Tag: nondualism

THE DISASTER OF MODERNITY

The disaster of modernity:

since the Enlightenment, the intellectuals

in trying to grow beyond the mythic stage to the rational stage

killed the mythic God in the “death of God” movement

but in doing so they truncated their own spiritual growth

they did not go on to higher understandings of God

they repressed their own spiritual intelligence –

and the West has never recovered

 

modernism emphasized the intellectual and technological

and labeled our ancient/natural subjectivity as “superstition”

and this created a disconnect

between heartless individuals

and heartless institutions

 

and this created atheism – some atheists

have no religious awareness/strivings in them

have lauded/applauded humans so much they forgot God

have such a distorted view of God

they do not reject the God of the gospels

who they do not know

but rather they reject a caricature of God

who they have imagined

 

our western preoccupation with practicality

and means not ends

resulted in a total loss of values

and seeing life as a whole

so we became prisoners of urgency/

short-term consequences/

erratic/meaningless lives

 

non-dual thinking is the answer

non-dual thinking is both/and thinking

never either/or thinking –

it includes and honors all the previous stages

 

spirituality that ignores psychological dynamics

and psychology that ignores our spiritual nature

cannot be an adequate guide for people

who want to integrate

the quest for holiness

and the desire for wholeness.

EMPIRES OF IDEAS

In Carol Gilligan’s model of moral development

the order is: selfishness/care/universal care/integrated care –

the integration of masculine and feminine energies in the soul

 

dualism – separating things – causes us to project

our personal and social shadows onto goats –

scapegoats –

instead of integrating our shadow –

if all things are one, which they are –

you have to own your own shadow – you cannot escape it

 

the fact that nondualism is central to 3 major world religions –

Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity –

and that Christianity taught it for 16 centuries –

“I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”

(John 14:20) – proves that nondualism

is absolutely important

 

dualisms like spirit vs body/human vs animal/sacred vs secular

falsify the holism of life/nature/God – God works thru

both-and polarities

not either-or dualisms –

God is in the body/nature/secular

just as much as in the spirit/the human/the sacred

 

but atheists separate God and man – they cut God

out of the picture completely – as Wayne Dyer liked to say

EGO means Edging God Out –

the famous atheist Bertrand Russell

was even more cynical than John Calvin who professed

humanity’s “total depravity” –

Russell believed the soul’s foundation had to be built

on ironically soul-killing and unyielding despair

since every human accomplishment will be wiped out

because the universe will eventually disappear

 

but take courage  – for empires of ideas like dualism

just like empires of power and wealth

come and go –

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage

I have conquered the world – these things I have spoken to you

so that in me you may have peace” – Jesus in John 16:33.

TEILHARD VS AUGUSTINE AND MARX

In Teilhard’s view, eros, the longing for wholeness

is integral to the whole evolutionary direction towards

wholeness/complexity/consciousness/personalization/love –

the universe is personal not impersonal.

 

Ever since Augustine, western Christendom

has separated grace from nature

and so we treated nature with contempt and plundered it

and each time a piece of God died –

ironically, because of Augustine we have killed God

all over again.

 

Because of the theory of evolution, we know

everything is interconnected –

therefore salvation is communal more than individual

and we all can be involved in transforming

the whole cosmos.

 

Contrary to Marxism’s propaganda

alienation and conflict do not come from religion

but from the inevitable moral collapse

of the materialist worldview.

 

There is scientific/empirical research

that shows there are stages of religious development

from pre-rational/pre-conventional/narcissistic/childish

fantasy all the way to post-rational/post-conventional/

ego-aware/transpersonal awareness.

 

The contemplative non-dual mind

is like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden –

it provides continual nourishment

to the soul and world.

 

STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS/UNITY/LOVE

Brother Teasdale, a monk mentored by Bede Griffiths

had a vision that nondualism would create

a Christian Renaissance.

 

Beyond that, Ken Wilber believed

the great Wisdom Traditions: Christian Mysticism/

Vedanta Hinduism/Vajrayana Buddhism/

Jewish Kabbalah/Islamic Sufism could be united

in seeing the three ordinary states of consciousness

waking/dreaming/deep sleep

as treasure troves of spiritual awakening

if we learned how to utilize these common states.

 

Beyond even that, unity could go beyond this world

to what Anthony Burgess refers to as “exoChristianity” –

assuming there are trillions of Earth-like planets

outside our solar system and assuming

there would be intelligent life on many of these “exoplanets”

which would be fulfilled in unique incarnations

of the Cosmic Christ, then the primacy/significance of Christ

would be raised to a new level.

 

Radical amazement at all this results in contemplation

which catches us up in the Love of the Creator

who lavishes love in us/on us/around us/as us.

 

By its very nature, Divine Love begets

institutions like marriage and churches which are ordained

toward the embodiment and spreading of Love

in procreation and spiritual education of children

who are the ultimate crown

of any healthy institution.

 

The Love of God is in life-giving individuals and couples

and points towards eternal life as the whole coin

of which death is just a small part – there is physical dying

but no eternal death – everything and everyone is energy

that goes through multiple states: life/death/rebirth

and can never be destroyed.

 

 

THE NONDUAL BEDROCK OF RELIGION

The modern/postmodern/secular world is often struck

by its own power, and raises anxious questions

about humanity’s meaning/role/destiny in the universe

so, Christianity needs to bring its own vast resources

to bear on these questions.

 

If Christianity’s mission is to dialogue

with all people, it must begin

by creating mutual respect/harmony with all churches –

interdenominational infighting makes Christians

hypocrites when they try to reach out.

 

As a chaplain in World War II, John MacQuarrie

saw the basic goodness of soldiers

and grace operating in Muslims

which challenged his Calvinist negativity

about human nature’s “absolute depravity”

and led to his conversion from Presbyterian to Anglican

letting go of Calvin’s exclusivism, he found grace

everywhere, and became the stellar Anglican theologian.

 

Jesuits in Japan hung out with Zen monks

and readily participated in the quasi-religious

“Tea Ceremony” which looks from the outside

like a non-spiritual ritual, but internally

is about disciplined silence/simplicity/

self-effacement/contemplation.

 

There may not be a universal religion

but there is a universal wisdom

which Aldous Huxley wrote about in 1945

in The Perennial Philosophy – all religions

value virtues like patience/humility/kindness/

compassion/peace. Like John Henry Newman

who was a major influence in Vatican II

Huxley believed God’s Plan included all religions.

 

The fact that nondualism is central

to three major religions: Taoism/Hinduism/Buddhism

and underlay Christian mysticism for sixteen centuries –

Jesus said “You are in Me and I am in you

and we are in God” – means nondualism

unites both Western and Eastern religion.