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The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy
Are mystical experiences formed by the mystic's cultural background and concepts, as "constructivists" maintain, or do mystics sometimes transcend language, belief, and culturally conditioned expectations? Do mystical experiences differ throughout the various religious traditions, as "pluralists" contend, or are they somehow ecumenical? The contributors to this collection scrutinize a common mystical experience, the "pure consciousness event"--the experience of being awake but devoid of intentional content--in order to answer these questions. Through the use of historical Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish mystical writings, as well as those of modern mystics, the contributors reveal the inconsistencies and inadequacies of current models, and make significant strides towards developing new models for the understanding of mystical phenomenon, in particular, and of human experience, in general.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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About the author
Robert K.C. Forman
12 books17 followersForty years of daily meditation practice led me to become professor of comparative religions, (CUNY), to found both the Forge Institute & The Journal of Consciousness Studies, and to a rethinking of the spiritual goal in our complex modern lives. That's why I wrote
Enlightenment Ain't What It's Cracked Up to Be: A Journey of Discovery, Snow and Jazz in the Soul
. It answers the question, what if you spent years of your life seeking spiritual enlightenment, but were looking in the wrong place over a long time? It's happening right now to millions of seekers around the world.
Told in often poetic prose, it capitalizes on author's years of scholarly research into and his own 39 year experience of spiritual enlightenment, and uses both as a springboard for exploring new directions for people looking for a sane and healthy spiritual pathway in our increasingly confusing world.
Told in often poetic prose, it capitalizes on author's years of scholarly research into and his own 39 year experience of spiritual enlightenment, and uses both as a springboard for exploring new directions for people looking for a sane and healthy spiritual pathway in our increasingly confusing world.
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March 10, 2011
A good read, i'm surprised that no one seems to have reviewed it yet...
This book, i guess, is an answer to the constructivist postion on mystical as put forward by Katz. Katz argued that there were no pure unmediated mystical experiences, that a persons cultural upbringing conditioned the form of religious experience they would have. This was a blow to previously held views in that scene which put forward a 'perennial philosophy' basically stating that underlying all religious paths there is a common mystical experience/s. Katz argues that such positions are essentially a priori projections onto data gleaned from the multitude of religious traditions.
Anyhow this book, in a sense reaffirms the perennial philosophy position by making a distinction between visionary experience and pure consciousness experience. Visionary experience is by its very nature visionary and is therefore conditioned by ones conceptual schema eg stigmata, kabbalistic clinging to God etc. So visionary experience would sit nicely with the constructivist postion
Pure consciousness experience, forman argues is a non visionary, non conceptual experience. He argues that differing religious traditions undergo processes of 'forgetting' whereby they transcend through negating their conceptual schema (such as 'if you see the buddah kill him or dionysus apothatic theology), arriving at an experience that cannot be described by language as it is non conceptual. This position seems to reaffirm some kind of commonality between the religious traditions. so we can all be hippies again..
This book, i guess, is an answer to the constructivist postion on mystical as put forward by Katz. Katz argued that there were no pure unmediated mystical experiences, that a persons cultural upbringing conditioned the form of religious experience they would have. This was a blow to previously held views in that scene which put forward a 'perennial philosophy' basically stating that underlying all religious paths there is a common mystical experience/s. Katz argues that such positions are essentially a priori projections onto data gleaned from the multitude of religious traditions.
Anyhow this book, in a sense reaffirms the perennial philosophy position by making a distinction between visionary experience and pure consciousness experience. Visionary experience is by its very nature visionary and is therefore conditioned by ones conceptual schema eg stigmata, kabbalistic clinging to God etc. So visionary experience would sit nicely with the constructivist postion
Pure consciousness experience, forman argues is a non visionary, non conceptual experience. He argues that differing religious traditions undergo processes of 'forgetting' whereby they transcend through negating their conceptual schema (such as 'if you see the buddah kill him or dionysus apothatic theology), arriving at an experience that cannot be described by language as it is non conceptual. This position seems to reaffirm some kind of commonality between the religious traditions. so we can all be hippies again..
Displaying 1 of 1 review