People/paulstange/gnosis.html
< People
The Collapse of Lineage and Availability of Gnosis
Paul Stange
Charles Strong Trust, AASR, Adelaide, 1991.
I am honoured by the opportunity to address this audience, as I value my collegial contacts through the Australian Association for the Study of Religions highly. I am particularly pleased to be speaking under the auspices of the Charles Strong Trust, as its objective, to facilitate Australian understanding of non-Christian religions, converges with the purposes of my teaching and writing on Asian religions. As the playful obscurity of my title suggests, here I will be addressing wideranging issues in a speculative fashion rather than sticking to the safer ground of case studies from the Javanese context of my primary research. In extending beyond technical specialisation I aim to prioritise stimulus, provocation and debate; these reflections are thus offered as an experiment in conceptualising issues rather than as a tight thesis to defend.
The kaleidoscope of spiritual practices in the contemporary context opens innumerable issues. In this exploration my focus is on change, on the extent to which the characteristics of our globalising era influence the nature of specifically mystical practices. At the most general level exploration of mystical practices may instruct us fundamentally about the nature of culture; not only about current spirituality as though that is our "object". Because mystical practices systematically engage the interior domains of consciousness they are a special window to the wider world. Culture as such presents a different face through meditation than through everyday social discourse. It is not only the formal structures or styles of culture that are reconfigured in our context, but even the very nature of the relationship between spiritual consciousness* * cultural expressions and social practices. Historical change is not just a matter of shifting surfaces. The dialectics of culture changes through time with new conditions and those changes are made evident in a unique way through the mystical.
It is worth briefly explaining my use of the key words in the title. "Gnosis" is associated in the Christian context with the "heresies" of Valentinus and other
4
mystical syncrctists in the first centuries of the Christian era. "Gnosticism", a term for a family of cults and beliefs rather than just one school of thought, constituted a political problem for the Church founders, as recent work such as Elaine Pagels’ Gnostic Gospels (1980) confirms. As the orthodox canon and doctrines were becoming enshrined by the Church it was clearly particularly difficult to encorporate modes of spirituality which prioritised individual access to ultimate Truth through direct intuitive knowledge. It is not necessary to linger on the nuances or context of these early heresies, nor am I equipped to do so. The key in this context is that my gloss of the term "gnosis" is that it refers essentially to the form of knowledge, generally read as spiritual, intuitive and direct, which arises from and engages the whole body. As mystical knowledge it is thus not accessible through logic, intellect or text on their own, but can only be registered through what is sometime termed the "eye of the heart".
Understood in these terms gnosis has never been exclusively the possession of heretical syncretists, though by its nature it provides a basis to challenge any orthodoxy. Such knowledge, framed as above, was cherished by the desert fathers (Bourgeault 1989), passed through the lineages of the medieval orders and embodied in the lives of saints as well as in the teachings of later heretics such as Meister Eckhart In most traditional contexts emphasis has been placed on the lineages of transmission through which mystical knowledge is recognised, from the orthodox perspective "authenticated", across generations. Such lineages exist in all religions: as in the dharma transmission of Zen Buddhism (Keizan 1990) or the silsilah of the tareqah, the brotherhoods, in Sufi Islam (Trimingham 1971).
Students of the "perennial philosophy", such as Schuoun, Guenon and Pallis (see Needleman 1974) hold that in all classical and medieval civilizations esoteric spiritual knowledge was housed within the sacred architecture of "Tradition". From their vantage point the inner meaning of outward political, literary, artistic, and religious life, lay in housing the channels through which ultimate Truth might be known. Transmissions through such lineages is still maintained in many quarters and followers within specific traditions will argue that their lineages remain active. However the social structures which framed those lineages, the monastic, artistic and political systems, have unquestionably been disintegrating with the closure of the globe and through the impact of the technological revolution in recent centuries. If esoteric lineages were once centrally positioned within culture, as a highly valued core, the gnosis at their heart is now generally either marginal or inconceivable.
At the moment, in our context of relatively extreme materialistic utilitarianism, mysticism appears to be out of fashion after having been briefly in vogue. Mystical spirituality is pronounced dead within the dominant strands of modern
5
and postmodernist philosophy and in the latter the "vertical" dimensions of spirituality are essentially inconceivable. But surface appearances are not always reliable. Many attitudes and perspectives which seemed extreme in the sixties and seventies are now part of the tapestry of our world, contributing to general senses of cultural value. Emphasis on healthy food and the environment seemed nonsense to most people several decades ago, but now move into mainstream consciousness. Thus, to foreshadow the conclusions I want to amplify, we may consider the paradoxical suggestion that the "death of God" and "end of religion", as this process is phrased in theological contexts, may be a fulfillment; that precisely as the vehicle dissolve its purpose is complete.
Exactly this sort of "self-cancelling" mechanism certainly characterises the application of mystical techniques, including strategies of meditation along with religious ritual. This self-cancelling mechanism is clearly applicable at the microcosmic level of individual conscious progression, but may also work at the macrocosmic level of species consciousness. If so this would be an inverse cultural parallel to the biological axiom that ontogeny recapitulates phytogeny. In the spiritual configuration within the classical traditions a complex harmonics linked the inner psychic world of individual seekers to the dense symbolism of the quest and both with the social and political order. This classical configuration existed across the lines of major civilizations and everywhere built on recognition of man as microcosm (Wayman 1982). That system of understanding provides a code essential to interpretation of how gnosis has been transmitted within the classical paths; it also suggests a bridge to grasping the significance of contemporary millenarian spirituality.
Transformations in Javanese spirituality
The conceptualisation underlying this essay arose through exposure to Javanese theories, especially those of the Sumarah movement, so it is worth outlining key features of spiritual evolution in that context The kebatinan movements are Javanist mystical movements which claim connection to toe spiritual consciousness at toe root of their ethnic tradition (Mulder 1978). Variants of modernism have attempted since early in tins century to define religion by excluding its mystical dimension and the contemporary sects are a counterpoint to such flattened and one-dimensional vision. In the period since toe national revolution of 1945 a wide range of movements have testified to toe persistence of quest for direct awareness of a mystically conceivedTnith. Witoin traditional culture mysticism had clearly interlocked with political power, court ritual, the arts, and social etiquette (Moertono 1968 & Anderson 1972), but modern
6
movements have challenged that status and now the spiritual domain appears distinct. Because it competes with rather than complementing the leading social and political forces it has become a subject of debate and mystical expression is thus pressed into distinct sectarian structures and even into engagement with the new bureaucracy (Stange 1986).
In Java a series of transformations affect the forms through which mysticism is expressed. Within ancestral tradition at the village level religiosity was essentially direct Although only specialists, ancestors of today’s dukun, probed it fully, the magical dimension of reality was present for all and no separate sense of "mysticism" is evident Of the Javanese terms referring to mystical spirituality the most throroughly indigenous would be kawruh, or wisdom. During the Indie period cult organisations, focusing on spiritual teachers and parallelling the pattern of Indie courts, made spiritual quest more elaborate. The model of paguroH?of gum centred and hermitage linked practice, remains as an underlayer of kebatinaru With Islam the tariqah model of Sufi brotherhoods reformed mysticism into one, sometimes marginal but usually still central strand of the religious scene (Woodward 1989). If in Indie Majapahit all forms of practice touched the mystical, with Islamic Mataram doctrinal orthodoxy crystallised, mysticism appeared not just as a dimension within, but as a separate strand of religious experience.
More recently modem forms result in sectarian structures and kebatinan has been pressured to distinguish itself from bothkejawen and religion. From within the sects there remains certainty that mysticism is fundamental to all spheres of life, even when denied and bracketed apart Nevertheless political circumstances, reflecting the constellation of other powers in the environment, work to distinguish mysticism from traditional magic and doctrinal religion. Outer pressures converge remarkably with inner process and this is reflected in practice by increasing emphasis on consciousness as such, at least in formal articulations of theory. Magical and millennial impulses remain powerful in local cultpracdces, but there has been a change of gestalt. Within tradition rank, power, and die occult appeared integrally bound to spiritual realisation. Democratising modernism deemphasises status, patronage and dependence on guru. Practices have been moving outof the cultural web which bound them to the mythology of the wayang drama and the linguistic etiquette of the courts.
If tradition made mystical gnosis accessible to those within it, now gnosis is increasingly independent of tradition and available to even those outside it Javanese mysticism is no longer so emphatically Javanese; it is accessible increasingly to non-natives without enculturation into Javanese language and symbolism to enter the practice. Almost every one of the leading contemporary sects, certainly including Sumarah, Subud, Pangestu and Sapto Datmo,
7
emphasise that their practices represent what would, in Christian idiom, be a "new dispensation". They have all phrased this as a new wahyu, a term meaning "revelation”, which they sidestep in public to avoid offense to orthodox Muslims. They positively deny lineages, such as those which could link some to the Theosophical Society or to Naqsahbandi Sufism, stressing that they arise direct from God and come as a universal, rather than culture-bound, practice.
Conversely many of the same mystics nevertheless continue to feel that they represent the "heart of the nation", as guardians of its spiritual inner purpose, and for them achievement of true national identity thus depends on realisation of roots (Stange 1989). As they have seen it national process parallels that of individuals. Just as individuals realise themselves in mystical terms only by introspection, by an opening up of inner structures which appear first as ego; the national movement toward its own essence has compelled them toward an unravelling of the structures resulting from historical experience. At either level the process appears to emphasise uniqueness. Individual mystics appear selfish to outsiders, the nation appears retrograde in exploring earlier cultural forms through neo-traditionalism. In both cases, as in anything to do with mysticism, the inner meaning of the process is only clear through practice and experience. At both levels effort is directed beyond form and toward the universal - the mystical framework makes dear that that is only reached when inner and underlying structures are both activated and transmuted.
Transmission within sacred ’traditions’
Tibet is a fine counterpoint to Java, it retained characteristics analogous to those of Majapahit until much more recently. In fact they were historically linked through Tantrism, specifically through the teachings of Atisa, originally of Nalanda, who studied at Srivijaya in Sumatra before becoming one of the, founders of Tibetan Buddhism (Chattopadhyaya 1967 pp 84-95). In both-cultures Tantrism combined with ancestral magic, called "Bon" in Tibet, and mystidsm appeared, in the terms of most popular representations, to be seeping through every pore of the traditional collective. The Tibetan structure was most definitively shattered when China moved in in 1959, as much of the monastic hierarchy physically departed to India and the West. The Tibetan system may no longer exist as it did, but through having been fractured has perhaps had more impact on the West Those trained within the Tibetan tradition now present teachings in strikingly contemporary guise and in surfacing they are notsimply recreating monastic microcosms of their old state. Instead they have made a vast repository of spiritual teachings accessible, opening up what was once enshrined in isolation.
8
In considering the global context of changes in how mystical practices relate to traditional cultures, like those taking place in Java, we can begin by examining the "architecture" of sacred traditions and posing the question of change more sharply in general terms. Jacob Needleman has put the issue well, at the end of his provocative exploration of "modem science and ancient truth". He closed with an observation and question:
Throughout the history of civilization the great traditions have offered human beings a door on the other side of which there stretches the long and difficult path to self knowledge. But it is said of the guides who stand behind that door that their sole task- is to conduct men forward; no promise is given that those who are distracted will ever find their way back again. Legend also has it that what is nectar on the far side is poison on this side. Therefore, in the past the door has been well guarded by the institutions and forms of tradition. What does it mean, then, that these guardians seem to have vanished in the present age? (Needleman 1976 p 170)
Within the traditional setting the transmission of esoteric gnosis through lineages of masters occupies a critical position. Notwithstanding profound contrasts between traditions, it is worth recalling the essential simplicity at the root of the subject Certainly one of the most evocative tale of transmission is that of tiie Buddha’s flower sermon. Within the utter silence of that event Kashyapa’s reception of the transmission is supposed to mark the first link in the lineage of Chan and Zen teachings Keizan (1990 p 6-10). With this image of a meeting of Mind(s) in silence we are reminded that, at least in Buddhist terms, the core of the process is an unspeakable void. It lies not in a substance or form that one could claim, grasp or comprehend, but in what must remain, from the standpoint of the consciousness we have and discourse we engage in, a mystery. The crucial moment marking the core of transmission may be characterised in Buddhist terms as simply an opening through which two individuals become clear facing mirrors.
There is merit in recalling this simplicity and maintaining awareness of it as the core we are referring to. In Chogyam Trungpa’s explanation of the well known and elaborate process of transmission horn Tilopa to Naropa he sticks to admirably direct wording:*
..All these difficulties and different stages be went through were part of the Transmission It is a question of building up and creating the atmosphere... In this way the disciple will mentally open himself up... The important thing is to create the right situation both on die Teacher’s part and on the pupil's part And when the right situation is created then suddenly the Teacher and the pupil are not there anymore. The teacher acts as one entrance and die pupil acts as another, and when both doors are open there is complete Emptiness, a complete Oneness between the two... That is Transmission - creating die right situation - that is as much as an external Guru can do... somehow the actual moment is very simple,
Pages 9 and 10 are missing from the source text
11
he apparently attempted to reject those roles which, viewed from the outside, conformed to the notion of guru. At times he evidently allowed dependent followers to view him as their gum, and it is clear that many did. Even then, insofar as he provided them with a path it was more through his being than through systematic technique or teaching. If he had any technique it appears to have been in his version of the Zen koan "who am I" and he explained that though this begins as a mental process it"... destroys all mental operations, including itself, just as the stick with which the funeral pyre is stirred is itself reduced to ashes after the pyre and corpses..." (Osborne 1971 p 86). His main impact appears to have been through his sheer presence. The atmosphere of radiating depth and peace which so many experienced in his proximity (sat-sang) exemplifies realisation outside the edifice of Tradition, yet Ramana Maharshi clearly belongs to the "Path", in the idiom of the perennial philosophers.
As in the stories relating the "passing of the mantle" from the Chan/Zen master Hongren to Huineng (Keizan 1990 pp 138-46) there are instances which emphasise unlikely and unexpected transmission - the role of master passing to kitchen hands rather than senior monks. The implication of these examples is simply that transmission and the opening of consciousness has never really been construed as being confined to, as though the captive of, the outward structures of the path. This observation relates closdy to the fact that mysticism as such cannot be identified with any particular form; it also points to the possibility of the converse: that just as all forms are in essence only vehicles, any form may become one.
In approaching the role of teachers within the transmission of mystical experience, it is been essential to emphasise that they do not convey "content". Instead they provide an environment and work toward openness so that the realisation arises directly within the seeker. There are significant difference between traditions in this respect In the Indie context guru will be often presented as incarnations who substantively transmit, through darshan, a "spiritual substance"; in Sufism the notion of baraka allows the same sense of some "thing" being passed; in the Zen contexts the imagery is more likely to be one of "mirroring", as though two vacuums reveal each other through their absence. But in any event here again there is a time-warp - the farther we are from the core experience the mote it will appear that the teacher transmits in the sense of apparently "giving" the experience. The closer we move toward the core, the clearer it becomes that the teacher can be no more than a catalyst At the core itself, tradition, the mystical group, and anyone who might be conceived of as "teacher" are all dissolved and there is only that moment.
12
Globalising trajectories and the search for roots
The distinctive contemporary forms of mysticism are linked to the closure of the globe, to the interfaces resulting from the technological revolution and increasingly explicit global interdependence. Those most integrated within and conscious through modem media find it increasingly difficult to insist on the universality of particular cultural or religions traditions. Many people have clearly reacted defensively, retreating to literally conceived faith and mental closure, reflecting unwillingness to cope with the implications of our situation. Ironically many skeptics, empiricists and materialists, those who deny the possibility of faith, reveal the same narrow notion of what it is - and there is thus every reason to class those as variants of fundamentalism, as Martin Marty (1989) does in outlining themajor University of Chicago project on the subject In any event awareness of cultural diversity and scientific frontiers does not harmonise with one-dimensional religious attachment
This context has led some to rediscover the mystical dimension of depth within their established faith and many others to experiment with new paths. Paradoxically the new interest in meditation also runs hand in hand with revival and resurfacing of ageless traditions. Indians in Canada and the United States and Blacks in the Americas have "rediscovered" aboriginal and African links. Throughout the Third World newly autonomous peoples have explored sources of cultural identity which were repressed by colonialism, at least in their initial phases of independence placing emphasis on various neo-traditionalisms. In tire religious sphere within modernised societies this movement is clearly animated partly at least by recognition that the "experiential thirst" of modem humanity touches needs which many imagine were satisfied within traditional holistic cultures. Hence the invocation of holism, now occurring oh the global scale and intersecting with the newest forms of environmental philosophy, such as "deep ecology" (Fox 1984), reveals depth and truth in animism and other early religious styles.
Variations of ancestral practice retained force within many cultures and are too easily underestimated. Often they surface in the form of neo-traditionalist or revivalisfic movements, but many remain most forceful as tacit knowledge within local cultures. Throughout Africa overlays of Islamic and Christian imagery have been adapted to indigenous religion, nativistic churches refract and reshape tribal religions based on spirit contacts (Sundkler 1961). In the Americas blacks claim practices rooted in Africa. Where the break with African tradition was most complete, as in the United States, revival bears the qualities of artificial resurrection. But in Brazil and the Caribbean, where continuities have been stronger, cult practices have always resonated with African roots. In
13
Jamaica and Haiti elements of African practice arc heavily filtered, though in the latter contact with ancient deities is very clear (Deren 1975). In Brazil Catholicism provides a context for possession cults and the spirits remain present (Leacock 1975). In North America indigenous peoples have received new respect for the wisdom embedded within shamanic tribal religion, traditions invoked actively by white environmentalists (Devall & Sessions 1985 pp 79-101).
Even within the sphere of European culture and its overseas extensions, the quest for spiritual roots has at times assumed similar form. Contemporary Western spiritual movements are frequently cast in imported, often Asian moulds, but exploration of roots in ethnic terms is also strong. In Great Britain the Celtic memory stirred in the sixties and seventies - forest beings, nature spirits, and power points receive new and serious attention and local esoteric Christianity became more prominent Glastonbury and the Arthurian legend have reminded contemporary people of the genuine spiritual quest contained within their own traditional religion. The new movements emphasise that beneath transitions, from Celtic to Roman to Christian times, there has been a continuity of lineages in the esoteric dimension. Themes relating to the tracing of spiritual roots have become common in popular literature, as in novels such as Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. English speaker have rediscovered Celtic roots, reflected in movements such as Findhom and invoking linkage to old monastic centres at Iona and Glastonbury (Michell 1969). We can even see Fasdsm as a twisted version of a related invocation of mythic ancestry, indicating why we are right to be cautious about these forms of traditionalism.
Many new age movements are more straightforward than mystical movements of the past They stress direct awareness as it has been emphasised within all mysticism, but techniques are simpler and more direct terminology is not necessarily interwoven with extended esoteric symbolism: Mystical groups arc also often democratic in process, de-emphasising the hierarchical tendencies of the past Practices place less emphasis on monasticism and retreat more on integration of spirituality with everyday life. In short, it can be argued that mysticism is moving toward everyday realities and out of a traditional context in which it was buried in mythology and esoteric culture, replicating in internal practices the cultic structures of initiation and apprenticeship which characterised traditional modes of transmission in all fields of social and cultural knowledge.
I use the term "new age" as a way of referring to new styles of religious movement everywhere in the world. This is to say in reference at once to: exported versions of Indian practice, new religious movements in Japan,
14
Javanist movements in Indonesia, Afro-Brazilian cults, Taiwanese syncretic folk religion and to the wide range of newly transplanted or syncretic esoteric sects in the West In referring essentially to modem forms of millenarian and mystical practice I am not, as the popular press increasingly suggests, using it asaderogatorydesignationforthemarketingof"crystalhealing" and "readings of past incarnations". One of the clearest statements of "new age" philosophy as I understand it is that of David Spangler (1976), the leading theorist of the Findhom community in Scotland during the seventies. There are threads, arising through direct historical connections and evident in common themes arising independently, which bind together movements spanning the globe.
Because the context is global, movement toward a new synthesis works not only on the basis of die spatial unity of the planet, but also toward a consciousness of unity and meaning within the temporal dimension, within history. Visualised as a spiral, history presents us w&h4ransformations of cosmology at each stage of increasing complexity in human evolution. Just as the neolithic and civic revolutions brought ramifications in culture and consciousness, now the magnitude of contemporary change is planetary and the demand is thus for awareness which incorporates all history and every society in one unified field of vision.
The density of interpenetration results in a simultaneous extension and involution of religious structures, increasingly each human being has access to all past and present forms of practice. Present realities reveal not only the plurality of world religious influences, but also the degree to which current consciousness is connected to primal roots. Historical breaks have often been powerful, new stages submerging memory of earlier experience. But even in the most industrialised cultures, recent movements demonstrate determination to reactivate ancient lineages. Within most Asian religions the linkage between ancestral wisdom and modem spirituality has been maintained actively despite the pressure of world currents.
New age millenarianism
No new synthesis, however derived from deeply rooted tradition, can base itself on the finite ground of particular traditions unless it implies explicit closure. The base level reference for contemporary humanity is the whole earth set as a speck within the cosmos - the physical restrictions and cultural givens of the past have been shattered. Participation in the mystical forms of spirituality, which emphasise awareness unmediated by form is especially consistent with this situation. So from the viewpoint of new age thinkers, including figures as diverse and respected as Chardin, Krishnamurti and Fox, it appears that the
15
current global crisis may work precisely to raise mystical spirituality to centre stage. The mystical approach to religion becomes increasingly relevant because it is exactly the form of spirituality which is explicitly directed at transcendence of attachment to forms. Because the planetary context of cultural interpenetration raises our awareness beyond encapsulated traditions, no culture can maintain the grip on consciousness it could claim in the past.
Elements of paradox and time-warp persist through all reflection about mysticism and this must be taken into account within any considerationof it Clearly changes can only take place in the forms of quest, the core experience of mysticism must lie beyond time and space, untouched by history or cultural boundaries. Change and evolution can only occur in the structure of relationships between the core, the sects which claim to be vehicles of it, and the social world they both relate to. In working toward suggestion of the distinctive features and characteristics of contemporary mystical spirituality I will invoke two images: on the one hand Teilhard de Chardin’s radical vision of planetary evolution, on the other Krishnamurti’s persistent emphasis on the timeless moment that is now. Each at once reflects and has had significant impact upon contemporary spirituality. They at once illustrate and explicate key features of the landscape; the contrast between them thus establishes two dimensions which arc essential to grasping the nature of contemporary changes.
As de Chardin, the French Jesuit paleontologist who spent most of his working life in China (Cuenot 1965), seemed too radical to the Vatican, his vision only began to reach wide audiences through posthumous publication. The power of his work lies not only in its combination of mystical vision with science, but also in a recasting of Christian millennial imagery. Its inspiration was not mere mental eclecticism, but mystical vision rooted in merging of intellect and intuition. His vision of planetary evolution is presented against the background of twentieth century astronomy and physics; against a sense of the minuscule scale of planetary evolution within the universe as a whole (1961). The evolution of human life and consciousness is set within the geological time frame of the planet and within the vastness of these spatial and temporal referents the significance of the present moment expands rattier than shrinking.
Chardin suggested that evolutionary process involves both gradual change and critical points of rapid transformation, such as the beginnings of life, the origins of man and the roots of civilisation. The rapidity of changes at those points was analogous to the boiling point of water - though influenced by constant heat, the change from liquid to gas occurs quickly at boiling point. According to this vision life, and humanity within it, is poised at the brink of radical rebirth, one best comprehended as entry into a new consciousness. In his terms the earth is
16
sheathed by both the biosphere of organic life, and by the "noosphere", an envelope of consciousness manifested through the evolution of our species. As the biosphere gave rise to the noosphere, the noosphere is now giving birth to what he speaks of as a planetary Christ consciousness. This Christ consciousness, his version of the second coming, one which resonates strongly with the idiom of Matthew Fox (1988), is a process of convergence leading toward the merging of materially manifested human consciousness with the spiritual reality of die Earth Logos. That Earth Logos is the cosmic Christ, the spiritual identity of the planet within the universe. Merging of human consciousness with it is the endpoint, the Omega point, of global evolution.
While presenting his vision as a planetary process of conscious evolution leading to a final point, Chardin affirmed that consciousness of this Earth Logos has intersected with the human plane in the awareness of mystics. As a Christian he saw fhe-historical Jesus as the first full merging of planes, as the point at which the planetary process of merging began to be effected. As a twentieth century man, he presented the two world wars, the interpenetration of cultures, the global technological network, and the population explosion as signs indicat-ingthat conditions are ripe fortransformation. By establishing communications networks encircling the globe, humanity has laid the physical basis for a fusion of spiritual and material dimensions. For Chardin this point, the Omega point, involves the physical embodiment of unified planetary consciousness. It is a point of convergence of planes whichis the culmination of evolutionary process on the earth. In Chardin’s terms we stand on the verge of breakthrough.
In stark counterpoint in Krishnamurti’s terms there is neither past nor future. Instead he pointed persistently to the liberation and openness which come with realisation that Oneness is always the ground level reality. Refuting all suggestion that he spoke out of a long tradition, he asserted that there is no point to thinking in terms of stages of spiritual development He warned against fascination with the esoteric, with gurus, with any form of cultism or attachment Yet he presents a paradox: he denied the need for teachers, claiming not to be one, but spent decades lecturing and counseling; he deplored organised spirituality yet cooperated with foundations and schools in his name (Luytens 1975). Ironically it is perhaps by the thoroughness of his denial of the mystical that he epitomised it Krishnamurti was contemporary in style, using everyday words rather than couching his message in the imagery of esoteric traditions. This feature of expression suited him to a significant global audience, even paradoxically making him something of the "world teacher" his Theosophical mentors tried to mould him into. Krishnamurti’s life stood as its own constant negation - pointing not to himself, his ideas, or the organisations he has worked through, but to "life" and "being" in all forms.
17
At the risk of violence to both men, we can identify them with global patterns through style and emphasis. Chardin fits the Christian and Semitic molds by profession and because his vision displayed the peculiar concern with historical time which characterises the Semitic religions. In addition Chardin’s pas* sageway to the ultimate extends outward and through elaborate mental process before involuting and converging in the monad, the individual In contrast, Krishnamurti exemplified the Indie orientation by pointing inward to experiential and meditative reality. Because he directs us beyond the time and space limits imposed by mental process, we cannot say he pointed to an "inward space". Yet from the limited perspective of ordinary awareness, his emphasis does appear to fall on" a timeless space". In these respects these figures illustrate the contrast Weber (1949) drew attention to between "emissary" and "exemplary" modes of prophecy.
While Chardin envisioned convergence and the fruition of traditionin historical time; Krishnamurti began and ended his teachings with a denial of tradition. Chardin's vision opens outward; Krishnamurti’s opens inward. We can relate their styles clearly to the Semitic and Indie traditions; at the same time both men weremysticalpreciselyin the sense thatthey went beyond their"tradition". Ultimately each pointed beyond the axes of time and space, beyond the dichotomies of spiritual and material. Each one has also been international through extended experience of travel, and in that each identified with humanity as a whole rather than with nations or cultures. Both of have appealed to the modem intellect, even if representing opposite poles in their approach to spirituality. Finally, they converged in their sense that the endpoint is now, that in this historical moment all planes are merged within present reality.
In both figures we find hints, echoed more explicitly elsewhere, that the spiritual teacher of humanity in this age is the universe itself, that the second coming of Christian millennial thought lies not in the rebirth of one separate being, but in the awakening of humanity as a whole to the spiritual reality of what Christians have referred to as the Christ It is at the point of that awareness that traditions merge, that we encounter Schuon’s (1984) "transcendent unity of religions", that Christ the Buddha nature, and the Hindu Avatar are manifest that the duality of spiritual and material dissolves. This is to speak in the language of today’s mystics, to present images which have substance only to those sharing an intuitive experiential context forthem. Placing these images within the frame of history, we can reframe them as "data" relevant to our understanding of contemporary process.
18
Microcosm and macrocosm correspondence
The quality of "ineffability" which William James put so much emphasis on has unexpected implications: in essence mystical gnosis cannot be conflated with any form. Mystical spirituality is the type which interprets all "form", structure, or "superstructures" in Staal's terms (1975), as essentially only a vehicle. If an essential quality of mysticism is that all structures are viewed as pathways or vehicles, then it is quite natural, as indicated by the teachings of Buddhism or Sufism, that once the river is crossed the boat may be left behind. To extend the imagery, we may suggest that what the modem era, with its electronic nerve system drawing us into a global village and fracturing the divisions which sustained autonomous cultural and religious worlds of thought, it no longer remains possible to sustain the same sense of certitude that one tradition, no matter how cohesive, sophisticated, and broad, serves as a vehicle for all. Hence, apart from those who may retreat into vehement clinging to artifices which have already served their purpose, there is increasing compulsion for each to confront the inner reality directly. And as with any breakthrough, just as with individual breakthroughs beyond ego, the transition involves screaming pain and the strongest resistance either individuals or the species can muster.
In essence the meaning of mysticism never lies in the forms which may have sustained it, as a mode of consciousness, at particular times in the past-Even in the traditions themselves this message was clearly passed: the key lies in a consciousness which has been liberated from the realms of form. However transmuted through the alchemy of individual practice, traditional forms have their place only as passageways. People may still always also tend to assume that the forms which have served as passages for them may function that way for others, and to the extent hat hey ding to hat feeling we will find what I term "religious" rather than truly mystical spirituality. Whenever particular edifices are presented as universal solutions, even if in other respects mystical, essentially we are dealing with "religion".
Meditation is directed toward an unconditional and absolute consciousness, but has nevertheless been advanced through he form of "traditions". Mystical movements, hough functioning as traditions themselves, are "self-cancelling". The techniques communicated are designed above all to shift awareness out of conditioned zones. At certain levels of heir functioning mystical movements do become conditioning mechanisms: he greater the distance from he core experience he more that will be he case. The closer we move toward he core, within any tradition, he more hat tradition cancels itself out. Finally, as the
19
time-warp dissolves at the centre, the tradition itself becomes irrelevant to the person who has passed through it.
The paradox of infinite forms and archaic traditions reaching toward and serving as vehicles for the transmission of gnosis is dissolved only when it is understood that each "works" only through negating itself, through transformation and as a gateway. Complex lineages of spiritual transmission may weave through ancient and modem movements and these are simply family trees of mysticism. Individuals belong to these “trees" in the same way they do to biological families; uniqueness and idiosyncrasy are as natural as features of movements as of families and individuals. Group bonds do often imply restrictions and experience of union is often restricted, in the social sphere at least, to feeling at one with others in the group - hence the universal has not really been met and manifested. Through this image we can see groups as relating to the universal in the same way individuals do: each reaches it only by moving past itself. Images do inscribe themselves on the interior landscape of individual imagination and traditions do shape experience, operating as conditioning mechanisms in some senses. It is only wheneachmoves past itself that it becomes a vehicle in the truly mystical sense.
The paradox of diverse movements claiming access to universality is only dissolved when it is understood that they touch it only through their own negation, through transformation. Each form works only as a gateway. Complex lineages of spiritual tradition weave through the contemporary movements. These are simply family trees of mysticism. Individuals belong to movements in the same way they do to biological families. Uniqueness and idiosyncrasy is a feature of every movement, as of every individual. Group bonds imply restrictions, yet fundamentally groups, nations or species, relate to the universal only in the same way individuals do - each reaches it by moving past itself. Images do affect practice, traditions do shape experience, but inasmuch as either becomes a vehicle of mysticism, it does so only by pointing past itself.
The principles which apply at the individuallevel extend with identical implications to the macrocosm. If structures at any level become ends in themselves, then limits are set and divisions result. Like the ideal of union, the hope for world peace can become crystallised into dogma, becoming meaningless when associated with rigid ideologies, political structures, or economic systems. Each of those becomes an agent of human purpose only when the focus of struggle has shifted beyond them, when they are transformed into vehicles rather than approached as ends. As long as people struggle to attain concrete goals through visible structures, harmony and peace will remain elusive ideals. When structures are transmuted into pathways, then practical realisation becomes a meaningful
20
proposition. Practice, rather than theory, is the key; what matters is what we do rather than what we claim to adhere to.
Global process is high drama in which it is clear that there is meaning within the whole, even significance to distinct patterns within it Division and union, the two and the one, material and spiritual, the dance of Shiva assumes many forms. The Semitic traditions experience global process as the war of good and evil. In the Mahabharata there is also a final battle, it is understood that each actor has an essential function. For mystics in every tradition the sharpness of factional identification softens and the cosmic struggle appears as a dance. Structures weave through each other. Some are fluid, some rigid. Light is reflected, refracted, filtered, and focussed. Each structure influences its expression. Mysticism itself offers only pathways of light; the study of it just the outlining of shadows. But even shadow? have meaning; they imply the existence of light and betray the influence of intervening forms.
The critical implication I am attempting to highlight here, in response to Needleman’s question, is that the passing of the guardians is directly related to the global process through which experience of union and oneness is being pressed, on the outer planes of social life at least, to encompass the whole of the planet Needleman does recognise this. The point is that whether for individuals on the path or for groups, it is less and less possible to subscribe fully to the edifice of one spiritual structure. The clearest implication I can see is that the mediating role of particular cultural and social structures has been undermined. Consciousness is compelled, insofar as it probes mystical gnosis, to face the One in raw directness, seeing it in all forms and everything, not only through the intricate design of one mazeway.
21
Bibliography
Anderson, B.R.O’G. 1972. "The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture", in C. Holt et al (eds.), Culture and Politics in Indonesia, Ithaca N. Y.
Bishop, P. 1983. "Tibet in its Place", Charles Strong Trust/AASR, Adelaide.
Bourgeault, C. 1989. "The Gift of Life: The Unified Solitude of the Desert Fathers", Parabola Vol XIV No 2 (May).
de Chardin, T. 1961. The Phenomenon of Man New York, Harper & Row.
Chattopadhyaya, A. 1967. Atisa and Tibet. Delhi: Modlal Banarsidass.
Cuenot, C. 1965. Teilhard de Chardin London, Bums & Oats.
Deren, M. 1975. The Voodoo Gods New York, Paladin.
Devall, B. & G. Sessions. 1985. Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Pub.
Dumoulin, H. 1963. A History of Zen Buddhism Boston: Beacon Press.
Fox, M. 1988. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; New York: Harper & Row.
Fox, W. 1984. "Deep Ecology: A New Philosophy of ourTune?r The Ecologist Vol 14 No 5-6.
Keizan (trans T. Cleary), 1990. Transmission of Light: Zen in the Art of Enlightenment, San Francisco: North Point Press.
Komfield, J. 1977. Living Buddhist Masters, Santa Cruz: Unity Press.
Leacock, R. & S. 1975. Spirits of the Deep New York, Anchor.
Lester, R. 1973. Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Luytens, M. 1975. Krishnamurti, the Years of Awakening New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
Marty, M. 1989. "Fundamentalisms Compared", Charles Strong Trust/AASR, Adelaide.
Michell, J. 1969. The View over Atlantis New York, Ballantine.
22
Moertono, S. 1968. State and Statecraft in Old Java, Ithaca NY.
Mulder, N. 1978. Mysticism and Everyday Life in Contemporary Java, Singapore
Needleman, J. 1976. A Sense of the Cosmos NY: Dutton
Needleman, J. (ed.) 1974. The Sword of Gnosis. Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin.
Osborne, A. 1971. The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Rider & Co: New York.
Pagels, E. 1980. The Gnostic Gospels, New York.
Schuon, F. 1984. The Transcendent Unity of Religions Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books,
Smith, H. 1976. Forgotten Truth New York: Harper & Row.
Spangler, D. 1978. Revelation, the Birth of a New Age Findhom.
Staal, F. 1975. Exploring Mysticism Berkeley: U California P.
Stange, P. 1978. “Javanese Mysticism in the Revolutionary Period", Journal of Studies in Mysticism Vol 1 No 2
Stange, P. 1986. “Legitimate Mysticism in Indonesia", Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs Vol 20 No 2
Stange, P. 1989. “Interpreting Javanist Millenial Imagery", in P. Alexander (ed.) Creating Indonesian Cultures, Sydney: Oceania.
Sundkler, B.G.M. 1961. Bantu Prophets in South Africa. London: OUP.
Trimingham, J.S. 1971. The Sufi Orders of Islam Oxford: OUP
Trungpa, C. 1970. Meditation in Action Berkeley: Shambala.
Wayman, A. 1982. “The Human Body as Microcosm in India, Greek Cosmology, and Sixteenth Century Europe” History of Religions Vol 22 No 2.
Weber, M. 1949. “The Social Psychology of the World’s Religions" in H. Gerth & C.W. Mills (eds.). From Max Weber, New York: OUP.
Woodward, M. 1989. Islam in Java. Tucson, Arizona.
New: 24 October, 2021 | Now: 24 October, 2021
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally hosted at freotopia.org/people/paulstange/gnosis.html. The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.