St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi (circa 1182-1220) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before becoming known as St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone was the son of a wealthy Italian cloth merchant, next in line to take over his father’s prosperous business.

In his youth Francis was a popular dilettante, enjoying friends and parties. In keeping with expectations for the young upper-class men of the day, he fought in the army and was taken prisoner. Suffering a serious illness, Francis apparently had some kind of powerful mystical vision.

He returned to his father, telling him he could no longer continue with the family business. Scorned by his father, Francis went to the central square in Assisi where he removed his clothing for all to see, which was his way of renouncing his life of worldly gain. Standing naked, a nearby person threw him a course blanket, which he took to wear. Francis went on to form the friars minor (fratres minores), a monastic order characterized by chastity and extreme poverty, and all of its members wore the same course cloth.

The order grew quickly. By 1219 the Franciscans swelled to over 5,000 members. His former friend and spiritual love, Lady Clare of Assisi, followed suit by likewise renouncing the world. She founded a similar but sequestered order and was eventually canonized.

Stories about St. Francis abound, telling of his love and tenderness toward animals, his writing a canticle to “brother sun, sister moon” and his insistence on complete poverty, which he affectionately personified as “Lady Poverty.” He apparently opened the Bible at random every morning and read a verse to set the tone for his actions throughout the day, believing that God directed him to the right passage. And with Papal permission he unsuccessfully tried to convert the Muslims in the Holy Land, who nonetheless were impressed by his piety.

He also endured a painful medieval eye operation using red-hot irons to remove cataracts. And he is one of the very few mystics said to have miraculously received the stigmata—physical marks of Christ’s crucifixion appearing on one’s own hands and feet.

St. Francis was buried in his native town of Assisi. He remains, perhaps, Catholicism’s most popular saint, probably because his kind of example can be easily understood by rank and file Catholics. However, it’s hard to know if his knowledge of God was a deep as, say, the contemplative St. Faustina Kowalska, who apparently saw Jesus on a near daily basis.

His feast day is October 4.

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Four Noble Truths

Dhamekh Stupa, where the Buddha gave the first sermon on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to his five disciples after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. Also seen behind the stupa in the left corner is the yellow-coloured spire of Digamber Jain temple, dedicated to 11th Jain Tirthankar, Shreyansanath, known to be his birth place. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Four Noble Truths are the core of Buddhist teaching, said to have been outlined by the Buddha in his first discourse at Benares. They are as follows:

1. All of life is suffering (dukkha)
2. The cause of suffering is wrongful desire, craving or thirst (tanha)
3. Suffering can be overcome by eliminating these causes
4. The method for eliminating suffering is outlined in the Eightfold Path.

This differs from the Christian view of suffering. Christians, particularly Catholics, tend to make room for a positive view of some forms of suffering, regarded as a means towards purification in preparation for everlasting heaven. While neurotic suffering is not accepted and unnecessary suffering is to be avoided, the Catholic saints do not try to eradicate unavoidable “holy suffering,” which they believe should be patiently endured.

In some cases extreme suffering is welcomed as a blessing by the Catholic saint. St. Faustina Kowalska, for instance, embraced holy suffering because she believed she was instructed by Christ that it would maximize her heavenly reward. The depth psychologist C. G. Jung had something similar (but not identical) to say in his treatment of alchemy. For Jung suffering was a necessary kind of ‘smelting,’ as it were, for soul making—or rather, self making.

Again, the Buddhist understanding of suffering is very different from that of both Jungian theory and Christian theology. Buddhism sees all suffering as bad and something to be avoided, whereas mystical Christians see some types of suffering as a valuable experience leading toward purification and a heavenly reward beyond all human imagination. Jung’s take on suffering isn’t quite so grand as the Christian view. It’s more focused on psychological development within this life, and doesn’t really speak to the afterlife.

The Buddhist view of suffering and its solution also involves a supposed realization that we have no individual self. To most Christians and Jungians, alike, this view is simply misguided.

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Fasting

Saint Faustina Polski: Św. Faustyna Kowalska via Wikipedia

Fasting seems to take five main forms. The first type is found in most traditional religions where specific calendar days or portions of days are set aside for fasting. This type of fasting helps to honor and identify with a religious figure, past events within a religion, or people for whom the religion expresses concern—e.g. the poor.

Fasting on specific calendar days is also said to bring one closer to God. This kind of regular fast sets up the proper conditions for atonement and the expression of gratitude. And some religious people fast to commemorate the dead—that is, mourning and fasting go hand in hand within many faith traditions.

Another type of fasting is found in orthodox religions, particularly Catholicism, where a spiritual aspirant (such as a nun or monk) obtains special permission from a superior to fast in order to mortify natural desires and become closer to God. This arguably isn’t so different from fasting on predetermined calendar days, except that it’s an individualistic instead of a communal fast.

A third type of fasting occurs in other forms of spirituality, such as shamanism and Asian mysticism. Here the practitioner, usually a Shaman, Lama or Guru takes it upon him or herself to abstain from eating to repel or purge evil spirits, become cleansed of spiritual pollution and, in the process, attain higher levels of realization.

Fasting Buddha via Wikipedia

Fasting in this instance is usually regarded as a sacrifice that benefits a teacher-healer. It also enables the healer to better help other souls that are still fettered by sin and ignorance.

This healer-disciple approach is not entirely different from Christian teaching and practice. Advanced Christian saints like Faustina Kowalska fasted regularly and apparently “took the sins” of others.

In the New Testament Jesus says some demons can only be purged through a combination of prayer and fasting.

But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21).

However, the Christian saint would never take personal responsibility while interceding for others. All glory and honor is always given to God. By way of contrast, in some non-Christian traditions the teacher is said to be equal to God or God on Earth.

A fourth and more contemporary type of fasting is found when special (usually berry) drinks are taken within a proscribed plan to apparently improve one’s health and sense of well-being. This type of medical/scientific fasting arguably is not qualitatively different from more spiritually-based fasts.

Gandhi fasting with Indira, 1924 via Wikipedia

But the conceptual framework concerning cause and effect differs among modern and traditional fasts.

The contemporary medical fast emphasizes physiology, health and biological cleansing, while traditional fasts look to spiritual powers, self-discipline and the purification of the soul.

A fifth type of fasting is political, usually but not always with religious overtones. These types of fasts, also known as a hunger strike, are taken to draw attention to some severe social problem or injustice. In some instances, force feeding by authorities can be a legal procedure.¹

—

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_strike

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Gunas

gunas by Gustavo Peres

In the Samkhya philosophy of Hinduism there are three main gunas (Skt. string or tendency) of rajas, sattva and tamas. These gunas refer to the qualities that apparently constitute material nature (prakṛti) and a corresponding consciousness within living beings.

Sattva is the highest of the three gunas, and refers to calm, light and peaceful attributes of the personality.

Rajas relates to “excitement, action, passion or force,” and also refers to a mysterious force said to be contained in vaginal fluid, which some yogis allegedly took inward through the urethra to facilitate mystical union.

Tamas refers to the personality attributes of darkness, slothfulness, grief, fear and laziness.

Also, the three gunas are respectively associated with creation (rajas), preservation (sattva) and destruction (tamas), signifying the key elements that go into the essentially cyclic Hindu cosmology.

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Gabriel

The Annunciation by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728 – 1779) - Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary via Wikipedia

Gabriel is one of the four Catholic Archangels (also Michael, Raphael and Uriel). Along with Michael, Gabriel is found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

A lot of New Age writers and alleged channelers talk about or, perhaps, dispense supposed “messages” from Gabriel, along with other angels. While this kind of stuff can be compelling, especially if someone is searching for a higher purpose in life, we really have no way of telling if it’s real, imagined¹ or purposely made up by scammers.

The same charge, of course, has been made against organized religions. Their discourses about angels are often said to be divinely inspired. But… who’s to say for sure?

—

¹ It would be relatively easy for someone to fool themselves into thinking they were divine prophets for some angel or higher being. All they’d have to do is get in a comfy chair, relax a bit, slip into a slightly meditative consciousness, and then let their imaginations or subconscious run wild. Most likely, this is what Jane Roberts did, who claimed to channel the entity Seth. Another possibility, usually dismissed by contemporary psychiatry but a possibility nonetheless, is that a malevolent spiritual being influences the channeler. So the person is channeling. But not what they think they are.

This post needs more content. Why not help us out and expand it? Please remember that copying and pasting large amounts of material from Wikipedia (or some other online encyclopedia) is not what Earthpages.ca is about. We want a fresh view, from you… not from your copy and paste editor!

Thanks,

Michael Clark, Ph.D

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Jin

Timeline of various splits in Jainism via Wikipedia

In Jainism the jin is the liberated soul, living in what is believed to be the highest aspect of reality. With absolutely no attachment to lower levels of existence, including this world of becoming, it does not intercede nor intervene in respond to prayer requests.

This extreme detachment differentiates Jainism from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity in that these systems, each in their own unique way,  teach that purer or more enlightened beings mediate graces to less pure, lost or deluded ones.

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Kayzer, Wim

Gun and anti-gun in Day & Night algorithm.

Wim Kayzer is the creator of A Glorious Accident: Understanding Our Place in the Cosmic Puzzle (1993), a documentary video series dealing with social, scientific, philosophical and religious ideas.

Kayzer explores the lives and thoughts of major figures in several different fields, including Oliver Sacks, Rupert Sheldrake and Daniel Dennett.

Perhaps most interesting about this series is how the participants dance around one another, trying not to ruffle any feathers while holding opposing viewpoints on most of the main issues.

The following is an excerpt of the series, as seen on YouTube with Dutch subtitles. This segment talks about the limits of neuroscience and the positing of a mysterious “Wonder Tissue” to try to account for that which currently can’t be understood:

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Lama

Dalai Lama's seal via Wikipedia

A Lama is a spiritual teacher within Tibetan and other branches of Buddhism, usually described by Western scholars as a ‘priest’ or ‘monk.’

Believers, themselves, say that a lama is an incarnation of the Buddha. As such, he resembles more the Hindu guru than the Catholic spiritual director or the secular psychiatrist.

As a spiritual leader, a lama holds alleged otherworldly authority but may also have political influence. The exiled Dalai Lama, for instance, advocates love and forgiveness but is rarely shy of publicly criticizing the Chinese for their control of his native Tibet.

By way of contrast, Jesus Christ told his disciples to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” while the Romans were occupying his native land (Matthew 22:15-22).

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Mana

Image via Wikipedia

Mana is a Melanesian term referring to a spiritual power that apparently pervades the universe but which is embodied in a person or object.

Those believing they can direct this power may try to manipulate it for their own helpful or harmful purposes. Such persons are often revered, worshipped as well as feared and avoided within a community.

Popular figures like Joseph Campbell sometimes equate the idea of mana with that of numinosity, which isn’t entirely wrong considering numinosity is said by both Rudolf Otto and C. G. Jung to display various textures and intensities.

But Otto’s concept of the numinous – which includes lower demonic and higher forms, to include the Holy – arguably embraces a wider range of personal experiences than does the term mana.

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Clairalience

Psychic house: Nick Douglas via Flickr

Clairalience is an alleged psi phenomenon, usually described as a type of clairsentience.

Clairalience is the apparent smelling of odors and scents beyond the usual range of human perception.

Reports of clairalience take three main forms:

1. Smelling a familiar odor or scent associated with a loved one who has passed.

This often occurs sometime shortly before, during or not too long after the loved one’s passing.

In parapsychology it’s hypothesized that this type of clairalience takes place to warn, prepare or possibly reassure friends and family that departed loved ones are still with them but in another realm.

2. Smelling a hellish, rancorous odor such as burning sulphur, or heavenly scent such as roses.

In parapsychology it’s hypothesized that this type of clairalience occurs to warn of the dangers of hell and, conversely, to reassure of the joys of heaven.

3. Smelling another living person or thing at a distance beyond the range of the normal senses. This may be further differentiated into smelling at a distance (a) a physical body or ‘gross’ environment or (b) a spiritual body, essence or ‘subtle’ environment.

Psychic Spell Breaker by Metrix X via Flickr

Parapsychologists hypothesize that type three takes place to teach human beings that all of creation is connected in some fundamental way, with the implication that we should strive to behave responsibly toward others, our planet and beyond.

As for the mysterious connecting principle implied by the idea of clairalience, tentative explanations vary according to the worldview of the theorist.

For instance, a Catholic might talk of The Holy Spirit or Satan whereas a sub-atomic physicist or futurist might invoke concepts such as wormholes, quantum non-locality and quantum interconnectedness.

Meanwhile, a psychiatrist would likely want to check for physiological factors contributing to so-called olfactory hallucinations (phantosmia) before considering the possibility of psi.

And individuals with a strong materialist bias might entirely dismiss the idea of psi and prefer to explain according to a neuropsychological model.

To this Art Garza adds:

What sort of smells occur in your type three clairalience? And would the smells be all different or occur all at once? And as far as purpose goes, is there any purposed idea on what the individual smells mean? What are they smelling? the souls, essence, psyche… i know they are all related in some way but certainly there is a name which works best… personality? » See in context

Michael Clark replies:

I think you are pointing toward a distinction that could be made in type 3 between smelling at a distance (a) a living person’s spiritual essence or environment and (b) their physical body or environment. » See in context