I will close this section with an extended quote from a letter by Albert Einstein.
Note: When Einstein says "liberation from the self," he is referring to the ego. From this letter it would appear apparent that Einstein had touched the transcendent. His obvious genius was evidence that he touched the transcendent state quite often, in my opinion. Whether he was aware of this is the question. This letter would indicate he believed he only had glimpses of this connection.
In order to obtain the liberation of self from the ego, a human being must find the inner Self or transcendent Self. My concept of the Divine, the Universal Gaia, combines opinions from the Unified Field Theory, spiritualism, Greek mythology and indigenous beliefs. Recently I have discovered links between my concept and the Plotinian doctrine to some degree. There are direct parallels between the Universal Gaia Concept and the modern theories of Evolutionary panentheism, (the Divine is both immanent in and transcendent to the Universe) and Evolutionary emanationism (that creation emanates from the Divine.)
An individual on a spiritual journey must forge his/her own path. I encourage you to seek your own Divine Spark, the essence within you, which is part of the eternal One, part of the Universal Gaia. Your own divine element allows you to connect with the All, which is the One. It is during spiritual questioning where so many, past and present, have gained a limited connection to the eternal, whether you call that God, Goddess, or Universal Gaia. This connection, forged in silence, is there waiting for you.
"Still there are moments when one feels free from one's own identification, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny--only being. A human being, is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
The finest emotion we are capable of is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties--this knowledge, this feeling. . . that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men.The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self."
In order to obtain the liberation of self from the ego, a human being must find the inner Self or transcendent Self. My concept of the Divine, the Universal Gaia, combines opinions from the Unified Field Theory, spiritualism, Greek mythology and indigenous beliefs. Recently I have discovered links between my concept and the Plotinian doctrine to some degree. There are direct parallels between the Universal Gaia Concept and the modern theories of Evolutionary panentheism, (the Divine is both immanent in and transcendent to the Universe) and Evolutionary emanationism (that creation emanates from the Divine.)
An individual on a spiritual journey must forge his/her own path. I encourage you to seek your own Divine Spark, the essence within you, which is part of the eternal One, part of the Universal Gaia. Your own divine element allows you to connect with the All, which is the One. It is during spiritual questioning where so many, past and present, have gained a limited connection to the eternal, whether you call that God, Goddess, or Universal Gaia. This connection, forged in silence, is there waiting for you.
The Einstein quote is from "Einstein" by Jeremy Bernstein, New York Viking Press 1973, page 11.
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