“A Ten-Fold Path of Transcendence,
Part I”
The Ten Commandments are not simply a moral code. Moral admonitions have to do with behavior in social relationships; how we act toward each other. In their literal sense, the first four commandments are theological or worship rules, rather than moral rules: 1. Have no other gods before me; 2. make no graven images; 3. do not take God’s name in vain; and 4. remember the Sabbath day.
The next six commandments are moral admonitions: 5. Honor your parents; 6. don’t kill; 7. don’t commit adultery; 8. don’t steal; 9. don’t bear false witness. All of these commandments were part of the moral codes in Sumer, Canaan, and Egypt before Moses received them, and were part of Eastern religions as well.
The tenth commandment is a psychological admonition; “don’t covet” does not describe action toward others, but rather “coveting” describes a psychological state.
The First Commandment has startling implications for the meaning of the other nine. In the light of the First Commandment, even the commandments that are literally moral admonitions have a deeper metaphysical and spiritual significance. The First commandment is a key to metaphysical and spiritual import of the others. It is also a key to liberating power.
There is a preface to the commandments, which is an affirmation: “I am the LORD (the I AM) your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The symbolic meaning of this affirmation is: “God in you (I AM) is the power to bring you out of limitations (the meaning of the word “Egypt” in Hebrew) and ties to old ways of being (the Hebrew root of “bondage” is a word meaning “to be tied to”).
The first commandment is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
The words for “gods” and “God” originally meant “power.” There are two Hebrew words that are translated into the English “before.” One word means “above” and the other means “in front,” or more literally “in the face of.” So the Commandment is telling us: “in your mind, do not hold other powers as being greater than God, the One Power and do not let thoughts of other powers cover up (be “in the face of”) your awareness of the One Power.
Note that the commandment doesn’t actually prohibit having other gods or powers; it just prohibits putting other gods or powers above or in front of the One God. The earliest Israelites did not deny existence of other gods; they only refused to have faith in anything less than the God Most High, i.e. Supreme Being. Bernard Anderson wrote in his classic textbook Understanding the Bible: “Israel heard the commandment that it was forbidden for other gods to lay claim on her allegiance. The commandment does not say, ‘There are no other gods,’ but ‘You shall have no other gods.’”
Probably the prophet Isaiah was the first to explicitly proclaim that not only was the God of Israel the God Most High, but also the only God: “Turn to me & be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (45: 22)
Chronological study of the Bible indicates an evolving consciousness of God in Judaism during the times Bible was written. Evolving consciousness does not indicate that the nature of God has changed, but that human consciousness of the nature of Supreme Being has changed.
Even though in the Absolute there is Only One Being and Power, only One God, there is a relative sense in which there are “other gods.” Psalm 82 has God say, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.” This passage is quoted by Jesus in the Gospel of John. Since Jesus taught God is our Father and since the offspring of God would themselves be “gods” and “goddesses,” then in that sense alone are there other gods. In the relative sense, if you look at faces around you, you are seeing other faces of God. If you looked in the mirror this morning, you saw yet another face of God.
But the appearance of God as various faces is hardly the point. One could as well say, the whole universe is the offspring and face of God. What matters is what is behind the face. Your face tells almost nothing about you; it tells next to nothing about your life and character. Your facial expressions in response to thoughts and circumstances reveal flashes of your inner life; but not enough to truly know you.
Just as to find our own natures we must look into our own minds, even so to find the nature of God we must look below the surface to the inner workings of nature. We must look, as it were, into the Unity of God and Mind of God.
Here is a Metaphysical description of the Universe that expresses the idea of One God: the universe is a unified field of actualized energy, laws, and Mind, expressing the Infinite Creative Potential that logically precedes it.
We can also describe God as First Cause; the beginning and totality of the One Causal Chain. We give causal chains arbitrary starting points for practical scientific purposes. However, all causal chains ultimately go back to the Infinite Creative Potential, God. We can chose to arbitrarily start the description of a causal chain at any point. So, depending upon where we choose to start the description of the causal chain, the Exodus could be thought of as having be “caused” by Moses going to Pharaoh; or by Pharaoh enslaving the Israelites and refusing to let them go; or by Pharaoh’s father, because he sired the Pharaoh of the Exodus; or Abraham, Noah, or Adam and Eve, the ancestors of Moses. Yet ultimately the cause of the Exodus was God, source of the Universe and the higher Mind that inspired Moses to act. God is the liberating power.
Ultimately, the First Cause is the Highest Cause and may be thought of as the One Ultimate Cause. Metaphysically speaking, attributing power to anything less then the One Cause is the true meaning of “idolatry.” When you think of anything as having power in your life, other than God, you are setting up a false idol. Refusing to attribute power to “false idols” and attributing power only to the One Omnipresent Omnipotent Spirit is “having only One God.”
You begin to transcend any life challenge, whatever it is, when you withdraw your soul energy from attributing “power” to some condition and refocus your soul energy upon the ONE Power.
Since there is only one Power, one Being, then you must be one with that being and power. There is something more to you than what appears; more than body, personality, feelings, and even thoughts - more than body and soul.
You are an immortal unchanging spiritual identity and being; you are Infinite Being eternally being you. You are Infinite Being eternally experiencing the universe through you. You are the Spirit of Infinite Love and Wisdom eternally expressing as and through your True Identity.
Your soul is that which says, “I perceive and feel and think.” Your Spirit – God in you – is the true “I AM” of you, transcending perception, feeling, and thought. You are invested with power over your thoughts, which have power over your feelings, which in turn have power over your body and actions.
Since “God” means “Supreme Being,” your highest and greatest idea of Being is your idea of God. Your idea can expand and evolve closer to the Truth. Because God is by definition your highest idea, even though you are a “god” or “goddess,” you cannot put yourself above or in front of the One Supreme Being. In light of that, “You shall have no other gods above me” also means “you cannot have other gods above me.”
You can mentally rise above your body and personality and see that you are not that. That is not power. You can understand that you are Spirit playing a role. “All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Think of the essential character of your soul and body as your “casting assignment” from the One Power, the First Cause. Your function as a “god” or “goddess” is to direct the development of that character and the plot of that character’s life. You can choose to reshape your body, making it weaker or stronger. You can choose to change the appearance of its hair. Now, with the invention of tinted contact lenses, you can even change the apparent color of its eyes. You can reshape your face and body using diet, exercise, or plastic surgery. You can even reshape your body using your mind.
More importantly, you can choose to develop your character into an increasingly illumined, creative, and noble soul. You can cultivate any qualities you choose: humility, integrity, humor, compassion, faith, and so on. You can make your character more learned or more poetic. You can choose to have your character develop new skills. As Spirit, you write and direct your own part in the “Cosmic play.”
If you choose to take your character up the path of transcendence, up to the “Mt. Sinai of consciousness,” look first to the principle of Unity, the One Power. Open your mind to the influx of Divine Guidance; the Perfect Wisdom underlying the apparent universe. Open your heart to the influx of Infinite Love, which is the feeling of universal oneness. Open your body and soul to the influx of Omnipotence for ever expanding power to bless them and the world.
Lift your mind above your body and know the Truth: There is no power but the Omnipotent Life and Wholeness of God. The Truth will set you free.
Lift your mind above the conditions in your life and know the Truth: There is no power but the Omnipotent Divine Harmony and Order of God. The Truth will set you free.
Lift your mind above the challenging persons and relationships in your life and know the Truth: There is no power but the Divine Love and Wisdom of God. The Truth will set you free.
Lift your mind above the world and know the Truth: There is no power but God the Good Omnipotence. You will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.
That is the Liberating Power of the First Commandment.