Pastoral Psychologist's Take on the Book of Revelation in Commemorating Ascension of the Lord

日本語によるコメント：

今日は、復活したキリストの昇天を記念する日であり、ヨハネの黙示録についてちょっと考えてみました。　

キリストは昇天とともに、この世から肉体での姿を消してしまい、弟子たちもちょっと不安になりましたが、キリストに引き続き、天にまします父より聖霊が送られ、それにより勇気付けられ、そのご、どのような困難、迫害にも耐えられるようになりました。

昇天後のキリストは、時がくれば戻ってくる、そして、信者のための新しい住処を約束された。　その住処がいったいどういったものか、そして、そこに信者が住めるようになるまでにはいったいどのようなことが起こるのかについて書かれたのが、聖書の一番最後にあるヨハネの黙示録です。

つまり、アダムとイブが失ったエデンの楽園よりさらにすばらしい楽園がキリストの約束した新しい神の家の中の住処なのです。ところが、それまでの道のりは容易ではありません。というのは、アダムとイブ以来、人間が神にそむき、犯した罪による”垢”落としの為、７人に天使たちが悪魔との戦争をしなければならないからです。

心理の臨床家として、私は、キリストが約束した新しい楽園を心の安泰、すこやかな魂の比喩でもあるととらえます。そして、黙示録に記された新しい楽園までのさまざまなチャレンジ、戦い、は、心の安泰、魂の健やかさを取り戻す為の修行的な努力の比喩でもあると考えます。　だから、森田療法のような心理療法は結構しんどい努力（体得の為の努力）が必要なんです。

また、黙示録にある新しい楽園への道は、仏教でいう浄土への道と比較しながらかんがえるとキリスト教にあまりなじみのない日本人の方にもわかりやすいかと思います。

私の解釈では、仏教でいう悟りのない凡夫という人間は、神にそむきやすく、神の罰を受け、一度和解しても、また、もとの木阿弥で、罪を犯し続ける。だから、アダムとイブの失楽以降の人間は苦しみの終わりなきサイクルを続けている。この、終わりなき苦しみのサイクルは、仏教でいう六道（　地獄界、餓鬼界、畜生界、　修羅界、人界、天界）をぐるぐると輪廻転生でもってめぐり続けるようなものとも考えられましょう。そうした終わりなきサイクルが、創世記より黙示録までの聖書にしるされています。そうした中での、人間と神との関係、契約のドラマが聖書の物語の心理的な側面です。まあ、聖書からの教訓としての人間と神の関係とは、何度も浮気する問題のある夫婦関係のようなものにたとえることができます。　

神としても、”浮気”を繰り返す人間にもううんざりし、プッツンしようかとも思ったことかも知れませんが、神はやはり人間を愛している。だから、プッツンできない。そこで、慈悲深き神はあたかも、仏が菩薩の姿となってこの世の人間を救うように、今度は自分がイエスという人間の姿、ある意味では権現様、となってこの世の凡夫との交わりに現れ、悔い改めさせ、福音を伝える。その究極ともいえるのが、黙示録の２１章から２２章５節までに描かれたあたらしい楽園を得る意味だといえます。　キリスト教でいう改心により罪のサイクルからおさらばして自由になる、そして新しい楽園で神と共に暮らすことは、仏教でいう悟りにより輪廻転生のサイクルから自由になり、浄土で安らかになるということにもたとえられるかと思います。

Theologically, the Book of Revelation is about the second coming of Christ, Parousia,  as the risen Lord had  indicated before he ascended to the Father. 

John 14 starts with these words of the Lord:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:1-3).

The place that Jesus has promised to prepare for his faithful believers and followers in the Father’s house is what is to be brought along with his second coming.  It is envisioned in Revelation 21:1-22:5 as the New Jerusalem or the New Eden.  

Appearance of New Jerusalem as the New Eden (Revelation 21:1-22:5) is not exactly the same as recovering the “good old” Eden that Adam and Eve had lost for their sin, Original Sin (Genesis 3). This teaches the fact of impermanence – what is lost is lost forever.  However, what is lost may be replaced with something new that resembles what is lost but comes in a much better form.

As a pastoral psychologist, I find this lesson from the Book of Revelation serves as a helpful therapeutic metaphor to inspire my traumatized clients/patients into post-traumatic growth.  I would like to write on this in more details on another occasion. 

Biblically, ever since the eviction of Adam and Eve from Eden (paradise) in Genesis 3, the relationship between God and the humans has been going through roller-coasters.  With the first murder in humanity, committed by Cain, out of jealousy (Genesis 4:1-8), the relationship between God and the human has become worsened, as the humans have continued to sin against God. In response, God decided to cleanse all sinful corrupted beings, including the humans of wickedness, through the deluge (Genesis 6-8).  

Though there was a mending of the human relationship with God through the covenant ark of Noah, the human, again, sinned and sinned, departed from their loyal relationship with God.  This resembles repeated infidelity committed by pathologically unfaithful spouses. 

This behavioral pattern of infidelity continued in a vicious cycle for generations throughout the biblical canon.  This vicious cycle of human violation of the covenant is one consistent theme found throughout every canonical book in the Bible from Genesis on. 

In response to this vicious cycle of sin offense against God, God decided to incarnate Himself to send more powerful prophetic message to the sinful humans. This is where the New Testament begins.  This decision of God to make himself in the form of the human flesh as Jesus by impregnating Mary, the virgin, was to save the human out of His anger through metanoia, turning the human heart from sin to God.  This is out of God’s love for the humans. 

Nevertheless, the sin of the humans killed Jesus. This greave sinful act somewhat resembles the behavioral pattern of Cain’s murder of Abel.  Yet, Christ resurrected and began to bring the scattered disciples back together, as a shepherd gathers his sheep, and taught the messianic meaning of his death and resurrection before his ascension to the Father.  This is what we read during Easter season to prepare for Ascension and Pentecost. 

Through Jesus’ messianic message given to the disciples, we are hinted at Christ’s return and what will be brought with his return.  The Book of Revelation describes what will happen to the world -  to make the way for his return and what comes with his return (Revelation 5, the opening of the seven-sealed scroll;  Revelation 6-16, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls; Revelation 17-19:4, the three-fold fall of anti-Christ symbolized with Babylon; Revelation 19:5-21, the victorious arrival of Christ and the marriage of Christ and the Church; Revelation 20, locking and sealing the devil; Revelation 21-22:5, the new paradise as New Jerusalem, New Eden; Revelation 22:6-21, closing exhortation). 

In following the flow of the narratives in the Book of Revelation, we know that it is the promised path to return home – the home that Adam and Eve had lost.  

Eden used to be our home, collectively speaking. 

The humans have been evicted and wondering for way so many years outside Eden. Spiritually, we have been “homeless” and wondering around ever since the Adam and Eve’s eviction from Eden – until the dwelling place in the Father’s house in Jesus’ promise (John 14:3) is brought with his second coming as New Eden. 

Series of disasters brought to cleanse the world through the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls by the seven angels (Revelation 6-16) are to make the way for Christ to return, bringing the New Eden, where we will find our new dwelling place.  This is like a house cleaning before we receive an important visitor. A very similar image is invoked in Advent, when we prepare the way for Christ to come (his first coming), recalling Isaiah’s prophetic words:  A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3, cf. Mark 1:3).  

Clearing and cleansing the way for Christ to return so that we can return our long-lost home in the totally renewed home – New Eden! This is what the Book of Revelation is about. Thus, reading the Book of Revelation should bring a sense of joy, stimulating our eschatological hope in the fullness of the mystery of Christ. 

Psychologically, it is also important that we prepare our souls as the seven angels prepare the world to return our home in New Eden, in reading the Book of Revelation.  The cleansing the world by the seven angels must concur the internal purification of our soul in order to reach our home in New Eden – internally and externally, through Christ’s apocalyptic guidance in the Book of Revelation. 

The internal cleansing process, which we must embark to purify our soul in order to return home,  shall put us series of tribulations and trials as the world will go through series of seven-fold battles with devils and his collaborators.  Namely, this is our process of metanoia, which Filipino Catholic theologian, Jose DeMesa, framed with “pagbabalik-loob”.  Indeed, our path of “pagbabalik-loob” may come with many challenges – perhaps, seven-fold.

The Filipino (Tagalog) word, “Pagbabalik-loob”,  literally means returning to our true self.  So, what is our true self – our true identity? 

It is our “kapwa”(self-identity in object relation)  found in our covenant with God, rooted in imago Dei (the image of God), in which we are created (Genesis 1:27).  Therefore, in our “pagbabalik-loob” efforts, while the seven angels work hard to cleanse the world through seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, we must restore our damaged covenant, wounded object relation, with God, by repenting our sin and receiving the absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  After all, this is our efforts to restore our “kapwa” with God.  

Further spiritual purification of our soul through appropriate spiritual disciplines, such as the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, is also helpful for our “pagbaballik-loob” efforts to return home in New Eden – to dwell in the Father’s house. 

Let the Book of Revelation be our powerful inspiration to break ourselves free from the vicious cycle of sinning-angering God-reconciling-sinning.  Unless this vicious cycle is completely broken, we cannot attain our “loob”, our true innermost self,  in “pakikipag-kapwa” (harmoniously shared object relation) with God.  Likewise, unless we free ourselves completely from this vicious cycle, we cannot dwell in the New Eden that will come with Christ’s return, which is in Christ’s promise as he ascends. 

In thinking of breaking the vicious cycle that we have been going through for many generations – ever since Adam and Eve’s eviction from the original Eden,  a lesson the Book of Revelation offers echoes the Gautama (Shakamuni) Buddha’s teaching on liberating ourselves from the vicious cycle of transmigration of the soul – the vicious cycle of birth-rebirth – samsara.  

We continue to suffer unless we break free from the cyclical nature of samsara – unless we attain the Buddhahood through awakening, according to Buddhist teaching. 

All these sin-God’s anger-punishment- reconciliation-sin cycles found in the canonical books in the Bible upon Original Sin of Adam and Eve is like samsara of the humans.  Therefore,  attaining “pagbabalik-loob”,  as our internal preparation for Parousia and the New Eden,  parallels the Buddhist’s spiritual efforts to attain the Buddhahood through awakening to the Dharma to be free from samsara.  This is the path toward nirvana (eternal and profound peace) through moksha (liberation).

In the Pure Land Buddhist’s view, those who have attained the Buddhahood through awakening to the Dharma will enter the Pure Land. This is very similar to the Christian eschatological and apocalyptic view we can draw from the Book of Revelation as I have described above.

Treating Happiness Seekers After Their Bubble of Hope Gets Busted

Self-help book addicts, self-improvement seminar addicts…. Ostentatious happiness seekers….they all look like gym rats to me.  They try hard. But, they serious efforts and investments do not seem to have traction. 

In their strenuous efforts to improve themselves, they also make great investments, financially and emotionally. They constantly buy popular self-help books, sign up for and attend self-improvement seminars and so forth.  

They usually feel “good” about buying these books and attending these seminars.  They also like to talk about the books and the seminars with friends and even posting such their experiences on their Facebook pages, as if simply buying famous self-help books and attending popular self-improvement seminars would make them already happy enough to boast about. Worse yet, some are even narcissistic, as often observed in some bipolar disorder patients, especially during their manic cycle. 

According to Stinson et al. (2008), “Prevalence,Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IIV Narcissistic Personality Disorder:Results from the Wave 2 national Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and RelatedConditions” (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 69(7):1033-1045), a notable comorbidity is found across narcissistic personality disorder, bipolar disorder and substance abuse.  In my clinical observation, elements of these psychological disorders can be found among the happiness seekers, especially those whose seeking pattern resembles drug abusers – indicating a significantly restless and insecure state of mind. Because of this, they tend to become more ecstatic to find another self-help book and to attend another self-improvement seminar, similar to how a manic phase of bipolar disorder patient may feel.

Usually, the euphoric sensations these happiness seekers experience in purchasing new self-help books and attending high-power self-improvement seminars doe not last long. It’s like that “buzz” drug users get. So, these happiness-seekers need to get another dose of “high” sensation. 

Sadly, what they are getting by investing in self-help books and self-improvement seminars is not happiness but an ecstatic sensation, which does not last long.  I am afraid that they tend to live in an illusion to confuse such a sensation with happiness. 

Similar to drug addicts, they keep pursuing another dose of euphoria after another. But, sooner or later, fatigue and exhaustions set in.  They will also run out of money to buy self-help books and register for self-improvement seminars.  Then, they tend to feel that there were no happiness for them. It’s like a dead-end feeling that severe drug addicts often experience. 

If these hard-working happiness seekers’ efforts were rewarded as they desire, everything would be fine. But, the problem I often see as a psychotherapist is that many of them don’t.  So, after failed efforts to be happy, they find themselves unhappy.  Some of them present symptom of major depression.  Not just unhappy, but often frustrated, disappointed, and depressed, they come to me for consultation with a big “why” question – “Why can’t I be happy even though I have been trying so hard?”

This makes a classic case of frustration with paradoxical nature in their happiness illusion. 

Another aspect of their problem is that these happiness seekers in an illusion tend to be too busy seeking happiness. But, they rarely have time to practice what is really necessary to be happy.  Seeking happiness and doing what needs to be done to be happy are not the same thing. By becoming too busy seeking happiness, they have gotten too busy to practice what is actually necessary to be happy. 

Their purpose, “to seek happiness”, has clouded their visions of distinguishing what a purpose is and what necessary actions to take.  This is like putting the cart ahead of the horse, as a result of their obsession with their purpose of pursuing happiness. 

This obsession-confusion leads to an illusion to regard a mere ecstasy as happiness, like mistaking pleasure for joy.  This obsession-confusion-illusion pattern makes them too busy chasing their purpose of “to be happy”, making them neglect what they need to do at the very present moment.  This is also like driving a car while daydreaming about where you want to go.  

I said earlier that self-help addicts, who are too busy buying self-help books and attending self-improving seminars are like gym rats.   

Chances are – many gym rats just love a false sense of satisfaction by simply going to the gym.  They often feel as if they had gotten in shape – though they are not really – simply by going to the gym.  But, the level of their commitment to what they should be doing in the gym is questionable. 

I often tell – if their real purpose is to get in shape, going to a gym is not necessary as there are many opportunities around, other than expensive gym, to get in shape and stay in shape.  But, these gym rats’ typical excuses are, “I get a really good coach to help me motivated”.   

They are right to say about good coaches in a fancy gym.  That’s their money’s worth.  But, like those who keep buying self-help books written by “good” authors and like those who keep attending self-improvement seminars hosted by famous life coaches, they get a good “buzz”.

For the moment, they get so motivated – kind like getting on high for drug addicts. But, the problem is that the “buzz” they get from a self-help book, from a life-improvement seminar, and from a good coach in the gym, often fizzles rather quickly. So, they keep going back.  And, this tends to formulate an end-less cycle, if not necessarily a vicious one – an endless cycle of getting a “buzz”(motivated), then fizzled (feeling down), seeking the “buzz”, and on and on. This is like being in a vicious karmic cycle. 

A way to free themselves from this vicious futile behavioral cycle is to just forget about happiness – to let go of their thinking about happiness.  Instead, simply focus on here and now – living the very present moment fully.  

No fancy agenda. No fancy plan.  Just live each moment fully. 

The truth is that happiness is not something we chase.  It is not an object of our pursuit.

Happiness is a natural consequence of living each moment fully and mindfully. 

Such a life style leads us to be more content with our lives – because living each moment fully and mindfully inevitably helps us recognize what we have better, rather than worrying about what we do not.  Such a life style does not prompt us to compare ourselves with others only to become jealous and envious.  

The more we become aware of what we have,  by simply living each moment more fully and mindfully, we become more content of ourselves and our own lives. After all, experiencing this contentment is happiness. 

But, living in an illusion, these happiness seekers in an empty cyclical behavioral pattern, like drug addicts,  tend to think that the source of happiness is outside of themselves. That is why they tend to seek happiness, become so busy chasing it but forgetting what really they can and should to in order to be happy.  It is not to buy these self-help books. It is not to attend these self-improvement seminars.  It is simply to live each moment as fully as they can so that they will not regret later.  Happiness will follow those who always live each moment fully. 

Perhaps, these Henry David Thoreau’s words say it all: “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”   Of course, our attention shall turn each given moment and what we have within ourselves, by being more mindful. 

After all, this echoes Buddhist’s teaching on admonishing greed-inducing desires.  In Buddhism, “tanha” is understood as a desire, leading to escalating or even addictive pleasure cravings.  It is also regarded as a contributing factor for “dukkha”, anxiety-driven sufferings or sufferings caused by insecurity.  “Dukkha” due to “tanha” is a kind of suffering addicts experience – uncontrollable and ever escalating cravings, reflecting unsatisfiable and unquenchable state of mind due to restless heart.
In order to mask this “dukkha” , a person tends to seek happiness more consciously with a great propensity to become obsessed with seeking happiness – or rather “chasing” happiness, to a point of neglecting what matters most at each moment. Because of this blindness, due to “tanha”-induced blindness, these happiness seekers become negligent about the importance of each moment, unable to live each moment fully.  Thus, they slip into a vicious endless cycle of seeking happiness, experiencing a temporary ecstatic “buzz”, mistaken for happiness, and disappointment and depression.  

This Buddhist teaching on the problem of “tanha” also corresponds to the Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola: “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me,”(Spiritual Exercises 234).

The Suscipe prayer is about disciplining our desire so that it will not become like “tanha”.  “Sucipe” means “to receive” in Latin.  It is not about seeking and chasing something outside ourselves. Instead, “Suscipe” is about making conscious efforts to be more mindful about what we already have – what is given, which is grace in Catholic theology.  

Grace is all we need to be content. And, this realization leads to a sense of happiness, according to the Ignatian spirituality in the Catholic spiritual tradition. 

So, when I treat restless happiness seekers, experiencing disappointment and depression,  I invite them to reflect on their “tahna” or whatever its equivalent that drives them into an endless vicious cycle of seeking of happiness and constant experience of unhappiness. 

Until they come to realize that happiness is not something they seek…unless they understand the importance of mindfulness of here and now in light of the mindset like the St. Ignatius of Loyola’s “suscipe” prayer, they will never feel happy. 

Here is a god joke about these happiness seeking “addicts”.

A customer at a book store asked a store clerk.

“Excuse me, could you please tell me where the self-help section is?”

The clerk responded.

“Sir, I think you should not ask me. You should help yourself!” 

Freud said, “Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar” in regard to an infant sucking his or her mother’s breast, in regard to how breast sucking can formulate a prototype of love object relations.  Now, I say, “Sometimes, a joke is not just a joke!”, because this joke about self-help book seeker makes an important point of teaching on the problem of happiness seekers. This joke also points out to a problematic relationship with self that the happiness seekers tend to have – the problem of intrapsychic inconfidence and insecurity. 

As the self-help book seeker in this joke has forgotten the most important thing: doing what he or she can do for himself or herself, the happiness seekers who are too busy seeking happiness have forgotten what they should be doing – living their each present moment fully – rather than wasting their energy and money for seeking happiness externally.