Welcome to Module 25! Author and mystic, Andrew Harvey, is our guide for this unit, one which points us toward the mystical path of spiritual unfoldment for seekers of all traditions. His passion for this path is evident throughout the book as he shares his own mystical journey. He also offers seekers a roadmap to follow as they deepen their personal understanding and experience of direct connection to the Sacred. You can download the module here: http://www.awakenedliving.com/SGTI/Module25.pdf Share and ConnectOnce you leave a comment or question, be sure to put a check mark in the box that says you wish to be notified of responses. When someone comments on the module, you will receive notification of their response in your e-mail inbox. We will be checking in regularly to address comments. Please try to post module-based questions here, rather than sending us a separate e-mail. It will be easier to keep Q & A in one place, so everyone benefits. Of course, if you have a question of a more personal nature, please e-mail us. We hope you will check in once each week to let us know how you are doing and to connect with your classmates. Let the conversation begin! We welcome your thoughts and look forward to chatting it up with you! "The soul grows by its constant participation
in that which transcends it." Gregory of Nyssa
10 Comments
Jeffrey Phillips
9/11/2018 10:55:06 am
RQ (Harvey interview)
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 09:52:02 pm
RQ ("the Christ"). Harvey's description of his vision of Christ (p. 24) reminds me of a number of things. One is it seems born of something deep within his personal background and family emotional field. He was born to devout Christian parents, and this vision is happening as a response to his father's deathbed conversation about his sincerely held Christian faith. So, the reality of a living Christ is somehow already within him. Our religious roots are important and probably impossible to leave, even if we want to and have good reason to. Second, this Christ is the "Cosmic Christ" of Christian mystical and theological (and even biblical) understanding. As such, this Christ is not the Christ of exclusive dogma but of inclusive, interspiritual equivalence to Krishna, Buddha, etc. - a Christian cipher for Universal Reality/Transcendence/Consciousness. Last, Harvey's Christ is also the historical Jesus of Nazareth. He doesn't go into detail here, but he does affirm Jesus' message of a revolutionary Kingdom of God that defies death, injustice, and violence.
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 10:04:15 pm
RQ (Harvey, p. 23). Yes, of course, but I need and want to explore this more deeply. Will we have a module on this - on integrating the spiritual and political? I think Harvey has a lot to offer on this topic, and look forward to reading him further to see what he has to say about it. I keep reading here and there about connections between social justice and spiritual work, but I'm hungry for more. Rohr got appropriately political in some of his summer daily devotions this year, but didn't seem to work on integrating the two (although I do recall one or two comments about this). I recently read a few meaningful lines about this in a book on Christian spiritual direction, but I am looking for a book that goes deeper - perhaps with different essays and voices from different faith perspectives.
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 10:17:46 pm
RQ (Resistance). Well, I'm no fan of reincarnation (or any after life as traditionally understood), but what surprised me to the point of laughter was Harvey's insistence that you simply HAVE to believe in reincarnation to make any sense of the rest of what he has to say. Really? That's like saying, "If you don't believe in reincarnation, STOP READING and stop thinking that you have any chance of developing an authentic spiritual life. In a book that probably has no use for dogma of any other spiritual tradition, he seems to regard reincarnation as an unquestioned article of faith and those who don't/can't believe in it as spiritual idiots. Rather than get angry about this, though, I just laughed at it because I know enough from our other readings that blind belief in reincarnation is not necessary to have a growing, dynamic, God-saturated faith. I also know this as a Christian who, unlike 99.99% of other Christians, does not think it necessary to believe in heaven and hell to have a robust and meaningful faith in God revealed in Christ. Harvey wrote this book in 2000. I wonder if he would be so dogmatic today on this topic. By the way, I do understand why reincarnation is necessary in the Buddhist and Hindu theological system. I just know that you can still have a system, even when what seems to be a lynchpin in the system is removed. This is because all these "systems" are metaphors and pointers to that which is ultimately beyond description, and all metaphors/mythologies/symbols/rituals/pointers are imperfect. Thus, none of them need be taken literally or dogmatically. It's just surprising that this is coming from someone who is otherwise so obviously open-minded about the worlds of religion and spirituality.
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Barbara Buckley
9/21/2018 06:29:55 pm
I’m with you on this Jeffrey! I was startled by Harvey’s insistence on belief in reincarnation. I personally am curious about the concept ( and often refer to my past lives in a lighthearted way) but required belief?! Never. ( but then I’m not one for absolutes about any of this)!
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 10:33:32 pm
RQ (personal Direct Path). Harvey's concept is not a new one. It reminds me of the reforming tendency in every religion. Buddhism was a reforming movement out of Hinduism. The Hebrew prophets (and, later, Jesus) were a reforming movement within Judaism. The Protestant Reformation was a reforming movement out of Catholicism. Mormonism, Sikhism, etc. can all be understood this way. Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasized finding God directly without the aid of churches, ministers, creeds, rituals, etc. And now we have SBNRs who think they are the first generation to say that they don't need an institution to find God because its institutions that have "ruined" God anyway. So I'm skeptical of authors who jump on this bandwagon of using the spiritual insights of religious traditions while trashing the structures that have kept these traditions alive for thousands of years.
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 10:53:59 pm
RQ (understanding the Direct path as a spiritual guide). I like his four-step journey into the spiritual life (falling in love, engagement, sacred marriage, birthing) because they remind me of the previous unit's emphasis on growth and development. This is what we should be listening for as we receive our seekers. One step leads to another. The previous step is just not needed any longer, and it proceeds to another. It's a journey toward spiritual maturity, and, although no journey is alike, it is helpful to read various authors' namings of different stages along the way.
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/17/2018 11:01:51 pm
What I mean is that when we have a name for something, the thing itself becomes real to us. That's why an accurate vocabulary is critical, especially in an area such as interspiritual spirituality in which the naming of such things is not evident in the broader culture, nor is it something most of us were raised with. Words and concepts matter. Being able to articulate something, especially something "squishy" like spirituality, makes it concrete and alive. And if the words means something to us, there's a chance they might mean something to others as we use them consistently, accurately, and passionately.
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Jeffrey Phillips
9/21/2018 09:32:18 pm
RQ (Harvey, pp. 269-279).
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rebecca rosher
9/24/2018 06:32:25 pm
1.Fall in love with the mystery. To fall in love with mystery is to cultivate love at the core of my being. It is falling in love with the beauty of unknowing and undoing. It is the serenity that comes with being in the presence of the Divine, and seeking it out.
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