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Wandering in the realm of the non-ordinary
"They do seem to be wandering aimlessly but they will get there before you and me; there is no greater blessing than to be led astray by the spirit." Rawley Creed
Wandering in the realm of the non-ordinary:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Work in progress
Restatements
Part One: Wandering in the realm of the non-ordinary
Certainty and Specificity
Personalizing
the experience of the spirit
The spirit: secular
or impartial
Reversing and returning
the psychic flow
The selfishness of
the mystic
Eschatology,
ambition, and the mystic's reality-based humility
Urgency
Doubt
Speculation, language,
and natural mysticism
Ecstasy and ecstatic
wholeness
Words are merely metaphor,
when words vanish we are delivered
The numen and "ultimate
reality"
Living in the moment
Reductionism
The human mind has a marked tendency to insist that spiritual forces be of definitive proportions. We tend to dogmatically restrict the identity of the spiritual to a specific entity, and have it behave in a way that is comprehensible to us and convenient to our human needs.
The problem with this desire for specificity is that the presence of the numinous is pervasive. If the soul is saddled with fixed and limited descriptions of the numen, it will fail to notice and engage its universal presence. Concrete representations of the numen can be useful in evoking the numinous experience; but when such images are dogmatically held to, they limit our perception of the numen's attributes and thus grossly underestimate the magnitude of its reach. We cannot take advantage of our continuous ability to encounter the numen if we do not appreciate the surprising range of its manifestations.
The numen pervades the entire world of phenomena. By conceptually delineating its arena within a tribal, cultural, religious or esoteric sphere, one weakens the potential to encounter it everywhere and every time.
Usually, the less specifically I locate and define the sacred, the more continually I can approach and embrace it. Sacredness is not the result of a careful classification that separates the holy and the unholy. The sacred becomes manifest when I take a radically closer look at my every day surroundings, and realize a transfiguration of the entire world which surrounds me.
The word "usually" appears at the beginning of the last paragraph. It is there to indicate that in mystical cultivation there is a pragmatic role for visualizing concrete images of the numen. (See the next topic)
Personalizing the experience of the spirit
It is worth recalling that the theistic mystic quite firmly recognizes the numen as a personal god or God: the theist's numen is an entity who has been theologically defined to be who it is said to be.
A natural mystic practices without dogmatically characterizing the nature of the numinous. Indeed to effectively practice this form of mysticism one does not have to characterize nor personalize this force in any manner. The actual identity and nature of the force that produces the numinous experience are assumed to be as yet unknown and perhaps unknowable.
However, natural mysticism is purely pragmatic; while there is no imperative to name or to personalize the experience of the numen, there is also no imperative not to do so. Anything that increases the experiential presence of the numen is highly treasured.
In practice it turns out that making an initial visualization of the numen as a familiar persona is a very useful practice. It is an effective means of delivering consciousness to the threshold of mystical experience. The experience of the numen is an intimate one, and characterizing the identity of the numinous in personal terms can catalyze the actual experience of its intimate presence. Once the numinous presence has been catalyzed, the image one has made of it can be allowed to fade. At this stage one is up against the presence of the numen everywhere and within every being; one simultaneously experiences both its intimate presence and its all pervasive range.
The inherent paradox of engaging in a very specific and personal encounter with a force that is pervasively non-specific is obvious. The mystic differentiates between her particular continual encounter with the force, and the pervasive nature of the force itself. The force is everywhere but each encounter with it takes place within a single heart.
The personalization of the numen is seen in the Dao De Jing where Lao Zi characterizes the numinous as the "Mother". The maternal characterization of the numinous is powerfully catalytic, and as many readers will know, this archetype has recurred throughout history in many different times and places.
In the West today there is a trend toward depersonalizing the divine. This tendency is held to dogmatically by some modern theologians. The changing fashions of theology will at times personalize and at other times depersonalize the numinous. The pragmatic dogma of the natural mystic will always remain the same: whatever works best is holy.
The spirit: secular or impartial
The Way of Heaven has no favorites,
It always favors the one who is adept.
Lao Zi
There has been much debate on the nature of the spiritual force that pervades the world of phenomena. It seems to be an impartial force, one without favoritism toward any particular individual or group. And yet mystics, those who seem best able to appreciate the nature of this force, approach it in a deeply personal manner, they speak to it as one would to a dear friend, close family member, or lover.
Mystics are adept at paradox. They know that however dispassionate the power that animates the world we inhabit might be, it has placed within each of us the ability to personally, passionately, and directly engage its intimate presence. As Moslems say, "It is as close to me as the veins in my neck." The mystic takes advantage of her close relationship with this force; she knows how to obtain favorable treatment from a power that has no favorites.
Reversing and returning the psychic flow
"Cultivate the innate, return to your original power." Zhuang Zi
"Whoever says you must choose between Heaven and Earth has made a foolish idol of the divine will." Rawley Creed
The kind of energy that accomplishes conventional (and valid) human goals --- building a family, a career, an art project, an organization (charitable or profitable), writing a religious book, fighting a war, etc. --- is also the kind of energy that, when allowed to dominate the soul, takes one directly away from self and spirit. While everything you do in the external world manifests your spirituality, nothing that you externally accomplish will in itself promote spiritual growth.
Therefore the vehemently religious person will often conclude that he needs to forsake all "mundane" activities and focus exclusively on the divine. Unfortunately such a course of action turns out to be as idolatrous as would be devoting one's entire energy to the pursuit of the so-called mundane goals. If you ever have met one of those who "completely rejects the world," you will find that the divine force has astonishingly little mercy for those who worship it as an end in itself.
The "third way" is an attempt at what looks like an unholy alliance. For to maintain a divinely integrated psyche one must cultivate both of two very different internal forces. One flow projects energy, it mimics the normal activity of the world: the other flow gathers and concentrates the force of the spirit. These two currents have respectively explosive and implosive potentials of equal lethality.
During intense spiritual cultivation, the seeker will find that the two flows inevitably collide with each other: the outgoing active, creative flow directly opposing the returning, reflective, backward, congealing flow. Encouraging too many of these confrontations can result in severe destabilization. At times the painful collision of the two counter-currents is exquisite; it feels like and is often mistakenly identified as a battle between Heaven and Hell. Often only laughter can prevent a plunge into morbidity at such a nexus; spiritual hazards can be fatal to the humorless.
(Mystics are quite commonly heedless individuals, many of them will nearly continuously invite as much of this redemptive process as they can bear.)
Until one attains a comfortable level of success, any lack of internal tension usually indicates that one is neglecting the in-flowing stream of the dynamic equation, the cultivation of the backward, returning flow. Such neglect is occasionally a wise default, it can provide timely relief, perspective, and recuperation.
One is able only with a very difficult and protracted effort to transform the psyche into a balanced vehicle that has fully integrated the two radically countervailing energies. When these opposing forces operate simultaneously in perfect harmony it is called "wholeness" or "deliverance." The delivered soul has in some inexplicable manner grasped how to intimately and robustly encounter the world in the very same moment it is vigorously surging backward to its divine source. (see also: waiting)
"Do not honor the enlightened ones." Lao Zi
Lao Zi understood that it is not appropriate to honor a sage, for the sage's motivation is qualitatively no different from yours and mine.
A mystic, like everyone else, attempts to do what is best for herself; for example she would not help others if this action had no fundamental self-benefit. What sets her apart is that, that which satisfies you and me is seldom enough for the mystic. She finds it much more difficult to entertain herself than we do. She reaches for the so-called "spiritual heights" as much out of boredom as anything else.
Finding some measure of happiness in daily life is a challenge for all of us. The mystic takes this natural desire to the limit of plausibility. She wants to be content continuously!
The mystic is a spiritual hedonist, (I use the term descriptively not prescriptively.) For example, the unrelenting and authentic compassion she has for others is rooted in her own desire for enjoyment. She fully understands how to enjoy all other beings, good, bad, and ugly; while you and I struggle to find enjoyment by secluding ourselves with only carefully selected companions.
The equanimity of the mystic is remarkable. She never appears moody; this is because her battle is with self, not other. She has learned how to wrestle with reality without inflicting harm on others. Her obdurate, narcissistic, and demanding needs are fought for on a battlefield whose ordinance explodes safely out of the range of the rest of us.
The mystic gently smiles at us when we hold her in high regard. She realizes that she is simply a spoiled child of the universe. She has demanded a level of pleasure that is more challenging, intense, and durable than that to which the rest of us are resigned.
The last person to mistakenly characterize the mystic as a "holy" person is the mystic herself. She appreciates how inaccurate that notion is, and what's worse, knows it is an illusion that causes the pilgrim to misperceive the direction of perfect contentment.
Eschatology, ambition, and the mystic's reality-based humility
Do I want to have an impact, even a large impact on the world? That is fine, the force that causes this world intends such ability for each of us.
But let me take a closer look at my motivation. Perhaps my actual desire is to change reality, to help bring about some kind of eschatological dénouement, a cosmically dramatic fix for a world I think is misshapen. Perhaps, like the gnostics, I hunger for finality. Maybe I don't like my current role nor the ambiguous world I have been given.
Mystical enlightenment is primarily based in acceptance, understanding how it is that everything is already Okay with world and self. It is not easy to accomplish this realization.
"Kill the duck of urgency." Rumi (Translation by Coleman Barks)
Are you in a rush? The mystic is also in a rush. He is rushing to get back to the moment and place that he standing in, returning to the radiant presence of being.
The only thing of urgency for the mystic is the return to self and the self's immediate encounter with the world around it.
"Doubt can disable you, but not if you learn to welcome her and treat her kindly when she visits. I have an indulgent Mother who knows all of my deficits and employs each to my advantage." Carla Ansantina
The natural mystic does not attempt to overcome doubt. On the contrary, she employs the experience of doubt to access the numinous. The ideological content of doubt is irrelevant to the practice of mysticism; the practical mystic is only interested in the affective quality of doubt, its emotionally catalytic power.
The more unsettling the doubt is, the better it provides an avenue to direct perception. Intense doubt is palpable. It is a viscerally daunting feeling, an emptiness that grips the soul as it oppresses it. The mystic recognizes this as the grip of a spiritual presence, another side of its divine face, and she passionately embraces it.
Mystics sometimes speak of "God being distant." Taken literally, this amounts to a false characterization of what is occurring; The very unpleasantness of this purported disconnection allows it to be a powerful stimulant. When viscerally embraced, what is felt as "absence" is recognized as a different form of presence. The experience widens the mystic eye which can then better capture the pervasive presence of spirit.
Whether it is positive or negative, the mystic always senses a spiritual valence; when fear and doubt preside, they simply indicate the nature of the current agenda between the mystic and the source she is attending to.
Doubt can equally well deliver
you to heaven or hell.
(See also: Doubt:
a jewel for the apophatic, Utter Vulnerability, and Reflections
on Buddhism and Zhuang Zi)
Speculation, language, and natural mysticism
The natural mystic is a "practical mystic" and therefore avoids using his time speculating about such fundamental matters such as "who made this world and why." Such questions are what "speculative mysticism" deals with. But there can be very practical benefits obtained from describing certain aspects of mystical practice. If we have at least a partial understanding of what we are doing, we can do it much better. And the sound of a word itself may evoke a powerful but inarticulate stirring within the psyche. If a practical mystic finds words that are helpful in delivering him to the mystical state, he will surely make good use of them.
Ecstasy and ecstatic wholeness
The mystic experiences a nearly continuous feeling of satisfaction which is usually accompanied by various degrees of euphoria. Most of the time this euphoria is not dramatic in intensity, but it is remarkable in its persistency. In common terms, "the mystic feels good most of the time."
I find it useful to term this euphoria as "ecstatic wholeness" rather than "ecstasy." Ecstasy is a word that in English usage has come to be understood as a very dramatic occasion of euphoria. The mystic may experience such occasions, but the persistent euphoria that routinely pervades his psyche is less dramatic. (The term "ecstatic wholeness" (le quan) comes from the ancient Chinese Daoist Zhuang Zi.)
The term "ecstatic wholeness"
alludes to the causation of the mystic's euphoria. The mood arises
whenever the mystic is experiencing himself in intimate relationship
with his surroundings. (Zhuang Zi: "All beings and myself
have become one.") During this psycho-visceral state the
mystic's awareness pervades both his internal and external world,
and it realizes an integrated wholeness. The realization of wholeness
liberates the psyche from its normal station and self-imposed
limitations. It is the visceral experience of liberation and intimacy,
and a consequent enhancement of creative ability, that results
in the affective state of contentment.
The mystic attends a continuous feast; one that has not been found
by most of the other invited guests.
Words are merely metaphor, when words vanish we are delivered
All language is metaphor and metaphor can either freeze the heart, or carry it into experiential meaning. Such meaning cannot be grasped at arms length, one must bodily participate in it. The effective metaphor transports the heart and body beyond the cages of conceptual thinking. It loosens the grip of the mind on the framework of its own carefully constructed stability, and delivers it to a vast realm of possibility. The effective metaphor vanishes at the point of delivery; the heart who surrenders its metaphors steps over the threshold point and enters the illimitable promise of pure delight.
The numen and "ultimate reality"
For the theist the numen is God or ultimate reality. For the natural mystic "ultimate reality" is not a useful term, it provides no usable meaning for him; he finds that he cannot determine what ultimate reality might be. In fact the idea of any reified reality is of no meaning to him. There is only "experiential" reality, and the "experientially real."
The experientially real, what is "real" for practical purposes, consists of experience. My experience of myself is taken to be "real." This experience fulfills what the word "real" means in a practical sense: although I don't know what "me" ultimately consists of, the experience that I call "me" actually and fundamentally exists in and of itself. My experience of myself, and all my experience of what appear to be outside phenomena, is a actually ongoing process. It is "happening to me."
My experience of this "real" process, when I am keenly attentive to it, and thus become intimate with it, results in the manifestation and the visceral perception of the numen, or the numinous experience. The numen is not reified as a self-existing entity by the natural mystic. (And it is also not denied to be an entity.) It's usefulness is primarily in its role as an index. The presence of the numen presents feedback, it tells the mystic he is on the course; it indicates that his current experience is "in the ballpark."
To complicate this issue, a natural mystic may at times envision the numen as an entity with whom he has a personal relationship. The purpose of such a "visualization" is pragmatic; it is an effective way to induce the mystical state.
Now if you then ask the natural mystic if he thinks the numen he has envisioned (and who he might refer to, like Lao Zi, as his "Mother") is real, he will answer that the question of intrinsic reality is not relevant to his practice. Secondly he will explain to you that the term "real" has only a very restricted meaning to him. The numen that he has visualized for purposes of mystical induction, has no more nor less reality than any other experience. Whether an experience is "my dream," "my vision," or "the door to my room," it is a actual experience. Its mystical value depends only on whether or not its ramifications are useful.
The nature of what I believe to exist as objects (dream or door) apart from my experience of them, has no positive or negative ramifications for the reality of the experience. As experiences they are equally real. The numen, the door to my room, and my dream are all indices of certain "real" processes, they can "really" be experienced. They are actual indications of the occurrence of certain processes, processes of which the fundamental nature of is so far unknowable.
The natural mystic is only concerned with effectively engaging the world of phenomenon, he is not interested in determining what that world is. In his practice he finds that the more modest he is in his attempts to define the reality of the world he experiences, the more intimately he is able to respond, embrace, and engage that world.
"Without going out the door one can know the whole world.
Without peeping out the window, one can perceive the way of heaven.
Going out still farther, one understands even less." Lao
Zi (47)
Instead of "going out" and trying to do something, or do somebody, one is best to do little more than stay within one's immediate experience of reality. This allows one the rich pleasure of "having things done" by the manifestation of each moment. Each moment will exquisitely entertain us if we can learn how to fully inhabit it.
Immediacy is experienced and
furthered through the cultivation of intense affective-visceral
presence. This preliminary work is difficult, and it consists
of an ongoing progression of stages. And so although the "getting
things done by each moment" is effortless, arriving at the
interior place where it consistently happens requires quite an
effort.
A philosophical reductionist attempts to reduce the phenomenal world down to physical laws, energies, and particles. She dismisses philosophy and religion. The apophatic is a spiritual reductionist. He lays aside those same categories and also dismisses science as means of ultimately explaining, or intimately encountering the most compelling ground of his being. His mystical practice is validated solely by intensity of immediacy, the quality of his experience of being here.
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Hiding your world in the world
Through the remarkably creative power of "de" the entire world of circumstance, both gains and losses, accrue to the mystic's benefit. Zhuang Zi describes this mystical transfiguration of reality:
"Although you can fit a small thing placed within a big thing, it still can be lost there. But were you to keep the entire world stored within your world, there could be no loss. This not-lose-able is the immutable attribute that is found within all (transient) things; it is their transcendent quality (da qing)."