THE UNFOLDING SELF: VARIETIES OF TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE
Ralph Metzner
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"By going to my center, my central axis, I can experience the central axis, pole, or pillar of the world – the cosmic hub, the navel of the world (omphalos)."
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"Ancient sacred texts refer to the intelligence of the heart, the eye of the heart. This is the heart center, where we see with the feeling light of love."
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"The networks of thought energy, the collective tapestry of consciousness, links all humans and all forms of life."
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"The human psyche is purified, transformed and loved by the fire of God, with which it becomes increasingly unified."
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"With some variations in language and emphasis, the essential human process of evolutionary growth is described in similar terms in all major cultures and sacred traditions the world over."
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"I live my life in growing orbits, which move out over the things of the world…I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years." Rainer Maria Rilke, 'Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke'
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"The true origin, root, and source of our life is the One Spirit."
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"Those who are asleep live each in a private world; those who are awake live in the one Great World." Herakleitos, ancient Greek sage
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"Modern scientists have concluded that all phenomena are interrelated in complex networks of energy transformation. Teilhard deChardin's concept of the noosphere, a network of thought ecompassing the planet, is one such idea. The notion of networks of individuals who share a common interest and provide information and support to one another has enormous potential for furthering individual and social transformation."
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"From the many to the one, from duality to unity – the direction of growth and evolution is toward integration, toward oneness."
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"We are not the victims or the effects of uncontrollable external circumstances: the journey of transformation is within us. Therefore, we choose the destination."
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"We may transcend a sense of separateness by meditating on the perception of oneness."
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"Each human being is, in essence, a divine spirit of pure light. This light can come 'down' or 'through', into mind and body, into outward expression and manifestation."
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"The Inner Self abides always in the heart…One should draw him out, as one may the wind from the reed. Him one should know as the pure, the immortal." Katha Upanishad
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"The eye or voice of conscience…is the eye of the Self within."
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"The evolutionary transformation of society and of humanity must take place first in the individual, and the transformation of the individual requires a turning inward, toward self – not in narcissistic self-absorption but in aware self-confrontation."
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"According to the Jewish Kabbalah teachings, evil occurs when the function of discrimination or judgment (Gevurah) is separated from its natural complement – loving kindness or mercy (Hesed). The implication is that discriminative judgment must be integrated with kindness or compassion for this opposition to be transformed. A similar moral attitude is implied by the Buddhist teachings that advocate a balanced integration of discriminative wisdom and compassion."
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"We have an eye of contemplation, which sees with higher or spiritual light the ultimate reality of oneness."
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"The mandala is the central symbol of individuation, integration, or wholeness. One could say that a key component of the transformation of vision in psychospiritual development is the perceiving of the visual field as a kind of mandala. American Indian vision seekers have reported that they see the 'circle of the Sky' touch the 'circle of the Earth', forming one great hoop…it is Buckminster Fuller's sphere of 'omnidirectional awareness', moving always with us."
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"The language of symbols is common human language. It is the language we still use and understand – in dreams, in poetry and art, in the visions and voices that tell us of the sacred and the mystery."
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"The atom is, in many ways, seen to behave as much like a wave as a particle. It can perhaps best be regarded as a poorly defined cloud, dependednt for its particular form on the whole environment, including the observing instrument…Both observer and observed are merging and interpenetrating aspects of one whole reality, which is indivisible." Fritjof Capra, 'The Tao of Physics'
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"Pilgrimages by groups of people to holy places – whether Chaucer's rowdy band of travelers on the road to Canterbury, devout Christian monks on the way to Jerusalem, or Muslim caravans on the road to Mecca – all share the same purpose: travelers seeking God, seeking to find the Self."
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"Evolution, or order of process, is more than just a paradigm for the biological domain; it is a view of how a totality that hangs together in all of its interactive processes moves. This dynamic totality spans a vast spectrum from the subatomic processes to social and further on to noetic (mental and psychic) processes." Erich Jantsch, 'Evolution and Consciousness: Human Systems in Transition'
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"The tree of life symbolizes the interdimensional central axis, with its energy centers and branching channels, that is our connection with the realms of spirit and hence immortal life."
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"The individual and the world are linked by a relationship of micro-macro-correspondence."
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