Biblical Vedanta


"Yea, the darkness hides not from Thee; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." ~Psalm 139

The Bible contains a deeply non-dualist strain, encompassing the darkest aspects of human nature as part of our divine wholeness. The Bible unflinchingly embraces the shadow, understanding that it too is God. In the Exodus story, Satan does not harden Pharaoh's heart against the Israelites, God does. In fact, even Satan is an angel, an aspect of divine will: his job is testing people in order that they may evolve. God permits Satan to test Job, and bring obstacles into his life. 

The Hebrew Prophets seldom blame Israel's invaders and captors as evil, rather regarding them as God's left hand, purifying the Israelite ego. Yes, our enemy is also God. In the darkness, the Lord confronts Jacob in the form of a demonic "jinn" or nature spirit by the edge of the river Jordon. He wrestles Jacob until dawn, leaving him wounded yet transformed. Then the antagonist reveals himself as the angel-messenger of God, giving Jacob a new name, "Israel." Israel literally means, "He has wrestled with God." 

In one of the darkest passages of the Bible, Exodus 4:18ff, God explicitly takes the form of Moses' shadow, and tries to kill him in the middle of the night. Is it a dream from Moses' unconscious? Is the demonic murderer really God? Or is it Moses' projection of his darkest fears? Perhaps the answer is yes to all three questions. One never hears a minister preach on this story from the pulpit: it is inexplicable except from a Jungian, non-dualist perspective. To transcend conflict and become whole, or holy, Moses must integrate his darkest, most negative qualities into the unity of his personhood.

Biblical non-dualism is unnerving to those who seek a comfy inviolable distinction between the "good" and the "bad," the light and the dark. But, as the Psalmist reminds us, "darkness and light are both alike to Thee," the Godhead beyond God.

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