#94. Religion "At Its Best"

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This post now contains all three parts which were originally published separately.

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"There's more to religion than it seems."

I've made that statement many times during my years as a teacher. And in the home-stretch reflections that I described in the previous post (#93) about my nearly five-year-long blog-writing effort, I discovered that what stands out most for me is the inadequacy I feel with regard to sharing my thoughts about that "more."

So in this post I'm going to try say, as well as I can, what I mean by "Religion 'At Its Best'."

The very fact that there is a "more"-- an inner core of wisdom at the depths of Western culture's Judeo-Christian tradition-- is difficult for many of us to realize. It's difficult because it's precisely that "best" that got lost.

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Religion's "best" was replaced by body-soul and matter-spirit dualism-- the basic outlook of patriarchal culture and classical philosophy-- which has dominated western culture and religion for many centuries.

I'm aware that I am more personally attuned than many, apparently, to that kind of depth awareness often called "right brain" or "intuitive" perception. But still I have to say that I'm continually amazed that the very fact that there is a "more" to religion-- more than the static dualism of rational empiricism-- remains for the most part unknown to the general public.

The "more" is still there. That inner core of wisdom is preserved in the rituals, customs, art and music, creeds, feasts and seasons of the Western religious tradition. But it's precisely the significance of such things that rational empiricism can't see because of its position at the bottom rung of the Great Ladder.

We need to move up the ladder. It's only when we make use of our intuitive rationality that we can recognize the "more" of the Judeo-Christian tradition and can enter into an experience of that inner core of wisdom which is our Western culture's religion "at its best."

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I have referred repeatedly in these posts to the four-fold way our minds work-- the fact that we don't just think sequentially and we don't just perceive our existence in terms of its surface details. We can, in fact, be aware of our connections with everything; and we can, in fact, see the whole picture-- the big picture of how the world works and how our lives fit into it.

Even though the Judeo-Christian tradition originally gave the world its evolutionary viewpoint, the dynamic and unitive perspective at the base of Western religion was gradually replaced by the static-dualistic outlook of classical philosophy. For many in our patriarchal culture, the word "religion" still means only that world-rejecting outlook of patriarchy's static dualism.

So if we are to get to the heart of our Western religious tradition, we need to move higher up the ladder; we need to see the world, and ourselves in it, from the dynamic and unitive perspectives.

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Everybody know what "dynamic" means in contrast to "static," but hardly anyone is comfortable with either "unitive" or its opposite, "dualistic."

Nowadays, our world is changing so fast that no one any longer thinks that "there's nothing new under the sun." Indeed, we know now that the world has never not been undergoing great changes. We know from science that over billions of years galaxies, planets and the stars have evolved; that on Earth living matter has emerged from the dust of the stars; and that we ourselves have developed from those earlier life forms.

But it's still a surprise to many to learn that that dynamic (emergent, evolutionary) worldview comes originally from our Western religious tradition, and that we even have a biblical name for the "energy" or "power" of the cosmic process: dynamis in Greek, spiritus in Latin.

Spiritus also means wind, air and life-breath; the holy spiritus we understand to be empowering the evolution of the universe is the same dynamis which gives each of us our life and breath and personal self-awareness.

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This dynamic perspective-- that we are not separate from the matter of the physical cosmos, nor from the Earth's biological life-forms, nor from the holy spiritus which empowers the evolution of the universe-- also helps us to understand what's meant by "unitive."

For most of us, it's an unfamiliar word. As the opposite of "dualistic," "unitive" refers both to our union with the natural world and to our union with the world's creative source.

And while "Big History"-- the big picture of the universe we have from contemporary science-- makes clear that we are indeed part of the natural world, we don't yet have something analogous to "Big History" which we might call "Big Religion." The most explicit contemporary perspectives available about our non-duality with the divine come from the unitive views of the Asian religious traditions.

While the spiritualities of Asia have remained more open than have those of the West to the sense of divine-human unity which goes back to Paleolithic times, in Western culture the unitive view was smothered by the static dualism of patriarchy. So the non-Western religious traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism can help us recover the human-divine aspect of the unitive worldview.

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I've mentioned in several posts the twentieth-century religious thinker and British monk Bede Griffith. He not only makes the point well that science is helping religion recover its "inner core"; he even left England and went to live in India "to find," he said, "the other half of my soul."

Bede's words may sound confusing, but the unitive view is in fact two-fold, and we need to be especially clear here in thinking about it: there is a human-cosmos unity and a human-divine unity. We need both, if we are to recover the non-dual vision of cosmic-human-divine unity at the heart of the Western tradition.

But while help for seeing the cosmic-human view comes from science, and while the divine-human perspective is clearer with the help of Eastern spiritualities, that's not enough. It's the convergence of these two perspectives-- the cosmic-human from science and the divine-human from Asian religions-- that provides the context for us to enter into and to experience the inner core of wisdom at the depths of our own Judeo-Christian tradition.

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You may be thinking, "All that is just the context? What, then, about the content?"

Well, I have three Greek words which, in addition to "evolution," seem to me to be needed to spell out what I'm calling the Judeo-Christian tradition "at its best." They are eschaton, eucharist and ecclesia.

In the previous post I mentioned that if I were sharing these thoughts in an article for an academic journal, the essay would have a title something like "Evolutionary Eschatology and Eucharistic Ecclesiology."

That's quite a mouthful, but those are the words I have to work with! 

"Eschatology" is a deep-level comprehensive view of the purpose of our evolving universe, "Eucharistic" refers to our human response to that understanding, and "Ecclesiology" is concerned with the nature of the community of those who respond.

What holds all these ideas together is, as I see it, the modern understanding of person-- which, remarkably, is honored both in Western secular culture and by Western religion. In what follows, I will use each of these ideas-- eschaton, eucharist, ecclesia and person, all in the context of cosmic, biological and cultural evolution-- to do my best to spell out my understanding of religion at its best.

If you've been feeling that this post has been heavy-going so far, you're right. But you've got through the worst of it. And while the rest is relatively easy, it's long. So if you're reading it at one sitting, this is a good place to take a break.

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ESCHATON. Eschaton is our understanding of the world's end-purpose. 

In the old static context, "the end of the world" meant its annihilation-- "when God will come to judge the world by fire," in the words of the hymn sung at Catholic funerals for a thousand years.

In the dynamic context, we're not talking about the world's "end" in the sense of its annihilation, nor in the sense of the coming of the "Rapture" repeatedly announced by religious fundamentalists. In unitive (non-dualistic) terms, the world's "end" is its purpose: why it exists-- and why, of course, we exist.

If we are to appreciate our Western religious tradition "at its best," we need to understand the end-purpose of the world in terms of the tradition's own dynamic-unitive insights.

I noted back in post #20 that even those who promote the New Cosmology seem to shy away from this aspect of the Western tradition. 

But as I see it, no matter what we may call the divine creative power-- the ultimate, the numinous, the great Mystery-- we have a profound need to understand-- in terms of the Western tradition's own evolutionary and unitive context-- the tradition's insights into the creative source's purpose.

And this is one area where the rational empiricism of science isn't of help. We simply can't see the "end" or "purpose" of anything-- let alone the purpose of everything-- from the bottom rung of the great ladder. 

Our Sensing function's focus on details just isn't good enough. We need to use our mind's Intuitive ability if we are to see the biggest of all Big Pictures: why there is anything, rather than nothing.

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In writing this blog over the last four-and-a-half years I've worked hard to spell out my understanding of modern Western culture's upward movement to this higher rung of the great ladder-- where we can, in fact, see the Big Picture.

I focused on that cultural transition especially in post #80, where I described the mid-20th-century efforts of the "two mavericks"-- depth psychologist C. G. Jung and atomic physicist Wolfgang Pauli-- to accept and express their understanding of our mind's intuitive capacity in the face of several centuries of its neglect and denial by Western science's empirical rationality.

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In the science of cultural anthropology, any social group's response to the basic human need to understand "our place in the vast scheme of things" is called its cosmology. The "New Cosmology" is new precisely because it replaces Western culture's previous static cosmology. And as 

I've mentioned frequently, in that older dualistic religious perspective we were told that our purpose was to escape from the world.

We can now see, however-- thanks to the evolutionary worldview of modern science-- that we do in fact have a place in the evolving cosmos. And it's this insight which allows us to recover the older inner core of wisdom-- that "more"-- that I've been calling the West's religious tradition "at its best."

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I've noted many times that the very idea of evolution comes originally from the Judeo-Christian tradition. And that to this day, the perspective of an on-going emergence of newness-- imaged traditionally in terms of Exodus, Passover and new life arising in Spring-- remains an essential aspect of its inner core of wisdom. When we think in terms of transformation, we can see that it's not an exaggeration to say that evolution is what Western religion is all about.

Christianity sees this transformation process at the heart of the cosmos as a manifestation and embodiment of the divine source. We even have familiar words for this understanding: "epiphany" and "incarnation." But it is precisely the deeper meaning of those terms which got lost when patriarchy's static dualism replaced the earlier dynamic perspective.

In that patriarchal context, the meaning of "incarnation" came to be limited to one time, one place and one person. As its broader meaning was lost over the centuries, that limited understanding came to be taken for granted and, eventually, it was presumed to be the very basis of Western religion.

But as we recover the earlier dynamic-unitive perspectives at the inner core of the tradition, the entire evolutionary process can once again be recognized as the incarnation of the creative source of the cosmos. We can see, in that evolutionary context, that the embodiment of divine creativity is happening always and everywhere-- and that it excludes nothing and no one.

Here are some examples of this understanding, from three profound 20th-century religious thinkers:

Karl Rahner says, "The Mystery is always and everywhere giving itself to us." It is "always and everywhere making itself known to us."

Sergius Bulgakov calls the cosmic process the "actualization of the divine potentialities."

Raimundo Panikkar-- in his demanding but significant language-- names what's being embodied "the cosmo-the-andric unity." The union of the cosmic (cosmos), the divine (theos), and the human (andros) is what's being manifest by the cosmic process.

Rahner was a German Catholic and Bulgakov was Russian Orthodox. Panikkar had a Spanish mother, an Asian Indian father, and he described himself as "Catholic when I'm in Rome, Hindu when I'm in India, Buddhist when I'm in China."

Each of these profound religious thinkers, with their highly varied cultural backgrounds, is expressing-- in the dynamic-unitive perspectives available to us from modern science-- the same inner core of wisdom at the heart of the tradition. And that is "religion at its best."

My whole point here is that the "more" isn't new. Rahner, Bulgakov and Panikkar are saying exactly what the New Testament's Second Epistle of Peter proclaims, for example, when the apostle says that we are called to be "partakers in the divine nature." That "more" is expressed even more dynamically in Paul's letter to the Ephesians where he describes the end-purpose of all things to be "the fullness of God in everything."

It is a great gift that, in our time, thanks to science, we can understand once again this dynamic and unitive understanding of eschaton as the embodiment of the divine-human-cosmic unity, "God all-in-all."

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EUCHARIST. Gratefulness is the normal response to anything we experience as a gift, and clearly this deep comprehension of the eschaton evokes in us a very deep response.

To this day, Jewish tradition preserves this fundamental human response to the dynamic world in words of thanks-giving over bread and wine. The early Christians continued this form of grateful response when they gathered in homes on the first day of the week in remembrance of Jesus; and this tradition, too, is still continued daily throughout the world.

But just as with the dynamic understanding of eschaton, the evolutionary meaning of eucharist was lost when the static-dualistic-- patriarchal-- view replaced the earlier Judeo-Christian perspective. But also as with eschaton, the shift in our day away from the static perspective to a recovery of the older dynamic understanding is happening with regard to eucharist as well.

I wrote about the recovery of the dynamic view of eucharist in two recent posts. In post #91 (Evolution and the Passover Seder), I described how the seder's central act of thanks-giving is an explicit response to the evolutionary worldview which originated in the historical Exodus from Egypt.

And I wrote about the unitive meaning of eucharist-- our cosmo-the-andric union with all things-- in post #92 (Evolution and Holy Communion).

I don't feel the need to repeat those thoughts here. But I do want to note just how different was the original dynamic understanding of the eucharist from its later static meaning. In the same way that eschaton in the dualistic worldview came to mean not the fulfillment but the annihilation of the world, so eucharist in the dualist context came to refer not to an activity by a group of persons, but to an object. A sacred object, surely, but an other-worldly sacred object.

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You may be expecting me to say that a similar process happened with regard to ecclesia, the third of the Greek terms needed for understanding Western religion at its best. You are right, again!

Of those three terms, ecclesia is by far the most difficult to understand from the dynamic-unitive perspective. This is not, however, because the meaning of ecclesia is difficult to understand in itself-- it isn't-- but because patriarchy continues to dominate the (essentially unconscious) perspectives of the Western religious tradition's own self-understanding.

That self-understanding is what the following section is all about. It's challenging material in that it requires time and effort to work through it well, so if you are reading this post in one sitting, you might want to take another break.

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ECCLESIA. We don't have a English equivalent for the Greek word eucharist, but the English equivalent of ecclesia is, of course, "church." 

It comes from an Old English word, kirk, which simply means "assembly" or "gathering"-- just as the Greek ecclesia does.

Probably the best contemporary translation of ecclesia is "community"-- not in the sense of a geographic or genetic group, but in the sense of a gathering of persons who intentionally get together for a specific purpose.

In the New Testament, eucharist was the name for an action, what the early Christians did when they gathered; ecclesia was their name for themselves when they got together to do it.

As the perspectives of static dualism took over, however, "church" lost its meaning as community and eventually acquired the patriarchal meaning it has today: a hierarchical institution or sociological establishment, often top-heavy with authority. And as it's commonly used nowadays, especially by journalists and media people, "the Church" has come to mean only those authorities.

This patriarchal, static and dualistic understanding of ecclesia obviously does not represent our religious tradition at its best.

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But just as with eucharist and eschaton, the modern evolutionary perspective helps us in recovering the original-- dynamic and unitive-- meaning of ecclesia. It does takes some effort, however.

We know from contemporary science-- and specifically from the study of complexity theory-- that the 14-billon-year evolutionary process has been continually characterized by the emergence of new levels of self-organization.

We know that stars can produce chemical elements, that some of those elements can combine to form living cells, and that some cells unite to form the kind of brain and nervous system which is needed for the emergence of our uniquely human self-reflective awareness.

That's a greatly simplified summary of the idea of emergence in the evolutionary process, but I think it's good enough to make fairly clear that the natural next step-- beyond atoms and molecules, life-forms and personal consciousness-- would be those groups and gatherings of persons we call "communities."

It's in this context of evolutionary emergence that we can better understand the ecclesia as a community rather than as a patriarchal and hierarchical institution.

In the Western religious tradition at its best, what characterizes the ecclesia is its self-understanding precisely as a community of those who gather to give thanks. Just as in the evolutionary context we can better understand the meaning eucharist in terms of eschaton, so in that came context we can better understand the meaning of ecclesia in terms of eucharist.

A fancy way to summarize these confusing-sounding thoughts is to say that "as eschatology is evolutionary, so ecclesiology is eucharistic." (That's where my imaginary academic title for this post-- "Evolutionary Eschatology and Eucharistic Ecclesiology"-- comes from.)

But those fancy words aren't helpful. In fact, they get in the way of our entering into the deeper meaning of the insights they are attempting to express.

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For me, the two religious thinkers who are most helpful for an understanding of the meanings of eschaton, eucharist and ecclesia in the context of evolution are Alexander Schmemann and Thomas Berry.

I quoted both of these profound religious thinkers in recent posts: #90 ("Returning" the World...) and #87 (Stardust's Imperative). If you haven't read those posts, I hope you will. Here's a very brief summary of some of their main thoughts.

Both Berry and Schmemann begin with the primary evolutionary insight that, in Berry's words, "persons are a cosmic phenomenon," and that it's this cosmic perspective-- that we are "the evolutionary process come to self-awareness"-- that allows us to see "our proper role in the universe."

Each describes "our place in the vast scheme of things" with quite different words, but with remarkably similar meanings.

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Alexander Schmemann speaks in a more traditional and liturgical language. "Our primary role in the cosmos is to be priest," he says. The "first, the basic definition of humanity, is that a person is a priest." And it is the "only natural reaction of humanity, to whom God gave this blessed and sanctified world, to bless God in return."

Returning the world to God in thanks, says Schmemann, is "our common task." Because we are "the world become conscious of itself," we humans are its "spokespersons." We speak as the world and for the world. In Schmemann's words, "We stand in the center of the world and unify it, in our act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God."

And "by filling the world with this eucharist," he adds, "we transform our life." In a wonderfully Teilhardian sentence in summary of these thoughts he says, "The world was created as the 'matter,' the material of one all-embracing eucharist, and humanity was created as the priest of this cosmic sacrament."

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Thomas Berry's words sound much less traditional, but his meanings are very much the same. Here too, we humans are understood to speak as the world and for the world. It's easy to overlook, but Berry even uses the word "return," just as Schmemann does, in describing our cosmic role. We are "to return the universe to itself and to its numinous origins," he says. And we "return" the world to its source by returning the world to itself.

Berry is especially strong in his emphasis on our need to recognize that "community" is the very goal and purpose of the cosmic process. Eschaton and ecclesia come together in Berry's words when he says, quite explicitly, that "the ultimate community is the whole universe together."

Understood in this way, we can see that ecclesia includes everything: no one and nothing is outside the cosmic process of divine incarnation. 

This-- obviously-- is an understanding of ecclesia utterly unlike the conventional understanding of "church" as an authoritarian patriarchal institution.

And when we do see ecclesia in this way-- as the ultimate community, the whole universe together-- then "church" is simply another way of expressing the meaning of eschaton, as God all-in-all and the fullness of God in everything.

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You may be thinking the meanings of these Greek words are starting to overlap. They are!

Our rational, right-brain, linear Thinking ability just isn't able to produce the words and concepts well enough to express these profound, deeper-than-rational, left-brain intuitions. The religious tradition itself offers an outstanding example of this fact about the limitation of our rational-only minds: since New Testament times, the underlying realities referred to by the words eucharist, ecclesia and eschaton have all been given one same name.

The eschaton as the embodied cosmic community of the fullness of God in everything, excluding nothing... the eucharist as humanity's deepest response of thanks-giving for the evolution of the universe as the manifestation of the divine-comic-unity... the ecclesia as the community gathered around bread and wine in thanks for this divine incarnation of God all-in-all, and for our participation in it-- all of these profound realities are traditionally called the Corpus Christi.

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These are deep thoughts. It's not easy to wrap our minds around them. 

And yet they are in fact what Western religion is all about "at its best."

For me, what holds them all together is the centrality of person. In the convergent perspective-- where eschaton, eucharist and ecclesia are understood within the context of cosmic-biological-cultural evolution-- what stands out most for me is our personal uniqueness.

We are unique from the moment of our conception. The chance that anyone else might have the exact same DNA is said to be one in 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

We not only have our own inner world from the first moment of our existence, however. Our personal self-awareness is continually being modified by every life-experience. And once we reach the stage of self-reflective maturity, we add to it ourselves by our personal relationships and free choices.

And all of this-- the mystery that we are-- becomes our unique contribution to the Corpus Christi.

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So that's the "more" as I see it. In the simplest words I'm able to come up with: Each of us makes a difference with regard to the ultimate end of the world.

In my previous post about reviewing my almost five-year-long blog effort (#93, The Home Stretch), I said that what stood out most for me was the feeling of inadequacy I had with regard to doing a good-enough job in expressing my thoughts about the depths of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

I think I've probably done as well in this present post as I'm going to be able to do. It's my best in sharing my thoughts about religion at its best. My thanks to you for staying with me through all these efforts!

sam@macspeno.com

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Your feedback is welcome.

Special note: In dealing with numerous spam comments, I inadvertently deleted all comments at the end of the posts up until #90, but they are still preserved in the collections of comments found in posts #32, #67 and #83.

Special request: I've completely lost the comments for posts #84 to #89. If you happen to have copied any of them, please send them to me. Thanks.

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#83. New Comments Collected

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ARCHIVE. For a list of all my published posts: 

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This is the third collection of comments I've published since I started this blog in December, 2006. (The two previous collections are posts #32 and #64.)

Because I often get comments on a specific post long after that post has been published, the comments can easily be missed even by regular readers. For a teacher-- this one, at least-- success is measured not by whether readers understand what's being said so much as whether they are spurred on to think more about it and to share their thoughts with others.

My hope for this post is that after you read these comments, you will keep the discussion going by sharing your suggestions and questions about them with readers. You can use either "Click here to send a comment" or click on "Post a Comment" (both at the bottom of this post). Or if you prefer, send your thoughts to my email address. (And do let me know if you want to be "Anonymous.") With my THANKS to all!

sam@macspeno.com

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Re: #66 (Arlene's Questions), Anonymous said: Thank you very, very much for post 66. Thank you for putting together the first complete definition of evolution I’ve ever had the pleasure to ponder. As one of those who calls myself ‘spiritual, not religious’ I’m grateful to know that my study of Jung and newly inspired religious study and practice are not just for me! As I understand it, the ‘stuff’ and images of ritual bridge our conscious and unconscious mind, put us in touch with the archetypes of the universal unconscious within each of us and empower us to be creative. I look forward to reading more on ‘useless’ ritual activities in a future post. “…everything we do can be creative participation in the world's evolution.”

I appreciate reading your personal examples. They tell me that even some of my cooking, finding nearly painless ways to get knots out of my Persians’ long hair, the haikus that I write when I ‘take personal delight’ in something, all of these are creatively participating in the evolution of the universe. My very ordinary life has found new meaning, and I’m grateful; grateful to be part of this “world-transformation awareness.” April 25, 2010

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Re #37 (What's Next) and #38 (Exodus), gloria said: Hi Sam. What food for thought! This is wonderful material to be digesting in this season of Easter/Spring when everything old is new again. Thank you so much. April 30, 2010

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Re #68 (Sam's Tao Te, Intro), Stardust said: All through this post I couldn't wait to get to the Tao Te Ching. But this was just an introduction -- a teaser. Can't wait to see what it's all about. From "babysitters to Emporers" caught my attention as did being a balanced person. I can see how it fits into the New Cosmology from the terms
 anthropos, cosmos, and Theos. Much to look forward to. May 14, 2010

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Re #69 (Sam's Tao Te, 1-27), Kathleen said: This is the kind of blog where each person reading it will relate personally to certain segments of it. I like the phrase, "Mystery behind the Universe". The analogies between physical aspects of the world and the way we live our lives are powerful. I particularly like the one about water being low to the ground, but nourishing all. Throughout there is the constant refrain of not living a pompous life. May 20, 2010

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Re #70 (Sam's Tao Te, 27-54), Anonymous said: Knowing that the power and presence of the Great Mystery are ours when we live in harmony with the way the Universe works is an amazing and comforting concept. We see everywhere the basic balance that is an underlying characteristic of the Universe. How worthwhile to develop that balance within ourselves based on these simple, yet profound "wisdoms" of the Tao Te. May 27, 2010

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Re #72 ("Great Mystery" in the Tao Te), Stardust said: I just finished an unusual novel that I think you would like: The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay. The story takes place mostly in Turkey and you will appreciate the references to Sophia, Sam. It was written in 1956 which makes it interesting to read now, more than 50 years later when we can get a historic perspective on it. June 11, 2010 5:30

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Re #72 ("Great Mystery" in the Tao Te), Anonymous said: This blog actually “explains” God. It is amazing for its Beauty, Truth, and Inspiration. I have bookmarked this page for my daily spiritual reading. Thank you, Sam. June 16, 2010

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Re #73 (Two Important Books), Michael Dowd said: Thanks, Sam! Best,
 Michael. June 26, 2010

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Re #75 (Three Post-modern Movements), Kathleen said: This blog is very enlightening, giving us the broader background of where we are now. It is also challenging -- integrating it all. As I was reading it, I kept thinking of Thomas Berry and how he would like this expansion of the second of his three basic characteristics of everything: "differentiation, subjectivity (interiority), and communion. He and Chardin were significant contributors in the "chain' of our understanding. And new individuals keep emerging to further expand the story, particularly the two you have selected here: Wilber and Michael Dowd. July 21, 2010

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Re #76 (Modernity's Gains), Stardust said: Sam, I don’t feel Wilber’s ideas really advance the telling of the Story. I don’t find them particularly inspiring or enriching – in contrast to so many of your previous blogs. However, I am looking forward to your over-view of Michael Dowd’s book. August 3, 2010

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Following #77 (From Theory to Practice), Sam said: Back in 1978 I was a member of the inaugural group of the Guild for Spiritual Guidance. It is still going strong and currently meets in Ossining, New York, north of NYC. It provides a two-year ecumenical, interfaith certificate program "designed to prepare its members for a ministry of spiritual guidance within the diverse contexts of contemporary life." Its core curriculum strands are the Western Mystical Tradition, Jungian Depth Psychology, and the Vision of Teilhard de Chardin. The 18th two-year program is beginning in January 2011. If you're interested, information about programs, dates, fees and faculty is available at www.spiritualguidance.org. August 22, 2010

Re #76 (From Theory to Practice): Anonymous said: I believe you are right completely. October 8, 2011

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Re #78 ("Thank God for Evolution"), Kathleen said: Michael Dowd’s book fill the niche we have been waiting for. It reinterprets mysteries of the Christian faith in light of the evolutionary story. His explanation of original sin is a masterpiece. He speaks throughout as a pastor, with compassion and understanding of human frailties as part of our deep ancestral heritage. This book is an inspiring and unique insight into what the Great Story means for each of us in our daily lives. August 29, 2010

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Re #78 ("Thank God for Evolution"), Johnson said: Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks. September 13, 2010

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Re #79 (A Dowd Sampler), Michael Dowd said: Thanks, Sam!! September 17, 2010

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Re #80 (Two Mavericks), Todd Laurence said: The letters between Jung and Pauli
were published under title, "atom and archetype" - 1932-1958....
Their conclusions about "acausal 
reality" include the idea that number is the most primal archetype 
of order in the human mind."

As Jung said, in part: It is generally believed that numbers were invented, or thought out by man, and are therefore nothing but concepts of quantities containing nothing that was not previously put into them by the human intellect. But it is equally possible that numbers were found or discovered.. In that case they are not only concepts but something more-autonomous entities which somehow contain more than just quantities. Unlike concepts, they are based not on any conditions - but on the quality of being themselves, on a "so-ness" that cannot be expressed by an intellectual concept. Under these conditions they might easily be endowed with qualities that have still to be discovered.

I must confess that I incline to the view that numbers were as much found as invented, and that in consequence they possess a relative autonomy analogous to that of the archetypes. They would then have in common with the latter, the quality of being pre-existent to consciousness, and hence, on occasion, of conditioning it, rather than being conditioned by it.


Quotes: "man has need of the word, but
in essence number is sacred." Jung.

"our primary mathematical
 intuitions can be arranged before
 we become conscious of them." Pauli

(entelekk-numomathematics) October 4, 2010

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Re #80 (Two Mavericks), Mary Hicks said: Sometimes when I read these posts, I get so moved and excited that I feel close to wetting my pants. Not only because such huge ideas humble me but I know it is likely I will leave the planet without understanding them... 
I feel impatient at my limitations and almost unable to swallow because their hugeness begins to suffocate me, stops me from breathing.
 Having written that, it seems silly to say thanks for this post. No thing in my life right now provides me with this amount of intellectual challenge. Wish to God that she would inspire me to find the way for more individuals on the planet to receive your efforts. Keep going, Sam. I can always change my pants. I am sure there are many of us who don't always respond, but realize their lives are forever changed. Thanks. October 19, 2010

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Re #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"), Mary Conrow Coelho said: Hi Sam: I like your phrase "there is nothing that's not non-dual with the Mystery." Being cumbersome and stated in the negative somehow makes one read it carefully so that it is a strong statement. And it certainly speaks to your deep interest in ritual as you write in the blog. You did a great job putting it all together. I'm glad my cumbersome reflections helped bring forth some valuable integration. October 20, 2010

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Re #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"), Kathleen said: This is, indeed, a profound essay delving deeper yet into the unity of all with the Great Mystery. To speak of everything as part of the "divine incarnation" opens up a whole avenue of enlightenment for Christians who have limited that to Jesus. And "sacraments" and "ritual" make sense as any things or actions that deepen our relationship with the Mystery. With Karl Rahner we have reason to hope. October 24, 2010

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Re #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"), Stardust said: To Mary Hicks... I just have to tell you how much I liked your comment on Sam’s blog. I’m chuckling every time I think of it. I know just what you mean. I feel like I’m absorbing maybe a fourth of what’s being said, but it is the most enriching stuff I’ve ever read. 

The way this one ended really does leave us a little uncertain. My obstacle to a next “life” is that we are earthlings. This is where we came from and where we belong. But, who knows, there could be another whole evolution awaiting us. I do hope! October 25, 2010

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Re Stardust's comments to Mary Hicks (above), Sam said: I think Stardust's reservations about a next life are very healthy. It wouldn't be much of a future if we were to be separated from the Earth, and it wouldn't be any future at all if it were static. Thinking along the lines of a "transfigured cosmos" as the Eastern Church tradition does (rather than the dualistic and static perspectives offered by the Roman tradition) helps a lot. I shared some thoughts about these ideas in posts #20 and #39. October 27, 2010

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Re #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"), Anonymous said: Sam, I read this post on the eve of All Hollows and felt impatient that there wasn't more, that you didn't keep going and link consciousness with the cosmos through specific rituals at 'key' times of the year when the doors are opened for the unitive experience. Then I remembered how stupid of me. You've done that all your life and taught many of us to turn the daily key of ritual to step through to the numinous non-dual experience/presence of the unknowable Unknown, as the Gnostics would say. I will look forward to the next postings with more patience. November 1, 2010

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Re #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"), Anonymous said: This is a thanks for your blog which i've started reading again - read post 81 twice - it felt wonderful, like standing on solid ground rather than the shifting sands i've been experiencing. November 1, 2010

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Re #82 (Moving Up the Ladder), K.A. said: Sam, This is terrific! I love the idea of sensing and feeling, among all of it. November 4, 2010

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Re #82 (Moving Up the Ladder), Allen said: Enjoyed your latest post. It made me wonder whether you are implying or leading up to the very useful conclusion that participating in ritual enhances one's wholeness by potentially activating, like art, the four functions or operations of the psyche. November 8, 2010

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Re Allen's comment on post #82, Sam said: I tried to do something along the lines Allen is suggesting in post #26. That post, "Help From Uncle Louie," is a followup to the three preceding posts about ontogenesis-- a fancy word for the developmental process by which we become who and what the universe is calling us to be. Yes, ritual-- so neglected in our time-- seems to be precisely the age-old means by which we tune in to the cosmic process for what Allen calls "the enhancement of our wholeness." Thanks, Allen! November 9, 2010

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Re #82 (Moving Up the Ladder), Stardust said: Well, I finally got to the blog (82) today. I also wanted to re-read 20 and 39 in reference to my comment on the question of a next life. They were very helpful. Everything I go back to now gets reinterpreted through a new filter. 

That off-hand remark I made about maybe the possibility of a whole different evolution of some kind after death may actually be on the mark. The evolutionary process seems to be in the “DNA” of the universe and the way it works.

I like Bulgakov saying: “Each of us will have the entire transfigured cosmos as our own risen body. It will be held in a way that is personal and unique to each of us.” What a beautiful thought! November 15, 2010

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Re Stardust's comment on #82 (above), Sam said: Stardust is referring to her comments on the previous post, #81 (The Deep Roots of "Person"). Her point is a good one; it expresses well that, as I'd say it, every traditional Western religious teaching has to be now reinterpreted in terms of the New Cosmology. AND that the result is an even deeper, richer and more beautiful understanding than was available earlier. November 15, 2010

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Re #82 (Moving Up the Ladder), Mary Coelho said: With regard to what you write about Jung's four functions, I hadn't thought of them as being part of moving up the ladder, "up" the great chain of being.



You suggest that feeling is related to soul and that intuition can know the unitive life. I had thought of the four functions as being on the same ontological level, so to speak, just different ways of taking in the world. 

Maybe in a nondual world one should not think of ontological levels, although levels need not imply a dualism or loss of unity, of course. So you are suggesting that the intuitive can help restore in the culture recognition of the chain of being.



It is wonderful that you have been excited about being able to articulate a good understanding of why ritual can be so significant. To me it is very exciting that there are rituals that can evoke the unitive experience i.e. enable us to know "that we humans and all reality are non-dual with the Mystery behind the universe." November 23, 2010

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Re Mary Coelho's comment on #82, Sam said: Mary's comment is, as usual, stimulating! When we're talking about the functions of consciousness at the human level I think it makes sense to think of them as ontologically equal; that's the whole point of the Medicine Wheel and Tibetan mandalas: it's a circle, not a ladder. No matter where we start around the wheel, we have to develop all four ways of being conscious if we are to be whole/complete persons. But if we're talking about the evolutionary emergence of consciousness (from reptiles to mammals to primates to humans), then the ladder image works well. My point in "Moving Up the Ladder" is that something similar seems to be happening in Western society as it moves beyond the gross materialistic consciousness brought about by Modernism and the take-over by science. A big topic! November 25, 2010

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Re #82 (Moving Up the Ladder), Anonymous said: I have been fascinated by the ways various cultures have looked at the functions of consciousness, and enriched by these descriptions. I have been waiting to see how ritual would have a role, and now feel some glimmers of understanding of its importance. 


Your words "So where does ritual come in? In terms of the way our minds work, ritual obviously belongs with both Intuition and the unitive perspective. Intuition is what allows us to see the Big Picture of cosmo-the-andric unity; sacred ritual is what allows us to enter into it" are clear and concise-- and yet give me much to ponder!



I look forward to more. November 27, 2010

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