Möller de la Rouvière
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#2173 -
In this issue are selections from Spirituality
Without God, by Möller de la Rouvière. Möller has been
part of the nonduality email community since it was founded in
1998. As you can see from the selections, he writes with
precision around the bone of nonduality.
--Jerry
Möller de la Rouvière
Discover SPIRITUAL HUMANISM
The Humanist alternative to conventional spirituality.
Möller de la Rouvière's 'SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT
GOD'
is the first truly Humanist exploration of non-dual living.
A complete path from dualistic vision to the Wholeness of Life.
"A rare view outside Buddhist circles" --Greg Goode
Ph.D
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Home Page: http://www.spiritualhumanism.co.za/
Order book: http://www.llumina.com/store/spiritualitywithoutgod.htm
EXCERPTS
CHAPTER
ONE: VISION AND PRACTICE‘…. We should thus take
considerable care how we approach our enquiry. On the one hand we
should not allow the intensity of our need for meaning and true
human fulfillment to be diminished. On the other hand, this
intensity needs to be tempered by a quiet determination not
simply to accept the first culturally available set of ‘answers’
as the measure for our deep-felt need for meaning and truth. Our
priority should remain with the intensity of our enquiry as such,
and not occupy itself with an anxious search for answers and
ready-made comfort zones. Only then can we protect ourselves from
all the dogmas and superstitions presented to us as revelatory
truths, which, more often than not, are based on a lack of
insight into our human condition as a whole.
To
start our enquiry and then to proceed to practice on the vision
and insight of another, however ancient or insightful, is to deny
ourselves the opportunity of ever understanding ourselves as we
are. And to approach our path of self-enquiry and search for
truth from a disposition that does not reflect our own living
reality will leave us vulnerable to confusion, disempowerment
and, ultimately, abuse.
No
system can free us. No teacher or teaching can free us. Even we,
as bundles of self-contraction, cannot free ourselves. All we can
do is to become deeply sensitive to what we bring to the living
moment that inhibits the freedom of our natural, uncontaminated
human condition and allow our inner Intelligence to do its
liberating work. This is the theme that underlies every aspect of
our practice as described in Part Two: The Practice.’
CHAPTER
TWO: THE THOUGHT/ATTENTION-KNOT
‘…
Through the process of identifying ourselves with the activities
of thought, it no longer serves human life, but has become human
life. Identification with thought means that no separation exists
between the human mind (as thought) and human life. What we know,
we are. In this way I am my religion. I am my nationality. I am
my war. I am the image I have made of myself and others. I am my
political party. I am the way I interpret my field of experience.
I am my morality, social order and social conditioning. I am both
that which thought presumes to be me and not-me. In fact, I am
the entire fragmentary, destiny creating and uninspected
projections of my own thinking. All these are creations of
thought, and while I am identified with thought, this
thought-world is me. In this, there is no other. And it is this
projected reality we suffer and enjoy for as long as we are
identified with it.
We are
indeed born free, but because we have this propensity for
becoming identified with the projections of thought, we find
ourselves bound within the limitations and conditions determined
by the logic and reality created by this identification,
regardless of its consequences. As we have seen, we do not suffer
the content of our random thinking processes as such: we suffer
the content of our thinking because we are identified with it.
This
is a very important insight. Yet, to become aware of my
identification with thought and to notice how this complicates my
life is only the beginning of a considerably more subtle
investigation into the causes of suffering. The natural question
we may now ask is: what makes identification possible? Which
aspect of my inner potential facilitates the process of
identification altogether? Here we are faced with a critically
important question that requires our careful attention….’
CHAPTER
FOUR
INTELLECTUALISM
AND REALITY CONSIDERATION
‘…And
conceptual freedom is a contradiction in terms. Freedom cannot be
contained within the borders of the known. For the very reason of
it being conceptual in nature, and not an expression of the
living truth of the free, Non-dual condition of BE-ing, it will
remain vulnerable to becoming corrupted by conditions,
circumstances and the ever-changing fickleness of the human mind.
Clearly, conditioned freedom is at best merely an image of the
genuine article.
Once
we are able to appreciate the difference between that which is
created by thought and that which is not, it will also be evident
that reality-consideration can never be speculative. It concerns
itself with our observable and experiential human condition, and
not with metaphysical theories. …
CHAPTER
SEVEN
ATTACHMENT
AND DETACHMENT
‘…From this we may appreciate that
non-attachment has nothing to do with forcefully detaching
ourselves from what we may identify as forms of attachment. All
separation is suffering. All attachment is suffering. And all
detachment is suffering. These are actions and reactions based on
a misguided, destiny-creating view of ourselves as completely
separate from our living environment. And only an insight into
the nature and function of this whole movement of separation and
fragmentation can bring the natural clarity to our lives that
will prove to be too Intelligent and conscious to show any
interest in the dramas associated with thought mistaking its own
projections for reality…’
CHAPTER
EIGHT
SELF-ENQUIRY,
PSYCHOLOGY AND RIGHT ATTITUDE
‘… The term ‘spiritual’
refers to that state of Wholeness where the human spirit has
fulfilled its destiny and where nothing remains but love,
compassion, Intelligence and equanimity. These are words that
describe our notion of ‘Spiritual Humanism’ And the
movement towards this Undivided sense of things is characterized
by the gradual transcendence of all illusions of fragmentation
and duality. This gradual transcendence of duality is the essence
and heart of the spiritual path.’
CHAPTER
NINE
THE
QUESTION OF WILL
‘… Only when every aspect of us
that is unintelligent, more than human, more than love and more
than the singleness of our Undivided natural condition has fallen
away by non-use, will the true measure of our humanity shine
through by itself. At this point it will become evident that Life
has its own regulating or ordering force…’
PART
TWO: THE PRACTICE
From
the Introduction to Part Two:
‘…Understanding has to be
translated into living reality. Our path is to allow for a
gradual shift from understanding and insight to the Direct
Experience of the Non-dual Truth of Life. To use a Zen metaphor:
we must not mistake the finger pointing to the moon for the moon
itself. Thought only points beyond itself, it is not the
appropriate instrument with which to transcend itself.
Understanding, however subtle and true, is not the thing. It has
to be translated into living reality through right practice…’
CHAPTER
TWELVE
THE
PRACTICE OF PASSIVE AWARENESS:
‘…The
importance of approaching our path with thoroughness and care
cannot be overestimated. We should always keep in mind that all
self-enquiry has to reflect our actual present situation. We have
to work from where we are and allow our practice to unfold and
develop from there. We cannot bypass ourselves. As we have seen,
we are the path we will have to walk, and this path will be
effective and freeing to the degree that we do not ignore what is
real and true for us. To bring such integrity to our path may not
be easy. Yet we have no choice. Anything less will be a
perpetuation of our deluded state…’
and
further..
‘…it
will become clear that emotionally-reactive and mentally
conditioned forms of behavior need to be approached in a complete
and Holistic way for our work in this regard to be effective and
freeing. It would simply be premature to delve into our emotional
shadow material at the early stages of our practice. We will be
well advised merely to take note of these emotionally-laden
projections and to bring our attention back to its object. Work
on these will take place at a later, appropriate stage, when we
have been sufficiently prepared for such sensitive inner
exploration.
The development of insight forms part of the practice of Passive
Awareness, and as an introduction to this section, Möller
writes:
’
… Another interesting and rather important development we
may come across during our practice of Passive Awareness, is the
appearance of Insights. When we become well established in this
practice, and are no longer completely caught in the images
projected by thought, we often experience interesting Insights
into many aspects of our life and things in general….
Insight can become a kind of inner guide and a valuable asset to
our path of self-enquiry and self-understanding. We seem to be
informed from a source that was previously inhibited by our
habitual identification with the content of our conditioned way
of thinking. In the more open, relaxed environment of Passive
Awareness we receive these Insights from a deeper, clearer source
of Intelligence, which, perhaps for the first time, has been
consciously allowed to become part of our functional ability…’
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
THE
PRACTICE OF DIRECT AWARENESS
‘...
Direct Awareness is the first real gesture we make towards the
possibility of Directly Experiencing beyond the separate
self-sense. This is a rather subtle form of participatory
practice and is evidenced by a presence of bodily
feeling-sensation that reveals the truth of the Non-dual nature
of things, not dependent on our traditional view of
sense-perception, or our ability to pay attention or to think….’
………………………………
‘…The
most fundamental consideration that informs the path of
self-enquiry and self-transcendence is the notion of Wholeness.
Wholeness is the non-fragmentary revelation of the living moment,
which is evidenced by our total field of present experience which
does not depend on any activity on our part for it simply to be
the case. Whatever we may believe to the contrary, everything
appears quite naturally and Holistically by itself, and while we
are awake, the total field of present arising - including our own
psychophysical appearance - is none other than the Wholeness of
BE-ing. To be human, is to be the undivided Truth of present
arising. This Non-dual present moment of living reality is
therefore not objective to, or separate from, us. No clear line
can be drawn between us as the presumed experiencers, and what we
believe to be objective reality…’
Möller
concludes the chapter on Direct Awareness with the following
words:
When
the self is not, Life is already full of its own profoundly human
qualities. And if we are fortunate, we may sometimes be presented
with a sense of what it means to be perfectly and completely
overcome with the total Presence of BE-ing. This is a profound
and deeply moving experience with intense passion, filled with
uncontaminated, pure emotion. It feels as though the Whole of
Life is expressing itself in one single moment of living Truth.
During such blessed moments, we are touched so deeply that every
part of our being takes on its true revelatory form. During this
great Simplicity our emotions are transformed into love, bliss
and a tremendous sensitivity of feeling. What is physical becomes
the process of Awareness/BE-ing. Thought is translated into
Intelligence. Attention merges into its source – Awareness.
And what previously presented itself as the ‘I’ is
revealed to be the sum-total of all of these, with no one left to
notice it.
This Directly Experienced realization is probably best summed up
by the words: ‘I am THIS, there is only THIS’.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
WORKING
WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL REACTIVITIES
‘…Once we understand that the path
of self-transcendence concerns itself essentially with the
recognition and transcendence of everything which places a
limitation on our sane, happy and integral relation to life, we
may appreciate how important it is to come to terms with our
emotional and psychological shadow material. If our interest is
to free ourselves from the symptoms of every manifestation of
fragmentary living, these require our dedicated and most intimate
consideration.
Any residual resistances, whether physical, mental or
emotional/psychological which have not been brought into the
light of our own awareness, will remain as unconscious potential
within us, and will continue to control our lives. The process
has to be complete for it to be sustainable and effective…’
On the subject of the role of emotions in the spiritualization of
our being:
‘…Most
spiritual, religious and mystical paths share one rather
unfortunate tendency: they often project human emotions as
something inimical to what they propose as a truly spiritual way
of life. According to this misconception only unenlightened
mortals enjoy their senses and the full expression of their
emotional potential, while the spiritual sages have often been
described as having gone beyond such human ‘weaknesses’.
This misunderstanding has led to many sincere students believing
that they should detach themselves emotionally from the world if
they are really serious about self-transcendence or spiritual
life. In many cases this has led to the practice of inhibiting
and debilitating disciplines where considerable restriction has
been placed on the free and open-hearted unfolding of their
emotions in the context of both their spiritual practice and
everyday life.
Spiritual Humanism does not set itself on such a collision-course
with our human condition - especially our emotions. It is only
when we pursue some presumed Other-worldly or metaphysical ideal
that we will be vulnerable to being convinced that every aspect
of this world, including our emotions, are necessarily of a
lesser order than the world of our Gods or the Great Beyond
towards which we are to aspire. Such misconceptions have put
spiritual life in direct opposition to the rich soil of human
experience from within which alone a free life could flower…’
In
a sub-section of this chapter where Möller discusses the
appearance of the ego with its inherently problematic nature, we
find the following remarks:
‘…
The ego-process is always active in a comparative relationship
with something other than itself. Its very nature is to be
other-dominated, other-defined and other-controlled. It goes
through life pretending to others that it is feeling better than
it does, or coping better than it knows it actually is. We
present to others this ego-mask; a false, other-controlled image
of ourselves - an image that prevents us from presenting
ourselves as we are, while at the same time minimizing our
potential for warm and empathetic human interaction. This keeps
us locked into our own self-enclosed emotional wilderness and
thereby increasing our sense of loneliness and alienation.
In
Chapter Seventeen Möller explains the final process of
INTEGRATION.
‘…
An interesting and fundamental challenge we now seem to face, is
how to allow for the integration into our everyday activities of
that which has become true for us as Non-dual, full-bodily
BE-ing. This Non-dual experience has to become functional in
every aspect of our lives and has to be able to retain its
conscious equanimity in the face of the challenges of life. That
is, Direct Awareness has to find its measure and living reality
in each and every moment of our ordinary lives. Only then will
our freedom be complete and sustainable…’
Having
given a clear description of the process of Integration, Möller
concludes Spirituality Without God with the following words:
‘…
And this Great Simplicity of the Wholeness of BE-ing always
unfolds as nothing other than a natural expression of our total
human condition, where alone resides love, compassion,
Intelligence and humaneness…’
~ ~ ~
Home Page: http://www.spiritualhumanism.co.za/
Order book: http://www.llumina.com/store/spiritualitywithoutgod.htm