Universal Spirituality

This paper provides an initial, multidimensional map of the complex relationships among consciousness, mind, brain and the external world in a way that follows both the contours of everyday experience and the findings of science. It then demonstrates how this reflexive monist map can be used to evaluate the utility and resolve some of the oppositions of the many other “isms” that currently populate consciousness studies. While no conventional, one-dimensional “ism” such as physicalism can do justice to this web of relationships, physicalism, functionalism, dualism, neutral monism, and dual-aspect monism can all be seen to provide useful ways of understanding different aspects of the relationships among consciousness, mind, brain and the external world when these are viewed in either a first- or a third-person way from within this web of relationships by sentient creatures such as ourselves. For example, physicalism and functionalism provide a useful understanding of consciousness, mind, brain and external world when viewed from a third-person perspective, while neutral monism provides a useful way of understanding first- versus third-person views of external phenomena. On the other hand, dual-aspect monism provides a useful way of understanding first- versus third-person views of mind, including Eastern versus Western views of mind.  Dual-aspect monism also provides a useful understanding of the “unconscious ground of being” that gives rise to, supports and embeds all these observable phenomena. For an integrated understanding one needs to understand how these phenomena and relationships combine into an integrated whole.

In einem trivialen Verständnis bedeutet Mystik das, was die Religionen der Erde jenseits ihrer institutionell-dogmatischen Ausprägungen miteinander verbindet. Inwieweit ein solch entkontextualisierter Mystik-Begriff wissenschaftlich vertretbar ist, soll genauso diskutiert werden wie die christlichen Voraussetzungen und Möglichkeiten einer sinnvollen Verständigung über fremde mystische Überlieferungen im interreligiösen Dialog. In diesem Zusammenhang sollen zwei theologische Ansätze (Josef Sudbrack und John Hick) näher besprochen werden, um zu zeigen, wie die (christliche) Theologie der Religionen über die Rolle und den Stellenwert der Mystik in der interreligiösen Verständigung urteilt. Es wird sich dabei zeigen, dass in der Einstellung außerchristlichen mystischen Überlieferungen gegenüber dieselben Dichotomien obwalten wie in der Beurteilung von nichtchristlichen Religionen: Schroffe Ablehnung des fremden Mystischen bei zeitgleichem Anspruch auf die Exklusivität der eigenen mystischen Tradition ist eher untypisch; inklusivistische und pluralistische Tendenzen sind desto häufiger anzutreffen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, ob sich in der eigenen zweitausendjährigen Theologiegeschichte einen Ansatz findet, der nicht nur die zum Dialog erforderliche Offenheit fremden religiösen Überlieferungen gegenüber aufweist, sondern auch ein wissenschaftlich verantwortbares Umgehen mit der eigenen Tradition ermöglicht. Dabei geht es um den Ansatz der Negativen Theologie, dem beim rechten Licht gesehen sowohl das Absolutheitsdenken als auch der religiöse Relativismus fremd sind.

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L’article a pour sujet la personnalité extraordinaire du kabbaliste le Rabbin Levi Isaac Krakovsky (1891–1966), un des étudiants oubliés du Rabbin Yehuda Leib Ashlag (1885–1955). Krakovsky diffusait l’enseignement de son maître en Amérique en anglais, écrivait des douzaines de livres et essayait d’établir des yeshivot de Kabbalistes. Contrairement à son maître, il présentait un enseignement exotérique et une vision de diffusion de la Kabbale dans le monde entier. Son influence était minime, mais un de ses élèves était Shraga Philip Berg qui continuait son chemin et le complétait de plusieurs points de vue. L’article se base sur de riches matières archivales, parmi lesquelles de longues essays de l’auteur en manuscrit qui sont décrits ici pour la premiere fois. D’une telle façon, nous décrivons le dévelopment de la Kabbale en Amérique du début du vingtième siècle jusqu’ aujourd’hui.

The purpose of this paper is to present a basic model of wellness consisting of fundamental aspects that work interconnectedly in dynamic balance in order to achieve, maintain, and naturally sustain the health and wellness of the individual.  The Person-Centered Model of Wellness is meant to be a basic conceptual construct from which other models and concepts of wellness can be derived or devised.

Gustav Fechner, the German experimental psychologist, coined the term psychophysics in 1860, publishing the first mathematical equation to model human consciousness.  Fechner assumed that any future approaches to consciousness would include mathematical and physical underpinnings. In 1995, the cognitive scientist and philosopher David Chalmers coined the phrase "the hard problem" as being that of connecting consciousness with some physical substrate.  According to Chalmers, "The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. Most existing theories of consciousness either deny the phenomenon, explain something else, or elevate the problem to an eternal mystery."  As Chalmers points out, unfortunately, the modern scientific community has not yet produced a model of consciousness supported by mathematics and physics, thus no progress in Fecher's "psychophysics." 
However there is growing interest among the scientific community in string theory, the only branch of mathematical geometry that has successfully explained recent discoveries in high energy particle physics. The mathematical proof of string theory requires the existence of a ten dimensional universe.  But in trying to map consciousness, science continues to limit its data search within time and the three spatial dimensions, ignoring six of string theory's ten dimensions  Perhaps because mainstream science tacitly limits itself to four of the ten dimensions, progress has come to a dead end. Accordingly, the most widely accepted theory among neurophysiologists is that consciousness is somehow a "byproduct" of the electrical sparking of neurons, an accidental epiphenomenon of the activities of nerve-filled wet meat.
This paper considers data beyond the four dimensional constraints of the scientific establishment. It is my contention that many recorded accounts of philosophers, mystics, and shamans can and should be considered as data. My thesis is that these accounts express experience and observation within one or more of the additional dimensions predicted by string theory. Any advance in understanding consciousness must take into account not only the language and domains of mathematics, particle physics, and neurobiology, but also the experiential domains of philosophers and mystics. It is in regarding data from these multiple domains of inquiry that a new model of consciousness will emerge. In this paper I hypothesize a psychophysics of consciousness, woven of strands from mathematics, mysticism, and physics, as well as contemplative participatory practice, to address and solve "the hard problem."

As described by the author, Dr. V.G. Rele, in the Preface, this book was first introduced as a paper read before the Bombay Medical Union in 1926.  It was so well received that encouragement was given to publish the paper as a book for those interested in "the science of Yoga."    In this work, the author attempts to give a physiological explanation of the powers which the Yogis attain by their methods. Rele spends some time extolling the virtues of internal meditation on the thalamus, due to its being a central hub or nexus for a myriad of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve systems from throughout the body.  He states  "by a conscious control over the udana-prana (thalamus), suppresses all incoming and outgoing sensations in it, and the suppression is necessary to prevent that distraction of the mind which he is anxious to control."  Rele states that a perfect adept in Kundalini Yoga should be able to move the focus of consciousness out from the captivity of the Brahma-randhra and out of the brain into the  "bigger cavity surrounding the brain and the spinal-cord, known as ākāsha."  In this state there will arise awareness of a much wider field of perception and the yogi "becomes absorbed in the Infinite Intelligence from which it emanated."

La historia de los vocablos metafísica y ontología está ligada, en parte, al intento del hombre por conocer esa realidad que subyace al mundo, ya sea que esté dentro de él o fuera de él. Esa realidad —definida como divina para muchos— es de una naturaleza tan diferente a la humana, que es prácticamente imposible poder afirmar algo sobre ella. Al menos, eso es lo que a mí me parece. Al leer los esfuerzos filosóficos de Aristóteles por definir la naturaleza divina, siempre me asaltó la duda sobre cómo fue que el sabio griego llegó a tales conclusiones. Aquí
presento mis objeciones ante la posibilidad de conocer la naturaleza de lo divino desde una aproximación meramente racional.

Résumé

Jusqu’à ce jour, les spécialistes qui se sont prononcés sur l’œuvre de Rampa s’entendent unanimement pour la décrire comme une imposture, un tissu de mensonges et de semi-vérités. Leur jugement s’appuie généralement sur des considérations propres au domaine de la tibétologie. Est-il possible de poser un regard différent sur cet auteur controversé, un regard qui ne soit pas celui de la tibétologie, mais celui des sciences des religions en général et de la mythologie en particulier? De ce nouveau point de vue, en dépassant les condamnations à l’emporte-pièce, l’œuvre de Rampa ne témoigne-t-elle pas de mythes annonciateurs d’une nouvelle spiritualité?

Abstract

Until today, the many specialists who criticized Rampa’s work were unanimous in describing it as a pure make up, a web of lies and half-truths. In general, this depreciation has been supported by considerations proper to the field of Tibetology. Is it possible to take on another point of view when approaching this most controversial author, a view that would not be that of Tibetology but that of Religious Studies in general and of Mythology in particular? From this perspective, looking beyond the usual ideologically biased condemnations, can’t we perceive in Rampa’s work the genesis of myths foretelling a new approach to spirituality?

Contents

Preface pp. ix-xii

Introduction: The Imagined Decline of Kabbalah pp. 1-17

Chapter One: The Kabbalistic Yeshivot of Jerusalem  pp. 19-73

Chapter Two: Searching for the Lost Tribes  pp. 74-108

Chapter Three: The Renaissance of Print  pp. 109-140

Chapter Four: Prayers and Ritual Literature pp. 141-166

Chapter Five: Critique, Parody and Controversy pp. 167-175

Concluding Remarks p. 176

Appendix: List of Proclamations pp. 177-184

Bibliography pp. 185-230

Index pp. 231-243


"Reviews:
(1) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Beit Avichai Journal, (Hebrew)
(2) Tomer Persiko, 2012, הרחובות ממריאים ‘The streets of Kabbalah’, Lula’at ha-El: The Varieties of Religious Experience, Blog (Hebrew)
(3) Avishai Elboim, 2011, חיפוש עשרת השבטים ‘Searching for the lost Tribes’, Shabat be-Shabato, no. 1405, p. 6 (Hebrew)
(4) Yaniv Mezuman, 2012, רחובות הנהר ‘Rehovot ha-Nahar’, Makor Rishon, Shabat, pp. 12-13 (Hebrew)
(5) Yehudah Mirsky, 2012, ‘Gershom Scholem, 30 Years On’, Jewish Ideas Daily.
(6) Eliezer Baumgarten, 2013,נהר שלום  ‘Nahar Shalom’, Pa'amim 133-134, 7 pages (Hebrew) http://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Pea133_134eyunim.pdf


1) Evening book at the Ben Tsvi Jerusalem, with the guests: Moshe Idel, Ronit Maroz, Yoram Bilu Hanan Gafni, Zeev Griss, 10 March 2012
http://www.ybz.org.il/?CategoryID=141&ArticleID=849

2) Evening book at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, with the guests: Haim Beer, Elhanan Reiner, Zeev Griss, Boaz Huss 12 June 2012
http://in.bgu.ac.il/Pages/events/Streets-of-the-river.aspx





"""

I have been working on Liberation Spirituality since I was a Licenciate student at the Pontificio Ateneo Anonianum. This lecture sums up my work. It is also the foundation of Chapter five in my book Beyond Piety: The Christian Spiritual Life, Justice and Liberation (Wipf & Stock, 2010).

The pillars are
Fidelity to Reality
Ongoing Conversion
Contemplative Vision
Preferential Option for Poverty
Universal Brother/Sisterhood
Eucharistic Communion
The Sign of the Cross

תוכן העניינים
פתח דבר
                     
מבוא: הערה על מבטים
         
פרק ראשון: שבחי רודקינסון          
רודקינסון כמו"ל חסידי: טשרנוביץ ולבוב • בין חסידות להשכלה: ז'יטומיר וּורשה • "בצוארו כפתור בלי פרח": ימי פטרבורג • תולדות החסידות ופעילות עיתונאית: קניגסברג • "מחזיקי ומפיצי שפת עבר בכל העולם": ברלין והמבורג • על האנטישמיות החדשה והתיקונים בדת: לונדון • המאבק באנטישמיות: ברלין • עוללות מתנגדי רודקינסון: וינה • פעילות בארץ החדשה: ניו יורק, שיקגו ובוסטון

פרק שני: ספרות השבחים החסידית           
ה"שתיקה" וקדושת הספר • ספרות השבחים בשנות השישים • הערות על גורמי ה"התעוררות • על כמה ממהלכי התקופה • ספרות השבחים מעשה ידי רודקינסון • מקורות ונאמנותם • סיפור שבעל פה, סיפור שבכתב ותיקון מסורות • תגובה לספרות ההשכלה • אמונת חכמים, סיפורי צדיקים ומוסר • רודקינסון כמחבר חסידי, קהל היעד שלו והתקבלות ספריו

פרק שלישי: בין חסידות להשכלה            
הדפסות חוזרות של ספרות השבחים • "תולדות בעלי שם טוב" • הרקע  לכתיבת "תולדות בעלי שם טוב" • מבואות היסטוריים והיחס ליעקב פראנק • מקורות לתיאור החסידות וביקורת על ספרות השבחים • ביקורת על ספרות ההשכלה • הגר"א והחסידות • רודקינסון ה"מאוחר", קהל היעד שלו והתקבלות ספריו • על גורל ספרי "תולדות בעל השם" • קבלה, חסידות ותיקונים בדת • חסידות, פילוסופיה ונצרות

נעילה: רודקינסון והספרות הניאו-חסידית
           
קיצורים ביבליוגרפיים
                                                       
מפתחות

Contemporary psychology is in a state of confusion, claims this perennialist author and mental health clinician, because it cannot identify the 'self' or 'the unity of the personality'. This is because it "attempts to study what is beyond its epistemological and ontological scope and trespasses upon the domain of metaphysics". Drawing attention to the materialistic biases in contemporary psychology, which focuses on the empirical ‘self’ and its pathology without the normative criterion of a 'healthy personality', the author contrasts contemporary psychology with traditional pneumatology, which acknowledges the transpersonal Self as the source of normative personality.

This article outlines the spread of the Bahá'í religion (known in Chinese as Datong jiao 大同教) in Republican China (1912-1949), as a form of religious cosmopolitanism that originated in Iran, whose spread to China can be traced to links with the Ottoman Empire, British Palestine, the United States and Japan. By tracking the individuals, connections and events through which knowledge of the Bahá'í movement spread in China, our study reveals an overlapping nexus of networks that shared cosmopolitan ideals: intellectual reformers, liberal Christians, Esperantists, Confucian modernizers, redemptive society activists, and socialists. The Bahá'í connections serve as a thread that sheds light on a unique 'cosmopolitan moment' in Republican China, hitherto largely ignored in the scholarly literature on this period, which has focused primarily on the growth of modern Chinese nationalism. Leading nationalist figures endorsed these movements, showing that nationalism and cosmopolitanism were seen as expressions of the same ideal of world community, at a specific juncture of Asian colonial modernity. Through this case, we argue that the sociology of cosmopolitanism should attend to non-secular and non-state movements advocating utopian visions of cosmopolitanism, map the circulations that form a nexus of such groups, and identify the contextual dynamics that produce 'cosmopolitan moments' at specific historical junctures and locations.

Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both death as well as active life is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death and focus on ways in which we can step outside its traditional frameworks and limitations. I also discuss topics related to death such as birth, aging, sickness, and war, and examine cultural differences in attitudes toward death. I offer varying perspectives including the Buddhist view and from these draw implications and conclusions. I apply the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka. To these I add other relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, and educator, Daisaku Ikeda. To construct a more humanistic and sustainable view of life, it is first of all crucial to establish a culture which perceives death in its larger living context as but one cycle in the expansive eternity of life.

One Knower: Different Modes of Knowing In all philosophical and psychological traditions knowing has many different meanings. In Tibetan Buddhism there is nondual Dzogchen and in Hinduism there is nondual Kashmir Shaivism. In both these nondual traditions there is profound understanding that there is one knower with two different modes of knowing. My Mind Knowing You and Things One mode of our knowing is the conventional subject object knowing which is the mind knowing as the perceiver and the perceived. This is our ordinary knowing of mind, my mind knowing you and things. This is my mind knowing of all the various forms of otherness. This is my mind knowing of singular aspects of phenomena and my mind knowing, by discrimination, the differences within phenomena. This is my mind knowing of the reality of objects, and the actuality of events and situations. This is my mind knowing the reality of persons and sentient beings as well as non-sentient beings and things. This is my mind's natural mode of dualistic knowingness. My Knowing as Direct Perception As humans knowing we both have and are this wonderful other mode of knowing. In Dzogchen this is the great knowing of awareness and through awareness, and this knowing described as direct perception is often called gnosis, or jnana, or ye she. Kashmir Shaivism names this dimension of knowing of this vast field of awareness/consciousness vimarsa. This vast

The reason why the Supreme Consciousness created the universe within its Cosmic Mind, and why human beings, at the ultimate stage of cosmic evolution and life, need to do spiritual practices, is clearly explained. Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (1921-1990) was the founder of the international socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“Path of Bliss”) and was a spiritual master in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. – Richard Gauthier, Saint George, Utah, USA, April 22, 2022

This paper is an ethical discussion about how action emerges from and out of timeless awareness through us into time. Our understanding reflects and is based upon what has been described as the two ways of knowing. The most primordial way of knowing is knowing non-dualistically through awareness or what some call gnosis and others call jnana and still others direct perception. And the more common and ordinary way of knowing is knowing through our mind and the instruments of our mind such as feeling, thinking, sensation, memory and imagination. This knowing is the mode of knowing difference, singularity and dualistically. This is the mode of knowing me and you, us and them and this and that. This knowing of duality is the mode of knowing within appearance, knowing what is appearing both within and without, knowing both internally and externally. Now because of our wonderful capacity for the skillful simultaneous union of these two modes of knowing we can know duality from within non-duality and within duality we can know non-duality. This sublime mode of knowing reflects the simultaneous union of the two modes of knowing. This sublime mode of knowing reflects the very nature of creation which is oneness and difference. Through the simultaneous integration of the two modes of knowing we can experience both oneness and difference through our experience of appearance. Furthermore this sublime knowing is an action and so in respect to this knowing the Hindu Shavite masters would declare " knowledge is action ". This sublime form of knowingness manifests the action within duality while arising and emerging from within the dimension of non-duality. The action emerges out of non-duality into the dualistic experience and appearance. This simultaneous knowingness is the power of compassion. Compassion self-arises from within non-duality of gnosis or jnana and manifest within dualistic appearance and the experience of self and otherness. This is the power of non-dual timeless awareness entering into the drama of duality within time.

This paper investigates the topic of universal values by taking a metahistorical view of how people have viewed the transcendentals (Being, Unity, Truth, Goodness, Beauty/Harmony) at particular points in the development of human culture from the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt to Renaissance Florence, analysing these using the paired principles of fixity and volatility common to the work of both George Lakoff and George Spencer-Brown. This approach provides a background against which the nature and role of universal values in today’s world can be explored. The paper argues that our responses to both categorical and transcendental modes of thought are part of our being, and concludes that an awareness of universal values – as defined in this paper – and an active engagement with them at a personal and a social level is—and always has been—vital to building civil society, as a manifestation of universal order. It ends by calling for further enquiry into the relationship between civil engagement driven by awareness of transcendentals and the development of effective social modes of being and acting at personal, local, national and global levels.

The lucidity of awareness is experienced directly through the doorway of our subjectivity as our own innermost awareness. As we gaze into our own interiority we can experience the unfolding of the manifestation of this field of radiance and this lucidity of awareness. The invisible field of luminous knowingness becomes experientially visible. Lucidity of Phenomena Experientially visible means seeing the flashes of light, sensing light, experiencing the presence of the radiance within us and beyond us. Experiencing the presence of the radiance means feeling the luminous experience of the light and the energy of the light in everything and anything, in anyone and everyone. As we experience the visibility of luminous knowingness within us as us, we are empowered to experience the manifestation of the lucidity within the appearance of all phenomena. Lucidity is not only within us but within all phenomena, all appearance has lucidity and all appearance is lucidity. All phenomena are the manifestation of primordial radiance. When we are experiencing the radiance of phenomenon, our inner light is meeting the outer light, and thus there is only one indivisible light. In truth there is only primordial luminous radiance that is manifesting our mind, our body and our innermost awareness, as well as the infinitely vast universal context of phenomena that we are placed within in time and in space. Our capacity to experience the radiance of the field of awareness within our own embodied subjectivity opens for us the ability to gaze into the subjectivity of all phenomena. By gazing into our own subjectivity there arises this intersubjective gaze that is direct and inside to inside. This intersubjective gaze allows us to experience the luminous openness of all phenomena and context. This intersubjective gaze opens the innermost openness of all phenomena. Subjectivity is the openness of our being to Being itself within all beings.

Being within awareness as awareness and being with another who is within awareness is a most powerful skillful means to bring forth awareness within one's self and within each other. Two awarenesses are better than one, just as self regulation can be enhanced by co self regulation on the bodily dimension. Self-illumination is a co-emergent process between and within companions, compassionate companions. The lucidity within one's own awareness, as one's own awareness can experience the lucidity within the other's awareness as lucidity. It is true, awareness awakens awareness both in one's self and in the other. This is the secret of the tantra. The luminous energy within one's own body can resonate to the luminous energy in the other's body, deepening the mutual embodiment of light. Light is awareness and awareness is light. The attunement to awareness within one's own body can bring forth the attunement of awareness within the body of the other. The self arising of the awareness field in one's self resonates to the self arising of awareness within the other's body. The self arising of the energy or the chi or the shakti can bring forth the self arising within each other and can bring forth the sustaining of the energy field within each other. In essence, humanness is the manifestation of light, and the manifestation of primordial luminous energy, and the openness of the great space of compassion.

Five books, authentic and unedited, to raise the vibration as one reads, the readers consciousness expands as it takes in the vibration of each of the books purpose.
Book 1, Lives and After-Lives by Janine E Lever.
Book 2, Your Other Realities. by Janine E Lever.
Book 3, Creative Light, by Janine E Lever.
Book 4, The Goddess, by Janine E Lever.
Book 5, The Golden Key, Hidden Code of the Book of the Dead. by Janine E Lever.
Books 1 and 2 series of short stories to provoke awareness and consciousness awareness raising. Book 3 to inform and to give a leap in consciousness. Book 4 to inform and to demonstrate creation and merging with other energies. Book 5 to provoke thought but to give the Translation of Ancient Egyptian Language, HIDDEN CODE OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.