The Twelfth Insight - James Redfield [50]
Everyone was nodding in agreement.
“How, then,” Wil said, “would the rest of you describe this love and belonging element of the God Connection?”
“The Holy Spirit filled us,” Rachel replied.
“Allah gave us his guidance,” Adjar commented.
“God rewarded our work,” said Hira.
Everyone looked at Tommy.
“Spirit filled the world and it came alive!” he said with a power that surprised everyone.
Coleman seemed to be thinking again. “Wait a minute. Those are religious descriptions. We need to speak more precisely about the actual experience of coming home to love, and discern which tradition emphasizes this the most.”
Rachel was about ready to burst.
“There is only one tradition,” she said, “that especially emphasizes Divine Love: Christianity. I know that the word love often sounds hollow, and we fall short in always expressing love. But we do believe that, if we humbly seek this experience, we can move into and feel what we felt on the mountain. We are lifted above our old lives, and all the mistakes we’ve made are transcended. We are made new and more whole.
“To me, this experience felt like coming home, where we are finally free from all those things we wish we hadn’t done. There’s a sense that when we reach this Connection, we can start over.”
No one spoke. We all knew she was right. The love and well-being we felt did feel like leaving the past behind.
“We teach that anyone,” she continued, “who wants to come home and start over can find that experience. But it means refuting the idea of an eye for an eye. As we saw on Secret Mountain, at a higher consciousness, there’s no justification for a Cycle of Revenge, no possibility of it. The truth is that we have to allow everyone to have the ability to change, to be redeemed in the blink of an eye.”
I couldn’t believe she was addressing the Cycle of Revenge. Colonel Peterson had said it couldn’t be overcome. Was there another tradition that refuted the Cycle of Revenge, even if they couldn’t live up to it?
Finally, Adjar spoke. “I must admit that our tradition does not emphasize this element of love and forgiveness, not the way we experienced it. And our tradition too often does hold on to revenge and punishment as basic principles. In fact, I never understood forgiveness until our Breakthrough. But we do have parts of our tradition, such as the Sufis, who say essentially the same thing—they just do not receive much attention.”
Several other people then commented on the little-known scriptures found within their traditions that likewise pointed to the same idea of love and transcending the past.
“So,” Wil said, “do we agree that Christianity has the best emphasis on this element of the God Experience? An emphasis that the others, to be accurate in describing this experience, should integrate as well?”
Tommy spoke up. “Native peoples have sometimes been focused on revenge and enemies. I agree that Christianity has the most emphasis.”
“I agree as well,” Wil said. “Eastern thought speaks more in terms of bliss, but also has currents of teaching about love and reconciliation. But transformational love, in the Christian tradition, is the most accurate.”
Everyone else was nodding in agreement.
“Okay,” Wil continued. “But I have to raise a question we touched on earlier. Rachel, I’ll start with you. Can you acknowledge that people from other religions can reach this euphoric place from within their own tradition?”
She looked at him with total honesty. “I have to admit I have always had a problem accepting that, primarily because of our scripture’s injunction that no one comes to God except through Christ. And I know others here have the same exclusive feeling about their own paths.”
I looked around, sensing we had reached a roadblock. The main challenge to religious reconciliation had been put squarely on the table before us.
Then an idea came to me, and without thinking I said, “But Rachel, you do believe that, at baptism,