Quick Summary of Outlooks in Religion and Spirituality

English: Sadhu offering charas to Shiva, India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Too many people in modern industrialized societies have such a limited view of what religion is that their approach to thinking about, reacting to, and discussing religion can become counterproductive. Below is a rough sketch of a brief summary of some important distinctions to show what I mean. I use popularized terms and concepts such as "right-brain consciousness" for the sake of balancing clarity and expediency (more on my thoughts on that particular notion can be found here):

Right-Brain consciousness = holism, poetic sense, and creative response.

Left-Brain consciousness = reductionism, literalism, and logical analysis.

Spirituality = emphasis on Right-Brain experience and a focus on the depth of the present moment or on an expereince beyond time, broad and inclusive sense of connection and identification, sublime emotional states, non-judgmental, open to possibilities.

Anti-spirituality = emphasis on Left-Brain experience and a focus on the past or future or the immediate moment in terms of needs and desires, narrow and exclusive sense of connection and identification, reactionary emotional states, judgmental, fearful of differences.

Mystical/Contemplative Religion = embraces spirituality and shares impressions in artistic and poetic forms, seeks balance.

Fundamentalist Religion = anti-spiritual tendencies, attempts to interpret mystical and contemplative expressions through Left-Brain analysis, seeks domination.

Mainstream Religion/Liberal Religion = attempts to reconcile tendencies and history of a sacred traditions including their more mystical and fundamentalist aspects, tend to lean more towards spirituality.

Mainstream/Conservative Religion = attempts to reconcile tendencies and history of a sacred traditions including their more mystical and fundamentalist aspects, tend to lean more towards anti-spirituality.

(One could also go on to map things such as spirituality and anti-spirituality onto to different forms on non-theism as well.)

This brief and over-simplified taxonomy has implications for how people use concepts and terms such as religion and spirituality but also those such as faith, sacred, and the like. It is worth exploring or at least having a good grasp of because if the spiritual impulse in inherently human, it is surely a good thing to guide its expression toward healthier and more beneficial forms. 

Religious Experience, Meaning and the (Lack of the) Substance of Faith

Image by Express Monorail via Flickr

The phenomena that have been corralled into the category of religious experience include many of those which would be referred to as mystical experiences. Religious experience can be thought of as the cornerstone of true spirituality and genuine religious practice. Ralph Hood, a researcher who has studied such phenomena, devised what is known as the M-scale as a way to survey the degree to which people have encountered such phenomena. If we go with the premise that religious experience is an essential part of spiritual growth, then failing to have or to recognize such experiences would be a major roadblock to those seeking the depth of being, that is, the depth of their own existence as part of the overall depth of existence itself, which many cultures have labeled the Divine or God. We might expect that those who score "low" on measures such as the M-scale also have trouble personally experiencing the core insights of religions or sensing any benefit from spiritual practices. I am not familiar with such literature and if such correlations have been found, but I know two things: firstly, I score very low such measures; secondly, I have trouble personally experiencing the core insights of religions or sensing any benefit from spiritual practices.

On an intellectual level I can "get" the major insights of religion, such as are outlined by a statement from the Snowmass Conference (click and scroll down). I find that these ideas, expressed through the lenses of different faith traditions, are deeply appealing. But like most of my knowledge about such large and complex topics, it is mostly second hand. That is to say, I haven't measured every fossil or living species, but I can see patterns in the data produced by hundreds of academics who have studied millions of specimens collectively. In the same way, if I take the collective experiences of those who have written about their own religious experiences and those of others, I can similarly see intriguing patterns. I also find that many of the moral insights that those of a more "mystic" orientation have affirmed are compatible with my own sensibilities. The same can be said of the humbling and empowering and motivating revelations they convey. So, you know, I like this stuff. I am even slightly moved emotionally on occasion by some if it (though rarely). But it is, as the common vernacular would have it, all in my head. To be clear, this means it is at a fairly superficial level of reflection and integration.  It's like the difference between learning about something in a textbook and going into the lab, or even better, into the field, and getting personal, direct experience with the subject matter. The real thing is always more expansive, complex and exciting than the best generalized models and standard definitions.

"Quantum tempest in a celestial teapot" spurs additional questions, conclusion

[This is the second half of an essay written based on responses to a previous entry, Quantum tempest in a celestial teapot.]


If we want to explore the source and fundamental character of existence, we can do this with various metaphysical programs available to us such science.  This is the route that brilliant and distinguished minds such as Hawking have taken, and all of humanity benefits from the insights offered by such labors.  Yet such efforts inevitably lead to the problem that we cannot out-think our own brains and their mental limits in perceiving and pondering existence.  We trace causes and effects and necessary conditions as far as we can, but it would be foolish to think that reaching this limit is the same as having a complete and final answer.  Some people may not care what else there may be to know or some may simply reject any other way of knowing.  That is their choice.

If that is the case, we simply have our mysterious source of phenomena like gravity (the same source as any cause that is found for gravity, and for the cause of that cause, and the cause of that cause).  Again, in the theology we are discussing, however many causes you add, they are contained within and an aspect of the Divine.  God isn't simply a link in the causal chain, even the hypothetical first link.  God is the steel of the chain and the shape of the steel and that in which the chain exists.  Again, this leaves some of us wondering about the relevance of such a remote God, while others may also be asking whether there isn't another avenue to discover more about the fundamental nature of existence.

"Quantum tempest in a celestial teapot" spurs additional questions

I am grateful to those who have taken the time to respond to Quantum tempest in a celestial teapot. Sometimes comments about such topic whether mentioned here or elsewhere simply draw out particular ideologues who want to do some rhetorical chest thumping without any real reflection, so your thoughtful replies are appreciated.

There is a question which is tangential to the point of the aforementioned essay, but I do think it is worth exploring on its own. The question asks what basis there is for connecting the force which created the universe to the mystical experience of love. Now, in the previous essay I made it clear I do not believe that one needs to invoke God as a match lighter for the Big Bang, so we can replace "force which created the universe" with "the source of universe". To appreciate this essay you really do need to read the one which led us here, especially where I write:

Mystics under siege by fundamentalists

I consider (apophatic contemplative) mysticism to be a universal denominator for the major sacred traditions, linking "Hinduism", Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Taoism, Buddhism, etc. Reading poetry by Sufi mystics like Rumi will remind you at once of Buddhism and certain strains of Judeo-Christian theology. Apparently, they aren't orthodox or hard-line enough for groups like the Taliban...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Worshippers still flock to the grave of Rahman Baba, a Muslim mystic revered by millions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But they now pray at a mound of rubble and twisted steel — all that remains of his tomb since militants bombed it.

The blast in March was the most high-profile in a recent spate of attacks against Pakistan's homespun, tolerant brand of Islam by hard-liners trying to replace it with the more austere version espoused by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups...

Source

On atheists and "disbelief"

From a response I made elsewhere to a charge about atheists and disbelief...

Most atheists I have known base their views on what theists claim about God or the supernatural. The fact that so many of these claims have been disproved or seriously disputed (Young Earth Creationism, cases of faith healing fraud, etc), along with examples of selfish, hateful, and judgmental behavior by people claiming to be following God, is a large factor in convincing them that there is nothing of substance to theism. In other words, a lot of it has to do with the bad advertising of theists. The fact that not everyone who believes in God makes outrageous claims or is morally repugnant is often overshadowed by the witness of the highly vocal and visible ones who do/are.

As for making belief (intellectual assent) the primary concern - it's overrated. People believe all sorts of stupid shit. If the Divine isn't a conscious part of your lived experience, all the beliefs in the world won't do jack. And many "atheists" have some awareness of the Divine, even if they don't comprehend/express it through the lens of a particular religion. To whit...

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man...

-Albert Einstein

In the depth of winter

Given the nature of a major theme for my posts this year and the recent form of expression this has taken, I ran across a quote that fits both this day (winter solstice) and the ongoing insight [thanks to a blog called The Royal World for publishing it - I wouldn't have found it otherwise.]

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus

Truth is no theory

Truth is no theory, no speculative system of philosophy, no intellectual insight.
Truth is exact correspondence with reality.
For man, truth is the unshakable knowledge of his real nature.-Paramhansa Yogananda

How ironic that yesterday, when asked what truth was, I responded "Truth is the acceptance of what is (as opposed to what we think or feel) - knowing what it is something for which we are each personally responsible," and then when I check my daily wisdom emails today, the above quote is waiting for me. Even though it has a Hindu affiliation I think it transcends any particular religion - it actually sounds a lot like Chan.

Being Buddha, Being "a" Buddha

Another nice find, both in terms of a blog and particular blog content, comes in the form of BuddhaDharma Mum and specifically the post on The Supreme Identity which features a video of a talk by the late Brother Wayne Teasdale. The format is an interview with Ken Wilber. While the talk itself is, typical of Teasdale, and interspiritual / intermystical / interfaith review of Ultimate Nature, it tends to use the most common term for such Supreme Identity, a.k.a. God. To me this was reminiscent of my recent musings on Ultimate Reality and taking refuge as well as James' discussion of a famous quote by Pai-chang that all is Buddha --

Each form, each particle, is a Buddha. One form is all Buddhas. All forms, all particles, are all Buddhas. All forms, sounds, scents, feelings, and phenomena are also like this, each filling all fields.
-Pai-chang

In turn, this reminds me of a collection of quotes I gathered once in contemplating the regarding the implications of emptiness and the nature of existence and identity...

Do you want to understand? The whole world is one of your eyes, the body produced by your parents is a cataract. All ordinary people ignore the indestructible, marvelously clear, unfailingly mirroring eye, and cling fast to the dust cataract produced by the relationship of their father and mother. Therefore they take illusions for realities, and grasp at reflections as the physical forms themselves.
-P'u-an

Ultimately, all phenomena are contained within one's life, down to the last particle of dust. The nine mountains and the eight seas are encompassed by one's body; the sun, moon and myriad stars are contained within one's mind.
-Nichiren

The Smaller Sutra is a highly imaginative portrayal of the realm of enlightenment in very concrete terms: bejeweled railings, nettings, trees; bathing pools lined with golden sands with steps of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal; pavilions covered with exquisite jewels built on the earth made of gold. The atmosphere is filled with celestial music, rare and exquisite birds, and a subtle breeze blowing through jeweled trees which produces a melodious chorus. This rich and colorful description is said to be a manifestation of emptiness (shunyata) that expresses itself freely in any way it chooses. Since reality is empty of permanent being and all things are in flux, it can take any form.
-Taitetsu Unno

Once you stop clinging and let things be, you'll be free, even of birth and death. You'll transform everything; you'll possess spiritual powers that can't be obstructed; and you'll be at peace wherever you are. If you doubt this, you'll never see through anything; you're better off doing nothing. Once you act, you can't avoid the cycle of birth and death, but once you see your nature, you're a Buddha even if you work as a butcher."
-Bodhidharma

When I was a young novice, I told my Master, 'If the Pure Land doesn't have lemon trees, then I don't want to go.' He shook his head and smiled. Maybe he thought I was a stubborn youngster. However, he did not say that I was right or wrong. Later when I realized that both the world and the Pure Land come from the mind, I was very happy. I was happy since I knew that lemon trees and star-fruit trees exist also in the Pure Land, with dirt roads and green grass on all sides.
-Thich Nhat Hahn

Each Buddha-Tathagata, as the body of the Dharmadhatu, pervades the mind of all sentient beings. This is why when your mind perceives the Buddha, it is your mind that possesses the thirty-two prominent features and the eighty secondary attributes. This mind that creates the Buddha is the mind that is the Buddha, and the wisdom of the Buddhas true, universal and ocean-like arises from this mind. This is why you should single-mindedly fix your thoughts and contemplatively examine that Buddha, that Tathagata, that Arhat, that Supremely Awakened One.
-The Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life

Which brings us back to the discussion by Teasdale and Wilber, particularly the difference between saying all things are of the substance of God but that no one thing can claim to be God. This can be confusing unless one applies a concept like dependent co-arising and emptiness, in which the fullness of "God" is in all things but no one thing can be separated out/singled out as God, as in a localized, intrinsic, or dualistic identity. This would be the difference in Triyaka doctrine between the created body which manifests in time and space and limitless body of the Dharma itself. Hence in terms of the latter, all things are Dharmakara and Dharmakara maniefests in and as all things, and one who awakens to this is called enlightened. That is the difference, such as it is, between being Buddha and being a Buddha.

Regarding silence

I have included a rather long list of of quotes from various sacred traditions, spiritual paths, and personal philosophies about silence, yet they only scratch the surface of the general theme to which they belong. If you have a problem using "God"-language, feel free to substitute Absolute Nature, Ultimate Reality, Ineffable Source, or whatever floats your boat...

"Be still, and know that I am God"

-Psalm 46:10


"God's poet is silence! His song is unspoken,
And yet so profound, so loud, and so far,
It fills you, it thrills you with measures unbroken,
And as soft, and as fair, and as far as a star."

-Joaquin Miller


"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth."

-Mahatma Gandhi


"You can hear the footsteps of God when silence reigns in the mind."

"Only in the depth of silence, you can hear the voice of God."

-Sri Sathya Sai Baba


"God is to creation as silence is to sound."

— Mark Woodward


"If anyone else is speaking in the temple of your soul, Jesus will keep still, as if he were not at home. And he is not at home wherever there are strange guests—guests with whom the soul holds conversation, guests who are seeking to bargain. If Jesus is to speak and be heard, the soul must be alone and quiet."

"But the perfect reflection of the One is shining by itself in lonely silence, there safely pent as one and indivisible. The unity (of God) is un-necessitous, it has no need of speech, but subsists alone in unbroken silence. The mind is rid of light when it is rid of mode; and it is rid of darkness when letting go of all natural things, it sinks in nameless actuality. Then it loses both light and darkness in the abyss that a creature in its own right never plumbs. Such is the estrangement in one as foreshadowed in the ordinary mind, but the realization of unity which the blessed have lies in the exquisite consciousness of another than themselves. O unfathomable void, bottomless to creatures and to thine own self, in thy depth art thou exalted in thy impartible, imperishable actuality; in the height of thy essential power thou art so deep thou dost engulf thy simple ground which is there concealed from all that thou are not; yet those whom thou wouldest commune with shall know thee with thyself."

"If I were to say 'God exists,' this would not be true. He is beyond being. He is a no-thing-ness beyond being. This is why St. Augustine says 'The best thing to be said about God is silence.' You must love God as not-God, not-Spirit, not-Sun, not-image, but as He is - sheer, pure absolute Oneness, without any duality."

— Meister Eckhart


"Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul’s language."

— Fulton J. Sheen


"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose."

"There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub."

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


"The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being…Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations…. May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us."

"Words stand between silence and silence: between the silence of things and the silence of our own being, between the silence of the world and the silence of God. When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor from other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality."

— Thomas Merton


"This silence, this moment, every moment, if it's genuinely inside you, brings what you need. There's nothing to believe. Only when I stopped believing in myself did I come into this beauty. Sit quietly, and listen for a voice that will say, 'Be more silent.' Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence."

-Rumi


"Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the source. Returning to the source is stillness, which is the Way of nature."

-Lao Tsu


"Silence is the language of God;
It is also the language of the heart."

-Dag Hammarskjöld


"There is something beyond our mind which abides in silence within our mind. It is the supreme mystery beyond thought. Let one's mind and one's subtle body rest upon that and not rest on anything else."

-the Maitri Upanishad



"Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary."

-Peter Minard

I think this last quote really informs the rest. Yes, physical silence, i.e. sitting still, little or no loud or disruptive sounds, having fewer screaming thoughts running through your mind, etc can be conducive to entering/experiencing the kind of silence being referenced in these quotes, but they are NOT equivalent to the the kind of silence being discussed. If you have experiences with such Silence please feel free to share.

Contemplation for 4/19/07

For today, a little something from the Hindu tradition, specifically an influential religious teacher who believed in a universal mysticism, that is, that all people, whatever their sacred tradition or spiritual practice, could perceive Ultimate Reality whether or not they gave it a particular name...

"What can be gained by thinking about the scriptures? What fools! They think themselves to death with information about the path, but never take the plunge!"

"All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole... A man can reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole. But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He should firmly follow one path."

"One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from all sides."

"[T]he ego is like a cloud. The sun cannot be seen on account of a thin patch of cloud; when that disappears one sees the sun."

"Take the case of the infinite ocean. There is no limit to its water. Suppose a pot is immersed in it: there is water both inside and outside the pot... Then what is this pot? It is 'I-consciousness'. Because of the pot the water appears to be divided into two parts; because of the pot you seem to perceive an inside and an outside. One feels that way as long as this pot of 'I' exists. When the 'I' disappears, what is remains. That cannot be described in words."

-Ramakrishna

Buddha says relax

Seriously, if that slogan isn't already on a T-shirt ala a parody of a 1980s pop group, it needs to be. But what if my problem isn't relaxation, but passivity? I've gone on before about the kinds of themes that tend to dominate Buddhist publications (magazines, books, blogs, etc). Is it me, or does the pushing of the concept of Buddhism as a stress-relaxation/calming method go overboard sometimes? It is true that psychological and physiological stress may be greatly reduced as a secondary reaction to the deeper repose offered by such contemplative traditions, but what is it that Buddhist practice really seeks to relax?

I am inclined to believe that it is about the existential crisis that tends to underly deeper spiritual and psychological suffering - Why am I here? Who am I, really? What do I really want/need? How should I live my life? Being settled in this regard naturally helps to decrease anxiety and it consequences (from depression to heartburn), but it isn't the goal per se. Nor does it mean that such contemplative practices give specific, abstract, limited answers to such profound questions. It might be more accurate to say that the "answers" are direct, comprehensive, and non-local. That is, it's more akin to intuitively understanding the principle of something rather than making an extremely complex series of calculations in an attempt to quantify and predict/explain a specific outcome of one of its processes. This also involves a greater freedom in being open to new possibilities rather than relying on prior assumptions and prejudices - it isn't a certainty about a specific theology or religious doctrine but a certainty about the value and potential of life (though it is true that when one has such a sense of being settled one may ascribe it to the veracity of ones particular sacred tradition, or to paraphrase what an acquaintance has remarked, people tend to believe in whatever they are doing/the religion they are practicing when they "find God").

That is why often in many Buddhist parables and teachings we here about realized/enlightened masters who, to the amazement of their students, are still human. They still get tired, they weep with grieving friends, they face frustration. They also experience physical illness, age, and die. Being settled, glimpsing (the) ultimate (nature of) reality, does not mean one does not have to deal with (the) historical (dimensions of) reality. Yet those who do so with said greater perspective are also described as doing so gracefully and with gratitude. So what is being relaxed, or more accurately, released, is doubt. Doubt about the value and potential of your life and the corresponding clinging and grasping to ephemeral possessions to make us feel whole, because we realize we already are. Striving then takes on a different tone - one can still be committed to worthy goals and work hard to accomplish them, but not to serve a need born of a deep and possible subconscious feeling of inadequacy or to justify existence/claim an identity.

Back to the question then - what if my problem isn't relaxation, but passivity? Passivity can come from a lack of sense of meaning or direction, or from hopelessness, overwhelming anxiety, and other problems that can as mentioned have roots in an unsatisfactory sense of the nature of one's existence. Even simple boredom can betray a lack of appreciation of the value and especially the potential of life. Despite the stereotypes, contemplative practice/mysticism is not strictly about being mellow nor does it involve a dull exterior. In fact, deep acceptance can in fact stir a greater passion for life and for making a difference to our loved ones and in our communities (as opposed to to misconception that acceptance refers to being ambivalent about everything and disconnected from any personal engagement with the world).

So what should one do if you need a spark, not a tranquilizer?

Buddha says "RELAX".