Monday, October 31, 2016

The Dissociation of Knowing and Being

I really enjoy the interviews at Buddha at the Gas Pump by many random spiritual/non-dual teachers. But I do take one issue with what I've observed there, and through my exposure to some of the spiritual communities I have engaged with: realizationism.

As I've come to understand it, realizationism is another reductive phenomena that happens with esoteric seekers. They privilege subjective experience at the expense of Truth. But I've always wondered why would the idea of being itself and knowing something be mutually exclusive?

Yes, you can't read your way to God. I was told this once on the subway as an evangelical believer was looking over my shoulder at the metaphysical book I was reading. My response should have been, “but maybe God can write himself to me.” So while I agree that thinking with the ordinary mind can be an obstacle to true nature, it can also be in service of it.

I recall Ken Wilber wrote about this phenomena in Integral Spirituality...
“Notice individuals who have been practicing one path for a decade or more, and you will often see a gradual closing of their minds, a narrowing of their interests, as they go deeper into spiritual state experiences but don't have an integral Framework to complement their plunge into Emptiness, or Ayin, or Godhead, or Holy Spirit. The result is that they become closed off to more and more parts of the world, which can actually lead to a regression to amber [mythic stage of development] or fundamentalism or absolutism. They become both deep mystics and narrow fundamentalists at the same time.”
Deep and narrow isn't always bad. The Sufi ad-Darqāwī said, “like a man who tries to find water by digging a little here and a little there and who will die of thirst; whereas a man who digs deep in one spot, trusting in the Lord and relying on Him, will find water; he will drink and give others to drink.” But I think Ken's point is that God permeates every part of our being, and to privilege any aspect of the self is a house divided against itself

Western Buddhists are often most guilty of taking non-conceptualism too far. Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche agrees and says, 
“Buddhism states that our normal views inhibit us and chain us to the limited condition of samsara, whereas the correct view can lead us to our ultimate spiritual destination. We should not conclude from this—although modern Western Buddhists often do—that meditation is all about getting rid of views, or that all views will hinder us from attaining our spiritual goal. This assumption is based on the legitimate premise that Buddhist teachings emphatically identify the need to develop a nonconceptual wisdom mind in order to attain liberation and enlightenment. However, many people mistakenly think that this implies that we do not need to believe in anything [nobody tells me what to do] and that all forms of conceptuality must be dispensed with right from the beginning. It is only incorrect views that we need to overcome. The correct and noble view is to be cultivated with great diligence.”
So while some Buddhists confuse no concepts with no intellect, I do believe this is also due to the fact the Buddhism is soteriological (a system for liberation). As such the emphasis in western circles is more psycho-spiritual than metaphysical. So most people coming to Buddhism are looking for happiness over Truth. Where we can recover a more complete picture of deeper inquiry is in some Greco-Roman and Christian circles by reintroducing the concept of nous. I'm currently reading A.H. Almaas' terrific book Inner Journey Home where he states, 
“Here, instead of ordinary knowledge obscuring our basic knowledge, the nous uses it to reveal and unfold the infinite potentials of basic knowledge. The essential nous can also operate in conjunction with reason and logic, applied to spiritual experience in all its dimensions and subtlety. The essential nous is one of the natural secrets of the wisdom teachings; it was mentioned and discussed a great deal, but most contemporary investigators miss it for they do not understand it. They cannot understand it because they are subject to the dissociation of knowing and being. We can mention one more thing about the functioning of the nous: it can combine with ordinary thinking to the extent that thinking becomes the flow of essence and its aspects, in a stream that scintillates with insight and understanding. Thinking becomes objective thinking, intentional, truly rational, steady, focused, and to the point. It is the operation of true nature in the process of discerning wisdom.”
I realize (without realizationism) that some serve Divinity better with their hearts and hands than with their minds. We are not all meant to be metaphysicians or theologians. And yet, understanding the context to any path can only enhance it, for it gives us deeper meaning, purpose, and significance to some of the most pertinent questions to life and existence. So let's think about that, along with our no-thinking.