SPIRITUALITY STUDIESVolume 6 / Issue 1 SPRING 2020
Content issue Spirituality Studies 6-1 Spring 2020 Publisher: The Society for Spirituality Studies Published in partnership with Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and European Union of Yoga Available online: www.spirituality-studies.org Editor-in-Chief: Doc. Dr. Martin Dojčár PhD. Graphic Design: Martin Hynek Contact: editor@spirituality-studies.org ISSN 1339-9578 Editorial Martin Dojčár Donate Spirituality Studies’ mission is to deliver the top quality of studies, articles, educational materials and information related to spirituality in its multiple forms. At the same time, the journal provides a forum for sharing personal spiritual experience. By combining both academic and experiential approaches to spirituality the Spirituality Studies aims at providing a unique platform for dialogue between a variety of viewpoints, approaches and methodologies in the study of spirituality. There are no submission or publishing charges for authors. However, please consider donating to support continual publishing of Spirituality Studies as an open access journal for free. Your donation will be used for financing running the journal. 01 02 Journeying with Psyche and Soul in Spirituality Larry Culliford 16 Science and Mysticism: Possibilities and Limitations in Exploring Mysticism Slavomír Gálik 24 Meaning in Life and Ethical Education Martin Brestovanský 34 From Acosmism to Dialogue: The Evolution of Buber’s Philosophical View on Mysticism Peter Šajda 42 Lectio Divina and Neuroscience: Preliminary Notes Radovan Šoltés 52 Mind and Body in Budo: Poems of the Way Antonio Terrone 62 Body and Spirit – a Mirage… Sandó Kaisen ← ← Cover: Santa Teresa de Jesús, oil on canvas Jusepe de Ribera, 1630
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 1 EDITORIAL Editorial Spirituality begins with the inversion of consciousness that can be described as the reversal of intentionality from its natural flow to an object. This reversing process of intencionality is associated with the pursuit of quality. In its essence, spiritu - ality is an existential struggle for quality, which includes both quality of experiencing and quality of awareness: Experiencing directed to reach the highest amplitude possible; awareness directed to reach the highest lucidity and un-limitedness possible. Inversion is only possible when experiencing is no more primarily saturated from external sources. Therefore, the process of inversion of conscious - ness does not begin with concentration, as so many mistakenly believe, but instead with an effort to move the source of experiencing from worldly objects to the body itself. Conditions of this transitus are of moral nature. They are values and attitudes that lie at the foundation of every authentic spirituality, first and fore - most voluntarily evoked lack of interest in any outer object of satisfaction along with voluntarily cultivated contentment to what is given in the presence when we are not dealing with the past or the future, but we are simply present at our bodily object anchoring our attention here and now, as Cordially Martin Dojčár the Latin etymology of the præesse (Eng. presence ) suggests – before (Lat. prae ) an object (Lat. esse ). At first, an object is available to us as a particular being (Lat. ens ), later, however, it can be approached in its beingness (Lat. esse ). This initial attitude is spontaneously going to grow into feelings of gratitude and joyfulness . Af - terwards, we are becoming capable of saturating our body with them and gradually discovering the primary source of experiencing in it. Spirituality Studies enters its sixth year with a bundle of exquisite studies, essays and poems on spirituality from various perspectives and authors from around the globe. Let me invite you to approach them from the angle outlined above. In these terrifying times of global pandemic, vis-àvis an existential threat of life, we might possibly find a fountain of inspiration in them. A fountain of inspiration directing our attention out of its absorption in the sensory and mental objects and turning it entirely to the present moment. In this very presence of our own bodily experience, an opening for transcendence may occur, as indicates a brilliant baroque portrait of Saint Theresa of Ávila on the cover of the 2020 Spring edition of Spirituality Studies.
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S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 3 Larry Culliford ← ← Thomas Merton & Dalai Lama. Photograph used with permission of the Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. Journeying with Psyche and Soul in Spirituality The Inaugural SpIRE Library Lecture Larry Culliford
4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 Secular, global society has for many years been troubled, facing a wide range of significant challenges [1]. In this context, in search of both intelligent explanations and healthy solutions, a lecture given to mark the inauguration of a spiritual library, drawing on library-related themes – the meanings of key words from the lecture title, the value of books, and the benefits of silence – explores the notion of life as a journey in six stages towards spiritual maturity and wisdom. According to the lecturer, individual souls can be described as being permanently and harmoniously connected with an overarching, universal spirit. Nevertheless, the arc of this pilgrimage involves a split from infancy between the false everyday Ego and the true spiritual Self , which separation may begin healing as worldly ambitions give way to more spiritual priorities. Scientific observations and spiritual intuitions can both be shown to evince a holistic vision of universal connectedness. Wisdom, and associated spiritual values, are based on this profound sense of kinship with all others, with nature, and with the divine. People can improve their chances of experiencing cosmic wholeness through wisdom exercises, especially through engaging deeply with silence – as evidence by the lecturer’s personal story of having “the feeling that God was speaking directly into my ear”– and through the careful study of wisdom literature, a number of examples of which, from different religious traditions, are recommended. Prior to a concluding summary, the lecture ends by addressing the question of what might happen to the human soul after the body dies. Received April 9, 2020 Revised April 14, 2020 Accepted April 14, 2020 Key words Spirituality, soul, psyche, silence, wisdom
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 5 Larry Culliford 1 Introduction – A Perfect Reason for Congregating The Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE) has been based at Milltown Park in Dublin since being founded in 2015. The Institute recently acquired a new library containing many of the works once part of the extensive Milltown Institute library. In addition to important historical works in the field, it houses specialist books for applied spir - ituality studies, also the latest relevant articles and journals. At the invitation of SpIRE’s Director, Michael O’Sullivan, and Chair, Bernadette Flanagan, the library was launched on 5th March 2020 by the author, who gave the following lecture to an invited audience of about eighty religious and lay people [2]. It is a great honour to be here, and we have a perfect reason for congregating, to proudly and joyfully inaugurate a library of spirituality, especially today as it is World Book Day. For the great privilege and by way of thanks, I will be donating a few of my own books to the library. I would also like to present an authenticated first edition copy of Thomas Mer - ton’sConjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Merton 1966) signed by Merton himself, which I acquired some years ago from the Thomas Merton Center in Louisville, Kentucky. About the author Dr Larry Culliford MA, MB, BChir, MRCPsych , is an independent scholar trained in medicine at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and Guy’s Hospital, London. After working as a psychiatrist in New Zealand, Aus - tralia and the British National Health Service, he retired in 2007 to concentrate on writing, lecturing and giving workshops. His acclaimed books include The Little Book of Happiness (Rider 1999) andHappiness: The 30 Day Guide (Rider 2001) both under the penname Patrick Whiteside; also Love, Healing & Happi - ness (O Books 2007), The Psychology of Spirituality: An Introduction (JKP 2011), Much Ado about Something: a Vision of Christian Maturity (SPCK 2015) and The Big Book of Wisdom (Hero Press 2020). Larry has published several papers onspirituality and psychiatry, taking a spiritual history, teaching spirituality and health care to third-year medical students, and related topics. He has also written a long-running blog for Psychology Today under the by-line Spiritual Wisdom for Secular Times . In 1999, Larry was a co-founder of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry special interest group. He is a former Chair of the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland, and a longstanding member of both the British Association for the Study of Spirituality and the Scientific and Medical Network. Larry lives happily with his wife Sarah in West Sussex, UK. He runs a website www.ldc52.co.uk and is available at larry@ldc52. co.uk.
6 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 2 Key Words from the Lecture’s Title I shall also be speaking about some other rather special books later, but first wish to consider several key words and their meanings. The title of this lecture, Journeying with Psy - che and Soul in Spirituality , was not a personal choice but a very interesting one, given to me by our hosts. So, what do these words mean? Let us start with the easy word, journeying . In the present context, this may suggest that life is a pil - grimage, a journey with a sacred purpose; a journey – per - haps with recognizable stages – aimed towards some kind of spiritual goal. Let us, for the moment, call that goal spiritual maturityorwisdom . Now, what about the words psyche, soul, and spirituality ? I have been involved in many unresolved discussions about these, but how can you pin down and define the indefinable without taking the life out of it? I am mindful of poet Aline Kilmer’s comment that, “ many excellent words are ruined by too definite knowledge of their meaning ” (Kilmer 2016). So today I take my cue from Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty who said, “ when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less ” (Carroll 1960). So, to set the scene, I will start by saying that human spirituality, as well as relating to wisdom, has something to do with awe, mystery, wonder, meaning and purpose; with fate, destiny, kismet, karma, Providence, God’s will; and with a deep, heartfelt sense of self-worth and belonging. The word psyche is a Greek word and denotes “personification of the soul as female or as a butterfly” . This seems appropriate, as the life cycles of caterpillars, pupae and butterflies symbolise change/growth/evolution. According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2002, 2389) psychemeans “the soul”, “the spirit”, or “the animating principleof the universe”, which indicates that we are already going in circles, especially as anima (as in animate – the animating principle ) is a Latin word for soul. However, yet another, possibly more helpful meaning given for psyche is “the collective mental or psycho - logical characteristics of a people” . For tonight’s purposes, then, I shall go with that. In 2020, we live in an increasingly globalised society, so we can for now translate psyche as world-mind or perhaps species-mind . I hope we can agree on that for now. The word soul can be defined as “the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being, regarded as immortal”. It is usually contrasted with the body, and with the corporeal, worldly, material, or temporal aspects of human existence. I shall need to say more about this later. The word spirit (from which, of course, the word spiritualityhas been derived) is defined in some dictionaries in near-identical ways to soul ; for example, “the non-physical part of a person”. The word comes from the Latin spiritus , originally meaning “breath” or “wind”, which came later to denote life forceor cosmic energy , and similar words in other languages were derived the same way; for example, pneuma in Greek, ruach in Hebrew, prāna in Sanskrit, ch’i in Chinese. So this is the universal wind, blowing us along on our journey. I sometimes use the analogy of a hot air balloon, and here we are in the basket being blown along. However, because we keep pace with it, we are not necessarily conscious of this mysterious wind, nevertheless do well to tune in to it as best we can, discerning its effects, also paying attention to our fellow travellers on the same spiritual journey. Having said all this, we are still left with a confusing degree of definitional uniformity between these words, soul and spirit . It therefore seems to me to help if intellectuallywe separate and distinguish between a personal soul and a universal spirit . As individual persons, everyone is influenced internally, either more or less consciously, by a powerful, invisible, cos - mic breath or wind. I have to emphasize intellectuallybecause we are also obliged to hold in our imagination the idea of a seamless and permanent connection between the two: in - dwelling soul and all-pervasive spirit. This is what is called a paradox: soul and spirit can be distinguished from each other mentally, but we can also imagine them to be undivided, as if connected by some kind of unbreakable, non-perishable elastic; not really separate at all!
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 7 Larry Culliford 3 The Pilgrimage Journey of Life So, our individual souls are permanently connected harmoniously with the overarching, universal spirit. Nevertheless, some kind of split does occur, and we have to call the separated off (but still connected) part something. The term I prefer, having used it before, is the everyday Ego , what we each think of asme in daily life. In contrast to which there is the spiritual Self , the soul . Others, Thomas Merton, for example, have referred to these split parts of one human being as the False self and the True self . The two parts become split from each other early in life, setting up a dissonancebetween them. The great pilgrimage of life, then, involves the split or dissonance growing, and in ideal cases later; with wisdom and maturity; closing back again. This is what Richard Rohr refers to as the “ journey into the second half of our own lives ” (Rohr 2012, vii) . This is the sacred journey we are all on, to reunite our everyday Egoswith our spiritual Selves . The Meaning of Life Diagram showing six stages of spiritual growth (Culliford 2014) (1) (2) Conformist (3) Individual (4) Integration (5) (6) Infancy Egocentric Conditioning Universal Spiritual Self Something happens Enlightened Self Everyday Ego Level of dissonance Pristine Ego Low Medium High trajectory I’d like to recap this quickly with the help of a diagram that I call The Meaning of Life Diagram (Culliford 2011, 29; Culliford 2014). This version is complicated, so I will break it down for you. Let us look at one line and the Ego-soul split or dissonance. Beginning with what some have called a pristine Ego , the split between the everyday Ego and the soul or spiritual Selfnormally grows quickly in the early years of life. As adulthood approaches, we each have to manage two opposing drives: to conformand belong on one hand; and to be independent of thought, speech and action on the other. To progress on the spiritual path, it is necessary to individuate , as Jung called it, not only to grow independent-minded, but also to take increasing responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions. As we make our way in the world, we can be said to go initially through three or four stages, which, adapting James Fowler’s rightly celebrated formulation (Fowler 1981), I have renamedegocentric, conditioning, conformist, and individual.
8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 This is Rohr’s “first half” of life; dominated by worldly aims and ambitions; which he says involves surviving successfully by establishing an identity, home-base, family and friends, livelihood, regular pastimes and so on: the essential aspects of community and security. These are the sum of our attachments and aversions, likes and dislikes. For the majority of people, this is all there is, valuing a sense of belonging, and prizing what is familiar, habitual and safe. Some go further, into a more individual way of life, but re - main at risk of retaining a self-centred orientation, a focus on me and what’smine , holding on to possessions, position and other worldly achievements. From the individual stage, there is considerably further to travel. 4 Grace and the Spiritual Dimension For Christians, of course, the universal breath-energy is designated the Holy Spirit, an aspect of the Holy Trinity of God, a blessed gift to encourage, heal, strengthen and guide people on our spiritual journeys. So, let us look more closely at this word holy in regard to spirit. Related as it is to both wholeness and holistic , the word holybrings to mind an undivided, unitary vision: a seamless, timeless and infinite whole ; one that can only dimly and incompletely be grasped by the dualist/binary working mentality of the ordinary mind of our everyday Egos ; but an undivided whole with which each of us is in permanent (if mostly unconscious) communication in the depths of our true Selves , through the mediation of our souls. Monotheists, including Christians, Jews and Muslims, share a hope, and the expectation through faith, do they not, of a loving God’s grace, bestowed through His infinite mercy, through the influence of the Holy Spirit? Through grace, the dissonance between everyday Ego and spiritual Self is reduced. The split comes to be healed. We are made whole. But, note, What happens in the second half of life, the less temporal, more spiritual half? In this scheme, there are two more stages, called here the integration and universal stages , and this is where some people, spiritual pioneers like Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama, for example, are already leading us, well ahead of theworld-mind , the general cultural psyche or zeitgeist around them. How can the rest of us follow, catch up, and serve as exemplars in our turn? For that, I hope you agree, is one important purpose of a spiritual institute dedi - cated to research and education like SpIRE. Such an institute surely has as its purpose not only to learn and teach about spirituality, but also to exemplify and foster genuine, authentic spiritual growth in individuals and communities alike. this is a lifelong journey. It takes time, and human effort is required. We have to help it along. I will say a little bit about how later. So let us examine again the term spirituality , and the notion of a spiritual dimension to human experience and under - standing. In doing so, I wish briefly to introduce a scheme consisting of just five seamlessly inter-linked dimensions covering the entirety of human understanding and experience (Culliford 2015, 22–29): • Physical (energy and matter) – the miracle of existence; • Biological (organs and organisms) – the miracle of life; • Psychological (mental activity) – the miracle of consciousness; • Social (relationships) – the miracle of love; • Spiritual (souls and the sacred) – the miracle of unity. In this scheme, the spiritual dimension takes pride of place, appearing as an originating principle, seamlessly creating, linking and shaping the other four.
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 9 Larry Culliford 5 Living in Error The psycheorworld-mind , according to the current, I would say incomplete , science-orientated paradigm, tends to dismiss the spiritual dimension, concerning itself with the first four only, with the physical universe and its temporal manifestations. This is the secular, left-brain world of words and numbers, of science and technology, of reason , of evidence and calculation , the world of progress , of profit and loss , of the tragic imperative of growth economics , of merciless consumerism and advertising , of eco-destruction and global warming , of increasingly devastating natural disasters , widespreadhuman aggression , and the resulting displacement of millions, both as refugees and as so-called economic migrants . 6 Discovering Wisdom Wisdomcan be defined as a “form of knowledge”, “sacred and intuitive knowledge” in contrast to scientific, evidence-based information. Wisdom is “ the knowledge of how to be and behave for the best, for all concerned, in any given situation ” (Culliford 2020, 19). As such, it can be seen to depend upon recognition of our profound kinship to each other. This is clearly the opposite of, and an antidote to, Descartes’ induced self-centredness. We human beings are ultimately of one kind. Hence the value of kindness, and an inescapably urgent need to re-sacralise human culture. I hope you will agree with me that what we seek is spiritual progress throughout the world, progress aimed at gently pulling everything back from discord towards social well-being, health and harmony. Wisdom is intuitive, of the moment. It cannot be said to depend on any particular beliefs: ideological, political, religious or non-religious. A belief, in my view, is often a form of Ego-attachment, and much more important are deeply personal, spiritual experiences. To fit in with the spiritual theme of holiness, we can say, for example, therefore that wisdom ultimately depends on having a profound and mysterious sense of both personal and cosmic wholeness. Thomas Merton put it like this: “ We are already one... But we imagine that we are not... And what we have to recover is our original unity... What we have to be is what we are. ” (Merton 1973, 308). Even from the perspective of the world-mind, the findings of science provide good evidence that all people everywhere, This is the veritable shambles we are all in. How did we get there? According to Thomas Merton, since the philosopher Descartes announced, “ I think, therefore I am ” in the 1600s, humans have been living in error. The subsequent interpretation has always since been about reason, about thinking rationally. Logical, binary, either-or, right-wrong, us-them thinking, following Descartes, therefore tends, Merton says, “ to make the individual person central to his or her self-enclosed universe, seeing everything and everyone else as an object ” (Merton 1988, 131–2). Thus, in our secular Western culture, we define ourselves as separate from other people, and have grown increasingly mechanistic, materialistic, and mercenary to the detriment of the world. So, let me say a bit more about wisdom. past, present and future, are connected to one-another, and equally to everything else in the universe. To begin with, physics and chemistry teach that everything originated billions of years ago with the so-calledBig Bang ; that the first stars, formed of hydrogen and helium, eventually burned away and finally blew apart with such tremendous force as to create and spread wide all the atoms of the periodic table, leading to the creation of a multitude of galaxies, including our own, our solar system and planets, universally connected still by a mysterious force known as quantum entanglement . Biology, in turn, says that the same stardust atoms contribute to carbon-based life-forms that share a genetic heritage and evolutionary pathway towards the astonishing diversity and sophistication of life on earth today. The oxygen that we humans all breathe and share is produced in green plants by photosynthesis, a process which entraps light energy from the sun, our local star. The same oxygen, combined with carbon, is taken back up by plants and re-used in a continuous cycle. It is clear from such observations that we are each inextricably bound up with nature. Psychology reveals, in addition, that human beings share universal faculties, among them: the five senses; being able to learn, think, calculate and reason; the ability to speak and act; also a range of emotions, both painful and pleasurable. As extensively elaborated in his magnificent book, The Master and His Emissary , Iain McGilchrist (2009) reports how neuroscience tells us that the two sides of our brains work on
1 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 different agendas: the usually dominant verbal, binary left hemisphere analysing and dividing things into their constituent parts, like a spotlight; and in contrast the usually neglected, silent, unitary, intuitive right-brain appreciating things whole, in context, moment by moment, like a flood - light. Sociology and anthropology have also revealed significant commonalities of social groupings and behaviour. All these scientific observations combine to allow us at least an intel - lectual grasp of multiple cosmic inter-connections. Importantly, though, in terms of the spiritual journey, we can also both improve our chances of experiencing universal oneness and develop our understanding of this vital principle of existence, through what I callwisdom exercises . It is possible, our destiny even, to know this sacred unity personally, not just intellectually but through the direct perceptive capacity of the human soul; to experience it as a deeply seated, life-chang - ing, indelible and incontrovertible truth. It is only through having such spiritual experiences, that allows a person to feel wonderfully, vibrantly and eternally connected to the divine totality of the universe, to all nature, and through this to everything and everyone else, to every other person, regardless of age, race, belief-system, colour, gender or anything. This kind of intuitive awareness, whether come by gradually or through a sudden epiphany, marks the entry-point to re-integration of Ego and soul. This is the start of the homecoming phase of our pilgrimage journey. What changes as a person moves into the integration stage ? Aware of universal connectivity means naturally and spontaneously feeling motivated to take increasing responsibility for one’s thoughts, words and actions; not only this, but importantly also for what we do not speak up about and things left undone. Instead of prizing security and leisure, position, possessions and power over others, we increasingly recognise that spiritual growth occurs through letting go, and through engaging with adversity, our own and that of others, rather than by persistently trying to avoid or anaesthetise ourselves from it. And this leads us to discover and adopt a set of spiritual, as against worldly, values, such as (to name a few): compassion, forgiveness, generosity, gratitude, honesty, humility, frugality, peace, joy and love . These are among the alchemical elements essential to wisdom and are the attributes of what I would call supreme mental health, which is much more, of course, than simply the absence of mental illness. 7 Growing inWisdom So, what are wisdom exercises? How do we change, become spiritually mature, and grow in wisdom? It is a big subject, but let’s get started with another theme from our focal point this evening: the library. In addition to words and books, something else we tend to associate with a library is silence. I often say this: Spirituality is where the deeply personal meets the universal ; so let me tell you a personal story. I make no great apology for doing so, on the grounds that we do well to share instructive stories of our personal spiritual journeys with each other. I hope you will like this one because it’s about an occasion, both momentous and ordinary, when I had “the feeling that God was speaking directly into my ear”. Once upon a time I lived in Australia. It was the 1970s, and there I associated briefly with some Tibetan Buddhist lamas. I learned a lot from them; in particular, how to meditate. Back in England in the early 80s, deliberately taking time out, not having worked for many months because completely unsure what to do next, I went to a newly established Buddhist retreat centre in Cumbria, on the banks of Morecombe Bay. I should mention that my (Anglican) Christian practice had been in abeyance for some time. I had not been to church for several years; and I was sitting alone in silent meditation in the meditation room at this place one afternoon when the Lord’s Prayer started running repeatedly through my other - wise utterly still mind, to be followed by the words and tunes of hymns from my childhood. You may know this one, a wellloved traditional Irish hymn from the 8th century: Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art, Be thou my best thought in the day and the night, Both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light (Byrne and Hull 1986, 552). “Well,” I thought to myself, “You are in the wrong place, Lar - ry!” At that stage, the religious life appealed to me, and I had begun thinking of the possibility of becoming a Buddhist lay person, or even a monk. But I knew I was not a Buddhist, and as it turned out God had other plans. The next day I walked in warm sunshine through the retreat centre garden and a patch of woodland, down to the banks of the bay, where there was a stone bench. Once again, I sat alone in stillness and silence, going deep enough into a trance to become oblivious for a time to myself and my surroundings. I do not know how long I was there, but suddenly I was fully awake and alert, and there were words, as if put straight from the void into my head; strong, clear and authoritative. “You are a psychiatrist, Larry. That is what you have trained to do... Go and do that!”
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 1 1 Larry Culliford So, the next day I drove back to London and, soon after, look - ing at the positions vacant pages of the latest medical journal, I saw advertised the job I knew would be mine. I went immediately to see the professor at St George’s Hospital in London, who encouraged me to apply, and was eventually appointed. The next few years were not totally plain sailing. I had to continue training and take two sets of professional exams, and then compete for jobs on the crowded career ladder; but I was always confident, having the Holy Spirit on my side. Even in the darkest moments of practising psychiatry in difficult circumstances; for it is a challenging, unpopular, mis - understood and under-resourced specialty; what I had, you could say, was faith, and the strongest sense of walking with Jesus beside me. The point is that I was able to access the source of that guidance and faith through silence, stillness, and solitude; through meditation or (as you may prefer to think of it) silent prayer: and this, for me, is the most valuable of all possible wisdom exercises , enhancing the others, which are all aimed, similarly, at strengthening the connection between what we are calling soul and spirit . In my recent book (Culliford 2020, 138–9), on myPsychology Today’ blog (Culliford 2018), and through theWorld Wide Wave of Wisdom (Culliford 2019), I have been encouraging people to adopt a Spiritual Development Plan (SDP) or, for those less comfortable with the idea of spirituality, a Personal Growth Programme (PGP), according to which the simplest daily wisdom practice routine, PGP, or SDP, might consist of up to five parts, as follows: a) Regular quiet time – for meditation, reflection or prayer; b) Appropriate study – of religious, spiritual or other wisdom material, poetry, philosophy, etc.; c) Maintaining supportive friendshipswith others who share similar humanitarian or spiritual aims and values; d) Regular acts of service, kindness and compassion ; e) Time spent engaging meaningfully with nature . There is not time to include a more complete list, which can be found elsewhere (Culliford 2020, 138–142), and which of course includes regular acts of worship, but by way of explanation, here is a short passage from my new title The Big Book of Wisdom (Culliford 2020, 138): Wisdom practices, of a holistic and spiritual nature, can be divided into two main types: religious and secular. These are of time-honoured value, and have in common that they improve personal harmony by restoring an ideal balance between the left and right brain hemispheres, and so between spiritual and worldly values. These practices promote personal equanimity in the face of threats, also foster natural grieving and healing in the face of loss, with personal growth as a natural and permanent consequence. Between people, even people from widely different back - grounds, who may not even have a common language, shared holistic and spiritual practices tend to promote fellow-feeling and friendship. This evening, in the context of a library, it is right that I should focus on the first two recommended components: regular quiet time and appropriate study of religious, spiritual or other wisdom material. So, before going on to mention some more books that I have found helpful on my own spiri - tual journey, I will add a word about reflection , reading reflec - tively , Lectio Divina as the Latin has it, or, to use another word, contemplation . This is Thomas Merton (1972, 1) again: Contemplation is the highest expression of [author’s note: a person’s] intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacred - ness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that Source. It knows the Source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason and beyond simple faith... That resonates with me, as I hope it does with you. I really like it.
1 2 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 8 Some Books Worthy of Study So here now are a few of the impressive books, the contem - plation of which has helped me, in addition to those already mentioned: Firstly, Thomas Merton’s famous autobiographical account of his conversion, The Seven Storey Mountain (Merton 1948). I would also like to mention Merton’s book, The Way of Chuang Tsu (Merton 1969) in order to introduce you to the source text, Chuang-Tsu’s Inner Chapters ( Chuang Tsu1974, 113; 37), because I want to read a couple of extracts from it. 1. Perfect is the (person) who knows what comes from heaven and what comes from mankind. Knowing what comes from heaven, he is in tune with heaven. Knowing what comes from mankind, she uses her knowledge of the known to develop her knowledge of the unknown, and enjoys the fullness of life until her natural death. This is the perfection of knowledge. However, there is one difficulty. Knowledge must be based upon some - thing, but one is not certain what this may be. How, indeed, do I know that what I call heaven is not actu - ally mankind, and that what I call mankind is actually heaven? First, there must be a true person, a true human be - ing; then there can be true knowledge. 2. When there is division, there is something which is not divided. When there is questioning, there is some - thing beyond the question. Why is this? The sages keep their wisdom to themselves while ordinary peo - ple flaunt their knowledge in loud discussion. So I say, ‘Those who dispute do not see.’ I also recommend another Taoist text, Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching (1973), beautifully illustrated with photos and exquisite Chinese calligraphy; and I want to say, please do not be afraid of Eastern religions and philosophy. I can vouch for how much they have enhanced my Christian understanding, providing holistic insights into the Gospel of Christ. Particularly helpful too has been The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha . Let me read from the first of the forty chapters (1976, 21). We are what we think, All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our minds, we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakeable. I recommend familiarising yourself as well with the principle Hindu texts, The Bhagavad Gita (1944), for example, andThe Upanishads . Numerous translations are available, so I have listed the ones I tend to favour. There are also plenty of oth - er books I could name, books like Mother Teresa’s inspiring volumeA Simple Path (Mother Teresa 1995), and Neil Douglas-Klotz’s revealing book, The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus (Douglas-Klotz 1999), but that will have to do... Except that I must also mention two highly praiseworthy volumes, whose authors or editors are present with us here tonight. First, Noel Keating’s splen - didMeditation with Children (2017). Speaking as a recently appointed school Governor, in a school where character education is an important part of the curriculum, I am sure that teaching children to meditate is the way to go to transform secular culture, and the world psyche over time. As David Hay and Rebecca Nye have shown in The Spirit of the Child (Hay and Nye 2006), young children almost all have a significant degree of spiritual awareness; which these authors call, relational consciousness ; but this faculty diminishes as the teenage years approach. Meditation counters the effects of secular cultural pressures. What I particularly like about No - el’s book is the way he explains and distinguishes between the practical benefits and the spiritual fruits of meditation. Another great book on my list tonight is The Routledge Hand - book of Spirituality in Society and the Professions (Zsolnai and Flanagan 2019). This impressive volume vigorously promotes a new paradigm for human self-understanding, one that nec - essarily includes a spiritual dimension. Providing more than a benchmark of current thinking and research, it will serve for many as a reliable signpost, a genuine beacon of hope. Whereas each of the chapters tends to be scholarly, cautious
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 1 3 Larry Culliford and well-referenced, attempting to encapsulate spirituality in a specific context, read together they announce some - thing wonderful, a significant measure of agreement in every sphere of human endeavour covered. Let me read a couple of quotations (Zsolnai and Flanagan 2019, 3). Numerous studies document that the more people prioritize materialistic goals, the lower their well-being and the more likely they are to engage in manipulative, competi - tive, and ecologically degrading behaviours. Professions which want to surpass the ecological, social, and ethical ‘mess’ that modernity [author’s note: has] created are beginning to articulate within their own ranks the need to embrace spirituality and develop practices based on a less materialistic, more holistic worldview. And about the need for deeply personal engagement (Zsolnai and Flanagan 2019, 49). We came to acknowledge that the essential feature of transformative research is the scholar’s encounter with the Sacred, a journey of transformation that involves the researchers’ understanding of the topic and themselves as human beings. The range of the fifty-one subjects covered is vast: from ag - riculture to architecture, ecology to economics, from movies to martial arts, through peace, policing and politics, etcetera. The book contains many additional nuggets of wisdom. You do not have to be involved in education, for example, to see that the following statement implicitly contains sound advice for every professional, politician, parent, indeed for any person engaged in human relations at work, in their community or at home: “ Having a deep authentic presence in the classroom, whereby a teacher stands centred, confident, and present to self, is critical to a teacher creating and generating an ambi - ence of safety, setting boundaries, and being mindfully present to the task in hand. ” (Zsolnai and Flanagan 2019, 435). For both their vision and hard work, the publishers, editors and authors are to be thanked and congratulated. The common psyche , theworld-mind of today, may be best thought of as adolescent, still ripening towards maturity. Wonderful books like all these, and a library like the one we are launching this evening with due joy and reverence, can only help promote much-needed spiritual progress. 9 Does the Human Soul Survive? I have almost finished, but there remains one important fur - ther question to address, Where does the pilgrimage take us when life is over? Is there an afterlife, Heaven and Hell? To put it briefly, Does the human soul survive? The most welcome short answer I put to you is, Yes . But what is it that happens? Here is a potentially provocative idea suggested by US Pro - fessor of Philosophy and LSD pioneer, Chris Bache (2020, 1696–1701). The story of the Soul is in essence a story of individual consciousness – ultimately sourced in the Creative Intelligence of the cosmos – moving back and forth between the physical universe and a surrounding meta-universe on a long journey of self-development. The pulse of the Soul is the pulse of reincarnation, our awareness narrowing at birth and expanding at death. Reincarnation is a dance in which our earthly lives emerge from and return to our Soul, the larger consciousness that preserves every thought, every tear, every joy we experience on Earth and in between our earthly lives, folding all our experiences into its expanding radiance. Reincarnation gives individual consciousness an open-ended amount of time in which to learn from its mis - takes and develop innate capacities... Properly understood, reincarnation is a work of genius, as is everything else we see in our universe, from supernovas to DNA... I do not say that I concur with these ideas. I prefer the image of each single raindrop being received and welcomed back into a glorious, sacred, infinite and timeless spiritual and heavenly ocean, but they contain much worth pondering; and it seems fitting now to remind you briefly of Thomas Mer - ton’s poetic description inConjectures of a Guilty Bystanderof what we are tonight calling the soul . It rings true for me, as I hope it does also for you. Merton calls it (1966, 141–2): A point of nothingness... A point of pure truth... The pure glory of God in us... It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
1 4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 10 Conclusion In conclusion and to summarise, our secular, global society has arguably, for many decades, through what may be characterised as spiritual immaturity, been in error; troubled, facing a wide range of significant inter-related challenges and problems. We do well, therefore to seek intelligent explanations and healthy solutions to these. As befits a lecture given at the launch of a spiritual library, themes have included the meanings of key words from the lecture title, the value of specified books, and the benefits of silence, using these themes to explore the notion of life as a pilgrimage journey in six stages towards spiritual maturity and wisdom. Progress on the path involves healing the unavoidable split between the false everyday Ego and the true spiritual Self , by re-awakening transformative awareness of the seamless and indestructible connection between our personal soul and an overarching, universal spirit . To this end, engaging regularly with one or more wisdom exercises; especially through periods of meditation or silent prayer, and through the careful study of wisdom literature; is highly recommended. Those who undertake such an enlightened regimen will benefit; learn - ing to balance conformity with independence of mind and spirit, living in the moment, taking increasing responsibility for their thoughts, words and actions, and growing towards the virtuous embodiment of spiritual values, included among them kindness, honesty, humility, forgiveness, gratitude, peace, joy and love. Great benefit will inevitably, then, also be enjoyed by those with whom such disciplined practitioners come into contact and influence; so this becomes a reliable and certain way of contributing meaningfully and powerfully to the gradual, unstoppable evolution of theworld-mind or psyche. I believe Thomas Merton was inspired when, in 1968, he said this: “ We are already one... But we imagine that we are not... And what we have to recover is our original unity... What we have to be is what we are. ” (Merton 1973, 308). I leave you to ponder those words. The lecture was brought to a close with a final prayer, taken from the second verse of the well-known hymn, quoted earlier (Byrne and Hull 1986, 553): Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word, Be thou ever with me, and I with thee, Lord, Be thou my great father, and I thy true son, Be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one... Amen.
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 1 5 Larry Culliford References Bache, Christopher. 2020. LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heav - en. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press. Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God. Translated by Christopher Isherwood, and Swami Prabhavananda. 1944. Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press. Byrne, Mary, and Eleanor Hull. 1986. The New English Hymnal: Melody Edi - tion . Norwich: Canterbury Press. Carroll, Lewis. 1960. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. London: Penguin Books. Chuang-Tsu. 1974. Inner Chapters. London: Wildwood House. Culliford, Larry. 2011. The Psychology of Spirituality: An Introduc - tion. London: Jessica Kingsley. Culliford, Larry. 2014. “The Meaning of Life Diagram: A Framework for a Developmental Path from Birth to Spiritual Maturity.” Journal for the Study of Spirituality (4) 1: 31–44. Culliford, Larry. 2015. Much Ado About Something: A Vision of Chris - tian Maturity. London: SPCK. Culliford, Larry. 2018. “I Have the Solution to All the World’s Major Problems.” Psychology Today , April 13, 2018. https://www. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spiritualwisdom-secular-times/201804/i-have-thesolution-all-the-worlds-major-problems. Culliford, Larry. 2019. “World Wide Wave of Wisdom.” Journal for the Study of Spirituality (9) 1: 62–6. Culliford, Larry. 2020. The Big Book of Wisdom: What Is It? Why Do We Need It? And How to Get It? London: Hero Press. Douglas-Klotz, Neil. 1999. The Hidden Gos - pel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. Fowler, James. 1981, 1995. Stages of Faith. San Francisco, CA: Harper. Hay, David, and Rebecca Nye. 2006. The Spirit of the Child. London: Jessica Kingsley. Keating, Noel. 2017. Meditation with Chil - dren. Dublin: Veritas Publications. Kilmer, Aline. “Wit and Wisdom.” The Week , February 6, 2016. Lao-Tsu. 1973. Tao Te Ching. London: Wildwood House. McGilchrist, Iain. 2009. The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. New Haven, CT & London: Yale University Press. Merton, Thomas. 1948. The Seven Storey Mountain. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & Co. Merton, Thomas. 1966. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. New York, NY: Doubleday. Merton, Thomas. 1972. New Seeds of Con - templation. New York, NY: New Directions. Merton, Thomas. 1973. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton. New York, NY: New Directions. Merton, Thomas. 1988. Thomas Merton in Alaska: The Alaskan Conferences, Journals, and Letters. New York, NY: New Directions. Mother Teresa. 1995. A Simple Path. London: Rider Books. Rohr, Richard. 2012. Falling Up - ward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. London: SPCK. The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha. Translated by Thomas Byrom. 1976. London: Rider Books. Trumble, William, and Angus Stevenson, eds. 2002. Shorter Oxford English Dictio - nary on Historical Principles . Oxford: OUP. Zsolnai, Laszlo, and Bernadette Fla - nagan. 2019. The Routledge Hand - book of Spirituality in Society and the Professions. London: Routledge. Notes [1] Including most recently the advancing coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in lockdown in Ireland and the UK within two weeks of the lecture. [2] A podcast of the lecture can be heard athttps://www. jesuit.ie/podcasts/featured-audio/spire-library-launch/.
1 6 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 6 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 0 Science and Mysticism: Possibilities and Limitations in Exploring Mysticism Received January 5, 2020 Revised February 11, 2020 Accepted February 14, 2020 In his study, the author scrutinizes possibilities and limitation in exploring mysticism. The first approach of this study focuses on traditional views on mysticism, based on descriptions of mystical states and imaging of developed biofield energy of a mystic. To describe mystical states, he used Teresa of Ávila and her workThe Interior Castle , while iconography in Christian mysticism, drawings in the Chinese books of life and drawings by Hōun Jiyu-Kennett served him as a source of information for comparison of energy biofield in mystics. In the second approach he studies possibilities for scientific exploration of mysticism, especially accompanying effects, such as human energy biofield. To measure human energy biofield, we used the device called Bio-Well. This device detects electro-photon emission of fingers and analyses it using computer software. The research results show that there is a direct relation between spiritual practice and increased energy levels. However, it also reveals that biofield research is rather indirect as it is based on energy measurement in individual organs. Despite the fact that the final computerized data shows energy increase in individual organs, both graphically and numerically, it does not present the overall form of developed energy field of human. Key words Mysticism, science, Bio-Well, Teresa of Ávila, Kundalini, chakras Slavomír Gálik
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