‘SPIRITUAL HUMANISM’ – THE HUMANIST ALTERNATIVE TO CONVENTIONAL SPIRITUALITY
Moller de la Rouviere
‘SPIRITUALITY
WITHOUT GOD’ describes a complete path
from ordinary dualistic vision to the revelation of the inherent
Non-dual nature of human life.
Discover
‘SPIRITUAL
HUMANISM’ – THE HUMANIST ALTERNATIVE TO
CONVENTIONAL SPIRITUALITY
Spirituality
Without God
Available: On Demand
Paperback
ISBN: 1-59526-141-9
Pages: 275
Size:
5.5x8.5
Price: $19.95
Available
from Llumina Press, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor:
Toll Free Orders
Line: 1-866-229-9244
Also available as an e-book: http://www.llumina.com/store/spiritualitywithoutgod1.htm
Moller
de la Rouviere may be contacted at: mollerdlr@telkomsa.net.
Moller welcomes communications about this book in the form of
queries and other constructive dialogue which may further the
investigation Spirituality Without God might engender.
……………………
‘THE FULFILLMENT OF HUMAN LIFE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF
SPIRITUAL LIFE’. – Moller de la Rouviere
……………………..
FROM
THE BACK COVER:
SPIRITUALITY
WITHOUT GOD
-
A Living Guide for Spiritual seekers, Meditators, Dharma
teachers and Therapists
We
are already free. Goodness, happiness, compassion and
relational integrity are inherent to our BE-ing. To stand in the
fullness of our human nature, is to be in the fullness of
Spiritual Life. It is all here. There is only
This.
¨
DISCOVER a new and radical Humanistic approach to Spiritual life.
¨
LEARN how to live in the light of your own Intelligence,
Humaneness and Emotional equanimity.
¨
STAND FREE in that which is already beyond self-limitation,
dualistic vision and mere reactivity.
¨
DEVELOP the true art of Self-transcendence through Meditation,
Contemplation and Direct Awareness.
¨
ALLOW the unfolding of your deep human potential for compassion
and unconditional love.
¨
BE who you are prior to emotional, psychological and mental
complexity.
Spirituality
Without God is a book about Spiritual Humanism.
It is also about self-enquiry, self-knowledge and
self-transcendence. It celebrates the Transcendent in
humanity. It teaches self-reliance, freedom from traditions,
religion and dogma. In essence it points the way to a Wholeness
of Life that lies beyond self-contraction, self-absorption,
emotional reactivity and mental conditioning. Moller de la
Rouviere’s first book is completely original, brilliantly
argued and stands apart from other books about spirituality in
its intelligent, yet compassionate exploration of a truly
Humanistic Spirituality.
Those who have
developed a sense for the possibility of Non-dual living and
sustainable emotional equanimity will find here clear guidelines
towards the complete fulfillment of their own human potential.
This deeply penetrating enquiry into the human condition, and the
inherent freedom, happiness and relational integrity towards
which this book points, offer a radical departure from
traditional religious and spiritual conventions. Möller’s
unique concept of Spiritual Humanism brings the spiritual
quest back into the human realm.
One of the most
original and penetrating aspects of the path of self-discovery
and self-transcendence which SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT GOD
explores, is Möller’s introduction of what he calls Spiritual
Psychology. Here the reader is guided through clearly
instructed methods of inner emotional and psychological work to
free h/herself from deep emotional disturbances.
Spiritual Psychology should be seen as an integral component of the spiritualizing process as no sustainable spiritual life is possible while the practitioner is held hostage by their psychological and emotional shadow material.
SPIRITUALITY
WITHOUT GOD affords its reader with a unique
exploration into a radically new form of spiritual enquiry
that is timeless in its presentation and which
provides answers to many of those unasked questions that reside
in the depth of the human spirit.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART
ONE: THE VIEW
1. VISION AND
PRACTICE
2. THE
THOUGHT/ATTENTION - KNOT
3. COMPONENTS OF
THE SEPARATE SELF-SENSE
4.
INTELLECTUALISM AND REALITY CONSIDERATION
5. ON SENSE
PERCEPTION
6. THE DESTINY
OF I-CONSCIOUSNESS
7. THE QUESTION
OF ATTACHMENT AND DETACHMENT
8. SELF-ENQUIRY,
PSYCHOLOGY AND RIGHT ATTITUDE
9. THE QUESTION
OF WILL
10. THREE
FUNDAMENTAL STATES
11.
SPIRITUALITY, SCIENCE AND ART
PART
TWO: THE PRACTICE
INTRODUCTION
12. THE PRACTICE
OF PASSIVE AWARENESS
- General
Introduction
- The
Practice of Passive Awareness
-
‘Minding?’ and the Thought/Attention-knot
- Insight
-
Attention and Awareness
- Samatha
13. THE PRACTICE
OF DIRECT AWARENESS
-
Understanding Direct Awareness
-
Practicing Direct Awareness
- Full
Bodily Awareness
14. WORKING WITH
CONTEMPLATION
15.
CONTEMPLATION AND REALITY CONSIDERATION
16. WORKING WITH
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL REACTIVITIES
- General
Introduction
-
Self-Transcendence and Emotions
- Looking at the
Problem
- The Broader
Context of Emotional Disturbance
- Primal
Contraction
- The
Ego-process and Emotional Reactivity
- Discovering
the Right Instruments
- Beginning the
Process
- Direct
Awareness and Emotional Reactivities
17.
INTEGRATION - Towards the Wholeness of BE-ing
One
of the most important insights which this book explores and
communicates is that we need not rely on any specific tradition,
philosophy, religion or teacher for the complete fulfillment of
our potential. Self-knowledge and the Wholeness of Life are
inherent to human existence and only require appropriate ways of
allowing for their unfolding and living expression.
Spirituality
is a human affair. We need not complicate our enquiry with
all the traditional forms of spiritual, metaphysical or religious
ideas presented to us as revelatory truths. Rather, if we
approach self-enquiry with an open heart and an open mind, we
will soon discover that we are naturally endowed with an
Intelligence and emotional ability which hold the diversity of
Life together. It does this not only in a coherent and practical
way, but also as an awakened activity of compassion and charity,
which naturally extends itself towards other human beings.
For
this humanizing process to unfold and to become our living
reality, our starting point would be the acceptance that there is
absolutely nothing suspect about our born condition.
As humans we lack nothing for the complete fulfillment of our
destiny. We are born into a Wholeness of Life that naturally
expresses itself through a compassionate heart and unconditional
Intelligence, if only we were to allow for its unfolding.
If
we could become sensitive to this primary truth, we will discover
that our deepest potential has only been obscured by a
vast and complex network of thought-projections and emotional
reactivities which have prevented our natural state from
revealing itself in our everyday living. This has created the appearance
of fragmentation and duality whereas we already inhere in an
undivided, natural condition of Wholeness.
Spirituality
Without God brings clarity and insight to this entire field
of presumed fragmentation and allows us to discover through
self-enquiry and self-observation how we participate in the inner
processes that keep our ignorance alive. For this we need not
become more complicated and philosophical. The path of
self-enquiry and self-transcendence suggests quite the contrary.
Once we become sensitive to our own inner turmoil, disorder and
dysfunction, we naturally begin to appreciate that our path is a movement
from complexity and confusion, to simplicity and inner order.
This is why considerable emphasis is placed on the practice of
Direct Experience (see: Part Two:The Practice) to guide us
through, and liberate us from, the complexities we bring to our
lives.
Through
the path of self-observation, meditation and Contemplation we
will uncover many hidden aspects of ourselves. In Spirituality
Without God we are offered clear guidelines on how to restore
our sanity through insightful participation in every aspect of
our being. During this investigation it will become clear that to
arrive at a complete understanding of ourselves; we need never
look for any answer outside the already-existing truth of our
living reality. This makes our journey truly humanistic where
we never feel the need, or urgency, to look for any assistance
from beyond our present human experience.
However,
to find our human measure, we will need the courage to look
afresh at every aspect of our interaction with our world as a
whole. Approaching both ourselves and objective reality in this
openhearted way, we will discover that nothing we may encounter
during this investigation will have the power to deter us from
our quest. In fact, our enquiry will soon reveal that the closer
we keep to the truth of what we perceive, intuit and directly
experience, the more liberating our path will be.
Another
aspect of the path of self-transcendence is that it should help
us to discover the right instruments with which to work. It
would be of little use to attempt deep investigations into our
own being before we have established the appropriate means to
facilitate such work. For this we will draw not only on our
intellectual and intuitive grasp of things. We will also have to
develop other aspects of our potential to participate in our own
processes in a direct and courageous way, without any fear or
resistance. Much of the formal meditation work suggested in this
book serves this purpose.
And
as our inquiry deepens, it will become progressively clearer that
we have not embarked upon a path where we merely struggle with
the technicalities of our practice. Rather, the way of
self-enquiry and self-transcendence is a living process,
where we realize that we are the path we will have to walk.
There is no path other than the complexities and difficulties
we bring to our lives. It is up to us to discover the subtle
nuances of our own uninspected inner world that obscure the
natural functioning of our true human spirit.
This
book offers us the opportunity to inspect the manner in which we
function, and assists us to transcend every aspect of limitation
we bring to the living moment. When our understanding matures, we
will progressively rely more on our own clarity of insight and
directly felt experience. This will afford us with a quiet
confidence, not based on external achievement or mere
ego-satisfaction, but rather nourished from, and informed by, the
well of our own deeper Intelligence and Wholeness.
The
instruments we will develop through the formal meditation and
contemplative practices suggested in Part Two: The Practice
will prove to be sufficiently effective to deal with every aspect
of our mental and emotional complexities in a coherent and
practical way. These will allow us to explore many different
approaches to our reactivities, inconsistencies, disturbances,
emotional dysfunctions and other forms of inner contraction and
debilitation.
Perhaps
one of the most encouraging elements of the path of self-enquiry
is that every new discovery reveals itself as an integral part of
a wider liberating process. All we need to do is to find
appropriate ways of dealing with our situation. The results will
follow by themselves in a natural and quite remarkable way. And
as our enquiry unfolds, every aspect of our contracted being will
gradually fall away by non-use. When the false, dualistic vision
is left behind, only the truth of the Wholeness of Life remains.
Although
Spirituality Without God enters into deep and subtle
aspects of our entire field of experience, it always endeavors to
approach things in a non-technical and non-academic way. Every
subject discussed and every form of practice proposed are
explored in the broad context of a quest for Wholeness and a
truly sane and integrated life. And because this is an enquiry
into the totality of our human condition, the reader will not
find any speculative metaphysics or empty philosophical
propositions merely to stimulate the imagination. Such
unnecessary elaborations serve only to detract from the urgency
and integrity of our investigation. This is an exploration into human
life where we discover many aspects of how we think and feel
about things. No area of our inner life is irrelevant to this
discovery. And no speculation about it is necessary or
appropriate.
We
have lived with so many untruths, and have allowed ourselves to
become so profoundly conditioned into ways of thinking and
feeling which do not reflect our true condition, that we have
become insensitive to the point of being completely ignorant of
what it means to be fully human. Our lives have become little
more than series of resistances against the flow and movement of
the ever-changing nature of things. And much of this is the
direct result of the religious dogmas and mystical, esoteric and
metaphysical speculations presented to us as revelatory truths by
the traditions of religiosity.
Instead
of freeing us from our confusion, disorder and bewilderment, many
of these teachings have served only to complicate our lives by
suggesting that we look outside or beyond human life for
the ultimate fulfillment of our potential. In this way our spiritual
traditions have contributed to our already deeply fragmented,
dualistic vision and brought us to a point where we have lost all
sense of the Wholeness in which we already inhere. We may have
the rare or occasional glimpse of this profoundly undivided
Reality but, more often than not, we practice a style of living
that keeps us apart and destroys the deep relational integrity of
our lives.
Spirituality
Without God proposes an original and radically humanistic
vision for discovering the Non-dual Truth of Life and the
emotional equanimity we all seek. By refusing to accept any of
the dogmas proposed by the traditions of confusion we call
spirituality, religion or mysticism – where we are taught
either to merge with something presumably Greater than ourselves
or realize our identification with some inner Unitive Principle
such as Brahman, Emptiness, Consciousness, Atman, God or the Self
– the enquiry proposed in this book clearly demonstrates
that the path to, and realization of, the Non-dual Truth of Life
lies entirely within our human potential, and nowhere else. We
need nothing but the integrative measure of our deep humanity for
the truth and beauty of our human appearance to be revealed.
Through
self-enquiry, self-knowledge and self-transcendence we discover
that when every aspect of dualistic presumption within us has
been recognized and transcended, we are already free in the Great
Simplicity of BE-ing, which is Whole and always nothing other
than perfectly human, sane and loving.
~ ~ ~
For
the sake of clarity and to simplify our enquiry, Spirituality
Without God has been divided into two parts.
In
Part One:The View we explore many of the misconceptions we
have about life and living. These essays form an integral part of
the path of self-enquiry, self-knowledge and self-transcendence.
They penetrate deeply into many of the themes we may come across
in the traditional mystical and esoteric paths of liberation, and
endeavor to explain the limitations and confusion that have
developed around these teachings over centuries of mere
repetition. At the same time we are presented with new and
original ways to look at our own lives, directly available to our
understanding, insight and experience.
The
purpose of this type of enquiry into the human condition as a
whole is to sensitize ourselves to the many misconceptions and
uninspected attitudes we bring to our lives. Although our
explorations should always be alive with Intelligence and
characterized by a genuine spirit of enquiry, we need to guard
against merely becoming intellectual or philosophical. Rather, we
should always endeavor to remain realistic by never moving
away from that which cannot be verified on present,
experiential evidence.
In
these essays we are further sensitized to the fact that no
enquiry is complete without allowing for the full development of
our true emotional potential to work in constant
resonance with our deeper Intelligence. Everything we explore
from the point of view of the heart, as well as from our deeper
Intelligence, finally finds its true measure in the direct
experience of a deep emotional Intelligence, which could be seen
as the functional instrument of the Holistic nature of Life.
In
Part One we prepare the ground for such an open-minded and
open-hearted way of life. Here we develop a radical spirit of
enquiry by taking a critical look at many of the issues which
bind and limit our full participation in life. Once this spirit
of enquiry has been well established, we will be sufficiently
prepared not to offer resistance to the penetrating insights and
forms of direct experience which will become an integral part of
our process when we engage in the formal meditative work as
suggested in Part Two.
In
Part Two: The Practice we enter into many different forms
of meditative practice that give substance, through direct
experience, to the issues we have been contemplating in Part
One. Here we discover how to find our measure in formal
meditative practice and to integrate the techniques of meditation
into our daily living. We learn in detail how to work with our
emotional reactivities and psychological disturbances. We explore
and develop the functional ways in which the ego sustains itself
through comparison and self-proving. We look at how thought and
attention form a finely woven network of inner confusion and
illusion. We develop the art of meditation through Passive
Awareness and Direct Awareness. In the process we learn how to
work with Contemplation to free us from conditioning and
mental/emotional reactivities.
Every
aspect of our self-contracted state is brought into the domain of
Intelligent observation. Little has been left out from this
enquiry into our own mental and emotional dysfunctioning. And
when we have sufficiently recognized the ways through which we
distort and fragment our living reality, we enter into the final
work of Direct Awareness, non-doing and no-effort. As we shall
discover, these subtle forms of practice are only possible in the
context of a refined and delicate sense of relaxation, where the tendencies
for drawing us back into the complexity of our reactive,
destiny-creating ways of doing things, have lost their hold over
us.
From here we can
allow for the unfolding of a life that has lost its separate and
fragmentary appearance. We will notice that we begin to manifest
an ongoing Holistic quality of BE-ing, which naturally reveals
itself as compassion for all living creatures - including
ourselves. This is evidenced by true emotional responsiveness,
unconditioned Intelligence and a softness of heart that
constantly feels its way into situations in a gentle and
sensitive manner.
The
final chapter on ‘Integration’ points us beyond formal
practice to a way of life freed from self-limitation and
self-imposed suffering where the Wholeness of Life gradually
becomes our deeply-felt living reality.
………………………………………………………..
ESSAY 1
SPIRITUAL HUMANISM: Towards the transcendence of the
rational/scientific model for human well-being.
By Moller de la Rouviere
Author of ‘Spirituality Without God’
It would seem not unreasonable to suggest that for humankind to arrive at the most realistic comprehension of reality, which of necessity has to include the human condition as such, the full spectrum of human potential will have to be engaged in such an enquiry. No movement towards a truly penetrating and integral understanding of life can take place in the context of a limited, and self-limiting, definition of the human condition. To consider reality in the fullest way possible, the human spirit of enquiry has to be set unconditionally free so that it may engage itself on all levels of investigation, both outwardly and inwardly: outwardly in how we see and experience our world; inwardly in how we view and experience ourselves.
To view manifest existence as a scientifically verifiable series of objects, and humanity most fundamentally as a rational creature, having to make sense of life by using thought as our central instrument for finding our true human measure, we may unwittingly buy into a limited vision of life which may not be capable of arriving at a truly comprehensive view of matters. This could impact negatively on our ability for integral living. Yet, this seems to be the position of many within the Humanistic movement.
Secular Humanism generally advocates a rational, secular view of life, compatible with scientific method in its pursuit of knowledge. It regards reason and rationality as its ultimate measure for all human interaction with the world. It rejects the supernatural and views areas of human expression such as intuition, inspiration, revelation, altered states of consciousness and emotion as potentially useful( if somewhat dubious), sources of information, but ultimately subject to rational evaluation. Although Secular Humanists advocate compassion and tolerance, even these would seem to be tempered and given meaning by objective, rational measurement.
Secular Humanists therefore regard rationality as the final arbiter and embrace a life of free thinking, open-mindedness, democratic values and the discovery of humane relationships with the world as comprehended and sanctioned by the rational mind.
To my understanding Secular Humanism, as a movement towards achieving the best possible living conditions for humanity as a whole, should be cautious to identify itself too intimately with the notions of rationality and science. To explore human potential exclusively from within the scientific-rational model is to define human life as something empirical, objective and purely rational and thereby leaving such an enquiry vulnerable to marginalize those aspects of human experience which cannot be rationally explained or scientifically verified.
Science is the art of fragmentation, and the rational mind its most fundamental source of information, understanding and methodology. However, human life cannot be fully comprehended by fragmenting it into what may appear to scientific enquiry as manageable, observable and verifiable units of objective existence to be observed, investigated and manipulated. On the contrary, human life is a rather fluid affair, and the rational mind, useful and important as it no doubt is, cannot come to a full and complete understanding of the totality of human potential and its unfathomable depth of expression. In fact, it could be reasonably argued that the rational instrument could become a profound obstacle to full human unfolding should it be allowed to operate in areas of human functioning where it serves no useful purpose. Only deep insight into the limitations of the rational instrument as it operates within its own field could verify the self-evident truth of this suggestion.
And this brings us to one of the dilemmas facing Secular Humanism as a movement promoting the exclusive use of rationality as its instrument to deal with human life as a whole. By rejecting altered states of consciousness; viewing with skepticism human qualities such as intuition, insight and inspiration and marginalizing the emotions as an integral aspect of appropriate human functioning, Secular Humanism rejects, and casts doubt on very valuable sources of human potential.
Having rejected all Other-worldly control over humanity, is it possible that the Secular Humanist movement has gone too far to the other extreme by placing its faith entirely in science, rationality - and by implication a materialistic world-view – to deliver us from the ills so prevalent in modern society?
I ask this because to my understanding such a limited view of how to control our own destiny may result in an equally limited and fragmented series of ‘answers’. One could ask: If rationality and scientific enquiry are the answers to our human ills, what was the question? What are the problems rationality and science could address in a meaningful way? And is it not possible that many of the ills of our world throughout the ages have been the direct consequences of rationality functioning in what might have appeared to be a purely rational manner, devoid of any other input from our more subtle and subjective human sources of information?
No doubt, rational thinking is one of the very valuable instruments available to the human psychophysical being. But rational thinking tends to think from within the borders of its own conditioning. In this it is not truly free to express a purely rational opinion on many aspects of human life. For instance, rational thought, important as it may be for directing many aspects of coherent human functioning, including scientific and technological investigation, is also the instrument which can meticulously plan the destruction of millions by rationalizing the promptings of some nationalistic imperative or the need for territorial expansion, and so on. Further, it is the rational mind, devoid of the value of intuitive emotional information that can create the vast array of destructive weapons we see around the world – all only for the purpose of maiming and killing other human beings. In this compassion plays no part at all. We only see a rationality dramatizing itself totally out of context with the human environment within which it finds itself.
The rational mind can compartmentalize itself away from the emotional content of the psychophysical being as whole, and act in many destructive ways contrary to our natural intuition which demands order, humane living and freedom from authority and physical intimidation as prerequisites for human well-being.
Furthermore, we see the vulnerability of rationality to the influence of social and other forms of emotional and mental conditioning. For instance, it is said that one of the greatest rationalists and scientists of the modern era, Albert Einstein, had such a firm belief in a God of ultimate order, that he could not accept the implications of his own investigations into the randomness towards which quantum physics pointed. This indicates how vulnerable the rational process is to influences other than pure rationality. The question could thus be asked: Is there such a condition or ability of pure rationality? Or do we discover behind much of our presumed rational thinking already a bias or condition which directs and influences the rational process?
Clearly the rational mind is most effective in areas such as scientific enquiry, mathematics and technology. Here it functions in a most disciplined and unconditioned manner. But when it comes to its involvement with social, moral, ethical, emotional, relational and psychological issues, it tends to be out of its depth. It simply cannot be trusted to produce a coherent and humane social environment for us to function in. We have seen this failure in the great diversity of forms of social disorganization throughout the ages. This is not the fault of rationality as such: rather it is because as humans we often believe we could utilize this instrument in all areas of human life to create social stability and well-being. In this way rationality becomes destructive and functions contrary to human requirements for survival and emotional order.
We as Humanists should sensitize ourselves to this inherent dilemma presented to humanity by the exclusive use of rational thinking. The rational mind is not the instrument through which emotional order, compassion, charity, true humaneness and a wholeness of living reality could be established. The rational mind can imitate these and make rules and images of what these mean and how these should be effected , but no thinking can produce the purity and living reality of those aspects of our humanity which, given the right inner conditions, manifest quite naturally as these profoundly human and humane qualities.
To be humane is not merely to be human. Many humans, often even the most rational and scientifically orientated amongst us, can display rather disconcerting signs of inhumaneness. Rationalism is as much a belief-system as any other belief which presents itself as a panacea for our human ills. In a way not different to how religions believe their gods and saviors will come to the rescue and install a humane and compassionate society here on earth, the notion that scientific rationalism could serve this purpose is equally based on an uninspected and partial view of the human condition. It is not a complete Humanistic view – not if Humanism were to incorporate the total spectrum of human potential.
As long as rationalism and science alone form the basis of our Humanist investigation into inner and outer order, such order will be conditioned, controlled and determined, not by the totality of our human potential, (which to my understanding would reflect a truly Humanistic position) but rather by instruments which were not designed to allow for a holistic approach to humane living. These may serve the psychophysical being in a very appropriate way, each in its own right. But to address the problems facing us in a truly coherent manner, we need to develop and involve all our faculties.
There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the rational mind cannot be trusted to promote a tolerant, responsible and open society. In fact it could be argued that it was exactly the un-emotional and uncompassionate use of rationality that could create such masterpieces of social disorganization, suppression of people, malevolent social systems and destructive devices as we have seen manifested in the South African Apartheid system, the inhumane dictatorships of the Communist world, the Fascist movements in Europe, the development of the atomic bomb and other such products of rationality devoid of emotion and compassion.
The rational mind, devoid of a deep sense of feeling, emotion, compassion and unconditioned intelligence can create and rationalize many profoundly destructive ways of living. Based in fragmentation, specialization and partial insight, rational thought can very easily become an instrument for destruction and fragmentation of human life. Once fragmentation has become the basis by which rational thought orders our lives, human life takes on the form of this fragmentary process. And, as J.Krishnamurti once observed: ‘Fragmentation breeds conflict’.
Rational thought, in its association with scientific enquiry, has created much misery in the world. In fact, there is no observable or necessary link between rational thought and science on the one hand, and humane living on the other. A humane world will of necessity be characterized not only by clear-mindedness, but most profoundly by compassion, mutual care and true openness of our hearts and minds towards one another.
Scientific rationalism negates these rather subjective aspects of humankind, and has often portrayed them, rather condescendingly, as mere theatre for our irrational emotions. However, a Humanism that is founded in scientific rationalism alone, devoid of the truly subjective in humanity, can only result in partial, incomplete human realization, devoid of much of its humaneness.
We need to function from as wide a human base as possible to secure both human survival and the fulfillment of a ’humane’ living environment. A tolerant, responsible, free and democratic society is indeed the natural consequence of ‘open-mindedness’. But open-mindedness is not merely a result of pure reason. True open-mindedness is a natural consequence of self-reflection, introspection and the discovery of ways of human functioning that reflects and utilizes all our human faculties, including reason, emotion, the intelligence of love and compassion, artistic expression and appreciation, insight, the clarity of a quiet mind and the transpersonal, non-dual truth of human life.
The enquiry into these cannot be limited to scientific method. No doubt science does assist the human process in general. But science cannot effectively deal with the subtlety of the human system as a whole. Humane living is not the consequence of a repeatable, scientific experiment - empirically verified in a test tube. To be humane, and to create a humane society, require the expression of our total humanity. It is not merely a result of right thinking: it is as much a result of right feeling, right relationship and right attitude – in short, right living as a whole, utilizing the entire spectrum of human potential.
The word ‘humane’ is nuanced by its emotional content. It presupposes not mere rationality but rather points to a kind of reasonableness where emotion forms an integral part of the decision-making process. To be humane is therefore not only to be rational: it is to allow our rationality to be tempered by the presence and insight of other deeper faculties such as compassion, holistic vision and, ultimately, a thoroughly self-transcendent disposition. For these qualities to manifest require a considerably wider development of our human faculties than just relying on scientific rationalism. Without these fundamental human qualities in clear evidence, humane living is not possible. And in this regard, no reference needs to be made to the supernatural, godly, other-worldly or mystical. Where appropriate, rationality needs to be transcended, to make way for deeper qualities of human potential to play their useful and appropriate part in establishing a truly humane inner and outer order.
To transcend the rational is not to reject it. It is to incorporate it as an important component of human functioning, but not to regard it as the only measure for human interaction with life. Human living is a unfathomably rich tapestry of subtle potential and my concern with the insights into the human condition as explained by many within the Secular Humanist movement is that there appears to be an uninspected urgency towards limiting and controlling human activity through fragmentation and the kind of thinking that finds such an approach agreeable or even necessary.
And it seems to me that only self-knowledge, obtained through self-observation and self-exploration, could facilitate the awakening of our humaneness as a true expression of our total humanness. Such introspection could not be considered to be compatible with scientific method. Working within the human situation as a whole, including our self-transcendent potential, has to be explored rather than attempting to crystallize some refined humanity from a process of rationality and science. This requires a deeper commitment to the ideals of tolerance, responsibility and an open, free and democratic society than the rational process is capable of. It is part of the limitations of the rational mind to believe it is the instrument through which humane living could be established. Only introspection of, and deep reflection on, this belief could penetrate the inaccuracy of this fundamental flaw in the deliberations of the rational instrument.
Until these forms of exploration become central to the Humanist enquiry into ‘humane’ living, I am afraid, the high ideals towards which the Secular Humanist movement strives, will find great difficulty manifesting as living reality. Humaneness cannot be imposed onto oneself as a concept and then willed into existence. Humaneness, in its most comprehensive expression, is a natural result of quiet introspection, self-reflection, meditation and, perhaps above all, the opening up of the entire psychophysical being to areas of exploration that naturally manifest beyond the borders of pure rationality, self and the scientific-materialistic paradigm.
Spiritual Humanism addresses these questions in a most fundamental and integrated way. It explores every aspect of human life with an open mind and an open heart. It does not start its enquiry from a pre-determined conclusion relative to which instrument is most suitable for investigating life. Neither does it frown upon aspects of human expression which may not comfortably fit into the conditions and categories of rational thought. Rather, here the emphasis is on discovering the widest use of human potential in as intelligent a manner as possible.
Spiritual Humanism remains true to the Humanist’s demand for free and unconditional enquiry. It therefore allows itself to explore states of human awareness which could indeed be seen to be different to the conditioned, memory-based kinds of thinking and feeling which we generally assume as our natural state. For instance, Spiritual Humanism explores the transpersonal potential within conscious awareness and seeks to establish a life not entirely dominated by the contracted self-sense with its wide-ranging emotional and psychological effects on the psychophysical being as whole. It further allows for the unfolding of a deeper intelligence which transcends memory-based thinking while at the same time displays a remarkable sensitivity towards the things it thinks about. In this way the schism between intelligent thinking and intelligent feeling is bridged. Thinking becomes an expression of true human emotion and vice versa. Emotional life and thinking life get united in a synergistic interaction which serves the psychophysical being from a considerably wider perspective than when we just employ conditioned, memory-based rationality as the functional instrument of our interaction with the world.
Spiritual Humanism explores and allows for the full unfolding of our deeper human qualities which are generally obscured by the frantic attempts of the rational mind to make sense of many challenges for which it is not designed to deal with. By not approaching the total field of experience with any pre-determined instrument, Spiritual Humanism keeps the exploration open and receptive within a resolute spirit of enquiry.
The Humanist movement, if it were to serve humanity in its widest context possible and to fulfill its promise of being a genuine expression of humankind, will have to include in its explorations and deliberations also the view that to be human is to have aspects to its humanness which transcend ordinary rational thought. In fact, what is rejected by Secular Humanism as ‘altered states of consciousness’ are indeed states of conscious awareness which become evident when the whole psychophysical being, including the thought-stream, becomes quiet and deeply restful. During such states of inner quiet we discover aspects of human life which radically transcend ordinary conditioned ways of relating to circumstances. And it would seem perfectly appropriate to refer to such states of inner quiet, insight and wholeness as ‘altered states of consciousness’ without the need to regard these as mystical, religious, esoteric or in any way other-than-human.
Spiritual Humanism advocates the total exploration of human potential to allow for the gradual unfolding of a fully integrated human life. My book, ‘Spirituality Without God’ is an attempt to explain the deep spiritual aspect of humanity from an uncompromisingly Humanistic perspective. It is therefore not only an unambiguous Humanistic statement: it also explores many of these subtle forms of human potential and guides the reader to a fully integrated mental, emotional and spiritual life. The book considers reality in its relation to our total being and offers clear guidelines on how to awaken to our deep human potential and to make every aspect of it functional in ordinary living. As a true alternative to conventional spirituality, without any religious nuances whatsoever, it provides a way of looking at life which could fulfill the deepest quest for meaning, emotional stability, intelligence and humane living.
In conclusion allow me to say that I regard Humanism as the only vision for the future of mankind. Our guru’s have failed us. Our religions are mere comfort zones for emotional and psychological bewilderment. Science cannot free itself from its fundamental attachment to materialism. Rationality is flawed with conditioned emotional and factual prejudice. The mystical paths present us with little but thousands of years of mere intellectualizing and uninspected repetition of presumed revelatory truths.
These are all based on an inability to investigate the human situation directly from within the living reality of human life itself . This has left a sensitive schism between the human search for genuineness, integrity and the true meaning of life on the one hand, and the ‘answers’ to these questions offered to it culturally and traditionally.
The true answer to human life lies in the total human condition alone. This is why I consider it of such critical importance that the Humanistic movement should take great care in how it describes and defines itself. The opposite of folly is not found merely in its rejection, but rather in its transcendence.
Western Humanism, once it has freed itself from all forms of presumed Other-worldly, Emanating, Substance-based or God-destined control over humanity, will need to search for a truly Humanistic inspiration which transcends the purely rational, scientific-materialistic worldview. If such an enquiry leads it deep into the subjective potential of human nature, (which lies at the heart of our humanity) the Humanist movement should be true to their own declared undertaking: to ‘enjoy the open-endedness of a quest and the freedom of discovery that this entails’ (Frederick Edwords, 1998). These are truly beautiful words. Yet, it is not only the content of discovery which is important; of greater significance are the instruments that are employed with which to arrive at a comprehensive vision of human life.
The Humanists alone can alert humanity to a different way of experiencing reality – a way that may lead to a complete development of our human potential based on nothing but a radically free Humanistic disposition. This will no doubt prove to be an arduous undertaking. Yet, if the Humanists of this world want to play a meaningful role in the future of mankind, they would do well to recognize the potential in human life beyond the confines of scientific rationality and allow for the investigation and unfolding of all our subtle, transcendent human qualities as an integral part of the Humanistic movement.
Moller de la Rouviere
Author of: Spirituality Without God
e-mail: mollerdlr@telkomsa.net
Essay on
Spiritual Psychology
The following
short description of ‘Spiritual Psychology’
comes from a practical, self-help course on the subject Moller is
currently working on:
WHAT IS
SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY?
An Essay by Moller
de la Rouviere
(Author of
‘Spirituality Without God’)
Spiritual Psychology is a way of
facilitating the natural unfolding of your own human
potential whereby your current distressful emotional disturbances
will lose their hold over your life and allow you to breathe
freely - deep into the well of your true, happy and natural human
state.
The way the word
‘Spirit’ is used in this Course points to that deep
feeling -sense we all have of our own inherent sanity,
well-being, equanimity and health. Spiritual Psychology
is a methodical and practical approach both to work with, and to
resolve, disturbing and debilitating emotional and psychological
shadow material from this prior disposition of health and
wholeness. The approach to integral living that this
Course explores does not assume any inner disturbance, whether
physical, mental or emotional, as fundamental to your
living reality.
Rather, Spiritual Psychology
assumes that you are always, already perfectly healthy, sane and
whole, and that this inherent well-being has merely been obscured
by unnecessary and uninspected impositions on your inner order
and general well-being.
The word ‘Spirit’ could also be equated with those natural and uniquely human qualities such as compassion, love, joy, companionship, charity, empathy, sympathy, unconditioned emotional response-ability, self-worth, intelligence and insight. These are qualities inherent to our human condition which cannot be created or destroyed. Through the way we live, though, these may either be allowed to reveal themselves as the functional manifestations of our own inherent well-being, or they may remain obscured through uninspected living.
Except in the case of extreme emotional/psychological debilitation, even deeply wounded individuals retain the capacity to give and receive love and human warmth. And as there is no clearer manifestation of sanity and a well-adjusted emotional disposition than the capacity to give and receive love freely and un-self-consciously, this deep urge for the expression of love from within our being points to our inalienable prior state of health and order.
This profoundly humane quality is therefore built into the fabric of our humanness, and although not much of it is generally evident in our daily interactions with one another, it is always there for us to draw on should we open ourselves to its delicate promptings from within. This deep humaneness can only be obscured. It can never be touched or destroyed. It is our birthright and is always ready to shine through the fog of our uninspected responses to life to become our living truth, if only we could find ways of allowing it to manifest.
We are born sane and whole. About
this we never need to concern ourselves. Our nature inheres in an
unfathomable well of creative Intelligence and emotional purity.
And this inherent emotional warmth, charity, mental order and
Intelligence are those uniquely human qualities we may refer to
as the human ‘spirit’.
Spiritual Psychology primarily endeavors to re-establish an open channel of communication between your everyday, functional awareness and this deeper feeling-sense of complete well-being and inherent wholeness. In fact, before you are encouraged to start any work on your psychological and emotional disturbances, you will first be shown how to establish yourself in a disposition of deep quiet and inner Intelligence which exists prior to your emotional shadow material and psychological reactivities. This will safeguard you against the mistake, so prevalent in many psychotherapeutic methods, to approach your inner complexities from the point of view of the dilemma itself. Unless a stable inner environment has been well established, the positive, freeing results of emotional work will not be able to integrate themselves into your life because of the relative superficiality of how they had been approached and resolved. The deeper the inner quiet from which you observe and work with these disturbances, the more thorough, penetrating and sustainable will be the results of your endeavor.
In this Course you will be shown many forms of deep mental relaxation and bodily awareness to serve as preparation for the important emotional work that lies ahead. Only when the right inner environment has been established will you be able to truly look at yourself, learn about yourself and come to new and liberating insights about your present condition. Using this approach, you will always be working from a perfectly safe, yet extremely effective, inner disposition to re-establish yourself in your natural well of sanity and inner order. You will always be encouraged to start any inner work from this disposition of inner quiet.
To follow this kind of enquiry, you will not be asked to believe in anything other than your own clarity, observational ability and natural Intelligence. You will be taken by the hand and shown simple, direct and practical ways of how to feel into your own prior sanity and natural order. This feeling-sense will become your own experience and, once yours, it could serve as a powerful base from where you could investigate all your emotional disturbances. In this way you will allow yourself direct access to disturbing shadow material without becoming disturbed or absorbed in its reactive and often volatile content. Rather, you will be led by the subtlety of your own Intelligence to work through your disturbing material quite naturally and without defense or resistance.
Spiritual Psychology
assumes that health is always prior to sickness and that any
psychological or emotional disturbance is like being affected
with some kind of ailment. Behind the disruption in your
normal functioning, your inner health has neither been touched
nor disturbed. What you feel as specific physical,
emotional or mental symptoms do not detract from the fact that
prior to these disturbances your being still inheres in a
natural state of health and order which is always ready to heal,
and bring to perfect functioning, any aspect of disturbance
within itself. If health was not your fundamental
condition, no healing could ever take place.
Healing is the function of a
healthy, whole organism, despite temporary debilitation or
malfunction in any of its parts – including your
emotional/psychological being.
The health you regain
after your sickness is the same health that served the process of
healing. At no point did you believe that you were sick
in any ultimate sense, and although the sickness might have been
uncomfortable or even painful, deep inside you knew that
you would get better. At no stage did you become totally identified
with the disturbance as though it reflected your entire being.
Exactly the same is true of your painful and disturbing emotional and psychological experiences. These are forms of inner disturbance, and, painful as these may be, there is nothing written that you need to become identified with them as though they truly reflect the totality of your being.
You are already as emotionally
healthy and whole as your body is fundamentally healthy and whole
– even in the midst of any disturbed aspect of it, whether
physical, mental or emotional. And your human spirit is as
eager and capable of healing aspects of your psychological being,
as the life-energy of the body is ready to do its healing work
when its holistic functioning has temporarily been interfered
with through sickness or trauma.
Sickness, discomfort and disease
are secondary to, and generally of a lower and less subtle order
of organization, than health. When the healthy, life-positive
functioning of the organism has been sufficiently eroded through
inappropriate living, thinking and feeling, debilitation and
disorder may well become dominant and may finally lead to total
disorganization of the psychophysical instrument. This naturally
leads to death or a state of living inertia. But should
there remain even the slightest possibility of recuperation, the
organism will always, as far as possible, move toward the
rebalancing of life energy. This again implies that even
under dire circumstances, the being as a whole inheres in a state
of well-being which could be seen as the fundamental ordering
principle and initiator of any movement back into a wider
condition of health. And this relationship between health and
sickness, where health is always seen to be prior and
inherently of a higher order than sickness or dysfunction, forms
the basis of all realistic and Intelligent investigations into
any disturbance. It is also one of the most pivotal
insights that informs every aspect of this Course in ‘Spiritual
Psychology’.
Another, very important aspect, integral
to ‘Spiritual Psychology’, is the specific use of the
term ‘Spiritual’ in relation to the psychological work
on which this Course centers.
In my book: Spirituality
Without God, I continually stress the close working
relationship between psychological work and any sustainable
freedom which spiritual enquiry might afford us. In this
book I describe ‘spirituality’ as the gradual unfolding
of all the more subtle and humane qualities which are already
present within our being but that need to be allowed to reveal
themselves in our daily living. We are all human by birth,
but to become truly humane, we need to allow for the
gradual development and unfolding of our true humanity which is
our deep potential and, when allowed to manifest, is directly
experienced as love, compassion, self-respect, positivity,
intelligence, empathy, equanimity and relational integrity.
These are aspects of our being which have been obscured from very
early in life but, as we have seen in the case of health, are
always immediately available to us should we allow for their
revelation.
When we consider
psychological work, we find ourselves in very much the same
position relative to these deeper qualities of being. True
sanity and integral living are not possible as long as we firmly
believe in the projections which obscure our natural emotional
equanimity. In fact, to be a sane and emotionally
healthy human being, is to stand no less in the fullness of these
spiritual qualities, than we would expect to manifest only after
deep spiritual enquiry. Spiritual life is human life
fulfilled. And psychological and emotional order form an
integral part of such a living reality.
This brings us back to the
question about the use of the term ‘Spiritual
Psychology’.
Spiritual Psychology
makes use of all the methods we would apply to free ourselves
from our psychological complexities during the self-transcendent
work which characterizes the spiritual path. When we thus
employ the term ‘Spiritual Psychology’, this is
because we not only approach our psychological work with the same
methods as we do in more formal self-transcendent (spiritual)
work, we also arrive at the same freedom from emotional
disturbances as we would expect from the spiritualizing process.
This Course addresses only the deep psychological and emotional disturbances we carry with us from day to day, and makes no claims to facilitate the complete process of the free, enlightened condition of Non-dual awakening. (For such a complete investigation into the spiritualizing process as a whole, you could explore the work presented in Spirituality Without God). Spiritual Psychology takes its stand as a method of psychological and emotional enquiry with its sole purpose to free you from binding emotional/psychological shadow material.
THIS WEB PAGE WILL
BE REGULARLY UPDATED WITH EITHER PUBLISHED OR UNPUBLISHED ESSAYS
OR ARTICLES BY MYSELF, AS WELL AS OTHER MATERIAL OF INTEREST.
INVITATION:
If any visitor wishes to share the information on this web page with those who visit their own sites, we could establish links to our respective websites so that others might benefit from such networking. Kindly forward me your URL so I could establish if your work resonates sufficiently with my own before we enter into this arrangement.
Hand in hand,
MOLLER DE LA ROUVIERE
E-mail: mollerdlr@telkomsa.net
About the Author
Moller sees himself as a student of Life.
He has no formal academic qualifications and writes from his own
personal experience gained through a lifetime of radical
self-enquiry, meditation, insight and observation.
Moller has a passion for going beyond mere
description, intellectual understanding and knowledge, directing
his enquiry instead to the heart of the human spirit and the
possibility of sustainable self-transcendent living. For Moller a
single question has to be answered: how to translate ideas into
living reality?
It is this question that has prompted
Moller to remain resolute in his own self-enquiry and
self-transcendent work, the expression of which is shared in his
first book: Spirituality Without God.
Moller lives a quiet life with his wife,
Lize, in a rather remote part of