The Presence of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness
280
The Presence of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness
280eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
The Presence of the Infinite sheds new light on the important subject of spiritual experience. Using the emerging insights of evolutionary spirituality, integral philosopher Steve McIntosh enlarges readers’ capacity to have spiritual experience more abundantly and use it more effectively to improve their lives and the world around them.
The Presence of the Infinite starts by providing a timely cultural analysis and critique of the various forms of spirituality that are vying for influence in contemporary American society. Building on this context, McIntosh shows how evolutionary spirituality overcomes the limitations of religious, secular, and New Age spirituality by better harmonizing science and spirit. Evolutionary spirituality’s transcendent potential is found in its deepening realization of the essentially spiritual qualities of beauty, truth, and goodness.
McIntosh then uses evolutionary spirituality’s enlarged understanding of what spiritual experience is and how it works to consider the question of ultimate reality. This leads to an examination of conflicting ideas that regard spirit as either formless and nondual, or as loving and creative. By working to harmonize and integrate these alternative conceptions of ultimate reality, McIntosh shows how evolutionary spirituality can achieve a synthesis of nondual and theistic teachings of truth that can produce a spiritual renaissance in America and beyond.
The Presence of the Infinite is destined to become a definitive text in the exciting new field of evolutionary spirituality.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780835631952 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Quest Books |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 280 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Presence of the Infinite
The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness
By Steve McIntosh
Quest Books/Theosophical Publishing House
Copyright © 2015 Steve McIntoshAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8356-3195-2
CHAPTER 1
Spirituality in America: In Search of Leadership
As I argued in the introduction, and as I hope to show throughout this book, spiritual experience is very important for human life. When spiritual experience is conceived of broadly to include not just mystical states, but also more common experiences of beauty, truth, and goodness, we may begin to see how important such experiences are for the well-being and happiness of each person. And beyond the personal benefits that such experiences bring to individuals, when spiritual experience becomes integrated and infused within a culture the overall vitality and progress of that culture are enhanced.
As discussed in this chapter, spiritual experience cannot be fully appreciated or understood apart from the cultural context in which it occurs. While it is certainly possible to have powerful spiritual experiences without previously accepting or even considering any kind of spirituality, spirit is most often experienced within the framework of some form of spiritual teaching and practice.
Moreover, as explored in chapter 4, getting the most out of our spiritual experiences requires that we share them with others. Stated otherwise, the potential for personal growth inherent in our experiences of spirit is only fully brought out when we share or express such experiences in a way that gives others an authentic spiritual experience of their own. And the effective sharing of spiritual experience usually requires the existence of agreements — cultural agreements framed by the various forms of spirituality on offer in our larger society. Therefore, we will begin the project of gaining a deeper understanding of spiritual experience with an analysis of the teachings and practices that are almost always associated with such experience.
In chapters 5, 6, and 7 we will closely examine the relationship between spiritual experience and specific teachings of spiritual truth. But in this chapter we focus on spirituality in general, and this involves a cultural analysis. The task of making sense of the diverse landscape of spiritual culture is greatly facilitated by the integral or evolutionary perspective, which is particularly adept at such analysis because it views culture through a developmental lens. The evolutionary perspective shows how the evolution of culture is bound up with the evolution of consciousness, and this understanding sheds considerable light on the different forms of spirituality that now exist in the developed world.
As explained in the introduction, consciousness and culture coevolve. And history shows that as consciousness evolves, the human ability to recognize and experience what is real and true evolves along with it. Therefore, because the ability to experience spirit grows and deepens as consciousness evolves, and because the evolution of consciousness is bound up with the evolution of culture, our exploration of spiritual experience begins by examining the existing types of spiritual and religious culture that currently serve as the frames or channels of such experience.
As also discussed in the introduction, the coevolution of human consciousness and culture unfolds through specific stages or levels of development, and in the developed world the most active and relevant cultural stages are recognized by integral philosophy as traditionalism,modernism, and postmodernism. This chapter accordingly focuses on the distinct kinds of spirituality that originate within each of these respective cultural worldviews. As justified in the section after next, I will use defined terms for each of these major forms of spirituality, labeling them religious spirituality, secular spirituality (or aspirituality), and progressive spirituality.
Although these distinct types of culture can be found throughout the world, our analysis will concentrate on their contemporary expressions in the United States. Narrowing the focus to the current state of spiritual evolution in America, both in this chapter and throughout the book, will prevent the discussion from becoming overly complex or otherwise bogged down. And limiting the analysis to American culture will also ensure that the discussion does not stray beyond the scope of my own knowledge and experience.
As we consider the major types of spirituality in America, it is important to recognize what each of these contending forms of culture is trying to do. Although they each have a variety of goals, at the most fundamental level they are each attempting to provide cultural and spiritual leadership for our civilization. Put differently, the three major forms of spirituality examined in this chapter — religious, secular, and progressive — are each attempting to define what is real and thus what is ultimately true and worthwhile. By defining what is real, true, and good, these forms of spirituality provide leadership for those who follow them. That is, these respective forms of spiritual culture lead by providing their followers with a sense of common identity and by illuminating the values that result in growth and happiness. They also provide leadership by identifying the problems that need solving and the things that need to be improved, thereby setting the direction and supplying the motivation for further cultural evolution.
I thus believe the best way to understand these major kinds of spirituality at a cultural level is to examine the spiritual leadership each is attempting to supply. This focus on spiritual leadership sheds light not only on these existing types of spirituality, but also on evolutionary spirituality, which is now beginning to emerge. Spiritual leadership will thus be an important theme in this book. The relevance that the idea of leadership has for our analysis of spiritual experience will become increasingly evident as the discussion proceeds.
As we will see, evolutionary spirituality includes the best of what has come before, while also going beyond uncritical acceptance or simple relativism. It does this by carefully integrating and synthesizing the achievements of the major forms of spirituality that have preceded it in history. And as with the other forms of spirituality we will consider in this chapter, evolutionary spirituality is likewise attempting to provide spiritual leadership for our society. Evolutionary spirituality's approach to spiritual leadership does not involve trying to persuade people to believe in the same religion or follow the same spiritual path, but it does involve identifying the elements of spirituality that most of us already share.
Providing spiritual leadership by framing a higher-level agreement about the reality of spirit, however, will not be achieved through vague platitudes or by simply identifying common principles so general or abstract that they avoid every possible objection. In order to represent an authentic evolutionary advance, the substance of such a new cultural agreement about spiritual reality must carry forward the best while simultaneously pruning away the worst of each of the preexisting forms of spiritual culture that it seeks to include in its transcendence. Because evolutionary spirituality is emerging primarily out of progressive spirituality, a clear understanding of progressive spirituality is necessary to appreciate both where evolutionary spirituality has come from and what it is trying to transcend. Progressive spirituality itself, however, can be adequately understood only in the context of its current cultural competitors: religious spirituality and secular spirituality.
Keeping these considerations in mind, this chapter explores what it means to provide spiritual leadership on a cultural level. This is followed by an initial description of the three major kinds of spirituality. Then, after describing the broad contours of the contemporary milieu, we next explore the respective limitations and shortcomings of these three major forms of spirituality — limitations that ultimately render each of them incapable of leading our society forward into a new era of solidarity and cooperation. The chapter concludes by considering the potential cultural and political benefits that could result from the provision of more effective forms of spiritual leadership.
What Is Spiritual Leadership?
Those who are already committed to an established religion or a well-defined type of spiritual culture often tacitly assume that more effective spiritual leadership for our society will necessarily involve the ascendency (or rediscovery) of their particular form of belief. Yet most existing forms of American spirituality have been around for a long time and show no signs that they will eventually rise to become the majority outlook, despite their best hopes.
Meanwhile, a significant percentage of Americans, including the majority of America's youth, continue to describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." While a portion of those who identify themselves this way certainly have affinities with progressive or alternative forms of spirituality, the size of this spiritual but not religious demographic segment is much larger than the current audience of progressive spirituality alone, leading to the conclusion that the majority of those who describe themselves as "spiritual" have not yet found a specific form of spirituality they can identify with or fully participate in. Though most of those in the spiritual but not religious demographic category may understand their spirituality as a personal and even private matter, they nevertheless have definite needs for spiritual leadership, even if they are not always aware of these needs.
Spiritual leadership, of course, can mean many things. The most obvious and visible examples of spiritual leadership can be seen in the figureheads of the world's major religions, such as the Pope or the Dalai Lama. But spiritual leadership can also be demonstrated through heroic political action, as seen in the case of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela. Spiritual leadership can also be seen in lives dedicated to selfless service, such as the work of Mother Teresa. And it can be recognized in those who lead sacred causes, such as America's environmental sage John Muir.
Spiritual leadership can also be found in the arts. As a recent example, Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley has provided spiritual inspiration for millions, especially in the third world. Some of the late music by the Beatles might also be cited as an example of spiritual leadership through music. In fact, spiritual leadership can be recognized in practically any act or communication that produces the experience of spirit in others. And under this definition, just about any meaningful expression of beauty, truth, or goodness could be recognized as a form of spiritual leadership.
In terms of explicit spiritual teaching, however, spiritual leadership in the developed world is most often provided through authors and teachers whose books, lectures, and workshops speak to people's inner needs and produce cultural solidarity around such teachings. Examples of this kind of leadership can be found within every established cultural worldview. For instance, in traditional Christian culture, Pastor Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life has sold over thirty million copies. Within secular culture, Oxford professor Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion has sold over two million copies. And within progressive spiritual culture, enlightenment teacher Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now has sold close to four million copies.
While these popular authors certainly know their subjects, much of their thinking finds its origin in the work of other less popular but more distinguished writers. For example, Warren is standing on the shoulders of C. S. Lewis, Dawkins is following Bertrand Russell, and Tolle has clearly relied on the teachings of D. T. Suzuki and Ramana Maharshi in his writing. So although a good deal of spiritual leadership has been provided to America's masses by the authors of the bestselling books mentioned above, it is important to acknowledge that the most significant kinds of spiritual leadership are not always the most popular.
The subject of spiritual leadership could obviously fill an entire book of its own, and we will be returning to this topic frequently as the discussion unfolds. But by citing the work of these popular authors and considering the common needs that these "thought leaders" are fulfilling for their readers, we may get an initial idea of the function of spiritual leadership and the goods it delivers. And this sets the stage for our brief examination of each major type of spirituality currently on offer within American culture.
Major Types of Spirituality: What's on Offer in the Spiritual Marketplace
As mentioned above, this chapter charts the landscape of spirituality in America using three broad and general categories of spirituality: religious spirituality, which includes most of America's organized religions; secular spirituality, which includes atheists, scientific naturalists, and other active nonbelievers; and progressive spirituality, which includes the wide variety of nontraditional beliefs and practices that make up the contemporary social environment of alternative spiritual culture in the United States.
Sociologist of religion Robert Wuthnow defines spirituality as "all the beliefs and activities by which individuals attempt to relate their lives to ... a transcendent reality." However, while this definition can be read to include both progressive spirituality and traditional forms of religion, it does not include secular ideas of the real, which explicitly deny or rule out any "transcendent" features of reality. Yet, as I argue below, secular ideas of the real, which claim that the only reality is physical reality, are inescapably metaphysical and thus function as a form of spirituality even though this term is never used. I thus ask the reader to allow me to stretch the meaning of the word spirituality in this context to include all the forms of culture that are contending to define what is ultimately true, real, and worthwhile.
Religious Spirituality
This category comprises America's organized and historically established religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It also includes traditional forms of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other faiths that provide a cultural or ethnic connection to the ancestral heritage of their members. While organized forms of religion can also be found in the category I am identifying as progressive spirituality, the distinguishing characteristic of these religious types of spirituality is their connection to historically established forms of religion. Mormonism, for example, fits squarely in this category because it functions much like other long-established organized religions. By contrast, even though the Unitarian Universalist Church and the Unity Church are both forms of organized religion, they are far less conservative and traditional than Mormonism and are probably best classified in the progressive category. There is obviously some overlap among all three categories.
At its best, religious spirituality inspires believers to bear spiritual fruits in their lives, such as heartfelt devotion, faithful love, committed loyalty, contrite humility, and selfless service to one's family and community. And all religious forms of spirituality provide moral guidance and a sense of peace for their members, as well as an orienting belief system and creation story. Through their participation in a common story or system of belief, those who ascribe to a given form of religious spirituality feel a strong sense of membership and fellowship within a community of like-minded religionists.
Beyond the fulfillment of social needs, however, most forms of religious spirituality also connect their members with ancient wisdom, venerable scriptures, and the insights of the great saints and sages of history. It is in this way that religious forms of spirituality provide intergenerational continuity and an important connection with humanity's past. These institutions also include charming rituals and ceremonies, inspiring music, instruction in religious practices, and professional ministers charged with caring for the individual spiritual needs of members. Further, many followers of religious spirituality gather weekly within beautiful buildings. Some of America's most inspirational architecture is found in churches, synagogues, and other traditional religious structures.
Although organized religion has been maligned by many secular and progressive commentators, and although its membership is in general decline in America, religious forms of spirituality continue to fulfill a vibrant and indispensible role in American society, especially for the elderly and many minority groups. Despite its overall and ongoing gradual decline, religious spirituality remains the largest by far of the three categories I am describing. A 2012 Pew poll showed that 79 percent of Americans identified with an organized faith group, but less than 40 percent attend on a weekly basis. Although this category of spirituality includes many modernists and even some postmodernists among its members, most of those who do attend regularly have a cultural center of gravity that generally corresponds with a traditional worldview, as first described in the introduction.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Presence of the Infinite by Steve McIntosh. Copyright © 2015 Steve McIntosh. Excerpted by permission of Quest Books/Theosophical Publishing House.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments,Introduction,
How I Came to Write This Book,
The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality,
Integral Philosophy and the Evolution of Worldviews,
Where I Stand and What I Assume on the Part of the Reader,
Overview of the Chapters,
1. Spirituality in America: In Search of Leadership,
2. The Spiritual Teachings of Evolution,
3. Spiritual Experience from an Evolutionary Perspective,
4. The Spiritual Experience of Perfecting the Universe,
5. Contemporary Spiritual Currents: Progressive and Nondual,
6. A Constructive Critique of Nondual Spiritual Teachings,
7. Toward the Further Evolution of Spirituality,
8. Toward a Method for Evolving Consciousness,
Notes,
Selected Bibliography,