The End of Hierarchy

I.

Humans love hierarchy. It absolves us from the responsibility of being equal.

When we are absolutely equal, no one else can be blamed. No one else can free us from our dependency. No one can be supplicated to carry our sins. The anxiety of freedom is on our shoulders.

That is why we love to burrow down into a hierarchy: the church, the government, the corporation, the army, the guru's ashram, the boy scouts.

Nowhere is hierarchy more deadly than in spiritual institutions, for those who look to an authority cannot be free. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Faith based on authority is not faith."

True faith is beyond obedience. Don't obey, surrender. Surrender doesn't happen when I obey an other, but when I rest completely in Am.

The followers of Jesus could not bear true faith, true equality. He wanted them to form a circle, but they insisted on hierarchy, so that their egos could maintain a sense of separate identity. In one Gospel passage, we actually see them arguing about who will sit closest to Jesus in eternity. But eternity never happens until hierarchy dissolves and each of us say, "I am the Father are one."

When he surrendered on the cross, "the temple veil was rent": Jesus eradicated religious authority. Until that moment, a veil separated the priest from the people. Only the high priest could part the veil and enter the inner sanctum of the temple, the Holy of Holies. Jesus tore that veil away, revealing the Holy of Holies to be the core of our heart. "The time is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23)

Jesus never said, "Worship me." He invited us to be his equals in the divine Presence. He wanted us to have the same relationship with God that he enjoyed. Jesus said, "These things I do, you shall also do, yes, even greater things than these." (John 14:12)  Jesus not only said, "I am the light of the world," he said, "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) In his final meal with the disciples, Jesus prayed "that they may all be one." (John 17:21)

The absolute equality of our souls in Christ is the hinge that unites Christian mysticism with political ethics. Equality with Christ is not just a mystical experience, but a radical political calling to root out any social structure that sustains the illusion that one human being is superior to another.

The Church's hierarchy was not institutionalized until the Council of Nicaea, three centuries after Jesus died. The Church's hierarchy was not Jesus' will, but the direct order of the Emperor Constantine. The first result of this council was to suppress Christ's vision of equality and replace it with the imperial structure of Rome. The diocese of the Roman empire, each ruled by a Tribune, became the diocese of the Church, each ruled by a Bishop. In many cases, the the ruling family of the local Tribune became the ruling family of the local Bishop. It is nearly impossible for an honest historian to find much of Jesus in the Church after the Council o Nicaea, but it is quite easy to find much of the Roman empire.

Let us now proclaim to a brave new generation of spiritual seekers that God needs no intermediary, neither high priest, nor king, nor guru, nor savior. No one stands between your soul and God. At our deepest center, we are all anointed with Christ-Consciousness.  

Such a spiritual vision is also the basis of a new political vision. There are no elites. No one is saved or unsaved, washed or unwashed, royal or common in God's eyes. Samadhi is not just the goal of meditation, but the root of democracy. Samadhi means unity of vision (sama - sameness, dhi - seeing). In the soul, samadhi is union with God. In society, samadhi is political equality. Democracy is rooted in a spiritual vision.

II.

Does equality with Christ mean that I have no personal relationship with God as other? God forbid! The wise have called God, the other within. Now I can have even deeper intimacy with the divine: but my relation with God is friendship rather than servitude. "I no longer call you servants... for now you are my friends." (John 15:15)

The cosmic Christ is divine love personified, yet without form. Buddhist's call it Amitaba, Hindus call Krishna. In samadhi we merge in living silence with the radiance of Being: then we come into intense communion with the personal aspect of God. We may even see God's face - the glory of Christ, Amita Buddha, Divine Mother, or Krishna - depending on our cultural heritage. In this experience, we realize that God does not require a specific form to be personal. Hence the vision of samadhi not only heralds the political equality of persons, but the equality of religions. Religious pluralism, not exclusivity, is the sign of democracy.

Yes, we can transcend any insistence on a particular form of deity, yet have the most profoundly personal experience of our God. The Lord is all-pervading and His body is the cosmos. The Being in every form is divine. This means that devotees of all world religions can worship together, each in reverence for their personal God, radiating one and the same divine light from their hearts.

When a perfected Master like Jesus passes from this earth, she or he enters the radiant field of Christ-Consciousness as a drop enters the ocean. The drop becomes the sea, yet the sea also becomes the drop, and is eternally flavored by that drop. So in deep meditation, as we merge with the oceanic Christ, we may still experience the personal fragrance of Jesus, the personal vibration of the Master whose light has guided us there. Devotees of Jesus experience the intense sweetness of their Master's presence. Devotees of Krishna or Mother Divine or the Gurudev experience the unique flavor of their Master too. Yet all are one in Christ-Consciousness. Where is the conflict?

Worshiping our personal form of God in the formless Being may be likened to a room where a lily has blossomed. The scent of the lily pervades the air, even after the flower has withered away. When I enter that room and sit quietly, the scent of the lily bathes me, though I cannot see its form.