Making Being your
personal teacher
The sovereign soul
Send your anger to the
divine power
Value and belief
Resisting habitual
propensity
Presence and absence
Magic, mythology, and
science
Creed on mysticism
Message of Zhuang Zi
The Great Mother
Mysticism and pretense
Making Being your personal teacher
One way of cultivating mystical ability is by adopting Being itself as one's personal teacher.
Being is the substance, force, and dynamic interaction of everything in the universe of phenomena that I experience at any moment. (In daoism this is called "qi") "To make Being my teacher" means to cultivate an intimate emotional, visceral, and intellectual relationship with the process and pattern of Being.
The emotional and visceral aspects of the relationship are of primary importance. Hence mythology often wisely characterizes Being as "the Mother." One's intellectual understanding of one's relationship with Being is of lessor importance; a coherent mental conceptualization of the matter will fall into place as the emotional-visceral aspects of the relationship are refined.
(It is not necessary, and is probably not wise nor even possible to try to find out exactly what, if anything, has created Being. However it is quite useful to believe in or imagine the existence of a sympathetic force/persona who has created Being, or who is being, or who will intervene with Being on one's behalf, or even a force/persona who will be one's personal defender against the "indifference of Being." Being can become one's flawless teacher, whether perceived as a friend or foe.)
The central concern of the mystic is to develop an emotional and visceral relationship to Being and/or the associated force-persona described above. In practice one best does this by regularly expressing clear and emotionally adamant petitions to this external entity, however one has depicted it. One unashamedly asks for whatever one needs. Open ended demands are the most efficient, e. g., "give me whatever you know that I need most." Such requests are made in chants, prayers, and other overt or covert practices.
As in the example above of "the Mother," it is of much practical value to mentally depict the petitioned entity as a concrete image, object, or persona. This entity is either believed or imagined to exist. During the exercise of petition, one emotionally seeks and even badgers the petitioned. It is important that one's petition be personally intimate, that is to say emotionally adamant and viscerally expressed; it is less important that the communication be respectful, and occasionally, as seen in various religious scriptures, it may seem to be quite disrespectful and even distrustful. (see importunant prayer)
Surprisingly, it is virtually of no consequence whether one "actually believes" in the existence of the external entity that one petitions, or in its ability to respond; only the execution of the petition is necessary. With experience one learns that every petition "goes where it needs to go."
The results of adopting Being as one's personal teacher is that one learns relatively more quickly how to practice mysticism: which is to say, like any other mystic, one learns how to spontaneously and clearly perceive, process and effectively respond to the behavior of one's world.
In "quiet" or "empty mind" practice, the results obtained are the same as in the above described method of personal emotional-visceral petition. Being is unavoidably one's teacher in either case. (One might say that in empty mind practice "Being is one's impersonal teacher.")
The majority of any mystic's activity in fact consists of the practice of a quiet mind. However by relying on quiet mind practice alone, the progress of cultivation is much slower than it need be. Treating Being as the object of a personal relationship allows mystical practice to proceed more expediently. Treating Being indifferently makes mysticism, which is already an extremely difficult practice, much more so.
In the end, whether Being is directly concerned with my welfare or is indifferent toward it, is something that does not appear to be very important for me to know. What I do know from experience, is that if I establish an intimate relationship with Being, It treats me extraordinarily well. And it teaches me everything I need to know about finding complete contentment with my being here.
The sovereign soul
When one's sense of a need to protect self-esteem has
been greatly diminished, one's presence to the surrounding world
reaches maximum intensity.
Zhuang Zi says that the sage "does not move until pushed." For a mystic, at all times and places, the direction and time to proceed are indicated by a palpable visceral impulse. The mystic has a clear sense of this signal arriving from a inner psychic guide whose presence is subtly perceived but whose directives are unmistakable. This inner ruler is referred to variously in Lao-Zhuang tradition as the "ling fu," "inner mind," the "One," etc. In neo-Confucianism the same dynamic is described by the phrase "zhu yi," or "make unity the sovereign."
The intellect is usually in the service of the forces that protect self-image. These affectively charged forces have been trained by the ego to deal with its perceived fears. The forces react autonomously to any ego-image threatening stimulus. Their dynamic reactive pattern is intellectually and emotionally embedded deeply within the psyche. The work of mysticism is to transcend these powerful forces and transfer the leadership of the psyche from fear-based forces to an entity that is free of the need to protect self-image. And to re-school the intellect, to teach it a more effective basis of self-value.
The transfer of power to this above-mentioned new entity is not intended to obliterate the sense of a self, but to eliminate the deeply entrenched need to protect self-image. The entity is to become the new ruler of the psyche. This "ruler" is identified by various terminology (above) in the mysticism of classical taoism (Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, etc.) and is also found in neo-Confucianism. Such terminology has been conspicuously absent from western mysticism and from the English language.
When one's sense of a need to protect self-esteem
has been greatly diminished, one's sense of presence to the surrounding
world reaches maximum intensity. Many of the external forces that
had previously presented a threat, are now seen as presenting
opportunities for gainful interaction. Transformation is the process
of gaining the full sovereignty over one's being which then allows
effective interaction with the larger surrounding reality.
Sovereignty is automatically installed (awakened) during the difficult
process of psychic transformation. When completed, one's psyche
is no longer ruled by reactive affective energy, instead affective
energy and intellect can be used as tools in service to the new
ruler. This internal ruler is now able to collaborate with the
external forces of the world rather than irrationally oppose them.
One is liberated and able to reach full human potential.
"Every failure to cope with a life situation must
be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness."
Joseph Campbell
Direct all negative feelings to the divine
force (the natural creative energy inherent in the universe).
Negative emotions have less than no value when they are directed
onto another being. Inflicted on others, psychic negativity brings
injury to both the sender and receiver. Directed onto the divine
force with sincerity, negative feelings such as fear and hostility,
are transmuted and then returned in the form of insight and energy
that can transform the soul.
All psychic negativity is evidence of as yet unresolved limitations in the soul's ability to reach its potential. Send the morbid fruit of these personal flaws to the creative force and if your are open, in return you will reap the benefits of continual growth. Don't be afraid to express rancor and hostility toward the inner dynamic of the universe; do be afraid to direct it anywhere else.
Value and belief
In conventional religion, value is founded upon
belief. What is believed in gives birth to one's values. In natural
mysticism value is based on naturally observed and directly experienced
criteria, whatever works best for us (brings us contentment) is
valued.
The natural mystic does not argue about what beliefs are true and what is false. She is only concerned with what works for her in this immediate moment of existence.
Greatly resisting the habitual propensity to prearrange aspects of its internal and external worlds, the clear mind brings the full force of unified attention onto its own psycho-visceral presence. The simple act of establishing presence spontaneously causes auspicious reconfigurations to occur within both worlds. This realignment of forces allows a new field of advantageous interaction. After the old habit of contriving outcomes is completely replaced by the new practice of undivided presence, as Zhuang Zi would put it, "there is a constant springtime of opportunity."
"The absence of the god is the alternative form of her presence."
The cultivation of apophasis characteristically consists of alternating periods of a presence and absence of the numinous experience. When you are confronted with the absent half of this equation, you will sometimes experience a palpable despair. Ironically this profoundly unpleasant experience is often the sure sign that your practice is being performed correctly. However, it is such a disturbing feeling that it repels most would-be practitioners, and they decline to proceed farther on the apophatic path. Quitting at this point is actually the wise choice for many individuals, who might otherwise become emotionally afflicted.
Paradoxically, the painful work of encountering and coping with numinous absence can be handily assisted by the employment of certain cataphatic practices. One must only take care to not become dogmatically attached to their significance after utilizing their efficacy. These cataphatic practices make fine rafts that can keep one from drowning in the psychic deeps until one can finally swim completely alone. Apophatics who decline the aid of either cataphatic practices or the guidance of an expert, risk slipping into states of profoundly morbid depression.
As you become as nearly comfortable with absence as you are with presence, you are approaching what is called liberation ("jie" in Zhuang Zi). With liberation you will be completely free from the morbid effects of absence. You will no longer worry about losing the experience of the numen's presence when you have it, and you will no longer despair when under the stark dryness and emptiness of absence. With liberation you are free of both hope and hopelessness, you thrive in the numen's palpable presence and also in its equally palpable absence.
Liberation is not an all or nothing thing, however, but rather an experience that increases in frequency and intensity as you cultivate the path. It occurs more often and lasts longer as you refine the psyche and obtain a visceral appreciation of the radiance and efficacy of both absence and presence.
As one might guess, most of the apophatic's essential work involves refining her relationship with the absent numen. The more effective the response to absence becomes, the closer one is to liberation. As Lao Zi says, "Take emptiness to the limit." Ironically, at the ultimate limit of emptiness, one is no longer attached to either emptiness or fullness; neither to numinous presence nor absence.
Magic, mythology, science and philosophy
The practice of apophatic mysticism considers
magic, mythology, science, and philosophy to all be useful as
potential catalysts of apophasis. But from the apophatic perspective,
none of them are reified, they are simply metaphors for what we
experience in our world. All of them are arbitrary parameters
that are subordinate to the self-validating experience of the
mystical state itself. (And of course, in practice, all conscious
thoughts of these ideologies are minimized, suspended, or in some
cases completely erased.)
However, apart from their role in mysticism, all of these four ideologies are perspectives which play a vital role in the regulation of life, in the maintenance of well-being. Life cannot proceed without stability, and these ideologies provide a set of arbitrary but serviceable values. Apophasis can play no role as a value-giving God. It is only a tool to be applied in the dynamic integration of psyche and world, it does not provide a system of ethics. To establish ethics, (without which society is impossible), one must make up ideologies.
The useful employment of both ideology and apophasis is what Zhuang Zi calls the "double walk" (liang xing).
Apophatic mysticism is an esoteric discipline; in fact it is so abstruse that a human teacher can teach only the most elementary lessons of the practice. (Such basic material as that found in this work.) For anything more advanced, a would-be apophatic must go directly to the apophatic source. This source, the master teacher, manifests itself in the form of a relationship, the relationship between the individual psyche (body and mind) and the worlds it inhabits.
It is this relationship that you have with the reality around you, which will if intimately and vehemently cultivated, systematically teach you all the mysteries of apophaticism. The relationship will speak to you directly as if it is a distinct persona. Beyond being a relationship, the nature of the persona is a mystery, but it is clearly a manifestation of the apophatic source.
It communicates with the interior language of the heart, a language is so abstract and specific that it can only speak to the situation of one unique student. Found exclusively at your single nexus in the universe, this teacher is the only entity that can give you the substance you seek. Cultivate this dynamic relationship, and at a certain critical point you will be gripped by a visceral experience of the apophatic.
Let no one suggest that they can explain the radiant profundity which is found there at the nexus of the apophatic relationship, at that perpetually gracious and indulgent source which has been aptly called "the Great Mother."
Creed on Mysticism
"The work of the mystic is to intimately engage unseen
forces, not to believe in their existence." Rawley Creed
Some think the apophatic message of Zhuang Zi is disbelief in metaphysics, disbelief in any world view. The fact is Zhuang Zi advocates having neither beliefs nor disbeliefs. The message is to be fully open and responsive to the contents of each immediate moment.
One of the most intractable tendencies for the would-be mystic to eradicate from his psyche is pretense. To help in the eradication it is useful to realize that a mystic's motives, normatively speaking, are no better than those of any other person. We who practice mysticism have the same basic desires as everyone else.
It is useful to note that one of the most fundamental differences between the personal history of a mystic and that of other folks, is simply that the mystic had found it much more difficult to entertain himself. When we practitioners understand this somewhat disconcerting (and humorous) fact, we are able to begin to cultivate a reality-based humility. Without this empirically based humility, one cannot get close to the threshold, let alone cross over and plunge into the great apophatic mystery.