Who do you regard as the ultimate authority in your spiritual life? Is it the church, or some other representation of organized religion; a spiritual master (guru); or your own experience?

This tussle between spirituality and organized religion has been going on for centuries in one form or another. Today though, with the growing interest in lesser-known forms of spiritual knowledge, the battle is out in the open and central to mainstream culture.

In the early 20th century, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung claimed that psychotherapists were the new priesthood. They, he thought, were the ones people turned to for help with their deep spiritual and existential problems. Often these troubles occurred in middle-age and manifested as simple depression or anxiety. Many patients didn’t even recognize them as a spiritual dis-ease. Following on from the “God is dead” movement in the mid-19th century, it was clear that the church was in serious decline as a source of comfort to modern, western people.

Since then, the rise in so-called New-Age thinking ~ often confused and too eclectic to have a settled meaning ~ has further chipped away at the authority of churches and other forms of organized religion.

In opinion polls fewer and fewer people claim to be religious. A growing number prefer to call themselves “spiritual”.

Where does this come from? I’ll be looking at various aspects of this major shift in sensibilities in this series of posts. For example, is spiritual a more advanced position to take than merely religious? I believe it is.

In the top tier of all religions there are a group of people who are best described as “mystics”. They form a special group who have experienced the extended mind, or, what I call, Nirvanic experience. Such people “know” rather than believe. Whichever religion they come from, they speak the same language. They also refuse to confuse mysticism with politics and power. They are the true peaceful warriors.

The fact that most westerners now prefer to be known as spiritual rather than religious may reflect a higher level of awareness, hence experience, or the decline of organized religion as a central force in society.

I’ll be looking at these issues in future posts.

I came across this interesting interview with the Dalai Lama, conducted last year by a person unknown. I’ve selected a few quotes, which I think are the most telling :

Q : Since you have been stressing “secular values”, would you not prescribe spiritual practices because they owe allegiance to some tradition?

A : I would recommend what I call “analytical meditation”.

Q : That’s why the Buddha is said to be a great psychologist?

A : Undoubtedly, because he taught the science of the mind.

Q : If the goal of life is happiness, where does Nirvana fit in? [Nirvana doesn’t really figure in the Tibetan version of Buddhism, called Vajrayana ~ the Diamond Way. Ed.]

A : Now you are talking about another level. At the first level, you need to practice basic human values. Then, you can talk of Nirvana, which means permanent cessation of suffering. So we come back to happiness!
When Buddha Sakyamuni experienced mahaparinirvana, his mind ceased and he was freed from the karmic cycle of birth and death. Nagarjuna says clearly that the pure mind has no counterforce, and only those that have a counterforce can cease, like matter. The mind, and space too, have no counterforce and so have no reason to cease. In the case of other afflictive emotions, they might end if they have strong positive counter forces. But in case of the mind, we cannot say that it will come to an end, as it is difficult to find a strong antidote that will hinder its existence, as in the case of space. Here, you could argue by saying that in that case, could we put an end to loving-kindness or compassion because they have strong counter-forces? On investigation, we will realize that kindness and love usually accompany wisdom whereas anger and hatred might seem strong but have no praman (proof/basis). Everything that is good and right is the result of valid perception. Based on this, the more you analyze, the more you will be able to hold on to reality. If it is something wrong, however strong it appears, as you analyze it, its falsehood will be revealed.

Q : Aldous Huxley talked of “perennial philosophy” ~ the common mystical ground of all religions. Do you believe in that?

A : That is difficult to say. At one level, all religious traditions have the same aim ~ to transform the individual into a positive being. At another level, theistic religions do not have the concept of Nirvana. When I reach nirvana, then I will tell everything!

Another of Andrew Cohen’s Quotes of the Week which are sent by email to his mailing list. If you’d like to sign up, click on the link below.

Creative Friction

When individuals experience spiritual inspiration and awaken to the evolutionary impulse, one expression of that awakening is a desire to come together with others who share that same passion. That desire comes from the authentic self, which is the energy and intelligence that created the Universe becoming aware of itself at the level of consciousness. The authentic self thrives on the creative friction of human beings coming together beyond the personal sphere. Usually when individuals come together, what they share is that which is personal. But when the authentic self is the guiding force, the ground of relationship is no longer personal, and it is only on that ground that conscious evolution occurs.

The evolution of consciousness does not occur only through individual meditation, when consciousness contemplates itself in stillness. Consciousness also evolves in the creative friction of human relationship, especially when that engagement is ignited beyond the personal sphere. Just as planets collided for new elements to be born, the creative process moves forward through inspired, egoless engagement at the level of consciousness itself. The friction of that engagement is experienced as ecstasy and heightened attention, and it spontaneously gives rise to greater and more profound awareness. It is a ferocious, ecstatic intensity—a force unleashed, because inherent in it is the overwhelming presence of something that wants to happen.

When we create the right environment, by coming together in authenticity and transparency, new and higher structures will naturally emerge, and a force will come rushing through that cannot be contained. What’s occurring in such a noble gathering is always far greater than any of the individuals present. The energy and intelligence that created the Universe is drawing human beings together for its own purpose. And our personal spiritual aspirations, whether we know it or not, are simply serving that purpose, which is the perpetual evolution of consciousness.

Andrew Cohen
November 2005

Here is an extract from my forthcoming book, Nirvaneans, to be published Q1 2006 :

Awakening to Nirvana is like visiting the Common Room at college. The isolation of our private quarters is left behind and nothing we experience is “ours” in any rational sense. We are just one of the crowd here. And yet, everything is available to us without question; we are already enrolled in the club. When we leave, as we must, we should not imagine we now possess the Common Room. It exists outside our sphere of influence. Our relationship with it can never be personal. The same is true of Nirvana. As the poet Rumi wrote: “Inside the Great Mystery that is, we don’t really own anything.”

All mystics speak the same language and come from the same country. That surprisingly modern sentiment was the product of the French thinker Saint-Martin (1743–1803) the “unknown philosopher”. It is certainly true that Nirvaneans have two traits in common: they rarely write about anything else, and, whatever the age of a text, the same ideas and experiences recur.

What then is a Nirvanic experience? It is a realization of the “ground of being” from which all life and supporting matter is a florescence. Curiously, it is a profoundly reassuring event, setting one’s mind at rest about all manner of existential hang-ups the flesh is heir to. It can come as a “showing” ~ or foretaste ~ or as a settled and established mode of being: Cosmosity.