From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Aug 07 2005 - 23:13:32 BST
Hello Kevin,
An excellent response to my query about the difference between mystic
enlightenment and born again revelation. Thanks very much for your
comments as well as your links to revealing web sites. I found this
passage from your post especially significant:
> Sometime in the late 80s I had the pleasure of
> attending a conference at the
> Yale Divinity School in which Fr. Thomas Keating (RC)
> and Sri Sri Ravi
> Shankar (Hindu) shared there thoughts and feelings on
> prayer and mysticism.
> I remember feeling that I had witnessed (no pun
> intended) something
> remarkable. Here were these two giants from radically
> different mystical
> traditions agreeing on so much. Except for the
> language, there appeard to
> be no difference in what they were saying.
I've always felt that if you strip away all the verbiage, claptrap and
churchy stuff that surrounds both Eastern and Western religions that in
essence what are called religious experiences and mystic experiences would
be so similar as to be nearly indistinguishable.That's why I felt a sudden
embrace of disparate ideas when Pirsig quoted Northrop near the end of the
SODV paper:
"Northrop's name for Dynamic Quality is 'the undifferentiated aesthetic
continuum.' By 'continuum' he means that it goes on and on forever. By
'undifferentiated' he means that it is without conceptual distinctions.
And by 'aesthetic' he means that it has quality."
I think an understanding of the "undifferentiated aesthetic continuum" is
what Thomas Keating and Sri Sri Ravi were sharing at the conference you
described. It is the same understanding, as Pirsig says, that is shared
between science and art.
Contacting this higher spiritual-like realm where DQ resides happens to me
(if it happens at all ) from sudden exposure to exquisite beauty, whether
a landscape, a work of art, or an elegant woman. But I can see where
others make contact by fixing a motorcycle, sweeping a floor, or kneeling
in prayer. In fact, I know of no limits to joining with spirit except
those imposed by either outside strictures (that you described so well in
your post) or an ultra rational-materialist mindset.
Is it kosher to compare DQ with spirit? Can a response to DQ be considered
a religious/mystic-like experience? Or vice-versa? I think so.
What do you think?
Best,
Platt
Thanks again, Kevin. I hope others will share their views on this subject.
Best,
Platt
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