Re: I believe in the "Pantheistic Paradox", Identity in difference....
I must ask you what kind of religious practices are you involved in? What do you do to actively reach out to God?
My dear brother Bhagat ji kaurhug
As ever, thank you for your very thorough reply. It has been most helpful in helping me understand Non-Dualism/Dualism, concepts which I had not been familiar with prior to this thread, and indeed had little to no knowledge regarding.
On my religious practices, that is likewise an interesting question.
I have a variety of what one could call "exterior" and "interior" practices. On the exterior level, I am like an other orthodox Catholic in that I attend Mass every Sunday and read the Bible. I also try to live a good life, reading the mystical writings of my faith and trying to detach myself from my cravings. I often meditate using the Rosary, relecting on Christ's life through the different mysteries, the Glorious, the Luminous etc. I try to see God in everything, in every place, situation, person etc.
It should be stated that in Catholicism, the earlier practices of the spiritual path are what we call "meditation". Meditation is explicitly discursive, using mental images, ideas, thoughts, concepts, memory (this is known as cataphatic prayer) in other words the left side of your brain - the one dealing with discursive thought.
"Contemplation", on the other hand, is a freeing of the mind from all images, thoughts, concepts, ideas, sense perceptions etc (this is known as imageless prayer). This is the supreme intuitive awareness of God and equivalent to what many of the Eastern religions mean with the word "meditation".
On the interior level, one of my main practices (although not the only one) is the praying of, "The Jesus Prayer", or "Prayer of the Heart".
I just sit quietly with the intention of my will focused on the presence of Christ within, and gently say, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me" - inhaling on the "Lord Jesus Christ" and exhaling as I say, "Have mercy on me". I start by speaking it out loud then get quietier, and quietier and quietier, until barely a whisper and then I only think it in my head, and focus on breathing. If I become distracted by thoughts, I simply notice them and let them go and return to the breathing and recitation. Eventually I do not even say the prayer in my head, but have it in my heart centre. I sit in perfect stillness, breathing, noticing thoughts as they come and returning again to focus on the breath.
This is interior prayer, what Christians might call Prayer of the Heart as opposed to prayer of the head. I try not to become attached to outward forms of prayer, to the literal act of counting physical rosary beads, rather I just enshrine the rosary of the Name of Jesus within the very centre of my being, my heart-centre. The Sufis have a saying, "
The Mind is the slayer of the Real". My prayer is often not an affair of the mind. It is a movement of my whole being. I create an airport within my heart for these thoughts to land and dissipate, so that all of my attention can be focused upon the breath.
The breath helps me detach myself from my thinking, discursive mind and become more aware of what Catholic mystics call the "Ground of the Soul", beyond thought, feeling, emotions and sense-perception.
I once had a particularly strange experience during Contemplative prayer, in which I lost awareness of myself, my body and my external reality. It actually induced me into a state of panic and fear when my discursive mind came kicking back.
You see, I would feel pure "elation" and "exhiliration". A warmth would come through my body after about half an hour of intense Contemplative prayer and meditation. I would get this tingling feeling, that would be very, very pleasurable. In my chest - and this was the most memorable bit - I would get this sensation like pure ectasy that would completely take my breath away, and I would grow faint and gasp out loud like in a sweaty heat wave, but I had no sweat and felt marvellously cool. It was almost like a tension but a very cool and pleasing one that would rise throughout my entire body. I would feel completely calm and joyful for about a day or two after, as if I was high on some kind of drug or had just had a release of endorphins.
I still get this from time-to-time, although I am trying as much as possible now to detach myself from such "feelings" arising from sense.
One time, it got really severe. I had experienced a very intense prayer session and went to lie down, because it was late at night, with that feeling of breathless ecstasy still in my chest. And this time, I had the feeling of being sucked as if into a whirlpool. It is difficult to explain but I had the sensation of being pulled to the extent that I visually - whether in a dream-like state induced by my ecstasy or awake - saw a kind of whirling vortex that was dragging me, my mind, my soul I don't know - away from my body, into the very heart of something. It reminded me of a tunnel.
It was dark but there were kind of concentric circles made of very thin threads of different colours - blue, purple, green, red, pink - you name it, all around me like a top, and sides and bottom; whirling, whirling and whirling in a cyclinder formation. I kept going deeper and deeper, and then I got terribly afraid. It seemed to genuinely be taking control of me. I felt as if I had no power over this movement, deeper and deeper into the vortex. I couldn't go as far as God, or the force or the pull or whatever you call it, wanted me to go. I was too afraid that I was going to die, that the experience was so powerful that I would literally be torn away from my body and become utterly destroyed and reduced to nothing by God or this force, this pull.
...I had just lay down and was very excited because I had just received this wonderful, warm, ecstastic feeling in my chest...And it was just when I lay down in that state, that I felt myself pulled into that tunnel... it was not sleep too me but rather a literal change of location from my bedroom to this tunnel or vortex or whirlpool [the room faded away as if actually breaking up, like a mist and reappeared later on in the same fashion after the experience]...
And so I pulled back. ['I' seemed to return and stop this experience and this interjection ended it]. I pleaded in my head,
'No, I can't go any further, please'. I pulled and forced myself to resist. I actually remember saying mentally, screaming in my mind,
'I can't do this, I can't go any further'. I resisted and pulled and pleaded and was basically in a state of absolute panic and terror. And before I knew it, I felt myself moving backwards, [up the tunnel?] and eventually I was back in my bedroom again, shaking, freezing cold and terrified. I don't know how much time had elapsed...It ended up with me that night feeling pulled into a tunnel/whirlpool with the colours as described around me in concentric circles...I was being pulled into this and lost awareness of any physicality...
I was seeing circular, amoeboid, or tunnel-like patterns and had the sensation of being "pulled" into them as if it were a tunnel. I felt myself increasingly lose control of and awareness of my body, which was what made me feel terrified when "I" returned and realized what was happening. Strange, strange experience. It was a mental image, or vision that arose spontaneously in the course of my contemplation. It was not self-automated, since it took me completely by surprise. I wrote an account of it later in my diary, and when asked shared kit with one my Buddhist friend's who told me that my experience (which I explained to her in greater depth) had been my entering into Jhana but without proper preparation or understanding of what was happening to me, hence the panic. My religion calls it a "flight of the spirit" ie:
St. Teresa of Avila described all this phenomena in various places in her collected works ... and she is a Doctor of the Church.
In Chapters 28-31 of "Way of Perfection" she describes the inner stillness that comes upon us in contemplative prayer ... the desire to close the eyes and draw inward "like a turtle drawing in its shell." The faculties quiet ... first the will then intellect and memory. These are "suspended" or "absorbed" in her terms ... what she calls the prayer of recollection ... then quiet ... then union. In union we are left in a very delightful, peaceful sense of intimacy with God ... without the "burden" of thoughts and feelings. We are not "doing" we are "being." These are fleeting moments that sometimes come upon us ... perhaps lasting 15 to 30 minutes. These prayer states are described in greater detail as the 4th and 5th mansions in "Interior Castle."
Perhaps this interior prayer deepens yet further. It may flow over from our interior faculties (intellect, will and memory) to our exterior sense. Ecstasy is the prayer of union that also impacts us physically. As St. Teresa describes the body cools, we're unable to move and left as though dead and sinking or being drawn deep within oneself to our very center ... but it is extremely delightful at the same time. The flight of spirit is a variation on this ... where we experience a sense of spiritual movement perhaps out of the body or to a different place/locality. And in this very deep prayer (with the eyes closed), we may experience all sort of interior lights or images played out in our mind ... our spiritual eye. These are imaginative visions. All these types of experiences are described in the 6th mansion of "Interior Castle."
I was only 14 and I think in retrospect I wasn't prepared for the loss of awareness of my body. It was a shock and my response was fear. I lost all sense of time and place. I did not feel my physical body, I was light and in a state of bliss, but it drove my to panic when my thoughts returned.
Do you know of "Centering Prayer", brother Bhagat ji? It is a Catholic form of Contemplative prayer (what you might call "meditation") which I find particularly beneficial and condusive to my soul/mind.
Here is a Catholic priest and modern mystic Fr Thomas Keating explaining something about "Centering Prayer" and ultimate reality:
The Ultimate Reality with Father Thomas Keating - YouTube
Father Thomas Keating Centering Prayer at The Crossings - YouTube
Also the late Catholic mystic and priest Fr John Main OSB (1926-1982), who taught contemplative prayer with what Catholics call "Prayer Words":
The Beauty of Prayer - John Main OSB - YouTube
I also use Prayer Words, here is a description of the movement founded by Fr John Main and his technique (Based mostly upon the teachings of the Desert Fathers, Saint John Cassian and the Cloud of Unknowing). In this video they use the word "meditation" rather than "Contemplation":
Silence in the City - Young Christian Meditators' Stories - YouTube
Here are some Catholic mystics on this form of Contemplation with a prayer word:
"...The end of every contemplative and the perfection of his heart incline him to constant and uninterrupted perseverance in prayer: and, as much as human frailty allows, it strives after an unchanging and continual tranquility of mind and perpetual purity. This prayer (The Lord's Prayer), although it seems to contain the utter fullness of perfection inasmuch as it was instituted and established on the authority of the Lord himself, nonetheless raises his familiars to that condition which we characterized previously as more sublime. It leads them by a higher stage to that fiery and, indeed, more properly speaking, wordless prayer which is known and experienced by very few. The formula for this discipline and prayer that you are seeking, then shall be presented to you. Every monk who longs for the continual awareness of God should be in the habit of meditating on it ceaselessly in his heart, after having driven out every kind of thought, because he will be unable to hold fast to it in any other way than by being freed from all bodily cares and concerns… This is then the devotional formula proposed to you as absolutely necessary for possessing the perpetual awareness of God: 'O God, incline unto my aid; O Lord make haste to help me.' You should, I say, meditate constantly on this verse in your heart. You should not stop repeating it when you are doing any kind of work or performing some service or are on a journey. Meditate on it while sleeping and eating and attending to the least needs of nature. This verse is an unassailable wall, an impenetrable breastplate, and a very strong shield for all those who labor under the attacks of demons. It does not permit those troubled by acedia and anxiety of mind or those depressed by sadness or different kinds of thoughts to despair of a saving remedy….This verse, I say, is necessary and useful for each one of us in whatever condition we may live. If I am boiling over with a multitude of different distractions of soul and with a fickle heart and am unable to control my wandering thoughts. Let the mind hold ceaselessly to this formula above all until it has been strengthened by constantly using and continually meditating upon it, and until it renounces and rejects the whole wealth and abundance of thoughts. Thus straitened by the poverty of this verse, it will easily attain to that gospel beatitude which holds the first place among the other beatitudes. For, it says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'..."
- Saint John Cassian (ca. 360 – 435), Church Father & Catholic mystic
Another is the anonymous author of the 14th century book "The Cloud of Unknowing" - one of the most influential of all medeival Catholic mystical texts, in terms of lay appeal and popularity - which presents contemplative meditation - or 'preparation' - as a teachable, spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God.
A wikipedia article in which it is mentioned says:
The Cloud of Unknowing an anonymous work of Catholic mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century advocates a nondual relationship with God. The text describes a spiritual union with God through the heart. The author of the text advocates centering prayer, a form of inner silence. According to the text God can not be known through knowledge or from intellection. It is only by emptying the mind of all created images and thoughts that we can arrive to experience God. According to the text God is completely unknowable by the mind. God is not known through the intellect but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought
I am not sure that I would use the word "nondual" because, as you know, I have my reservations about both nondualism and dualism as to whether they are appropriate or precise terms, however it is an accurate description.
The Cloud was written, not in Latin but in Middle English - which means that it was intended primarily for laymen rather than for priests and monks.
The Cloud of Unknowing elucidates a number of cultivation exercises by which spiritual practitioners can learn to mentally empty themselves, and this is described as "
putting other thoughts away."
The Cloud of Unknowing calls these "
special ways, tricks, private techniques, and spiritual devices".
The Cloud of Unknowing, advises the aspirant to concentrate on a single syllable such as "God":
Quote:
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Choose whichever one [word] you prefer, or if you like, chose another that suits your tastes, provided that it is of one syllable. And clasp this word tightly in your heart so that it never leaves it no matter what may happen. This word shall be your shield and your spear whether you ride in peace or in war. With this word you shall beat upon the cloud and the darkness, which are above you. With this word you shall strike down thoughts of every kind and drive them beneath the cloud of forgetting. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Read:
Quote:
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset" class=alt2>"...The Cloud of Unknowing also talks of various methods. "
Think of nothing but God himself so that nothing will work in your mind or in your will but only God himself. You must then do whatever will help you to forget all the beings [external forms] whom God has created, and all their works":
"See to it that there is nothing at work in your mind or will but only God. Try to suppress all knowledge and feeling of anything less than God, and trample it down deep under the cloud of forgetting. You must understand that in this business you are to forget not only all other things than yourself (and their doings-and your own!) but to forget also yourself, and even the things you have done for the sake of God."
...In the Cloud of Unknowing you are also told to "
surrender yourself to God, so that you do not admit even a single selfish thought which is your own," whereas Dionysius the Areopagite instructed us on the way to cultivate as follows:
"
Exercise yourself unceasingly in mystical contemplation; abandon feelings; renounce intellectual activities; reject all that belongs to the perceptible and the intelligible; strip yourself totally of non-being and being and lift yourself as far as you are able to the point of being united in unknowing with him who is beyond all being and all knowledge. For it is by passing beyond everything, yourself included, irresistibly and completely, that you will be exalted in pure ecstasy right up to the dark splendour of the divine Superessence, after having abandoned all, and stripped yourself of everything."..."
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The Cloud emphasises experience above all:
“And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest.”
—The Cloud of Unknowing (14th Century, Anonymous)
Read:
Quote:
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset" class=alt2>The author [of the Cloud] quickly advises that in contemplation, in what he calls "the darkness of the cloud of unknowing, the beginner must not let ideas about God, his wonderful gifts, his kindness or his works distract us from attentiveness to God himself... They have no place here." At first that seems surprising that we should let go of even our noble thoughts and images of God if we are to travel this path. To our 'awake' thinking mind this is a paradox.
To keep oneself focussed when distractions come (including "holy" thoughts), the author of The Cloud suggests centring attention on a short word:
"
Choose a short word. Fix it in your mind so that it will remain there come what may. This word will be your defence in conflict and in peace.... Should some thought go on annoying you, demanding to know what you are doing, answer with this one word alone." (5)
The author of The Cloud constantly advises the beginner to strongly associate with this 'word' your faith in God and his providence and goodness:
"
Let this little word represent to you God in all His fullness and nothing less than the fullness of God. Let nothing except God hold sway in your mind and heart." (6)
This is the experience of those who practice contemplative prayer whether they be saints of ages past or the saints of today who are choosing this path again. The author of The Cloud says:
"
In the contemplative work itself, he does not distinguish between friend and enemy, brother and stranger. I do not mean, however, that he will cease to feel a spontaneous affection toward a few others who are especially close to him. ... The point I am making is that during the work of contemplation everyone is equally dear to him since it is God alone who stirs him to love. He loves all plainly and nakedly for God; and he loves them all as he loves himself." (8)
Indeed, the ideal presented by John the Baptist when he says "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30) is the ideal of contemplative prayer:
"
And so reject the thought and experience of all created things but most especially learn to forget yourself, for all your knowledge and experience depends upon the knowledge and feeling of yourself. All else is easily forgotten in comparison with one's own self. See if experience does not prove me right. Long after you have successfully forgotten every creature and its works, you will find that a naked knowing and feeling of your own being still remains between you and your God. And believe me, you will not be perfect in love until this, too, is destroyed." (9)
Contemplative prayer then according to the author of The Cloud cannot be considered as self-serving or focussed on self. He says unequivocally "do not think what you are but that you are" (10). Indeed this path is surely what the world needs now, for all to reflect on not "what" we are but just "that" we are.
This denial of the self however comes at a cost - detachment.
As time passes in the practice of contemplation, the author of The Cloud tells us our prayer will gather its own momentum and continue day and night beyond conscious control:
"In the midst of all, you will be offering to God continually each day the most precious gift you can make. This work will be at the heart of everything you do, whether active or contemplative and bring deep spiritual strength and nourishment to renew both your body and your spirit." (12)
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