The first idea within transpersonal psychology is that of Nonduality. The Sanskrit term for nonduality is Advaita. Essentially this is a philosophy that dichotomy and dualism, black and white, for example, are illusory phenomena. This is a key component in many spiritual traditions, including Buddhism, Shavaism, Hinduism, and the contemplative branches of Christianity and Judaism. The philosophy exists outside of religion, however, and simply exists as a belief that there is no us and them, no up and down, no black and white. All these concepts are erroneous. Sri Ramana Maharishi, a yogi or Tamil Hindu Jivanmukta (a being that has reached nirvikalpa samadhi, and understands the true nature of self) urged us to obtain enlightenment within this lifetime. This is called Advaita. This is the merging of the self we know now the Atman with the Creator or Brahman, also called Paramatman.
This is the idea of the drop of the ocean realizing it is a drop but only part of the greater ocean. The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga sutras all speak of this state of being. They all agree that we must obtain an understanding of nonduality. Adi Shankara was the first to bring the many discourses on nondualism together. He is also known as Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya, or the Teacher at the Foot of Brahman. His teachings became known as the school of the Vedanta. Carl Jung spoke of nonduality thousands of years later in somewhat veiled terms to the unknowing individual. All that exists outside of a nondual Universe is Love. Carl Jung said, “Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” ("On the Psychology of the Unconsciousness", 1917) love and power (ego) are not separate by equal and intertwined.
We are only able to arrive at this understanding of nonduality via self-transcendence, another key theme in transpersonal psychology. We usually see our ‘selves’ as separate from others, separate from our families, friends, cities, nations, countries, world and planet, extending all the way out to the Universe. We transcend this state of awareness, what the Buddha called ignorance by having a different view of our social, economic, political and environmental place. It does not mean that we disappear into white light and melt into the materialistic world made up of quarks and matter. It means that we become more aware of whom we are simultaneously as manifest individuals and a portion of the greater whole that extends beyond our current conceptions of the Universe. According to writers, Curnow and Tornstam, “Self-transcendence has been hypothesized to be a critical component of wisdom and adaptation in later life. It reflects a decreasing reliance on externals for definition of the self, increasing interiority and spirituality, and a greater sense of connectedness with past and future generations.” (The International journal of Aging and Human Development Vol. 60.2) This is not a pie in the sky notion of spirituality; it is an evolving and maturing perspective. Early teachings of the Buddha were fairly pragmatic psychological discourses. Just as in psychological study, early Buddhism taught humankind to study his or her own emotions and to come to terms with the mind. We are not just a sum of our emotions. Though we feel anger, passion, greed, lust, love, hurt, longing, angst, fear, and hope. We must transcend these urges in order to become one with the Divine. The Kodhana Sutta deals specifically with the emotion of anger, for example. It teaches us that anger keeps us from self-transcendence. A translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Shows us the Buddhas teachings on anger:
When anger does possess a man;
He looks ugly; he lies in pain;
What benefit he may come by
He misconstrues as a mischance;
He loses property (through fines)
Because he has been working harm
Through acts of body and speech
By angry passion overwhelmed;
The wrath and rage that madden him
Gain him a name of ill-repute;
His fellows, relatives and kin
Will seek to shun him from afar;
And anger father’s misery:
This fury does so cloud the mind
Of man that he cannot discern
This fearful inner danger.
An angry man no meaning knows,
No angry man sees the Dhamma,
So wrapped in darkness, as if blind,
Is he whom anger dogs.
Someone a man in anger hurts;
But, when his anger is later spent
With difficulty or with ease,
He suffers as if seared by fire.
His look betrays the sulkiness
Of some dim smoky smoldering glow.
Whence may flare up an anger-blaze
That sets the world of men aflame.
No kindly words come forth from him,
There is no island refuge for
The man whom anger dogs.
Such acts as will ensure remorse,
Such as are far from the true Dhamma:
It is of these that I would tell,
So harken to my words.
Anger makes man a parricide,
Anger makes him a matricide,
Anger can make him slay the saint
As he would kill the common man.
Nursed and reared by a mother's care,
He comes to look upon the world,
Yet the common man in anger kills
The being who gave him life.
No being but seeks his own self's good,
None dearer to him than himself,
Yet men in anger kill themselves,
Distraught for reasons manifold:
For crazed they stab themselves with daggers,
In desperation swallow poison,
Perish hanged by ropes, or fling
Themselves over a precipice.
Yet how their life-destroying acts
Bring death unto themselves as well,
That they cannot discern, and that
Is the ruin anger breeds.
This secret place, with anger's aid,
Is where mortality sets the snare.
To blot it out with discipline,
With vision, strength, and understanding,
To blot each fault out one by one,
The wise man should apply himself,
Training likewise in the true Dhamma;
"Let smoldering be far from us."
Then rid of wrath and free from anger,
And rid of lust and free from envy,
Tamed, and with anger left behind,
Taintless, they reach Nibbana.
Even with emotions like anger, sadness, greed, and fear, there is an intrinsic goodness to all humankind. This is a dominant teaching of Buddhism and also of Hinduism, as well as of many other religions, and it finds its way into transcendental psychology. This is not a value judgment of a person or thing, but an understanding of all things as part of the whole of the Divine. Even though Buddhism does not define a Godhead, it prescribes moral behavior, mindful awareness of our thought, words, and deeds.
Transcendental psychology goes beyond the dual reality definitions of good an evil here. It is concerned with each part of the whole being essentially important and necessary. This can be a bit confusing, but let us take for example, the story of the dark night of the soul or the journey of descent into enlightenment. According to the Balinese culture there are seven paths to hell and seven paths to heaven, but they both eventually take you to the same place. Sometimes crisis is the only way to bring us to spiritual awakening. The crisis we feel of an unjust world forces us to seek answers outside of the accumulation of power, material things, friends and the physical caress of a lover. Through crisis, we sometimes are pushed closer to “God.” This is the type of intrinsic good that transpersonal psychology is referring to.
For eons, there have been spiritual traditions who have taught renunciation or pain as a means to the divine, but later mystics teach us that there are many paths to higher states of awareness, and pain and poverty are not essential paths in order to arrive at these states. They may sometimes take us there, but can be a rather wayward and zigzagging path. Ken Wilber’s Integral theories postulate the main ideas of transpersonal psychology most elegantly. He says that as each new spiritual ‘level’ unfolds, it integrates and transcends the previous, but it never excludes. There are so many stages of consciousness. We can dream, meditate, and think think think in our waking state. Our thoughts and even spiritual euphoria can be influenced by our culture and upbringing, but at higher states of awareness, all truths are inclusive. They lead to an understanding of the whole. The become part of the whole, and make perfect sense, from the top down, but also across wide perpendicular lines. The truth is transcendent. We cannot experience this state through dogma or force. We awaken to the Truth as a compilation of many traditions, cultures, ideas and dimensions, all leading to a greater and higher consciousness. We are not meant to digest another culture or philosophy instead of our own but in addition to it. We are expected to digest new ideas and higher levels incrementally, and along the way integrate them into a cohesive worldview.
Many people arrive onto a spiritual path through crisis. A new perspective dawns, but it is often birthed through pain as we let go of old, outdated beliefs and ways of dealing with the world on a social, political and personal level. Though a psychological crisis is not a must for beginning on the spiritual path it seems to be a frequent initiate. It is no wonder. Dr. Clare Graves talks about this in his theories of Spiral Dynamics, also evolving from Maslow’s Hierarchy and transcendental psychology. A transcendental psychologist can in the same esteem as a guru does for a spiritual aspirant, helping to guide him or her along the sometimes treacherous and confusing path of spiritual evolution. In both the student is learning to be ever-present in the workings of the now. The field of psychology is changed greatly by transpersonal and contemplative studies and provides a secular outlet for the spiritual angst of many on their path.
(c) 2009, 2010 Christina Sarich
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