Ingredients of a Living Spiritual Path -- Seven Gnostic-Sant Mat Parallels
In the Corpus Hermeticum and Nag Hammadi scriptures are/were described all of the ingredients of a living, viable mystical path:
1) living masters/teachers with students (past masters, scrolls, cuneiform tablets or old scriptures are not enough; a living guide is required);
2) a cosmology of several heavens/inner regions/planes/spheres;
3) an understanding that souls can access these realms here and now during this present life (a present-tense Kingdom of Heaven available to souls right now, not a spirituality postponed till some magical date on a calendar or hypothesized future age);
4) an initiation into the mysteries of the heavens, imparting to spiritual seekers the meditation techniques and sacred names;
5) visionary and auditory #mysticism (inner Light and Sound, spiritual seeing and hearing) -- descriptions of souls traveling within through various inner regions;
6) they have an ethical code, and this ethical foundation includes a vegetarian/vegan diet, then and now;
7) The Goal of the teachings and meditation practice is experiencing direct union with God.
#SantMat #Sant_Mat
