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Three Excerpts From The Presence of The Infinite
Three Excerpts From The Presence of The Infinite
of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness (Quest
Books)
FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality
FROM CHAPTER 4: Contemporary Spiritual Currents: Progressive and Nondual
FROM CHAPTER 5: A Constructive Critique of Nondual Spiritual Teachings
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality
Evolutionary spirituality is being born out of the growing realization that the scientific and
historical story of our origins actually presents a profound spiritual teaching about the purpose
of the universe and our place within it. Evolutionary spirituality, however, is not a religion or belief
system. Rather, it represents a new level of cultural agreement that can include and uplift many
of the existing forms of spirituality found in contemporary culture. In other words, evolutionary
spirituality aspires to create a widely agreeable public form of spirituality that can provide a
greater sense of solidarity and cohesion for those living in the developed world, while
simultaneously retaining pluralism and making abundant room for a diversity of convictions
about what is ultimately real. In short, evolutionary spirituality endeavors to transcend and
include what is currently on offer in the spiritual marketplace of ideas through a new approach to
spiritual teaching and practice.
Evolutionary spirituality, as I understand it, transcends previous forms of spirituality through two
crucial insights that serve as its foundation. The first insight comes from an enhanced
recognition of the spiritual nature and behavior of the intrinsic values of beauty, truth, and
goodness. And the second insight involves what is coming to be known as the spiritual
teachings of evolution itself. As I argue in chapter 2, the scientific truths of cosmological and
biological evolution, together with the historical truths of humanitys cultural evolution, reveal a
truth so comprehensive and significant as to have spiritual implications of its own. Properly
interpreted, the evolutionary unfolding of nature and history, as well as the evolution of human
consciousness itself, represents a kind of revelation that serves as a useful criterion for
evaluationa reliable standard of measurementfor practically all spiritual truth claims.
Moreover, through the practice of evolutionary spirituality we become agents of evolution
emissaries of the futurewhose mission is the improvement of the human condition. And the
experience and creation of that which is spiritually realthat which is beautiful, true, and good
is ultimately how we make things genuinely better. In other words, we become direct
participants in evolutions unfoldingthe process by which something more keeps coming from
something lessas we work to increasingly perfect ourselves and our world. Thus, those who
are on an evolutionary spiritual path recognize that their purpose in life is to participate in the
gradual perfection of the evolving universe of nature, culture, and self.
FROM CHAPTER 4
Contemporary Spiritual Currents: Progressive and Nondual
[In this chapter] we consider the most recent trends in progressive spiritual culture that have
become evident since the turn of the millennium, leading to the conclusion that progressive
spirituality is reaching a kind of maturity or culmination through its growing agreement regarding
the nondual nature of ultimate reality. And this agreement itself is arising from the partial merger
of the practices and truth teachings of Advaita Vedanta Hinduism and Westernized progressive
Buddhism.
Once we have examined the recent maturation of progressive spirituality and the evolutionary
opportunity this creates, we will be ready to explore in the next chapter how evolutionary
spirituality can use this opportunity to transcend the limitations of progressive spirituality and
thereby achieve the next dialectical step in our societys cultural evolution.
Conversely, theistic versions of spirituality rest upon another kind of deep and foundational
spiritual experiencethe love of God. For those who have a direct relationship with God, the
experience of being personally known and cared for by the Creator of the universe is a thrilling
confirmation of their faith. As Saint Augustine wrote, God loves each of us as if there were only
one of us.
But while formless unity is the experiential foundation of the nondual pole and the love of God is
the experiential foundation of the theistic pole, the experience of Gods love is not a perfect
polar mirror of the nondual unitive experience. The experiential basis for theistic spirituality is
more varied and not always mystical in character. Theistic spiritual experiences can include
awareness of loyalty and duty, as well as the other natural signs discussed at the end of
chapter 3. Such experiences can also include a sense of love, not just from God but from other
spiritual sources, such as from Christ. For example, philosopher and mystic Simone Weil
described her experience of Jesus as the presence of love, like that which one can read in the
smile on a beloved face.
Some have argued that the apparent differences found in descriptions of essential spiritual
experience can be reduced to interpretive constructions designed to justify previously
established belief systems. Others contend that such differences are due to the indeterminate
nature of spiritual reality, which is said to be best understood as a wide ocean of diversity rather
than as a structured polarity. However, after reflecting on this subject for quite some time, it
seems to me that the polar opposition I am describing does not result simply from previously
held biases toward doctrinal commitments. My conclusion is that the polar tension between
theism and nonduality reflected in the overall world body of spiritual teachings about ultimate
reality results from a polarity in the human experience of ultimate reality itself, rather than the
other way around. In short, the experiences produce the polarity in the teachings more than the
teachings produce the polarity in the experiences.
FROM CHAPTER 5
A Constructive Critique of Nondual Spiritual Teachings
A central feature of evolutionary spirituality is its vigorous pursuit of excellence and its relentless
striving for improvement. This penchant for progress creates a sense of restlessness and
discontent with current conditions. And this discontent becomes particularly acute with regard
to the developed worlds current state of spiritual evolution, which leads to this chapters
critique of nondual spirituality.
Recall that in chapter 1 we identified both the need and the opportunity for more agreeable and
inclusive forms of spiritual leadership in the developed world. And in chapter 2 we began to
explore how the rise of evolutionary spirituality could supply such leadership. Also in chapter 2,
we examined how harnessing the developmental potential of an existential polarity involves
using its inherent conflicts to discover the transcendent synthesis implied by the existence of its
dialectical tensions. Then in the last chapter we explored how the maturation of progressive
spirituality has revealed more clearly than ever before the existence of such an existential
polarity within the worlds spiritual teachings (both ancient and modern) and also within human
spiritual experience overall.
So now in this chapter we will use evolutionary spiritualitys method of dialectical epistemology
to help facilitate the emergence of evolutionary spirituality itself. In the context of contemporary
spiritual culture, this dialectical method involves working with the essential contradictions
between nondual and theistic teachings about the nature of ultimate reality. When we evaluate
the respective truth teachings of these two poles in light of the spiritual teachings of evolution,