On Belief and Realization

      I was listening to a podcast last night (Andre Duqum’s show, “Know Thyself”) where the guest being interviewed was pointing out that nothing actually “changes” when someone receives enlightenment. There is no miraculous conversion of the person from one thing to another, or addition to what they already are. The only thing which is different is their perception of what already is.
     I’ve been mulling this around subconsciously this morning even as I continue to go through Romans in Greek, revising a translation I already made, and it struck me that, "belief" or “trust” in the New Testament, and "realization" in the Eastern and New Age traditions are the same thing. One must believe or trust that they have already been joined to the Spirit of Christ as the New Testament teaches it, and in the same way one must realize that they are already one with God/Source in the Eastern or New Age traditions. Both involve a recognition, a knowing that internalizes what already is in order to make use of what already exists.
      Human beings were created in the image of God. The great lie of the snake in the garden is that we weren’t already the image of God and needed to do something to “become like God.” But our consciousness, the immaterial part of the human being is still the “image of God,” it is still, as some traditions might put it, a “fractal” of God, a share in the Divine Logos. Even Paul states plainly that Jesus Christ, the Logos incarnate, is "the image of God, the firstborn of all creation," and every human consciousness, having a share in that Logos is also still itself the image of God. But after our ancestors’ mistake, our biological brains, the transceivers that allow us to interact with the world within spacetime, were altered so that we are almost constantly in a kind of survival or threat mode, enslaving our consciousness to this malfunctioning white and gray matter, leading to a functional insanity whose end is death and destruction.
     Deliverance from this is dependent on a realization of what already is, that our consciousness, what we really are, is still the “image of God,” and shares in God being one with God through being one with or a share of that Divine Logos who is Jesus Christ. One must not just mentally assent to it, there must be a realization deep within that takes place that recognizes what is already true. This is why many if not most who claim to believe still fret and worry and just don’t seem to get it. They haven’t had that realization. They’re seeking, so to speak, they want to "believe" and are working towards that "belief," but they are still internally blind to what already is because this internally malfunctioning brain is blinding them and keeping them chained and enslaved to their fear, anger, and bodily cravings.
     The “faith” talked about in Romans is more than mere mental or verbal assent to a thing, it’s a realization that this thing is reality and making use of that reality for oneself, something no one else can do for you. You can tell someone what reality is until you’re blue in the face, but until they “realize” what it is, it will be for nothing. They’ll reply, “I know,” and continue on in their own destructive delusions.

     The cross, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Divine Logos as a human being enables us, either mystically, psychologically, or practically, to shut down that malfunctioning response center of the brain and work from that innate connection of our consciousness back to the Source, back to the God, through the Logos who incarnated as Jesus Christ. It enables us to "die" to that malfunctioning piece of flesh, and to "resurrect" with that fully enabled consciousness in the driver's seat where it belongs without the malfunctioning piece of flesh's interference or self-sabotage. It enables us to function correctly, with the brain returned to its subordinate place as a transceiver for the consciousness which is itself born of God, and with no need for external restraints like laws, rules, or regulations because it is God's own nature being expressed.

     Salvation, or deliverance, in this respect is in fact "by faith," but it is a realization of what is already reality, what is already true, what has already been done, not an initiation of something to become true.