S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 7 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 1 2 9 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos and thus it has no framework by which to comprehend the reality of our two natures. The ancient wisdom found in all times and places perceived a correspondence between the unseen world and that of the visible one. The former corresponds with the notion of essences that connect us to the realm of Spirit, which pervades the whole of Reality. “[T]he things, which are seen, are temporal; but the things, which are not seen, are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) This metaphysical correspondence is also to be found in Taoism, when Lao Tzu (2017, 46) remarks: “All things under heaven are born of the corporeal: The corporeal is born of the Incorporeal.” As a paragon of Islamic spirituality, Rūmī (1207–1273) captures this idea poetically (Glassé 2002, 235): Every form you see has its archetype in the Divine world, beyond space; if the form perishes what matter, since its heavenly model is indestructible? Every beautiful form you have seen, every meaningful word you have heard – be not sorrowful because all this must be lost; such is not really the case. The Divine Source is immortal, and its outflowing gives water without cease; since neither the one nor the other can be stopped, wherefore do you lament? From the moment that you came into the world a ladder was put before you … In reviving the primacy of metaphysics, sacred science and its spiritual principles of psychology can return to their transcendent roots. According to this vision, everything observable in the phenomenal world can be traced “back to its source, to its archetype” (Corbin 1980, 3). Brown (2007, 104–5) explains how traditional peoples understood and perceived the divine Unity behind the created order where no bifurcation exists: It is often difficult for those who look on the tradition of the American Indians from the outside, or through the “educated” mind, to understand their preoccupation with the animals, and with all things in the Universe … But for these people, as of course for all traditional peoples, every created object is important simply because they know the metaphysical correspondence between this world and the real World. No object is for them what it appears to be, but is simply the pale shadow of a Reality … [I]t is for this reason that every created object is wakan, holy, or has a power, according to the level of the spiritual reality that it reflects. Thus many objects possess power for evil as well as for good and every object is treated with respect, for the particular ‘power’ that it possess can be transferred into you. Of course, they know that everything in the Universe has its counterpart in the soul of man …The Indian humbles himself before the whole of creation [note: especially when ‘lamenting’] because all things were created by ‘Wakan-Tanka’ [note: Great Spirit] before him, and deserve respect, as they are older than man. However, although the last of created things, man is also first and unique, since he may know ‘Wakan-Tanka’. The divided mentality of the modern West will come to an end only by returning to a tripartite understanding of the human being, consisting of Spirit/Intellect, soul and body. This will restore the fragmented condition of the contemporary psyche in order “[t]o see all things in the yet undifferentiated, primordial unity” (Lao Tzu in Cooper 2010, 37), as additionally expounded in the Heart Sūtra (Prajnāpāramitā Hridaya Sūtra): “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is not other than emptiness.” (Lopez 1988, 57). The myopic scope of modern science has proven to be incapable of delivering itself from its erroneous theoretical foundations: “In falling under the tyranny of a fragmentary, materialistic and quantitative outlook modern science is irremediably limited by its epistemological base.” (Oldmeadow 2011, 122). Guénon (2004d, 96) comments on the limited scope of modern psychology that is devoid of a transpersonal dimension: As for modern Western psychology, it deals only with a quite restricted portion of the human individuality, where the mental faculty is in direct relationship with the corporeal modality, and, given the methods it employs, it is incapable of going any further. In any case, the very objective which it sets before itself and which is exclusively the study of mental phenomena [the empirical ego], limits it strictly to the realm of the individuality, so that the state which we are now discussing [note: the Self –Ātma] necessarily eludes its investigations. The postcolonial challenge offers the potential to correct the historical errors of modern Western psychology by providing an integral framework for understanding the science of the soul as conceived by all traditional civilizations. The sacred science of the perennial philosophy recognizes that there are many ways of being and knowing, which are all embraced by the fullness of Reality. This universal wisdom affirms that “[t]he ontological situation of man in the total scheme of things is forever the same” (Nasr 1973, 93), and its ways of knowing are inseparable from this transpersonal dimension. Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2007, 47) illustrates this paramount concern with respect to the split in human knowledge and understanding, writing that there is an “abyssal invisible line that separates science, philosophy, and
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