Opus Nigrum – The Two Gates in the Black Monastery – Christian Koan Collection by Master Reding
Opus Nigrum – Christian Koan Collection
Dear brothers and sisters, Opus Nigrum – The Two Gates in the Black Monastery is the Christian koan collection of Master Reding. It is the call from the monastery of the soul. Here begins the great work: the blackening, the purification, the descent into one's own darkness. Whoever recognizes and accepts it will be led by the Black Madonna to the brink of death until golden salvation shines forth and the heart is reborn from the fire. Whoever does not recognize it remains in eternal limbo, endlessly turning in the circle of unredeemed shadows.
In the Black Monastery, the sword of the Logos slew falsehood and simultaneously awakened true life. The koans are not riddles of the mind, but living mirrors of repentance. Neither head nor gut has a solution; what will you do now? Tell me quickly, time flies! Whoever penetrates them with their heart can spontaneously repent, give and receive as they please. Whoever passes through the two gates of life and death in the blackness of the Black Monastery will be free.
The Black Madonna is paradoxical: she destroys and brings you to the brink of death, only to then appear in human form to heal you.
Opus Nigrum – The Bridge to the True Self!
But beware! Both seek to experience the One – but woe to him who mistakes the swallowing of the umbilical cord for the embrace of the Father; he will be mercilessly devoured and castrated by the Mother of Death.
It is akin to the act of severing one's own umbilical cord. The Deathmother resists with all her might. Fear arises, for no one knows if they can breathe and live alone. Yet the Master encourages one to dare this decisive cut. Enter into the darkness and dare this cut, but beware; those who hesitate will bleed to death. For only those who dare the death of the old soul will be found by the light of golden salvation.
In the Black Monastery, one meditates with the paradoxical. For only the paradoxical can even begin to grasp the fullness of life. The unambiguous and uncontradictory, however, remains one-sided and unsuitable for expressing the incomprehensible. Only the paradoxical can aim at a breakthrough of a consciousness limited by the ego form into the non-ego-like self.
- Barabbas
- Patricide
- Black and Golden Madonna
- Womb and Embrace
- The Cross
The Sacred Sword - Christian Koan Collection
The sacred sword (Logos, the living Word) is always in hand: it brings death and bestows life. It is there, it is here, giving and receiving simultaneously. If you wish to hold onto it, you are free to hold onto it. If you wish to let go, you are free to let go. Tell me, what will it be like when one makes no distinction between host and guest, and one is indifferent to the role one plays?
In the beginning was the Word, and the living Word was with God, and the Logos was God. If you have understood that there is no way to say it, then you should know how to say it, for in the beginning was the Word. (Zen Master Pohwa Sunim)
In a fatherless age, religious experience and mysticism are the living core of every true religion. Not proofs count, but only practice—the experience of God and its realization. The Logos is the Word that awakens the soul to life.
The Logos removes confusion and is not a method of instruction. It is the unmoved mover, the living word, the sword of wisdom that kills and gives life with a single blow.