Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Harmonizing Evolutionary Convergence

Glossary Menus

Spiritual Renaissance

The essence of the Spiritual Renaissance taking place in the West today is that an increasing number of spiritual seekers are realizing that they live in union with the Divine. This is in contrast to what the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam teach, for they all assert that there is a great gulf between the Creator and created that can never be bridged.

Specifically, these monotheistic religions distance humanity from the Transcendent Absolute, whose existence they acknowledge, providing the Cosmic Context for all our lives. Accordingly, it is a cultural taboo to affirm, “I am Love,” which is our Authentic Self, the Immanent Divine Essence that we all share.

To avoid charges of heresy and blasphemy, “Even the mystics of Jewish and Christian tradition who seek to find their identity in God often are careful to acknowledge the abyss that separates them from their divine Source,” Elaine Pagels tells us. One who didn’t was Meister Eckhart, the pre-eminent Christian mystic, who said, “The eye with which I see God is the same as that with which he sees me.” Another who didn’t was the popular Sufi poet Rumi, who beautifully said, “Love is the sea of not-being and there intellect drowns.”

In contrast, the Rishis who wrote the Upanishads realized that Brahman and Atman—as the Absolute and Self, respectively—are One, declaring Tat tvam asi ‘You are That.’ It is not surprising therefore that many are turning to the East to find spiritual fulfilment, realizing that none of us is separate from the Divine for an instant.

This is of the utmost practical importance, for when we feel separate from our Immortal Ground of Being, existential fear of death can arise, grievously affecting our behaviour patterns. For instance, all the holy wars—wars about the Whole—which are still ravaging society, are a direct result of this deep split between humanity and the Divine.

Most particularly, this schism prevents us from dealing intelligently with the imminent death of the global economy. That is why stimulating the Spiritual Renaissance is absolutely essential. For, as Shakyamuni Buddha said on his deathbed, “Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are perishable. They are not lasting. Strive on with diligence.”

A 22-page introductory article ‘Recapitulating the Cosmogonic Cycle: Understanding Ourselves’ provides some background to today’s Spiritual Renaissance in the context of the entire history of evolution since the most recent big bang some fourteen billion years ago.