VIII. The Ontological Reduction:
The Feedback Phenomenological analysis of purgation and mystical union in
Section VII may appear to be somewhat mechanistic in steps 1 to 6. Nevertheless, meditation on the complete 9-step transcendental-phenomenological reduction has enabled me to arrive at the following ontological reduction. This reduction is still tentative, but it was toward insights like those that follow that my mind has been directed ever since I began this study in 1984, indeed, ever since I began the search in December 1957.
a) The difference between revelation and understanding:
There is a difference between
the revelation the mystic obtains during the
experience of purgation and mystical union
and the understanding that results from the phenomenological analysis of that
experience. The peak experience or mystical union reveals to the mystic knowledge
of the unsurpassable Greatness,
the ego ideal,
and groundedness. The mystic feels he has come Home. It is the revealing of the
essence of freedom, trueness, groundedness, knowledge, and love that is inherent
in the unsurpassable Greatness within. For example, the experience of trueness
during mystical union is experienced within in a way similar to when a
transformation occurs in a formerly rackety complex machine that has been
carefully adjusted by a skilled mechanic and begins to humm or run true. The
mystic carries the memory of trueness, obtained during his revelation, with
him for the remainder of his life, as well as of the unsurpassable Greatness,
and of the ego ideal. That search is over.
On the other hand, understanding the peak experience is the aim of the mystic's
phenomenological reduction of purgation leading to mystical union. The reduction
ceases when the analyst determines the transcendental and existential elements
that give certainty and meaning to the mystic's life. However, understanding
religious experience and mystical union is unlike the mystic's finality and certitude
about the revelations during mystical union. The mystic's search for certitude,
meaning, and finality by means of the understanding never ceases. The philosophical
mystic's aim is rather to get closer and closer to a true and rigorous understanding
in all of its depth, breadth, and subtlety.
As the philosophical mystic approaches understanding of his or her peak experience,
the mystic's mind approaches stability.
b) The nature of God: Insights into the Essence or Ground of our life and an experiential confirmation of Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God.
Focusing on the transition from purgation to mystical union gives powerful
insights: During purgation my imagination produced mental imagery or metaphor and
an emergence of an archetype
when I really needed it. These products of my imagination played a central
role in stabilizing my mind during the experience of purgation.
However, they suddenly ceased functioning at the moment of cessation in
mystical union. The fact that
God
was experienced then, after those two aspects of the imagination had shut down,
conflicts with the present position of both the scientific community and the
Western psychological community. The Western psychological community's
extensive study of the mind has
convinced them that God is a product
of the imagination.
My position is that we must go deeper: The experience of
God
originates at a much deeper level:
During mystical union inner sense ceases and inner time stands still.
Simultaneously, one has an ecstatic experience of merger with the essence
of one's inner self or inner Being. This timeless essence or Immensity or
Ground cannot be conditioned, either by society or authorities or by anything else.
The ecstatic experience of this Ground, occurring after purgation when
my heart had been purified and fully
opened,
is an experience of an unsurpassable Greatness that fully satisfied my desperate
search for groundedness.
Immediately after, when I came down from mystical union and ordinary
consciousness partially returned, I was in a heavenly state. This state is called
bhava by the Hindus
and 'the Peace that passeth all understanding' or 'Beulah land' or heaven by
Protestant mystics. It is a state of supreme bliss.
Later,
when I had returned to ordinary consciousness,
I searched my mind and language for a name for the formless and unsurpassable
Greatness experienced in mystical union. This search for a name developed gradually over
many years, like one slowly arousing from sleep. Because I was born and raised in the
United States and English is my native language, the only name I could find that
satisfied my heart and mind was the word, God, the name my precious mother spoke to me
about when I was a boy.
If I had been born and raised in a Hindu culture, the name I would have chosen would
have been Brahman; If I had been born and raised in a Muslim culture, the name would
have been Allah; If I had been born and raised in a Japanese Buddhist culture, the name
would have been
No Thing or Emptiness;
etc.
c) The meaning of life: Cracking the Code!
There is something driving us to our full potential: to our ultimate end or object; to our telos. This telos is ultimate trueness, freedom, integrity, grounding, and love, but we never seem to attain it. Whatever trueness, freedom, integrity, grounding, or love we attain, we sense it is not enough. We need more.
In my case my full potential, my telos, was only satisfied when I had experienced
mystical union.
It was in mystical union that I experienced ultimate trueness, freedom, integrity,
grounding, and love. When that occurred I felt my search was over. I was finally
satisfied. Therefore, it was this that I had been driven to, unconsciously. The drive toward this goal is mostly hidden from us; it is unconscious: An unconscious life force or entelechy is silently and wordlessly informing us: 'Come to the state of ultimate freedom, trueness, integrity, grounding, and love.
From the point of view of intentionality our lives are about reaching this goal, the state of ultimate freedom, trueness, integrity, grounding, and love. That is, in our daily lives this is the unconscious intentionality of our conscious lives. This unconscious intentionality is driven, in turn, by some sort of unconscious life force.
With these insights the mystic had made the first crack in his effort to crack open the code:
- He understood at least part of the structure underlying the dance or game of life.
- He had a fairly good conjecture on the general nature of what drives the dance
of our lives.
- With this, he had found a tentative basis for the universal or generic or general
legal system.
d) The essence of faith.
Sometimes, desperate people - when their backs are to the wall facing defeat,
death, and/or disintegration - make a miraculous recovery. Examples are
found among warriors, businessmen, athletes, people on their death bed,
prisoners,
former addicts of one kind or another, etc. Do you remember the people of
London during the Battle of Britain? Do you remember
the people of Grand Forks, North Dakota during the Red River flood of 1997?
Do you remember the night Archie Moore came back from a terrific beating in
the first round to defeat a powerful Canadian boxer?
An Engineer's Story
is a narrative that details one person's experience of this mode or capability,
including the desperate circumstances that brought it about.
All such people are knowers of a greatness within that has enabled them to
function in these situations in a mode far more profound, powerful, and skilled
than their ordinary abilities. This human capability probably evolved during
the desperate battle conditions of our earliest hominid ancestors. This capability
is always available to human beings.
To know this is the essence of faith.
Arlen Wolpert
December 27,2001
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr337.html
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