The reading of Ewert Cousins' "Global Spirituality" turned my awareness to the four senses of understanding that can and do occur when reading the writings and teachings of any sacred path. There is the literal sense, in which one takes the words at face value and does not attempt to go to deeper meaning. The eye scans a particular writing and it says what it says and that's that. "Don't bother my mind with further comprehension." Beyond that is the moral meaning, in which one takes the words to heart and attempts to live by them. Third is opening to the understanding of the writings as parable or allegory, as pointing to a deeper and more cosmic story. Fourth is the anagogic or transcendental experiencing of the words and writings as union with the Divine, with our Source.
For example, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The literalist says yeah, yeah, sure, of course and moves on, having successfully tefloned the words. The moralist looks to apply the words in the human interactions of daily life. The visionary senses, sees that all of life, human and nonhuman, physical and beyond, is neighbor, that all is interconnection and interconnecting, and love extends within and beyond all realms. The mystic drops away all distinction, all separation: the words transport beyond the beyond.
The scriptures of the world are called sacred because they have the power to transport, transform. But they won't do so unless one shifts gears from first, through second, into third, and then to overdrive.
For example, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The literalist says yeah, yeah, sure, of course and moves on, having successfully tefloned the words. The moralist looks to apply the words in the human interactions of daily life. The visionary senses, sees that all of life, human and nonhuman, physical and beyond, is neighbor, that all is interconnection and interconnecting, and love extends within and beyond all realms. The mystic drops away all distinction, all separation: the words transport beyond the beyond.
The scriptures of the world are called sacred because they have the power to transport, transform. But they won't do so unless one shifts gears from first, through second, into third, and then to overdrive.
It's all very simple, but the mind wants a complicated puzzle to solve and digest. We know that all life pretty much came from the same ancestor since we are all based on DNA. So, science is concurring with the mystic here. We are all the same and we are all really one Consciousness in different bodies - the Consciousness of God, if you will. Love your neighbor as yourself points to this. You are me and I am you - I AM you, I AM me, I AM the living God, the biosphere. But, people are lost in thoughts and beliefs that we are all separate and alone dependent upon the whims of an angry old Man deity, or they don't believe in the angry old deity, or any deity for that matter, and they miss who they truly are even though they are closer to the truth. And, then, one can know all this, yet not FEEL it.
ReplyDeleteThoughtful. Thanks George and JB !!
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