I never really knew what this meant until now:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven— Matthew 5:3
This the initial and perhaps most important “commandment” of the New Testament Beatitudes, which collectively emphasize what you SHALL do versus the Old Testament’s what “thou shalt not” do. In this core teaching in the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus basically sums up the whole point of spiritual development— humility in the presence of the divine, a full recognition of the origin our spirit, and our eternal reliance on that source for our very lives and livelihood.
I am speaking here of full and joyful embrace of God not as some old bearded patriarchal white guy above the clouds but as pure, eternal, undivided, divine Being. Lillian Dewaters and other Christian mystics call this godhead simply Reality— all-pervading, self-aware, union with what IS beyond all attempts to have, do, or even become (which I have spoken about in a past essay).
“Blessed are the poor in spirit” can be read in many ways. It could mean “blessed are the poor, in spirit” (i.e. those who are materially poor are rich in spirit). It could mean that one is blessed by poverty by divine plan so that one can experience the depth and riches of the spirit in this lifetime (where one’s poverty is a movement of divine meeting the needs of the soul by removing the attractions of the world). And finally, there is “poor in spirit”, i.e. humble on the spiritual level, needing grace and provision to make sense of the one’s life and its purpose and worth in the world. I am sure there are other ways to read and experience this passage, and I encourage you to put them in the comments.
I prefer to align the reading of this “poverty of spirit” passage with Jesus’ admonition to become like children.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, (Jesus) put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18: 1-6, ESV)
Children are poor because they have nothing of material or social worth, and yet precisely BECAUSE OF THIS, they have everything of spiritual importance. Children of God are “poor” in prejudice, comparison, rivalry, pettiness, YET very rich in openness, spontaneity, willingness to learn, trust, love of others, creativity, present-living, playfulness, and innocence.
When I typed this phrase “become like children Jesus” to access the relevant Bible verse, in addition to the passage I quoted above, I received this summary artificial intelligence generated summary of human discussions on the topic:
To “become like children” as Jesus instructs, we must adopt a humble, teachable, and trusting attitude, similar to that of a child. This involves recognizing our limitations and powerlessness, and relying on God’s guidance and protection.
It seemed innocuous enough, until I looked under the description of “trust” among the further descriptions of childlike traits provided by AI. In a very pejoratively “adult” way, it had snuck in some authoritarian programming that went against Jesus’ teaching: “Children often trust their parents without question, and we should strive to have a similar level of faith in God.” Becoming like a child, according to Jesus, DOES NOT mean having unquestioning faith. Children are full of inconvenient questions, and so should we be. Unquestioning faith is naivety not innocence, and naivety serves only to make one captive to the world and its commonly wicked ways.
Why is childlike “poverty” so spiritually advantageous? Simply put, one has to lose attachment to the world in order to gain connection with the spirit. One has to empty one’s cup of the sewer water of adult vanities around “merit” to be filled with the nectar of unconditional “grace.” No amount of adult obsessing, accomplishing, striving, asserting will create union with the Self (capital “S”) of God, as eternal, divine presence. In surrendering TO this “charis” or gift (Greek for “grace”), one is not only filled, but OVERFLOWING with a gratefulness, peace, and abundance that exceeds anything the world can provide. Adults, in their jaded ignorance, have lost that spiritual umbilical cord, which can never be found by physical doing and mental thinking.
Above and beyond the physical is the mental. Above and beyond the mental is the divine and spiritual… Surrendering the ways of the material and the ways of the mental, one comes naturally into the experience of the Real and the Eternal.— Lillian Dewaters, Light of the Eternal
That word “experience” is key. Spiritual experience is intimate, deep, and wisdom-producing PARTICIPATION. It is a kind of action, but not one directed by the personality toward egocentric ends. The personality and its egocentric motives require a “doer,” a kind of mini-god who pretends it is the ultimate and worthy creator because it believes that unless it is separate its action is somehow invalidated by sharing credit. But how absurd this is! I did not give birth to myself! Nor do I simply, by my own, give birth to “my” own creations.
Per Nietzsche, I am not a doer but a “deed”, a participant in a dance, a beautiful instrument through which this spirit and soul expresses itself. I am as spirit CONNECTED INDIVIDUATION. I have a unique identity and genius, yet one that is simultaneously and eternally connected to everything! I have the best of both worlds— I am like nothing else in the universe and yet I can access everything in the universe. I am a “child” in the truest, best sense, unique yet completely interdependent.
Even my own soul (the embodiment of my spirit) is not something I “possess,” but rather something that possesses or intimately embraces me. Spiritually there is no separation (as in human language) between subject and predicate, between “doer” and “deed”. Therefore, all action, even individually intentional and chosen action, is collaborative in nature, and it is only when we anoint ourselves with the twin conceits of controlling and commanding that we fall away from God and into our own tortured delusions of self-generated greatness.
There is this impulse to “do it by myself” to achieve an “authentic” worth, even though nothing CAN be done by itself. I cannot even call myself an individual without you to call myself and individual from! And yet somehow, the “adult” in me strives to ruin this inherent and blessed interdependence by creating an illusory “independence,” a vain shell striving for a counterfeit “worth” based in insularity and alleged superiority, cutting me off from spirit and producing tremendous spiritual and emotional insecurity as well as lack of affection.
This alienating, self-damning move is most often compounded by a hopeless and wanton striving, including the accumulation of worldly wealth, adulation, and social power. Control and command over others (versus loving them) becomes my truly pathetic way to compensate for my lost spiritual inheritance. Hence, the biblical tale of the prodigal son is played out. May we be so lucky to wake up, as he did, and return from the desperate swine pit of our own vanities and self-glorification to the mother-father soul-spirit who welcomes us always with open arms, even after we have dishonored the spirit and abandoned all that was right, real, and just.
This is the nature of true grace.
Lillian Dewaters (p. 28-29 in Light of the Eternal) provides a fitting conclusory summation:
To know our perfection as it is and to live in this spiritual awareness continually, we must love our perfect Self first, above all, with an all-consuming spiritual love. Only Love can comprehend the deep things of God. Only Love can live the life of the Eternal. Reality goes on by Itself! Reality is not the fruition of anyone’s thinking. Make no personal effort to do or create anything. Personal mind and personal thinking cannot appear when we cease to be identified with them. No discordant condition can continue. Intellect or mind is merely an instrument of a finite personality. The illumined know it for what it is. Whence cometh the personal “I”? Seek it out and it cannot be found. When one uses truth as a mental practice instead of experiencing Truth as a living reality, he denies his own Selfhood. The way to eradicate personal thinking is to function as the perfect I. This I is spontaneously shining as perfect Being— God, the All-pure, the One.
In other words, the way to become Real again, is to become poor in spirit, become like a child, and regain/reconnect with one’s spiritual inheritance (the One, the divine I) and surrender “adult” vanities that stand in the way.
All blessings,
Zeus