THE KNIGHTS TEMPLERS

From a wonderful and extremely interesting book by Jack Whyte, a book about the Knights Templers, those mysterious and holy warrior monks of the time of the first Crusades:

"I believe that the world has been led astray by men - ordinary, venal, and self-centered men - claiming to represent God and growing rich in wealth and worldly power in doing so. The evidence of that is everywhere, and a man does not have to be a saint to see it. The Church that Paul founded contains nothing today - a millennium later - that has not been created and propounded and promulgated by men, all of them claiming to have access to the ear of God, and most of them having no slightest resemblance to anything that might in any way be thought of as godly, pious, or holy, let alone Christian. They preach and pray about godly and Christian values, but few bishops or priests today even bother to conceal their venal worldliness. I believe - and I know, as do you - that most people are aware of that, even although they dare not - dare not - speak of it to anyone. Despair walks the world today, my friends, and it wears clerical robes." (Jack Whyte, Knights of the Black and White, p. 66.)

It is now another millennium later, and the above still accurately describes many of today's self-described Christians, as well many of their counterparts among the Jews and the Muslims.


Whyte makes an even more important and revolutionary point in his book:

"Think of this. The Church tells us Jesus spoke of himself as being 'the Way,' and that he told others, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.' He asked them to follow him and that he would show them the Way, and he believed that, utterly and without doubt. But we in our Order believe he did not say it as the Son of God. He said it as an Essene, because it was part of his daily life, and the other Essenes of his community spoke the same way, because they believed that man carried God within himself, and that the Way to find God is to search within yourself.

Now if you think long and hard upon what that means, you might realize it means that you can talk to God in your own mind, and in your own prayers. And if you can do that, what need have you of priests? Think about that for a moment, and about what it means to our churchly fathers. If a man can talk to God in his own mind, and pray in the security of his own bosom, what need has he of priests, or of a Church - any church?" (Jack Whyte, Knights of the Black and White, p. 66-67.)

THE UNIVERSE IN A SINGLE ATOM

From another interesting and thoughtful book, a book by the Dalai Lama about the relationship of Buddhism and modern science:

"As we experience it, consciousness is made up of myriad highly varied and often intense mental states. There are explicitly cognitive states, like belief, memory, recognition, and attention on the one hand, and explicitly affective states, like the emotions on the other. In addition, there seems to be a category of mental states that function primarily as causal factors in that they motivate us into action. There include volition, will, desire, fear and anger." (The Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom, p. 122-123.)

"The definition of the mental is that which is luminous and knowing...." These two features - luminosity or clarity, and knowing, or cognizance - have come to characterize 'the mental' in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist thought. Clarity here refers to the ability of mental states to reveal or reflect. Knowing, by contrast, refers to mental states' faculty to perceive or apprehend what appears." (The Universe in a Single Atom, p. 124.)

In the Buddhist tradition, consciousness has been explored by means of a "rigorous, focused, and disciplined use of introspection and mindfulness to probe deeply into the nature of a chosen object." (The Universe in a Single Atom, p. 142.)

"The seventh century philosopher monk Dharmakirti presents a sophisticated argument in support of the proposition that through disciplined meditative training, substantive changes can be effected in human consciousness, including the emotions. A key premise underlying his argument is the universal law of cause and effect, which suggests that the conditions affecting the cause have an inevitable impact on the result....

Like other Buddhists thinkers before him, Dharmakirti invokes what could be called a 'psychological law' in that he sees various psychological states, including the emotions, as a field of forces in which opposing families of mental states interact in a constant dynamic.... Dharmakirti argues that if one side of any such polarity is stronger, the other is weaker in any given individual at any given time. If one works to increase, reinforce, and strengthen the positive groups, one will correspondingly weaken the negative ones, this effectively bringing about transformation in one's thoughts and emotions....

This law whereby two opposing states cannot coexist without one undermining the other is the key premise in the Buddhist argument for the transformability of consciousness - it means that the cultivation of loving-kindness can over a period diminish the force of hate in the mind....

Dharmakirti goes even further and suggests that, unlike physical abilities, the qualities of the mind have the potential for limitless development.... Dharmakirti argues that the natural constraints on consciousness are far fewer and are removable, so that in principle it is possible for a mental quality like compassion to be developed to a limitless degree." (The Universe in a Single Atom, p. 145-148.)

"Spirituality is a human journey into our internal resources, with the aim of understanding who we are in the deepest sense and of discovering how to live according to the highest possible idea." (The Universe in a Single Atom, p.208.)

CARL JUNG AND ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Consciousness can certainly be increased and transformed into a higher, more compassionate quality by meditation. This can also be done using the various methods of Western Psychology, especially those of Carl Jung:

Carl Jung defines consciousness in relationship to the unconscious. He considers that much of what belongs in the domain of consciousness resides in the unconscious, either because it has never been conscious or because it has become unconscious through repression or one of the other psychic defense mechanisms.

He says that "Continual conscious realization of unconscious fantasies, together with active participation in the fantastic events, has, as I have witnessed in a very large number of cases, the effect firstly of extending the conscious horizon by the inclusion of numerous unconscious contents; secondly of gradually diminishing the dominant influence of the unconscious, and thirdly of bringing about a change of personality." (Carl Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, p. 219.)