Mystical Christianity: Rituals and Spiritual Practices
Mystical Christianity: Rituals and Spiritual Practices
The body of teachings of the Master Jesus is, in fact, a collection of very subtle instructions of Mystical Christianity which have in its goal to promote and tune the individual to an ethical way of living. As a master tunes a delicate musical instrument to produce heavenly sounds, the spiritual practices taught by Christ aims the attunement When one is attuned to the vibrations of his philosophical wisdom, one can reach complete integration as part of the music of the spheres.
God is the maestro that conducts the celestial symphony, and each human being has its own frequency and tone that vibrates a special note, which is the individual’s contribution to the totality of the Divine plan.
In all the ancient traditions, there are known to exist spiritual practices and rites that were designed to facilitate the expansion of consciousness; this is not. These were taught according to the ability for assimilation of each level of the candidates. In the Patanjali Sutras, there are powers that can be developed through spiritual practices, such as read thoughts, hear at a distance, miracle healing, etc. Of course, all these “powers” could be used both ways, for good or bad.
This is the main reason all the decent instructors and teachers tended to require from their students a relatively long period of preparation before they can seriously teach the student the participation in rituals that can give them power. In Raja Yoga, for instance, the student starts with preliminary practices whose objective is to reach purification. These practices can be prolonged by years. The purpose of these practices is to reach Ahimsa or the art to be inoffensive. Only the student that is incapable of doing harm to others is allowed to continue on the path and receive higher training.
As we already discussed in previous articles, Master Jesus conducted his ministry on two different levels. The first level, where he concentrated on teaching the elements of an ethic and healthy balanced life, was open to everyone. This specific level was communicated through parables.
“And he said unto them, Unto you, it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.”
~Mark 4, 11
The second level of his teaching was destined to his “priests” or disciples. There are, in truth, very few references in the Bible to the ritualistic practices performed by Jesus, except for certain passages in the Gospel of John veiled by symbols. Jesus taught the mysteries to his apostles with sober recommendations about the dangers of revealing the mysteries. His concerns were registered in Gospel of Matthew:
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
~Matthew 7:6
The Modern Christian who abides by the precepts of Mystical Christianity knows that he should be committed to internal transformation and should be very attentive to the clues hidden in the various Gospels about the rituals originally taught by the master. Most of the texts that talked about the ceremonials are Apocrypha and reached us through oral tradition, mostly from the early monastic communities.
