The experience of Ultimate Reality is ultimately indescribable, ineffable, and irreducibly mysterious. But the theory of spiritual experience is different entirely. Theory translates immediate experience into ideas that can help to orient our mind towards Ultimate Reality. And on the other hand, our theories can impoverish our ability to be receptive to spiritual truths.

Perhaps the most central concept underlying any spiritual worldview is that of the nature of Ultimate Reality itself, and how it is related to the manifest reality. As students of religious thought are well aware, there are three major theories: transcendent (theistic), holding that Ultimate Reality is wholly separate from the world; immanent (panthestic), holding that Ultimate Reality is completely identified with the world; and panentheistic, holding that the world is “in” the Ultimate Reality, and that Ultimate Reality is both immanent and transcendent.

The varieties of religious thought can be categorized according to this threefold distinction. Christianity is usually presented as a theistic (transcendent) religion. Hinduism is polytheistic (transcendent). Paganism is usually said to be pantheistic. Buddhism is usually identified as transcendent (the world is illusion, and Reality is wholly Other). Atheism is a sort of ireverent or indifferent pantheism.

However, these simple stereotypes betray the complexity and richness of spiritual views. A panentheistic thread of one variety or another runs through many of the world’s great religions and even some schools of secular philosophy.

In a series of posts on this Weblog, I’ll argue the merits of the panentheistic philosophy, and its superiority over theistic, polytheistic, atheistic, pantheistic theories of reality. Closely related to this argument, I will contend that a panentheistic worldview is the most Integral way of conceiving of Ultimate World. the essence of these arguments is my contention that panentheism is the most accurate way of describing the nature of religious experience and the most useful way of orienting our intellect towards direct religious experience.

As a Christian, I am interested not only in panentheism in general, but Christian panentheism in particular. There are many ways of conceiving the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but the most intriguing are concepts of Trinity that are in keeping with panentheism. The traditional notion of “one God, three persons” can be very misleading if the religionist takes the notion of “person” too literally. The more sophisticated view is that the Trinity describes the relationship between the manifest world (Many) and the spiritual world (One).

A highly insightful and wide-ranging discussion of the doctrine of Trinity in relationship to the One and the Many can be found in a recently published dialogue between Brother David Steindl-Rast, a practicing Benedictine monk, and Ken Wilber, the psychological theorist. In “Integral Christianity: Theory and Practice. Part 1. The Relationship of the One and the Many. Brother David Steindl-Rast” , these two thinkers meditate on the Father of Ultimate Mystery, the Christ as the Kosmic Christ, and the Holy Spirit as the orientation of the immanent world towards God. Ken Wilber:

Discovering the One is, in a sense, the first step. But then the relation of the One to the entire manifest world, the whole world of relationships to the world and all manifest world … both One and Many are integral to a full understanding of the world.

I am most impressed by Brother Steindl-Rast’s point that the Trinitarian understanding of God is most clearly distinguished from non-Trinitarian orientations by the importance it places on gratitude. Purely immanentist philosophies have no role for gratitude, because there is no Other to which the believer is related. But transcendent philosophies also have no role for gratitude, because Creation itself is viewed as empty of God, and therefore of little importance (and ultimately seen as obstacles to be overcome). But the Trinitarian view says that the appropriate attitude of the Many towards the One — and the fruit of spiritual practice — is that of gratitude (in other words, praise or worship).

Technorati Tags: atheism, Christianity, gratitude, panentheism, pantheism, praise, theism, Trinity, worship

“Snakes represent the very essence of transformation, birth, death, and rebirth. It’s the serpent of Kundalini that rises up the spine…”

Technorati Tags: Hindu, Kundalini, snakes

“Roger, I’m coming!!! …Roger, run!!! Roger, no. Roger, I brought you here. Roger, I betrayed you. Roger, come back!!!”

Technorati Tags: fantasy, Golden Compass, Pullman

I know too much about unusual, prolonged itching sensations that don’t respond to seemingly exhaustive medical treatment. I’ve had itching take control of my life to the point of hopelessness, despair, and suicidal thoughts. That’s why upon discovering this article my eyes practically bulged out of my skull and my eyes traced the lines on the page as fast as lightning.

I’ve experienced a few pain sensations in my life that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy (acute pancreatitis probably the worst), but itching is not pain. Itching can be worse than pain, far worse, and far less susceptible to treatment. The experience of being “itch free” — which happened for me as recently as nine or ten months ago — is the greatest feeling in the world. Here’s another person’s experience with itching (and hers makes my problem seem like a walk in the park) …

It was still shocking to M. how much a few wrong turns could change your life. She had graduated from Boston College with a degree in psychology, married at twenty-five, and had two children, a son and a daughter. She and her family settled in a town on Massachusetts’ southern shore. She worked for thirteen years in health care, becoming the director of a residence program for men who’d suffered severe head injuries. But she and her husband began fighting. There were betrayals. By the time she was thirty-two, her marriage had disintegrated. In the divorce, she lost possession of their home, and, amid her financial and psychological struggles, she saw that she was losing her children, too. Within a few years, she was drinking. She began dating someone, and they drank together. After a while, he brought some drugs home, and she tried them. The drugs got harder. Eventually, they were doing heroin, which turned out to be readily available from a street dealer a block away from her apartment.

One day, she went to see a doctor because she wasn’t feeling well, and learned that she had contracted H.I.V. from a contaminated needle. She had to leave her job. She lost visiting rights with her children. And she developed complications from the H.I.V., including shingles, which caused painful, blistering sores across her scalp and forehead. With treatment, though, her H.I.V. was brought under control. At thirty-six, she entered rehab, dropped the boyfriend, and kicked the drugs. She had two good, quiet years in which she began rebuilding her life. Then she got the itch.

It was right after a shingles episode. The blisters and the pain responded, as they usually did, to acyclovir, an antiviral medication. But this time the area of the scalp that was involved became numb, and the pain was replaced by a constant, relentless itch. She felt it mainly on the right side of her head. It crawled along her scalp, and no matter how much she scratched it would not go away. “I felt like my inner self, like my brain itself, was itching,” she says. And it took over her life just as she was starting to get it back.

There’s much more to say about this article, but I’ll have to return to the topic another time. Meanwhile, read the whole thing here. And blessings to Andrew Sullivan for the link.

Technorati Tags: brain, consciousness, itching, pain, perception

“Stop going and advising people without asking (that’s what the Bible says). Give only when asked. We cannot bend the world. When the world is not ready to receive your ideas, don’t force them.” — Swami Satchidananda

Technorati Tags: change, integral, Swami Satchidananda, yoga

Hat tip to GetReligion.

Technorati Tags: atheism, bald

The media frequently discusses all the controversy and potential schism in the Episcopal Church because of its gay-inclusive stance (the election of Gene Robinson as bishop and so forth), so you would think that this is a body in turmoil, at war with itself. But in fact, the Episcopal Church may be gaining a competitive advantage in the Protestant church “marketplace”. More people than ever are aware of the Church and know that it is an open and welcoming community, and one not afraid to take bold progressive stances even at great cost. Father Jake notices this too, and writes in “Positive Fallout From Anglican Crisis”:

In this neck of the woods, when in collar, most folks assume I’m Roman Catholic. When they find out I’m an Episcopal priest, not only do more seem to know what such a creature is than in the past, they are curious to know more about us. Within the congregation, I can never recalled talking so much about the Anglican Communion in response to questions in all of my 18 years as an ordained person.

I know this much for a fact. If it were not because of the Episcopal Church’s courageous stand on homosexuality, then it would be one member fewer. The Church has won over this believer.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Episcopal, Father Jake, homosexuality

Eugene Robinson precisely summarizes my ambivalence towards the Supreme Court’s ruling on handgun rights. Here’s how his Washington Post op-ed concludes:

I believe the Constitution is a living document that has to be seen in light of the times. I believe the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, was right to infer an implicit right to privacy, even though no such thing is spelled out. I think the idea that the Founders’ “original intent” should govern every interpretation of the Constitution is loony — as if men who wrote with quill pens could somehow devise a blueprint for regulating the Internet.

But I also believe that if the Constitution says yes, you can’t just blithely pretend it says no. Yesterday’s decision appears to leave room for laws that place some restrictions on gun ownership but still observe the Second Amendment’s guarantee. If not, then the way to fix the Constitution is to amend it — not ignore it.

If I were writing the US Constitution today, I would not include a blanket individual right to own any gun of one’s own choosing. I might even want to ban guns, for the simple reason that many fewer people would die violent deaths. But I’m not writing the Constitution today, and what the Court has now said seems a fair and reasonable interpretation of the Constitution, even one that might plausibly be read as an advance on civil liberties.

Technorati Tags: law, Robinson, Supreme Court

“Wherever you live there’s beauty, beauty that resonates with that particular part of the world … and it can be the smallest, simplest things … tasting a blackberry or seeing a hummingbird. The smallest things can bring you to the sense of awakening to the moment into your own essence and brings a stillness into the moment where you realize that this moment in itself is full and complete…” — Brian Piergrossi

Technorati Tags: awakening, beauty, nature, Piergrossi, Tolle

As my readers are aware, I’ve completely redone my Web presence this month, merging my previously separate home page, the Until blog, and the Whole Writing blog. Some of this work is still in progress, including an update to my blogrolls (links to other blogs and frequently updated news and opinion sites). My lists contain links that I like to monitor. I read my favorites every day. I try to check in on the others once or twice a week.

I would love to have your help in suggesting new additions to the blogrolls for my next update in July. The blogs don’t all have to be “integrally informed”, and opinions range from fundamentalist to new age, conservative to progressive, friend and foe. Why don’t you suggest a link or two in the comments of this thread or by dropping me a line? By all means, feel free to nominate your own site if I’ve missed it. (And if you have a site and would rather that I linked to a different URL, please give me the update.)

Here are the lists as they currently stand:

Buddhist

• Buddhist Geeks
• Hokai
• Integral Options

Christian

• Crunchy Con
• Daily Episcopalian
• Father Jake
• GetReligion
• Hugo Schwyzer
• Indistinct Union
• Monastic Mumblings
• The Interior Life
• The Lead

Gay

• Best Gay Blogs
• Bloghungry
• Boi from Troy
• Gay Spirituality
• Greta Christina
• Independent Gay Forum
• Manhattan Offender
• Pam’s House Blend
• Petrelis Files
• Scott-o-Rama
• Soup Cans

Jewish

• Tikkun Ger

News

• AMERICAblog
• Andrew Sullivan
• BeliefNet
• CNN
• Crunchy Con
• Five Thirty Eight
• GetReligion
• Glen Greenwald
• Glenn Greenwald
• Huffington Post
• Marc Ambinder
• Matthew Yglesias
• MSNBC
• New York Times
• Political Animal
• Seattle Times
• Slate
• Slog (Dan Savage et al)
• Spiked
• Talking Points Memo
• The Corner
• The Onion
• The Revealer

Sex

• ErosBlog: The Sex Blog
• Slog (Dan Savage et al)

Spirit

• Act Awake
• Andrew Cohen
• Breeze Debris
• Bruce Alderman
• C4Chaos
• Craig Photography
• Daily Dickenson
• Durwin Foster
• For the Turnstiles
• Frozen Truth
• Gary Stamper
• Gay Spirituality
• Hokai
• Holons
• Illumined Views
• Indistinct Union
• Integral Awakening
• Integral Options
• Integral Practice
• Integral Transformation
• Julian Walker
• Ken Wilber
• Lucid Nutrition
• Mystery of Existence
• Mystic Saint
• NPR: My Cancer
• Open Integral
• Republic of T.
• Robb Smith
• Ross Douthat
• Stand Firm
• Steve Pavlina
• The Bilerico Project
• The Woodshed
• TimBomb
• Undercover Transsexual
• Wilber Watch
• Zoosphere

Technorati Tags: blogs, Spirit