[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.A mystical experience often resultsas a by-product of having this orientation.Mysticism has heretofore placed the emphasis of religious experience on the immediateawareness of God.In Christian mysticism, for instance, Jesus serves as a model for directparticipation with God-conscious.The mystical movement within Judaism produced theKabbalah, a tradition of perceiving divine reality.And Islamic mysticism, often referred to asSufism, holds as a principle the immediate intuitive knowledge of God.Similar constructs ofdivine communion are the defining element of mysticisms in other religions as well as invarious philosophies.15 However, the field of transpersonal psychology, which incorporatesstudies of mysticisms, demonstrates that a mystical experience need not be couched inreligious terms or understanding; that is, the basis of mysticism may be considered in asecular light.Still, through history religion has kept alive this form of relationship with a higherorder, no matter what it is called.While the cognitive technologies found in transpersonal psychologies provide the means toopen us to possibilities and hopefully lift us out of conditional fields, interpretations of theensuing experiences result from the very nature of the technologies, be they material,psychological, or religious.Perhaps the experience is often rendered in religious contextbecause religions have been the purveyor of information about mystical adventure.It thenbecomes a self-validating experience, as interpretation constrains the expanded awareness.A priest may touch the face of God, for instance, while a psychologist may glimpse thefullness of individuation and a scientist delve into a unified field of consciousness.On theother hand, perhaps religious doctrine emerges from prophets encountering the mystical andbringing form to it.Either way, the result is that the conditional field of the system (religion orpsychology) is being used to pressure awareness into a natural field, into a direct alignmentwith a cosmic awareness.This is an example of craftsmanship that leads to artistry.This is also a requisite point in understanding human consciousness.Even whenconsciousness attends to higher orders of human awareness, as can be found in areas ofreligion, philosophy, and psychology; it is still tuned to conditional fields.If they can push youto a natural field, then they are the ones to follow.If they can t, and you still abide by them,you will remain relegated to the conditions of an arbitrary human arrangement that does notrepresent a natural order whether the order is of biology, physics, or all creation.The natural energy field, a complete conscious state of human awareness, exists beyond the confines of those systems that are designed to help you get there.Once there, you arealways on your own just as you have been all along.The difference is that you now havebalance and wherewithal.Mysticism therefore supports the quest of expandingconsciousness and a mystical experience transcends the model that helped engender it.Greek-Armenian mystic G.I.Gurdjieff described four main avenues of mysticism:conquering pain or commanding physical resources, faith and devotion, direct knowledge ofconsciousness, and a path that combines the others.16 Yet in each branch, elements of theothers are present.A person of devotion will realize more consciousness, for example, andvice versa.The various forms provide access to a greater reality for different personalities.Each avenue may express itself in elaborate practices or through very streamlined styles.There are also cultural considerations.While the world s three major monotheisticreligions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share common ancestry, each has developed aunique form of mysticism.Even though they all engender a mystical relationship with thecosmos, they may not all consider paranormal experience or abilities to be viable forontological development.Various denominations may also accept or reject psi.The same applies to transpersonal psychologies.A Zen Buddhist may shun the highadventures of OBEs, a Taoist may allow them, and a Toltec may intend them.It is alsointeresting to note that meditative experiences vary among practitioners.Electroencephalograph (EEG) research has shown that a Zen master might stay alert to thesimple rhythm of a metronome while remaining deep in meditation, for instance, while askilled Yoga meditator s EEG doesn t register the physical-environment stimulation.Evenwith common overarching goals, different systems yield different results.17Buddhist monk and psychologist Jack Kornfield presents two principal schools of mysticalthought as transcendent and immanent.18 A transcendent path strives for the higher orderof altered states, including mystical revelations, while an immanent path doesn t placeimportance on altered states and teaches that everything needed is right here, right now, inordinary time and space.Modern Toltecs are in the middle as they strive for a range ofaltered states to accelerate learning while recognizing that they haven t learned much if theycan t apply their experiences in the here and now.As we have seen, the experience ofaltered states is needed for learning as without altering what you know, you don t learn.Youneed to expand the bubble of perception, by entering an altered relation with the world, andthen integrating it to form a new baseline to where what once was altered is now normal.Immanent paths, however, de-emphasize the types of altered states that include psi andmystical experience.Within the various forms of mysticism, some researchers hold that there are two majordivisions, reflecting outward or inward orientation to mystical phenomena.This division isalso referred to as plenum and void, or catophatic and apophatic.19 Plenum may bedescribed as pure potential, all that is, or the complete fullness of energy and being.The catophatic approach uses images to provide a human relationship to this expanse, whichallows the mystical to make sense through material or emotional representation such asstained-glass renderings found in church windows.The apophatic style, on the other hand, provides an imageless, abstract portrayal ofsomething beyond the ordinary human condition.20 The void is often described in negativeterms: that which is not as opposed to that which is (plenum).Void is also considered tohold potential; beingness springs forth out of something else, which is beyond description.Meditating on a blank wall serves as an example technique.Both methods reveal vital models.The scientific debate surrounding dark energy offers agood example for application to other fields.That is, the interpretation that dark energyspreads throughout the universe reflects a plenum orientation, whereas if dark energy isviewed as a perception of void then we re talking about an apophatic approach.The debatealso serves our better understanding mysticism as when we re dealing with the essence ofperception and interpretation: reality always perches beyond comprehension.Void mayrepresent peaking into the unknowable where there are absolutely no references, known orunknown.It could therefore be an aspect of the plenum that exists beyond human capacity totouch it and is perceived as void.Or void could be the womb of potential and plenum; it couldbe emptiness that gives rise to form.Don t let interpretations get in the way of experience.While worthy to distinguish the different aspects of mysticism, a significant point is thatthey are not exclusive.Despite their intrinsic differences, teachings of one method overlapwith those of others.Understanding the whys and wherefores can help you latch on to theintegrity of a school of thought in order to gain momentum.Doing so also helps you to avoidthe trap of fundamentalism
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]