Part Two: Wandering in the realm of the non-ordinary
"A voice arises within us that says, 'Have no false gods before me.' This voice from the ground of our being is alerting us that the divine is not localized in a particular being. Sanctity is ubiquitous, it is the quality of every thing." Carla Ansantina
Eternal parity
The dangers of reading and writing
about mysticism
Acts of compassion
The proof and authenticity of mysticism
Horses, scholars, and mystics
In fear of his neighbors on every side
Contrasting the approach of natural
mysticism with science and religion
Working lightly with diligence
Mystical pretensions
Storming Heaven
The apophatic's metaphor is sovereign
Is there any advantage in believing in
God?
Mystics have consistently proclaimed the immutable value inherent within every being. But many of us find that we are dissatisfied with this "eternal parity." After doing all the work it will take to consummate our spiritual transformation, we would want to be considered to be better than others. As long as we have this insidious desire to be special people, we strictly limit our ability to become better at what we are trying to accomplish.
The dangers of reading and writing about mysticism
One's ability to write and/or understand volumes about mysticism easily exceeds one's ability to practice it. Reading and writing about it frequently becomes a morbidly fascinating method for me to avoid doing what I would best be doing.
As Jacob Needleman wrote regarding wisdom, "One may fail to sense (it) even while spending one's life espousing its content."
A poignant example of such ensnarement is related by Al Chung-liang Huang in his afterward to a delightful Alan Watts' book. Chung-liang Huang describes the final years of his dear friend Alan: "In later life, he depended more on his need to perform and to receive support from his audience."
May we all learn from this painful revelation.
"It is harder for a rich man to get into heaven, than for a camel to pass through the needle's eye." Jesus
Feeding the hungry and comforting the sick can be effective spiritual practices. They are of immediate self-benefit when done with humility. But these activities also impress others and thus add to one's worldly credentials. One's credentials give one currency in the marketplace of spiritual ideas.
Holding this kind of currency is as tricky as real currency when it comes to having it in one's possession as one attempts to pass through the eye of the mystical needle.
There is no need to stop helping those in distress, nor to try to hide or to advertise your currency. But keep an eye on your heart so that you will still be able to get through the needle's eye, even when carrying the hazardous baggage of worldly approval.
The proof and authenticity of mysticism
If a natural mystic notices himself beginning to look for definitive proof that he is doing something "ultimately significant," he will know that he has slipped off his path. In natural mysticism there is no final proof to be found of anything. The question of "authenticity" is purely pragmatic, a work in progress; what is tested and works is called "authentic."
There is only the provisional proof (which
is experientially often quite impressive) of the practice and
the assessment of its immediate usefulness; if the numinous experience
is judged to be useful to the mystic it is natural that he will
continue to cultivate it. The individual mystic is, for better
or worse, entirely sovereign in determining if an experience is
useful, and in defining the criteria by which it is to be considered
useful. He can neither count on nor fear what others call "absolute
truth."
When you read a study of mysticism you cannot always trust the writer. A scholar for example, often will not understand those aspects of mysticism that she has not experienced directly. Whereas a mystic reading or interpreting an ancient text can be compared to a horse rider studying an ancient manual on horse-riding. Like the horse rider, the mystic is able to grasp important and often subtle nuances in the text. She may be able to explain the allusions and other esoteric references in the text that are invisible to us less realized readers.
However the mystic is also apt to bring in extraneous material when writing about his subject. He has often had a number of quite dramatic experiences and he will often vehemently associate the occurrence of these experiences with the particular conditions under which they occurred. So if he is a member of a particular religion he may claim that only his religion is authentic.
Often it is a scholar that recognizes generic underlying dynamics in a mystical writing, that part of the work which is not conditioned by a particular cultural or individual preconception. Free of a need to defend dogma, at times the scholar most clearly sees through the mystic's dogmatic veil and lets the reader grasp what is actually going on.
Scholars, mystics, and probably horses as well, have much to teach us about mysticism.
In fear of his neighbors on every side
In Lao Zi's chapter fourteen the author says that the ancient sage always acted in a manner that was "Precautionary, as if in fear of his neighbors on every side."
I cannot escape having the flaws natural to the human being. But my flaws and potential missteps are greatly attenuated if I can always remain tentative and circumspect. One is more effective if one takes enough time to look carefully at the wholeness within each moment of reality, before taking action. One never knows any truth with finality; the sacred mystery of of life continually unfolds before us. Whenever we patiently observe its self-revelation, we are then able to effectively respond to the imperative of each moment.
Contrasting the approach of natural mysticism with science and religion
Unlike science, natural mysticism does not assume, a priori, that the entire world of phenomena which the human mind experiences can be elucidated within a natural paradigm. Unlike religion, it does not assume that everything we experience is caused by a self-conscious Creator. Natural mysticism begins its journey with a radical empiricism. Its attitude toward the experience of world is:
"I have no idea what is really going on here, and I am far from sure that anyone else knows either. Whatever it is, I am interested in finding out the best way to work with it."
From this skeptical and yet optimistic beginning, the path of the natural mystic evolves into an exploration of human reality that is willfully dedicated, radically open-ended, and primarily motivated by curiosity and self-fulfillment. This is a journey where one learns what it means to "become as a little child."
Working lightly with diligence
It is difficult to work seriously at a task and yet not take one's effort too seriously. The task of the apophatic is to fulfill both of these two apparently contradictory intentions.
Lao Zi: "Don't honor the sage"
Mystics have what they correctly realize is a radically different experience of this world, compared with the rest of us. Because of the unusual nature and remarkable efficacy of their practice, some of them understandably adopt pretentious ideas about their accomplishment and its ramifications. Such pretensions limit a mystic's potential, and when others applaud the mystic it can only further exacerbate his pretentiousness.
The world does not usually canonize people for being happy or for being rich, it makes even less sense to grant special honor to the mystic. And it doesn't do him any good.
Having a desire to master it, we sometimes attempt to storm the door of the transcendental, to accomplish mystical transformation in one fell swoop. When we do we often get the shit kicked out of us. We then realize that we have acted as if we were up against something inert like the bottom of a hole in the ground. Digging in the earth you can safely pound the floor with almost as much wild aggression as you might wish. But the bottom we are hammering at when we use our psychic pick and shovel is by no means inert.
Each serious probe into the psychic universe elicits a potent response, and if you apply your intensity too vigorously and too fast you can suddenly find your psyche shattered by a tidal wave of chaotic and unmanageable forces.
The natural mystic is not interested in "mastering heaven." She simply wants to master an effective way to tap some of its vast treasure. She seeks only a prudent appreciation of the remarkably efficacious patterns that are occultly embedded in the universe of her experience. It is the very modesty of her focus and patience of her effort that produces such powerfully effective results.
Artlessly ignoring the awful immensity of the
universe, the mystic demands from it a small but extraordinarily
precious jewel: the ability to reach as far as a human is able
and wise to journey.
The apophatic's metaphor is sovereign
"(But then he did) not understand-
did the dream of Chou make the butterfly?
Did the dream of the butterfly make Chou?"
Zhuang Zi, translated by Kuang-Ming
Wu
Science and religion give us metaphors for describing the experiences that the human consciousness obtains from the reality it inhabits. To be an apophatic is to treat your own metaphor as sovereign. The only experience of reality you can directly know is your own, and your description of that reality is the most germane to your experience. Whether you see ghosts or Pythagorean formulas, the phenomenon you experience is irrefutable. There is no one "outside" that can tell you what is "really" the experience of this world.
What is good for the goose, is good for the gander. The apophatic does not want either to categorically certify his own assessment of this world we call "reality," nor does he wish to decertify your dogmatic beliefs.
Is there any advantage in believing in God?
Theists believe in God, while natural mystics generally leave open the question of whether a God or gods exist. What are the practical benefits, if any, of believing in God?
It turns out that if one believes in a personal God, or gods; and one actively seeks help from this entity or entities, it can have beneficial, dramatic, and expedient results. Those who emotionally invoke such forces, which is to say relate to It or them as personal helpers, frequently achieve significant spiritual ability. Does this prove that God or gods exist? Not necessarily. But it does demonstrate that something the Theist is doing in her practice is effective.
A natural mystic who dismisses the phenomenon which occurs when the Theist prays to his or her God, is neglecting a tool that is highly useful. When the human being emotionally petitions forces that are seen as being outside of itself, or even within itself, the results can be dramatically efficacious. One category of case studies which have demonstrated this phenomenon involves studying the history of clients who have been successful in overcoming drug and alcohol dependency. People who have "asked for help" in this effort "from a higher power" often achieve results that seem miraculous.
In light of the proven usefulness of emotional petition, the natural mystic would be wise to consider such a practice, whether or not he believes these forces "really" exist. Incidentally, it turns out that the effectiveness of the practice has no necessary relationship to the degree with which one believes these entities "to actually be real." On the contrary, the effectiveness depends almost entirely on the intensity of emotion employed, and the frequency with which the practice is done.
As a practical matter, because of the limits of the normal human imagination, most people assume that they cannot make such an intense emotional investment without first believing in the "reality" of the named, defined, or otherwise identified, powers which they would petition. I must emphasize that there is no useful reason to so limit the extraordinary efficacy of the human imagination to appropriate and harness unseen forces that reside in the surrounding world.
We could give psychological, neurological and theological explanations why this practice of emotional invocation might be so effective. But a pragmatic natural mystic is concerned with results, not with metaphysical explanations. As long as you don't tell her that she must believe that a force that she would pray to is "real" (or on the other hand, to insist that she declare that it is "unreal"), and as long as it works, she is happy to employ such a practice. For the natural mystic, "it works" equals "reality."
If the description of a practice that proves effective does not make sense, as it is described by one metaphor, it only means we have chosen the wrong metaphor. Using a term such as "god" may mischaracterize what may be simply a natural phenomenon, but that does not mean the phenomenon itself is not actually operant.
I have found that petitioning with emotional and visceral intensity is astonishingly effective. And I notice that my specific choice for the object of petition is of little import. No matter how they are addressed, all my vehemently generated requests appear to end up where they needed to go and to obtain what I needed.
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