Evolution of Human Consciousness

     “There are four main views of the evolution of consciousness (both human consciousness in general & religious consciousness in particular). Historically, these have usually been considered together, so we can start there.
     The first view sees history as a cyclical affair of recurrent ups and downs. The second is a downhill view that sees things as getting worse and consciousness as devolving. The third sees no change in consciousness, or at least religious consciousness, since prehistoric times. The fourth is an upward view of progressivism that sees culture and consciousness as evolving. 

     The fourth view sees human consciousness as a work in progress. For luminaries such as Hegel, Aurobindo, Teilhard de Chardin, Jean Gebser, and Ken Wilber, human consciousness and religious consciousness have evolved. Fortunately we can focus on the narrower yet still extremely complex area of religious consciousness, and since Ken Wilber has synthesized the ideas of so many thinkers, we can draw especially on his ideas.
     Wilber draws a crucial distinction between the ‘average mode’ of religious consciousness and the ‘leading edge.’ Leading-edge pioneers break through into new states of consciousness and then leave descriptions and instructions whereby others can follow them.
     Wilber’s division of spiritual states into four broad classes of gross, subtle, causal, and nondual is helpful. He suggests that just as these tend to emerge sequentially in today’s contemplatives, so too did they emerge in history, and a survey of historical religious texts supports him. 
     Humankind’s first gross and subtle spiritual experiences are long lost in the dawn of prehistory.
     Reliable signs of the causal appeared in the first few centuries before the Common Era and are associated with, for example, the Upanishads, the Buddha, early Taoists, and later with Jesus. Such was the extraordinary impact of this breakthrough and the sages who made it that this era is known as the Axial age. 
     Signs of the nondual appear a few centuries into the Common Era and are associated with, for example, the appearance of tantra and with names such as Plotinus in Rome, Bodhidharma in China, and Padmasambhava in Tibet.”

       Roger Walsh. “The World of Shamanism. New Views of an Ancient Tradition.” Llewellyn Publications, Woodbury, Minnesota, 2007.

The Problem of Evil - a Zen Perspective

     "In Zen language, 'the great death' stands for the nondual sense of life as one. All things, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, express that oneness. To experience the great death is to see, face to face and for oneself, that everything is real, everything is true, everything is just as it is. ...
     The great death, oneness, enlightenment, total acceptance of reality beyond good and evil - this is a necessary step in Zen or any other profound spiritual practice. But although this may be ultimate, it is only a step. Zen calls it 'the great death' for a good reason. It is a kind of 'death.' It requires a complete letting go, a complete relinquishment, in trust, of everything that one has identified as one's life.
     To be truly alive, as Zen sees it, one has to die - to let go of life. But until we are physically dead we can't remain dead. We have to be alive. We can't remain in the darkness and purity of beyond-good-and-evil. We have to arrive in the daylight of this physical, limited world of distinctions and moral choices. Difficult though it may be, there is no escape and no alternative. And yet we celebrate. Having died the great death, we know what a miracle it is to be alive, and how strange and marvelous it is - even with its difficult and sad challenges, which are themselves miraculous."

       Norman Fischer "The Problem of Evil" Shambhala Sun, May 2015. http://www.lionsroar.com/category/shambhala-sun/


     The 'great death' also appears in other wisdom traditions: 
     “At three o’clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr2004/Feature1.asp

MLPhoto88   www.dpreview.com

Impact of Self-concepts

     “Ordinarily, we assume that our feelings of having a self mean that the self is utterly real: unbreakable, enduring, permanent, and absolute. ‘Really real,’ as Professor Robert Thurman likes to say. 

     But the Buddhist understanding is that, although the self appears to be real, it is only the appearance that is real. The self is not a lasting entity in its own right. It is not separate and distinct from the circumstances that give rise to its appearance.

     Understanding this crucial distinction enables one to enjoy the self’s manifestations without trying to make them more than they really are. 

     The glass can be valued, even treated as precious, while knowing that it is already broken.”

 

       Epstein M. "Psychotherapy without the Self. A Buddhist Perspective." Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 2007. 

Harmony

     "That oneness is the true feeling of who you are. You are not the personality, or any particular aspect of essence. You are the whole thing, including emptiness and space, and you experience everything in complete harmony. When this happens, there is a sense of intimacy, an exquisite, personal intimacy, the feeling ... that you are you, with nothing excluded, nothing rejected. You also feel that you are both a person and a universal existence, that what is personal and what is universal are completely harmonious and can coexist. When your whole organism is in harmony on all its levels, there is no conflict. The expression and radiance of that harmony is love. You become a channel of love, a manifestation of love. You feel completely yourself and not separate from anything. It is possible to be you, completely you and not separate from the other at the same time. This is the action of love. The action of love is to unite, to reveal the connectedness. A loving person doesn't love you - a loving person is love. Love isn't given. It overflows. It's not even your love - it's everyone's love interacting. Love emanates from us like the scent from a rose."                A.H. Almaas

www.wisdomatwork.com

 

www.wisdomatwork.com

Opening, Opening, Forever Opening ...

     We have infinite ways of consciously & subconsciously creating, promoting, protecting & preserving "our" ego: 
     rigidity: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/12/well-beyond-walls-friction.html
     objectification: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/09/402-objectification.html 
     boundaries: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/03/personal-disarmament.html

     We ultimately have to learn by directly experiencing the unsatisfactory nature of ego-clinging, dropping it, and opening up to reality.
     Meditation practice, especially when boosted by long silent retreats & good teachers, intensifies this vital process.

GBMorts   www.dpreview.com

Human Maturation - Reconciling, Unifying, Transcending Perceived Opposites

     “Hara means nothing other than the physical embodiment of the original Life center in man.
     Man is originally endowed and invested with Hara. But when, as a rational being, he loses what is embodied in Hara it becomes his task to regain it. To rediscover the unity concealed in the contradictions through which he perceives life intellectually is the nerve of his existence. As a rational being he feels himself suspended between the opposite poles of heaven and earth, spirit and nature. This means first the dichotomy of unconscious nature and of the mind which urges him to ever-increasing consciousness; and second, the dichotomy of his time-space reality on this earth and the Divine beyond time and space. Man’s whole existence is influenced by the tormenting tension of these opposites and so he is forever in search of a life-form in which this tension will be resolved.
     What is man to do when he feels himself suspended between two opposing poles? He can surrender himself to the one or to the other and so, for a time disavow the contradiction; or he can seek a third way in which it will be resolved. The only right choice is the one which will not endanger the wholeness of his being. Since man in his wholeness must include both poles his salvation lies only in choosing the way which unifies them. For man is destined to manifest anew the unity of life within all the contradictions of his existence. The way to this unity is long. The integration of these two poles – the unconscious, and the conscious life of the mind, as well as between life in space time reality and the Reality beyond space time – constitutes the way to human maturity. Maturity is that condition in which man reaps the fruit of the union he has regained. The realization of this union means that he has found his true vital center. Basis, symbol, and proof of this is the presence of Hara.”

       Durckheim KG. “Hara – The vital center of man.” Inner Traditions, Rochester VT, 1975 (originally published 1956 - hence the masculine terminology).

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

Awaken to the Oneness of Life, the One Body

     "The word Buddha means the Awakened One. Awaken to what? My opinion is that we awaken to the Oneness of Life, the One Body. That is my opinion of enlightenment. This awakening keeps deepening and deepening. What do I mean by deepening? Most of us are enlightened to the Oneness of our own body. I think that my arms, my legs, my face, etc. are all part of One Body. In fact I generally act according to that opinion without thinking about it. It is very natural to do so and, in fact, if I didn’t act that way, people might say I am deluded.

     Kōbō-Daishi (774–835, founder of Shingon Sect) said that we can tell the depth of a person’s enlightenment by how they serve others. If they are focused on themselves, they have awakened to the Oneness of themselves. If they are focused on their family, they have awakened to the Oneness of their family. If they are focused on their nation, they have awakened to the Oneness of their nation, etc., etc. In my opinion, the Dalai Lama has awakened to the Oneness of the Universe.

     The bottom line for me is that the person has realized and is living the realization of the interconnectedness of life (the oneness of life). For me, that’s the awakening. For me, the enlightenment experience is awakening to the interconnectedness of life, that oneness of life; independent of what institution you belong to you can have that realization and you can function that way, and you could be within the Buddhist institutions and not be functioning that way.

     So that’s my standard for making somebody a teacher. I don’t even like the word empowering or transmitting. I like the word recognizing. I recognize somebody as a teacher in my family, the Zen Peacemakers, if I feel that they are living a life that shows they are an exemplar of someone who has awakened to the interconnectedness of life."

       Bernie Glassman    http://zenpeacemakers.org/

     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2012/02/42-practicality-of-heart-mind-approach.html

 

Taylor Shute   Maclean's magazine