The same vital sap that flows through the trunk of a tree also flows through all its branches. There are not two vital principles in the tree, one on the trunk and one on the branches. The identity of life is absolute but different and varied is its manifestation. However, this identity of life does not determine the equality of the function of the trunk and the branches; there is individual autonomy in all. The trunk sustains, branches sprout the leaves, flowers and fruits, but the sap-feeding it is the same.
And it is precisely here that the great mystery of freedom begins: man as a conscious and free individual can act contrary to the universal (vital) principle of the cause which created him, for the unity of the essence allows the functional diversity of existences, which means that the branch (the man) can, despite being part of the tree (the Universal essence), be fruitful or sterile. Everything will depend on the free will of man.
As long as remaining only in the material symbol of the tree, there is no such possibility of divergence between the trunk and the branches, for, in the tree, there is no individual autonomy; it is a whole, for only one given function since the branches are simple extensions of the trunk.
When, however, focusing on the symbolized spiritual, there arises the possibility of the diversity between the trunk and the branches, for in the world of conscious and free beings, there is sufficient autonomy to act; the branch can oppose the action of the vital sap that circulates through the trunk. Man can be sinful without the divine element ceasing to exist in him for sin does not consist in the absence of God, who, being omnipresent, is never absent from anywhere; sin consists in the ignorance that man has and maintains about the presence of God. If God were absent from a single atom, this atom would cease to exist, or God would cease to be God for not being an omnipresent Reality. A God who is not omnipresent is not a God because it is limited and finite.
The divine life dwells in all creatures. When this divine life identifies with God, it will cease to be something individual, distinct from God; it would be a pure nothing in the level of individual “existence”, although it continued in the zone of universal “being”. All that exists individually exists only in virtue of the immanence of the Eternal Being. Nothing can exist without the Eternal Being penetrating it.
It is, therefore, possible for a man to be sinful, despite the immanence of God in him. Sin is not that God is absent from the sinner, but in the fact that it willingly ignores this divine and living presence as if God were absent.
When a man is under sunlight with his eyes open, the sun is present to him, and he is present to the sun; when he closes his eyes, the sun remains present to him, but this man is absent from the sun - that is, objectively present but subjectively absent.
A man who sins absents himself subjectively from God, even though he objectively continues to be present to God, to the ever-present God.
This subjective absence is what sin is.
Nonhuman beings, apparently, do not have enough consciousness to abstain subjectively from God; therefore, they cannot sin.
Superhuman beings of high spiritual consciousness does not sin because their high wisdom does not allow them to absent themselves from God subjectively; its intensely enlightened consciousness has stabilized them in the truth.
When it circulates freely in its human branches, the vital sap of the “tree” of Christ produces in them Christlike fecundity. And, to produce more and more abundant fruit, these branches are purified or pruned. The pruning consists of eliminating part of the branches; thus, there is a more intense concentration of the sap of the trunk in a few branches, which then produce more vigorous fruits. Pruning causes the branch to “cry” because it is a kind of painful discipline. Every man who practices spiritual discipline knows how difficult and painful it is, at least initially. It's quite a “pruning”. The disciplined man spontaneously deprives himself of many pleasant things in which the undisciplined are pleased. While others pour themselves into the easy amusements and superfluous things of society, the disciplined man often retreats to intense mental concentration or spiritual meditation. In the eyes of the profane, this man is worthy of pity; his life seems poverty and monotony; however, disciplined life is wealth and harmony. True happiness does not consist in the quantity of pleasures that man enjoys but in the quality of enjoyment that he relishes.
This wisdom, however, is not accessible to people who have not tasted it in themselves; one can only know the taste of a delicacy who savour it. This flavour, however, does not come from a theory but from practice or experience.
When one bears fruit by intimate living with the divine vital sap of Christ's spirit will be purified more and more from the impurities of its tyrannical ego; and this process of improvement is painfully smooth; what is bitter in it belongs to the physical-mental ego, the “persona” of man, his mask; what is soft in it, comes from the spiritual Self, from the true individuality of man.
After enjoying the bitter mildness of spiritual discipline, no man would be willing to exchange this experience for the life of some profane man swimming in an ocean of pleasures. An earthworm is happy when it has enough humus to digest; a horse is happy when it has enough grass to eat; a child is happy when it gets many toys to play. The fulfilment of the potentiality of a being is its happiness; if this potency is small, happiness is also small. Increasing potentiality increases the possibility of greater happiness. But as long as the measure of potency is not potentialized, there is a sense of dissatisfaction in man until this measure is made dynamical. And with this, potentiality grows again.
Thanks to his blindness, the profane man lives in sad happiness.
The beginner of the things of the spirit, who guesses a plenitude that may possess, but not yet possessed, enters an area of metaphysical restlessness, which is glorious unhappiness.
The initiate, however, after attuning his humble desire with the glorious cosmic desire is excited by abundant happiness.
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