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Take the example of the Temple in the Hebrew Scripture. Solomon's Temple was built by Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon, the most famous of architects and builders, and they built a typical Syrian style temple, with three parts: a porch, a holy place, a Most Holy Place. In religions the innermost chamber, or inner sanctum, was the site of placement of an image of the god. The Syrian style porch was a narrow entrance. The holy place, serving as the main chamber, was forty-five feet long and had lamps burning constantly, a small table for the burning of incense--lighted morning and evening--, and a table for what was called the Bread of the Presence--blessed, placed before the LORD, and changed weekly. A second flight of steps led into the Most Holy Place, a dark, windowless, and curtained off cell. Here was the Ark of the Covenant, symbolizing the treaty between God and the people. The Ark, a small box, rested below two large cherubim--images of angels--, having wings outstretched, extending over the Ark. Seeing the God of Israel was not to be imaged in a material form, the LORD's numinous energy, or Glory, was believed to exists under the cherubim's wings and over the Ark. According to priestly law, no one was to enter the Most Holy Place but once yearly, on Yom Kippur (lit., the Day of Covering; i.e., the Day of Atonement). The Temple in the New Testament, likewise, had a holy place and Most Holy Place.
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We, in Christ--not in ourselves--, are transformed into spiritual priests, and each one of us is invited beyond the curtain of Form, where is the light of reason, and into the Divine Darkness, the Most Holy Place of Formlessness. The High Priest--the Word, or Logos--, goes before us and invites us. We enter this silent Communion with Glory through participation of mind and heart, through the will, in the Spirit--Immanence of Transcendent Godhead. We do this by the Word's energy--or Grace--, released cosmically-universally by Christ Jesus' Passion and Resurrection, with its historical efficacy.
The Temple is a symbol and type of the Inner Journey of the Christian contemplative into the Most Holy Place: which ultimately is God. Here, all self-aspects are harmonized--returned--in one within One. The contemplative passes through the light of reason, which is insufficient, and the feelings of the heart, which are misleading, to That before, beyond, within, and after All.
In the Most Holy Place the contemplative priest experiences Mystical Merging in One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the Divine Harmony indicated by the word Paradise. We enjoy oneness with all creatures, in timelessness.
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