Is the highest spiritual state one in which the sense of separation between the soul and God has been so obliterated that there is no separation at all and the soul has, in effect, become God? There remains no self at all. This is the basic theme of Buddhism and certain forms of Hinduism. As it is of the modern derivation of ancient Eastern mysticism which is Oneness spirituality though that is usually an excessive simplification of its inspiring models. There are Christian versions of this too which I suspect are heavily influenced by Zen with a dash of Meister Eckhart and a pinch of Plotinus. In these beliefs (and they are beliefs notwithstanding the fact that there is some kind of experience in which self seems to be dissolved), self is the cause of sin and what needs to be eradicated is not just sin but the very possibility of it. This can seem to be the highest form of mysticism, the one at the apex of the triangle on the base line of which stand all the different religions. But is that really so or is this just a particular mystical experience which may point to an aspect of the soul's relationship with God but by no means covers it in its totality or indicates its intended destiny?
Are we not here just killing the patient in order to save him? Self may be the cause of everything bad but it is also the cause of so much that is good, including goodness itself. And love. God created for a reason and that reason was for the joy of relationship. The no self advocates would deny the purpose of creation. They would return us to the non-manifest state of darkness or limitless light. It makes no difference how you envision it as it is the boiling down of everything to nothing. It is possible to return consciousness to the pool of infinity whence it arose but that is not what God wants and nor is it what Christ offers and why he came to redeem the world from spiritual darkness. Christ came to heal the soul rather than kill it. God and creation is more than just God by himself and no self means no love, no beauty, no goodness, no expression and growth through time. Nothing but resting in eternal peace. That is fine if you have a limited view of spiritual life but there is so much more and to know this so much more the self must not be destroyed but transformed. The no self advocates are turning their back on God in his creative, expressive mode and retreating to a passive form of consciousness which is really just the spiritual womb. But God wants us to be born and to be alive and to partake in his creative glory. He wants us to know day as well as night and then add to the beauty of creation ourselves. This we cannot do if we do not have a self. Then we add precisely nothing.
@William - Hear Hear!
ReplyDeleteThis *tendency* towards oneness within Christianity does go back a very long way, to the early centuries - albeit perhaps with a vestige of self - as when the aim of spiritual development is complete and final *communion* with God, when communion is conceived statically/ contemplatively rather than as any kind of participation.
But Nowadays, it seems to be associated with people whose goal is actually that of an Eastern Religion like Hinduism or Buddhism, but who use Christian language and concepts to describe it.
Or else oneness spirituality seems motivated as a more-spiritual-sounding variant of the usual atheist materialist desire (apparently) for total annihilation of the self at death - because oneness can be understood as essentially an annihilation of the self - albeit into unconscious de-differentiated bliss rather than nothingness.
It's as you say, Bruce. I have sometimes been tempted in this direction but mostly on an intellectual level rather than a spiritual one because it can seem to be the logical conclusion of everything. But my instincts always rebelled against it. I remember standing on a rainy station platform somewhere in North London in 1978 when I was right at the beginning of my spiritual interest after having been to a Buddhist meditation centre at which I was informed that self was basically an illusion. I didn't have the metaphysical framework then to reject this but every part of me did reject it. Now I see that it is essentially a denial of creation and a refusal to accept the gift God offers.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the limited ego self must be overcome but that is quite a different matter to denying self altogether. A lot of Oneness spirituality enthusiasts will try to have their cake and eat it too and proclaim their philosophy whilst also claiming they can hold on to love and beauty etc. But that is a contradiction in terms and not possible. Really they are choosing death over life even if the death offers peace and what you rightly call unconscious de-differentiated bliss rather than total extinction.