The Two Life Fields

[QUOTING]

Eventually, our yearning for salvation drives us to the limit of what is possible in earthly nature, and we find ourselves faced with an inescapable reality. We have to come to terms with the fact that our desire for the True Human state cannot be satisfied anywhere in this material world, and neither can it be satisfied in the world inhabited after death. Experience shows us that everything that exists in this nature is subject to the law of Rising, Shining and Fading. Everything that is born, everything that has a beginning, will eventually decay, and come to an end. And experience shows us that the hereafter, too, is governed by the same law. There, too, time and space prevail, and everything perishes after a while. So eternal life is not to be found there.

No one on earth is exempt from this law of birth, maturity and decay. There is no way to escape it. And yet, how often we try to avoid it, to shut it out of our experience. Only think, for instance, of the enormous efforts made by modern scientists to extend the human lifespan. And think of all the effort and expense we pour into making our possessions and creations more perfect, more long-lasting. We are so certain that the ultimate perfection exists. We are so certain that the eternal can be attained.

But what makes us so certain? What drives us to keep on trying, no matter what?

We call that motivating power 'pre-remembrance', the deep-seated urge, the primordial desire for the Perfect Life. As we explained in our last letter, this desire originates from the last remnant of the Original, Divine Life state, present within the human being. That remnant is the Primordial Atom, the spirit-spark atom, the indestructible divine nucleus.

Surely the fact that we are so dissatisfied with earthly nature, and have such an irrepressible tendency to resist any form of decay, is a clear indication of the presence within us of something that does not belong to this world? How could human beings struggle so tirelessly against a lack of freedom, injustice and suffering if it were not for the presence within them of some kind of 'divine remnant' that is constantly trying to manifest itself?

And if we accept that there is something within us which does not belong to this world, then it follows that there must be two worlds, two life-fields. This insight is in fact one of the pillars of gnostic teaching. First, there is a Divine life-field in which the Original Human Being participates (although, in us, all that remains of the Original Human Being is the Primordial Atom, the Rosebud). Second, there is a non-divine life-field to which everything we currently term 'human' belongs.

The Divine life-field is the field in which everything is as it should be - as intended by the Divine Plan. It is the field in which absolute, lasting values exist, where nothing ever perishes or turns into its opposite. That is why we sometimes call it the 'static nature order'. Life in the static nature order involves no death or decay, but only eternal genesis, ever-developing manifestation, unfolding from glory to glory. And it is this Divine nature order that was always intended to be the human life-field.

It is and always has been the life-field of divine Humanity. But it is the antithesis of the life-field of fallen, earthly human beings who, because they do not know the truth about their own, perishable world, keep on being drawn into behavior patterns that attempt to initiate the divine world and thus oppose its laws.

Of course one shouldn't think that the Divine World exists somewhere else - somewhere in outer space, for instance. The World of Light is all around us. It is 'nearer than hands and feet'.

The earthly life-field is also called the nature order of 'dialectics' (g: duality), because life within it is a constant interplay between opposites, and nothing is eternal or lasting. But it is a sham life, not a real life. It is nothing more than a constant meandering from one antithesis to another: from dark to light, from light to dark, from war to peace, from peace to war, from freedom to captivity, from captivity to freedom. And so it goes on.

The dualistic nature order includes not only the visible, material world, but also the hereafter. It is a non-divine world. Even though it can only exist thanks to divine power and energy, it is cut off from the Divine Life. It is an emergency order, needed to provide the fallen human being with the experience necessary to recognize his fallen state and decide to return to the Original Life.

The dualistic nature order remains a prison for the human being until the Primordial Atom can be awakened within him or her. For that purpose, calling, awakening impulses are sent out into this life-field, so that the possibility always remains open for the True Human Being to be guided back to his Original Domain of Life.

The following extract from The Coming New Man by Jan van Rijckenborgh (Rosekruis Pers Haarlem, Netherlands, pp 99-100) deals with this subject:

'It is a good thing to dwell on this point for a moment, because from this it follows that our prison is not only a penal settlement, but, at the same time, a resort of mercy where efforts are made to help us regain the sonship of God. Fow now it perhaps is clear to your consciousness that there are two atmospheric fields. Not one here and another somewhere else, but present simultaneously and existentially, just as there are also two electromagnetic fields existentially present.

One condition demonstrates the state of fall and mercy, the state of patience and of helpfulness. The other condition expresses absoluteness and divinity. Both conditions are present at the same moment, in the same space, here and now. The Kingdom of God and its life atmosphere is nearer than hands and feet, yea, it is within you'.

So two life-fields exist. The Higher One interpenetrates the lower one, but not vice-versa. However, they both occupy the same cosmic space. So liberation in the real sense is never escapism; it does not mean 'fleeing the world'. Rather, it means returning to the Reality - the One and Only Reality.

From "The Two Life Fields" LRC

[END QUOTING]
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