Читать книгу A Sourcebook for Helping People With Spiritual Problems - Emma Inc. Bragdon - Страница 8

Spiritual emergence is the process of creating a meaningful context to integrate spiritual experiences as one matures. This process involves re-evaluating conceptual frameworks for what is real and what is meaningful in life. As such, it is an intellectual process regarding values. But, it also involves the emotions and the body as it calls us to a deeper experience of relatedness with ourselves and others. The spiritual emergence most often includes expanded perceptual abilities, increased energy, creative expression and the strong desire to take action in being of service in the world. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, describes the process in the following way:

Spiritual emergence is a kind of birth pang in which you yourself go through to a fuller life, a deeper life, in which some areas in your life that were not yet encompassed by this fullness of life are now integrated or called to be integrated or challenged to be integrated ... Breakthroughs are often very painful, often acute and dramatic breakthroughs (happen) on all levels: what we call material, spiritual, bodily-all levels.

(Steindl-Rast, 1985)

From this description, spiritual emergence is a kind of awakening to a more expanded way of being. It vitalizes a profound step in personal evolution.

In order to perceive phenomena of spiritual emergence as distinct from the dark realms of pathology it can be useful to see it as having a place in our natural unfolding. The map of the development of consciousness by Ken Wilber, Ph.D., (1980) gives a manageable linear illustration of spiritual emergence.

According to this diagram, an individual begins life arising out of unity with infinite consciousness and proceeds through his or her unique life drawn toward mystical transpersonal experience. Biological development demands that one first identifies as an organ of the mother, then at birth begins a journey of disidentification with the mother and identification with the more independent self as a body first, then an independent mind and independent emotional and spiritual being. Adulthood is marked by the recognition that an individual is a separate being who is responsible in fulfilling his or her own needs.

At the top of the circle, the late ego, you can picture the adult who has a job, a satisfying intimate relationship, a satisfying connection to a wider community, adequate material wealth in order to be safe and fed, and the self - discipline to continue maintaining this life. Further development takes a person into questions about the meaning of life and the impulse for self-actualization. People who identify with this later stage of life may start a spiritual practice, intensify their involvement in religion, attend workshops to stimulate personal growth and/or dedicate themselves to helping others.

The last stage in Wilber's diagram marks the final state of ultimate unity, or Atman. It is difficult to describe in words because it transcends all of our conceptual frameworks. Wilber writes, "Consciousness henceforth operates, not on the world, but only as the entire world process, integrating and interpenetrating all levels, realms and planes, high or low, sacred or profane." This is a multi-dimensional awareness that is not limited to time and space. It belongs to a particular person, but is not limited by any of the identifications of that person. This is a rare state of consciousness. No one, as yet, has devised a way to measure how many people have achieved it. Yet, however extraordinary it is, it has been described in the literature of ancient world religions as well as in modern anthologies. We can call it the state of enlightenment, or God, which has drawn people to experience awe and ecstasy throughout the ages.

In keeping with Wilber's spectrum, it is important to note that we never totally leave behind any stage of identification; we are not like a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly that can no longer go back to being a caterpillar. Instead, we take the experiences of one identification with us as we continue through the cycle, a bit like nesting dolls where the next-larger doll holds the previous dolls, fully intact, within it. So our identification rests with the larger doll, the most expanded sense of self, even though we hold the smaller dolls, with their limited sense of self, within and can choose to identify with one of them as well.

In the personal realms on the left side of Wilber's spectrum of consciousness identifications may sound like: I am a child, I am a good girl, I am a student, I am rich, I am poor, I am black, I am white, I am an adult, I am a psychologist,

I am a wife. When a person has identified with the more advanced realms of consciousness, he will describe himself as: I am a soul; I am a spirit; I am here to learn certain lessons before proceeding on to another dimension; I have many personal identifications within me, but I am more than those social roles and beliefs about myself.

As a person has more and more spiritual experiences, his or her sense of identity may include: I am one with the earth, I am one with God, I feel close to my spiritual guidance, I feel at one with nature, I feel the sensations of universal energy moving through me. In the final stage, there is no sense of an "I" which is separate from anything. In that consciousness the mind does not conceptualize "I" nor speak about "I," but still has the power to identify with a more limited identity in order to function in the world. This advanced consciousness holds all others within itself.

There are increasingly more autobiographies available which recount spiritual experiences individuals have had which have expanded their sense of identity to these advanced levels of consciousness. (Appendix D lists a number of these books.) Gopi Krishna (1971), an East Indian man, tells about one of his most dramatic experiences, a result of his meditation practice:

Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain through the spinal cord ... The illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring louder. I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light. It is impossible to describe the experience accurately. I felt the point of consciousness that was myself growing wider, surrounded by waves of light. It grew wider and wider, spreading outward while the body, normally the immediate object of its perception, appeared to have receded into the distance until I became entirely unconscious of it. I was now all consciousness, without any outline, without any idea of a corporeal appendage, without any feeling or sensation coming from the senses, immersed in a sea of light simultaneously conscious and aware of every point, spread out, as it were, in all directions without any barrier or material obstruction. I was no longer myself, or to be more accurate, no longer as I knew myself to be, a small point of awareness confined in a body, but instead was a vast circle of consciousness in which the body was but a point, bathed in light and in a state of exaltation and happiness impossible to describe.

After having these kind of experiences Gopi Krishna developed an Institute for the Study of Kundalini, the universal energy in humans that contains the potential for extraordinary mental acuity, brilliant creativity, and love which usually lies dormant until awakened by spiritual practice. Gopi Krishna's life exemplified how life is transformed after these potent experiences. After his kundalini awakening he was able to learn a foreign language in a matter of days and needed very little sleep, only 1-2 hours a day. He wrote several books, while simultaneously maintaining a research institute and a school for boys, as well as traveling and teaching.

Yogananda, another East Indian in the 20th century, had similar experiences :

Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage ... In my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body ....People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery .... An oceanic joy broke upon the endless calm shores of my soul.

(Yogananda, 1946)

Yogananda was also inspired to be very active in the world as a result of his spiritual transformation. He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship, an international organization that melds the Christian and Hindu paths in order to facilitate spiritual emergence. This fellowship is still in existence, having close to a million members throughout the world. In addition to having extraordinary amounts of energy, less need for sleep, and a profound dedication to helping vast numbers of people, Yogananda was able to die consciously, at peace.

The powers that become accessible through identification with spiritual realms of consciousness go beyond many of our ideas of what is considered normal human limitation. The most advanced Tibetan spiritual adepts have been known to die and then to dissolve their physical body leaving only hair and fingernails behind (Sogyal, 1992). These feats demonstrate the enormous power contained in the spiritual dimensions within us. However, the magical demonstration of extraordinary power is not the issue here. The value that comes from realizing these dimensions is not in the extraordinary feats but the capacity to help others to a better life.

People who have integrated experiences of the highest spiritual realms often become spiritual teachers. In their presence one feels the deep wisdom they have attained and the loving compassion which they freely give to all. Rama et al., (1976) described it:

There is no more of the alternation of pain and pleasure, only a constant and pervasive joy ...(He/She) reflects an inner discipline and an inner peace-through a relaxed body and harmonious coordination, and through patience, confidence, clear thinking, and an unselfish attention to the needs of others.

People in the news who best exemplify these characteristics are H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV of Tibet, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988, and Mother Theresa. There are many others who are less well known because they are not in the public eye.