#1 - A Life of the Mind. A Life of the Mind is pursued as primary over the parallel life of the physiological body in external consensus reality. The central focus of the Nontheistic Transcendent is the expansion and evolution of one’s own Consciousness in the search for Inner Peace. The body is considered a vehicle of Consciousness which generates Fear and Desire that manifests through the Ego and Persona. The body, and its resultant Fears and Desires of external reality, is not to be denigrated or repressed, but Sublimated to the Will of the Nontheistic Transcendentalist.

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#2 - The Primacy of Inner Peace. The search for Inner Peace is primary to material, external, consensus reality. Empirical consensus reality is considered simultaneously existing in a lower order. However, the Nontheistic Celebrant does not deny the findings of science, observable phenomena or knowledge of external reality, but rather transcends and includes these lesser realities through their exploration of the Suprapersonal mystery of Consciousness. Any positive development in external reality resulting from following the Path is incidental to the primary goal of developing expanded Consciousness and Inner Peace.

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#3- The Non-Theistic Ego Death of God. By interpreting the Bible symbolically instead of literally, the way a Jungian psychologist might interpret a dream, the Nontheistic Transcendentalist can apprehend the transcendental message of the Christ which was similar to that of the Buddha . What is sacrificed through this transcendental interpretation is the interpersonal god who grants wish fulfillment afterlives that are promised by the churches. The metaphysical abstraction referred to as “god” is an Unknowable cosmological metaphysical speculation and is therefore irrelevant to the development of expanded and awakened Consciousness. The Nontheistic Transcendent explores the Suprapersonal mystery of Consciousness as the individual’s interface with the Cosmos. The Nontheistic Celebrant draws from the metaphorical and symbolic message of the Buddha and the Christ but does not conform to the literal-historical interpretations of the sacred texts of these religions. The Nontheistic Transcendent is not forced to comply with church doctrines regarding the supernatural beliefs of the Christ’s “virgin birth,” or “bodily resurrection from the dead,” or that the Buddha or the Christ were divine or supernatural in any way. All sacred texts are to be interpreted symbolically to read as metaphorical to Consciousness and thereby reactivating the mystical symbols which have gone dead in their literal translation. The most significant difference between Non-Theism and traditional theological religions is that the Buddhist Christian Transcendent does not consider the mysterious phenomena referred to as "god" as being separate and distinct from humanity, or the rocks, trees, stars and energy of the cosmos. We are the universe learning about itself. Because Non-Theism considers all matter and energy emanating from the big bangs of the multiverse to be of one source, the Nontheistic Transcendentalist is a Celebrant, not a worshipper.

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#4 - The Death Adjacent Dream State. The phenomenological occurrence of what happens after the death of the body referred to as an “afterlife” is unknowable and therefore not to be feared. Desire to live longer in external reality and fear of Ego Extinction are conditions precedent for most forms of suffering and violence. The Nontheistic Transcendent believes that the Christ’s references to a Kingdom of Heaven were symbolic references to a state of being here on earth, equivalent to the Buddha’s Nirvana. However, one central goal of the Buddhist Christian Transcendent is to prepare one’s Consciousness for the scientifically viable potential of a trans-temporal Death Adjacent Dream-State in which we may end up dwelling. We theorize that we spend our lives in the material world constructing a Personal Unconscious, “Soul,” Psyche or “Spirit,” in preparation for potentially dwelling in this timeless Death Adjacent Dream State. By expanding consciousness past ordinary Ego awareness we abate the primal fear of death which is essentially Ego extinction. The Nontheistic Celebrant may utilize psychedelics such as Marijuana, Psilocybin, Mescaline, LSD and Peyote, to learn transcendence of Ego consciousness in preparation for the death experience in all its unknown dimensions. An increased spiritual fearlessness resulting from death preparation work will lead to a more ethical human being and therefore better society, one individual at a time.

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#5 - Ethical Templates of The Buddha and the Christ. The main Ethical templates for development of Consciousness are the metaphorical, symbolic and transcendental interpretations of the messages directly from the Buddha and the Christ. The responsibility for interpretation and application of these messages falls to the individual. However, the Nontheistic Transcendent does not conform to the literal-historical interpretations of beliefs that the Buddha or the Christ were supernatural or deified in any way. No material drawn upon from any wisdom tradition, mythology or religion is meant to refer to historical truths or empirical reality, but rather references the Suprapersonal mystery of the inner cosmos of the Mind, known as Consciousness. The Nontheistic Celebrant can draw from any body of knowledge in accordance with reason, including science, wisdom traditions, philosophy, art, literature, depth psychology and Nature in order to activate their creative Unconscious. The Suprapersonal Unconscious is considered the restorative component of the psyche working in conjunction with the logic and reason produced by the Ego. These processes of the creative Unconscious will serve as ever cycling containers for mysterious and powerful archetypal energies in the development of an Individuated Consciousness.

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#6 - Five Template Attributes. The initial 5 Template Attributes sought for development by the Nontheistic Transcendent are Imagination, Humor, Compassion, Courage and Self-Awareness. The sustained development of these inner attributes can combine to provide Hope and Joy in the initiate, which will result in a more Ethical human being than the genetic-directive-driven, naturally selected, biological human animal which defaults to Fear and Desire, and external realities of consumption and reproduction. These template attributes are starting points which can be maintained, revised, re-visioned and spiritually co-created into new attributes as each Nontheistic Celebrant sees fit. The purpose of the 5 Attributes is for the individual to hone focus on emergent qualities of their inner work.

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#7 - Striving Against Projections. No Nontheistic Transcendent shall impose their sociopolitical agenda on another human being. The Churches of the world have deemed such things as Abortion, Homosexuality and Suicide as “sins” against an interventionist deity in a different dimension of space-time solely for the economic reason that these phenomena each serve to reduce future church membership, and therefore reduce revenue. The Nontheistic Celebrant will diligently self-monitor for any such Projections of their Fear and Desire onto Others. This is done through diligent and courageous inner work in identifying, confronting and integrating one’s own unconscious projections, with specific emphasis on Shadow material in the Unconscious mind. The Christ in the desert and the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, each confronted their own Shadow while in meditation, personified as the external characters of the demon Satan and the demon Mara, respectively. Anyone conveying an Exoteric message referencing any socially constructed consensus reality, or metaphysical speculation outside the Inner World of the Mind, is not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist.

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#8 - Behavioral Guidelines. Anyone can strive to be a Nontheistic Transcendentalist by pursuing self-knowledge, Gnosis, wholeness, Inner Peace and the Individuation of Consciousness. However, the Practicing Nontheistic Transcendentalist will follow the 5 Buddhist Precepts as the central ethical foundation, interpreted as: 1) No Violence 2) No Lying or Hypocrisy 3) No Stealing 4) No sexual misconduct as harmful to another or self-destructive to the individual 5) No intoxicating substances which Enslave; specifically, no alcohol, opiates or amphetamines. Psychedelics which the Buddhist Christian Transcendent uses for consciousness expansion by exploration of the numinous Unconscious mind, such as Marijuana, Psilocybin, Mescaline, LSD and Peyote, do not enslave the Individual and are permitted. It is noted that the 5 Buddhist precepts align with 4 of the Judeo-Christian “10 commandments” other than those relating to worship of the deity.

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#9 - Spiritual Sovereignty of the Individual. The Nontheistic Celebrant will strive to develop the Courage to stand against a crowd, to defy the majority of any ideology whether socioreligious, sociopolitical, conservative or liberal, when that majority seeks control of another’s Mind. This includes but is not limited to churches, theocracies, political groups, social movements or individuals who wish to impose their belief that the Christ was the biological offspring of an interventionist deity. The Nontheistic Transcendent accepts that societal change is only possible at the individual level, and in so doing, leads by example in the search for self-knowledge, Satori and Joy.

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#10 - The 7 Deadly Obstacles to Joy. The Nontheistic Transcendent strives to develop diligent Mindful observation of the 7 Deadly Obstacles to Joy which are considered an ancient cartography of our genetic directive to consumption and reproduction. As amalgamated human animals striving toward an expanded Consciousness, we monitor our own thoughts, beliefs and behavior, moment by moment, for waves of Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Greed as warning signs to falling off the Path to Individuation. But no Transcendentalist will project their interpretation of how to mitigate these negative forces onto another human being. These 7 Obstacles do not form a moral code, or relate to sins against a deity, but are emanations of an imbalanced Consciousness. The 7 Deadly Obstacles to Joy end up acting as obstacles to the Christ’s central message to Do Onto Others as we would do unto ourselves.

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#11 - Psychospiritual Development. The Nontheistic Transcendentalist recognizes the 4 Noble Truths of the Buddha, attempts to follow the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path, and uses these guidelines to strive daily toward the central challenge of the Christ to Do Onto Others as we would do onto ourselves. Unlike other churches, the Transcendentalists acknowledge that in order to achieve the state of Do Onto Others, one must first discover and learn to love one’s own Authentic Self and expand Consciousness to apprehend the interconnectedness of all humanity. We believe this Great Inner Work is primary to achieving genuine Compassion in order to follow the Inner Way without hypocrisy or the projection of Fears and Desires. In this way, “faith” as defined by the Nontheistic Celebrant, is Faith in one’s own ability to expand Consciousness past the Ego, transcend the human-animal and perceive the peaceful interconnectedness of all sentient creatures.

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#12 – Psychospiritual Personal Accountability. The Nontheistic Transcendentalist takes Personal Accountability for their own life, beliefs, behaviors and worldviews. We believe that all evil stems from human states of unconsciousness, where the individual has not awakened to self-knowledge. This expansion toward wholeness is achieved by way of self-observation, Gnosis, reading and research, Active Imagination of the Unconscious, transcendental meditation, sacramental use of psychedelics and reflections of any reasonable kind which refer back to the Inner World of the Mind. We continually strive to identify and eradicate any contradiction between our beliefs and behaviors. This is primarily achieved through exploration, confrontation and integration of Shadow material from our dark Unconscious realms. However, anyone proclaiming metaphysical “truths” projected onto shared-external-consensus-reality is not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist. Anyone claiming to know “truths” related to the mystery of metaphysical structures and concepts has strayed from the Great Mystery of Consciousness and is not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist. Anyone claiming to have knowledge of the will of an unknowable deity is not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist. Anyone promoting or promising the supernatural is exoterically projecting and not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist. Anyone actively soliciting donations of gifts, money, or labor is an exoteric imposter and not a Nontheistic Transcendentalist.

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#13 - Striving for Enlightened Moments. All Nontheistic Transcendentalists acknowledge that they are fallible and perpetually striving against their physiological based human-animal nature. The Buddha and the Christ were avatars of Individuated Consciousness, Psychic Totalities, which the world will never see again. No Nontheistic Celebrant considers themselves “enlightened,” rather they are continually striving for the experience of Enlightened Moments on a daily basis, through the expansion of consciousness past our Egoic reality. By acknowledging the perpetual formation of self-defense mechanisms, which enable the perpetual formation of Shadow material, the Nontheistic Transcendent remains mythologized in their own cycling states of self-awareness. The Nontheistic Transcendentalist continually humbles themselves to the Suprapersonal numinous mystery of Consciousness which enables a state of perpetual Learning, Expansion and Play. It is in this state of striving that the emergent quality of genuine Love for all humanity can be found.

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Tatvamasi from one perpetually striving toward Inner Peace through the expansion of consciousness.

 

-Abhaya Porta

 Copyright 2020

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