Materialism, Holism, and Mysticism – A Mandala
or
Fragmentation, Wholeness, and Mystery - A Mandala
An
Open
Book by Rolf Sattler
Introduction
Questions -
Disturbing Contradictions between Answers - The Mandala as a
Solution - Outer and Inner Circles (Materialism and Holism) –
Inner and Outer Circles as Yin and Yang – Holism and
Materialism as Levels of a Hierarchy (Holarchy) - Continuum
between the Outer and Inner Circles - Complementarity -
Lessons from Physics - Mystery - Art - Spirituality - A Joke
- Out of Balance - Health - Ken Wilber’s AQAL Map -
Fundamentalism - Education - Silence - A Meditation: Beyond
Words and Sounds - About Jokes - Liberation through the
Mandala - Mandala Meditation
QUESTIONS
As conscious living
beings, we are inevitably confronted with questions of life
and living: What is life? Who am I? Why am I here in this
world? What is the meaning and purpose of life, if it has
any? What is the point? Why does this happen to me? How
should I live? How do I want to live? What is my deepest
potential and how can I realize it in a world facing
destruction in so many ways?
DISTURBING CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN ANSWERS
Science and technology,
philosophy and ideology, the arts and culture, spirituality
and religion have all provided a multitude of answers to the
questions we keep asking. Some of these answers are
compatible; others are contradictory. Often we feel lost or
threatened by the contradictions. What should we accept and
what should we reject?
THE MANDALA AS A SOLUTION
This book is not so much concerned with rejection, but rather
with integration,
with putting it all together. The question then is how such
a synthesis
can be achieved and what form
it will have to take to account also for the formless or
unnamable, that which is beyond the thinking mind.
In many religious and spiritual traditions
mandalas have been used to present the most
encompassing vision of oneself and the universe. These
mandalas usually have a circular shape, although they may
include squares and other forms. The center has special
significance because it represents the source from which
all personal and kosmic reality emanates. Like
Ken Wilber, I write ‘kosmic’ with a k to indicate
that it refers not only to the physical cosmos of
mainstream science but includes also other dimensions such
as mind, soul, and spirit (see below).
It dawned on me that the form of the mandala can be used in a
modified way to accommodate and integrate science,
philosophy, culture, art, spirituality, etc. Thus, I
developed a mandala as the basis for this book. To
distinguish it from other mandalas, I refer to it simply as
the Mandala (with a capital M). A conceptual and a
pictorial version of the Mandala are presented in figures 1 and 2.
Fig. 1. The conceptual version of the Mandala
Fig. 2. The pictorial version of the Mandala
The conceptual version of the Mandala, which I call the
“conceptual Mandala” throughout the book, appears very simple
compared to religious and spiritual mandalas that can be very
complex. However, it refers to many aspects of science,
philosophy, culture, art and spirituality. At first sight it
does not seem appealing because ot its abstract and
philosophical form. It looks more like a skeleton than a
pulsating living being. But those who will read the following
chapters, will discover art and spirituality hidden
underneath the bare framework of general concepts, and they
will see that the general concepts comprise and relate to a
wide range of topics of life and living, including the One
and the many, wholeness and fragmentation, love and hate,
peace and war, health and illness, balance and imbalance,
ecology and politics, cooperation and competition, life and
death, flexibility and rigidity, freedom and bondage,
connectedness and alienation, flow and loneliness, laughter
and repression, wisdom and ignorance, compassion and
conflict, meditation and unawareness, etc. (for a fuller
range of topics see the Table of Contents).
To make the Mandala more appealing to the visual sense and to
better indicate its reference to art and spirituality, I
devised a pictorial version, which I call “the pictorial
Mandala”. This version represents more directly the “flesh”,
“soul” and “spirit” of the Mandala that are not so obvious in
its conceptual counterpart.
OUTER AND INNER CIRCLES OF THE MANDALA (MATERIALISM AND
HOLISM)
The concepts of the conceptual Mandala are
arranged in two concentric circles. The outer circle consists
of basic concepts of the mechanistic view, which implies
materialism. According to this view, a living system is like
a complex machine or a material mechanism. If any one part
appears defective, it is either repaired or replaced.
Healing, in this perspective, means repairing or replacing
the defective parts. Conventional medicine subscribes to this
view to a great extent.
Each concept of the outer circle representing materialism and
mechanism is paired with a concept of the inner circle that
represents holism or the holistic view. Thus, for example,
“fragmentation” of the outer circle is paired with
“wholeness” in the inner circle. According to the inner
circle, the holistic view, a living system is an organic
whole. Hence, healing is not just a matter of repairing or
replacing parts; it involves the whole person.
INNER AND OUTER CIRCLES AS YIN AND YANG
The two circles may be seen as opposites
that have nothing in common. However, they can also be
conceived as Yin and
Yang: Yin, the
inner circle, and Yang the outer circle. Since Yin
includes at least a germ of Yang and vice versa (see
Chapter 3), holism in the inner circle is not totally free
of mechanism, and mechanism of the outer circle includes
at least a germ of holism. For example, in holistic
medicine parts may still be distinguished within the
organism, and even if the organism is seen as one organic
whole, it may still be separated from its environment, at
least to some extent. Therefore, fragmentation is not
totally absent. On the other hand, although conventional
medicine tends to be mechanistic, a doctor or nurse may be
caring in such a way that an aspect of holism is included
(see Chapter 5).
HOLISM AND MATERIALISM AS LEVELS OF A HIERARCHY (HOLARCHY)
Holism and materialism can also be seen as
the higher and lower levels of a hierarchy. In a hierarchy
higher levels include and transcend lower levels. For
example, according to the conventional view, an organism –
the higher level – includes and transcends cells – the lower
level. It transcends the cellular level because it has
emergent properties that are not found at that level. For
example, a bird can fly, but its cells cannot.
Ken Wilber’s AQAL
map is basically
hierarchical (see below). He prefers to call it
holarchical because he calls the entities that compose it
holons. In one version of his AQAL map, he refers to a
rational and centauric level or a formal level and the
level of vision-logic (see, for example, Ken Wilber.
2007. The
Integral Vision,
p. 71). His rational level corresponds to the level of
materialism, the outer circle in the Mandala.
Materialism/mechanism is the rational/scientific worldview
of mainstream science. Vision-logic of the centaur, which
transcends the materialism and rationality of mainstream
science, corresponds with holism, the inner circle of the
Mandala.
The hierarchical (holarchical) view
appears useful for an
understanding of levels such as the two levels of the
Mandala. However, it does not allow us to see the two
levels in terms of Yin and Yang and it does not allow us
to see the two levels as part of a continuum.
CONTINUUM BETWEEN THE OUTER AND INNER CIRCLES
Although mainstream society, biology, and
medicine are largely materialistic/mechanistic, relying on
concepts of the outer circle, some members of this culture
may move more or less toward the inner circle; and with
regard to some concepts such as statics and dynamics, the
whole scientific community has come closer to the holistic
concept of dynamics. This indicates a continuum between the
outer and inner circles. Therefore, the views of scientists,
philosophers, and laypersons may range from more or less
materialistic/mechanistic to more or less holistic. To
indicate this continuum in the pictorial version of the
Mandala, the background colors (that range from red to
purple) should have been drawn like the colors of the rainbow
that form a continuum.
COMPLEMENTARITY
In spite of the continuum between the outer
and inner circles, in our present society we can still
witness a strong tendency of an opposition of the mechanistic
and holistic worldviews. For example, in medicine the
mainstream tendency is still mechanistic and this view and
practice is often seen as opposed to the more holistic
alternative medicine. This opposition is rooted in
Aristotelian either/or logic: either A or B, either
materialism or holism. However, according to the
complementarity
principle, it can
be both A and
B, that is, A and B
complement each other; they do not exclude each other. In
this sense, the outer and inner circles complement each
other, that is, materialism and holism
complement each other as Yin and Yang complement each
other.
Since our culture and Christianity have been deeply molded by
the either/or philosophy of Aristotelian
logic, for most
scientists, philosophers and laypersons it appears
difficult or impossible to think in terms of
complementarity. Either/or logic is often taken for
granted and it is not recognized that either/or logic is
only one kind of logic among other types of logic such as
both/and logic. But when both/and logic is adopted, it can
change life and living in a very fundamental way (see
Chapter 3). Instead of fighting one another whether A or B
is the truth, we can lay down our arms and embrace each
other because both A and B can coexist. We can have a
richer life because we are not limited to either A or B.
We can have both and we don’t have to expand our energy
fighting each other. We can avoid conflict or war. Hence,
the recognition and adoption of the complementarity
principle can have far-reaching consequences for science,
philosophy, art, religion, and society as well as our
individual lives and relationships.
In short, contradictions and oppositions are part of life and
living. However, we can embrace them by adopting the
complementarity principle. This principle provides one way
how we can envisage the relation between the outer and inner
circles of the Mandala: in their opposition they still
complement each other. Even both/and thinking
and either/or logic can be considered
complementary. As I
shall point out in chapter 12, there are, however, still
other ways of conceiving the relation between the two circles
of the Mandala.
LESSONS FROM PHYSICS
Until the beginning of the 20th century,
physicists also took either/or logic for granted. With regard
to the understanding of light, this meant that light had to
be either a particle or wave phenomenon, one or the other.
However, as research progressed, it became evident, that this
kind of logic was inappropriate because in one experimental
setup light could be seen as particles and in another as
waves. Thus, it did not make sense any more to follow
Aristotelian either/or logic, insisting that it could be only
either particles or waves.
Now some would say that therefore light is both particle and wave. However, a more
careful formulation would be to say that light can manifest itself
as both particle and wave. What it ultimately “is”,
we don’t know. Ultimate reality seems unknowable through
science; it seems mysterious. Why? Because everything that is
investigated scientifically, is investigated from a certain
standpoint or perspective, which is determined by the
observational and/or experimental setup, the conceptual
framework and state of consciousness of the investigator.
This standpoint provides the strength and limits of science.
Beyond those limits remains the mysterious, which, according
to Einstein (1954) is “the most beautiful thing we can
experience... He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can
no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant
beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their
most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling is at the
center of true religiousness.”
Thus, with regard to light alone, physics taught us at least
three lessons: 1. A new understanding of light, 2.
Complementarity, that is, thinking in terms of both/and, and
3. An appreciation of the mysterious as the ultimate ground
of reality.
MYSTERY
Mystery resides in the center of the
Mandala and in the ground from which the words of the two
circles arise. Words and their meanings are limited. Hence,
“everything that is thought and expressed in words is
one-sided, only half the truth; it lacks totality,
completeness, unity” (Hermann Hesse. 1957. Siddharta, p. 115
). Mystery appears beyond words; in this sense, it remains
the unnamable.
The relation between words and the unnamable mystery is
beautifully stated in the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching
(Lin Yutang’s translation):
The Tao that can be told of
Is not the Absolute Tao
The names that can be given
Are not the Absolute Names
The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth
The Named is the Mother of All Things
Therefore:
Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion
In order to see the Secret of Life;
Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,
In order to see its manifest forms.
These two (the Secret and its manifestations)
Are (in their nature) the same;
They are given different names
When they become manifest.
They may both be called the Cosmic Mystery:
Reaching from the Mystery into the deeper Mystery
Is the Gate to the Secret of All Life.
The great advantage of
the Mandala is that it deals with both the nameless (that “is
the origin of Heaven and Earth”) and the named (that ”is the
Mother of All Things”).
In other words: it refers to the unnamable, the unmanifest,
the source and the namable, the manifest(ations), that which
comes out of the source. And furthermore, the Mandala
integrates both the unnamable and the named. This may be
explained by the following analogy. If we think of the paper
on which the Mandala is reproduced as the nameless, then we
can see the words or symbols on it as the named
manifestations. And as the words or symbols are integrated
with the paper, so the nameless and named are one. We can see
the nameless clearly in the center of the Mandala because
nothing is written or drawn there. Therefore, I usually refer
to the center as the nameless or the unnamable. However, from
the paper analogy it becomes evident that the nameless
provides the ground of the whole Mandala and that the
manifestations arise from this ground as mountains arise from
the earth. There is no separation of the mountains from the
earth. Similarly, the nameless and its manifestations are
one, which may be called the “Cosmic Mystery”. Throughout
this book I refer to it simply as the Mystery (with a capital
M) or the Nondual or Truth (with a capital T), whereas I
refer to the nameless in the center of the Mandala as mystery
(with a small m) or the unmanifest or the source.
In Buddhist terms, the unmanifest is called no-thingness,
emptiness, or the formless, whereas the manifest is referred
to as form. In the Heart Sutra it is stated that form is
emptiness and emptiness is form. With regard to the Mandala
this means that the emptiness of the center is the form of
the periphery with the words referring to concepts. This
identity appears as the great Mystery.
Buddhist
logic
and
Jain logic offer
logical paths to the Mystery. Buddhist logic has four values:
either, or. both/and, and neither/nor. Neither/nor goes
beyond words and thus opens the way to the Mystery. Jain
logic has seven values that include the indescribable, the
nameless, the mysterious.
Korzybski’s Structural
Differential also
offers a rational explanation why words and language, the
named, cannot reach the unnamable Mystery that he calls
the un-speakable.
It illustrates, first of all, that reality and our perception
of reality are not identical because we perceive only a
fraction of reality. For example, we perceive only a small
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Then, when we
describe our perception through words, we lose part of the
richness of our perception. For example, a description of a
rose cannot fully represent our perception of the rose. Thus,
the named is only a fraction of reality that remains
unnamable.
Many books deal only with words and their meaning, that is,
only with the named, the manifestations, thus omitting
reference to the unnamable, the source. In this book I place
great emphasis on the source from which all manifestations
arise. Because the Mandala indicates so clearly both the
source and its manifestations, it can be seen and experienced
as the “Gate to the Secret of All Life [and living].”
Ignoring the nameless,
the mystery, as it happens so often, obscures the ground of
reality. And blindly
assuming that the manifestations are all of reality, leads to
endless suffering and misery because we are aware of only one
part of creation and mistake this part for the whole, which
creates severe distortions.
The inclusion of the empty center in the Mandala is of
paramount importance. Without it, we are stuck in the
limitations of form, that is, the concepts of the two
circles. Having the empty center of the Mandala provides a
constant reminder that even the most holistic concepts of the
inner circle are not yet the Ultimate, which means that
writing and talking using words are not the Ultimate either.
For this reason I end each chapter of this book with a
meditation, which hopefully may give us at least glimpses of
the Ultimate or the Mystery.
ART
Art may also give us
glimpses of the Mystery.
In the pictorial Mandala, art may be located inside the inner
circle within the purple band. Thus it can be seen as a
bridge to the unnamable and Mystery.
Music and visual art may transport us into the Mystery. And
even poetry may take us beyond the namable because words are
employed differently from logical discourse. Poets may use
words in such a way that they point beyond their normal
meaning and the most profound message of a poem is often
between the words or lines. Here is a poem by Liu
Chang-ch’ing that was written in the spirit of the above
lines from the Tao Te Ching:
Walking along a
little path,
I find a footprint on the moss,
A white cloud low on the quiet lake,
Grasses that sweeten an idle door,
A pine grown greener with the rain,
A brook that comes from a mountain source -
And, mingling with the Truth among the flowers,
I have forgotten what to say.
Yes, being totally
absorbed in the Mystery of Nature, words fade away...and,
paradoxically, the poet has communicated this through words.
SPIRITUALITY
Spirituality can have different meanings
depending on how spirit is defined or experienced. According
to one view, spirit is opposed to matter. This is the
dualistic view of existence. According to the nondualistic
view, spirit comprises both the
unmanifest and its manifestations, emptiness and form. In
other words, it constitutes Mystery. For this reason, the Mandala as a whole
represents spirit. However, the unnamable in the center of
the Mandala can be seen as the source of spirit and therefore
of paramount importance. Anyone who dwells only in the realm
of the named, that is, the outer and inner circles, cannot
yet have contact to spirit. However, since form is emptiness,
the manifest can be the gateway to the spiritual, the body
can be the door to the Mystery, sex can be sacred.
A JOKE
Osho (1999.Take It Really
Seriously, p. 228)
told the following joke:
There is to be a christening party for
Paddy and Maureen’s new baby, but before the ceremony the
priest takes Paddy aside and asks, ‘ Are you prepared for
this solemn event?”
“ I think so,” replies the nervous Paddy. “ I’ve got cheese
rolls, salad and cake.”
“No, no,” interrupts the priest, “ I mean spiritually
prepared?”
“ Well, I don’t know,” says Paddy thoughtfully. “Do you think
two cases of whiskey are enough?”
OUT OF BALANCE
Contemplating the Mandala, we can see
that our society seems out of
balance in at least two ways: First, we can witness an enormous
imbalance between the periphery of the Mandala (the two
circles) and its center, the unnamable mystery. For many the
unnamable is nonexistent or hardly existent. Even
spirituality is often understood in terms of spirit defined
conceptually. Hence, even spirituality is pushed into the
realm of the namable. And religions often emphasize words and
scriptures at the expense of the mysterious. In general, we
live in a society in which the experience and celebration of
the mysterious has become marginalized. In other
words: to a great extent, we
have lost our center, which is represented by the center of
the Mandala.
The second imbalance in our society is between the outer and
inner circles. Concepts of the outer
circle still predominate in nearly all aspects of life, as I shall
illustrate in the following chapters. Holistic thinking
happens mainly at the fringes of society. For example,
alternative holistic medicine is still a fringe phenomenon
and often not covered by health care of governments,
therefore only accessible to the richer population.
Mainstream medicine is still predominantly mechanistic and
the conservative medical establishment tends to misuse its
power to suppress holistic alternatives that often have great
advantages over mechanistic medicine (see Chapter 5).
HEALTH
In Chinese medicine health means
balance. Sickness means
imbalance. From this it follows that many people suffer from
sickness and that our society as a whole seems sick because
it appears unbalanced as I pointed out above. One purpose of
this book is to draw attention to this imbalance and to
provide means for greater balance.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the words health, whole,
and holy are derived from the same etymological root. This
seems no coincidence because a healthy person tends to be
whole in the sense that (s)he knows and experiences the
periphery, the namable and the center, the unnamable, of the
Mandala. Such knowledge and experience touches the holy, the
sacredness of existence.
KEN WILBER’S AQAL MAP
The Mandala can be extended and interpreted in terms
of Ken Wilber’s AQAL map. This map represents the Kosmos,
including human existence. Wilber contrasts Kosmos with
cosmos. The latter is the physical cosmos, the cosmos of
physicists, whereas the former includes matter, body,
mind, soul, and spirit in self, nature, and culture.
Hence, the AQAL map appears much more comprehensive than
the most comprehensive theory of physics such as string
theory in its most modern version, the 11-dimensional
M-theory.
Ken Wilber has published different versions of his AQAL map
ranging from rather simple to more complex and detailed. In
the simple version he distinguishes only three levels – body,
mind, and spirit – and three dimensions (the Big Three):
self, nature, and culture, or art, science, and morals. In
more complex versions, he includes four dimensions and up to
16 or 17 levels. In maps that focus on humans, he often uses
the following levels: archaic, magic, mythic,
rational/scientific, pluralistic, integral (holistic), and
transpersonal (see, for example, Ken Wilber. 2005. The
Integral Operating System. Boulder, CO: Sounds True, p. 31).
In his Introduction to the Integral Approach (and
the AQAL Map) and
the AQAL Chart he makes a distinction between an
integral and holistic level. In the Mandala these two
levels correspond with the inner holistic circle, and the
rational level in the AQAL map corresponds with the
materialistic/mechanistic outer circle of mainstream
science. The pluralistic level can be seen as intermediate
between the outer and inner circles since it progresses
from the mainstream scientific worldview toward the
holistic integral view. The mythic level, which stresses
conformism and absolutism, would be outside the outer
circle, the magic level outside the mythic, and the
archaic outside the magic. In the West and Westernized
countries the archaic and magic level have become less
influential, but the mythic level still plays an important
role, especially in America, and therefore cannot be
ignored.
According to Ken Wilber, the transpersonal comprises the
psychic (nature mysticism), subtle (deity mysticism), causal
(formless mysticism) and nondual (nondual mysticism) (see,
for example, Ken Wilber. 2001b. A Theory of
Everything, p. 131,
and Ken Wilber. 2000. Sex, Ecology,
Spirituality, pp.
287-318). In the Mandala the psychic and subtle levels would
be inside the inner holistic circle, the causal is
represented by the empty centre, since it is formless, and
the nondual is represented by the whole mandala in its
extended interpretation that includes Ken Wilber’s additional
levels. In Ken Wilbers’s AQAL map the progression from he
archaic level to the transpersonal occurs from the center to
the periphery of the map, whereas in the Mandala the
direction is reversed so that the causal level (formless
mysticism) occupies the center as it is typical for mandalas.
The three or four
dimensions of Wilber’s AQAL map are not explicitly
represented in the Mandala. I am, however, well aware that
each concept of the inner and outer circles has three or four
dimensions, and I shall refer to them as I discuss these
concepts. Thus, the different dimensions are not ignored and
not excluded as it often happens in our culture that tends to
emphasize objectivity, rationality, and science, which
represent only one of the Big Three dimensions. The other two
dimensions - culture and art or self – are also discussed,
and the subjective experience of art and the self can be
explored through the contemplation of works of art and the
practice of meditations that are included at the end of each
chapter.
Ken Wilber's AQAL map is more comprehensive than the Mandala
because it includes more levels that are not explicitly
indicated in the Mandala. However, in another sense, the
Mandala surpasses Wilber's AQAL map because the relation
between the levels (structure stages) is not only
hierarchical (holarchical), but can also be seen as a
continuum and in terms of Yin/Yang (see Wilber's AQAL Map and
Beyond).
FUNDAMENTALISM
Fundamentalism occurs at the mythic level, which enforces a
righteous order “with a code of conduct based on absolutist
and unvarying principles of “right” and “wrong.” Violating
the code has severe, perhaps everlasting repercussions.
Following the code yields rewards for the faithful”(Ken
Wilber. 2001. A
Theory of Everything, pp. 9-10). This leads to extreme rigidity
often based on concrete-literal belief. Reasoning seems
difficult or impossible because there is only one right way
to think about everything.
In fundamentalism one can
hardly see any appreciation of the mystery, wholeness and
balance. And yet, many
fundamentalists uphold holiness. However, this holiness is
not rooted in wholeness and mystery. It is based on words and
scriptures, excluding other scriptures and words. No
complementarity is recognized. Truth is thought to be either
this or that. The opposite is seen as false and therefore is
suppressed or even annihilated. Consequently, fundamentalists
tend to fight their enemies. Tolerance is rare. Peace is
remote.
Because fundamentalists exclude the unnamable, the mystery,
which unites us all, they cannot find ultimate unity. They
are bound to live in disunity and imbalance. The question is
how we can heal this dis-ease.
EDUCATION
One answer to fundamentalism is education, especially of the
young who are still flexible and open to new insights and
experiences. Teaching them all aspects of life and living,
what Ken Wilber (A
Theory of Everything, pp. 95-96) calls integral
education, appears
healthy. All those aspects complement each. Furthermore,
since anything expressed in words has inherent limitations,
one has to go beyond words and language. Entering silence and
the mystery will lead to unity and peace.
SILENCE
The Mandala reminds us of silence because silence or stillness is built
into its center. Therefore, whenever we talk or write,
whenever we present an argument, we are reminded that this
is not the ultimate, that we have to return to the silent
center of the Mandala, which is also our silent center.
Whenever enemies or lovers argue with each other, they are
reminded that their words, thoughts, philosophies and
ideologies are not absolute and need to be absorbed into
silence so that there can be peace and unity.
Silence
unites, whereas words and thoughts
divide. We would live
in a more peaceful world if our lives would be guided by
mandalas that remind us to always return to silence after
argumentation. If, in addition, we can remain aware of the
silent center while talking and arguing, then even
arguments cannot separate us because we remain anchored in
the nameless, silent center.
A MEDITATION: BEYOND WORDS AND SOUNDS
The question is how we can be in silence in a world that is
almost constantly bombarding us with words, thoughts,
philosophies, ideologies and religious doctrines that have so
deeply molded our subconscious so that we deprive ourselves
of liberating silence. Changing our life-style and making
room for silent moments and periods is a good start, but in
addition we may need powerful meditation techniques that may
help us to return to the silent center of the Mandala, which
represents also the silent center in ourselves. One such
technique can be found in the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra, an
ancient Shiva Tantra (see Osho. 1974. The Book of
Secrets, pp.
352-357). This technique reminds us that words and language
do not only have meaning, but also a sound.
By immersing
ourselves totally into the sound of the words we can let go
of the meanings that divide. And from the sound it is easier
to reach silence because
sound and silence are closely related. Both exclude the
thinking mind that so often prevents us from entering into
silence. There is, of course, nothing wrong with the thinking
mind; it can be helpful in may ways. However, often it
dominates our life to such an extent that we can no longer
turn it off. Then we have become slaves of the thinking mind.
But we do not want to be slaves, we want to be masters of the
thinking mind: able to use it when it is required, but also
able to enter into silence without being disturbed by the
thinking mind.
The thinking mind can be such a dictator that it does not
even allow us to focus only on the sound of a word without
its intellectual meaning. Therefore, the technique from the
Vigyana Bhairava Tantra relies on a special device to
overcome this difficulty. It is practiced as follows:
We start with a word. Then we visualize the letters of the
word. Note that at this point you are already beyond the
intellectual meaning the word because letters do not have
such meaning. Then we hear the letters as sounds, and then we
discover the feeling of the sounds. Thus, we move from
letters to sounds to feelings. And when we reach the deepest
layer of feelings, we leave them aside. This cannot be
forced. It can happen spontaneously, and then it leads us to
the core of our being. Thus, this technique, if practiced
diligently, has the potential (not the force) to lead us to
liberation.
ABOUT JOKES
Jokes can also have a liberating effect, at least
momentarily. They can loosen up the dominance of the logic of
the thinking mind at least to some extent. How does this
work? When a joke is being told, it starts out logically. But
then as one expects certain things to happen according to the
logic, suddenly something totally unexpected, something
illogical happens, and at that point we burst out into
laughter: tension is released and we relax into life beyond
logic. Thus, a joke transports us into
a realm of life that logic cannot reach. For this reason jokes are important in a
book on life and living because life and living cannot be
fully understood in terms of logic alone. Logic is part of
life and living, as it is part of a joke, but it is not the
whole of life and living.
The dominance and strictures of logic can also be transcended
through art and meditation. Therefore, art and meditations
have been included in this book. But appreciating art and
practicing meditation may be too difficult for many people.
Listening to a joke is easy for almost everybody. It may not
be possible to become enlightened this way. But Osho
(1999.Take It Really
Seriously, p. 653)
said that enlightenment “is the punchline of the ultimate
joke”.
Ken Wilber (One
Taste. 2000,
December 7) wrote: “TRANSCENDENCE RESTORES HUMOR. Spirit
restores humor. Suddenly, smiling returns”. The opposite also
happens: humor restores transcendence and spirit. Thus, humor
and spirit are mutually reinforcing each other. The problem
is that too many people are just too serious and lack a good
sense of humor. Wilber (ibid.) noted:
Too many
representatives of too many movements - even many very good
movements, such as feminism, environmentalism, meditation,
spiritual studies - seem to lack humor altogether. In other
words, they lack lightness, they lack a distance from
themselves, a distance from the ego and its grim game of
forcing others to conform to its contours... They should
trade two pounds of ego with one once of laughter.”
LIBERATION THROUGH THE
MANDALA
Liberation in the wide sense may occur at different levels
simultaneously or, more often, successively: within the
thinking mind, within our emotional life, and finally the
transcendence of both the thinking mind and our emotional
baggage. As we move from
the periphery of the mandala to its center, we can free
ourselves step by step from conditioning and bondage.
When we begin this journey with first the mechanistic and
then the holistic concepts, theories and philosophies of the
outer and inner circles of the Mandala, we realize that these
concepts, theories and philosophies as well as other
philosophies, ideologies and religious doctrines are all
relative, that is, they are different perspectives of
reality. To all of them the principle of complementarity can
be applied. Thus, they lose their absolutistic grip on us.
This means, we can put aside, at least temporarily, each
philosophy, ideology and religious doctrine, especially our
favorite one, to entertain alternatives, which then we see no
longer as antagonists and competitors, but as complements.
From each of the complements we can learn something. Hence,
considering all of them is enriching, not threatening.
We can also see that each concept, theory, philosophy,
ideology and religious doctrine is limited. And we don’t have
to lock ourselves into these limitations. We can be free as
we enter the center of the Mandala. Terry Patten referred to
this freedom as Absolute Freedom. It resides in what Ken
Wilber called "the brilliant clarity of ever-present
awareness" (Ken Wilber. 2001a. The Eye of Spirit. Boston:
Shambhala, Chapter 13). Janice O'Denver referred simply to
Clarity.
As we free ourselves from the strictures of concepts,
theories, philosophies, ideologies and religious doctrines,
we can also free ourselves from emotions. Emotions can be
seen as combinations of thoughts and body sensations that are
deeply rooted in our whole being. A great variety of
techniques, therapies and meditations can be used to gain
more freedom at this level. Each person has to find what
works best for him or her. The Mandala Meditation that ends
this Introduction is one way among others toward liberation.
As we contemplate the Mandala and move onward from its
periphery of thought and emotion, we eventually enter its
center where we can find freedom in silence. If thoughts and
emotions still arise, we can witness them with equanimity and
detachment, that is, we are no longer dominated by them; we
are free. Needless to say, this requires practice and deep
immersion (see, for example, Shinzen Young).
Once we have entered the center, we can embrace the Mandala
as a whole because, as pointed out above in the section on
Mystery, the center is also the ground of the Mandala from
which everything arises (see the meditation on ONE TASTE at
the end of Chapter 2).
MANDALA MEDITATION
This meditation technique, which has been
devised by Osho (Meditation.1992, p. 186), begins with strong physical
activity and then through increasingly gentler movements
leads into the final stage of stillness. After running on the
spot, rotate your body from the belly in a sitting position,
then lie down and rotate your eyes, and finally rest in
stillness (for detailed instructions see Mandala Meditation). It can be practiced with or without
music. For those who prefer musical accompaniment, a CD by
Deuter is available from NEW EARTH. This CD includes the
original sound track personally transmitted by Osho to
Chaitanya Deuter.
REFERENCES
Einstein, Albert. 1954. Ideas and
Opinions.
Hesse, Hermann. 1951. Siddhartha. New York: A New Directions Book.
Osho. 1974. The Book
of Secrets.112 Keys to the Mystery
Within. New York:
St. Martin’s Griffin.
Osho. 1992. Meditation. The First and the Last
Freedom. Cologne:
Rebel Publishing House.
Osho. 1999. Take It
Really Seriously. A Revolutionary Insight into
Jokes. London:
Grace Publishing.
Wilber, Ken. 1999. One Taste: The Journals of Ken
Wilber. Boston:
Shambhala.
Wilber, Ken. 2000. Sex, Ecology,
Spirituality.
Boston: Shambhala.
Wilber, Ken. 2001a. The Eye of Spirit. Boston: Shambhala.
Wilber, Ken. 2001b.
A Theory of Everything. Boston: Shambhala.
Wilber, Ken. 2005. The Integral Operating
System. Boulder,
CO: Sounds True.
Wilber, Ken. 2007. The Integral
Vision. Boston
& London: Shambhala.
Yutang, Lin (ed.) 1948. The Wisdom of
Laotse. New York:
Modern Library, Random House.