chance for humanity to save itself. And the sooner we do so, the better, because those who do so early, will be able to help and lead others in the coming Golden Age.

Rejoice in the Lord

We should rejoice that God continues to love and forgive us and give us the opportunity to save ourselves. Of course, it is God who does the actual saving, but we must each turn to him and seek it. Then God will cover us with the robes of righteousness, and eventually, we will have a world of peace, love, and righteousness where there will be no place for materialists, warmongers, and other soldiers of Darkness, for darkness will have been defeated.

“Learn to respect one another. You are all conductors of God’s blessings. And if you do not respect omebody, you deprive yourself of Divine Blessing. As much as you love people, you will benefit from the good. Whomever you may love, you benefit from that love.

“A good person is everyone who speaks the truth. You should all pray for one another, or think well for one another. When you meet somebody, wish them well.

“God lives in everything. His spirit is present even in the smallest being.

“You ask: ‘What shouls we preach to people?’ Tell them: ‘Without Love of God, life has no meaning. A sick man comes to you, tell him: Without Love of God, man cannot be healthy. You come to an ignorant man, tell him: Without Love of God, man cannot become learned. You come to a bankrupt merchant: Tell him: Without Love of God, trade wil not go well.. Tell all the people: Without Love of God, life cannot be understood. … Separation from God always produces suffering.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Respect One Another

Having respect for a person doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, or even like them. It means you have to recognize that they are humans just like you, and they are not perfect any more than you are. If it was your child or a sibling who was behaving badly, you would not turn on them and refuse to love them. You want to change the behavior, but you still respect and live with the person. If you don’t respect those who behave badly, you will not have the incentive to try to help them. We only try to help those we love and respect.

Conductors of God’s Blessings

Yes, we are all conductors of God’s Blessing, both taking in and giving out. If we expect to receive God’s Blessing, we must share it by sending love and blessings to others. It doesn’t weaken us by sharing love and energy with others. Instead, it allows us to take in more energy until our energy centers are fully charged and link together to create a complete energy flow throughout the body and spirit. And if you have no particular person you want (or need) to show love and respect to, then just send love and respect out into the world to all including animals, plants, and all things.

Benefit from Good

We do benefit from the good we do. We benefit from the love and respect we have for others. I recently wrote about karma for the Cosolargy blog, so I won’t repeat it here, but the main thing to know about karma is that it works both ways. Whether you do good or evil, what you do comes back to you. It may come back almost immediately, or it may take some time, but it always comes back.

God Lives in Everything

It is not true that God’s presence is everywhere in the material world, but it is true that God Lives in everything because everything has a spirit, and each spirit is a tiny piece of God. That does not mean that we should proclaim that we are God. That attitude results in excessive ego, which is not a good thing. If the fingernail of your right thumb could talk, and it declared that it was you, you would laugh at it. It is just a tiny part of you. Likewise, each individual spirit is only a tiny part of God, and should not say that it s God.

Without Love

Underhill says that “Without love of God, man cannot be healthy.” That is true if you understand that health is more than the health of your physical body. Complete health also means mental, emotional, psychic, and spiritual health. We are complex beings, and our health is a complex thing. We can improve our health on all levels by practicing respect and love for all. And if you truly love God, then you must love all, or at least all spirits, since we already mentioned that every spirit is a tiny piece of God. And what all spirits desire is to unite with God again. That is what the practice of Cosolargy is all about.

“The terms used by the individual mystics, the divisions which they adopt in describing the Self’s progress in contemplation, are bewildering in their variety. Here, more than elsewhere, the mania for classification has obsessed them. We find, too, when we come to compare one with another, that the language which they employ is not always so exact as it seems: nor are traditional terms always used in the same sense. Sometimes by the word ‘contemplation’ they intend to describe the whole process of introversion: sometimes, they reserve it for the ‘orison of union,’ and sometimes identify it with ecstasy. It has been pointed out by Delacroix that even St. Teresa’s classifications of her own states is far from lucid, and vary in each of her principle works. …

“Thus we are forced to the conclusion that the so-called ‘degrees of orison’ so neatly tabulated by ascetic writers are largely artificial and symbolic: that this process which they profess to describe is really, like life itself, one and continuous—not a stairway, but a slope—and the parts into which they break it us are diagrammatic. Nearly every mystic makes these breaks in a different place, though continuing to use the language of his predecessors. In his effort toward self-analysis, he divides and subdivides, combines, and differentiates his individual moods. Hence the confusion of mind which falls upon those who try to harmonize different systems of contemplation.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mania for Classification

I think it is not really true that mystics had a mania for classification. I think most of them were perfectly happy to leave things rather vague. It is the writers who put the teachings and experiences of the mystics down on paper that had the mania for classification. It is understandable, however, that when a process or experience is complicated, we try to break it down into smaller, more understandable pieces.

Orison of Union

Ms. Underhill has chosen to use “orison” in an attempt to avoid confusion, but it is a word rarely used today. It can mean any form of prayer or plea to God. She uses this word instead of prayer because most people have the idea that prayer is all about asking God for things that they want, while the “orison” of the mystic is more a matter of trying to communicate with God, rather than just asking for things. Her reference to the “orison of union” refers to the goal of the mystic, or spiritual adept, to become one with the highest level of Consciousness, thus one with God.

Steps of the Spiritual Path

Underhill says that the process of spiritual awakening and enlightenment is more like a slope than a stairway. It doesn’t have specific steps and levels. She is probably correct in saying that most mystics are simply breaking the process down into steps in an arbitrary and individual way, so that different spiritual teachers and writers have different steps and different names for the steps, but the overall process remains the same. And the breakdown may be based on how that individual feels as he or she continues on the path. If one feels as if one has made a big step forward, then one may consider that a step on the path, whereas others may feel that way at different points.

Secrecy

Another reason why the language of mysticism may be vague is that it is often allegorical in order to maintain secrecy. In the ancient mystery schools, students were required to take an oath to keep most of the teachings secret, so when they did write things down, they hid a lot of it in allegorical language. This was done for the protection of the students as well as others. The schools of Light did not want dark schools to learn the secrets and misuse them. They also didn’t want new students to learn things before they were ready, and harm themselves.

Contemplation

One of the terms of mysticism or spiritual development that Ms. Underhill uses frequently is “contemplation”. Many people today will think that means meditation, but it doesn’t. At least not the forms of meditation commonly practiced today. Contemplation is defined as “the action of looking thoroughly at something for a long time.” That “something” doesn’t have to be a Sanskrit word repeated over and over without knowing its meaning. It could be something that you, as a spiritual person, want to achieve, such as humility, and love for all. It can also refer to the techniques of Cosolargy for contemplating the Sun.