Spirituality and Human Development

I listened to an interesting interview with Eckhart Tolle on the "The John Murray" show yesterday. Though I was indeed already aware of Eckhart Tolle as one covering similar ground to Chopra - and who is now arguably more successful and influential - I had never actually heard him speak. On the merit side he came across as genuine and sincere probably helped by his Germanic accent lending an appropropriate touch of gravity to his words. He spoke about his "conversion" experience at 29 which undoubtedly deeply shaped the rest of his life. I agree fully with the central basis of his teaching which is the spiritual realisation that only the present moment truly exists. So the secret of deep happiness and fulfilment is to simply learn to live in the continual now of the present moment. I would also agree that the ego in practice is the big obstacle to such realisation with both thought and sense predisposing us to make absolutes of phenomena (which in truth are of a mer

I was watching Gay Byrne's series on the "Meaning of Life" last Sunday with his guest Deepak Chopra which certainly made for an engaging half hour. Chopra is clearly a very gifted individual with well honed communication skills. Also hearing his account of his privileged early background in India was very interesting providing a fascinating intersection as between both Eastern and Western perspectives. He has of course been very successful in bringing the spiritual mystical worldview to bear both on popular medicine and modern living. Indeed I remember when reading his "Quantum Healing" some 20 years ago readily resonating with his accounts of how mind and body form an indivisible unity with illnesses of all kinds potentially ameliorated through an appropriate spiritual outlook. However I still have certain reservations regarding Chopra whose greatest talent seems to be his ability to market himself with amazing commercial success. He has that capacity - i

It is strange! Only recently I have been contemplating the prospect of retirement from my lecturing job (perhaps leaving a couple of years early). Then paradoxically having adjusted to that prospect I have begun to actually enjoy - perhaps for the first time - what I have been trying to do all these years. No doubt some of this is due to the characteristic release of tension following the resolution of any major issue in life. However in my case it probably relates more to the unfolding of a new period in - what I have long referred to as - the spiritual life. I am now beginning to see how strongly immersed I have been - indeed for all my adult life - in the depths of the unconscious. This has certainly enabled a certain kind of development entailing direct experience of many specialised intuitive states; however it has also proven remarkably restrictive and at various times incredibly stressful. Though valuable in enabling the development of new holistic mathematical understanding (as

I saw a fascinating programme last night on the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Egyptian desert some 4,500 years ago. One can only marvel still at this truly wonderful achievement and what a stunning spectacle it must have been on its completion! Indeed is there anything in our modern technological civilisation that bears comparison? I think not! Though it is impossible of course to build any physical structure that is indestructible and guaranteed to last for ever (as the Egyptians intended), you have to admit that at least they gave it a damn good try. The Pyramid at Giza is the oldest physical structure still standing (and the only survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world). Also, for some 4000 years it remained the tallest building in the world. As we know it was built during the reign of the pharaoh Khufu requiring an amazingly gifted and organised group of workers over a 20 year period. I was just thinking as I watched that here we had the ideal

I have been reading in recent days regarding certain aspects in the lives of well-known Catholic saints that have long fascinated me. For example I came across an account of St. Paul of the Cross (who founded the Passionists) and who apparently from documentary evidence spent most of his latter years (45 in all) enduring a continual dark night experience. Perhaps, largely due to his close namesake St. John of the Cross, an unduly limited view of the dark night is sometimes taken. So the dark night process (especially with respect to the passive nights of sense and spirit) is often viewed as an intermediate stage for advanced contemplatives on the way to transforming union. However this can mistakenly imply that somehow the process has no longer any strict relevance during the ensuing unitive life (in what I refer to as the radial stages of development). However this would be very mistaken. One of the great limitations that I have frequently pointed to is the possible restricted v

While watching the British Open Golf on TV this weekend I had a strong intimation of how realisation of the true nature of God (within each person) could help to banish all fear. As our true essential being is eternal (as God) then this life can never pass away despite phenomenal death. All fear and anxiety associated with death relates to the belief that something important is thereby lost. However what is really lost through death is but a temporary pheneoemnal identity bound up with space and time whereby our true identity is God (in the eternal present). Therefore what is truly essential in terms of our lives cannot pass away. However becoming free of fear while alive in the body requires release from attachment to secondary phenomena. So the fears and anxieties we suffer inevitably relate to such attachments (with ultimately no essential basis). A view that I frequently have found helpful relates to a scientific context with repect to the Many Worlds Hypothesis. Properly understoo

I mentioned in another context how two major revolutions are required before science can be properly integrated with religion. The first of these relates to the limited nature of science (as presently understood) which is properly geared solely to the analysis of quantitative type phenomena. However there is an equally important holistic qualitative dimension to science that is properly geared towards - what I refer to as - Integral Science. Just like a scissors has two blades of equal importance, likewise when properly understood it is the same with science. So a comprehensive scientific approach requires both (analytic) quantitative and (holistic) qualitative aspects working in close interaction. The second of these revolutions relates to the need to demythologize the manner in which spiritual truths (with a truly universal meaning) are symbolically conveyed in the major religious traditions. And in this post I am confining myself to some of the major "myths" used

We are certainly living now in the age of digital information. Computers, cameras, mobile phones, and already established entertainment media such as TV and radio are increasingly reaping the benefits of using information that is encoded in binary digital form (i.e. using the two digits 1 and 0). And potentially all information can be encoded in this binary manner! However I have long felt that this explosion in information capability that we are now witnessing is likely to give way to significant problems with respect to personal and social development. Put simply the binary system (for encoding information) is based on analytic interpretation that corresponds with just one logical system. Here opposite polarities in experience are clearly separated leading to the making unambiguous either/or distinctions e.g. subjective or objective, whole or part, true or false etc. There are two great processes that continually interact in all development i.e. differentiation and integration

I always find holiday breaks a good time for the reception of key insights. Intuition - especially of the most passive holistic kind - is aided by a relaxed frame of mind. Also material that had been incubating in the unconscious for some time can often be released through the welcome change of environmental context that a holiday can bring. While sitting in a tour bus on route to Venice watching the fields everywhere seemigly planted with vines, I received a particularly clear and extended intuition of the nature of our true relationship to God. Unfortunately in many traditions the master/servant kind of treatment has been over emphasised (certainly in my own Catholic faith). God is thereby set apart - literally as the almighty - to which we human beings, as undeserving creatures, owe everything (and always fall short in terms of our gratitude). In a certain sense this is correct. However our true relationship with God is much more intimate than this for quite simply our essenti