IV. UNDERSTANDING THE ABSOLUTE: STRUCTURES OF NEW BEINGNESS, HIGHEST BEINGNESS

IV.I. personal or impersonal beingness
 

    Understanding the Absolute is a central description of many theological systems. Therefore it is necessary to rely on not only on written but also
verbal witnesses.

    The idea of the Absolute is not yet developed in detail, and taking into account its openness to other religious cultures, it has a reasonably indefinite character. Nevertheless, it has succeeded to reconstruct some features and correlate them with stable concepts about the Absolute, as composed in other theological systems.

    The highest beingness, or Absolute, has an impersonal character, it being a condition of existence of personal spiritual beingness and those cre-
ations which result from the creative game of the powerful and eternal self.

    Though this question is not of a general nature and not for spiritual practice, it should possibly be recognized that the relations between creator and the created world are interrupted; i.e., between them there does not exist a gradual continuous transition. As regards the Absolute, it is considered as an inherent essence, i.e., the achievable spiritual essence, and is the result which awaits any person who walks the personal path on the Bridge to Total Freedom.

    Revelation is given in Scientology solely and completely by the personality, life and works (texts) of L. Ron Hubbard. Therefore, the task of the members of the church is to learn and understand the message of Hubbard. Here is the basis for the continual references to statements and texts of Hubbard. The function and the role of the Hubbard texts in the sermon, in the service and the daily practice of the ministers and attendants of the church play their role in revelation.

    For Scientology, the non-verbal understanding of the Absolute is typical, i.e., an     understanding which is typical for the apofatitjesk theology. The apofatitjesk understanding of the Absolute is connected with the formal practical character of the Scientology spiritual tradition which lays out how to attain it rather than describing it. The formal and precise way to the highest conditions of consciousness is a feature of the strict apofatitjesk theology which is opposed to the describing model of theology (katafatitjesk). Typical for the apofatitjesk theology is the presumption of the basic impossibility of describing in words the highest conditions of consciousness. Moreover, it is supposed that words only diminish the experience of the Absolute. Scientology is a classical example of an apofatitjesk religious
system.
 
 
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