Fixation

Français : Théorie de Freud English: Diagram of Freud's psyche theory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fixation is a a psychoanalytic term that describes an individual becoming stuck on an object (a Freudian term that includes people) associated with a given phase of libidinal development.

Fixation is often marked by infantile attitudes and behavior, the compulsive choosing of objects and a general decrease of energy since available energy is diverted into an object of the past.

Freud’s theories have been criticized for not being able to explain genuine religious or paranormal experiences. But these types of experiences – or, at least, the personal interpretation of them – arguably can be colored by our psychological underpinnings.

So New Age and religious enthusiasts who dismiss all that Freud has to say often seem to have unresolved personal issues that can hinder their spiritual development. By the same token, reductive Freudians who can’t see that there’s more to life than what goes through the senses and the nervous system could be equally as stuck.

Related Posts » Freud (Sigmund), Regression, Stages of Psychosexual Development

References:

• Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1977, p. 52.

Related articles

• Freud vs. Kohlberg: Gender Development (greeneyezwinkin5.wordpress.com)
• What Is Psychoanalysis? (psychology.about.com)
• Freud – You’re Mental! (socyberty.com)
• Analyzing The Proliferation Of Therapy (cbsnews.com)
• My hero: Sigmund Freud (guardian.co.uk)
• A Dangerous Method – (2011) (storefronttheatre.wordpress.com)
• “You’re Hung Up About A Lot In Britain” – David Cronenberg Interviewed (thequietus.com)
• Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality Traits (marlenebertrand.wordpress.com)
• Freud and Einstein Letters: How Do We End War? (danieltutt.com)

Faith

Faith by hannahclark via Flickr

In secular usage “faith” [Latin fidere = trust] refers to believing in something or someone. “I have faith in the system” the man or woman on the street might say when asked about societal problems.

In a non-denominational, spiritual sense it refers to believing in a loving, supernatural power or God and that things will eventually work out. That is, it’s a view of optimism.

In the general religious sense, faith in part refers to believing in a fixed set of teachings.

The Hebrew term for faith (emunah) originally meant trust in God but in the Middle Ages it came to mean believing that God exists and that the Jewish dogmas were correct.

In Hinduism faith generally means a belief that things will eventually work out and that justice will be served – for the good and the bad – as a result of the law of karma.

In Christianity, faith generally refers to the belief and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior—a perfectly loving and good, omnipotent, omniscient eternal Being belonging to the Holy Trinity.

In Catholicism faith is understood as both an objective truth and a subjective virtue. The Catholic Encyclopedia says:

Objectively, it [faith] stands for the sum of truths revealed by God in Scripture and tradition and which the Church…presents to us in a brief form in her creeds, subjectively, faith stands for the habit or virtue by which we assent to those truths.¹

—

¹ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05752c.htm

Related Posts » Aquinas (St. Thomas), Duns Scotus, Faith and Action, Faith and Morals, Faith and Reason, Justification, Luther (Martin)

Related articles

• Faith and Action (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Galatians 3:9&14 (gracegalatians.wordpress.com)
• Fear or Faith ??? (footsoldiers4christ.wordpress.com)
• What Is A Vigorous Faith In God? (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Accomplished by Faith… (webmasteryates.wordpress.com)
• You might be a hypocrite if…you turn Jesus’ message of faith and love into one of fear and hate. (god-still-speaks.com)
• Faith (briancoatney.com)

Faith and Action

Praying Trappist Monk via Wikipedia

The relationship between faith and action raises some interesting questions, many of which are largely overlooked in contemporary society.

For starters, most religions advocate the necessity of action to keep faith alive. Action, in fact, is highly regarded in Western culture. But the meaning of the term ‘action’ is often loaded with cultural assumptions and, therefore, misunderstood.

We could say, for instance, that Trappist monks are more inwardly active than externally so. These monks, being one of the more contemplative sort, believe that their internal prayer life has positive effects on other people, just as the great saints believed that they interceded for other souls.

So if his beliefs are true, the Trappist monk is extremely active, but most of us don’t see it that way.

Faith-based action also takes a more worldly form, a form which everyone can easily understand and appreciate. Here I’m talking about charities and goodwill missions that serve the needy.

In most instances, it’s likely that a continuum exists between contemplative and worldly action. And it seems that those disposed to contemplation understand the good works of worldly folk but the converse is rarely true. This, perhaps, explains why in Hinduism the path of knowledge (jnana-yoga) is said to be more difficult than the path of action (karma-yoga). Active people often become hostile towards contemplatives. And sometimes they can even be abusive.

Along these lines, some orthodox and gnostic Christians, alike, interpret these words of Jesus Christ to his disciples as a warning to keep an eye out for vulgar materialists:

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.¹

Mind you, no discussion of spirituality and abuse would be complete without calling attention to the opposite situation where charismatic gurus with an abundance of  numinous powers swamp gullible disciples and, in so doing, are just as abusive toward individuals as vulgar materialists can be to potential saints. The abuse is different. But it’s still abuse.

In less extreme scenarios it seems reasonable to suggest that contemplatives and active individuals can keep each other in check, providing, or course, the rules of fair play are observed. By this I mean that some contemplatives can get smug, lazy, and authoritarian. And a good kick in the pants from an active person might, in some instances, actually help to realign them to their saintly calling (if not perhaps in the way that the active person envisioned it).

By the same token, the active person at times needs to be ‘toned down’ by the wisdom of the contemplative. For if a contemplative is truly focusing on God (and not some strange power), over time they should begin to accrue at least some wisdom that others could benefit from.

—

¹ Matthew 7:6 NASB

Related Posts » Faith and Morals, Faith and Reason, Intercession

Related articles

• Courageous faith in action through volunteering (northamptonjesuscentre.wordpress.com)
• Kentucky’s Trappist monks get shout-out in Food Network magazine (ashleeeats.com)
• Gandhi & faith in action (pathikpathak.wordpress.com)

Guru

Swami Kriyananda offering sweetmeats to Yogananda via Wikipedia

In Hinduism a guru is an esoteric spiritual teacher. It is believed that the guru instructs and purifies disciples with the help of God’s grace and other spiritual elements.

In many cases, the mechanism of purification is said to be karma transfer, where the karmic impurities of the disciple apparently fly from the disciple to the teacher, who then spiritually ‘cleanses’ him or herself through intense devotion or meditation. A similar, although certainly not identical, mechanism is described among Catholic saints when they speak of spiritual intercession and the taking of sins.

Critics of the guru system often claim that gurus try to transform disciples into a carbon copy of the guru—or perhaps into mindlessly accepting the type of spiritual powers mediated by the guru, which arguably are not suitable for everyone (or perhaps only suitable for a certain period in an individual’s lifelong journey of becoming).

Moreover, Rabbi Allen Maller argues that spiritual experience and practice should bring one back to one’s social, interpersonal and personal duties with enhanced spirituality instead of creating recluses and ascetics, as we often find with Hindu gurus. This view of ‘genuine’ spirituality being intimately wedded to worldly action may, however, be critiqued from both Christian monastic and Hindu meditative perspectives.

As politically incorrect as this might seem today, both C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell suggested that Westerners might lose their unique sense of individuality under the influence of an Eastern guru. Along these lines, some gurus have been accused of brainwashing and manipulating their disciples, usually by concerned family members of the disciples who don’t share guru’s religious beliefs

According to Bishop Kallistos Ware:

There are many false guides. There is no automatic way of discovering a true guide, but there are certain criteria. First, the spiritual father, if genuine, does not automatically impose himself. He doesn’t necessarily hide, but he waits for the others to come. The true spiritual father helps us to develop our own freedom. He does not impose his way on us, but helps us to discover our own way. The true spiritual guide does not promise instant success. In the spiritual life there are occasionally shortcuts, but ones provided by God. In general, what is asked of us is fidelity and the willingness to go deep. Those spiritual teachers who claim to offer us the higher gifts of contemplation through a few simple exercises should be treated with great caution.¹

In religions like Sikhism, the term guru may refer to a great spiritual figure recognized by everyone within that tradition, such as Guru Nanak.

—

¹ “Image and Likeness: Interview with Bishop Kallistos Ware” in Lorraine Kisly (ed.), The Inner Journey: Views from the Christian Tradition, Parabola Anthology Series, Sandpoint ID: Morning Light Press, 2006. p. 160.

Related Posts » Ashram, Aurobindo (Sri), Celibacy, Da Free John, Fasting, Lama, Levels of Knowledge, Mythic Eternalization, Paramahansa Yogananda, Pollution, Ram Dass, Saint, Seer, Yoda

Related articles

• In Memory of a Yogi ~ The Mahasamadhi of Paramahansa Yogananda (dailycupofyoga.com)
• Tickets on Sale Today for Celebrated Yoga Master Swami Kriyananda’s One-Night Los Angeles Event (prweb.com)
• Program Telecast on Gurpurab of Guru Nanak Dev Ji (prweb.com)
• Ananda Los Angeles Announces its Donation of 1,000 Free General Admission Tickets to the Public to Join Swami Kriyananda, for His One-Night Los Angeles Event (prweb.com)
• Hinduism (earthpages.wordpress.com)
• Responsibilities of Vaisnava Guru (srilaprabhupadavapuseva.wordpress.com)
• TEN SIKH GURUS – REAL SAINTS By DR.GURTEJ SINGH CHEEMA (cheema81.wordpress.com)
• Albums on Sikh Saint, Baba Nand Singh Ji, Released (prweb.com)
• Yogananda janmotsav from January 1 (thehindu.com)
• Guru Nanak, Muslims, and America (americanturban.com)

Shakti Gawain

Abstract - by Matthew Burpee via Flickr

Shakti Gawain is a contemporary American spiritualist and author who lives in California. Her books have sold over 10 million copies.¹ The most popular of her publications are Creative Visualization and Living in the Light, although she has penned several others. ²

Gawain writes about how she spent time working as a cleaning lady before she became a popular spiritual teacher. She believes that positive attitude and expectation create a positive reality. She also advocates an eclectic approach to living in relation to the Divine, an approach which includes prayer, chant, meditation, and the “creative visualization” of desired outcomes.

Just how effective creative visualization really is remains a matter of debate. Many visualizers’ visualizations seem to fall flat—that is, they just don’t happen. Some common explanations for the failure of a visualization to come about are “the time wasn’t right” or “I didn’t focus well enough” and so on.³

But for Gawain, it seems that her visualizations for prosperity did come about.

Sympathetic to Carl Jung’s idea of synchronicity, Gawain rejects the Eastern belief in reincarnation on the grounds that it’s a limiting man-made theory. Along the lines of the (some would say pioneering) channeler Jane Roberts, Gawain stresses the importance of living in the present while recognizing past influences.

Most recently, her website stresses the importance of balancing work and play, along with responsibilities to self and others.

I am finding a balance in my life of work and play, of my responsibilities to others and to myself.⁴

Related Posts » Active Imagination, Channeling, Shakti

¹ http://www.shaktigawain.com/about

² See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_Gawain

³ Another explanation could be that the personal desire wasn’t in line with God’s will. But we don’t hear that one too much from creative visualizers because they usually (and almost dogmatically) claim that we create our own reality.

⁴ http://www.shaktigawain.com

Related articles

• Simple Daily Ways to Keep Yourself Open and Curious (reinventplay.com)

The Holy

Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) via Wikipedia

The German Lutheran scholar Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) describes The Holy in terms of a personal experience.

In The Idea of the Holy (1917) he borrows from the Latin word numen when introducing the term numinous, which refers to ”deeply felt religious experience.”

Experience of the numinous may derive from a monotheistic God or from many pagan gods. When originating from God, Otto says the numinous is endowed with “rationality, purpose, personality and morality.” Pagan numinosity, he suggests, is somehow inferior.

Otto makes a similar distinction between magic and religion. Not trying to be non-judgmental or politically correct, he says magic manifests a “dimmed” numinous, in contrast to the experience of God, which he describes as an awe-filled encounter, a mysterium tremendum and a majestus.

For Otto, the experience of God is the highest type of numinosity. It’s a personal experience of an omnipotent, omniscient power that’s worthy of utmost respect and which inspires not just awe, but also a healthy kind of fear.

The individual is urgently attracted to this power, but the experience of the Godhead may also frighten, humble and purify.

In addition, Otto notes that one would experience a sense of creaturely unworthiness and perhaps wretchedness, standing naked, as it were, in the face of such a great, powerful and “wholly other” Godhead.

Related Posts » Hick (John), James (William), Wach (Joachim)

Related articles

• An Outline of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy (epages.wordpress.com)
• Philosophy Word of the Day – Religious Experience (greatcloud.wordpress.com)
• Review – Strange is Normal: The Amazing Life of Colin Wilson (DVD) (epages.wordpress.com)
• The archetypes are gods: Re-godding the archetypes, by John H. Halstead (humanisticpaganism.wordpress.com)
• Parapraxes, Accidents and Necessary Mistakes (epages.wordpress.com)

Jewish Mysticism

Signature of Israel Baal Shem Tov via Wikipedia

Jewish mysticism, as a means towards getting closer to God, has both orthodox and unorthodox strands.

The Jewish Bible tells of a series of prophets who’ve seen or received messages from God. This is a kind of mysticism, to be sure. But it differs from the more Gonstic influenced forms in that the Biblical prophet doesn’t necessarily earn a visionary experience (or spiritual knowledge) through self-discipline and purification.

When it comes to choosing prophets, the God of the Jewish Bible seems to choose whomever he pleases.

S. G. F. Brandon, suggests that “all the great figures in the history of religion were, basically, mystics.”¹

Martin Buber has been described as a modern representative of a heterodox form of Jewish mysticism called Hasidism. This was

founded in 18th century Eastern Europe by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov as a reaction against overly legalistic Judaism.²

The most popular form of Jewish mysticism, however, is arguably that of Kabbala, especially since being embraced by the pop icon Madonna.

——

¹ A Dictionary of Comparative Religion, S. G. F. Brandon ed., New York: Scribner, 1970, p. 463

² See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasidic_Judaism

Related articles

• 1 reviews of Jewish Mystical Movement and Madonna Fail Malawai (rateitall.com)
• Evan Goldstein: Is Madonna Jewish? (online.wsj.com)
• Unique Judiaca & Jewish Gifts for Valentine’s Day | Jewish HQ (jewishhq.com)
• Tal Rabin on the Divine Jewish Messiah (roshpinaproject.com)
• Madonna’s Malawi scheme collapses (freethinker.co.uk)
• U.S. House approves Jewish chaplains memorial (jta.org)
• Hasidic Judaism. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
• God Fearing Tax Evaders (desertpeace.wordpress.com)
• Choosing my religion (karunamettacat.wordpress.com)
• A Confluence of Holidays (daylightatheism.org)

Kali

Hindu Goddess Kali. This photograph was taken during Kali Puja at Naihati, a town in West Bengal, India, byPiyal Kundu via Wikipedia

In Hinduism it’s believed that the goddess Kali is a manifestation of God‘s destructive side. She is also regarded as the Great Mother, the giver of life.

The Hindu god Siva, known as the cosmic dancer, also has a destructive side. In fact, Siva’s dance is known as a dance of destruction. But Kali’s power is believed to be so great that she is often depicted in popular art as standing on top of a subdued Siva.

Kali’s name has been associated with the Vedic god of fire, Agni. Devotion to Kali, a goddess of violence and grace, is most prominent in W. Bengal. New Age and feminist thinkers around the world have become interested in her potential as an icon for apparent spiritual ‘realism’ and sociopolitical liberation.

However, it’s doubtful that animal rights activists would use Kali as an icon. Her temple in Kolkata still practices regular animal sacrifice by cutting the animal with a knife.

Some Jungians, scholars and writers try to equate Kali with other female deities like the Chinese Kwan Yin and the Egyptian Isis, and also with The Blessed Virgin Mary (who is not a deity but a saint).

Related Posts » Anima, Death and Resurrection, Goddess vs. goddess, Great Mother, Ramakrishna (Sri), Yuga

Related Articles

• Women as gurus I: the Kali Practice (enfolding.org)
• INDIA-PAKISTAN: The Trial of Kali (time.com)
• Kali Mantra (prophet666.com)
• How the west interprets India’s sacred texts (vmohanty.com)
• Early mystic experiences of Sri Aurobindo (auromere.wordpress.com)
• Indiana Jones Chalice of Kali Prop Coming! (gadgets.gunaxin.com)

Moksha

Bohr model of the atom via Wikipedia

Moksha is the most noble aim in Hindu and Jain religions. Moksha is the soul‘s liberation or release from the bonds of karma.

Sankara (700-750 CE) envisions the liberated person (mukti) as having no individuality, because he sees individuality as an illusion. In his system the liberated soul realizes its complete identity with the Godhead.

Ramanuja (1055-1137 CE), however, envisions the soul as individual but also dependent on or “resting within” the Godhead.

C. G. Jung champions the Western ego and questions Sankara’s interpretation by rhetorically asking how a person realizes they’re liberated if they no longer exist–i.e. who would be there to experience the liberation?

One reply could be, or course, that the focus or orientation of liberated consciousness shifts from the personal to the ultimate. By way of analogy, consider the Bohr model of the atom. An electron leaps from one shell (quantum level) to another when its energy increases. But it remains an electron. And so it could be with consciousness. Although the scope of conscious awareness increases with liberation, consciousness remains as such.

Ironically, this is the view that Jung, himself, advances. As the Jungian ego expands to learn about and assimilate the archetype of the self, petty desires and difficulties give way to larger concerns.

This is just one example of how Jung’s thought, as insightful as it was, often reveals analytical contradictions. Jungians, however, say that Jung’s approach thrives on the tension and potential synthesis of opposites. For most Jungians, contradictory elements are not really ‘opposites’ but potential complementaries.

Search Think Free » Samsara, Sannyasa, Shadow

Related Articles

• Mahalaya SMS – Mahalaya 2010 Amavasya Or Pitru Moksha Amavasya To Be Observed Today (panasianbiz.com)
• It’s not that complicated (thyrodandstaff.blogspot.com)
• Vertical Cemetery is a Greenery Clad Final Resting Place for Mumbai (inhabitat.com)
• “The labyrinth of Inception” (gointothestory.com)
• The labyrinth of Inception (mindhacks.com)
• Palin’s Use of Jungian Archetypes [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
• Madala Transpersonal Meanings~ Squaring the circle (psipsychologytutor.org)
• Cool Art Therapy Intervention #2: Active Imagination (psychologytoday.com)

Add more, report errors or voice your opinion by posting a comment

The New Age

Search For Infinity: Christian Halderman

Some contend that the idea of the ‘New Age’ originated as a marketing category in the 1980s, with New Age style  ideas going back, of course, to the 70s and 60s.

Others note, more comprehensively, that the media also uses the term, as do many individuals and organizations. Whatever its origins, the ‘New Age’ refers to almost anything relating to contemporary spiritual discourse and practice.

New Age books, music, lectures, workshops, videos and websites deal with humanity’s development, usually with the goal of self-actualization and sometimes global transformation.

At the outset of the 20th-century, the American psychologist and philosopher William James outlined his The Varieties of Religious Experience several innovative spiritual trends remarkably similar to today’s concept of the New Age:

…for the sake of having a brief designation, I will give [it] the title of the ‘Mind-Cure movement.’ There are various sects of this ‘New Thought,’ to use another of the names by which it calls itself.¹

From the 1980s to around the new millennium religious fundamentalists, especially of the North American Christian variety, targeted the New Age as the workings of Satan. Important figures like C. G. Jung, Rudolf Steiner and Fritjof Capra were caricatured as Satanic hostiles to apparently ‘true’ fundamentalist versions of the Christian faith.

However, the emphasis of fundamentalist reactionary attacks has arguably shifted from perceived psychological and spiritual threats to scientific ones. Believers in evolution sans God are the new devils in the flesh to be countered and corrected by those single-minded Fundamentalists who believe they have a privileged interpretation of Christian scripture.

This shift is probably due to recent advances in mapping and sequencing genomes. The possibilities of this technology are staggering, and the new is always scary to those deeply entrenched and invested in longstanding cultural biases.

—

¹ William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Penguin, 1985 [1902], p. 94.

Search Think Free » Akashic Records, Chakra, Channeling, Da Free John, Darwin (Charles Robert), Druids, Eno (Brian), Heart Sutra, Kali, Magnetizers, Maslow (Abraham), Medicine Wheel, Moses and Monotheism, Neo-Paganism, Pantheism, Peebles (Dr. James Martin), Platonism, Prime Directive, Reincarnation, Remote Viewing, Roberts (Jane), Rock and Roll, Spirit, Sufism, Third Eye, Transubstantiation

At Earthpages.org

• “The New Age and Remote Viewing“

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by leaving a comment