One of the topics I am interested in is the debate around the concepts of “religions” and “spirituality”.
This is something that really challenges me, because, even if I come from a catholic tradition and education, I have always been interested also in other religions, their contemplative and meditative traditions and experiences.
But the concept of religion, in itself, is very different studying the asian spiritual traditions (like the buddhist and the induist, for example), rather than the meaning it has in the three main monotheistic traditions.
On the other side, but this is my personal experience, I believe in the interreligious dialogue, searching for what is essential and common in every tradition, experiencing different forms of meditations and prayers, without losing my catholic membership.
In the two “You tube” videos added below, I propose to you:
1. a Ken Wilber reflections on “The spirituality of tomorrow” (which, of course, is based on the “integral” Wilber perspective);
2. a chat among Ken and father Thomas Keating, entitled “Religious, but not spiritual?”.
Father Thomas Keating”is a trappist monk, living at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado (U.S.A.). He is co-founder of the Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., an international, ecumenical spiritual network that teaches the practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, a method of prayer drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition.
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It is a real pity that no spiritual school knows the path to enlightenment. All the practices, so called meditations, mantras, kriyas and whatnot do not give a way to that.
And I say it is a pity because is really wonderful!!
I started reading all this stuff after I got beautiful mental states. And they kept coming. Actually they keep coming. But I can’t explain them.
I hope you are going to find out. Maybe it needs the organization of a new science. I mean, without all this ideological stuff that sounds like a Santa Claus story.
Dear Frank (i guess this is your real name),
what you say in your comment in very interesting. The percentage of people that experiment these states of mind in an authomatic way is very low, even the guru, the masters and the “professional” meditators need a lot of practice to reach these stages.
I would be very interested in knowing more about such experiences you are talking about, and, on the other side, if and how they help you in your normal daily life.
By the way, what do you do? What is your job? Do you also have a blog, a website, or use other e-technology?
As far as I know, the “school” that started to investigate about “peak experiences” exists: it is named transpersonal psychology and started with Maslow in the sixties and then grew-up with the studies of many researchers of different disciplines.
I follow the studies of Ken Wilber, who is now committed to the “integral movement”, which, in a sense, tries to develop a full approach to the human potentials in different branches of life. You can find in my blog all the links you need if you are interested in deepening such studies.
They do can explain what happens to you and what happened to me very few times (sadly!), expecially when I was a child. When you say “wonderful, but I can’t explain them”, I know what you mean.
Last thing about the “new science”: you are right, the risks of an ideologization of such stuff is enormous but, on the other hand, if you look around very carefully you can find a lot of honest and committed researchers in any part of the world, any culture, any religion.
As a christian, I have been following the Taizè Community (have you heard about it? You find the link in my blog) prayer since 1995 and I found out a lot of rest and peace through its contemplative approach to prayer and meditation.
Thank you for your comment, let’s keep in touch, and follow my blog…Stay tuned!
Ciao, Stefano.