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Re: Underhill

AardigeAfrikaner: "To be whole we need to look at the whole picture, but we are usually not even aware of the frames we use to delineate our favorite view." Very true. Until we're willing to venture into those unknown areas and accept the possibility that maybe--just maybe--there's more to reality than just what we think it to be, or are willing to accept it to be, we truly get nowhere but more into our own view, which may or may not be accurate. To truly find reality, which encompasses planes beyond what we can even begin to imagine, requires leaping outside of ourselves, and making ourselves vulnerable. And for some, vulnerability is not an option.

posted by FineYoungSinger on August 20, 2008 at 8:56 AM | link to this | reply

Re: Practically

mousehop: The work is not mine, but Underhill's. Therefore, Underhill has her work cut out for her. Thanks for reading.

posted by FineYoungSinger on August 20, 2008 at 8:23 AM | link to this | reply

Underhill

has a good grasp of the mystical path and I would recommend her books to anyone interested in the subject.

This brings to mind: A person can spend a whole life learning facts about the intricacies of life as unveiled by physics, chemistry, astronomy etc and never find satisfaction other than the queching of the thirst for knowledge. The same can be said about someone who spends their whole life learning facts about a religion. Other people can find satisfaction and meaningfulness in the usual mode of everyday human existence, without much knowledge of the particulars manifest in the world of objects or concepts.

If our aim is to get to know life, we don't have to go anywhere or know anything in particular, since our own bodies and minds are always with us and we are always in the real world, our immediate experience is always available as a teacher that consists of the endless play of events we seek to understand. Knowledge of the particular can be interesting and satisfying to the seeker of knowledge, but the seeker of truth needs to go beyond the mere collection of interesting facts and find patterns of increasing inclusion of the many varied factors that we are and eventually find the wholeness that transcends the usual world of opposites and makes it all work in perfect harmony.

Before a person can look from a vantage point of wholeness that integrates concepts and feelings, facts and imagination, the world as experienced will always seem incomplete and faulty and no amount of gathered facts can yield absolute clarity to any view that disregards the worlds of emotion and imagination. It is easier to stay involved with stuff we can touch and measure, than it is to work with the mutable and dreamlike aspects of being. To be whole we need to look at the whole picture, but we are usually not even aware of the frames we use to delineate our favorite view.

posted by AardigeAfrikaner on August 19, 2008 at 5:27 PM | link to this | reply

Practically

Speaking as a practical man, I'd say you have your work cut out if you want me to become mystical. After all, the reality that I see, which this excerpt hints is just illusion, is infinitely more detailed than any imaginary world. The mind can certainly invoke supernatural phenomena, but has never approached reality in true majesty. Not to mention consistency.