"Science gives
but a partial view: for the intellect is itself an outsider, and has lost
hold of the inner unity of life. ...This sense of inward reality has been
deadened by the calls of ordinary life, the practice of civilisation, and
we have come habitually to look upon ourselves in the same materialistic way
in which we regard other things. In the silent darkness of inner feeling a
direct communication seems to pass at every pore from ourselves to all other
things, keeping up a continuity of sympathetic influences. But in the broad
light of intellect and science, things assume an isolated and independent
existence." Life of
Schopenhauer, by W. Wallace
Schopenhauer was much inspired
in the views summarised above by the non-dualism of the Upanishads. Indian
thought provides three differing systems of explanation of reality - dualism,
qualified dualism and advaita or non-dualism - optional approaches depending
on the background and understanding of the individual. Western thinkers usually
lack the conceptual flexibility for grasping the highest non-dualistic philosophies.
Perhaps the core teaching of this is the permanence of Atma or Universal Spirit
which nonetheless permeates and thus unifies all impermanent things. The human
subject obtains its capacity to witness reality in and through the Atma.
REASON AND CONTRADICTION
Our education relies upon
reason, which is based entirely on the principle of 'either - or but not both'.
If matter is real, by this eliminative principle, then spirit cannot be so
(unless it is also somehow physical). However, both spirit and matter are
real, yet in different ways... or in opposite senses. Sai Baba explains both
that the world in which we must live out our lives is real, not an illusion,
and yet also that it is illusion, due to its impermanence veiling the eternal.
Mere logic cannot allow that both assertions can be true.
The problem comes of reason being applied too widely, extending it beyond
its capacity to matters that instead require of us our inclusive comprehension.
This shows only the rigidity of logic or reason and where it is no longer
usefully applicable. Only holistic understanding can harmonise outward contradictions,
differing systems of thought and religion. In philosophy, there are many examples
of how reason itself causes apparent contradictions, especially when applied
to first and last things. (eg. Kant's antimonies).
Creation is what we call 'objective reality', while the Creator is 'the Subject'
who, Sai Baba teaches, is also present everywhere, even throughout the created
physical universe. Though our senses show us his objective works, Baba insists
that divinity can only be experienced through self-discovery that leads to
the awakening of transpersonal consciousness. In that we are inwardly conscious,
we are also a party (if an exceedingly small one) to that infinite Consciousness,
which is what creates and multiplies, sustains and eventually withdraws to
itself even the objective universe.
THE OBJECTIVE OUTER WORLD AND INNER REALITY
"Whatever is not in
man cannot be anywhere outside him. Whatever is visible outside him is but
a rough reflection of what really is in him." (Sathya Sai Vahini. foreword)
Scientists look to 'the objective' for the truth, penetrating always deeper
into the microscopic spheres of primary particles or the complexities of genes
and always gazing further backwards into time by mapping the macroscopic universe
of galaxies, quasars and our cosmic origin. Staring always outwards, scientific
theory extends 'the known world' and so 'creates' the great complexity of
coordinates or ideas by which it is fascinated.
Materialistic thought and material ambitions have focussed modern concern
on the play of the Maya of Nature, to the exclusion of the player which is
spirit. It is not enough to see only our dim reflection in our worldly works
or increased information about the universe. For this easily becomes the sin
of Narcissus, man's self-fascination, if we are too little aware of how little
we know of the mysterious causes of life, history and creation in its endlessly-varied
vastness. Pride in the mind and its works is a large part of the 'civilised'
ego. (I now view this statement with considerable
embarassment, it is far too close to the empty parroting of Sai Baba's half-formed
ideas about the ego - which is a word he uses as an indictment of anyone who
had an independent thought and which he uses in an an entirely primitive and
non-psychological sense to mean about the same as 'arrogance' or 'self-importance'.
He should know, he has both to the highest degree!)
The actual seer of all this outward
display, the human subject, may catch an oblique glimpse of his inner reality
in all that, as in a mirror dimly. The subject, once a factor scientists tried
to eliminate entirely, is now allowed a place in microphysics along with the
rest, if only much like another object or a factor for which one must somehow
account.
However much one tries, though, the subject cannot become an object, even
though it may appear partly objective when reflected upon in memory. Its very
nature is to be always ahead of the objective world, never able to sink down
and become part of its fixed existence. This 'transcendence' is what makes
each one of us who we are and allows us as observing subjects mentally and
spiritually to range beyond even time and space through the human mind at
will (even though the flesh may fail to follow. This is to what the term 'inner
reality' points.
From our incarnate human
viewpoint, limited though it be, we have the possibility both of focussing
our energies outwards onto the world of action and objective discoveries and
inwards towards contemplation of the spirit and its source. Experience indicates
that, if we neglect the one, it will be at the cost of the whole. A balance
must be maintained between worldly activities and spiritual practices so that
the one can inform the other.
THE 'I' SEES THE COSMOS
"It is indeed strange
that this huge Cosmos depends ultimately on whether 'I' cognise it as such
or not! 'If you feel it is there, it is there; if you feel it is not there,
it is not there!' This means that we have to go deep into this process of
the mind of man. Is there any occasion when our assertion leads to the existence
of a thing and our negation results in its disappearance? Or, is this conclusion
a figment of the imagination? Inquiry on these lines would undoubtedly reveal
the Truth..." (Sathya Sai Vahini p 164)
We must then strive to see
ourselves through becoming what we truly are. Sai Baba is always demonstrating
for us in a host of illuminating ways how we are pure universal spirit awaiting
its own self-realisation. The end of this quest is not some worldly achievement
but an inner blessing.
Apart from reading deep spiritual
books or studying great religions, the need to explore inwardly comes from
within us too. Theories that 'map' the inner landscape may be helpful in some
ways, such as for those whose education has overlooked or denied the 'inner'.
Yet what Baba teaches about the inner reality makes evident that it is not
to be 'found' solely by introspective navel-gazing or mere mental investigation.
The practice of inwardness in and through daily doings is the action that
chiefly advances us... as our own experience also can confirm for us when
we learn how to subject it to analysis and then do so honestly.
For those of us who always somehow have to try to ally faith and reason, one
stumbling block is often the relationship between 'inner' and 'outer'. Concentrating
exclusively on the world of external things, our modern pragmatic training
hinders us in grasping the connection between its scientific ideas and the
heart of the matter, the reality of the subjective person.
The human subject is like the lens of both film camera and film projector,
everything must pass through it, inwards and outwards, in order that anything
be brought to light. (And it is only the subject for whom anything is brought
to light at all). Add to
this the fact that we can and must exercise our will, which itself gears inner
to outer. By our will we select and modify what we 'take in' and also what
to 'put out' in words or action. The result is surely that the human subject
has considerably greater long-term influence than any external cause which
affects the body or the environment. It is the only point of contact between
the ideal and the real, where ideas and reality meet. This fact, the latent
power of the individual spirit in the face of any sort of challenge, is still
much neglected and overlooked in modern world culture and education which
concentrates overwhelmingly on the 'outward' factors that affect us at the
expense of our latent 'inward' resources.
KNOWLEDGE, BELIEF AND FAITH
In a world 'blinded by science'
people are fearful of 'blind faith'. Yet gradually again it seems, after decades
dominated by pragmatism and utilitarianism, the age-old issue of knowledge
versus faith is gradually being raised again. St. Thomas taught that the sciences have their own sphere and need
not usually conflict with faith. When so really happens, as it allegedly did,
St. Thomas was in no doubt that faith must then prevail.
Believers in science rightly
talk of the dangers that can come of religious superstition and most Western
countries still overwhelmingly prefer to form their policies on scientific
predictions rather than on religious beliefs. Yet this can go too far. In
referring to the Manu Dharma Sastra, Swami wrote:-
"The scientists of today
call this attitude 'blind faith'; they want it to be discarded. They want
every subjective and objective fact to be examined and put to rigorous tests.
They confuse themselves when they consider this as an independent path to
discovery of reality." (S.S.Vahini , p.112)
What is called 'belief' can
refer to judgements about facts - on whether something is true or not - and
this concerns the outer world of observables, opinions and creeds. Then faith,
on the other hand, can signify a state of the subjective person and reflect
'inner' qualities. Such qualities include, among many others, trust in the
rightness of caring, friendship, of love of others and of creation. By this
definition we could reasonably assert that there can be many and varying beliefs
but essentially only one type of faith.
Matters of belief have to do with analysable states of affairs and can be
argued scientifically or rationally (often with little or no appreciable impact
on the actual person within). However, faith simply reflects an individual's
holistic self-understanding... a comprehension which goes beyond any debatable
issues. Standing back from the world to get an overview of oneself as within
yet beyond it, of one's relations with all and everyone, faith intuits our
true identity as an inward being. Because it is not of the body but of the
spirit, faith can be reviewed and assessed on its own inward evidence, cognising
it directly - without any interposing medium or sensory organ. Knowing oneself
includes the subject knowing the heart of the subject.
Sai Baba instructs that the
prerequisite of spiritual action is genuine dedication (for the universal
good), being the exact opposite of selfish motivation. Though outward results
from one's work - money, status, popularity and so forth - can give passing
gratification it is inward results like self-confidence, peace of mind, increased
detached equanimity, expansion of heartfelt mindfulness, recognition of the
sublime and their like are what give lasting quality to life. Unlike 'objective'
goods or popularity, such 'subjective' qualities can become part of ourselves.
Inner vision is advanced by unattachment. It
accrues as faith, deriving from actual life experience combined with the practice
of inward seeking. It is not itself an intellectual fruit. As Sai Baba has
said; "the intelligence discriminates and the attempt to divide and dissect
is again a sign of unsteadiness" (ibid). (Since
I wrote the following, I have changed my view considerably. Here I am still
fighting my own intelligence in the desire to continue believing in what was
becoming a more and more untenable Sai doctrine. What Sai Baba calls 'heart'
I now clearly realise is mainly, for him, blind emotional faith in himself
and whatever he teaches - not to think, to 'kill the mind', which I am sure
now is actually an absurd and futile undertaking, one which deadens the person
and makes devotion an automatic limbo). The intelligence copies, reworks
and transforms the observations our senses provide, so it is an artificer.
Baba has said "art is outside, heart is inside". Qualities like
peace of mind, compassionate understanding, goodwill, mental courage, tenacity
of purpose and others are 'inward'. Seen as spiritual rewards coming as the
expression of instilling a good will towards all, they can be enjoyed in self-confidence
for they differ from the 'outward' fruits of actions that are done for tangible
rewards.
(Robert Priddy, 1989)
To read my present 'credo' - or rather, statement of my developing understanding,
please click here
The above material is the
copyright of Robert Priddy, Oslo 1999