Plotinus | We Must No Longer Rush At Them

“How shall we start, and later arrive at the contemplation of this ineffable beauty which, like the divinity in the mysteries, remains hidden in the recesses of a sanctuary, and does not show itself outside, where it might be perceived by the profane? We must advance into this sanctuary, penetrating into it, if we have the strength to do so, closing our eyes to the spectacle of terrestrial things, without throwing a backward glance on the bodies whose graces formerly charmed us. If we do still see corporeal beauties, we must no longer rush at them, but, knowing that they are only images, traces and adumbrations of a superior principle, we will flee from them, to approach Him of whom they are merely reflections. Whoever would let himself be misled by the pursuit of those vain shadows, mistaking them for realities, would grasp only an image as fugitive as the fluctuating form reflected by the waters, and would resemble that senseless (Narcissus) who, wishing to grasp that image himself, according to the fable, disappeared, carried away by the current.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

Here Plotinus echoes many of the contemplative traditions in encouraging “fleeing the things of the world.” The things of this world are merely shadows, “as fugitive as the fluctuating form reflected by the waters.” Whether they must be rejected/given up completely, or merely abstained from for a time so that the heart may become unattached, is a matter of debate within the traditions, and perhaps among each individual seeker.

To engage in the world without attachment, to appreciate all the beauty in the world – but without seeing its forms as absolute, or coming to them with craving or need – is sometimes seen as characteristic of one who has matured on the contemplative path. The final stage of the Zen Oxherding Pictures (Returning to the Marketplace with Helping Hands) may be one way of expressing this.

Plotinus | Alone With Him Who is Alone, The Supreme Goal of Souls, Beauty Face to Face

“Thus, in her ascension towards divinity, the soul advances until, having risen above everything that is foreign to her, she alone with Him who is alone, beholds, in all His simplicity and purity, Him from whom all depends, to whom all aspires, from whom everything draws its existence, life and thought. He who beholds him is overwhelmed with love; with ardor desiring to unite himself with Him, entranced with ecstasy. Men who have not yet seen Him desire Him as the Good; those who have, admire Him as sovereign beauty, struck simultaneously with stupor and pleasure, thrilling in a painless orgasm, loving with a genuine emotion, with an ardor without equal, scorning all other affections, and disdaining those things which formerly they characterized as beautiful. This is the experience of those to whom divinities and guardians have appeared; they reck no longer of the beauty of other bodies. Imagine, if you can, the experiences of those who behold Beauty itself, the pure Beauty, which, because of its very purity, is fleshless and bodiless, outside of earth and heaven. All these things, indeed are contingent and composite, they are not principles, they are derived from Him. What beauty could one still wish to see after having arrived at vision of Him who gives perfection to all beings, though himself remains unmoved, without receiving anything; after finding rest in this contemplation, and enjoying it by becoming assimilated to Him? Being supreme beauty, and the first beauty, He beautifies those who love Him, and thereby they become worthy of love. This is the great, the supreme goal of souls; this is the goal which arouses all their efforts, if they do not wish to be disinherited of that sublime contemplation the enjoyment of which confers blessedness, and privation of which is the greatest of earthy misfortunes. Real misfortune is not to lack beautiful colors, nor beautiful bodies, nor power, nor domination, nor royalty. It is quite sufficient to see oneself excluded from no more than possession of beauty. This possession is precious enough to render worthless domination of a kingdom, if not the whole earth, of the sea, or even of the heavens – if indeed it were possible, while abandoning and scorning all that (natural beauty) to succeed in contemplating beauty face to face.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

“Alone with the Alone” is perhaps the most widely quoted language from Plotinus, which he uses more famously at the end of his essay Of The Good and The One.

Plotinus | We Must Ascend to the Good

“We must ascend to the Good to which every soul aspires. Whoever has seen it knows what I still have to say, and knows the beauty of the Good. Indeed, the Good is desirable for its own sake; it is the goal of our desires. To attain it, we have to ascend to the higher regions, turn towards them, and lay aside the garment which we put on when descending here below; just as in the (Eleusynian, or Isiac) mysteries, those who are admitted to penetrate the recesses of the sanctuary, after having purified themselves, lay aside every garment, and advance stark naked.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

The writings of Plotinus (204-271 CE) represent a major strand of Neoplatonic thought. In Neoplatonic thought, the soul’s ultimate good is sometimes conceptualized as “a return to the One” – alternatively referenced as the One, Divinity, Unity, the Good, the Beautiful – the Ultimate Principle from which all emanates. Personally, I view Neoplatonism as a development in the Platonic Theory of Forms, but more explicitly unified in a vision of God or the Absolute. Neoplatonism likely influenced Christian and other forms of mysticism, especially through Pseudo-Dionysius.

In Neoplatonic thought, matter (referenced above in the idea of “descending here below”) is generally regarded as evil, or at least inconsequential to the soul’s task. Plotinus also here references the Greek “Mystery Religions,” and sometimes uses their rituals as demonstrative analogies.

The following posts will be a series of quotations from Plotinus’ Of Beauty and Of the Good and the One.

Small Steps

Keep on taking small steps each day, doing the good that is in front of you to do.

Live perfectly. And when you fall off the horse, you climb back on.

Introvertive and Extrovertive "Mystical Experience"

Within the study of world mysticism, there is debate over what bounds to put around the topic. What do we mean by “mystical” experience? What experiences count, or don’t count?

The content on this site mostly revolves around the form of contemplative experience typically meant by the Christian term contemplation. Contemplation, in the Christian context, refers to an experience of Absolute or Pure Consciousness, most often interpreted as “Union with God.” It is “beyond thought” – a place in which the self disappears into Being, into God.

St. Theresa describes it as “water in water,” or light which enters a room from different windows and becomes one.

St. John of the Cross calls it “abiding in a pure and simple light” – beyond image and form.

It seems to me that this experience not only exists within each contemplative tradition, but also that what we might call Unitive Consciousness is the apex of the journey. Its ongoing experience is that which ultimately and fully transforms a soul.

Another class of experience which often falls within the bounds of world mysticism we might classify as the experience of “God as the Ground of the world.” In his Mysticism and Philosophy, W. T. Stace contrasts introvertive mysticism (i.e. Unitive Consciousness in the Ground of the soul) with extrovertive mysticism (an experience of the Unity and Beauty of all things in the world, United in God so to speak).

Examples of this extroverted mysticism (in various degrees) might be a sudden intuitive flash while in nature, the Zen experience of Satori, or something along the lines of Aldous Huxley’s description of his mescalin experience in The Doors of Perception; the temporary and sometimes unexpected experience of the sacredness and oneness of all things.

I tend to see introvertive experience – Pure Consciousness in the Ground of the Soul – as somehow more fundamental and agree with Stace when he says:

“…it looks as if the extrovertive mysticism were a sort of incomplete version of the completeness realized in the introvertive kind.”

But extrovertive forms of mystical experience also exist, and are often described as overwhelmingly powerful. In our modern Western culture, the term “mysticism” typically evokes ideas related to various forms of extrovertive mysticism.

F. C. Happold, in his Mysticism, discusses as follows:

“Thus our study is concerned with a form of experience and a type of consciousness, which can not only be approached from different angles but also be given different interpretations. We can put aside immediately all those false types of so-called mysticism such as spiritualism, occultism, and the like, which have been referred to above. We may also dismiss as inadequate and misleading such phrases as ‘All religion is mystical.’ Mystical experience may take more than one form. It is, however, a quite different and recognizable form of experience. Not need we concern ourselves with visions and states of ecstasy. Accounts of them are found in the writings of contemplatives; they are, however, usually regarded with some suspicion and are in no way an essential element in mystical experience. Nor shall we regard all psychical experience as necessarily mystical…

We shall, however, regard as falling within the scope of our study a range of experience, which we shall maintain may rightly be called mystical, which extends far beyond that advanced and rare state which medieval writers call Contemplation. While few attain to that high state of mystical experience when it becomes a distinct form of consciousness, there is a wide range of spiritual and aesthetic experience which, I would maintain, is of the same character and proceeds from the same source. A man may be a mystic who is not, and never could be, a contemplative. There come to many the sudden moments of intuitive perception, elusive, fading quickly, but of deep significance, illuminations which they feel reveal to them new facets of reality. Perhaps only once or twice in a lifetime may come an experience more profound, of the sort which came to Warner Allen, and which he described in The Timeless Moment, or to Blaise Pascal, which he recorded on the scrap of paper found sewn up in his doublet after his death:

From about half past ten in the evening to
about half an hour after midnight.
Fire.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,
Not the God of philosophers and scholars.
Absolute Certainty: Beyond Reason. Joy. Peace.
Forgetfulness of the world and everything but God.
The world has not known thee, but I have known thee.
Joy! joy! joy! tears of joy!

Such experiences, when they happen to a man, revolutionize his outlook, often change his life. He may carry on with his normal occupation as before. To his friends and acquaintances he may seem to be the same as he always was. But in himself he is changed. He feels that he has received a pure, direct vision of truth. Nothing can be the same again. These may not call themselves mystics, but in a lesser degree they have known something that the true contemplative knows in a more intense and continuous form. Their contact is with the same Reality as his.”

And so the comparison between introvertive and extrovertive experience has become one way of classifying forms of mystical experience within the field.

It is debated whether or not traditional visionary experiences (or perhaps visionary experiences achieved through the use of chemical induction) should fall within the scope of the field.

Dreams

Anecdotally, my dream life is much more vivid and powerful during periods when I am consistent with my meditation. I remember much more from them and they sometimes seem to signify something of weight to me.

Carl Jung – a proponent of dream analysis – was well aware that analysis was subjective, open to an almost infinite number of interpretations. Nevertheless, he thought, when probed, the dream often meant something significant to the dreamer. The meaning lies between the dreamer and his dream.

I’ve never cared much for dream analysis, and I still don’t. Still, the vividness of my dreams has stood out to me as very correlated with how disciplined I have been with my meditation practice.

I’ve recently been studying Sufism. As a tradition, Sufism is far more open to visionary experience than, say, the Christian Tradition as a whole. The only difference between a “vision” and a very strong or vivid dream seems to be whether the subject was “awake” or “asleep” – just different forms of conscious experience – at the time.

Creativity; dreams; perhaps visions; all associated with contemplative practice in one form or another.

William Johnston | The Nothing is All, Emptiness is Fullness, The Void is Plentitude

“When one enters the deeper layers of contemplative prayer one sooner or later experiences the void, the emptiness, the nothingness, the darkness, the unknowing, the profound mystical silence. All these words point to the same reality. Yes, it is as though there is within me an immense and bottomless void. And when one first experiences this void there is an absence of thought and imaginative pictures, and perhaps there is a certain forgetfulness, as forms are buried beneath a cloud of forgetting. ‘Nothing, nothing, nothing, and even on the mountain nothing.’ But the nothing is all; the emptiness is fullness, the void is plentitude. To experience the vast inner nothing is to experience the vast inner all. It is to experience the ‘eternal now.’ This is the doctrine of St. John of the Cross and the whole apophatic tradition which he represents.”

– William Johnson, Letters to Contemplatives

The Zen Ox Herding Pictures

The Zen Ox Herding Pictures, sometimes called "In Search of the Missing Ox," are a famous set of images in Zen Buddhism.  The pictures are arranged in a progression, and are designed to show the stages of spiritual development in Zen.  As far as I know, there is no canonical interpretation of the images (for instance see Zen Training, where the author gives two separate interpretations of the same images), but they are popular objects of commentary within the tradition.

The Ox is often interpreted as one’s Original, True, or Buddha Nature.

The images are as follows:

Starting the Search for the Ox

Finding the Footprints

Catching a Glimpse of the Ox

Catching the Ox

Taming the Ox

Riding the Ox Home

Ox Lost, Man Remaining

No Ox, No Man

Returning to the Source

In Town with Helping Hands

Zen Thoughts | Thomas Merton

“In all that he tried to say, whether in familiar or startling terms, Eckhart was trying to point to something that cannot be structured and cannot be contained within the limits of any system. He was not trying to construct a new dogmatic theology, but was trying to give expression to the great creative renewal of the mystical consciousness which was sweeping through the Rhineland and the Low Countries in his time. If Eckhart is studied in the framework of a religious and cultural structure, he is undoubtedly intriguing; yet we may entirely miss the point of what he was saying and become involved in side issues. Seen in relation to those Zen Masters on the other side of the earth who, like him, deliberately used extremely paradoxical expressions, we can detect in him the same kind of consciousness as theirs. Whatever Zen may be, however you define it, it is somehow there in Eckhart.”

“...let us remind ourselves that another, metaphysical, consciousness is still available to modern man.  It starts not from the thinking and self-aware subject but from Being, ontologically seen to be beyond and prior to the subject-object division.  Underlying the subjective experience of the individual self there is an immediate experience of Being… It has in it none of the split and alienation that occurs when the subject becomes aware of itself as quasi-object.  The consciousness of Being is an immediate experience that goes beyond reflexive awareness.  It is not ‘consciousness of’ but pure consciousness, in which the subject as such disappears.  Posterior to this immediate experience of a ground which transcends experience emerges the subject with its self-awareness.”

Zen Thoughts | Philip Kapleau

“For the ordinary man or woman, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible; one’s life is thus centered not in reality itself but in one’s ideas of it. By focusing the mind wholly on each object and every action, zazen strips it of extraneous thoughts and allows us to enter into a full rapport with life. Sitting zazen and mobile zazen are two functions equally dynamic and mutually reinforcing. Those who sit devotedly in zazen every day, their minds free of discriminating thoughts, find it easier to related themselves wholeheartedly to their daily tasks, and those who perform every act with total attention and clear awareness find it less difficult to achieve emptiness of mind during sitting periods.”

“The uniqueness of zazen lies in this: that the mind is freed from bondage to all thought-forms, visions, objects, and imaginings, however sacred or elevating, and brought to a state of absolute emptiness, from which alone it may one day perceive its own true nature...”

“The very foundation of shikan-taza is an unshakable faith that sitting as the Buddha sat, with the mind void of all conceptions, of all beliefs and points of view, is the actualization or unfoldment of the inherently enlightened Bodhi-mind with which all are endowed. At the same time this sitting is entered into in the faith that it will one day culminate in the sudden and direct perception of the true nature of this Mind – in other words, enlightenment.”

“...with enlightenment, zazen brings the realization that the substratum of existence is a Voidness out of which all things ceaselessly arise and into which they endlessly return, that this Emptiness is positive and alive and in fact not other than the vividness of a sunset or the harmonies of a great symphony. This bursting into consciousness of the effulgent Buddha-nature is the ‘swallowing up’ of the universe, the obliteration of every feeling of opposition and separateness. In this state of unconditioned subjectivity I, selfless I, am supreme.”

Zen Thoughts | D.T. Suzuki

“Satori may be defined as an intuitive looking into the nature of things in contradistinction to the analytical or logical understanding of it. Practically, it means the unfolding of a new world hitherto unperceived in the confusion of the dualistically-trained mind. Or we may say that with satori our entire surroundings are viewed from quite an unexpected angle of perception. Whatever this is, the world for those who have gained a satori is no more the old world as it used to be; even with all its flowering streams and burning fires, it is never the same once again. Logically stated, all its opposites and contradictions are united and harmonized into a consistent organic whole...Its semblance or analogy in a more or less feeble and fragmented way is gained when a difficult mathematical problem is solved, or when a great discovery is made, or when a sudden means of escape is realized in the midst of most desperate complications; in short, when one exclaims ‘Eureka! Eureka!’”

“But this refers only to the intellectual aspect of satori, which is therefore necessarily partial and incomplete and does not touch the very foundations of life considered one indivisible whole. Satori as the Zen experience must be concerned with the entirety of life. For what Zen proposes to do is the revolution, and the revaluation as well, of oneself as a spiritual unity. The solving of a mathematical problem ends with the solution, it does not affect one’s whole life. So with all other particular questions, practical or scientific, they do not enter the basic life-tone of the individual concerned. But the opening of satori is the remaking of life itself. When it is genuine – for there are many simulacra of it – its effects on one’s moral and spiritual life are revolutionary…”

“This is a mystery and a miracle, but according to the Zen masters such is being performed every day. Satori can thus be had only through our once personally experiencing it.”

Spiritual Goals

It seems really hard to have spiritual goals.

A lot of how I think about the spiritual life is in terms of moral and personal development. Am I more patient? Am I more present, accepting, loving, intentional, etc. than I was a year ago?

Those are really hard questions to answer. They don’t seem to be truly measurable except for a hunch or a feeling that I might be moving in the right direction. How do you measure how present you were in the last week?

Add to this the fact that my spiritual practice – Centering Prayer – is, at its core, a passive practice. I conceive of it as an opening of the self to God – to a transformation that can only happen by grace.

So the only real tangible spiritual goal I can think of is “time on the mat.” How much time do I actually spend in meditation, opening myself to the possibility of transformation, each day?

That’s pretty much all I can come up with for a true spiritual goal. Time on the mat.

Zen Thoughts | Norman Fischer

“One of the necessities of this new kind of religion is actual practice – daily practice. It is admirable and important to have the right ideas about our lives: to believe that goodness is possible and can be cultivated, to view compassion as the most important of human achievements, to want to be mindful and not mindless, and so on. But these attitudes, wonderful as they are, aren’t enough to carry us forward in the present world. We also need some concrete form of spiritual practice we are committed to – an everyday practice that can be a strong basis for those beliefs and intentions and can help us to work with our daily conduct. By spiritual practice I mean activities that we actually do, that we take the time to do; activities that are, in a rational sense, useless, that are done merely for their own sake with no other goal or object; activities that are done with devotion and dedication to something larger than ourselves, and as much as possible without self-interest.”

“It [zazen] is simply the practice of being what we are, of allowing, permitting, opening ourselves to ourselves. In doing that we enter directly the depth of our living – a depth that goes beyond our individual life and touches all life.”

“I think the real fruits of spiritual practice do not become apparent right away. If you do almost any kind of serious practice, even for a day or a weekend, you will see some powerful effects in your life. It is not at all unrealistic to think that someone can have a life-transforming experience in a short retreat or even in a morning at church. I have seen this happen many times. But the real fruits of spiritual practice grow over longer periods of time.”

Zen Thoughts | Katsuki Sekida

“In Zen training we seek to extinguish the self-centered, individual ego, but we do not try to do this merely by thinking about it.  It is with our own body and mind that we actually experience what we call ‘pure existence.’

The basic kind of Zen practice is called zazen (sitting Zen), and in zazen we attain samadhi.  In this state the activity of consciousness is stopped and we cease to be aware of time, space, and causation.  The mode of existence which thus makes its appearance may at first sight seem to be nothing more than mere being, or existence.  However, if you really attain this state you will find it to be a remarkable thing.  At the extremity of having denied all and having nothing left to deny, we reach a state in which absolute silence and stillness reign, bathed in a pure, serene light.  Buddhists of former times called this state annihilation, or Nirvana...

In ordinary daily life our consciousness works ceaselessly to protect and maintain our interests.  It has acquired the habit of utilitarian thinking, looking upon the things of the world as so many tools – in Heidegger’s phrase, it treats them ‘in the context of equipment.’  It looks at objects in the light of how they can be made use of.  We call this attitude the habitual way of consciousness.  This way of looking at things is the origin of man’s distorted view of the world… Zen aims at overthrowing this distorted view of the world, and zazen is the means of doing it. 

On coming out of samadhi it can happen that one becomes fully aware of one’s being in its pure form; that is, one experiences pure existence.  This experience of the pure existence of one’s being, associated with the recovery of pure consciousness in samadhi, leads us to the recognition of pure existence in the external world too.  Discussion of these topics inevitably leads us into epistemological tangles, but let us proceed for the moment, granting that such recognition of pure existence is possible.  To look at oneself and the objects of the external world in the context of pure existence is kensho, or realization.

This experience, as we have stressed, is attained by the training of body and mind.  Reason comes later and illuminates the experience, and thus the two wheels of the cart of cognition are completed.”

Zen Thoughts | Dogen

“Observe the example of Shakyamuni Buddha at the Jeta Grove, who practiced upright sitting for six years even though he was gifted with intrinsic wisdom. Still celebrated is the Master Bodhidharma of Shaolin Temple, who sat facing a wall for nine years, although he had already received the mind seal. Ancient sages were like this; who nowadays does not need to practice as they did?”

“In an appropriate place for sitting, set out a thick mat and put a round cushion on top of it.  Sit either in full- or half-lotus posture.  For the full-lotus posture, first place the right foot on the left thigh, then the left foot on the right thigh.  For the half-lotus posture, place the left foot on the right thigh.  Loosen the robes and belts and arrange them in an orderly way.  Then place the right hand palm up on the left foot, and the left hand on the right hand, with the ends of the thumbs lightly touching each other.

Sit straight up without leaning to the right or left and without bending forward or backward.  The ears should be in line with the shoulders and the nose in line with the navel.  Rest the tongue against the roof of the mouth, with lips and teeth closed.  Keep the eyes open and breathe gently through the nose.  Having adjusted your body in this manner, take a breath and exhale fully, then sway your body to left and right.

Now sit steadfastly and think not thinking.  How do you think not thinking?  Beyond thinking.  This is the essential art of zazen.  The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation.  It is simply the dharma gate of enjoyment and ease.  It is the practice-realization of complete enlightenment.  Realize the fundamental point free from the binding of nets and baskets.  Once you experience it, you are like a dragon swimming in the water or a tiger reposing in the mountains.  Know that the true dharma emerges of itself, clearing away hindrances and distractions.”

“Stop searching for phrases and chasing after words. Take the backward step and turn the light inward. Your body-mind of itself will drop away and your original face will appear. If you want to attain just this, immediately practice just this.”

Zen Thoughts | Hui-Neng

“...he [Hung-Jen, then current Grand Master] explained the Diamond Sutra to me.  When he came to the point where it says ‘You should activate your mind without dwelling on anything,’ at these words I had the overwhelming realization that all things are not apart from inherent nature.  I then said to the Grand Master, ‘Who would have expected inherent nature to be intrinsically pure?  Who would have expected that inherent nature is originally unborn and undying?  Who would have expected that inherent nature is originally complete in itself?’...”

Zen Thoughts | Bodhidharma

“To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. 
Whoever sees his nature is a buddha.”

“Your nature is the Buddha.”

“Our nature is the mind.  And the mind is our nature.”

“This nature is the same as the mind of all buddhas.
Buddhas of the past and future only transmit this mind.”

“...you have buddha-nature.”

“Seeing your nature is zen.  Unless you see your nature, it’s not zen.”

“I only talk about seeing your nature.”

“In India, the twenty-seven patriarchs only transmitted
the imprint of the mind.  And the only reason I’ve come
to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana:
This mind is the buddha.”

An unattributed four line stanza is often quoted as a summary of Bodhidharma’s message:

A special transmission outside the scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing at the soul of man;
Seeing into one’s nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.

Zen Pages Updated

The Zen Tradition and Zazen pages on the site have been updated.

The Atman Dancing With The Atman

At its best, life is the Atman dancing with the Atman.

God in you dancing with God in me.

A (Possible) Definition of Spirituality

“Our experiential connection to the Source and through the Source to all things.”