The Immaculate Conception: Myth, Fact, Faith, or ‘Just Religion’?

Throughout history, the question of Jesus’ birth and conception has been surrounded by considerable controversy, but the mystery need not parallel obscurity. Whether he was conceived naturally or prenaturally, truly born of a virgin named Mother Mary, is, metaphysically, not what’s important. He is not defined by a parent.

At present, it is quite apparent: many men lose sight of the joy that comes from acknowledging God’s involvement in the human connection because he is consumed with trying to analytically dissect Creation. However, we need not grasp the details of how God works to know a clear, open connection, or to appreciate the beauty of His Creation.

To know true satisfaction, must one strive to understand the felicities of God’s onmipresent hand, or the complexities of His plan? Or is it simply enough to accept His power and Presence in the existence of all of man? To know His Presence now is not to ‘understand’ how it all began, as the source of joy is our existence at this moment.

Still, some may feel that this ‘explanation’ is insufficient, but Truth is verifiable only by identity with it, not merely ‘knowing about’ it. Our true understanding of His Presence is to live it, be it, and subjectively witness it, not to analyze, control, and dissect it. Thus, whether or not Jesus’ conception was truly immaculate, at least in the conventional sense, is irrelevant. Subjectivity is not bound by time or the details of history.

In Reality, all there is is this moment; one need not decipher existence to feel pleasant, to know His Presence. Through simple acceptance—that This Is It—we can witness true peace and fulfillment, and thus live life to the fullest. God is not presumptuous or rigid.

To be effectively transmitted, Truth need not be physically printed; it is simply a state of being or ‘isness’. It is, in essence, already present within us, but its profundity cannot really be expressed in words. It must be ‘experienced’ to be understood.

Being beyond good, bad, should, and could, the Truth is like devotion—brilliantly encrypted with divine innovation that transcends normal communication. It confounds common reason. It is accessible through meditation, which helps us quiet the mind, open the heart, and thus access divine wisdom—one’s intuition.

If man’s mind is full of beliefs, assumptions, and conclusions, however, it has no penetration; it is run by emotion and just repeats habits and past impressions. Too many preconceived notions render the question of knowing what Divinity is seem like an impossibility. Hence the Buddha said, “Make no images of me,” for devotion is due to God and not to personalities.

If one imagines or invents too many images and theories, there is no receptivity. Their mind, unlike a baby, isn’t a blank canvas of pure subjective awareness, or spiritual reality. As the emphasis is on the world of form and thus limited to objective reality, it is unable to grasp the context of a Reality which is actually beyond form and therefore beyond the reach of logic or reason. Theology is an attempt to address this, an attempt of the intellect to invent concepts in order to denote realities that are actually beyond accurate conceptualization.

This begs the question, how does man come to know anything, or even know that he knows? If knowledge acquisition is even possible without divine intervention, by what means does it occur? Any adequate theology has to be very erudite in these questions, which sum up the study of epistemology.

Since only direct subjective experience can substantiate the knowledge and truth of nonlinear spiritual reality, unless theology includes and acknowledges the truth as revealed by the sage, avatar, or yogi, who represents Divinity, it lacks authenticity and authority. No matter how scientific, technical, or logical a theory may be, its validity is not proven until it is confirmed experientially, namely, beyond belief.

The illusory belief that the ‘mind’ actually knows anything is really a pretense and vanity. By analogy, it’s like believing that a flashlight can light a room when, in reality, it’s the source of the light that provides illumination. The mind is only a receiver of the divine light and revelation, not its Source. While the intellect can interpret incoming ‘evidence’ and can attempt to predict that which can only be realized through inward experience, unless one is willing to relinquish hypothesis, they are stuck in the realm of abstraction and semantics. Hence the source of long-standing religious intolerance. Honest inner reflection reveals that mentation, analysis, and concepts, unless proven by subjective experience, are essentially abstract speculations that need not be a source of conflict.

Even with logic—forget the mystic—it is easy to see that the mind can only ‘think about’ a subject, and to think about a crime doesn’t make one a convict. To actually become a criminal requires doing a misconduct. Similarly, to actually ‘know’ requires being the known, not merely knowing about an intellectual construct. Thus, the categories of perception and mentation are not representative of unbiased subjective Awareness, or Reality.

The understandings that accompany direct religious experience, if not imbued with false pretense, are immaculate. This pure and true knowledge may thus be rightly called Enlightenment. Unlike religious partisanship, there is no room for argument. There are no separate participants. God represents Oneness, not a hypothesis. Thus, Divinity can only be known and not proven. Not even by the most trustworthy religious or scholarly philosophic system. Not by a highly advanced scientific mechanism. Not a belief system.

The pure, unblemished Awareness of spiritual reality is beyond description. No concepts are needed to denote subjective ‘witnessing’ of divine revelation. An immaculate conception is beyond mental manipulation; it represents freedom. One need not be an astronomer, professor, or scientist to receive the radiance and warmth of the sun.

In the context of Aeon, does it truly matter how it all begun? If we invent an image, then, again, we fool ourselves at once. Creation is creation; in fact, it is evolution—the process of always forming something new. It is always “immaculate” in the sense that right now is always true. Whether it be a bird, bee, me, or you, Creation is always bringing something into being by the creative power of our Lord.

In its highest form, the first Immaculate Conception was born when God conceived Adam and Eve, the symbolic parents of all human beings. Although different pastors may preach different teachings, and various scholars may interpret disparate meanings, there is something clear about all scriptural readings: they are multidimensional. The literal biblical interpretation of the Immaculate Conception doesn’t take the deeper metaphysical, mystical, and metaphorical meanings into consideration. The Life Energy within Jesus, for instance, is the same Life Energy within us. Some parsons and theologians may give this notion a fuss, but even Jesus himself said the same God is within us. (See John 14:12, Psalm 82:6, and John 10:34.)

Anyone can quote bibles and books, but the tale of Adam, Eve, and the tree is, quite simply, a symbolic story. One need not interpret the Bible literally. We can take a deeper look and study and, eventually, we’ll all agree. We’ll admit our thesis mistakes and see that there are actually no talking snakes. The story is a metaphor for different states, different realms man can access based on the consequences of his actions. It’s not merely about morality, temptation, or even the Garden of Eden. It’s not about location. The story simply represents the power of choice and the repercussions of our decisions. What happened whatever number of years ago in a conceptual garden only has practical relevance insofar as it conveys a principle. Whether or not Adam and Eve were real people doesn’t change that the story is a parable.

The truth is, we’re all born with infinite potential. By exercising our free will, we can all access a certain profoundness of experience that is ineffable. Life’s greatest wealth is, in essence, this. Outer so-called abundance can easily vanish, but nobody can take away our ability to be the subjective witness, identified as consciousness. We need not possess ‘that’ or ‘this’ to be pure, loving Awareness.

To simply be aware of the present moment, without judgment, attachment, or wanting to get, we can be free from the limitations or identifications that the mind creates based on memory and thought. This awareness allows one to see that, if the image they hold of themselves in their mind is eliminated, they are still here, looking, breathing, and moving, even though that self-image is absent. That self-image or character, therefore, although it may be a temporary worldly role in which they are involved, cannot represent the Essence or Core Nature of what they are.

The story of Adam and Eve can thus be resolved. If their personage is dissolved, it still holds true: when an electron is split from an atom, it multiplies the energy and creates Life. Likewise, Eve is split from Adam for the purpose of multiplying life. Thus, whether we perceive the story scientifically or religiously, it doesn’t change the truth conveyed metaphorically.

Many a metaphor serves as a reminder of the power of creation and our infinite potentiality—that we can not only create something new and beautiful out of something that exists already, but, more importantly, fulfill our highest possibility. We can all become the knowingness of full Enlightenment subjectively and, thus, fulfill our inevitable destiny, which is beyond any personal story, symbology, or anything we can imagine conceptually.

If we protect the gift of our Vitality, the gift of Life—that which is pouring through as the shape and form we call the body—if we nurture, cherish, and respect our Vital Energy, living without selfish interest and a personal identity, we will undoubtedly manifest something profoundly immaculate for the betterment of humanity. If, conversely, we live compulsively, if the body is hooked and addicted to short-term pleasures and takes more than it has earned fairly, how can we effectively blossom into our full potentiality? If one uses their Vitality and sells their Energy into the worldly, perhaps to chase money, burgundy, or treat another as merely a body, how can they truly prosper, let alone manifest their fullest flower? How can they produce their fullest fruit? As Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.”

Still, a tree grows by nourishing its roots. So it doesn’t make sense to merely seek the fruits. Instead, we can focus on the foundation of our beingness and live in the Presence of Awareness every moment. Being attentive to the continuous nowness of Life and its ever-newness is the definite path of Enlightenment, a way of being that remains unscathed, unblemished, and Immaculate.

That, in essence, is what Jesus came to tell us: we must find our way back to the Source of being, breathing, and Life, and thus, live in Presence. For as we live in the present, not recalling some short-term pleasure from memory, projecting it into the future mentally, and thus living identified as a mind and body, we witness true freedom and unassailable serenity. We come to know the meaning of that saying, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding . . .” We see that, overall, His message was about overcoming—of finding a rebirth away from the 3D body and living compulsory. For whether one is compulsive about food, an activity, or society, it is not a question of right or wrong, nor of goodness or immorality; it is simply a matter of bondage or freedom.

The Lord said, “Thy Kingdom Come,” which is the promise of freedom. But that freedom is not “to come,” for it is already here. It is not next year. Yeshua (Jesus), like Buddha and Krishna, all taught this. Although outwardly representing different religions, they all taught the same Truth: that the Source of Heaven is within you. Within us. They told us that we all have the power to create what we want on this immaculate planet. They taught us that Heaven is already something we inhabit. Above all, they said God is only found in This Moment.

       To be continued . . .