Spectrum of Consciousness--Ken Wilber

Excerpted from: Ken Wilber's book Eye of Spirit:

http://holtz.org/Library/Philosophy/Epistemology/Wilber/Eye%20of%20the%20Spirit%20Ch1.html


We can look now at some of the actual levels or spheres of the holarchy, of the Great Nest of Being, as it appears in the three largest wisdom traditions: Judaeo-Christian-Muslim, Buddhism, and Hinduism, although any mature tradition will do.

     (Let me remind you that these are the levels in the Upper Left quadrant, the levels in the spectrum of consciousness itself. We will, in the following chapters, see how this spectrum plays itself out in the other quadrants as well, cultural and social and behavioral--from anthropology to philosophy to art and literature. But for now we are concentrating on the spectrum of consciousness as it appears in the individual human being, the Upper Left quadrant.)


     The Christian terms are the easiest, because most of us are familiar with them: matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit. Matter means the physical universe as it appears in our own physical bodies (e.g., those aspects of our existence covered by the laws of physics); and whatever else we might mean by the word "matter," it means in this case the dimension with the least amount of consciousness (some would say no consciousness, and you can take your pick). Body in this case means the emotional body, the "animal" body, sex, hunger, vital life force, and so on (e.g., those aspects of existence studied by biology). Mind is the rational, reasoning, linguistic, and imaginative mind (studied by psychology). Soul is the higher or subtle mind, the archetypal mind, the intuitive mind, and the essence or the indestructibleness of our own being (studied by theology). And spirit is the transcendental summit of our being, our Godhead (studied by contemplative mysticism).


     According to Vedanta Hinduism, the individual person is composed of five "sheaths" or levels or spheres of being (the koshas), often compared to an onion, so that as we peel away the outer layers we find more and more the essence. The lowest (or most outer) is called the annamayakosha, which means "the sheath made of food." This is the physical sphere. Next is the pranamayakosha, the sheath made of prana. "Prana" means vital force, bioenergy, elan vital, libido, emotional-sexual energy in general--the sphere of the emotional body (as we are using the term). Next is the manomayakosha, the sheath of manas or mind--rational, abstract, linguistic. Beyond this is the vijnanamayakosha, the sheath of intuition, the higher mind, the subtle mind. Finally there is the anandamayakosha, the sheath made of ananda, or spiritual and transcendental bliss.


     Further--and this is important--Vedanta groups these five sheaths into three major realms: gross, subtle, and causal. The gross realm is correlated with the lowest level in the holarchy, the physical body (annamayakosha). The subtle realm is correlated with the three intermediate levels: the emotional-sexual body (pranamayakosha), the mind (manomayakosha), and the higher or subtle mind (vijnanamayakosha). And the causal is correlated with the highest level, the anandamayakosha, or archetypal spirit, which is also sometimes said to be largely unmanifest, or formless. Further, Vedanta relates these three major realms of being with the three major states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep. Beyond all three of these states is absolute Spirit, sometimes called turiya, "the fourth," because it is beyond (and includes) the three states of manifestation; it is beyond (and thus integrates) gross, subtle, and causal.


     So the Vedanta version of five sheaths is almost identical to the Judaeo/Christian/Muslim version of matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit, as long as we understand "soul" to mean, not just a higher self or higher identity, but higher or subtler mind and cognition. And soul also has the meaning, in all the higher mystical traditions, of being a "knot" or "contraction" (what the Hindus and Buddhists call the ahamkara), which has to be untied and dissolved before the soul can transcend itself, die to itself, and thus find a supreme identity with and as absolute Spirit (as Christ said, "He cannot be a true disciple who hateth not his own soul").


     So "soul" is both the highest level of individual growth we can achieve, and also the final barrier, the final knot, to complete enlightenment or supreme identity, simply because as transcendental witness it stands back from everything it witnesses. Once we push through the witness position, then the soul or witness itself dissolves and there is only the play of nondual awareness, awareness that does not look at objects but is completely one with all objects (Zen says "it is like tasting the sky"). The gap between subject and object collapses, the soul is transcended or dissolved, and pure spiritual or nondual awareness--which is very simple, very obvious, very clear--arises. You realize that your intrinsic being is vast and open, empty and clear, and everything arising anywhere is arising within you, as intrinsic spirit, spontaneously.


     The central psychological model of Mahayana Buddhism is the eight vijnanas, the eight levels of consciousness. The first five are the five senses. The next is the manovijnana, the mind that operates on sensory experience. Then there is manas, which means both higher mind and the center of the illusion of the separate-self. It is the manas that looks at the alayavijnana (the next higher level, that of supraindividual consciousness) and mistakes it for a separate-self or substantial soul, as we have defined it. And beyond these eight levels, as both their source and ground, is the pure alaya or pure empty Spirit.


     I don't mean to minimize some of the very real differences between these traditions. I'm simply pointing out that they share certain deep structure similarities, which testifies eloquently to the genuinely universal nature of many of their insights.

SFK Academy

https://sfk.org/programs/certification/

Dear SFK Friend,  We are so excited to present to you the SFK Certification program! Finally, you too can have the opportunity to feel the joy and fulfillment that comes with helping children feel more empowered and less anxious about life! If this training is part of your calling, join us. You will be equipped with the most cutting-edge educational practices, leadership and communication skills, along with the award-winning SFK curriculum. All this to bring lasting change to children and families in your community. In addition to the educational training, the certification program will take you on a deep dive through the curriculum, so you, too, can internalize the concepts. Have we mentioned that this training is as much a journey of growth and self-exploration for you, as it is to impart these lessons with others? Sign Up Now Are you ready to embark on this adventure and change your life and others’? Of course you have many more questions!  Here are the next steps: LEARN MORE about the training program, price and the application process. Then proceed to the FAQs at the bottom of that page, they are designed to answer all your questions and concerns. Fill out the application. If approved, you will be invited to make the payment and enroll in the program. Please read all information carefully, but if anything is still unclear, we’d love to hear from you at info@sfk.org or (310) 464 0570. Sincerely, The SFK Academy Team Sign Up Now

https://sfk.org/programs/certification/

The most uplifting songs to live, love, and expand with

https://www.onecommunityglobal.org/most-uplifting-songs-to-live-love-and-expand-with/

The Most Uplifting Songs to Live, Love, and Expand With – Music Positively Changing the World

Amazing music has greatly influenced the creation of One Community. This page was created to share what we feel are the most uplifting songs to live, love, and expand with. The number one criteria for song selection is the positive and uplifting message within the lyrics. We created this page because we found a surprisingly small number of pages focused on what we would characterize as inspirational uplifting songs, positive uplifting music, high vibration music, conscious music, music written for the Highest Good of All, etc.

Because we think the lyrics are so important, we have included them with each song we’ve posted. In the case of lyrics we had to transcribe ourselves, one of our team also creates a page dedicated to each of those songs so the lyrics are easy to find for others too.

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” ~ Bono

We’ve got a TON we are working on with the One Community Global Sustainability and Transformation Project so this on-going collaborative music project is currently on hold. We will add a link here when we are ready to take more music submissions in the future.

Junior Great Books Curriculum

Junior Great Books

https://store.greatbooks.org/k-12-programs/grades-k-1.html

Positive Psychology Resources for Curriculum

Enter the Positive Psychology Program, quite possibly the best positive psychology resource on the Web. Co-founders Seph Fontane, an entrepreneur with a background in online marketing, and Hugo Alberts, professor of psychology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, teamed up to gift us with a one-stop shop that includes blogs, courses, exercises, quotes, conferences, and a database of top positive psychology researchers.

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/

Quotes

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/positive-psychology-quotes/

Global Oneness Project--Lesson Plans

https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/making-it-America

Curriculum Notes

Curriculum of personal growing, good qualities, Food and clean water is key. nutrition. Rewrite prayers so that it invokes ideas and we can show -- extract ideas and make one that all can see themselves in the prayer.  a gift to the world.

Nomi
Exploring Compassion/Lovingkindness/Connectedness  - music/art
Skit where compassion is the lesson, the sense of empathy
Folktale with compassion as lesson
Golden Rule (hang poster in the classroom)
Koran Bible Gita Philosophy Cross Cultures Science Art
Heritage of Humanity for Education.  Many perspectives on the same truth. 
-Art work
-Imagine (John Lennon)
-Skit
-You Can Be Kind, song
-science: lesson about the synchronize of heart beat rhythm,
-Koran verse: simple basic verse from sacred books (several cultures at the same time: the sacred is everywhere)
6.
mindmapping software for every quality a la Golden Rule picture


Sara
Shared Ritual - classroom - what we do together - creating ritual, how we are when we are together. “We light this candle to remember God’s presence...”  every classroom has an altar.  kids help create it.
The Gift of Nothing but not the book (quaker song Gift to be Simple)/ Gift of love and presence and honoring and respecting and friendship and seeing another -- wishing you were somewhere other than you are, someone, greener grass,
Read God’s Dream - We are all connected and the dream of justice and fairness and peace for all.
The Cave of Plato - children learning philsophy (a play, the cave of the heart, build one, lesson about how to go out of the shadows to see the light and go back and share, mystical truth, nobody wanted to look. mohammed used to meditate in a cave, 40 days)
Just like me -- we have ‘if I see something doing something wrong, I remember, just like me.  others and me. blaming. accepting.  empathy

Beverly
The Divine Within - teaching children to know themselves and that God is within them. not self-centered but know they are fundamentally good. worthy of love from God and others.  Basic sense of worthiness. (Wayne Dyer, I am ) mediation: step into the role of ....with a scarf. become it. tell class about yourself. who or what are you? what message do you have from the mind of God. Draw a picture from the story of I am - color or draw (structured or nonstructured).
Protection - Feeling Safe. Because if you don’t feel safe, you have trouble connecting, move out into the world, dare to dream, closed in, small world, fear takes over.  How to feel safe.  God IS your safety. 
What is God? (book on the face of God, where is God, what is God) God in all things.
Feelings - you have to know what is inside of you, recognize them, label them, accept them, so that you don’t judge -- seeing that other people feel the same thing.
Prayer - related to protection and feeling safe and asking for help. power of prayer. centering prayer for children book. sacred word. disposing yourself to God.

Kathy
Tolstoy - God in all people. Where love is... Where did you meet God today?  Song: Love Grows one by One. Knock knock knocks. prayer: Jesus help me to see you in the person in front of me.
UN Rights of the Child. Match game of parts of the world. How do you love someone you can’t see?
Stand in Another’s Shoes - shoes. what would you say? what would you say to help?
Good Shepherd: knows me, leading, guiding, caring, protection, Lamb of God, lay down your life, meditation with shepherd, lost sheep stuck in the bush. yoga child’s pose - act it out. fear of being lost. protection. 23 psalm.
Francis of Assisi - Nomi Make me a channel of your peace.
Do not be anxious. - do not fear.



kathy:  Golden Rule and the Games People Play - rami shapiro

nature
nurture, which culture induces
self-specific learning (our own personal experience, in our own room... personal learning)
situaltion specificity.  sometimes the situation is so powerful that all nature and nurute and self specific learning goes out the window.... so powerful.

google: sr. carole perry

Inter-spiritual/Interfaith/Integral (Wayne Teasdale, Beads Griffiths, Huston Smith, Andrew Harvey, Kurt Johnson, Diane Berke, Mirabai Starr, Craig Bergland, Edward Bastian, Ken Wilber etc.)

Social, Emotional, Personal, Spiritual, Ecological Intelligences (Howard Gardner, Daniel Goleman)

Great Books/Arts/Films of East and West (sacred, banned, censored, suppressed, and best-selling)

103 Great Ideas (Mortimer Adler)

Great Mysteries of the Unknown

Biographical (Great Men and Women of East and West)

Cross-Cultural (Great Places, Sacred Sites and Majestic Monuments of East and West)

Inter-disciplinary

Philosophy for Children

Sacred Geometry

Critical Thinking (Fallacies, Biases--cognitive, decision-making, belief, behavioral, emotional, social, memory)

Creative Thinking (Edward De Bono)

Systems Thinking

Holistic Thinking

Positive Psychology (Martin Seligman)

Education and spirituality (Parker Palmer, Henri Nouwen)

Non-Violent Communication--Satyagraha (Gandhi and Rosenberg)

World Peace

Human Rights, Citizenship of the World,  and Planetary Conscious Education (Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King etc.)

Lesson Plans-Nicole

Lesson Plan Assignments (Kathy)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2DIB79Gzh9cQ2NHSUgxaHV5NUU

Sample Lesson Plan (Nicole)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2DIB79Gzh9cTzRnYldMTTNQMjg

Sample Lesson Plan (Nicole)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2DIB79Gzh9cZGV6VEZqVlgxRVU

Lesson plans are a comprehensive outline, but in depth narratives can be written separately for each heading if needed. I would compare it to chapters in a book and the lesson plan is a comprehensive table of content.

Another fun way to prepare lessons after completing your plan is to create a Power Point presentation. Many of your ideas can be explained with photos, maps documents , etc. Essentially your lesson will be done and the teacher can use as is or add more information.

I have included a very complex/thorough lesson plan specifically for ESL (SIOP). Not all lesson plans need be this detailed.

We might want to think about starting a mini on-line school (for-profit . . . self compassion)?  This would be a way to offer courses little by little. We can practice and refine, while receiving feedback.

I would think people would start coming to us to consult, implement and create new work. We can speak about this . . .

I have also included a link for art lesson plans straight from the Met website under educators:

http://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/lesson-plans.

Museum websites are an excellent resource for lessons. Also Dick Blick has art lesson plans an videos!

http://www.dickblick.com/lessonplans/

Most Recent - Lesson Plans - BLICK art materials www.dickblick.com Blick's Lesson Plans are a great resource for teachers and educators.

Lesson Plans www.metmuseum.org Search for lesson plans that integrate learning about works of art in your classroom

Spiritual Curriculum in Australia

Beyond religious education - evoking spirituality in the classroom 

http://au.educationhq.com/news/40134/beyond-religious-education-evoking-spirituality-in-the-classroom/

Junior-Great-Books-K-1-Sample-Lesson-Plans

https://www.greatbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Junior-Great-Books-K%E2%80%931-Sample-Lesson-Plans.pdf

Links for Lessons: Playing the Game of Everything, Lion's Roar; Kosmos

https://www.lionsroar.com/playing-the-game-of-everything/?utm_source=Lion%27s+Roar+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8523825c86-LR-May-2-2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1988ee44b2-8523825c86-22618605&mc_cid=8523825c86&mc_eid=4372c5c1a3

http://www.kosmosjournal.org/newsletter/2017-05-02/

Interfaith educational resources for young people – free online

 

Dear interfaith colleagues:  This abundance of youth resources – collected from around the world – is very encouraging in terms of the future.

 

Interfaith curricula for schools, youth groups and congregations    These many curricula provide young people in schools, youth groups and congregations with the experiences, skills and resources to live in a diverse world, to broaden their own identities, and to break through walls that divide them from people of other religious, cultural, and economic backgrounds. 

 

Golden Rule educational resources for youth      This comprehensive listing of resources features school & youth group curricula, interactive resources, meditation exercises, videos, multilingual posters, art activities, do-it-yourself workshops, slide programs, discussion questions, Golden Rule websites, books, toolkits and best practices.

 

Directory of interfaith youth groups in Toronto, Canada     This directory features interfaith youth groups in Toronto as well as organizations and educational resources from around the world

 

Please consider forwarding this announcement to colleagues and friends and posting it on websites and social media. 

 

Peace  

 

Paul McKenna

Scarboro Missions Interfaith Dept.

2685 Kingston Road

Toronto, Ontario

Canada M1M 1M4

www.scarboromissions.ca

Tel. 416-261-7135 ext. 296

 

"Although the religions of the world are apples and oranges and are more different than they are alike, still there is a quality of 'fruitfulness' that characterizes them all and out of which a 'common ground' for shared conversation can be established."    Paul Knitter, American dialogue theologian

Representatives of the 13 religions featured on the Scarboro Missions Golden Rule Poster

Mistaken Identities (Creed)

Creed

The Reith Lectures,Kwame Anthony Appiah: Mistaken Identities Episode 1 of 4

Listen in pop-out player

Philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that when considering religion we overestimate the importance of scripture and underestimate the importance of practice.

He begins with the complexities of his own background, as the son of an English Anglican mother and a Ghanaian Methodist father. He turns to the idea that religious faith is based around unchanging and unchangeable holy scriptures. He argues that over the millennia religious practice has been quite as important as religious writings. He provides examples from Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Buddhist texts to show that they are often contradictory and have been interpreted in different ways at different times, for example on the position of women and men in Islam. He argues that fundamentalists are a particularly extreme example of this mistaken scriptural determinism.

The lecture is recorded in front of audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The series is presented and chaired by Sue Lawley. Future lectures will examine identity in the contexts of country, colour and culture.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds

Spirituality for Kids

http://www.spiritualityforkids.com/

INTERRELIGIOUS INSIGHT by Hasan Askari

INTERRELIGIOUS INSIGHT

January, 2004 Edition

From Interreligious Dialogue to Spiritual Humanism

Hasan Askari
 

Affirming Religious Diversity

I have always looked at religious diversity with a sense of wonder. The differences between religious beliefs and practices have never bothered me, nor have their conflicting truth-claims unnerved me. I was mystified by the fact of diversity itself. But the call to tolerate and coexist with the other in mutual respect, however desirable, was not enough for me. The intuition underlying the ancient saying, “the lamps are many but the light is one,” gently led me on to look for a theological affirmation and validation of more than one religion. What was lingering in the depths of my soul came to the surface of my consciousness sometime in the mid-1970s when I clearly realised that transcendental reality could not be equated with any one religious form; otherwise a religion will become a god and that would be utter blasphemy. The prospect of a religion reflecting the Absolute absolutely would turn that religion into the most dogmatic and oppressive belief system imaginable. Hence, there should be room between the religions for mutual critique and complementarity. In turn, this should generate a religious need for religious plurality and diversity.
 

Each religious form should then express the beauty and the splendour, and the transcendence and the mystery, of the Supreme One in terms of its own language and culture, framed in its own historicity and reflected in the vision of its pioneers. To enter into dialogue is to celebrate the splendour of the infinitely Supremely Good, in the unity and diversity of our faiths. By the theological affirmation of religious diversity, our coming together in dialogue becomes akin to an act of worship; our exclusive witness is transformed into co-witness; our one-way mission is replaced by mutual mission.
 

Co-witness and mutual mission would replace the literalist approach to religious language by a symbolic understanding of diverse and conflicting symbols and statements. A real evangelist would be one who brings the good news of universal truths as these are glimpsed through various religious symbols and philosophies. Then our perception of the other as a spiritual being will achieve a real depth and we shall apprehend underneath the outer differences and conflicts a shining unity of mystical experiences. Our perspectives will expand: we shall not only notice religious diversity as a spatial fact but also value the coming and going through time of teachers and prophets, religions followed by religions - all calling upon us to wake up and humbly bow in self-knowledge before the almighty source of our souls. Then our conversion will be not to this or that religion but to one God (speaking theistically), All Transcendent-All near, All Freedom-Ever New!

In order to attain this perspective I soon learnt that one had to give up the traditional scholastics and adopt a hermeneutic approach by which a pathway to the fountain itself of such unity and diversity could be opened. There was nowhere to look for its source except in one’s own soul, for nature and culture, art and religion, philosophy and science had emerged from the depths of the soul. Soul is thus the treasure house of all the archetypes from where all our symbols and insights emanate. As I once put it:

Without the unifying reality of the soul we shall be wrecked in the multiplicity and conflict of the forms of life and nature. The soul is the one-multiple being, one and divided at the same time, fully one with itself possessing the vision of what is above. Unless we postulate such a principle and revive the classical discourse on Soul, we cannot rise above our divisions of body, belief and consciousness to a bodiless and non-discursive reality.

Before we ask about the other out there, we should ask about the other in us, our nobler and loftier companion, our Soul, which with one hand holds our body and mind here on earth and with the other holds on to the Divine. With this knowledge we can hope to pass from one hand to the other, from the lower to the higher. Hence, to experience the truth about oneself and about the other is to experience the reality of the Soul, which individualizes and universalizes us all at once. First soul, then God!2

It is as if the soul possesses the vision of the Supreme One, and yet creates countless forms in order to preserve that singular vision through such endless multiple endeavour.

Soul as One and Many

I have outlined a double validation of religious diversity, from the viewpoint of the theology of transcendence, and also from the perspective of the gnosis of the soul as both one and many in her being and works. The point of departure on the interreligious path is the very vision of our reality as souls and the point of our arrival is our souls’ witness of the transcendence and universality of one God.

Let no one imagine that her or his soul is just her or his corporeal and social identity. Our soul is vaster than our conscious and unconscious psyche put together. Soul is one and many, a universal being. It is in souls of each other that we encounter each other both individually and universally. We surpass the boundaries of our outer identity. We seek our inner connections, as follows:

Do I recognize the other as my hermeneutic kin, as an associate in awareness and being? I meet a so-called co-believer. I do not recognize in him my inward kin. I meet a so-called other who belongs to a different religious tradition, but I recognize in him my inward companion. Encounter is now a prelude to lasting friendship and union.3

“Know thyself” were the words written on the Gate of Entrance to the ancient Temple of Delphi. The prophet of Islam categorically made self-knowledge a pre-requisite to knowing God when he said, “Whoever knows his self knows his Lord.” As such, the gnosis of our soul and self, our real being, has thus been the goal of all our mystical and religious life. The classical discourse on soul from ancient India and ancient Greece, and from various Gnostic traditions requires to be revived, for it is also the cornerstone of interreligious spirituality. Dialogue becomes a vision of the magnificent utterance, “Here I am”! Reflectively, we all become co-present to one another - not as one exclusive identity, but as one who says to the other, I am both me and you and you are both you and me, and together we stand on holy ground.

Spiritual Humanism

Interreligious dialogue requires not only a theology of transcendence but also a spiritual anthropology. The movement from interreligious dialogue to spiritual humanism is natural. It also involves a philosophical conviction about the human soul as a universal principle, which itself is a source of both our diversity and unity and calls for its concrete expression in social and political life. Spiritual humanism then appears not only as a mystical vision but also as the ideology of a new world order.

The Christian sponsored interreligious dialogue seems to have failed in all problem areas from the Indian subcontinent to the Middle East, from Ireland to Central Europe, because, firstly, it has not been accompanied by a clear articulation of the anthropological vision of one spiritual humanity and, secondly, because there had been a gap between interreligious dialogue and society at large. There was no connecting point between the spiritual hope expressed in the movement that promoted interreligious dialogue and the social situations which, at various points on the globe, had degenerated into sheer ethnocentrisms and religious obscurantism. The rising tide of exclusivist doctrines and identities seems to have overrun the complacent confidence of the advocates of democracy and secular humanism. Then there are those who criticise people like me that we do not honour the specificity of each religion sufficiently. To them I would say that without honouring the universality of God and the universality of the human principle as a soul, there remains no grace about the so called specificity of any religion, nor any hope for the survival of humanity.

We can act at least at 3 different levels together:

1. At the academic intellectual level, to revive the classical discourse on soul and to cultivate the theology of transcendence as integral to a multireligious spirituality.
2. At the ideological and pedagogical level, to replace exclusivist religionism and secularism with spiritual humanism.
3. At the prophetic level, to confront all those forces which enslave and cripple the human spirit.

Before I explain what I have in view by the prophetic role of spiritual humanism let me reflect on the reasons for the current mutation of religious consciousness, which are threefold:

A. Loss of transcendence with respect to the supreme reality, which turns our ideas of God into idols – we all become disbelievers in the disguise of our collective and self absolutised beliefs!
B. Loss of Gnosis of soul which leads us to regard our outer form and our separation as constituting our total reality.
C. Loss of transcendence with respect to both God and soul narrows the self down to bodily ego, practical reason and literalisation of symbols and myths – so we all become materialists in the guise of religious dogmas.

Had we remembered the higher Gnostic grades in our soul, namely the contemplative and intuitive, which bring to us our transfiguration as universal soul beings, we could have given birth to a new humanity through our inner expansion and enlightenment.

Interreligious dialogue urgently requires the revival of the classical discourse on soul.
The Threefold Need to Revive the Classical Discourse on Soul

a) Theological Need

The materialists are right in refusing to believe in God, for neither the physical eye nor practical reason can bear witness to a metaphysical absolute. The knower of metaphysical reality should be a metaphysical being oneself. Therefore, as it has been said already, “Whoever knows his soul, knows his Lord.” As for interreligious dialogue, it is only on the basis of the unity of the human soul that we can confidently hold dialogue between various languages (religions) of that one very same soul.

b) Philosophical Need

The philosophical need for discourse on the soul is for both cosmological and epistemological reasons. If our knowledge is based only on sense perception and empirical reason, it will always remain subjective. The truth as objective reality will always elude us. But soul is both an objective and a subjective reality. The proof of this is our facing each other as we meet when we are both subject and object for each other. This miracle is possible because of our one common soul. When what we are and what we seek, as Plotinus used to say, are a unity, then our philosophies and religions are not in vain. Then there is a kinship between the knower and what he seeks to know. Soul, being diverse, is a seeker, and Soul, being one, is the sought after. Having thus known herself, she yearns for the one who is the source and lord of her one being. All our spirituality is that yearning of the soul.

c) Psychological Need

Modern psychology requires the rediscovery of the classical discourse on soul in order to transcend the dichotomy of the conscious and the unconscious sectors of the psyche, on one hand, and of the psyche and matter, on the other. The Neo-platonic discourse is coming back and will reflourish in the 21st century to provide the foundation for a unified theory of physical and metaphysical reality.

Only by knowledge of the soul can we know the immortality of our essence, by which we are filled with courage to confront and conquer oppression and injustice - by which our life is both within and beyond bodily limits and by which we are both individuals and universals, residents of both this world and hereafter.

 

The soul is one multiple being, fully one with herself and also many, possessing in her unity the vision of the supreme one. Unless we postulate such a principle we cannot rise above the divisions of our body, belief and ego, to a spiritual and non-discursive reality. Neither friendship nor love could be possible nor the universal validity of our mystical experiences.

Universal Validity of Mystical Experience

There are some who question the universal validity of mystical experience as an expression of one universal ultimate reality. But we do not normally question the universal presence of life, beauty and love which inspire diverse forms of art, music, song and poetry. Nor do we normally question the universal presence of intellect which is the common foundation of different and conflicting theories of science and philosophy. But why is it that as soon as we refer to the universal validity of mystical experience people leap upon us from all sides insisting that mystical experience is subjective experience determined by one’s culture, theology, and personal psychological history. In every other case they seem to remain unperturbed by the co-presence of the objective and the subjective, the universal and the particular – as, for example, in regard to the human body, where there is one objective science of human anatomy and physiology upon which the entirety of medical science is based, and yet there are individual variations as to the state of health and nature of sickness. It is obvious then that the tendency to object to mystical experience’s claim of its inherent universal validity is influenced by a bias that if it is conceded, the next step would be to admit that there is a universally objective source of religious revelations. The objection is motivated by unphilosophical reasons. But it does not mean, however, that all mystical experiences are valid, and that there are no influences from the subject’s milieu and psychic constitution towards the experienced mystical state.

Criteria of Mystical Experience

With mystical experience, whether it be a transformed state of consciousness or an ecstatic utterance, there is the need for guidance in order to discern whether or not the experience in question is really transcendental. Hence, in the scriptural expression within Islam, there is on one hand the Qur’an as the recital of the divine word, and on the other, within the recital, is the Furq’an as the guidance to know truth from fantasy, knowledge from conjecture. Every spiritual teacher aspires to epistemological clarity. It is this clarity which is a pre-requisite for initiation into a mystical order.

Experience and guidance to interpret it descend together. The experience itself is on certain occasions a response to prayer for guidance. However neither a mystical experience nor a belief is always an authentic experience or a right belief. Therefore, consultation among seekers and dialogue between different believers should go on in pursuit of truth, our common beloved!
 

Mystical experience does not entail the suspension of rationality. Nor does it surpass the intellect which is itself a divine light. Let the soul always be lightened by the sun of intellect, the lamp of divine consciousness.

Within our soul are three Gnostic grades – Contemplative, Intuitive, and Discursive. What the contemplative eye has seen the intuitive would hold in its cognition, and what the intuition has cognised in all its totality reason would conceptualise and communicate in logical stages, and in such a harmony reason itself will be transfigured, becoming self-luminous as light upon light, as the light of the parable upon the light of our common understanding.

Religious Diversity as Mystical Experience

I have already touched upon the religious validation of religious diversity, preserving with the different religions their transcendental dimension. But when it all began for me in the mid-sixties in India it was more like a vast swing in my soul by which I lived all the diversity of the Indian civilisation - as if I were a worshipper in every house of worship, as if all rites of worship were within me. Religious diversity was thus for me a deep religious experience and now I know it as the experience of my soul itself, my soul in its universal dimension. I did not arrive at this point of affirmation by first philosophising about the necessity of interreligious dialogue on spiritual and social grounds in search of understanding and peace. Valid as they are, those reasons were extraneous to my inner being. My inner experience of religious diversity not only blossomed into my thought and writing, but also attracted, as a magnet, people from far off lands, knitting them into lasting friendships.

In order to bring this open-ended and universally harmonising outlook to the world at large we have yet to go a long way. The loss of a sense of transcendence from our consciousness, and the accompanying loss of the gnosis of soul, have led first to the degeneration of religion and eventually to the despiritualisation of politics and science. Hence, there is a prophetic role for spiritual humanism to take a stand against the following three massive threats to the very essence of our humanity:

1.      Self - Idolatry of Religions

2.      Self -destructive Militarism of the States

3.      Self -hypnosis of Materialism
of the Sciences.

Racism and ethnocentricism accompany religious exclusivism; absolutisation of ideological divides and the cult of supremacy of power provide the political and psychological bases for the self-destructive militarism of the state, while the self–contradictory argument in favour of nuclear armament for the sake of national security passes unnoticed with the gravest consequences for the survival of life itself; and the abolition of the spiritual dimension from every walk of life in the name of pragmatism and scientific materialism allows a free hand to the demigods of nationalism, consumerism and sensationalism.

The schools are fast emptying the souls of our children of the light and warmth of universalism and idealism. A hollow functionalism and obsession with mechanical proficiency dominate our school curricula. The soul thus emptied of all vision is dead – what is a human soul without its universal stature, and which is the fountain of our ideals and aspirations? Emptied from within, our youth grab their own outer husk to defend themselves against the loss of their real identity. Through our education, through our media, through our politics, through our militarism we are leading the youth into a wasteland. Their anger expressed on our streets, irrespective of the occasion, is their loud desperate cry for recognition, for a vision of their greater self which includes not only themselves, but also all humanity.
 

The language of critique and protest is replaced by the language of social conformism. The language of socialism is being made taboo by those very people who were until yesterday the leaders of socialist movements. Another wind is blowing and striking at the roots of all idealism: the wind of postmodernism, by which all universalist and metaphysical terms of reference are to be suspected. There is no ideological foothold for our next generation. 150 Years ago Karl Marx gave the call, “Let the workers of the world unite!” The call meant a universal sense of belonging to the rest of humanity, by which one could transcend religion and race and nation. When there is neither socialist nor spiritual–humanist language made available, under what banner would our youth unite?

The mere rule of law is not enough. The call to democracy requires people who can hope, not just to hear the empty promises of the politicians. The call for more productivity is not enough; more jobs are not the answer. Nor is less inflation the remedy. Those who give such calls know that they stand upon the unstable ground of the global market. They can no longer refuse to see the unruly crowds in their cities which their soulless education and politics have begotten. What we need is not laws. Law, however just, has to punish somebody, lower him in his own eyes. We do not need laws, we need self-realised individuals, mutually forgiving, mutually supportive, mutually educating, who can hold each other, who can rise together hand in hand. So with nations, my dear comrades of the spirit! No cause, no ideology, no national interest, is worth a war that destroys newly born children. As Martin Luther King once said, “After Nagasaki the choice is between non-existence and non violence.”

We have first to wake up from the spell which our collective identity, whether it be of race or of religion has cast upon us, and see the sun of awareness rising in the horizon of our souls, in whose light the hidden grace in each one of us would become visible to the other. As we bow to each other as soul beings, we bow before God who is both in us and above us. What can then prevent us from saying to each other that my soul and your soul is one soul, that our God and your God is one God?

We shall then abolish fear, and then our greeting of peace will be a perfect greeting!
 

NOTES

1. A part of this text was first published in a German volume, In Einum Haus zu Haus, Interreligiosus Leben Inter Religious Spiritualitat, Evangelical Acadamie, Loccum, 1999.
2. Hasan Askari, Spiritual Quest: An Inter-Religious Dimension, Pudsey, UK: Seven Mirrors, 1991, pp. 138-139.
3. Ibid., p. 138.

Books for consultation in relation to this article:

John Hick and Hasan Askari, Eds., The Experience of Religious Diversity
Vermont: Gower Publishing Co., 1985.

Hasan Askari and Jon Avery, Towards a Spiritual Humanism
Pudsey, UK: Seven Mirrors, 1991.

Hasan Askari and David Bowen, Eds., Seers and Sages
Pudsey, UK: Seven Mirrors, 1991.

Hasan Askari, Alone to Alone: From Awareness to Vision
Pudsey, UK: Seven Mirrors, 1991.

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Dr. Hasan Askari is one of the pioneers of interreligious dialogue from within Islam. He has taught and at several universities, including in India, Lebanon, Germany, Holland, Britain and the United States. His book Spiritual Quest: An Inter-Religious Dimension (1991) has been an important text for interreligious thinkers.