Spirituality – Soul Needs

Luscious fruit & the Reality beyond

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On the Youtube video entitled Rilke and The Tantric Path Rupert Spira, our Oxford-based brilliant spiritual teacher said to a student;

“I like very much your description of consciousness the artist and every thought, feeling or perception is like a brush work

and the work of art but each brush stroke bears the signature of consciousness

and the signature of consciousness is the experience I am

so every experience contains within it what I am and as you say that

signature is is transparent it has no colour of its own but it is contained within it is the coulourless paint before

it is tinted with each particular colour so its fine to focus on a particular brushstroke a particular perception

as as long as you’re not focusing on its objective aspect but

you’re using the object to take you to the signature of consciousness to the experience I am so

you can follow every experience this is the tantric path you go

we don’t start by going inwards towards the I am

you follow your perception but

you don’t stop with the objective aspect of the perception

you go through it to the colourless paint out of which it is made

the signature of consciousness which is always the experience I am

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NB I have tried to not add or detract what Rupert said but I have presented it with extra line to present each idea separately

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Juicy apple, pear, and banana,

Gooseberry … They all speak of

Death and life in the mouth … I have a presentiment …

Read it from a child’s expression

If she savours them. It comes from far, from far …

Aren’t you slowly becoming aware of something inexpressible in your mouth?

Where a moment ago were words, a flowing discovery

Is released, startling, from the fruit’s flesh.

Venture to say what your apple is called.

This sweetness, which originally condensed itself,

Spreading out, slowly in being tasted rose up

To achieve a clarity, awake and of transparency,

Resonant of opposites, sunny, earthy, of the here and now -:

Oh the experience of it, the feeling, the joy -, immense!

Rilke’s sonnets are here – https://www.sonnetstoorpheus.com/book1_13.html

The one referred to here is number 13

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Rilke photo on Wikipedia

Seeing beauty, truth & goodness in the ten thousand things

Ikkyu – see HERE

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I was so happy that my friends at A Circle of Friends an Interspirituality site – HERE– sent out this quotation;

“Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind.

A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.

Dusk, rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds.

Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.”

~Ikkyu~

to put alongside this;

The great Master Dogen said,

“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self,

to study the self is to forget the self, and

to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.”

To be enlightened by the ten thousand things is to recognize the unity of the self and the ten thousand things.

and this;

“Tao gives birth to one,

One gives birth to two,

Two gives birth to three,

Three gives birth to ten thousand beings.

Ten thousand beings carry yin on their backs and embrace yang in their front,

Blending these two vital breaths to attain harmony.”

along with this;

“Every being in the universe

is an expression of the Tao.

It springs into existence,

unconscious, perfect, free,

takes on a physical body,

lets circumstances complete it.

That is why every being spontaneously honors the Tao.

“The Tao gives birth to all beings,

nourishes them, maintains them,

cares for them, comforts them, protects them,

takes them back to itself,

creating without possessing, acting without expecting,

guiding without interfering.

That is why love of the Tao is in the very nature of things.”

(Stephen Mitchell’s interpretation of chapter 51 or the Tao Te Ching talks of the ongoing relationship between Tao and

the ten thousand things – SOURCE )

Science as metaphor for the spiritual (and vice versa?) – Magnetism and Harmonization

Magnetic lines of force of a bar magnet shown by iron filings on paper

Science as metaphor for the spiritual (and vice versa?) – Magnetism and Harmonization

Recently I was knocked out when a colleague mention in his presentation on physics and spirituality the use of – iron filings, paper and a magnet – to show harmony and magnetic patterning.

It was the only thing I remembered from my rather dodgy science lessons – but as a metaphor it has influenced me deeply all my life.

‘Rimstar.org’ has done a very good job at showing what I vaguely remember from many years ago –

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Steven Halpern has been working on sound and healing for decades

In this video they use an (unnecessarily complicated?) machine to show the effects of his chanting in a pyramid.

https://sunwalked.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/healing-sound-made-visible/

I don’t actually like much of Halpern’s music – too electronic.

However this guy blows me away –

What he’s chanting here roughly means, Oh God. How I revel in you, you are the fragrance of life. Help me know wisdom. Like the fruit on the vine, eventually it will fall and rot away, and then begin anew as another vine. Like the fruit bound to the vine, such am I bound to the unnecessities of life. Help me become free of them so that my spirit can grow and become one with you again.

It is a lesson in mystical oneness and perennial philosophy, which I summarize as Awaken:Detach:Serve. However it is also a lesson in how true depth – in this case of this Dutchman’s art of chanting – can reach across cultural and religious gaps – 1.3 millions hits so far. (Astonishing!)

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As a metaphor the magnet-harmonics of iron filings has greatest relevance for me to the idea of psycho-spiritual integration within – and/or ‘at-one-ment’.

But it also relates to healing – for example chanting Om or just humming causes the chest to vibrate – personally I’m hoping that is good for IPF!

Interestingly one spiritual source appears to present love as a magnetic force;

Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God’s holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings. Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul. Love is the cause of God’s revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things. Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next. Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul. Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the diverse elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.1

“Ai,” the traditional Chinese character for love (愛) consists of a heart (心, middle) inside of “accept,” “feel,” or “perceive,” (受) which shows a graceful emotion. It can also be interpreted as a hand offering ones heart to another hand.

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Who are your top 100 spiritual movers & shakers?

Tolle drops one place on the Watkins list of spiritual movers & shakers. Thich Nhat Hanh has taken the No 2 spot front Eckhart Tolle cf 2012 list!

I know its silly but my personal rank order is 2,3 1!

As I look through the list I see that I know of some, and not others. What would be our own personal criteria for choosing the list – since some make me feel profoundly uncomfortable – e.g. where does all the money go? – and others are redolent with integrity, long-service, simple & accessible profundity, a speaking from a genuine place, humour & dignity.

Are some very small fry and some charlatans?

1- Dalai Lama. Born Lhamo Dondrub, Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama. Tibetan Buddhists believe him to be a reincarnation of his predecessors and the Buddha of compassion. He is a vocal activist for Tibetan independence and has made an incredible contribution to global spirituality. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2012 and donated most of the prize money to the Save the Children fund in India. Time Magazine call him “The most influential person in the world”, while The Times commented “He draws crowds that no other spiritual leader or politician could hope to match…he seems to look at life in a different way to everyone else”. His latest books How to Be Compassionate: A Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World and Towards The True Kinship Of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together are now available in paperback.
www.dalailama.com :: Born in Taktser, Tibet :: 06/07/1935 :: Spiritual Leader

2 – Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, scholar and peace activist. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam and his courageous efforts moved Martin Luther King to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He founded the Order of Interbeing and the Unified Buddhist Church, along with monasteries and spiritual centres in Vietnam, the USA and France. He lives in Plum Village, his meditation centre in France, and travels widely, leading retreats on the art of mindful living. His latest book Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting through the Storm was published in November.
www.plumvillage.org :: Born in Thua Thien, Vietnam :: 11/10/1926 :: Spiritual Leader

3 – Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart’s profound yet simple teachings have helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution. His books, The Power of Now and the highly acclaimed follow-up A New Earth are two of the best-selling Mind, Body, Spirit books in the world. Tolle’s free online “un-course”—video teachings offered as reminders to the true source of peace and freedom within yourself – provides free resources to work towards a deeper level of consciousness.
www.eckharttolle.com :: Born in Lünen, Germany :: 16/02/1948 :: Modern Teacher and Writer

Go HERE to see the Watkins top 100 list for 2013

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

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Articles and Essays

Diamonds, Rumi, coming up for air & Paul Simon

“You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”
— Rumi
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Insight (52 Meditations)

In-sight is the interior version of physical sight.

It is a seeing into the reality of things – self, relationships, scientific problems – into reality as a Whole, or some part of reality.

In-sights expand our space. They expand the parameters. They expand our sensibility.

But they also re-order priorities and tweak life-perspectives.

According to the teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh

THIS WEEK’S MANTRA or ‘BREATHTRA’

In-breath:I ask my spirit

Out-breath: light breaks forth

Words from a spiritual master;

“…while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit.

In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit

and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed.

SOURCE

Words from another spiritual master;

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A lightning flash:

between the forest trees

I have seen water.

Shiki Masaoka

(1867-1902)

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TAGS: Zen, insight, meditation, interspirituality, intermysticism, interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh, Abdu’l-Baha, spiritual masters, reality, spirituality, spiritual development, spiritual federalism, interfaith, universalism,

Defining ‘Spiritual Federalism’ and introducing some of the great Spiritual Federalists

Spiritual Federalism is a term that I have started to use meaning ‘to have a faith but to also extend one’s love and respect into deep appreciation of other paths and the celebration of the golden core of oneness shown in those other paths.Such people like citizens lucky enough to live in a federal democracy value and identify with bot their state and province and the country of which the state is an integral part – as in someone who says, “I am both a proud Californian and a proud American”. – and preferably they would also say, as Socrates did, that they are also proud world citizens.

How many of such people are there? Two per cent? Two per cent of two per cent? Who knows, but this small minority are very important. Apart from anything else they are the spiritual equivalent of Maslow’s self-actualized human beings, or Baha’u’llah’s equivalent as in the one who knows ‘of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor’ – see His second Arabic Hidden Word he speaks of Justice as the best-beloved of all things.. They are the vision-creators for a more peaceful, united world.

If one person has created an outline of the basis for Spiritual Federalism it is Brother Wayne Teasdale – see his book The Mystic Heart. He didn’t use that term instead he coined ‘interspirituality’ and ‘intermysticism’.In this video he is in conversation with another great of Spiritual Federalist Ken Wilber;

SOME OF THE OTHER GREAT SPIRITUAL FEDERALISTS
Chosen because they either lived the Spiritual Federalist life or helped us understand more about what Spiritual Federalism means. Please tell me others who should be on the list.

Brother Wayne Teasdale

Huston Smith

Shaik Kabir Helminski

Abraham Jousua Heschel

Brother Steindl-Rast

Thich Nhat Hanh

The following who named no specific ‘community of belonging’ for themselves but who have made extraordinary contributions to understanding the golden ore of oneness

Eckhart Tolle

Karen Armstrong

Ken Wilber

Of course Spiritual Federalism is a continuation of the Perennial Philosophy and Traditionalism and The Golden Rule ethic. But SF honours people who wish to stay with the religion of their birth of of their choice – both possibly accidents of culture or geography – yet who have universal hearts that recognize that light is light regardless of the the lamp from which it shines. Huston Smith seems to me to be a very clear example of a Spiritual Federalist. His research and writing is voluminous in describing interfaith reality, but he has rested content with the Methodist Church in which he was brought up. See Dana Dawyer’s article HERE

SF also holds the (hopelessly?) vision that if all of the religions stopped trying to convert everyone and focused instead of discovering the golden core of their own and other religions the world might be in a happier place. How about a 3 year trial for a start?

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Letting Go – poem – image juxtaposition

Letting Go

let it go – the

smashed word broken

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise – let it go it

was sworn to

let them go – the

truthful liars and

the false fair friends

and the boths and

neithers – you must let them go they

were born

to go

let all go – the

big small middling

tall bigger really

the biggest and all

things – let all go

dear

so comes love

~ e. e. cummings ~

(Complete Poems 1904-1962)

Spirit moves: the beautiful simplicity of the haiku

The summer river:

although there is a bridge, my horse

goes through the water.

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Shiki, Masaoka.

(1867-1902).

The secret of the universe – you’ll kick yourself when the penny drops – I did! (52 Meditations)

Magic Eye How to See 3D

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The secret of the universe, your life-secret – also called ‘the geddit factor’ – got it? – you’ll kick yourself when the penny drops!

The secret of life and your way to it can’t be contained in words.

Great teachers like Zen masters point. As in this haiku by Basho;

The clouds come and go,

providing a rest for all

the moon viewers

The word ‘moon’ does convey the magic of the experience of moon-ness – so great masters point to the moon, but don’t label.

No name is sufficient – in fact labels stop us seeing, stop us experiencing full reality.

It’s like

Pause the video to give yourself longer on each photo. Don’t worry if the 3d magic eye stuff doesn’t work for you.

It doesn’t mean you haven’t or won’t ‘geddit’ spiritually! But the 3D Magic Eye photos and videos are good as an analogy.

We stare at what we think is the real world.

But its an illusion.

There’s something deeper – something at least 3 dimensional – and it contains ‘a secret’ – the secret of the universe.

MANTRA:

In-breath: Relaxing

Out-breath: I see more deeply

In-breath: Trusting my intuition

Out-breath: I see more deeply

make the mantra that feels right for you!

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TAGS: mantra, breath, mindfulness, intuition, insight, breakthrough, 3D, illusion, delusion, the secret, secret of the universe, satori, seeing, seeing clearly, haiku, Basho, reality, Zen, spirituality, spiritual masters, kingdom of names, form, formlessness, non-duality, duality

The flash of insight

A lightning flash:

between the forest trees

I have seen water.

Shiki Masaoka – (1867-1902)

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“All spiritual teachings are about one thing – what it is to be fully and positively human – in the world, with others.

This we do in relation to that Whole – out of which we each are an infinitesimally small, temporary, wave-form.

We live in order to awake to that mysterious Whole, overcome ego and learn to serve better – ‘Awake; De-egotise; Serve’ – That’s it! But we need to start somewhere. And simplicity is better than complexity.

We can (re)start right now with Thích Nhất Hạnh Zen Buddhist master’s teaching on mindfulness; ‘Smile: Breathe and Go slowly/consciously’ – try it! Instant success is built in from the first smile. Its’ irresistible!

The rest is a matter of cultural clothing & historical accident of birth.

True religion helps, false religion hinders – in getting the realizations needed.” – RP

Share your questions or insights on these or any other issues via ‘comments’

Namaste – Roger

Dr Roger Prentice

PS The secret of life it seems to me is in the haiku above.

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What’s your preferred definition of ‘namaste’?

“I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me.” — attributed to but not claimed by author Deepak Chopra

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“I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.”

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“That which is of God in me greets that which is of God in you.””The Divinity within me perceives and adores the Divinity within you.

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My preferred definition is the second one.

8 dimensions of love

Know thou of a certainty that Love is the secret of God’s holy Dispensation, the manifestation of the All-Merciful, the fountain of spiritual outpourings.

Love is heaven’s kindly light, the Holy Spirit’s eternal breath that vivifieth the human soul.

Love is the cause of God’s revelation unto man, the vital bond inherent, in accordance with the divine creation, in the realities of things.

Love is the one means that ensureth true felicity both in this world and the next.

Love is the light that guideth in darkness, the living link that uniteth God with man, that assureth the progress of every illumined soul.

Love is the most great law that ruleth this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that bindeth together the diverse elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms.

Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.

Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation.

Source

New slant on having, knowing, being and doing

It’s always great when a new idea bursts in your mind – or simply a new slant that puts in focused place long-held but vaguer ideas.

This for me was such an idea;

‘What you do is what you you’ve got’.

It came from here;

With Eckhart Tolle however I would say that having, knowing, being and doing have more than complex interactions, they have the context of silence – from which their truths arise.

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True achievement, success and happiness lie in being fully and positively human –

through our caring our creativity and our criticality –

developed via service to the communities to which we belong.

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the

PhD. Summaries are HERE

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On this site there are 1000+ ideas that you can put to work straight away.

“Why not use the SEARCH, CATGORIES or INDEX to find the ideas for you?”

What’s the difference between spirituality and religion?

How do you answer the question above?

Below is how far I have got with this issue.

Spirituality is how we relate to the unknown and unknowable – to Ultimate reality – and the meaning and motivation we derive therefrom.

Our worldview, as a consequence, is how we ‘read’ the world. Our worldview includes that of which are conscious, plus that which derives from enculturation. Becoming more fully conscious of Oneness, and acting accordingly, is our purpose.

Religion is the agreed set of relationships, teachings and customs held in common with any religious group of which one has membership.

Progress in spirituality is measured by regularly bringing oneself to account – in relation to the standards of your spirituality, world-view and religious group/s (if any).

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Etymological issues:

The English word “religion” is derived from the Middle English “religioun” which came from the Old French “religion.” It may have been originally derived from the Latin word “religo” which means “good faith,” “ritual,” and other similar meanings. Or it may have come from the Latin “religãre” which means “to tie fast.”

Doing your own research:

A very good starting point is provided by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. See HERE

The definitions I like best from this source are;

George Hegel: “the knowledge possessed by the finite mind of its nature as absolute mind.”

Paul Tillich: “Religious is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern”

Others are;

The Religious Tolerance group tell us that David Carpenter has collected and published a list of definitions of religion, including:

Anthony Wallace: “a set of rituals, rationalized by myth, which mobilizes supernatural powers for the purpose of achieving or preventing transformations of state in man or nature.”

Hall, Pilgrim, and Cavanagh: “Religion is the varied, symbolic expression of, and appropriate response to that which people deliberately affirm as being of unrestricted value for them.”

Karl Marx: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Don Swenson defines religion in terms of the sacred: “Religion is the individual and social experience of the sacred that is manifested in mythologies, ritual, ethos, and integrated into a collective or organization.”

Paul Connelly also defines religion in terms of the sacred and the spiritual: “Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.”

He defines sacred as: “The sacred is a mysterious manifestation of power and presence that is experienced as both primordial & transformative, inspiring awe & rapt attention. This is usually an event that represents a break or discontinuity from the ordinary, forcing a re-establishment or recalibration of perspective on the part of the experiencer, but it may also be something seemingly ordinary, repeated exposure to which gradually produces a perception of mysteriously cumulative significance out of proportion to the significance originally invested in it.”

He further defines the spiritual as: “The spiritual is a perception of the commonality of mindfulness in the world that shifts the boundaries between self and other, producing a sense of the union of purposes of self and other in confronting the existential questions of life, and providing a mediation of the challenge-response interaction between self and other, one and many, that underlies existential questions.”

My final question – “Why are there so many religious intolerance groups?”

To read the full article by the Religious Tolerance group go HERE

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True achievement, success and happiness lie in being fully and positively human –

through our caring our creativity and our criticality –

developed via service to the communities to which we belong.

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All postings to this site relate to the central model in the

PhD. Summaries are HERE

An open letter to all who recognize Oneness

goldenrule-poster

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

Ten ways to bridge and transcend racial and religious hatred

coexist-perennial-philsoophy-inter-faith1

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The campaign Charter for Compassion are asking for contributions for the final charter. Here is my first draft contribution;

Compassion and Peace: ten ways to bridge and transcend racial and religious hatred

1 See the Golden Rule as the equivalent to a language in addition to your own – “My ‘mother tongue’ is Islam/Christianity/Buddhism etc but I also speak ‘the Golden Rule’ – so that I can be a sister/brother to peoples of all religions and none.

2 Implore people like Barack Obama to spend money on deepening cultural understanding – say 10% of the military budget switched to Arabic/Islamic, Chinese and Russian studies. Generate an ‘open data-base’ of experience learned.

3 Encourage all countries to massively increase exchange programmes. Send everyone with a ‘We’ve got these problems how are my host country dealing with them’ pack – and require a thorrough de-briefing upon return to home country – we must see that the most important problems are held in common, and that we must pool answers.

4 Use the knowledge as a data-base for university and school respect for other cultures courses – instead of allowing our societies to continue falsely claiming that the mad fundamentalist minority = the reality of the whole communuity.

5 Get celebrity goodwill ambassadors for the GR – include business people , they have more interchange with ‘foreigners’ than any other group. Get pop groups talking and singing about it.

Get Barack Obama talking about it – and Nels Mandela, and Archbishop Tutu etc.

6 Start teaching the Golden Rule – one school at a time – everywhere.

7 Generate badges, widgets and bling for websites, windows, clothing that conveys messages such as – ‘I speak oneness and diversity’. ‘We support the GR’, etc (Get some adverstising agencies working on it).

8 Support studies of fundamentalism – focus on ways and means antidotes and prophylactics. The best writers on fundamentalism may not be in obvious academic fields – the best I have found is

9 Look for ‘out of the box’ solutions such as brilliant comedians such as Omid Djalili and Shazia Mirza.

If you don’t like strong comedy don’t go – but I suspect that Omid, and the others have ‘lanced more religious boils’ for the general population than all of the politicians and academics put put together!

10 Support ways and means for deeper applications of the Golden Rule – we need courses from nursery to university epecially based on the brilliant writings and work of a) Eckhart Tolle, b) Ken Wilber and c) Karen Armstrong.

Eckhart Tolle article HERE

Federalism of spirit – or will there have to be another 1000 Mumbai massacres?

The branches of a tree don't make war on each other!

I added this post to an earlier piece but I think it is worth posting and developing because it contains an idea that is new to me! The difference is that I place it here in the discussion concerning the recent massacre in Mumbai.

The suggestion is that the idea of federalism – politically it works well in many countries – could and should be popularized as a key to the peoples of the world relating more successfully at the religious ideological level. Perhaps this could be termed ‘Federalism of spirit’ – the harmony that cherishes diversity.

How can we prevent massive amplification of hatred? What would be a starting point forward? The teaching of the Golden Rule in all schools would be a great step forward – (SEARCH articles on the Golden Rule on this site). But I’m suggesting that we teach, step-by-step, a Universalist world-view in addition to whatever is the majority religion. Just as I am British, Chinese or Kenyan I am also first and foremost a human being. Similarly I am proudly and faithfully a Christian/Moslem/Buddhist, or whatever, but I can also be a Universalist through recognizing;

1) The Golden Rule,

2) the essential Oneness of the mystical core of religions – Perennial Philosophy – and that

3) we are simply all emanations of one Source.

The deal at the moment for many is this – if I have a strong faith I am compelled because of ‘exclusivity of truth’ to hate all deemed to be ‘other’. If we all were Universalists as well as being of a particular tradition we could dialogue more profitably instead of killing each other. Federalism works – even without oceans of blood as precursors.

Of course there are other elements and needs in the mix – the need for greater political justice, the prevention of plain old crime etc. but shifting the world’s mind-set through teaching the Universal alongside the particular would improve matters enormously.

Eckhart Tolle is probably the most accessible proponent of Perennial Philosophy – the United nations should emply him and Karen Armstrong as Goodwill Ambassadors!

Perennial Philosophy, or mysticism, in one sentence

-0-

“We can be happy, and serve others well,

if we realize our true Self

by detaching ourselves from the egotistic lower self –

through our step-by-step becoming aware

of the stillness beneath the noise.”

-0-

This is the mystical core of all of the great world wisdom traditions.

If you don’t have the time to delve deeply into one or all of the religions read Eckhart Tolle’s The New Earth and do this course presented by Oprah Winfrey – HERE

Roger’s ver as at Nov 30th 2008

What’s your version?

‘God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere’:Definitions of God and Religion

Oh no this won’t do Mr M.!

Spiritual maturity, as related to religion, is a function of two things.

Firstly the degree toward which the ‘believer’ manages to de-anthropomorphise God, and gain a grown-up understanding of Ultimate Reality.

Secondly the ability to feel and think and do without attachment to ‘thumb-sucking’ supports – they vary with each individual.

The pay-off? We consequently learn to live with justice as the conditioning influence of all we see, think and do – we come to see through his own eyes and not through the eyes of another.

God of course by definition is undefinable.

Here is one definition that defies that indefinablity AND manage to capture the essence of the combined immanence and transcendence of the theological position known as panentheism;

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

Anonymous, ‘The Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers‘ (12thC)

Here are some other attempts -less satisfactory;

To define God is to limit Him. Still it seems inevitable that man should do that in order to get some edge to which his mind may cling. – Heywood Broun

When I was fifteen years old or so I came up with a definition of God to which, in my old age, I come back more and more, I would call it an operational definition. It reads as follows: God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies. – Viktor Frankl

God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, Ah! – Joseph Campbell

We know God easily, if we do not constrain ourselves to define him. – Joseph Joubert

God… a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man’s power to conceive. – Ayn Rand

A stimulating, and largely satisfactory phenomenological definition of God is;

The philosopher Michel Henry defines God in a phenomenological point of view. He says: “God is Life, he is the essence of Life, or, if we prefer, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what is God, we know it not by the effect of a learning or of some knowledge, we don’t know it by the thought, on the background of the truth of the world ; we know it and we can know it only in and by the Life itself. We can know it only in God.” (I Am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity).

This Life is not biological life defined by objective and exterior properties, nor an abstract and empty philosophical concept, but the absolute phenomenological life, a radically immanent life which possesses in it the power of showing itself in itself without distance, a life which reveals permanently itself. A manifestation of oneself and a self-revelation which doesn’t consist in the fact of seeing outside of oneself or of perceiving the exterior world, but in the fact of feeling and of feeling oneself, of experiencing in oneself its own inner and affective reality.

As Michel Henry says also in this same book, “God is that pure Revelation that reveals nothing other than itself. God reveals Himself. The Revelation of God is his self-revelation”. God is in himself revelation, he is the primordial Revelation that tears everything from nothingness, a revelation which is the pathetic self-revelation and the absolute self-enjoyment of Life. As John says, God is love, because Life loves itself in an infinite and eternal love. See HERE for more

The Baha’i view is also panentheistic;

In the Bahá’í Faith, God is described as a single, imperishable God, the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe. The connection between God and the world is that of the creator to his creation. God is understood to be independent of his creation, and that creation is dependent and contingent on God. God, however, is not seen to be part of creation as he cannot be divided and does not descend to the condition of his creatures. Instead, in the Bahá’í understanding, the world of creation emanates from God, in that all things have been realized by him and have attained to existence. Creation is seen as the expression of God’s will in the contingent world and every created thing is seen as a sign of God’s sovereignty, and leading to knowledge of him; the signs of God are most particularly revealed in human beings.

The above two are more less long-winded – why not just say with the blessed Anonymous from the 12thC “God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere.”

Each of us, each and every part of Creation is a ‘sunbeam’ shining out of the Whole. All is Spirit. Spirit with a capital ‘S’ is the Whole, the ultimate Oneness, Mystery, ultimate Reality……God (not anthropomorphised) if you prefer.

All that isn’t Spirit per se is spirit-as-emanation, emanation set aside in each case for a special purpose. The rock is spirit-as-emanation set aside for the purpose of manifesting the rockness of a rock. The tree is spirit-as-emanation set aside for the purpose of manifesting the treeness of a tree. The human being is spirit-as-emanation set aside for the purpose of manifesting the positive and noble humanness of a human being.

What would be a starting point forward? The teaching of the Golden Rule in all schools would be a great step forward – SEARCH articles on the Golden Rule on this site. But the Universalist world view, including the panentheistic perspective enables something much more importanta federalist position. Just as I am British, Chinese or Kenyan I am also first and foremost a human being. Similarly I am proudly and faithfully Christian/Moslem/Buddhist or whatever but I am also a Universalist through recognizing

1) The Golden Rule,

2) the essential Oneness of the mystical core of religions and that

3) we are all emanations of one Source.

Probably no idea has more power to overcome the seemingly endless capacity for suffering and creating suffering than this; ‘There are many paths to the summit but only one summit’.

Revised Dec 01 2008

Oprah Winfrey’s free online course on Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth

Photos: WikiPedia

If you haven’t yet caught up with Oprah Winfrey’s free online course on Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth you can find it HERE

Back to the Eckhart Tolle discussion – intellectuality & the mind are as spiritual as prayer & meditation

In the context of discussion with contributor ‘Patrick’ I offer a contribution to the issues I raised concerning the brilliant Eckhart Tolle. I do this via a beautiful poem that describes, with exquisite simplicity, the mystical experience of non-duality, or oneness. The poem is by the renowned Chinese poet Li Po;

The birds have vanished into the sky,

and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountains and me,

until only the mountains remain.

Li Po (701-762)

IMHO

1 Clearly for Li Po there was, to start with, on that occasion, duality.

2 I’m assuming that Li Po returned from non-duality, back in to duality – unless he sat there until his bones turned to dust. I assume he returned in order to do the laundry, chop wood, carry water. Of course he would now do them on the bed-rock of enhanced consciousness derived from his mystical/aesthetic experience of non-duality. Both wings of being human would be beating – as he scrubbed and carried and chopped. Enlightenment is now – if we let it.

In this world – the contingent world, the world of duality, the ‘Kingdom of Names’ – the complementarity of duality and non-duality is the key. Duality is not a curse, or a failing. When in dynamic inter-relation with non-dual experience it is heaven and perfection. Without non-dual experience it is hell, including the hell of relativity. The purpose of life is not just transcendence and timelessness – it is also immanence and being in time, moment by moment. Complementarity is the key.

3 The non-duality or mystic state is the same as the state of creativity (or the truly aesthetic experience). We are ‘taken out of ourselves’ as we say in modern parlance. Art and ‘religion’ are not similar, they are the same – as Coomaraswami says. It is the forgetting of self, a loss of ego boundaries, a letting go and letting God etc. But the artist as well as the mystic comes out of the non-dual state back into the dual state. – and s/he becomes someone who lives with what s/he has created. What s/he has produced might even be a bit of a shock – a bit like the dumb panda who jumps when she sees that something is moving on the floor beneath her i.e the cub to which she has just given birth. The artist becomes nurturer/appreciator/critic – more or less. They in duality are the left-brain evaluator (criticality mode) to complement their non-dual right-brain creativity mode. Complementarity is the key. One mode, and only one mode is in the foreground at any one time. Duration is from milliseconds to hours in the case of non-duality.

4 The question is are both states normal, desirable and, if the term is acceptable, God-given, i.e. both part of the life’s teaching-machine from which we are supposed to learn. Or is one state bad, immature, to be got rid of, so that we can be non-dual 24/7?

5 Intellectuality is not the same as intellectualism, just as individuality is not the same as individualism. In both cases the first is normal, healthy, proper, desirable. In both cases the second is excessive, unbalanced, undesirable and pathological. The same difference incidentally exists between sexuality and sexual-obsession. Tolle IMHO makes the mistake of not distinguishing between ego and the egotistic. He also can give the impression that he is trying to invalidate mind per se instead of distinguishing between true mind and the neurotic egotistical mind, trapped as it is by attachment.

Awareness, raised consciousness, is true mind. True mind is ‘xin’ heart-mind, interiority bathed in the light of the intellect and the warmth of true love, without attachment to forms – derived from the complementarity of the modes of duality and non-duality. ‘Without attachment to forms’ doesn’t mean without love of forms. Forms are the means (the only means) by which we can come to understand the essentiality of formlessness.

True love as Tolle says is realization of oneness – complementary to which is the glory of diversity.

God loves our celebrating diversity with Him as much as wanting us to realize oneness.

The one who is awakened is a one as well as a not-one – the Buddha was not non-Buddha – at least as a gateway, a pointer.

Spirituality or transcendence or consciousness is not increased by a diminution of intelligence, or more correctly a diminution of intellectuality. The intellect as enlightened heart-mind is the human spirit. Enlightenment comes from realization of the true Self, as opposed to self, that is the eternal. Unlimited Whole, the Silent One, God the Father, God without Name, the Nameless One etc.

Complementarity is the key. Yin is lovely only in the balanced presence of yang – and vice-versa.

6 ‘Before all else, God created the mind.’ (Koranic tradition) The intellect is the supreme gift of God to man, the pinnacle of the way in which we are made in His image – providing we realize that all rivers flow back to the one Ocean, from which those parts also have their origin. Complementarity is the key.

7 The fear and misunderstanding of the term ego. The ego is simply the part of the self – the dimension or mode – that deals with immediate reality. As such it is neutral – like the heart or lungs or kidney. Whether it is healthy or diseased – now that is a different matter. The ego is as much part of the enlightened one as with the crass self-obsessive.

God celebrates His Creativity in the uniqueness of me, as well as in His Creation of our species.

We believe what we believe – some we choose to believe, some is ingrained.

The happiest of worlds is one where we can believe different things without feeling an obligation to kill each other! Complementarity is the key.

The ultimate sickness is to know who you are through knowing who you hate.

Enough

Namaste!

Don’t forget the chocolate Mr Eckhart Tolle – enlightenment and wood-chopping, awe and concepts, the Whole and the parts.l

Light is light in whatever lamp it shines

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

Yesterday I wrote a short open letter of questions to Eckhart Tolle.

I also wrote a short introduction to the Dictionary of Concepts in development on a sister site allied to this one. The latter in part answers the questions. The introduction to the Dictionary reads;

Everything here on this site, and its allied sites, is about how we have to balance the myriad parts of life, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the Whole – from which everything emanates, including us.

The 1000+ ways or categories are also concepts, and HERE the concepts are gathered as a Dictionary

But our interest in concepts needs to be balanced with interest in the Whole from which all things emanate and take form, and to which they return – in the formless and infinite.

The Whole is nameless because it cannot be conceptualized. In terms of our experience we can briefly lose ourselves in the non-duality of the infinite Whole. This is beyond the logic-chopping of religions (and the illogic-chopping!) . ‘God has no religion’. God is no-thing. We can only point – and be silent. Silence is the language of God.

On the site there is a place you can go, to take you beyond concepts HERE. Let the few words dissolve as you realize the oneness of the light, and the silence that, embraces others all around the globe, who also rest right now, in the now, and the silence – and let go their egoic forms.

The greatest need humanity has is for all peoples to realize that they are the cells of a single body. That realization comes as we learn to live in the now, and the silence beyond all concepts – that is to feel the Whole. This has been the mystic teaching, the perennial philosophy, to be found at the heart of all of the world’s wisdom traditions – but so often obscured by the dust of human egotism.

But for those who love chocolate, and beautiful landscapes, and sailing and beautiful bodies we have, during our time in this world, to fly with the wing of ‘duality’ – as well as our experiences of non-duality. After enlightenment the comes the water carrying and wood chopping. After the water carrying and wood chopping – enlightenment. The two are complementaries – at least in this world. Hooray! Hallelujah! Amen! Om! Pass the chocolate!

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GIF by candleworld

‘Has the spirituality been stolen from your religion? Does Eckhart Tolle provide the answer?

Edited Nov 02 2008

If you start to teach spiritual stuff you better make sure you are walking the talk. I hope that Eckhart Tolle is walking the talk because he has a very powerful message, and is succeeding in communicating it like no other in modern times.

I hope that, with all of the attention he is getting, Tolle can continue to walk the talk. He did travel through a dark night of despair as a precursor to the personal revelation from which he is teaching, so he has paid some dues.

But what is the most important benefit he is giving us? He seems to be as sound as Ken Wilber and teaches the same stuff – Perennial Philosophy, the eternal mystical core that is at the heart of all of the world’s great wisdom traditions.

He has managed to attract extraordinary coverage for his teaching – notably the course co-hosted with Oprah Winfrey.

He and Oprah have attracted a torrent of vilification from the loony fundamentalists. If you want a glimpse of this start with this video;

….but there are loads more like it!

I suggest that the core of his value might be in showing us the eternal mystical truths with an integrity that helps anyone with a religious inklin, or connection, to step back to see more clearly the eternal reality of the mystical core. For many of us he is enabling us to re-experience the spirituality lost from established religions, as more and more man-made accretions have darkened the glass. Many religions, whatever their golden core teachings, seem to have forced out the true light, and salvation.

There are a tiny number of people who are seeking to bridge the divide between fundamentalists and teh Perennial Philosophy-minded. Louis Bourgeois seems to be one such a person. He has many videos out there. This one is specifically about building bridges;

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An impressive review of Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now is to be found here;

The more I read of ‘The Power of Now’, the more I was convinced that in Eckhart Tolle’s teachings we had stumbled upon a genuine and profound expression of the non-dual realization, a rare pearl in the shallow tide-pools of new millennium spirituality. via A Review of Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”

Reality and spirit – in relation to education and Personal Development

We each have a different take on reality, and a different worldview or ‘pair of glasses’ through which we read the world.

Beyond all of that diversity however reality Reality is, according to all of the great Teachers down through the ages, one. Like all of the individual rays of the sun we all emanate from a Singleness.

WHAT IS SPIRIT, SPIRITUALITY & SPIRITUALIZATION?
Spirit is the life-force.
Spirit is the relationship of elements that determines levels of being; plant, animal, human etc.
Spirit is will, including the will to focus.
Spirituality is concern for the development of those virtues & positive characteristics that are pre-eminently human – chief amongst these are truthfulness, beauty, goodness and justice.
Spiritualization is the process of arranging for experiences – for self or others – that lead to the development of virtues and positive characteristics that pre-eminently make us human.

WHAT’S ‘PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY’
‘Perennial philosophy’ is that which all, of the great world religions hold in common about the spiritual life and the journey of development that each soul makes.

REALITY as THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY – TWO VIEWS A) BY KEN WILBER AND B) BY DEB PLATT

HERE IS HOW KEN WILBER SUMMARIZES THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, IN HIS BOOK GRACE AND GRIT:

1. Spirit exists.
2. Spirit is found within.
3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within, however, because we are
living in a world of sin, separation, and duality–that is, we are
living in a fallen or illusory state.
4. There is a way out of this fallen state of sin and illusion, there is a Path to our liberation.
5. If we follow this path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or
Enlightenment, a direct experience of Spirit within, a Supreme
Liberation, which–
6 marks the end of sin and suffering, and which– 7 issues in social
action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings.

THIS IS HOW DEB PLATT PRESENTED HER LATE LAMENTED SITE ON WHICH SHE BROUGHT TOGETHER A VAST AND BEAUTIFUL SELECTION OF QUOTATIONS FROM WORLD RELIGIONS (If anyone knows what happened to her site please tell me)

• There’s a reality beyond the material world:
• Which is uncreated.
• It pervades everything,
• but remains beyond the reach
of human knowledge and understanding.
• 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
• That reality approaches you through:
• Grace
• The teacher
• You’re transformed so that you embody that reality by:
• Dying and being reborn

If there is a weakness in Deb Platt’s model it is that, unlike Wilber’s model, it doesn’t end with action in the world, i.e. compassion and service to others – though surely that is implied.

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

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Compassion and Peace: ten ways to bridge and transcend racial and religious hatred

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Perennial Philosophy, or mysticism, in one sentence

-0-

“We can be happy, and serve others well,

if we realize our true Self

by detaching ourselves from the egotistic lower self –

through our step-by-step becoming aware

of the stillness beneath the noise.”

-0-

This is the mystical core of all of the great world wisdom traditions.

If you don’t have the time to delve deeply into one or all of the religions read Eckhart Tolle’s The New Earth and do this course presented by Oprah Winfrey – HERE

Roger’s ver as at Nov 30th 2008

What’s your version?

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