QR7.1.5 Deliverance

The deliverance premise is that human beings can become immortal by means of the divinity within. In the Zend-Avesta, Ahura Mazda bestows this deliverance to those who have attained to the ‘best mind’:

“May He (Ahura Mazda) in sovereign authority and through the spirit of right-mindedness,
Bestow upon us His two great blessings: perfect integrity here and immortality hereafter.”
(Yasna 47.1)

Mazda’s blessings are unity of being in this life, followed by life after death. The Vedas also state that those who realize Brahman (God) become immortal:

All this universe, that there is, emerges and moves because there is the supreme Brahman that is a great terror like an uplifted thunderbolt. Those who know this become immortal.” (Katha Upanishad, II.ii.2).

This is attributed to the observer becoming Brahman in samadhi:

When the mind does not become lost nor is scattered, when it is motionless and does not appear in the form of objects, then it becomes Brahman.” (Mandukya Upanishad, III.46).

Taoism proposes similarly that one can return to the original state of Taohood:

“… when one is able to concentrate his mind to the extreme of emptiness and is able to hold it there in supreme tranquillity, then his spirit is unified with the spirit of the universe and it has returned to its original state from which the mind and all things in the universe have emerged as appearance… To have attained Taohood is to become unified with eternity. One can never die even with the death of the body” (Tao, 16).

Buddhism calls this state nirvana, the “eternal-unthinkable of the Tathagatas”:

“The eternal-unthinkable of the Tathagatas is the ‘suchness’ of Noble Wisdom realized within themselves. It is both eternal and beyond thought … Being classed under the same head as space, cessation, Nirvana, it is eternal. (Lankavatara, p347).

Western religions, perhaps being more practical, see deliverance as a heavenly place not a state of mind, but agree that divinity makes it possible. The Old Testament is clear that this deliverance is beyond death:

For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling” (Psalms 116.8).

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalms, 23.4).

This deliverance is “walking with God”, as Abraham and Enoch did:

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis, 5.24).

The New Testament clarifies that this means everlasting life:

“Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life …” (John, 5.24).

Therefore, it advises:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt… But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt… For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew, 6,19-21).

The Koran is equally clear that those who believe and act rightly will live forever in paradise:

For those who believe and do right, we charge no soul beyond its capacity. These are the companions of paradise; they will abide therein forever.” (Koran, 7.42).

Different scriptures take different approaches but all propose that we can live forever by divinity, whether by the Best Mind, Samadhi, Taohood, Nirvana, being with God, or in heaven or paradise. These scriptures all agree that human beings can potentially survive death by divine means, which is the deliverance principle.

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