Waiting: Stephen Batchelor
Importunate prayer
A Christian apophatic: Augustine Baker
Saint John of the Cross: Dark Night
of the Soul
Binding the divine force, idolatry
and infidelity in Ibn 'Arabi: Michael A. Sells
William Pepperell Montague on "positive
mysticism."
William Pepperell Montague on the inner
mystic experience
Hans Waldenfels on Nagarjuna's use of
philosophy
Mircea Eliade on the role of Isvara
in Patanjali's Yoga
Geoarge Feuerstein and Jeanine Miller
on the Kesin Hymn
Ewert H. Cousins: a historical summary
on the terms apophatic and cataphatic
Forcing God, Meister Eckhart
Tu-Shun on Theory and practice in Zen
Peter Heltzel on Friedrich Daniel
Ernst Schleiermacher
Christoher Isherwood on Kali, the experience
of the Divine Indulgent Mother
No holiness
Pray to whomever it may concern
Robert K. C. Forman on the bimodal
mystical process
Attar: An answer of Jesus
Saint John of the Cross: Good and Evil
Attar: from "Conference of the
Birds"
Ibn 'Arabi: The changing manifestation
of the divine
The following dialogue gives us a rare peek into the mind of an apophatic. It comes about as close as any writer can in describing the mystic's approach to his practice.
Manjushri: We are now close to penetrating fully into the nature of mind.
Subhuti: In that we are waiting for its nature.
Manjushri: Waiting; but never expecting. For expectation involves conceiving of something.
Subhuti: Waiting lets go of all that. Waiting never involves conceptualization. Waiting has no object.
Shariputra: But we always wait for something whenever we wait.
Sabhuti: As soon as we conceive of what we are waiting for and make it into a thing, we are truly no longer waiting.
Manjushri: In waiting we leave what we are waiting for open.
Subhuti: Why?
Manjushri: Because waiting penetrates into openness...
Suhuti: ...into the expanse of distance...
Manjushri: ...in whose nearness it discovers the lingering in which it abides.
Subhuti: Openness itself is that for which we can only wait.
Shariputra: Then openness itself is the dharmadhatu....
Manjushri: ...into which the bodhsattva waitingly penetrates in his meditation.
From: The Faith To Doubt, Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty, Stephen Batchelor, Parallax Press: Berkeley, 1990, Page 61, 62
Stephen Batchelor is a Guiding Teacher at Gaia House, which is located near Newton Abbot, about 3 hours southwest of London. He is also the Director of Studies of Sharpham College for Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Enquiry. See: Gaia House
My comments on waiting:
In the mystic's psyche, the serene coexists within the active. Among other terms, this inner tranquillity has been called "waiting." Waiting is not inert, it is the process that is at the heart of effective action. Waiting is one component of the mystic's bi-modal psycho-visceral mind state. One mode is that of active conscious thinking. The other mode consists of the pre-conscious perception of the entire perceptual field and the integration of the pertinent data from that field into an effective response. The generation of the response is initiated and directed by the coordinated activity of both poles of the bi-modal psyche.
The integrated bi-modal state is called the "unitive state." It is experienced viscerally as a feeling tone, commonly in the head and chest.
Everyone employs this bi-modal mentation. The difference in the mind of the mystic is that greater attention is given to the "waiting" mode,"* and greater attention is given to the integration and coordination of the two modes. Attention, not intervention, is all that is necessary for this. No intellectual calculations are needed for bi-modal coordination. When the mind is carefully self-observent, this act of watching, by itself directly causes it to operate with spontaneous accuracy and effectiveness.
*a large component of the "waiting mode" consists of the reception of the input of visceral perceptions from areas outside of the brain.
For more on waiting see: Wu
wei: dymanic waiting
What I will continue to repeat, is that although it is helpful for many folks to believe* that the entity they pray to exists, this is not the essential factor in prayer which produces results. What is necessary to render prayer effective is that the emotional quality of the petition be intense. Applying visceral intensity, besides having other effects, causes durable psychic transformation in the one who prays.
In the excerpts that follow one notices the use of artlessly
demanding prayer in three different traditions.
*(Most people who pray, also hold to the belief that their specifically defined deity describes the only one that could possibly exist, and that it is the only one who can "answer" prayer. Although this idea is implausible in my opinion, I don't believe it raises or lowers the effectiveness of prayer.)
A Kung Bushman's prayer
(South Africa)
Gauwa must help us that we kill an animal.
Gauwa, help us. We are dying of hunger.
Gauwa does not give us help.
He is cheating. He is bluffing.
Gauwa will bring something for us to kill next day
After he himself hunts and has eaten meat,
When he is full and is feeling well.
Translated by Lorna Marshall.
(Eliade, p. 268)
Carmody on Jewish prayer
"Jewish prayer has often been a questioning, even a querulous encounter with the divine, guided by memories of Abraham haggling over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Job accusing God. The tradition has though it better to risk offense, forwardness, whining than to risk detachment, indifference, carelessness. Passion could always turn around from complaining to ardent love. Indifference left one with no place to go, made one a stone rather than a fire. Certainly, reverence for the Lord and the desire always to bless the holy divine name bulk large in traditional Hasidic spirituality. However, personal engagement, challenging God to take seriously the history that He created as a covenant forming Israel into a people, bulks even larger." (Carmody, p. 172)
Jesus on praying
In the following excerpt from the New American Standard Bible translation of the Christian Bible, Jesus is teaching his followers how to pray.
And He said to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a
friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, 'Friend,
lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from
a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and from inside
he shall answer and say, 'Do not bother me; the door has already
been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and
give you anything.' "I tell you, even though he will not
get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because
of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
And I say to you, knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone
who asks, receives;"
(N. A. S. Bible Luke: 11:5)
Paradoxically, what the natural apophatic almost exclusively prays for is ability, the ability to want nothing more than what can be made immediately available at the time of prayer. She desires only a full participation in the enjoyment of the moment at hand. An ability to engage the depth of richness available from the ordinary world.
"...in Africa, I met an old Somali seaman, a Muslim. He
explained to me how, among the Somali, someone under extreme nervous
or spiritual distress seeks help by calling friends and relations
to a bahilowi. They meet in the open, at night and away from any
habitation, and form a circle around the afflicted one, who then
gives utterance to his suffering perplexity in a questioning chant,
to which the others reply. This old Somali, finding himself alone
and friendless on a distant shore, once solaced himself by holding
a bahilowi as though his people were present, and was in this
way made whole."
Gerard Casey
A Christian apophatic: Augustine Baker
From "The prayer of Aspirations" by Augustine
Baker
"Secondly, in those immediate acts and affections, in which
there are no images of creatures involved, but which respect God
immediately, He is represented by some distinct image or express
notion in the mind, as by some special attribute, perfection,
similitude, etc. But a soul, after a long practice of internal
abstraction and renouncing of all representations of God, contents
herself with such a confused notion of Him as may be apprehended
by an obscure general faith; that is to say, not simply and absolutely
with no kind of image at all (for that is supposed inconsistent
with the operations of the soul whilst it is in a mortal body),
but not with a distinct, formal, chosen, particular image; for
all such, offering themselves, are rejected by perfect souls.
So that if they were to give an account of what they conceive
in their minds when they intend to think of God, all they could
say would be: 'God is nothing of all that I can say or think,
but a Being infinitely beyond it, and absolutely incomprehensible
by a created understanding. He is what He is..."(page 137,
An Anthology of Christian Mysticism)
The mystical experiences of Saint John of the Cross, in my opinion (which is not original), were limited by his world view. The boundaries of the contemporary Roman Catholic theology which he took for granted, restrictived the potentially vast landscape of the numinous experience. Nevertheless, his journeys into the beyond provide insightful information for others embarked on such an adventure.
From Dark Night of the Soul
"And thus, the simpler and the purer is this Divine light in its assault upon the soul, the more does it darken it, void it and annihilate it according to its particular apprehensions and affections, with regard both to things above and to things below; and similarly, the less simple and pure is it in this assault, the less deprivation it causes it and the less dark is it. Now this is a thing that seems incredible, to say that, the brighter and purer is supernatural and Divine light, the more it darkens the soul, and that, the less bright and pure it is, the less dark it is to the soul. Yet this may be more readily be understood if we consider what has been proved above by the dictum of the philosopher--namely, that the brighter and the more manifest in themselves are supernatural things, the darker are they to our understanding."
Page 116, Dark Night of the Soul, Saint John of the Cross, translated and edited by E. Allison Peers, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1959
Compare: Dao De Jing, chapter forty-one: "Radiant Dao appears dark."
Binding the divine force: a revolutionary notion of idolatry and infidelity in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi: Michael A. Sells
In the following citations from the Mystical Languages of Unsaying Michael Sells explains why the ineffable nature of Allah cannot be conceptually captured by the intellect.
Page 78: "The error of binding (taqyid) consists in the belief that the form, name, or determination in which one views the real is the only form in which the real manifests itself."
Page 91: "...the purely indeterminate cannot be known or made manifest. A fundamental error arises...when the partial categories or individual forms are taken as fixed and total. This error leads to a world of conflicting beliefs, each of which denies the other. And it leads to an individual's fixation on a particular viewpoint, conception, or experience. In either case, the error is serious, since a belief which denies all other beliefs denies the common root of them all, and an individual who is not in a state of constant change can no longer be said to know and reflect the constantly changing manifestations of the real. Thus Ibn "Arabi's critique of the intellectual error of binding goes beyond a criticism of rationalist philosophy and dogmatic scholasticism and extends to any context in which a form or image (sura) of the real appears: religious, scientific, aesthetic, or even mystical."
Page 99: "The critique of binding is based finally on
a redefinition of idolatry and infidelity. The individual image
that one has of the real is the God of one's belief, a delimited
God that one mistakenly worships as the transcendent and infinite.
Idolatry is redefined as the worship of such an image. Because
the real manifests itself everywhere, including within the beliefs
of others, to categorically deny the doctrinal beliefs of others
is to deny a valid manifestation of the real; it is a form or
"denial" or infidelity to the one transcendent reality
manifest in each belief." (See this link
for this Michael Sells' book) (My comments on the book are:
here)
William Pepperell Montague on "positive mysticism."
The following by William Pepperell Montague contrasts what he calls "positive mysticism" with those strains of mysticism which are known as "Manichean." Manicheans hold that the "mundane" world is greatly flawed, and that one must deny the world and one's natural instincts in order to achieve a higher state of existence.
I generally agree with Montague's analysis, but his characterization of positive mysticism as that of "mystics of a higher type" does not strike me as a useful value judgment. It seems to me that to grant a normative sanction to one mystic opposed to another smacks of the illusionism Montague has condemned. "Better than" (in a normative sense) is a notion that is counterproductive to mystical growth. Positive mysticism is more effective than Manicheanism, but to call one mystic "higher" than another, is to fail to appreciate the immutable parity of all things under heaven. Ironically, immutable parity is something Manicheans also deny.
"The positive mystic is one whose revelation of
the invisible and transcendent serves not to blind him to the
concrete details and duties of visible existence, but rather to
illuminate and strengthen his earthly life. His outlook on the
world is devoid of illusionism, pessimism, asceticism, and occultism.
To mystics of this high type nature seems more real rather than
less real, and beautiful rather than ugly. And instead of devoting
their lives to the negation of the will to live and to a repudiation
of earthly existence and its duties, they use their inner light
to supplement the outer light of common sense and of science,
and strive to incarnate the kingdom of heaven in this world."
(page 63)
William Pepperell Montague on the inner mystic experience
The mystic is one to whom these inner experiences appear as vital and real. He pictures the world in terms of them, and the picture is precious in that it embodies and makes visible in objective form the hidden depth of the human spirit. Even ordinary perception and reasoning is largely based upon subconscious stores of memory and instinct. They furnish the meaning with which our sensations are clothed, and the motives by which our reasonings are driven. The intuitions of creative imagination as expressed in the cosmic revelations of the philosophic and religious mystics, and even in the less generic visions of the great poets, owe their grandeur and uniqueness to the fact that in them the subconscious functions more spontaneously, more nearly as a unified whole. In normal experience intuition is the servant of the specific, external situation, while in the real mystic intuition the inner self in its entirety is the controlling factor. (page 57)
Hans Waldenfels on Nagarjuna's use of philosophy
"Whatever he has to say philosophically all has to do with clearing the way for enlighenment and with the radical liberation of man from all false attachments that obstruct that way." (Absolute Nothingness, Paulist Press)
Mircea Eliade on the role of Isvara in Patanjali's Yoga
In the following piece by Eliade, I find the role that the Hindu god Isvara plays in Patanjali's Yoga to be quite instructive. Patanjali's system (second century B.C.E.) is the classic work on Yoga. Patanjali's Yoga is not an endeavor designed to worship or to please deities, it is rather an attempt to conquer the self, to be released from the restraints imposed by the human personality: the stated goal is "absolute liberation." And yet we find that one of several means of attaining this autonomous metaphysical status involves invoking the god Isvara for assistence. Here we seem to have an example of a purely pragmatic/experiential approach to the invocation of a divine force: a god's help is sought to assist the human to attain a device (samadhi) which will be used to acheive the ends of a practice: liberation. In Patanjali's system this liberation is held to be more valuable and relevant than the god itself.
Page 82: Isvara, the God of the Yoga Sutras, is a pure spirit that not only has not created the world but does not even intervene in history, either directly or indirectly. The yogi emulates the way of being that is peculiar to this pure spirit. The transcendence of the human condition, "deliverance," the total autonomy of the purusha--the exemplary model for all this is Isvara. Renunciation of the human condition--in other words, the practice of yoga--has a religious value in the sense that the yogi emulates Isvara's way of being: immobility, concentration on himself.
Page 88:What is of first importance in the Yoga Sutras is for self-domination and concentration. Why nevertheless did Patanjali find it necessary to introduce Isvara? Because Isvara corresponded to a reality of an experimental nature: Isvara could in fact produce samadhi provided that the yogi practice Isvarapranidhana, or devotion to Isvara.....Patanjali could not neglect a whole series of experiences that only concentration of Isvara could have made possible. In other words, side by side with the tradition of a purely magical yoga tradition--that is calling only on the personal will and strength of the ascetic--there existed another, "mystic" tradition in with the final stages of yoga were at least made easier through a devotion....
From: Patanjali and Yoga, Mircea Eliade, Schocken books, New York
George Feuerstein and Jeanine Miller on the Kesin Hymn
The Kesin Hymn (translated by Feuerstein and Miller)
The long-haired one endures fire, the long-haired one endures poison, the long-haired one endures both worlds. The long-haired one is said to gaze full on heaven, the long-haired one is said to be that light.
The wind-girt sages have donned the yellow robe of dust: along the wind's course they glide when the gods have penetrated them.
Exulting in our seerhood, upon the winds we have ascended. Of us, you mortals, only our bodies do you behold.
Through the middle region flies the sage shining down upon all forms; for his piety is he deemed the friend of every god.
The wind's steed, the Lord of life's friend, is the god-intoxicated sage; within both oceans he dwells, the upper and the lower.
In the path of nymphs, angels, wild beasts wanders the long-haired one, the knower of heart's desire, a gentle friend, most exhilarating.
For him has the Lord of life churned and pounded the unbendable, when the long-haired one, in Rudra's company drank from the poison cup.
The authors comment: The enigmatic phrase "Vayu churns or stirs up and pounds or grinds the unbendable" appears to refer to the action of prana upon the body, the key words here being "stir up" and "grind" expressing the action that is being performed upon the unbendable which may be identified with tamas, one of the three primary energies of prakrti: tamas or inertia, heaviness, the gross product, mass-stuff, that which provides the necessary resistance and hence the resulting friction without which no step, no action could be taken, but which, at the same time, must be made malleable or pliable, must be bent to a mere tool or stepping-stone in the hands of the yogin, in order that finally harmony or sattva may prevail. Inertia, darkness (tamas), man's material nature, thus stands as a mountain rock or inflexible basis which nevertheless is to be bent if the yogin will achieve his purpose. When tamas has been subdued, there is created a proper climate wherein the kundalini can be stirred up and made to rise, eventually to illuminate the whole being. By the grace of the Lord, in this case Rudra, with the help of Vayu, the muni was able to achieve self-conquest. As a result the poison of the world could have no effect upon him, and like any god he could even drink of it.
Yoga and Beyond, George Feuerstein & Jeanine Miller, Schocken Books
Ewert H. Cousins: a historical summary on the terms apophatic and cataphatic
In Christianity, the gap between mysticism and language was widened by the treatise of the Pseudo-Dionysius entitled The Mystical Theology. Written in the fifth or sixth century, this text has exercised a major influence on the subsequent history of spirituality in the Christian East and West. The author provided a mystical ascent to God by means of the systematic negation of language--of all sense impressions, images, words, and concepts. The Pseudo-Dionysius thus charted what became the classical version of the apophatic way, whose technical designation is derived from the Greek phasis (speech) and apo (away from). Thus the apophatic way is the path of the negation of language, of nonspeech or nonlanguage. This contrasted with the kataphatic way spelled out in the earlier treatise of the Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names. In this context "kataphatic" means the way of affirmation, from phasis (speech) and kata (according to). The Pseudo-Dionysius-- and with him much of the subsequent tradition-- favored the apophatic rather than the kataphatic way. thus the original meaning of "mystical" as hidden or secret became associated with the spiritual technique of the negation of language.
Page 236, Mysticism and Language, editor Steven Katz
This short excerpt may first seem to be heretically opposed to the mystical ideal of surrender, but closer reflection will reveal there is no contradiction.
Do not imagine that God is like a carpenter who works or not, just as he pleases, suiting his own convenience. It is not so with God, for when he finds you ready he must act, and pour into you, just as when the air is clear and pure the sun must pour into it and may not hold back. Surely , it would be a very great defect in God if he did not do a great work, and anoint you with great good, once he found you empty and innocent.
Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation, Raymond B. Blakney, page 121
Tu-Shun on Theory and practice in Zen
....the correct establishment of the essence of practice. If one does not understand the prior theoretical explanations, then he has not the means with which to pursue and accomplish this practice. But, if one does not understand this to be finally a practical teaching, quite beyond the reach of theoretical explanations, then he has failed to grasp the true import of those explanations. And if one continues to adhere to the explanations, and does not finally relinquish them, then he will fail to enter into practice. Thus one must realize both that practice is formed upon the basis of theoretical understanding and that, when practice is achieved, theoretical understanding is transcended. (Tu-shun, 557-640 C.E., Robert Gimello translator)
From: Mysticism and Religious Traditions, editor: Steven T. Katz, page 64
Peter Heltzel on Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, "The Father of Modern Protestant Theology."
At the root of Schleiermacher's theological achievement was a reconception of religion. For him religion is primarily neither morality (contra Kant) nor belief or knowledge (contra Hegel) but an immediate self-consciousness or feeling of absolute dependence on God. The roots of faith are pre-moral and pre-cognitive, and this religious consciousness is common to all people, though very variously recognized and expressed. While the God of Kant (the absolute or unconditioned God) is present through our sense of moral obligation, God is present as an immediate dynamic relationship that grasps our whole being in the theology of Schleiermacher.
Read the entire essay at: Schleiermacher
The essay is part of Wesley Wildman's web page: "A
Dictionary of Theology"
Christoher Isherwood on Kali, the experience of the Divine Indulgent Mother
This excerpt is from Christopher Isherwood's book: Ramakrishna and His Disciples, Simon and Schuster, New York.
The appalling Power that makes and unmakes the universe may also be known in the aspect of an indulgent Mother whom one can laugh with and pester for favors like a child. And that Power is everywhere present-- within the air around us, within an image in a temple, within a stray cat.
The following is from the Zen classic, Blue Cliff Records, and is translated by K. Sekida:
When the Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty asked Bodhidharma, "What is the first principle of the holy teachings?" the Patriarch replied, "Emptiness, no holiness." The Emperor, confused by this answer, inquired further, "Who is this standing before me?" "No knowing," answered Bodhidharma.
(From Two Zen Classics, translation with commentaries by K. Sekida, New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1977.)
Pray to whomever it may concern
The following is an excerpt from The Varieties of Religious Experience; the excerpt was written by Frederic W. H. Myers.
I am glad that you have asked me about prayer, because I have rather strong ideas on the subject. First consider what are the facts. There exists around us a spiritual universe, and that universe is in actual relation with the material. From the spiritual universe comes the energy which maintains the material; the energy which makes the life of each individual spirit. Our spirits are supported by a perpetual indrawal of this energy, and the vigor of that indrawal is perpetually changing, much as the vigor of our absorption of material nutriment changes from hour to hour.
I call these 'facts' because I think that some scheme of this kind is the only one consistent with our actual evidence; too complex to summarize here. How, then, should we act on these facts? Plainly we must endeavor to draw in as much spiritual life as possible, and we must place our minds in any attitude which experience shows to be favorable to such indrawal. Prayer is the general name for that attitude of open and sincere expectancy. If we then ask to whom to pray, the answer (strangely enough) must be that that does not much matter. The prayer is not indeed a purely subjective thing; -- it means a real increase in intensity of absorption of spiritual power or grace; -- but we do not know enough of what takes place in the spiritual world to know how the prayer operates; -- who is cognizant of it, or through what channel the grace is given.
Robert K. C. Forman on the bimodal mystical process
The mystical process entails a bimodal process. The mystic sees and responds to the world in two simultaneous psychic modes: the world is treated as both unified whole and as collection of divided parts. Robert Forman describes this bimodal process well:
"Although Stace does provide several core characteristics of each type, he overlooks what seems to me to be a central distinguishing mark. It can be seen most readily in a distinction made by Ramana Maharshi, the twentieth-century Hindu guru, between samadhi and sahaja samadhi. Samadhi is a contemplative mystical state in which a silent level within the subject is maintained along with (simultaneously with) the full use of the human faculties. It is, hence, continuous through part or all of the twenty-four-hour cycle of (meditative and nonmeditative) activity and sleep." (The Problem ...page8)
Some men reviled Jesus one day as he was walking through their part of the town.
But he answered by repeating prayers in their name.
Someone said to him, "You prayed for these men, did you not feel incensed against them?"
He answered, "I could spend only of what I had in my purse."
Translated by Idries Shah in his book "The Way of the Sufi", Jonathan Cape, 1968
Saint John of the Cross: Good and Evil
Ascent of Mt. Carmel
Chapter 13, paragraph 1. Allison Peers translation.
The benefits that come from voiding the imagination
of imaginary forms
can be clearly observed in the five evils aforementioned which
they
inflict upon the soul, if it desires to retain them, even as we
also
said of the natural forms. But, apart from these, there are other
benefits for the spirit -- namely, those of great rest and quiet.
For,
setting aside that natural rest which the soul obtains when it
is free
from images and forms, it likewise becomes free from anxiety as
to
whether they are good or evil, and as to how it must behave with
respect to the one and to the other. Nor has it to waste the labour
and time of its spiritual masters by requiring them to decide
if these
things are good or evil, and if they are of this kind or of another;
for the soul has no need to desire to know all this if it pays
no heed
to them. The time and energies which it would have wasted in dealing
with these images and forms can be better employed in another
and a
more profitable exercise, which is that of the will with respect
to
God, and in having a care to seek detachment and poverty of spirit
and
sense, which consists in desiring earnestly to be without any
consoling support that can be apprehended, whether interior or
exterior. This we practice well when we desire and strive to strip
ourselves of these forms, since from this there will proceed no
less a
benefit than that of approach to God (Who has no image, neither
form
nor figure), and this will be the greater according as the soul
withdraws itself the more completely from all forms, images and
figures of the imagination.
Attar: from "Conference of the Birds"
translated by R. P. Masani
"He who has become a lover should never
think of his life. Your soul is an obstacle in your way. Sacrifice
it. If you are required to sacrifice your faith also, together
with your soul, do so by all means, and if anyone brands you as
an infidel, tell him that love occupies a position more exalted
than religion, and has nothing to do with faith or heresy. Whoever
sets his feet firmly in the abiding-place of love transcends the
bounds of infidelity and faith as well."
Ibn 'Arabi: The changing manifestation of the divine
"But the people of unveiling
see that Allah manifests himself in every breath
And that the manifestation never repeats itself."
(translation: Michael Sells
page 106)