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COMMENT On Modern Life No.1 Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
STARTSI The 'elders' of the Inner Tradition 
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THE ELDERS The Hermit's Message The Western Version Christian Fourth Way Lost Christianity Saints are made
PRAXIS NOW
 A glimpse of one of Praxis' new video talks. These articles give brief glimpses into the thinking of Praxis Research Institute. |
Inner Christianity Glimpse of Truth Different knowledge Darkness of the psyche
Inner states
Consciousness retold Speaking of God Seeking Self Inner Identity Civilising Knowledge
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Page 4 In particular, very great care is needed when interpreting even the most open text about inner teachings. The early fathers of the church repeatedly used Biblical texts which appear to have a purely outer meaning as parables to illustrate inner truths. We must also realize that since the second century, when the inner teaching went underground, those texts which illustrate some spiritual lesson with examples from the lives of those who had passed through the relevant experience in the past - as in Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, and other works on the same theme - actually intended to be misinterpreted by anyone who had insufficient inner experience to understand their deeper meaning. The effects of taking such texts as having merely historical significance is just the confusion we observe in modern theology. One problem group of Greek words used throughout the history of the early church - in the gospels, (particularly Saint Mark), in the epistles of Paul, and in the early fathers of the church - was that whose common modern form is gnosis. We can find records of the use of this word not remotely linked to what is now popularly called Gnosticism, as Gnosis was originally simply a term for a special kind of knowledge, one of the properties of which is that it is not obtained through the senses. This idea, which will be discussed further in Chapter Eleven, was summarized by the translator of Clement's Stromata thus: “By ‘gnosis,’ Clement understood the perfect knowledge of all that relates to God, His nature, and dispensations. He speaks of a twofold knowledge, one, common to all men, and born of sense; the other, the genuine ‘gnosis’ ... 1 This latter is not born with men, but must be gained and by practice formed into a habit. The initiated find its perfection in a loving mysticism, which this never-failing love makes lasting." 2And Clement himself wrote: "And the gnosis itself is that which has descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles. Hence, then, knowledge or wisdom ought to be exercised up to the eternal and unchangeable habit of contemplation.” 3 |
A NEW VISION 
These Different articles from the previous Praxis website give some idea of the thinking that brought us to this point |
A New Vision Page 1 A New Vision Page 2 A New Vision Page 3 A New Vision Page 4 A New Vision Page 5 A New Vision Page 6
PRAXIS PAST 
praxis web 4 ARCHIVES including most of the text articles from praxis Web 4. Main texts are listed with simple descriptions under CONTENTS and more fully under ABSTRACTS |
* CONTENTS * ABSTRACTS A New Vision The Ark Text List A Different Christianity Philosophers of God St. Gregory Palamas Cross-fertilisation Abstraction & attention Lost Doctrines Lost Christian truths The Royal Road Inner language History of Christianity Christian Therapy The First Millennium Christian Psychology Different kind of mind One thing needful Emotional Education Magnetisation to God Eastern Church spirituality God's drill Threshold of prayer Ora et Labora Research Report Mystical History Cultural Evolution Esoteric Christianity The Barbarian Within Spiritual crisis of the West
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