Spiritual Psychology/Lecture 4. The laws of spirituality – the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven”

4.1 Jesus about the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven”
In previous lectures, we have examined some introductory information that explains the origin of our knowledge, the goal of this course and our methodological approaches. And now we can begin to study the laws of spirituality themselves. These laws will ultimately help us find the key to understanding the subject of psychology, that is, to an understanding of what man is and what factors determine his behavior.

God defines the laws of spirituality as the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Bible says a lot about God’s mysteries (see The introduction to the book The New Revelation). We should first pay attention to what Jesus said to His disciples when He was asked: Why does He confide His secrets to them, and speak to most people only in parables?

“And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables … And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given.

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand…

For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them” (Mt 13:2-3, 10-13, 15). “But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples ” (Mk 4:34).

What conclusions can be drawn from these words of Jesus?


 * First, God has a secret knowledge.
 * Second, this knowledge relates to the Kingdom of Heaven. A man can come closer to the Kingdom of God and be “given more” than he has by gaining an understanding of this knowledge. These secrets allow us to restore God’s rule on earth. This is what we ask God for in a prayer given by Jesus as an example: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10).
 * Third, not every man is given to understand and accept this knowledge. Why? The explanation for the difference in cognitive abilities of people and their moral preferences still remains the most difficult issue for both science and religion.

Trying to explain this phenomenon by physiological processes, science hasn’t made any significant progress yet. Neurophysiologists and psychologists were able to establish that cognitive processes are accompanied by the activation or synchronized work of very large groups of cells in the brain. Moreover, they even managed to ascertain that neighboring neurons can code totally different ideas, concepts and thoughts. But the researchers failed to explain the origin of cognitive abilities in these cells: “This is the deepest question in itself ... Our nerve cells are, in fact, normal cells of our body. There is nothing mystical about them. They consist of the same proteins, they secrete the same chemicals communicating with each other, like, for example, the secretory cells and hormonal substances. These cells aren’t unusual from the viewpoint of biology. Meanwhile they have such pronounced high-level cognitive specializations,” says Konstantin Anokhin, a corresponding member of the  Russian Academy of Sciences. He adds this deepest mystery is so surprising that it allows us to compare the project for understanding the brain and the mind with the space project.

Religion’s attempts to explain these differences by some “free will” or “moral freedom” are also not convincing. Even if we assume such a “free will” is given to man, it would be nice to understand how it works and then try to find a tool to ensure that this “free will” doesn’t hinder the man’s ability to perceive the secret knowledge of God. After all, the matter concerns no more and no less than man’s fate - his salvation and eternal life. We see, however, that Jesus explains this phenomenon by other factors - He explains this by the fact that people’s hearts are hardened, their eyes do not see, and their ears do not hear. Note, He says this about the people in good health, people whose hearts, eyes and ears function well. Thus, He lets us understand that the reasons for different levels of intelligence and morality should be sought not in man’s physical body, but in his spiritual elements – in his spirit and soul.

4.2 What makes a person able to perceive the mysteries?
Jesus explained to His disciples what makes a man spiritual and able to receive and understand the spiritual truths opening the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. To put it more accurately, not what, but Who does. This makes the Holy Spirit - the only power in the universe, which can transfigure a person and change him into the image and likeness of God (Mt 17:2; 2 Cor 3:17-18). Recognizing the exceptional importance of the Holy Spirit for a man, Seraphim of Sarov, one of the greatest saints of all times, defined the aim of the Christian life as “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” This ascetic’s definition is considered to be an epoch-making discovery.

Jesus’ disciples also initiated not all of their followers, but only the chosen ones into the secret knowledge of God Jesus revealed to them: “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom” (1 Cor 2:6). And further Paul the Apostle explains how this line of communication with God works, in other words, how God reveals His wisdom to a person and how a person can take it.


 * 1) No one knows this secret, this hidden wisdom of God except the Holy Spirit: “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11).
 * 2) God therefore reveals His knowledge only “through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:10).
 * 3) The natural man who does not have the Holy Spirit, is unable to perceive this secret knowledge: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).
 * 4) Meanwhile the spiritual man who has the mind of Christ can both accept this knowledge and accurately judge everything: “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:15-16).

So, our task is to understand how we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, can make the natural man, whose heart is hardened and dull, eyes are blind and hears are deaf, spiritual and able to perceive the mysteries of God. As a person becomes more able to comprehend this secret knowledge, he will get the potential for his salvation and eternal evolution.

4.3 What do other sources say about the secret knowledge?
While analyzing different religions, modern researchers identified their common characteristics:


 * 1. Each religion claims that the universe is more complicated than it seems at first glance: in addition to the physical world, there is an invisible world, which determines all the events around.
 * 2. The founders of all religions were people who later became known as prophets, messiahs, avatars, or teachers. These men spoke only of what was reality for them, the result of their own experience. They had the direct knowledge of what they said, rather than faith in that.”
 * 3. In contrast, the majority of their followers didn’t have such a direct experience. To share in the truth, they needed the attributes of faith and worship . Therefore, temples were built, rituals were developed, and common prayers were organized.
 * 4. However, there were always people who were capable of doing more. By using special techniques that were passed directly from teacher to disciple, they learned to experience what their teachers talked about.
 * 5. Thus, every religion, since its outset, was developing in two parallel directions.


 * The first direction is well-known, mass, external, based on faith and religious precepts. This trend eventually took shape of religious organizations with their attributes, rituals and temples where the faithful could worship.
 * The second direction is small and closed, inaccessible to the uninitiated, internal, based on secret knowledge and intensive practices. This trend has been called esotericism, from the Greek ἐσωτερικός – “internal,” “hidden.” It has always been important for esotericism to get a mystical experience rather than observe rites and rituals.
 * 6. Esotericism is not to be confused with occultism. It has nothing to do with summoning spirits and witchcraft.
 * 7. Followers of esotericism always keep their knowledge secret. Not only is an inexperienced man unable to take this knowledge, but it can be a dangerous weapon in his hands.

Thus, religion is conventionally divided into two segments: external (ceremonial) and inner (esoteric). Sometimes the external part of the religion is compared with the body and its interior part – with the soul.

We would like to add that God allowed the grains of truth to be in every religion, thereby proving His great wisdom. On the one hand, this approach paves the way for the “unity of the faith” (Eph 4:13). On the other – no religion has a reason for boasting, for setting itself above others: “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35); “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31).

However, Christianity was and remains the only religion that has the real potential for establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Actually, Christianity is the only religion that ensures the Holy Spirit for its followers. And as described in section 4.2, the Holy Spirit is the only bearer of the true and secret knowledge of God - the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Without their understanding, no one can be subject to the law of God and reach His Kingdom: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be… But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His ” (Rom 8:5-9).

Confirming this assertion, modern researches of religions identify another direction – mesotericism (from the Greek μέσος - “mesos,” “average”). “When a person has perceived only part of the truth, he makes up a missing part relying on his beliefs to complete his theory.” And this is the greatest achievement of Satan. To create a convincing and attractive teaching and to add a fly in the ointment is the pinnacle of his evil mind, of his insidious skill of deceiving (Gen 3:13). Exposing this “liar and the father of it” is one of our immediate goals (Jn 8:44).

4.4 Why has the Church lost an understanding of the secrets revealed by Jesus?
Our subject’s background shows that the first ages of Christianity (1st-3rd centuries) were the era of eager expectation of the Second Coming of the Savior. The Church was strongly convinced that the world would soon be cleansed from evil, and those who had received Christ with all their hearts would gain eternal life with Him. The first Christians courageously took cruel persecutions, boldly endured martyrdom - they were burned alive, crucified, torn up by wild beasts for the crowd’s amusement. In times of fierce persecutions, a galaxy of brilliant holy ascetics – bearers of secret knowledge - was annihilated. Since these secrets can be disseminated only by word of mouth, from teacher to disciple, not in writing, they were lost along with their bearers.

So, for example, Clement of Alexandria who is considered a great connoisseur of the secret knowledge says in his work  The Stromata that the Lord allowed them to spread the holy mysteries only among those who are able to accept them. However, the mystery can be communicated in words rather than in writing: “…the Lord … allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries … to those who are able to receive them … He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many ; but to the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God.” Then this Christian thinker of the early Church says that his writing doesn’t “explain secret things sufficiently”:


 * - “many things, … have escaped us, through length of time, that have dropped away unwritten”;


 * - “some things of which we have no recollection; for the power that was in the blessed men was great”;


 * - “some things I purposely omit, in the exercise of a wise selection, afraid to write what I guarded against speaking: …fearing for my readers, lest they should stumble by taking them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb says, we should be found ‘reaching a sword to a child.’”

Many followers of esotericism often adduce another piece of evidence to support their beliefs that the secret knowledge Jesus revealed to His first disciples allowed them to reach the highest peak of spiritual perfection. We are talking about Ignatius Theophorus (“the God-bearing”), Bishop of Antioch. Though he was a disciple of John the Apostle, he, nevertheless, spoke of himself as someone who hadn’t yet attained the highest possible perfection in Jesus Christ. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, he noted: “I do not issue orders to you, as if I were some great person. For though I am bound for the name [of Christ], I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For now I begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as fellow-disciples with me .” As for the Ephesians, he believed they had the same thorough knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel as Paul the Apostle: “Ye are initiated into the mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the holy, the martyred, the deservedly most happy, at whose feet may I be found, when I shall attain to God.” Then he talked once again about difficulties on the path to spiritual perfection and risks from revealing the secret knowledge to those who are not able to bear it: “Am I not able to write to you of heavenly things? But I fear to do so, lest I should inflict injury on you who are but babes [in Christ]. Pardon me in this respect, lest, as not being able to receive [such doctrines], ye should be strangled by them. For even I, though I am bound [for Christ], yet am not on that account able to understand heavenly things, and the places of the angels, and their gatherings under their respective princes, things visible and invisible. Without reference to such abstruse subjects, I am still but a learner [in other respects]; for many things are wanting to us, that we come not short of God .”

So, after the cruel persecutions of the Christians, many of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus reveled to His first disciples were lost. Researchers who study the history of the Church indicate that as early as the second century, the inner life of the Christian communities changed drastically. The leading positions within the Church were occupied by those who could better arrange her life here on earth. There were not a lot of those who expected the end of the world coming in the near future. In the view of the faithful, its coming was postponed indefinitely. They were less and less willing to listen to the terrible predictions of travelling prophets. And those who cared for organizing the community’s every-day life were gaining more popularity and authority. A century ago, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles called not to despise the bishops because they were forced to combine their priestly service and preaching with economic concerns. But as time passed, the position of the bishops became more and more important.

Why has God allowed this to happen? The Creator has revealed that His plan to free humanity from the power of Satan and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth involves several stages. The task of Christianity up to this day was to preach “this gospel of the Kingdom in all the world as a witness to all the nations” (Mt 24:14). God is pleased with the end result and the way the Church has fulfilled this task. Due to her great effort, a significant number of people in the world have reached the spiritual childhood and are ready to move up to the next spiritual level – spiritual youth. This means they are ready to “overcome the wicked one,” approaching closely to the Kingdom of Heaven (1 Jn 2:13-14). In addition, the souls of those who suffered from cruel persecutions received a direct access to God so that He Himself may prepare them for their ultimate mission. They should join other “laborers” who are, in fact, spiritual teachers (Rev 6:9-11). Their number was incomplete at the time of Jesus’ earthly life which was a grief to the Savior: “…when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Mt 9:36-38). Now God has got enough “laborers,” able to involve “the plentiful harvest” in the process of transfiguration.

As for the loss of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, they can be restored. Jesus Christ, though at the cost of His life, gave us another Helper - the Holy Spirit, Who can “teach us all things, and bring to us remembrance all things” that Jesus revealed to His disciples and even more than those (Jn 14:16-17, 26; 16:12-13). And the experience of Paul the Apostle and of many other saints proves that there is nothing that can stop Jesus from teaching the disciples even after His ascension to the Father.

4.5 Does the modern Church have an understanding of the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven?”
We don’t know that: God doesn’t want to reveal this information and the Church can keep this “internal”, hidden part confidential. Therefore, we can judge about this experience in the Church only by the published data.

These data indicate that the spiritual experience of, say, Seraphim of Sarov or  Silouan the Athonite, who are the most advanced among the Christian saints, is uncommon. So, for example, in the book Saint Silouan, the Athonite, its author Archimandrite Sophrony discusses the three kinds or types of Christians. He notes that the ascetics equal to St. Silouan’s level (who is our contemporary) were of great rarity among the monastic brotherhood.

As Fr. Sophrony notes, a Christian of the third category is given the great grace, the grace of a perfect or mature man at the outset of his ascetic path for his fervor, or, rather, because he is foreknown by God. And this category is the most rare. The blessed Elder Silouan belongs to this last kind.

Meanwhile we have found out that the spiritual fight of these two great ascetics wasn’t properly assessed by the monastic brotherhood. Elder Seraphim continually suffered the attacks of those around him: Why does he dress not so as it’s required? Why does he pray not like the others? Why does he not go to the Church for taking the sacrament, while he regularly goes to his hermitage a couple of miles away? But most of all, he was criticized for the spiritual and material support he was providing to the Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery’s sisters.

As for Silouan the Athonite, Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) has noted in his book I Know a Man in Christ: Elder Sophrony the Hesychast and Theologian that Elder Silouan is included in the assembly of the great saints such as  Anthony the Great,  Abba Poemen and others, for he suffered through hell and contemplated Christ. However the monks of the Holy Monastery of St. Panteleimon despised Elder Silouan. They said they had a lot of monks equal to Elder Silouan.

“Like by like”, as Friedrich Nietzsche said. A master can be judged only by an equal master.

4.6 Edouard Schure on mysterious knowledge and the unification of science and religion
In his book The Great Initiates, the French writer and philosopher Edouard Schure introduced some ideas that seem relevant and interesting for our topic. He was among many Western intellectuals who turned to esotericism or Eastern religions precisely because they could not find the source for their spiritual aspirations, for the spiritual progress in the “external” activity of the Christian Church, which was reduced to only rites and rituals. Perhaps they could not avoid delusions, yet their desire to know God deserves respect, and their moral effort is worthy of attention.

Edouard Schure has emphasized that “Science and Religion appear as two hostile forces that cannot be reconciled with each other.” He identifies this fact as “the greatest evil of our time.” The philosopher focuses our attention on several important issues related to our topic.


 * 1) In the Middle Ages, when Christianity ingeniously affirmed the Christian faith in the midst of a Europe which was semi-barbarian, it was the mightiest of moral forces. It formed the soul of present-day humanity. At that time, science made a qualitative leap forward, having become the greatest of intellectual forces.
 * 2) But over the years, the Church, no longer capable of proving her original dogma against the objections of Science, has shut herself up within this dogma as within a windowless house, setting faith over against reason as an absolute command. Science, dazzled by its discoveries in the physical world, has become agnostic in its methods and materialistic both in its principles and in its goal. Philosophy, bewildered and powerless between the two, has, in a measure, abdicated its rights and fallen away a vague kind of skepticism. Since then Science and Religion have ceased to understand each other: “No longer accustomed to eternal vistas, most of our modern youth have dabbled in what their new masters call naturalism, thus degrading the fair name of Nature. For what they dignify with this title is nothing more than an apology for base instincts, the slime and filth of vice, or else a complaisant portrayal of our social platitudes.”
 * 3) The truth is to be found at the root of all great religions and in the sacred books of all peoples. But one must know – how to bring it to light. All great religions have an exterior and an interior history: the one open to all, the other secret. By exterior history are meant the dogmas and myths publicly taught in temples and schools. By interior history are meant the profound science, the secret doctrine of the great initiates, prophets and reformers. It is enacted in the heart of the temples, in the secret brotherhoods, and its most thrilling dramas have their sphere of action in the souls of the great prophets.
 * 4) This secret knowledge, this esoteric doctrine that has been created by the great initiates, the true prophets and the mightiest sages through the ages is not merely a science, a philosophy, a morality, and a religion. It is the science, the philosophy, the morality, and the religion of which all the rest are nothing but preparations or degeneracies, partial or erroneous expressions. In this series of lives, Rama simply shows us the approaches of the temple. Krishna and Hermes give us the key and interpretation. Moses, Orpheus, and Pythagoras show us the interior. Jesus Christ represents the Holy of Holies. Christian esotericism, “like a living spring, gushes forth from the words of the Christ, from His parables, from the inmost depths of that incomparable, that truly divine soul.”
 * 5) “Two main things are necessary nowadays for the continuation of the mighty work of Jesus Christ: on the one hand, the progressive unfolding of experimental science and intuitive philosophy to facts of psychic order, intellectual principles, and spiritual proofs; on the other, the expansion of Christian dogma in the direction of tradition and esoteric science; and subsequently a reorganization of the Church according to a graduated initiation; this by a free and irresistible movement of all Christian churches, which are also equally daughters of the Christ.”
 * 6) “At the present time the Christ is master of the globe, through the two youngest and most vigorous races, still full of faith. By way of Russia He has a foothold in Asia, and through the Anglo-Saxon race He rules the New World. Europe is older than America, but younger than Asia. They slander Europe who believe it destined to an irremediable decadence.”
 * 7) Still, if Europe continues its internal struggles, instead of federating beneath the rule of one capable authority, at once scientific and religious; if, through the extinction of this faith, … it is continuing the preparation for its moral and social decomposition, its civilization runs the risk of perishing, first by social upheavals, and afterwards by the invasion of younger races…

Surely it has a more glorious part to play, the preservation of the guiding of the world, by finishing the social work of the Christ, formulating His complete and perfected thought, and crowning by the help of Science, Art, and Justice, the spiritual temple of the greatest of the Sons of God.

God confirmed this prophetic vision of Edouard Schure by the fact that the Catholic Church should lead the transition of Christianity to a new - prophetic - level. Moreover, the Catholic Church has universities where science, philosophy, and religion cooperate enriching each other. They could take up the challenge of uniting science and religion, issued by the philosopher. Religion responds to the needs of the heart, whereas science – to those of the intellect. Having combined the love of religion and the intellect of science by using the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Church will be able to make a great historical transition – to turn all people “from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). For the sake of completing the work of Jesus. For the sake of His great sacrifice.