Archive for the ‘higher consciousness’ Category
Frederic H. Hedge on the Inner Transfiguration of Christ
FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE (1805−1890) was a friend of Emerson and one of the original New England Transcendentalists. Of his many writings, his Sermon on the Transfiguration is probably my favorite. One might think that a Transcendentalist like Hedge would see in Christ’s Transfiguration on the Mount a symbol for the human capacity to see the physical world, and especially Nature, in a transfigured way. Such epiphany or theophany experiences in Natural settings is a common theme in Transcendentalist writings. Yet Hedge finds an even more profound interpretation. He sees the Transfiguration as a symbol for those rare movements of special spiritual insight into ourselves. That is, it refers, for him, to transfiguration of inner, not outer vision. Christ becomes manifest, revealed, within ones own mind, heart and soul. These are rare moments of special, clear insight into our own nature, and our relationship with God.
Hedge first notes two prerequisites for these experiences. First, they come only in times of mental repose and tranquility, such as one may experience in intense contemplation. Second, they are more often to be had during seasons of retirement — that is, when we have removed ourselves from the “deafening tumult of social intercourse.”
He then distinguishes three varieties of such experiences in terms of their content.
First, some involve a nearer and clearer manifestation of the basic realities of religion: that God does in fact exist, that our souls are immortal, and that there is a path of moral life, a ‘way of righteousness’ which we ought to pursue.
Second, in some we may receive a “clearer exhibition of our duties, and a more powerful incitement to the faithful discharge of them.” In the light of such experiences, our moral duties no longer seem onerous and burdensome, but easy and pleasant — indeed, the stuff of which our authentic happiness consists.
Third, we may obtain a foretaste of the joy, blessedness and glory that awaits the saved beyond this life.
These experiences, Hedge says, are as fleeting as they are rare, but are necessary to maintain and renew our vigor, and are essential to spiritual and moral progress.
It really is a marvelous sermon, well worth reading.
While we cannot make these experiences happen at will, there are nonetheless things can do to make them more likely occur, such as by regular practice of meditation and contemplation. Perhaps most of all, when such experiences are absent — during desolate times — we should continue to yearn for them “As the deer pants for streams of water” (Ps. 42:1).
Reference
Hedge, Frederic Henry The Transfiguration: A Sermon, Western Messenger, Vol. 5, No. 2, May 1838, pp. 82−88. (pdf version)
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The Soul’s Vast Battle of Kurukshetra
PREVIOUSLY I’ve suggested (Uebersax, 2012, 2017) that a useful framework for understanding the psychological meanings of ancient myths is subpersonality theory (Lester, 2012; Rowan, 1990). Three leading hypotheses of this view are: (1) the human psyche can be meaningfully likened to a city or kingdom with many citizens (a situation which opens up many allegorical possibilities); (2) individual ‘citizens’ of the psyche may take the form of psychological complexes; and (3) there may potentially be a very large number — thousands or millions — of these mental citizens operating. These hypothesis were derived by applying subpersonality theory to interpretation of the myths of the Old Testament (following hermeneutic principles laid down by Philo of Alexandria 2000 years ago), and Plato’s Republic (a work that makes much more sense interpreted as an allegory for the psyche than as a literal manual for civil politics.)
Independent confirmation of these hypotheses is found in a recent commentary on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Kriyananda. Relevant passages are shown below. The Bhaghavad Gita is a section of the much larger work, the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata describes a vast battle on the plains of Kurukshetra between two clans, the Panduvas and the Kauravas. Allegorically, the Panduvas symbolize our virtues, and the Kauravas our vices. Hence the epic falls into the category (and is perhaps the most notable example) of a psychomachia myth, comparable with such Greek myths as the Titanomachy (the battles of the Olympian gods against the Titans) and the Trojan War (as mythologically chronicled in Homer’s Iliad), and with the Old Testament’s various battles and contentions between the Israelites and their enemies.
Swami Kriyananda’s allegorical interpretation of the Mahabharata follows a tradition imparted to him by his teacher, Paramhansa Yogananda (1893−1952), who either inherited or derived it from the teachings of his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar (1855−1936) — who, in turn, was influenced by his teacher, Lahiri Mahayasa (1828−1895). While terms like “complex” are clearly modern, the basic psychological mechanisms described seem firmly planted in the yogic tradition.
Citizens of the Soul
The Bhagavad Gita presents a fascinating picture of human nature. It shows that every individual is a nation unto himself, his “population” consisting of all his qualities, both good and bad. … Over time, the innumerable experiences he encounters in life, and the way he encounters them, may develop in him innumerable “complexes.” In other words, certain aspects of his nature may insist on attack, while other aspects plead, tortoise-like, for a self-protective withdrawal. Still others may mutter helplessly in the background about “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” while still others spread a whispering campaign of malicious gossip to get “the world” to side with them, while another whole group of mental citizens may [plead] … for tolerance, forbearance, amused acceptance, or calm non-attachment. (pp. 47−48)
There may be thousands or even millions of such complexes/citizens:
[O]ur qualities assume the characteristics of individual personalities, as we become steeped in them by a repetition of the acts that involve us in them. Because of habit, they become entrenched as true “citizens” of our own nation of consciousness. … Thousands or millions of “citizens” mill about, each one bent on fulfilling his own desires and ambitions. Sigmund Freud hardly scratched the surface …. Freud saw only the conflict between personal desire and the expectations of society. In reality the case is infinitely more complex. (p. 50)
Ranged against his upwardly directed aspirations are innumerable downward-moving tendencies which he himself created by past wrong actions, and developed into bad habits. … the forces for error are “innumerable,” whereas the forces of righteousness are “few in number.” Countless are the ways one can slip into error, even as the outside of a large circle has room for taking many approaches to the center. Uplifting virtues are few, for they lead into, and are already close to, the center of our being. Hatred can be defined in terms of countless objects capable of being hated, whereas kindness springs from the inner self, and bestows its beneficence impersonally on all. (p. 58)
Personality Integration
That we have all these inner citizens doesn’t per se necessitate constant inner conflict, although in the usual ‘fallen’ human condition that does seem to be the case. We need not, however, suppose that the only resolution to conflict is for our virtues to utterly destroy hosts of opposing tendencies. Rather, the goal should be one of harmonization.
One obvious strategy, then, is to try to transform, convert or sublimate recalcitrant complexes. This is perhaps symbolically represented in Plato’s Cave Allegory, where, after the philosopher rises from the cave of ignorance, he voluntarily returns to try to educate and uplift the prisoners who remain there (Republic 7.519d−520e).
Another strategy is to consciously solicit the responses of multiple subpersonalities before embarking on some course of action:
introspection (Sanjava) is the wisest course to understanding. … if by introspection one canvasses the reactions of his own mental citizens, he will have a clearer understanding of what he ought or ought not to have done and of how he ought to behave in future. (p. 58)
This corresponds well to suggestions made by Rowan (1990) in managing conflicting subpersonalities.
Indispensable in any case — and this appears to be a key message of the Bhagavad Gita — is to withhold a strong ego-identification from any particular complex. It is not really complexes themselves that cause conflict, but only when we mistakenly identify them as who we are.
Further study and application of subpersonality to the interpretation of myths seems warranted. Modern psychologists can learn much about personality integration and self-realization by studying the Indian mythological epics such as the Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, and the Ramayana. Indian myths, Greek myths, the stories of the Old Testament, and even Plato’s Republic can be understood using a common set of hermeneutical principles. They supply multiple maps of a common terrain, the human soul. Their messages — salvation of the soul by means of Wisdom, virtue, holiness and, above all, love of God — are the same.
first draft 27 July 2021
References
Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis. London: Turnstone, 1975.
Swami Kriyananda. The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita Explained by Paramhansa Yogananda. Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2008. ebook audio book
Lester, David. A Multiple Self Theory of the Mind. Comprehensive Psychology, 2012, 1, 5.
Rowan, John. Subpersonalities: The People Inside Us. London, 1990.
Uebersax, John. Psychological Allegorical Interpretation of the Bible. Paso Robles: El Camino Real Books, 2012.
Uebersax, John. Psychopolis: Plato’s Inner Republic and Personality Theory. Satyagraha weblog. 12 January 2017.
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Abraham Maslow: How to Experience the Unitive Life
ABRAHAM MASLOW, in an unpublished paper, outlined many helpful suggestions for how to voluntarily enter into the unitive state of consciousness — otherwise known as Being-cognition or plateau experience. Here are the highlights. To these let me just add one of my own which is to practice ‘easiness.’ In making this post my conscious goal is to do so with this little difficulty as possible. (See 4 below.) For example, I’m not bothering to correct his spelling errors in the last sentence:
The fundamental question today is: how can I live in the Deficiency-realm (as I must) — that is, the workaday world with its pains, fears, ugliness, falsehood, ignorance, sickness, and evil, and yet not forget the Being-realm and Being-values including pure beauty, goodness, and truth. Two excellent books that summarize classical religious, contemplative, and mystical techniques are Pitirim Sorokin’s Techniques of Altruisization and Love and Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy.
The following are my own suggestions.
2. Keep your eye on the ends, not only on the means.
3. Keep to the end-quality of means.
4. Transform means into ends.
8. Cultivate periods of quiet, of meditation, of “getting out of the world,” getting out of your usual locality, immediate concerns, apprehensions and forebodings. Periodically get away from time-and-space concerns, away from clocks, calendars, responsibilities, demands from the world, duties, and other people.
9. Go into the dreamy state. Slip into primary process thinking: poetical, metaphorical, “out of the world.”
10. Be law-abiding in a Taoistic way: in relation to the laws of nature, reality, and human nature. Perceive the universe’s eternal, intrinsic laws. To accept or even love these laws is Taoistic and the essence of a good citizen.
13. Be compassionate with yourself. Be understanding, forgiving, accepting and perhaps even loving about your foibles as reflections of human nature. Enjoy and smile at yourself.
14. Can you smile at your own five-year-old childishness in retrospect, as you can at your own present five-year-old grandchild?
16. Ask yourself: how would this situation look to a child? To the innocent? To an elderly person who is beyond ambition and competition?
17. Try to recover the sense of miraculous about life. For example, a baby is a miracle. Think, for that baby now, “anything could happen” and the “sky is the limit.”
18. Cultivate the sense of infinite possibility. The sense of awe, respect, wonder, admiration. It is possible to experience these emotions in the presence of the “good” person, the saint, and the hero.
19. The process of “getting out of the world” is facilitated by quiet, no noise, no busy-ness, no activity, no distraction, and no responsibility. Outer voices are usually louder than inner voices, and lower voices are ordinarily prepotent over higher voices.
20. To better appreciate your present life-situation, don’t compare yourself with those seemingly luckier than you, but rather, with others less fortunate than you.
21. Engage in deliberate, experimental philanthropy. If you are, at times, no good for yourself (depressed. anxious) at least you can be good for someone else. Offer yourself philanthropically: your time, money, services to help other people, such as children. Work for good causes. Give at least one percent of your income to causes with which you can identify, that help you to feel virtuous.
22. If you find yourself becoming egoistic, puffed up, conceited or arrogant, think of mortality. Or, think of other conceited or arrogant people and see how they look. Do you want to look like that? Do you want to take yourself that seriously? To be that un-humorous?
The Realm of Honesty
4. Never underestimate the power of a single individual. Remember, one candle in a cave lights everything.
Entering the Being-Realm
1. Get out of the Deficiency-world by deliberately going into the Being-realm. Seek out art galleries, libraries, museums, beautiful or grand trees, the mountains or seashore.
2. Contemplate people who are beautiful, lovable, admirable, or respectworthy.
3. Step into “clean air,” onto Mount Olympus. Step into the world of pure philosophy, pure science, pure mathematics.
4. Try narrowed-down absorption or close-up fascination with the small world: for example, the ant hill, insects on the ground. Closely inspect flowers or grasses, grains of sand or earth. Watch intently without interfering.
5. Use the artist’s or photographer’s trick of seeing the object in itself. For instance, frame it and thus cut it away from its surroundings, away from your preconceptions, expectations and theories of how it should look. Enlarge the object. Or, squint at it so you see only general outlines. Or, gaze from unexpected angles, such as upside-down. Look at it as reflected by a mirror. Put it in unexpected backgrounds, unconventional juxtapositions, through unusual color filters. Gaze at it for a very long time. Gaze while free-associating or daydreaming.
6. Be with babies or children for a long period of time. They are closer to the Being-realm. Sometimes, you can experience the Being-realm in the presence of animals like puppies, kittens, monkeys, or apes.
7. Contemplate your life from the historian’s viewpoint—one hundred or thousand years in the future.
8. Contemplate your life from the viewpoint of a non-human species, as it might appear to ants.
10. Contemplate your daily life as though being seen from a great distance, such as from a remote village in Africa or India.
14. Contemplate the situation through the eyes of the great and wise sages: Socrates, Spinoza, or Voltaire.
15. Try addressing yourself, or your talking or writing, not to the people immediately around you, but over their shoulders: to history’s greatest figures: like Beethoven, William James, Emanual Kant, Socrates, or Alexander Whitehead.
Bibliography
Asrani, U. A. The psychology of mysticism. In: John White (ed.), The highest state of consciousness 2nd ed., White Crow, 2012. (Article originially appeared in Main Currents in Modern Thought, 25, 1969, 68–73.)
Gruel, Nicole. The plateau experience: an exploration of its origins, characteristics, and potential. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 47(1), 2015, 44−63.
Huxley, Aldous. The perennial philosophy. London: Chatto & Windus, 1947.
Krippner, Stanley. The plateau experience: A. H. Maslow and others. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 4(2), 1972, 107–120.
Maslow, Abraham H. Toward a psychology of Being. 2nd ed. New York: Van Nostrand, 1968 (1st ed. 1962) .
Maslow, Abraham H. The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Arkana, 1993 (first published Viking, 1971).
Sorokin, Pitirim A. The ways and power of love. Boston: Beacon Press, 1954 (reprinted: Templeton Foundation Press, 2002).
Sorokin, Pitirim A. Forms and techniques of altruistic and spiritual growth: a symposium. Boston: Beacon Press, 1954.
Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism, 12th ed. Ch. 10. The Unitive Life. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1930.
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