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Beyond the Sensory Realm - The Mystical Traditions · Gabriel Ellis, PhD | The Curious Mind Podcast

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Welcome to this new episode of the Curious Mind Podcast.
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My name is Gabriel Ellis. In the previous episode, I
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introduced the Buddhist concept of ayatanam, which is even among
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Buddhists, not known in detail. What it basically means is that
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the experience or consciousness or ourselves or our egos have a
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home, a home in a realm of consciousness.
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And that usually our home of experience is the sense realm,
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the sensual realm with the normal senses that we have
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thinking and so on. But that it can be transcended
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through practice, through spiritual practice, through
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meditation, and that other realms can be home to
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experience. Now in this episode today I want
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to show you with examples how this understanding that
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consciousness can have different homes is not unique to Buddhism,
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that indeed most spiritual or or mystical traditions have a
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similar kind of teaching. I will describe a little bit
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later more what the big difference is between Buddhism
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and those spiritual mystical traditions.
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But for now, I want to just give you some examples that show that
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this is a possibility to experience to humans with some
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practice, that other realms of consciousness can be the real
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home of the mind of the ego. I want to start with my examples
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with the Greek philosopher Plotin.
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He lived in the 3rd century CE. He was interested actually in
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many religious traditions and originally planned to go to the
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East and study the Persian and the Indian, Indian religions,
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but he had to return to Italy. He also learned in Alexandria,
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in Egypt. And so he didn't go that far.
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He was mostly, he is regarded as a Neoplatonic philosopher, so
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that he picks up teachings by Plato and reinterprets them, and
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I will show how he is very close in his understanding to some of
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the aspects of Buddhist meditative practice.
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So what I read now is from the Eniads, which is the collection
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that was done by a student of his of Claudin's teachings.
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And this is from the first collection, the 6th book, the
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6th paragraph. Bravery is fearlessness in the
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face of death, but death is the separation of the soul from the
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body. He who finds joy in being alone
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is not afraid of that. And here is my commentary is a
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close connection to basically all ascetic traditions of which
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Buddhism is only one. And there are several Buddhist
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texts indeed that praise solitude of the the solitude of
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the meditator of the spiritual practitioner.
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And so we have a similar similarity here, including
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continues the greatness of the soul is looking beyond the
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earthly, or we can translate beyond the sensual.
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Wisdom is thinking in its turning away from the world
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below, the thinking that leads the soul up to the higher.
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And again, a very clear similarity to the experience of
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the Buddhist meditator or probably meditators of most
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other traditions. He continues.
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Now when the soul is purified, it becomes an idea, pure reason,
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absolutely spiritual and completely permeated by the
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divine. And here it refers to Plato.
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Of course he had who had the two world concepts, that there is a
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world of emanations, of things that we can perceive, but that
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this world of perception, of central experience, is rooted in
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a higher realm where the absolute, the pure ideas dwell
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and where from this world emanates.
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And so Plotin, as spiritual and mystical as he is in his
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descriptions, he refers back to the Platonic roots. 2 paragraphs
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later. Floating continues.
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When one sees physical beauty, one must not want to merge into
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it, but rather in the awareness that it only shows outlines and
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shadows. And here we think of the KTH
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parable of Plato. Flee to that whose image it is.
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So he says go to the original, and the original is not in the
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central realm but a higher realm Goes on for anyone who ran to
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embrace it as something true. If he clung to the beauty of the
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world of the senses and did not let go of it, he would
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spiritually sink into dark depths that are unpleasant to
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reason and would then live blindly in hades in hell and
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associate here and there with shadows.
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So here expresses that the central realm, the one, the
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people who cling to it, they cling to something unreal, they
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communicate, they connect to shadows.
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So there is never a real ground in connecting with the objects
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of the central realm. It goes on.
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And how does our journey and flight take place?
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So here comes a sort of technique.
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We should not travel on foot, for our feet carry us from one
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land to another. We do not need to look around
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for a cart with horses or for the sea, But we must leave all
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of that behind and not see it at all.
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We must close our eyes, or physical eyes, as it were, and
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exchange and open another, another one for it, which
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everyone has, but which few use. So everyone has access to this
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higher realm, according to Pluton, but we are blinded, we
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are misguided by the shadows of the central experiences.
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Now this is put in more romantic or more spiritual or esoteric
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terminology, and maybe more close and akin to the Hindu
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traditions, but in spirit. This is very close to the
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Buddhist meditation practices and to the Buddhist teachings.
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The original Buddhist teachings where the monastics, the monks
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and nuns who ordained with a Buddha, are advised to not pay
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attention to the differences that occur in the sensual
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experience. In fact, they are advised to
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turn away from them, to not pay attention to them and to rather
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focus inside. In the next paragraph continues,
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What does that inner eye see as soon as it is opened?
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It cannot yet bear the excessive brightness, and it is again a
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clear reference to Plato's cave parable.
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Therefore the soul itself must be accustomed to looking first
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at a beautiful way of life. So basically he gives us a step
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by step procedure. He says we cannot just jump into
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the higher realm because our inner eye is not used to be
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exposed to it, not used to see it, and instead we have to first
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turn towards the beautiful as we can perceive it in our world.
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So he says the soul itself must be accustomed to looking first
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at the beautiful way of life, to the example of people who lead
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the beautiful way of life, then at beautiful actions.
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So the actions that people take who live such a beautiful life,
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such as those that come from good people, the question, of
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course, who are the good people? But the good people are, and
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this is quite clearly implicit in what he says, the good people
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are the people who have turned away from the central realm.
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Then consider the soul of those who do good works.
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First look at the life, at the good example of others, then
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look at the specific actions that they do and then try to
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penetrate in your mind, not the outside appearances, not the
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actions of these people, but how their soul is, goes on.
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Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not yet see
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yourself as beautiful, then, like the sculpture, who in what
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is to be beautiful, takes away and grinds down something here
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and there, now smooth as here and now, cleans there, until He
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creates a beautiful face in his image.
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You too should take away everything that is superfluous.
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Make what is crooked straight again.
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Cleanse what is dark and let it become light.
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In short, do not stop building your image until the divine
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splendor of virtue shines forth in you, until you see the
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prudence that walks on holy ground.
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Clear similarity here to Buddhist teachings.
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Is that typically the spiritual journey in historical Buddhism
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starts with virtue, virtuous actions, virtuous thoughts and
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virtuous communication. And this is something that we
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quite directly can alter and change and adapt.
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So in contrast to the practice of meditation, which anyone who
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has tried to do it can agree that this is quite difficult
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thing to do because we are exposed to our monkey mind and
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we are exposed to the fact that we cannot immediately and
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directly alter how our mind works.
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But when it comes to our actions, when it comes to the
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words that we speak and sometimes even the thoughts that
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we have, then we indeed have much more to say in how we do
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it. And so this is also the advice
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of pluting, that when we start this practice and after
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observing the beautiful acts of inspiring figures around us,
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then we start to chip away the bad, the evil, the crooked in
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our behaviour, in our communication and maybe even in
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our thoughts and attitudes so that the beauty that is in US
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can shine through. What we have accomplished so far
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in these adjustments continues when you have become that and
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see yourself and interact purely with yourself.
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And here it means of course, a purified kind of ourselves,
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without anything else hindering you from becoming self unified,
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without having any further admixture to yourself within
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you, but are completely yourself true light, a light neither
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measured by size nor constrained by form into narrow limits, nor
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on the other hand, expanded to measurable size, but absolutely
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infinite so that it is beyond all measurement and all
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quantity. When you see that you have
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become that, and you have already acquired inner vision,
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then take coverage for yourself. Move forward from there.
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You no longer need a guide and look straight ahead, for only
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such an eye sees the whole full beauty.
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And so here he already describes the spiritual experience of
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having gone beyond the sensual realm.
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And this has clear parallel in the Buddhist teachings, because
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the Buddhist texts, they mention not only the sensual ayatana,
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but also the ayatana of unlimited space, the ayatana of
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unlimited consciousness. And so these seems to be clear
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references to something like that, something that he has that
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bloating has achieved through practice that is quite similar
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to meditation practice. Now the next example, moving on
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from bloating, I would go to the Christian Mystics and one of the
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most famous representatives there is, Meister Eckhart, is
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called Master Eckhart because he got a master in his studies and
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so henceforth he was called Master Eckhart.
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He lived in the 13th and 14th century, originally from
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Turingia, from Germany. He then moved to Paris and
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taught there, and then he became a preacher in Strasbourg until
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he was accused of heresy, probably because of his weird
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teachings. And here I want to read from one
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of his teachings, one of his preachings, Skull on the unity
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of things and goes as follows. When man turns away from it
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himself and from all created things again turning away from
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the central ground. To the extent that you do this,
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you will be united and blessed in the spark of the soul that
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has never touched time or space again.
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A reference to the mystical experience of the realm that is
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beyond the central, that is not divided, where there are no
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differences. This light continues once to go
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into the simple ground, into the silent desert, where nothing
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different or no differences have ever penetrated.
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For this ground is a simple silence that is immobile in
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itself, and all things that live rationally and have immersed
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themselves in themselves are moved by this immobility, and
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there receive their whole life. Now, as you can see, Master
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Eckhart's teachings are more esoteric.
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They are more mysterious, which is true for many religious
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traditions. Plutin is in that sense closer
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to Buddhism because he is more technical.
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He gives clear philosophical concepts and methods of how to
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proceed. In this way Master Eckhart, he
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seems to refer to a similar experience to a similar insight
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into consciousness, and that with religious practice we can
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transcend it, but he wraps it up in more mystical language.
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The next example is Ibn Arabi. He was a great Sufi teacher from
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the 12th and 13th century and in one book, the Fusus al Hakikam
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the Chop John Adam, he writes man has 2 homelands. 1 is the
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world of the senses, the other is the hidden world of pure
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reality in which his true existence lies.
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He gives examples throughout the texts, texts that he wrote about
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how to achieve it. And there are some clear
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meditation practices that we know also from other traditions,
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for example, to repeat, to repeat the holy name of God, for
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example, to exercise devotion, to practice outer and inner
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silence, or to share a spiritual community with a spiritual
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teacher and other seekers, to deepen the understanding of the
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teachings. And if we take those practices,
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just the names of those practices and we forget for a
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moment that it comes, comes from a Sufi, from an Islamic
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background. This is very similar to
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meditation practices that we know from Buddhism or to what
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Putin has referenced, because mantra repetition that is known,
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for example, in Thai Buddhism, the forest masters, there, they
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have practiced the repetition of the word butho, for example,
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which evokes devotion in the practitioners.
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And through constantly focusing on this term, they achieve the
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elevation of the mind onto realm, beyond the sense realm.
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And this is very much the same here, through constant
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repetition of the holy names of God, for example, this purifies
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the soul, it concentrates the mind and it elevates the spirit
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and creates some sort of an ecstasy in consciousness.
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This is also the main practice of a book from the Eastern
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Christian from the Orthodox tradition.
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This is has an anonymous writer, but it became quite famous.
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It's called the stories of a Russian Pilgrim or the sincere
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stories of a Russian Pilgrim where this anonymous Pilgrim, he
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repeats a prayer again and again and again.
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And this prayer is this short prayer is Lord Jesus Christ have
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mercy on me. And he describes in this book,
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which is quite interesting to read, how through repetition and
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commitment to the repetition of this prayer and to never stop it
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and to increase the amount, the number of times where he repeats
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it. Every day the soul lifts up and
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he gets more and more ecstatic experiences until he merges with
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Jesus in his soul. At least this is the mystical,
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the religious description that he makes.
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And again, this is done by through a technique, a technique
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of a devoted religious person, of course, but the technical
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part of it is the ceaseless concentration on a word that is
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meaningful for him. And again, this is a quite
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reliable way to meditate if one has the motivation, if one has
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that devotion. The last example is from a
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catalyst teacher Moshe Cordova in the 16th century where he
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describes techniques and methods of contemplation of spiritual
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contemplation. This is quite typical for
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capitalist teachers of the time to contemplate on the so-called
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sakurat. These are divine emanations of
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God to elevate the soul also he knows also called the world
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knows the recitation of holy names and which is quite typical
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for capitalist studies, the study of sacred texts.
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So here are the main tools are devotion, contemplation of
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divine aspects which might be close to chipping away the
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impurities that close to employee mentioned in the
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beginning and. So this would be very short.
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Of course, there is so much more to learn and to understand about
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Kabbalist practices and all those others.
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But I just want to show the parallels that those spiritual
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teachers from those various traditions have in common with
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the Buddhist perspective. Now, next time I will go more
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into depth about the Buddhist perspective and this kind of
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technical understanding of the mind being able to access
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different home bases so that the mind becomes comfortable and at
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home in the central realm which into which we are born.
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Or through spiritual practice to go to the realm of meditation,
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beginning stages where there's more ecstatic feelings.
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Or the realms of infinite space, or, as I mentioned, infinite
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consciousness. I want to leave you with the big
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difference between Buddhism and most other spiritual traditions.
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As in, Buddhism does not see the elevated soul that might feel
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ecstatic or infinitely calm as the final destination.
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Buddhism wants to transcend all home bases of consciousness so
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that there is no spot, no realm into which it can be reborn.
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Because from the Buddhist perspective, and this is a
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perspective that Buddhism shared with other spiritual teachings
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of that time in that specific region in North East India.
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In Buddhism, the teaching is such that wherever you have a
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place in consciousness, inevitably this will lead to a
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rebirth after whatever amount of time in a lower realm.
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So in order to be safe, in order to never regress again and be
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exposed to the suffering of the normal life of the central
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realm, the goal of Buddhist practice is to transcend any
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kind of realm in which consciousness can be at home.
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And I want to describe that more.
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And the next time, I hope you enjoyed this journey into
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different spiritual mystical traditions.
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And I hope that you are interested to see the next
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episode as well. I see you then.