The Self
Whether to die to it, transcend it, realise its non-existence, or love God and neighbour as oneself — every tradition has a verdict on the self.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
"All forms are unreal..."
"Let a man lift himself by his Self alone..."
See this theme as a comparative study.
- The Descent of the Divine into Mortal Form
Heavenly beings cross the boundary between worlds — sired upon mortals, descended to teach, or born as men sent in every age. The motif recurs in the Torah's 'sons of God' and the Nephilim that follow them, in 1 Enoch's Watchers, and in the Hindu doctrine of avatāra — 'the descent' — woven through the Mahabharata.
- The Word, the Way, the Logos, the Tao
A cosmic principle by which the universe is ordered — personified, spoken, or named as unnameable. Read John 1 next to Tao Te Ching 1 and the Rigveda's Nasadiya for the most striking comparative moment in scripture.
Discussion
No one has written anything here yet. Some places to begin:
- Which verse landed hardest for you?
- What's a counter-text — a verse that complicates this theme?
- How does this theme show up in a tradition not represented here?
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