Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit [ptochoi to pneumati]” (Matthew 5:3). Kenneth Wuest in his The New Testament, An Expanded Translation renders this: “the destitute and helpless in the realm of the spirit.” Now that does not sound very blessed, however the qualifying words “of the spirit” can help us understand.
This beatitude is speaking of an attitude, of a practical view which we should hold regarding ourselves. But this attitude will in its fruition also be the impetus for spiritual activity. To be destitute and helpless is to both possess nothing and to be unable to do anything.
Before we reject this as a negative and unworthy ideal, we must realize that we are dealing with the world of the Absolute in which what is undesirable in the world of relative existence is often an expression of the highest good.
Void or Presence?
We must distinguish between nothing and No Thing. The failure to grasp this distinction has caused many to misunderstand the teaching of Buddhism regarding The Great Void, which is not pure Absence as many think, but is in actuality pure Presence, the totality of being. Nothing and No Thing are literally poles apart, for “nothing” is just that: nothing, zero. But No Thing is the Source of All and is in essence Everything.
Here in the world of relativity we are dragged along by things. Whether they be our minds, emotions, attachments, possessions, bodily needs, or the demands of others, whatever motivates us or stimulates us to keep on racing in the hamster wheel of conditioned existence is external to us: a thing.
In the domain of spirit, to be destitute is actually to be divested of all things, to be self-existent and therefore self-sufficient, to rest in our true essence which, being potentially infinite, is also potentially all-encompassing.
It is the Emptiness that is perfect Fulness. But that Fulness is unattainable as long as we possess, or are possessed by, a single mote. Therefore, those who are totally divested of all things whatsoever are truly blessed, for they may come to possess The All.
Poor in Spirit: Divine Helplessness
To be helpless in the highest sense is to be in a state beyond all doing whatsoever. Divinity in Its pure essence is transcendent, utterly beyond all motion and change, the Eternal Witness. Within itself it contains all the individualized consciousnesses for whose sake it has expanded or emanated Itself as all the spheres of relative existence.
As long as those consciousnesses are involved in the evolutionary currents of those innumerable worlds, they experience change, which is contradictory to their essential nature which is unchanging. Their very presence in those worlds is a fundamental self-denial, just as it is for the Deity, who for that reason is pictured as the cosmic man crucified upon the cross of matter. The crucifix is not just a depiction of the death of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a portrayal of both man and cosmos.
Beyond relativity
In order to do anything, the consciousness must be both within a region of relativity and in possession of some faculty or adjunct alien to its nature by which it can act upon its environment. God and the individual spirit being beyond all relativity and in need of nothing, obviously do nothing. Since action is antithetical to its very nature, then a spirit that is perfectly and irrevocably established in its true being is incapable of doing anything.
God and the perfect spirit are, then, destitute and helpless in the blessed state known as being poor in spirit. For theirs alone is the Kingdom of Heaven. Having no thing, they both have and are one with the All.
To possess infinity! Those who truly grasp the inner meaning of this first beatitude gladly set about divesting themselves of “things” and begin the blessed process of unlearning so they may at last attain to gnosis. Their lives must be increasingly simplified to reveal the essence of living. In their inner silence they come to be knowers of the Word. And all this they do through meditation and a spirit-oriented life.
This article is an excerpt from Swami Nirmalananda’s upcoming book, Christian Non-Dualism: A Commentary on Theologia Germanica, which we plan on publishing on June 29th.
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