“The soul, sprung from the Divine, lay self-enclosed at peace, true to its own quality; but its neighbor, in uproar through weakness, unstable of its own nature and beaten upon from without, cries, at first to itself and afterward upon the living total, spreading the disorder at large. Thus, at an assembly, the Elders may sit in tranquil meditation, but an unruly populace, crying for food and casting up a host of grievances, will bring the whole gathering into ugly turmoil; when this sort of people hold their peace so that a word from a man of sense may reach them, some passable order is restored and the baser parts cease to prevail; otherwise, the science of the better allows the rabble to rule, the distracted assembly unable to take the Word from above.

“This is the evil of state and of council: and this is the evil of Man; Man includes an inner rabble—pleasures, desires, fears—and these become masters when the person, the manifold, gives them play.

“But one that has reduced his rabble and gone back to the person he was, lives to that and is that person again, o that what is allowed to the body is allowed as to something separate.” ~Plotinus

Sprung from the Divine

Some people believe that what is called the soul is just an aspect of the mind. Others believe that the body came first, then the mind and the soul were developed later. As this simple statement from Plotinus indicates, both of those beliefs are wrong. The Soul comes from the Divine, from God.

Self Enclosed

Plotinus says that the soul is “self-enclosed,” and not communicating with “its neighbor,” which is the physical body and mind. In truth, the soul, being pure spirit, is not enclosed in anything, but it is in a dormant state when we are born into the physical world. It is our job to awaken and develop it so it can communicate with the body and mind, and control the ego. As Plotinus notes, the body and mind are weak and unstable on their own. Not necessarily weak in the sense of weak muscles, but in the sense of being easily conned by the dark forces and beings into doing that which brings the person deeper and deeper into the depths of matter, instead of turning toward the realm of spirit where redemption lies.

Spreading the Disorder

The mind knows nothing of spirit, therefore, it embraces the realm of matter which it does know and understand. This can result in the entire being becoming materialistic and pursuing the doomed path of material delights that lead to death. That is what Plotinus means by “spreading the disorder”. Eternal life in Heaven is not found by following that path. That is why the spirit must be awakened and developed into a conscious Soul, and that soul takes over control of the ego, which is needed in the physical world, but hen lest on its own, leads us astray.

Assembly of Man

Plotinus gives the example that in an assembly, the “Elders,” by which he means the spiritually developed people, should lead the crowd. Then peace and beneficial development can happen. But if the materialistic rabble holds sway, then the assembly becomes a mob that does as much damage to itself as to others. This is why it is important to have spiritually developed leaders, or at least leaders who are guided by spiritual people. When they are not spiritual people, but materialistic ones, we have the mess we have seen in recent years in politics. And it is likely to get worse before it gets better, as the dark ones among us, use various methods to silence and control the spiritual.

Inner Rabble

Humans do have an inner rabble that lives by and is controlled by, fear, emotions, desires, and false beliefs. Plotinus says we must stop this by going back to the person we were. In other words, we need to go back to what we were before we had a physical body and mind, and the spirit reigned supreme. We do that by awakening and developing our spiritual faculties. We do that primarily by turning to the Light of the Spiritual Sun, in peace, love, and humility, so that Light will awaken our True Self.

“If we will speak of our native Country, out of which we have wandered with Adam; and will tell of the resting place of the Souls; we need not cast our minds far off; for far off and near is all one and the same thing with God; the Place of the Holy Trinity is all over. Heaven and Hell is everywhere all over in this world, and Christ wells all over, for he has laid off the corruptibility, and has swallowed up death, as also that which is temporary, and he lives in God; his Body is the substance of the Element, which out of the Word of the Mercifulness, is from eternity generated out of the Gates of the Deep; it is the Habitation where the Sharpness of God breaks open the Darkness, where eternal virtue appears in Wonders, and it is the tincture of the Deity, which is before God, out of which the heavenly Virtues are generated; its name is wonderful; the earthly tongue cannot express it.” ~Jacob Boehme

Our Native Country

Our “Native Country,” as Boehme calls it, is Heaven, or the Spiritual Realm. We were created by God as spiritual beings long before we had physical bodies, long before the physical universe existed. We descended to the material world because of the errors made by early man represented by the allegorical couple, Adam and Eve. When the Bible says that they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that does not refer to apples. The Tree of Good and Evil is the realm of matter. So as Adam and Eve were pulled down to the material world, so are all humans. But God has provided us with a way to be redeemed and return to Heaven. It is up to us, however, to choose to follow that path.

Not Far Off

Boehme then tells us that we need not cast our minds far off to find Heaven, the resting Place of Souls. This is difficult to understand when you are used to thinking in physical terms. It is true that physically, the Spiritual Realm is not far off. Since spirit exists outside of the limits of space and time, it is everywhere and every when. So as Jesus said, “The Kingdom is all around you, yet you see it not.” But this is misleading because there are multiple dimensions to the entire universe. The physical realm that we reside in is the third dimension. The spiritual dimensions are dimensions five through nine.

Christ Has Swallowed Up Death

This statement is allegorical. Christ, an Eternal Spirit and the first creation of God, is beyond the realm of death as he is in the spiritual realm and no longer has a physical body that can die. Death, disease, pain, etc. do not exist in the realm of spirit. Being pure spirit is what Boehme means when he says Christ’s body is “the substance of the Element.”

The Sharpness of God Breaks open Darkness

This is an odd way to express it, but it means that the Infinite Light of God banishes the Darkness of demons and devils. This is not darkness in the simple physical sense. If it was, a simple light bulb would banish it. This is a different sort of Darkness and only God’s Light can banish it.

The Earthly Tongue Cannot Express It

This is a problem that many great spiritual people have experienced. Those who have manages to get a glimpse, even briefly, of heaven and the Spirits that dwell there, have had great difficulty in describing it. Earthly language is not made to express such Divine things. Even if our languages could express what Heaven is truly like, our brain-minds could not comprehend it. The only way to actually know what Heaven is like is to awaken our spiritual faculties which can understand them. Fortunately, we now have the Sun of Righteousness shining down on us making it easier for us to awaken. We still have to make the effort, though. Then we can learn for ourselves that heaven really is not far off.

“Rennyo Sh Onin was one of the greatest teachers of the Shin school of Buddhism; in fact it was he who laid the firm foundation for for the modern religions institution known as the Jodo-Shin Shu, the True Sect of the Pure Land. His letters numbering about eighty-five are preserved and the title ‘Gobunsho,’ that is , ‘honorable letters,’ is given to them. Here is one of Rennyo’s letters:

‘To be established in shin faith means to understand the eighteenth vow, means to understand the frame of mind the “Namu-amida-butsu” sets up in you.

“Therefore, when you attain a state of singlemindedness as you utter the “namu”with absolute trust in Amida: you perceive the signifiance of Amida’s vow which is directed towards awakening a faith frame in you. For herein we realize what is meant by Amida Nyorsi’s ‘turning towards’; us ignorant beings. This is pointed out in the Larger Sutra of Eternal Life where we read: ‘Amida provides all beings with all the merits. …”

“The translation of such documents as Rennyo’s letters is full of difficulties as they are so laden with technical terms which defy in many cases replacement by and other language. But a word about ‘Namu-amida-butsu.’

“’Namu-amida-butsu’ is the Japanese reading of the original Sanskrit meaning ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’” ~D. T. Suzuki

Buddha of Infinite Light

There is only one true God and that is the God of infinite Light, the God of infinite Love, and the God of infinite creation. This is the God of Spirit. The god of the Old Testament: the angry, jealous, vengeful god is the false god that Gnostic call the Demiurge. That god is not of Light but darkness. A deeper kind of darkness than simply being in a room with the lights out. He is dark and the creator of matter, although the world of matter is also part of the realm of the true God of Spirit and Light because the realm of matter was created by altering spirit into matter. If you think of Buddha as God, then as the God of Infinite Light, he would be the true god. Of course, no human is actually a god. Jesus, Moses, and Buddha, were all prophets, and, in the case of Jesus for sure, a messiah. But that is not the same as being God.

State of Singlemindedness

Many people may have a state of singlemindedness, but Rennyo is talking about a specific kind of singlemindedness. He is talking about those who put the Will of God and the desire to develop their spiritual attributes above all else. Such people are rare in this very materialistic age, but that is starting to change. Now that we have the Sun of Righteousness shining down on us, the number of such people is growing.

Rennyo’s Letters

Suzuki says that Renyo’s letters are difficult to translate properly because of his use of technical terms which defy translation from the original Sanscrit. I find that interesting as Rennyo is given credit for bringing Buddhism to Japan, so it seems odd that he wrote in Sanscrit. In any case, I think the translators have done well to translate ‘Namu-amida-butsu’ as ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’ Adoration of the God of Light is what real spiritual development is all about. And we must turn to the Spiritual Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, to best follow the Will of God and develop our dormant spiritual natures.