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to add to excerpts and link to compassion:

"By seeing this very lucency mind becomes very calm,
And the desire to affirm or to negate the without or the
within grows less.
Out of this open range an impartial compassion arises,
And the person is urged onto and engages in what is
wholesome both for himself and others."

"Kindly Bent to Ease Us" by Longchenpa. Translated by Herbert V. Guenther, Dharma Publishing, Emeryville California, 1975

The concept "God" or "gods" is at the least a performative idea. There may or not exist any independent entity that we could accurately call a "god." But the idea of "god" is an apt shorthand for a dynamic that performs very efficaciously. When a person prays she is speaking a symbolic language to a collection psychic powers. She is communicating a form of shorthand which these unconscious powers understand; the shorthand is received and instigates a process whose complexity is well beyond the understanding of her conscious mind.

When we image a "god" and make petitions to it, we initiate a dynamic reaction which takes place within the interface lying between our psyche and the world it inhabits. We engage a highly effective set of interactive forces; the power that resides here is more difficult to reach and initiate if we do not allow our mind to posit the idea of a god. The devotional act, by some imperceivable method delivers the psychic powers to a nexus where a number of interior and exterior forces intersect. At this nexus the array of forces is integrated and consolidated and then exerts added efficacy to whatever the individual's current project is. The more emotionalality that is added to the envisioning, the more effective the results.

For the mystic, the question of whether a god exists is moot. She knows of nothing that could be categorically stated to exist, other than her own experience of being.

Zhuang Zi and Confucius: pragmatic devotionalism

The problem with practicing a superstitious devotion toward extra-natural forces is that invariably the devotee's belief toward such a power becomes dogmatic. With dogmatic preconceptions the mystic markedly limits the creativity of his intra-psychic and extra-psychic activity, restricting the range of his ability to explore his world. A ceiling is put over potential growth and this severely limits his spiritual destiny.

But on the other hand, the critical disadvantage of not practicing any form of devotion is that the would-be mystic is usually not able to generate the intense level of emotional energy that is needed to effectively alter psychic structures and function. A major psychic alteration is required to enable full access to mystical ability. To acquire this aptitude the psychic disposition must be altered not only by achieving conceptual reconfigurations, but also by the much more difficult radical excision of habitual neuro-emotional tendencies. The surrender of these ingrained neuro-affective ego defense systems cannot be effectively consummated by a purely cognitive effort; emotional intensity must be brought to bear on the task. For example, "mind-fasting" is an emotional, not an intellectual challenge. Devotional rituals can generate the intensity needed for transformation if they are carried out with enough self-directed vehemence.
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If the alchemy of acts of devotion brings effective transformative psychic results, even when the specific objects of devotion may be ambiguous, implausible, involve the misidentification of actual phenomena, or contain self-contradictions, devotion still remains a remarkably fruitful practice. There is evidence that Confucius and Zhuang Zi understood this paradox and therefore bypassed the problem of determining whether a devotional object was authentic or merely the product of creative fantasy.

They took this pass by simply practicing devotion pragmatically. These two cultivators of mental ability appeared to have practiced invocation by provisionally positing the presence, not dogmatically claiming the existence, of objects of devotion. The key terms in these acts of "provisional positing" by Confucius and Zhuang Zi are "ru" and "ruo" respectively. Both terms can be roughly translated as "as if."

ru ruo

Confucius:

"I sacrifice to the spirits as if spirits are here." (Ji shen ru zai) (Analects Book Three, Chapter Twelve)
We don't know how frequently Confucius carried out the rites of sacrifice; but from the above citation we get some idea of the intensity of emotional presence he brought to the task. The application of such intensity has an obvious application in the practice of self-cultivation.

Zhuang Zi, a neo-shaman who consecrated even shit and piss, goes a step further and suggests taking the intense presence of mind generated during the rite of sacrifice and ramifying this mindfulness so that it pervades every moment of life:

"You you hu ruo ji zhi you she": "Be as self-composed as if you were offering a sacrifice to gods of the earth." (Chapter seventeen)

The cognitive (philosophical) dynamics of classical Chinese self-cultivation cannot be effectively planted and sustained in the psyche without the added assistance of an emotionally transformative device. Such devices can be found, among other places, in the religious traditions (e.g. inner alchemy) of the classical period.

Scraps of this and that

For spiritual alchemy, any 'substance' is useful which produces an intense body of energy. The 'substance' consists either of emotional feelings or visceral sensations. Such a body is easy to locate and use as a focal point. Merely putting attention to this point, spontaneouly causes a process of transformation. The process develops increased levels of body-mind "presence" that then becomes available for use in all situations.

Often a body of energy produced from emotional or physical activity has a noxious quality, and instead of focusing on it the individual attempts to place his attention elsewhere. In this manner he fails to take advantage of an opportunity to use a valuable material, which because of its very painfulness, is easy to locate, focus upon, and employ in the alchemical process.

The mystic experiences the world in two different modes. She apprehends all things operating as an undifferentiated unity, this mode is called the unified vision. And she also apprehends individual things, this mode is called discriminating vision. Zhuang Zi calls this bimodal vision the "double look" (liang jian).

Liang jian: bimodal awareness: One attempts through cultivation to make the unified mode, the (undifferentiated) as wide and as deep as possible. The other mode, i.e. the discriminating mode, plays within this undifferentiated field, and draws its creative potential from the vast possibilities of the undifferentiated mode. The undifferentiated is also called the unlimited, the liberated. Through cultivation, the practitioner also attempts to make the undifferentiated mode the dominant of the two modes.

Bimodal awareness is also called "tranquillity in volatility," ying ning, here it looks like we are altering our model. We have reversed our model and are depicting the unified mode as operating at the tranquil center of the world of volatile differentiated phenomena. But nothing is changed, we are simply looking at bimodal awareness from a different view point. The integration of bimodal awareness is described by Zhuang Zi as follows: She was One both in her being One and in her not being One. Thus in practice, the unified and the differentiated view are apprehended simultaneously and an integrated response to them is generated.

The following three entries are for the introduction rewrite:

Ying ning: "Tranquillity in the midst of volatility" This phrase indicates that the mysticism of Zhuang Zi is intimately involved with the world around the practitioner; the mystical discipline is not separated from everyday life, and the everyday opportunity for intimate interaction with other beings. (chapter six of Zhuang Zi)

The subject who experiences the unitive state

The "subject" of awareness is that which we usually call "I" or "me." This subject seems to be located at a nexus of perception. At this nexus, perceptions from what we commonly call the "mind," the "body," and the "outside world" all come together. This entire field of stimuli composes a subject's awareness. The nexus "feels" more inward or outward according to the degree the subject's attention is focused on various aspects of the field of perception. In the mystical state the subject experiences an altered field perception.

In mystical awareness the various parts of the entire field of stimuli seem in some fashion to become intimately interfused. With this interfusion into a kind of "oneness" the aesthetic and affective quality of a subject's awareness is dramatically changed . And the resonance between the subject and the field of awareness becomes much more effectively interactive. Zhuang Zi refers to the affective quality of the resonance as "ecstatic wholeness." He refers to the increased interactive effectiveness between subject and field as having arrived at that level where "power is whole."

When a subject becomes intensely intimate with its total field of perception, it may experience itself as a being which bodily consists of this entire field. This phenomenon is described by Zhuang Zi as: "I and the ten thousand things are one." This does not have to be taken as a metaphysical "one" but is nevertheless what a mystic calls "the unitive experience."

"Naturalness" in Zhuang Zi.

Zhuang Zi's apophatic approach to mysticism is "natural" in a limited sense. It is natural in the sense that it is concerned only with the direct experience of the human being, and not with the theoretical structures of reality. It is not interested in forces that operate outside of human experience, except when and how the idea of there being such forces, might impact on human experience/behavior. He is a pragmatic, not a speculative mystic.

He is concerned with those things the human being can reach with its present potential, not things that lie in some transcendent realm and could have no immediate impact on the human condition. But importantly, Zhuang Zi is not a dogmatic naturalist, he neither denies nor affirms the existence of a supernatural realm. According to Zhuang Zi, holding onto any positive or negative dogma inhibits the potential freedom of the spirit to move in any direction that may prove to be expedient, and expediency is of central interest in Zhuang Zi's mysticism.

The validation of Zhuang Zi's mysticism comes not from sacred texts handed down from gods but rather from the natural human experience. "Zi zheng" means that the human being has an internal mechanism that auto-perfects itself. The mystical realization is not transcendent, but rather natural, one realizes "I can be completely content just as I am right now." No future hope is necessary to happiness.

Mystical awareness is a natural mode of the human psyche, not a contrived discipline.

Robert M. Gimello on spiritual truth

"Any attempt to
positively characterize reality --if made on the
expectation that by so doing one will have verbally
or conceptually "captured" the truth of things--is
bound to fail and, worse, may generate new and more
virulent species of error."

From: "Apophatic and kataphatic discourse in Mahaayaana: A Chinese view"

http://sino-sv3.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/gimello.htm

ci: compassion, empathy, love, fondness. Zhuang Zi indicates that a feeling of universal compassion for people arises spontaneously in that person who has found their true center.

The question was asked as to whether we should consider Zhuang Zi as the "be-all and end-all" of Daoism. I would only say that Zhuang Zi, in a certain sense, is the "be-all and end-all" of Daoism." I say that because he denies the very possibility of any "be-all and end-all." He rests in the Absymal, from which anything might be born. Speaking more than 2000 years ago, he went far beyond the modern existentialists, with his liberating "how could one know that?" Here is an emptiness of all "a priori", no deism, no atheism, just wandering (you) around to receive and welcome whatever turns up. That to me would seem to constitute complete spiritual release (jie).

Raymond

The making of a religious fundamentalist

This is a case study of one kind of religious fundamentalist. He had a rough childhood and becoming a young adult was not much better. Then he found a teacher and was taught an esoteric religion that freed him from many of his devils, and he was then able to rebuild a positive self-image.

When he was younger he thought other people were better than he, and suffered painful anguish from this notion. Now that he had acquired special knowledge and skill after much hard work, he believed he was finally better than most other people. So if someone comes along and claims to understand some aspect about his esoteric religion, and has not gone through the struggle that it took him to learn it, he becomes incensed with anger. The idea of such a thing threatens the foundations of his self-esteem. So in fact he still retains a fragile self-image, merely covering his fears with the thin shield of fundamentalism.

Note: I am not denying the heavy investment of effort and dedication that it takes to gain spiritual liberation from all "devils."

"you" Zhuang Zi: to wander. Allowing the psyche to roam back and forth across the border of human rationality, widening and narrowing its perspective, taking what one needs from both the big picture and the small picture.

From the cataphatic to the apophatic: Personalizing the mystical dynamic, imagining it to be a entity rather than a process, facilitates its manifestation.

(In actuality we can't determine the independent existence of anything, entity or process, we only know for sure the fact that we experience. Everything else is imagined to be a fact, we know nothing of its purported "true existence.")

We can usefully employ what we imagine to induce the mystical state, i.e., the apophatic.

ai love, affection, positive regard, empathy, compassion