It is inevitable that the religious mind should eventually be replaced by the ecclesiastical mind. The religious mind’s focus is on the spiritual which transcends the flesh or the corporeal whereas the ecclesiastical mind is set on the church: the institution of community worship which has not attained the religious mind. The ecclesiastical mind can only venerate the religious mind.
With this shift or change by which the ecclesiastical mind comes to power, the religious mind gradually sinks into the background. In one respect, the religious mind is closer to the world of heresies because it is difficult to understand by the ecclesiastical mind. Still, the religious mind is never heretical if it has realized spirit or the same the One Mind.
Generally speaking, most religions fall into the snare of the ecclesiastical mind which can be highly intellectual and at the same time emotional. Yes, Zen Buddhism fell into this trap long ago in which seated meditation became a substitute for gnosis or the same, intuition. Yet truth tries to tells us that nothing fundamental can be gained by either rituals or by physical sitting.
Still, stubbornness pushes on hoping that it can turn the ecclesiastical mind into the religious mind. What eventually happens is that, overtime, the ecclesiastical mind grows tired of religion and chooses to go back to the secular life. What then becomes of religion? It falls back to the religious mind. It alone is capable of understanding religion, religion being the discovery of spirit which has been hidden by the corporeal or the same, the flesh.
This is possibly the best explanation of this I have ever read.
Posted by: dave | April 14, 2021 at 03:17 AM