Tag: Ken Wilber

AWARENESS – Ken Wilber’s view

 

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AWARENESS – Ken Wilber’s view

Enjoy 3 breaths after each section and frequently through your week

POINTER INSIGHT: There is only awareness.  We are aware even when we say we aren’t aware.

COMMENTARY: Many spiritual teachers use the term Awareness quite often as a synonym for consciousness. I reserve consciousness to mean ‘not in a coma’.  Ken Wilber plumps for awareness where he says; The one thing that we always are already aware of is….awareness itself.  We already have basic awareness in the form of the capacity to witness whatever arises.  As an old Zen master used to say, “you hear the birds?  You see the sun?  Who is not enlightened?  None of us can even imagine a state where basic awareness is not because we would still be aware of the imagining.  Even in dreams we are aware.  Moreover, these traditions maintain, there are not two different types of awareness, enlightened versus ignorant.  There is only awareness.  And this awareness, exactly and precisely as it is, without correction or modification at all, is itself Spirit, since there is nowhere that Spirit is not.  – One Taste: p. 130

KEN RELAYS THE INSTRUCTIONS: recognize awareness, recognize the Witness, recognize the Self, and abide as that.  

Any attempt to get awareness is totally beside the point.  “But I still don’t see the Spirit!”  “You are aware of your not seeing Spirit, and that awareness is itself Spirit!”   You can practice mindfulness, because there is forgetfulness; but you cannot practice awareness, because there is only awareness. -0- One Taste: p. 130

Enjoy 3 breaths

PRACTICE/s FOR THE WEEK: Smile more, take time out for three conscious breaths, give a helping hand.  

BREATH-MANTRA: In-breath; “Awareness” –  Outbreath; “No boundaries.”

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IF YOU DO WANT TO  READ MORE: Read the June chapter in Ken Wilber’s One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality .

Are you aware of your Awareness – great teaching from Ken Wilber

Many spiritual teachers use the term Awareness as a synonym for consciousness. I reserve consciousness to mean ‘not in a coma’.

Ken Wilber plumps for awareness where he says;

“The one thing that we always are already aware of is….awareness itself. We already have basic awareness in the form of the capacity to witness whatever arises. As an old Zen master used to say, “you hear the birds? You see the sun? Who is not enlightened?

None of us can even imagine a state where basic awareness is not because we would still be aware of the imagining. Even in dreams we are aware. ……. there are not two different types of awareness, enlightened versus ignorant. There is only awareness.

And this awareness, exactly and precisely as it is, without correction or modification at all, is itself Spirit, since there is nowhere that Spirit is not”. – One Taste: p. 130

THE PARADIGM SHIFT THAT THE WORLD NEEDS: A 6-element model of being human cf Ken Wilber

A triadic structure, similar to my 3Cs, is pointed out by Ken Wilber (2000 p.5)

He relates perennial philosophy to the Great Chain of Being:

“The perennial core of the wisdom traditions is…the Great Chain of Being and the correlative belief in epistemological pluralism. As Huston Smith summarizes this view, “Reality is graded and with it cognition.”…there are levels of knowing and being.

If we picture the Great Chain as composed of four levels (body, mind, soul and spirit), there are four correlative modes of knowing (sensory, mental, archetypal and mystical) which I usually shorten to the three eyes of knowing; the eye of flesh (empiricism), the eye of mind (rationalism) and the eye of contemplation (mysticism).”

In my SunWALK model instead of KW’s quadratic model/s I have used the three eyes of knowing ‘the eye of flesh (empiricism), the eye of mind (rationalism) and the eye of contemplation (mysticism)’ to link with a triadic model that sees the three voices, as Ken says the I, WE and IT voices, as the ‘internal’ dimensions of what it is to be human PLUS three more external co-equivalents that correspond to the Arts, Humanities & Sciences.

The link is that the three ‘eyes’, senses, intellect and spirit, can, be applied, at will, to any and all of the six elements of the model.

THE PARADIGM SHIFT THAT THE WORLD NEEDS
The paradigm shift that the world needs is to put all learning and teaching in the context of being ‘wholly and fully human’ – using the best we have from all cultures but especially the core spiritual truths of Oneness. “What is it to be wholly and fully human?” was the question that drove the dissertation.

Go here to read more about SunWALK, the logo for which is below;

https://sunwalkmodelofholisticeducation.wordpress.com/

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Dialogue between Wayne Teasdale & Ken Wilber

This is the first of 7 short videos that together show the full dialogue between Teasdale and Wilber.
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THE FULL 7 videos
PART 1 (above ) PART 2 – A likely Story


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PART 3 – Intellectual illumination

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PART 4 – All Reality in One Moment

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PART 5 – Psychosis or Mysical State

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PART 6 – Picking a path

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PART 7 – Out of the self into the light

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UPDATE Justfound that someone has strung the 7 together


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New Group ‘Wisdom Questions’, St Augustine and Perennial Philosopy

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‘Wisdom Questions‘

 

“Wisdom is the faculty of making the use of knowledge, a combination of discernment, judgement, sagacity and similar powers. If knowledge is the accumulation of facts and intelligence the development of reason, wisdom is emotional and spiritual discernment. More than knowledge, it is the right application of knowledge in moral and spiritual matters, in handling dilemmas, in negotiating complex relationships. Wisdom is nine-tenths a matter of being wise in time. Most of us are often too wise after the event! It is insight into the heart of the matter.” Wise people see beyond the facts and figures. They avoid problems before they occur. Wisdom is gained through experience, patience and listening.       Definition by Evan Owens CEO of CentreSource – HERE

Some questions to ‘kick-off’

 

Does anyone want to make out a case for the wisdom of woman being different to, or the same as, the wisdom of men?

 

Is science the only method for connecting to reality?

 

Do the great wisdom traditions really teach the same about what it is to be wholly & fully human – in the world with others – in relation to the mysterious Whole?

 

Are the arts a means to reality – or just self indulgence?

 

If we base the education of our children on whole-person leaning might they contribute toward a better world?

 

Do we agree with Evan Owens in his definition (see above) ?

 

 


Are (some) children wiser than many experienced adults – if yes why & how is this?

 

Some friends and I are starting a new group – both locally in Brighton and online.  Online details below.

 

The suggested group title is a play on a) the wisdom we have (should) question – ourselves, our world and reality – AND we can have fun, enjoyment and learning in framing questions to ask of ‘our accumulated, or realized, wisdom’!

 

THE WIDER CONTEXT OF PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

 

Here is an ancient poetic summation of the state of being human, and implicitly of The Perennial Philosophy –  from the Bhagavad Gita;

 

“Like two birds of golden plumage, inseparable companions, the

individual self and the immortal Self are perched on the branches of the

self same tree. The former tastes of the sweet and bitter fruits of the

tree; the latter, tasting of neither, calmly observes.

 

“The individual self, deluded by forgetfulness of his identity with the

divine Self, bewildered by his ego, grieves and is sad. But when he

recognizes the worshipful Lord as his own true Self, and beholds his

glory, he grieves no more.”

 

This so beautifully describes …. well what do you think?

 

Stunningly just yesterday I discovered that St Augustine wrote……….

 

“The fact, which is now called the Christian Religion,” he boldly says, with the earlier Apologists, “existed among the ancients, and was never lacking from the origin of the human race.”  –

C C Martindale SJ –  SOURCE

 

 

Those who want to dig deeper can compare the above two quotations with the contemporary re-presentation of Perennial Philosophy in Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy or Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now or Stillness Speaks – or Ken Wilber or Karen Armstrong, or Wayne Teasdale, or Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thomas Merton or Shaikh Helminski etc. – each I suugest speaks in different language and cultural clothing but teach the same message?

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This is St Augustine not me! –  Lol

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Picture source and helpful list of facts on Augustine & Aquinas by Jeffrey Hays – HERE

 

 

The ‘Wisdom Questions group ON-LINE

 

My contributions to this group’s interests will go to my general blog – https://sunwalked.wordpress.com/ – along with my other core projects

 

1 whole-person learning,
2 photographic art,
3 social justice,
4 inter-spirituality
5 transforming IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis into something life-enhancing

 

i.e. https://sunwalked.wordpress.com/ is a metablog of all my blogs

 

however the dedicated site for Wisdom Questions and inter-spirituality is – http://universalistspirit.wordpress.com/ – you can comment on or add ‘gems’ to either or both!

 

 

All good wishes

 

 

Roger

 

 

 

 

 

An introduction to Perennial Philosophy

An Introduction to PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

(closely allied to Perennial Wisdom, Neo-Platonism,  Universalism)

 Dr Roger Prentice

 “He who knows (only) one religion knows none”– Max Mueller

 “God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere.”  Empedocles

 “Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement.”    (A J Heschel)

 Experience amazement right now! – via a 1 minute meditation HERE

 

We can think of Perennial Philosophy as the (mystic) heart of all of the great world traditions.

 The Perennial Philosophy isn’t ‘philosophy’ in the academic sense so much as wisdom.  It concerns what it is to be spiritually human plus a map of reality – and how we best relate to that reality to develop our innate wisdom.   It is also about some of the practices to develop that wisdom.  The central concerns of practice seen in the various great faiths are the ones to reduce the activities of the ‘me-me-me’ lower self and its delusions.  These cause, as the Buddhists teach us, our torment and personal suffering, and the cruelty inflicted on others.   First we need to awaken, then become progressively detached from our lower selves and thirdly we need to find happiness in serving others.

 Through Perennial Philosophy you can come to understand the true oneness behind apparent differences.

 Aldous Huxley’s definition of Perennial Philosophy (in Latin Philosophia Perennis);

 The metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being.

 ‘AWAKEN, DETACH, SERVE’:

A version of perennial philosophy

the practice and knowledge at the (Mystical) heart of all of the great wisdom traditions

AWAKEN  “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” Thich Nhat Hanh SL p504

A) • There’s a reality beyond the material world:

• Which is uncreated.

• It pervades everything,

• but remains (as a whole) beyond the reach of human knowledge and understanding.

DETACH

“A man is a slave to anything he cannot part with that is less than himself.” – George MacDonald

 B) • You approach that reality by:

• Distinguishing ego from true self

• Understanding the nature of desire

• Becoming unattached

• Forgetting about preferences

• Not working for personal gain

• Letting go of thoughts

• Redirecting your attention

• Being devoted

• Being humble

• Invoking that reality

• Surrendering

RP + all other names, attributes, & qualities of God!

 C) • That reality approaches you through:

• Grace i.e for many folk the Holy Spirit

• The teacher/ss (s/he seems to appear whenever you need to move on up through the next stage)

 D) • You’re transformed – enlightened – so that you embody or reflect that reality by:

• ‘Dying’ and ‘being reborn’ (i.e transformed and living more by the true higher self than the lower self!)

 I’ve added service;

SERVE

“The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” – Albert Schweitzer

E) . You then find (even better) ways to serve – realizing that all work done in the spirit of service can be ranked as worship.

 A poet’s summary of the mystic experience;

“The birds have vanished from the sky,

and now the last clouds slip away.

We sit alone, the mountain and I,

until only the mountain remains.”

(8th Century) Chinese poet Li Po

 

For an alternative model of Perennial Philosophy by Ken Wilber see HERE  

 My three word summary version then is Awaken: Detach: Serve.

Q. Do the 3 words sum it up correctly for you?


PRACTICE – is there such a thing as interfaith practice?
Here is one starting point;

Suggested key practice to re-balance our tendency to ‘live in our heads and bring us back to now, and to wholeness, mindfully:

 We look to achieve the happiness of at-one-ment & reduce the pull of the lower self.  How?  By staying ‘awake’ more.  How?  Through mindfulness.  How? a) Creating short periods of stillness and silence b) staying conscious of the breath, c) as thoughts and feelings arise acknowledge them but don’t fight or chase them – say “Hello – thank-you – goodbye.”  If things stop or get interrupted just go back to stillness and the conscious breathing.

 “Breathing in I know that I’m breathing in.”  “Breathing out

I know that I’m breathing out.”

 

“Smile: Breathe: Go slowly.”

– Zen master – Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Interfaith 1 minute meditation – HERE

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ROGER’s NOTES ON UNIVERSALISM, ‘SPIRITUAL FEDERALISM’ AND ON DIALOGUEs

Concerning Universalism I make the following distinction;

To subscribe to Perennial Philosophy you almost certainly will hold a ‘pan-religious’ and inter-faith position, in addition to a  including some theological ideas such as pan-en-theism – which holds both immanence and transcendence to be true at one and the same time.  My favourite quotation that celebrates this idea is;

“God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere.”  Empedocles

On the other hand a universalist in my view however can have an open and respectful mind and an open and generous heart whilst staying with connected to her/his cultural roots.  Such a person might also be called a Spiritual Federalist (someone who is comfortable in a mainstream religion but who has the desire to reach out to others paths that take them to the same summit).

Huston Smith is one such example. More striking is the specificity of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s traditional Hasidic faith as compared to the Universalism of his heart and astoundingly deep insights into core mystical and eternal reality, and especially into the nature of being human in the world – with others.

Either way the world has no more desperate need than an increase in the ability of people to see the oneness in, and beyond, specific belief systems – whether they do it from a truly Perennial Philosophy position or as a Universalist or Spiritual Federalism.

DIALOGUES:
Who are some of the great Christian, and other ‘Universal/ist souls’ who help our understanding or Perennial Philosophy – often through dialogue with some friend from another religion?: –

Brother Wayne Teasdale, Thomas Merton, Brother David Stendahl-Rast, William Johnston, Huston Smith, Thich Nhat Hanh,  Abdu’l-Baha, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Shaikh Kabir Helminski, Ken Wilber, Deng Ming-Dao, John Daido Loori Roshi, Ken Wilber, Albert Einstein, Karen Armstrong, Eckhart Tolle, Professor John P ‘Jack’ Miller.  Women are massively under-represented in this list.  One hope for correction lies in a site I have just discovered – http://www.zenwomen.com/

For my ‘course on a page’ see HERE but make sure you start with the conversation between Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber which is HERE

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InSpirit are interfaith inter-spiritual study groups – in addition to the online site for our virtual community.  Both promote practice derived from a range of sources, starting with mindfulness via staying consciously i the now via breath awareness – but practice is ultimately a  matter for each individual.  Above all this project – which I call ‘the InSpirit One Garden project’ aims to help in interfaith understanding.

RESOURCES

A tremendous piece of work on Perennial Philosophy – HERE –
check also all the other work under

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Index		 *
Articles and Essays

What is the relationship of spirit and form, form to spirit?

“We turn clay to make a vessel, but it is on the space, where there is nothing, that the usefulness of the vessel depends.” – Lao Tzu   

“Nothing is more real than nothing.” – Samuel Beckett      

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“So the call of all Nondual traditions is: Abide as Emptiness, embrace all Form. The liberation is in the Emptiness, never in the Form, but Emptiness embraces all forms as a mirror all its objects…You and the universe are One Taste.”

(Ken Wilber: A Brief History of Everything, 2007, p. 361).

 Ken Wilber

An open letter to all who recognize Oneness

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An open letter to all who recognize Oneness

 

Dear Fellow Travellers

 

1) Like your lives my life, (in a modest way), has (for the last 45 years), been dedicated to;

 

‘the advancement of education in the consideration of the basic unity of all religions, in particular by the provision of courses to provide an understanding of the relationship of man to the universe, the earth, the environment and the society he lives in, to Reality and to God.’

 

and right now the global and local opportunities, and dangers, strike me as unparalleled.

 

2) The great challenge seems to me to concern ‘the how’ of getting wider acceptance of Oneness and oneness as in Perennial Philosophy and the The Golden Rule – raised consciousness that will positively affect decision-making in all of the vital arenas of human concern.

 

3) A great shift in consciousness is taking place.

 

The great shift in consciousness is evidenced by two events.

Firstly in just the last few years what was esoteric is now open and freely available to to all.

 

Secondly millions are responding – in some way shape or form.

 

I have in mind especially the work of Ken Wilber, Karen Armstrong and most recently Eckhart Tolle.

 

Tolle’s writing is highly accessible – in the UK most Sun and Daily Mirror readers could handle it.

 

Of course functional literacy and level of consciousness and not directly correlated! But eleven million had by Week 3 tuned in to Tolle’s course run by Oprah Winfrey – see HERE

 

….. Oprah went further with Eckhart Tolle than she has ever gone with a previous author picked for her book club. She chose to present, with Tolle, a 10-week series of “webinars” – online seminars – with one chapter of the book (which she puts on the bedside table of all of her guest rooms) discussed each week. In the first webinar, transmitted on 3 March, Tolle led Winfrey and the millions of viewers who logged on in several different countries in silent meditation; viewers were then encouraged to submit questions to Tolle via Skype. By the third week, 11 million people were logging on.

 

This surely has no parallel in the whole of humankind’s spiritual history. The course is HERE

 

Not only are ‘the books open’ but there is more than Maslow’s 2% willing a new earth.

 

The question is how can their energy be harnessed and focused for the common good – or do we have to wait until the first nuclear war, simply because those who ‘know’ can’t find ways and means to influence those who actually ‘do the doing’ and make our world as it is.

 

4) We need to be thinking ‘outside of the box’. The old ways may not be sufficient. Keeping the candles of light and hope and truth is something that the precious few have done down through the ages, but now the challenge is to shift up to a larger stage.

 

For example inter-faith dialogue may well be effete (and for some cunning PR) compared to the people who really operate at the ‘hot interfaces’ – e. g. diplomats and business-people.

 

5) Absorbing and responding to this fact seems to me to be the challenge that might bring forth balm for suffering being borne by untold millions.

 

A sufficient proportion of America has said ‘Yes we can’ but even more critical than the decisions Obama will be making over the next 4 or 8 years is how can the light of Oneness be brought into the darkened hearts of religious haters and racists. That Oneness is the Tipping Point. The

‘tipping-point’ is realization of that Oneness – and it needs more than abstract assent.

 

6) My personal experience has led me to realize that individuals need something real and living and breathing through which to connect with ‘foreign’ wisdom traditions.

 

I believed in the oneness of religions long before I came across

a) Jane Clark’s article on Ibn al-Arabi – which created for me a living connection to Islam – and

b) the Bhagavad Gita Chanted in English HERE using a text of the Bhagavad Gita in English HERE

NB Try listening to the chanting whilst reading the text – wonderful! – transporting!

These gave me a living connection to Hinduism.

 

7) Starting points:

 

Perhaps looking very closely and deeply at ‘reverse fundamentalism’ is the way to generate programmes of positive action.

 

Karen Armstrong as you probably know is being given the opportunity to raise up the principle of the Golden Rule via her ‘Charter for Compassion’ campaign see HERE

 

Perhaps making celebratory programmes free to all on the internet…..

 

Perhaps Golden Rule materials free online for Heads and school…….

 

Perennial philosophy and the ‘federal’ Golden Rule – the ‘world language’ to be taught, in addition to their own religions, so that all can communicate with those of other faiths ……

 

What do you think?

 

We who have striven to keep the candles alight have to contribute to ways and means of reaching a sufficiently wider audience to get established some of the foundations for a new earth.

 

All blessings on the further development of your work.

 

Roger

Is Eckhart Tolle anti-intellectual?

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A thoughtful respondent stimulated me in to raising a few more issues re Eckhart Tolle, so here they are.

Is Eckhart Tolle in his teachings anti-intellectual – or at least might he be playing into the hands of anti-intellectualists?

My perspective is from within a Perennial Philosophy and Universalist world-view, as is Wilber and Tolle.

So, in my understanding:-

You said:

‘Tolle does not speak of ‘non-duality as everything’. But he speaks of duality and our relationship to it often.’

The ‘it’ that relates to the non-duality I am arguing is part of the design – not just a deficiency on our part!

Does he celebrate duality as one of the two wings of being human, in this world with others. Or does he say, or imply, that the non-dual is not just desirable but the only goal – to such an extent that a newcomer might think, “I’m not good, I’m not normal, I’m not a true Tolle-ist (God forbid – but I bet it happens) unless I experience complete non-duality 24/7.”

I guess my question is, “Would God’s Creativity have failed if for all humans there was 24/7 non-duality?”

I want to argue that non-duality is the goal and indispensable to unity, peace, stability, conflict-resolution, an end to suffering etc. BUT being in duality is also normal, beautiful, testing, the source of compassion and empathy etc. It is more than just the darkness to the realization of the beauty of light.

I don’t underestimate the collective pain-body and collective insanity that continues to rule our world.

Duality is THE means of all growth and development – up to the need to realize non-duality. It’s the name of the game in this world. My understanding is that babies don’t immediately realize that they are separate beings from their mothers – although the birthing process and daily experiences get that process going pretty quickly!

My point is that although duality is not the goal – it is the means, and a means without which we would neither realize the essentiality of non-duality nor would we have the means to accomplish the realization of it.  We have to feel separate to realize at-one-ness. If this is the case then both non-duality and duality are part of the game – and part of God’s great teaching ‘machine’.

So in my view we come to realize that we need (at least in this world) two wings – not one wing and a useless stump! To change metaphors – the purpose of life is for the drop to lose itself in the Ocean – not all the time but sufficiently deeply and sufficiently often to become the conditioning bedrock for all of our living within duality. The dynamic is where knowledge comes from – and duality is not just a design fault or sin!

I have the same problem with an even greater ‘genius’ Ken Wilber. God speaks via duality as well as non-duality, He speaks via subjectivity as well as objectivity AND He speaks via mind and reason as well as their opposites.

A separate, but vitally connected subject concerns the nature of the pain-body and how it relates to mind and thought. The great Tolle also gives the impression that the mind is virtually the same as the pain-body. I would say the the ‘egoic-mind’ = the pain-body – or more accurately the pain-body is the habituated shadow-self created in us via our egoic responses.

He should be ‘condemning’ the egoic-mind not the mind! The mind free of the egoic pain-body = a ray of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think because I’m sinful, I think because I am made in the image of God! Tolle is at risk of giving the mind and thinking a really bad name, whereas they are, when free from the egoic pain-body, first in Creation – the very purpose of Creation.

I have the same problem with (possibly) an even greater ‘genius’ Abraham Joshua Heschel.

You said:
‘When a person is not in the now, it is natural to ask where they should be, because there is an inner sensing that they are not where they belong.’

The ache you refer to is when we haven’t realized that we already have enlightenment, and that it is simply a matter of ‘letting go and let God’. When we have had experiences of non-duality, and re-cognize them and re-alize them, the wood chopping is in the enlightenment and the enlightenment is in the wood chopping!

You said:
‘When you are not in the now, God continues on. Your presence in the now, or not, has no effect on God.’

Yup! The sun shines whether I choose to face it and reflect it or not.

You said:
‘Duality is not ‘not non-being’. Duality is the natural state of the world of form. Seeking an understanding of ‘non-duality’ is not the only thing to do in life, but understanding ‘non-duality’ gives one a profound foundation for all of living.’

Yup! – Beautifully put.

You said:
‘All knowledge comes from consciousness, and you are consciousness. So when you behold, or categorize, the inter-play between duality and non-duality, you, that is consciousness, has created knowledge.’

Ah but what is ‘you’?

For me your term ‘inter-play’ is the key – it indicates the dynamic between experiences of duality and of singleness: me-not me, me and ‘the greater whole of which I and all other phenomena are emanations’ etc.

The explanation that works for me goes like this. I ask of my Spirit a question. My Spirit answers, and lo the light breaks forth. The ‘I’ of course is the egoic self and the Self, ultimately, is God within. But it is more then the pain to which I am addicted – it is God’s Creativity via difference (diversity) – complementary to His/Her/It’s creativity via sameness.

Ultimately I suppose I’m arguing that to deny God’s Creativity in His creation of difference is to deny some aspect of Him/Her/It that cannot be denied. I, and you and him and her and them, are important outside of  complete self-abnegation in non-duality!  Hooray – vivre la difference – I want dia-logos from you as well as silence, I gratefully acknowledge the dia-logos within me as well as the speechless silence of complete self-abnegation!

The ‘me’ is vital – along with experiences of non-duality – for God to perpetually continue His Creation-emanation. The film projected needs a screen. Every lily of the field is different or unique as well as belonging to the same species.

If you accept the temporary naming of the un-nameable both are part of God’s teaching machine. Difference as well as sameness reveals. The uniqueness as well as the sameness of each of us ‘reveals’ – to us and to others. It is ‘me and non-duality’ that gives rise to development in consciousness, which gives rise to the kind of knowing to which you refer.

This ‘knowing-that-comes-through-raised-consciousness’, comes to us as a ‘gift’ without book-learning and academic study. It is the majority of what we know.

An Islamic (hence Arabic terms) and Bahá’í distinction helps (me) here;

SOURCE: Two words for knowledge, but very different kinds of knowledge. Ilm can be acquired by education and training and through the exercise of reason. Irfan is higher knowledge, or gnosis, that can only be acquired by, first, education, and then contemplation under the guidance of a master. The guidance would include spiritual training in zikr, music (sama) and meditation. Ilm is expected to lead to the sober contemplation of God as both Creator and Judge—his awesome power– whereas irfan may lead to ecstasy as a person is simply overwhelmed by God’s immense beauty and falls in love with that Beauty.  SOURCE

The sheer weight of emphases in Tolle might give the impression that mind and thinking = bad. Whereas although the soul is infinite because it is ultimately God, and the mind is finite, the two are essential – from our perspective. Religions can suffer from anti-intellectualism as well as what a friend calls ‘adminology’ in which the essential heart is set aside in favour of jurisprudence and nit-picking.

I am wondering if Tolle, understandably, started from the (to me erroneous) Western view that separates heart and mind, as opposed to the Chinese view of heart-mind – ‘xin’.

I don’t think Tolle is anti-intellectual but I wish he would celebrate a bit more the other wing of being human – duality, without which non-duality would not be.

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May the Nameless One, who some call God,  finish raising up the Self-actualized 2% , the yeast for the bread of humanity!

Maybe He/She/It already has and they are just really badly organized!

“How does the energy generated by Tolle actually get transformed into social action and social transformation?”

Now that’s a really challenging question!

Photo source: Microsoft Clipart

Salads not Soups – barriers, boundaries & difference in how social we are

As years go by, even from an early age,  we all make adjustments, we all accommodate, we all shift to make ourselves more comfortable.

The UK Guardian newspaper online carried a wonderful article, and an even more wonderful photograph,  about a shift in the life of Tom Leppard, the leopard man of Skye, now that he’s 73.

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Tom Leppard the leopard man of Skye. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The article tells us that;

The leopard man has been domesticated. After 20 years of living in the wilds on a remote part of Skye, the man made famous for his leopard tattoos has changed his spot for a one-bedroom apartment. At 73, Tom Leppard was starting to feel his age, and the weekly kayak trip across the fast-flowing Kyles of Lochalsh for supplies was taking its toll. He was “one big wave away from disaster”, and when a friend offered him the chance to leave the shore of Loch na Bèiste for the comfort of four walls in the village of Broadford, he leapt at the chance.

So Tom Leppard has shifted to new accommodation.

The brilliant article and even more brilliant photograph leave me with two lines of thought that I would like to follow up in subsequent posts.

The first line of thought is about all those dualities that we have to balance and adjust to maintain our sense of who we are.  There are many – here are just a few; me-not me, my space-not my space, embrace-intrusion, willed change v. forced change, now-not now, my identity as derived from my memories-the terror of not being, identifying with v. dis-identifying with, being inside v. being outside, a sense of perfect place v a sense of alienating place, my group-not my group, being part of a salad v. being part of a soup, and many, many more.

All of these dualities around the issue of identity go much further and deeper when we compare and contrast this discussion with the pereenial nowness, no-dual philosophy of such writer-teachers as Ken Wilber or Eckhart Tolle.

The second line of thought concerns the genius of the photograph per se.

Both lines of thought I see as fascinating for philosophical inquiry and creativity lessons with children or adults – starting with this article and photograph.