Sri Anandamayi Ma.
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e the earth and all the creatures that inhabit it from the insensate forces of hate, violence, and destruction that now threaten it."
Lewis Mumford
*
"Friend, hope for the Guest while you are
alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think . . . and think . . . while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time before death.
If you don't break your ropes while you're
alive,
do you think ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will rejoin with the
ecstatic
just because the body is rotten
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now,
in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire."
- Kabir
How many of our tender, innocent questions about Divinity and the Universe have been crushed by religions, utilizing domineering dogma, smug certainty, and lack of awareness of other paths of inquiry?
In this section, I'd like to explore a few conceptions of "the energy we call the Whole or the All in All" from paths and individuals I have explored.
To begin it is important to repeat that, while there is a tendency for our conceptual/discursive mind to use questions about Divinity to do mental acrobatics (and at other times come to plausible conclusions), there are other more effective ways to access the energy and existence of the Whole.
While spiritual practices vary across time and culture, the one commonality they share is a transcendence of the objectifying, thinking mind (without rejecting it) and the leap to an intuitive level of awareness.
Awareness practice (paying attention) over time can move into the Great Awareness some people refer to as God. (That is, unless we are fortunate enough to be a ripe disciple of a Zen master who can shock us over the gap into transcendence by slapping us silly at just the right moment!).
As I mentioned in part 1, I draw a distinction between religion and spirituality. For me, spirituality has to do with a radical transformation of our being, which the Buddha called, "a turning about in the deepest seat of consciousness." It may or may not be associated with religion.
I've mentioned some of the practices I'm most familiar with and in the next essay will be reviewing connections between the latest science and spirituality.
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