In Togetherness

In Togetherness

Preface
Various spiritual traditions, including Saiva tantric practices, Mediterranean spirituality, and elements from Qabalah, Christian mysticism, and Sufism are navigated. Solace is found in process philosophy. It is important to find one's path to truth, devoid of organizational constraints.

Preamble
The term 'transpersonal' is explored, emphasizing its meaning as 'beyond or through the personal.' It refers to experiences that transcend self-conscious awareness and connect to a larger, meaningful, total reality. The transpersonal domain has normative and soteriological aspects, distinguishing it from mere egoic existence. The term's historical roots are traced back to William James and its significance in various religious and mystical traditions. The chapter works on the distinction between transpersonal psychology and the psychology of religion.

Part I : The Epistemological Turn
Normative Epistemology : Discusses principles, norms, and maxims of conceptual knowledge.
Genetic Epistemology : Explores the origins and development of knowledge.
Being versus Existence : Contrasts eternalized being with the ever-becoming of existence.
Matter, Information, and Consciousness : Investigates the interplay between physical matter (hardware), information (software), and conscious awareness (userware).
Perennial, Empiricist, and Participatory : Examines and criticizes the view of enduring truths, objective empirical knowledge, and participatory understanding.

Part II : Mapping the Transpersonal Event
Self-Expansiveness : The concept of self-expansiveness is explored, emphasizing the ability to position one's sense of self also in a horizontal manner rather than only in a vertical, hierarchical way. This positioning hinges on the identification process, allowing one to expand the self-concept. The self may approach the transcendent, even though the transcendent is beyond definition and outside of any mapping or symbolic process.
Transpersonal Events : These are not exclusively inner experiences but encompass the human participation in spheres of being and awareness that transcend. Such holotropic events are participatory, where consciousness creatively engages and unifies. They are transformative and can be individual and communal, emerging from archetypal, phylogenetic, ancestral, racial, or cultural morphic fields.
Peak-Experiences : These are transient moments of self-actualization, fusing with B-values offering profound joy. They drive the process of self-actualization (totality, creativity), leading to self-realization, a prolonged peak-experience (infinity, fusion), when one is constantly in touch with and sustained by B-values like unity; integration; tendency one-ness, interconnectedness, order, beauty, aliveness, completion, fairness.
Depth Psychology : This section delves into the prevailing materialism, reductionism, and determinism of the 19th century. It touches upon the works of Darwin, Marx, and Freud, who discarded theology and embraced reductionism, evolutionism, and causalism.
Freud, Jung, and Assagioli are integrated into a model of the psyche aligned with Qabalah.

Part III : Nearing Totality
Concept of Totality : Totality is introduced as a limit-concept, representing a potential infinity. When approaching totality, one can only come close to it but never fully attain it, much like how parallel lines on an Euclidean plane appear to converge at infinity but never truly meet. Totality remains elusive, always escaping our conceptual grasp. It is described as an ever-receding horizon, never a territory that can be fully entered or acquired.
Understanding Totality : Totality integrates all possible isolates, suggesting a unity in diversity. It does not advocate for a fundamental separateness but rather a unity of all things. The moment of understanding totality is fleeting ; as soon as one grasps a moment, it transitions to the next. Thus, the best understanding of totality is always approximate.
Suffering and Totality : The concept of suffering (duḥkha) is explored in relation to totality. Suffering arises from excessive separation, indicating reification and ignorance. The text suggests that to approach totality, one must overcome suffering and the limitations of the self. The enlightened mind is a state of true peace (nirvāṇa) where one perceives reality as it truly is.
Return from the Source : After achieving a state of 'Great Death,' where both the self and the external world are absent, there is a return to the world, appearing as it always has but experienced with heightened vividness and intensity. This section touches upon the concept of a Buddha, one who perceives all phenomena as they are.