We live in a culture of religious diversity that is at present experiencing a reawakening of interest in spirituality. If we are to more fully understand what this reawakening might mean, it seems to me that we need to clarify the traditional difference between religion and spirituality, between the exoteric and the esoteric.
Exoteric refers to a religious doctrine or body of knowledge that is accessible to anyone. It does not rely upon one's individual inner experience of the divine or what is sacred. Religious teachings have often emphasized that following religious doctrine is more important than one's individual spiritual experience, and some have discouraged inner experiences altogether.
In contrast, esoteric teachings and their practices are usually a way to help the individual have a direct inner experience of the sacred. They are based upon the understanding that there is a world of the spirit that is very different than the purely physical world of the senses. Esoteric studies often involve specific spiritual practices that are quite distinct from religious observances. These practices are a way to access the world of the spirit--leading finally to awaken or be born into this reality that is invisible to our physical eyes.
Spiritual teachings of all cultures tell us that just as we have a physical body, so too do we have a spiritual body. This is the body of our spiritual self. In some Indian traditions it is described as having a series of energy centers, or chakras. In Sufism it is described as a series of chambers within the heart--that just as we have a physical heart we also have a spiritual heart which contains our divine consciousness. In Taoism it is sometimes imaged as a spirit body or light body. Our spiritual body has qualities such as peace, bliss and endless love that are rarely found in our outer lives. What is common to most esoteric traditions is that we can access this spiritual body through specific practices or techniques, meditation, mantra, breathing practices and others.
Many religions have an esoteric core, for example the Jewish Kabbalah, or Sufism which is known as the heart of Islam. Yet, at different times in history religions have banned or persecuted as heresy esoteric teachings and their practitioners. Early Christianity had a known esoteric dimension, for example in the teachings of the Gospel of Thomas that point to an inner spiritual mystery, as in the words of Jesus: "I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of my mysteries." Sadly the orthodoxy of the early Church banned the inner, esoteric aspect of Jesus' teachings, and the Gospel of Thomas became heresy, its copies destroyed, until one copy was rediscovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945.
The esoteric, spiritual teachings that can be found within many religions, shamanic and other traditions form part of our spiritual heritage. They remind us that we are not just physical beings in a physical world, but that our lives and also our bodies have a spiritual dimension. We are beings of light as well as flesh and blood. There is a world within and around us to which we can have access that is very different to the physical world. Yet the spiritual and physical worlds are not separate, but interpenetrate and nourish each other.
At this present time there is a hunger for direct inner experience, a need to reclaim our spiritual heritage. While our materialistic culture tries to keep our attention firmly in the physical world of the senses, many of us sense a longing to know this hidden mystery of what it means to be human. And so we are able to turn to the teachings and traditions that have been given to us, whether in yoga, Buddhist meditation, Sufi dhikr or other spiritual practices. It is important to recognize the root of our longing, that we are no longer prepared to live in a purely physical world, but need the living presence of the spiritual. We need to know and be nourished by the invisible world that is within us and all around us. We need to reclaim the mystery and magic of being fully alive.
We also need to confront the specter of death. So many people, knowing only the physical world, remain frightened of death. Religious teachings create a clear division between this life and the afterlife, which may carry the promise of heaven or the threat of hell. Spiritual experience can lift the veils between the worlds, allowing us to glimpse a spiritual reality while we remain present in the physical world. Many people have had near death experiences in which they see a light at the end of a tunnel. Our spiritual heritage can give us access to this light while we are still in this world. This is the light found within the heart, the light of our divine self. It is beautifully imaged in the Gospel of St. Matthew which speaks about the oneness of real inner perception: "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
Spiritual life can take us beyond death. In Sufism this is called "to die before you die," to awaken to the world of light while still alive in this world. Then you know that there is no such thing as death, or in Jesus' words in the Gospel of Thomas, "Whoever discovers the interpretations of these sayings will not taste death."
Spiritual truth is at the heart of all religions, and yet it is also beyond the divisions that plague our world. It is about the oneness, the love and the light that is within us all, and to which as human beings we can have access. Spiritual teachings and their practices can give us each our own individual experience of this very human reality, help us to live in the light of this oneness rather than stumbling in the darkness of so many divisions. I feel that our present spiritual reawakening is a deep longing, a need to step into this light.
For further reading on the spiritual world of light, see Vaughan-Lee, Alchemy of Light.
The question arises as to whether the whole exoteric level is necessary. Can we employ our metaphors in such a way that literalistic misinterpretations won't be made?
This article contains a couple of problematic examples. Some might take the "spiritual body" as a ghostlike reality that is somehow counterposed to "physical reality". It is important to be clear that the spiritual domain is a domain of MEANING, not a place "over there" or "in here", not a force field like electricity or gravity with physical significance--not something that it would even make sense for science to investigate.
Similarly, to deny the reality of death is a metaphorical statement. It doesn't pertain to what happens to us at the end of life, but to how we feel about life now and how we put our lives into the larger world context, identifying with the big picture. The "taste" of death is simply the fear experienced by the living.
I join "Inquiring Minds" in complimenting the cordiality of the commenters here. For whatever reason this is unusual on HP, where folks on an anti-religion hobbyhorse duke it out with true believers. My comments here are meant only to head off obstacles to further communication, and wider pursuit of "the light".
He said for instance, gravity is invisible. and fields of electricity are invisible.
Just for a little bit of humor, I got myself locked in a bathroom once by a ghost/poltergheist, unseen forcefield of tremendous strength.
So a lot of the problems o come down to, to what one can "see" with the eyes and this is a real mystery.
And this is why again, to have a public sharing of insights and courteous discussion are
welcomed and a tremendous offering at this time when people have so much fear of the uncknown and the unseen.
Their arguments led me to think that perhaps one difference between religion and authentic spiritual life is -- that God answers the cry of the heart. And he doesn't care what religion one is or even if one is an atheist. If one cries sincerely enough from the heart it will be heard and it can be anwered in many ways; from something as simple as a moment of peace, to a book falling into one's hands, to a mystical awakening, to the birth of a baby and sometimes even a good sickness to keep us quiet for a length of time.
I am not sure if one approaches God with arrogance he will answer with grace, because I think, as someone wrote before we must be receptive, in a feminine way, and this is what our culture does not understand.
I hope Huffington Post helps keep this article alive. It is an important public service. Thank you.
There is also in the novel the concurrent story of Ella, an unfulfilled housewife and mother, engaged in a mesmerizing email correspondence with someone she has just met online. Set in contemporary times, Ella falls in love with a modern-day dervish of sorts. He has written a book about Rumi called "Sweet Blasphemy" which Ella is reviewing for the literary agency for which she works. In an ever heightened quest for reclaiming her spiritual heritage through the path of her heart, the parallel stories unfold. And it is quite tantalizing and definitely a worthwhile read.
Although the road to our higher selves is not always easy, an understatement, and paved at times with much heartache, longing and, as we see, confusion, we may be grateful for those who have blazed a trail like Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, making it a little easier for us to follow.
I am just finishing and highly recommend to all readers of this blog a wonderful new book by Turkish novelist, Elif Shafak, "The Forty Rules of Love." It is a novel about Rumi and his passionate and esoteric relationship with his beloved spiritual guide and ardent companion, Shams of Tabriz. Theirs was exactly the kind of love which annihilates – and even though the term does not refer to physical earthly love predominantly, there has always been a definite tension between the love one feels for another in physical form, the love between disciple and teacher, and Divine love which is ultimately realized in union mystico, that is, with the Divine in oneself. It is evident in Rumi as well as in other Sufi poetry. In fact I remember as a child always thinking that Rumi, who is known as an "asik" (lover/poet/like the troubadours) in Turkish, was writing exclusively about earthly love. Imagine my surprise. (Con't on next post).
share with is nice too!
A quote from The Nature Writings of C.G.Jung edited by Meredith Sabini.
"Jung believed the loss of emotional participation in Nature has resulted in a sense of cosmic and social isolation. It is not airy Christian soul that we have lost but the more concrete "bush-soul" that links us with a totem or ancestral spirit in Nature. Not so long ago, the spirits within Nature were still alive and active; Judeo-Christian religion and scientific materialism have contributed to the current negative attitude towards its spiritual dimension. Jung sees the necessity of restoring to Nature its original wholeness and considered matter and spirit as equal mysteries. Matter is the tangible exterior of things and spirit the non visible interior. They are given qualities of the world that can only be partially understood and thus tend to be represented by numinous symbol."
Thanks to teachers such as LVL and the miracle of the internet, these formerly esoteric teachings are reaching out to touch the lives of so many and for that I am infinitely grateful.
"Nature is not matter only, she is also spirit. Where that not so, the only source of spirit would be human reason."(CW13,PAR 229)
"There is nothing without spirit, for spirit seems to be the inside of things. Dionysus is concerned with the outside of things, with tangible forms, with everything that is made of earth, but inside is the spirit, which is the soul of objects. Whether that is our own psyche or the psyche of the universe we do not know,but if one touches the earth one can not avoid the spirit. And if one touches it in the friendly way od Dionysus, the spirit of nature will be helpful; if in an unfriendly way, the spirit of nature will oppose one.Therefore the countless legends of people offended the spirit of things. The primitives are tremendously of not being polite to the spirits...they have to pay attention.We never pay attention, so we probably offend the spirits all the time,and because we have not been polite they will be against us, and this leads us more and more into a kind of dissociation from our own nature."(VS, P.459)
I wish extroverted Americans could understand that there is also a place for silence, contemplation.
How many children are raised in families where they are not allowed private time, are not allowed to spend the day alone, are forced to be team players and suffer because the don't fit in -- and this extends out into high school and work where you can get written up or fired from your job because you are not a team player. Scary, especially when art, the natural place for this inner contemplation, is no longer taught or made available in schools.
It is an important concept to think about: Inner-direct experiences, with life, with God. Thank you for posting.
come from within.
I agree with others this article should remain for as long as possible, as so many people are searching for the truth. It's a breath of fresh air, along with the author's other books.
Thank you.
"Closely related to this is the image of fire. Out of the wind came fire, the ancient believed. At Pentecost there came a rushing mighty wind and tongues of fire burned on each individual apostle. This wind, this fire of the spirit, must enter into a man or a woman before he or she can in truth be said to create anything at all. Thoughts and actions that remain untouched by this mystery may produce new forms in abundance, bringing good and evil in equal measures to our collective life, but nothing is essentially changed in the psyche of man, whereas, whenever a breath of that wind or a spark of that fire lodges in mind or heart or body, we are immediately aware of some kind of newness of life".
This article offers an opportunity to have an insight into the real meaning of spirituality. It should be available to more readers.
The most universal of all the images of the spirit is the breath, the wind- the Pneuma in Greek, the Ruach in Hebrew; it is that which: "bloweth where it listeth and no man knoweth whenece it cometh and whither it goeth."