Consider exoteric, conventional religion -- religion as conventionally, Wurt-Y understood
vs.
an esoteric or mystical way -------- religion as mystically understood in light WURT-Z and WURT-OMEGA.
We seek to validate religious teaching
(scriptures, beliefs, codes, worship, organizational modes)
by seeing them in service of the spiritual life and
by being able to understand them (through the symbolic, mythic, mystical
method)
with reference to the stages of the Way.
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Mahayana reading
Williams’ reading
Sufi reading
of Buddha’s Way
of Yeshua’s Way
of Islamic Way
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Literal background:
reincarnation;
This life and
Islamic view:
karma; nirvana
next life
this life and
as escape from
(heaven + hell) God in
next (heaven
the wheel
Jesus as savior
+ hell)
Practice of Xty.
Practice of Islam
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The "Flip" to
worlds as WURTs
Mahayana
Williams’
Sufi
(esoteric reading)
reinterpretation
reinterpretation
reinterpretation
Buddhism
Christianity
Islam
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JGS Lake Analogy
WURT-Y
pre-meditative
ego WURT-WORLD
False self
surface of
self: def (3 poisons:
def( 3 P’s = possesions,
def (compulsions,
pond (ripple
(greed, hate,
prestige and power)
likes, dislikes,
awareness)
illusion or
ego-betterment
comparisons, etc. -
clinging, con-
(a type of WURT-Y,
(no freedom,
demning, & identifying
say Y2 )
asleep)
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WURT-Z
able to see the
no explicit parallel
the Witness
(mid-point
dynamics of
somewhat assumed
or mirror self,
of Lake)
Clinging,
in that the ego
capable of "conscious
Condemning,
dynamic is seen
awareness" =
Identifying
by Williams’
WHAT + WURT also
Yeshua
pivot to sensing
God-nature arising
from depth
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WURT-
OMEGA
No-Self --
Ego-Crucifixion
Essential Self
(awareness that
no-where =
+
fana = passing away
all is water,
now-here;
Resurrection to
of small self +
sense of self and
emptiness =
the Light and
baqa + rebirth in
All as ONE)
suchness)
Kingdom
God-consciousness
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Unity Consciousness is Oneness Consciousness;
all distinctions fall away in the ALL.
Yet, paradoxically, we are never more
ourselves -- our unique mirroring of all that is from the part of the whole
which we are.
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The Sufis took Islam from outer observances to the inner kernal. Think of the Five Pillars of Islam:
Shahadah: There is no god except Allah. -------> All is Allah and what appears not to be is Allah in disguise.
Salat -- the 5 times a day prayer ------------------> Pray continually; make life a prayer.
Zakat -- alms-giving -------------------------------------> Give your life away in service and love of Allah.
Fasting (esp. during Ramadan) ---------------------> Let go of all that is ego
Hajj -- one-time pilgrimage to Mecca -------------> Make the "pilgrimage"
to the center of your being
-- sacred psychology; stages of spiritual growth
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Conventional Religious View
compared to
View of the Sufis
exoteric understanding
esoteric understanding of creed,
of creed, code, cult, community
code, cult, community & Life itself
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1. Doctrinal teaching seen as
1. All teaching seen as referring to
descriptive; as yielding factual
and validated in one’s spiritual
information of a new kind
journey -- prescriptive for
the inner life; for transformation
2. Understanding is literal --as if
2. Teachings seen as symbolic
facts + superfacts about God,
pointing to a mystery we can
afterlife, heaven, hell, etc.
experience here and now.
3. Motivation tends to be reward-punishment;
3. "Heaven" and "Hell" are here
do good here so as to merit heaven later.
and now as we generate com-
passion or anger/ cruelty. Mahayana
insight. Story of monk and samurai.
Note: the Sufis do speak of the visible and the invisible world, yet these
two are co-present here and now. In Jesus’ words: "Those who have eyes
to see, let them see." In the medieval West, St. Bonaventure
distinguished the eye of the flesh, the eye of the mind and
the eye of the heart.
4. The religious quest seen as going
4. The spiritual journey seen as
from this world to the next.
deepening our awareness of
Reality and uniting with Love
5. The goal: to get to Heaven after death
5. Goal: At-One-ment with the Great
Mystery, the Ever- Present Origin,
in this life
6. Tendency to be exclusive; our
6. Ability to be inclusive, to see the
creed, code, cult and community organization
spiritual paths that lie beneath
as THE WAY.
C,C,C, C & find them converging.
7. One can be religious without undergoing
7. One needs to be transformed in
transformation of consciousness -- i.e.
consciousness in order to understand
in ordinary consciousness.
and live the spiritual life.
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There is a Sufi teaching story:
We journey from the City (where people are asleep) to its neighborhood
(where people feel remorse but are unable to summons much voluntary awarness)
to the Village of Sharing (where conventional religion can be lived in
a morally whole way).
However, there is further to go -- to awaken the witness self of conscious
awareness,
to clease the mirror so that we see our compulsive habits with compassion
-- neither repressing nor acting them out.
So we consciously enter the Work -- as Pretenders and Warriors. As the
mirror clears, the heart opens more and more
and we see how to face our fears and deepen our love.
As love comes to the fore, be see its phases from eros through philia to
agape.
We see that we are loved and can love ourself and others in and from that
great, God-like love.
Surrender to what is truly real becomes loving service, joyful gratitude,
and tranquil presence.
We become People of Remembrance in all we do.
For this story in greater detail, see Kabir
Edmund Helminski, Living Presence
(New York: Jeremy P. Tacher/Perigee Books, 1992), pp. 1-5.
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In Christian terms, there is
the Purgative aspect of the way -- This appears as a purifying,
deconditioning process, a way of letting go
of all that prevents us from seeing God in all things.
the Illuminative aspect (like prajna-karuna) -- Here we find a new
sense of what is real -- e.g., insight in the path of love.
As we move with conscious awareness from eros to philia to agape, we see
more clearly what is real.
the Unitive aspect -- This appears when we are conscous that God
is the eye by which the servant sees and the ear by
which she or he hears. Here there is a realization that all is at root
ONE.
I would love to kiss you.
Christ could be born
The price of kissing is your life.
a thousand times in Galilee --
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
but all in vain
What a bargain, let’s buy it.
until He is born in me.
Rumi
Angelus Silesius
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