Phantasia - Same But Different

It starts with a comparison between the Christian Orthodox Hesychast, the Theravadin Buddhist and the Hindu Yogi.

And to start with, the parallels look good.

On the cognitive powers of the soul:

- All have one common inner sense behind the five senses, called phantasia, or mano-vijnana, or pratyaksa - the noetic power to make present through one's own presence.

(Phantasia should not to be confused with eikasia, imagination, that is, a dianoetic power to imagine in concrete terms as opposed to abstract concepts.)

- the lowest form of intuition, direct and immediate consciousness is called the nous, the manas, or the buddhi-caitanya. This is the non-conceptual awareness, Tolle's parkbench. Purify it in any of these three traditions, and you get direct access to the Light, direct spiritual perception.

- as the heart of the soul, nous is also the eso anthropos (inner man) in Hesychasm or the purusa, inner person in Hindu or Buddhist terms, and becomes therefore the eso ego (inner 'I' for the Hesychast), asmita (Hindu) or aham (Buddhism). Nous is the self perceiving power, synathesis for the Hesychasts, svaprakasatva for the Hindu & Buddhist that gives the self it's sense of accountability and responsibility to itself (oikeiosis). As outward self-determination, nous is the ruling power (egemonikon) that is the thelein, or will.

- Dianoia is reasoning, a second-hand reflection that is reliant on concepts. Increases in the sun-light of Nous clarify the subject matter of the reflection in the moon of Dianoia.

On development of the soul:

- the fallen man of Christian Orthodoxy looks a lot like the the samsara of Hindu and Buddhist terms.

- the threefold spiritual practices are alike - in Buddhism and Yoga, sila is the training of the will by practice of moral virtue, prajna is the dianoetic training of reasoning and samadhi is the noetic training of non-distraction in pure awareness. In Hesychast terms these are praxis, training the will and the affections of the soul into ethical virtues, sophia, training of the dianoia into virtuous form and hesychia, training of the nous into self lucent and self concentrated wakeful non-distraction.

BUT

Christian Orthodox Hesychasm, Theravadin Buddhism and Hindu Yoga are different because:

in the interpretation of the contra-natural (fallen), natural or supra-natural (uncreated energy) states we see a divergence of the understanding of the purpose of human life.

- In Orthodox Christianity, we seek connection with the supra-natural in order to more effectively engage in the contra-natural, fallen state that we're all in, moment to moment. So we have the Desert Fathers teachings about 'gaining neighbours' ( see earlier post) and Jesus' message to 'love one another'. Or, erm, another way to look at it is the Church is God's ideal polis (I have serious personal allergies to politics in any form, but I'm doin' the therapy for it). Conscience is our innate inward call to become a part of the Body of Christ, with better expression of ethics, or praxis, as the ultimate outcome of the vehicle - then called phronesis, or prudence.

- The two eastern traditions have ethical practice as a preliminary practice to be discarded upon the achievement of the second and third stages, on the way to Theravadin Buddha nature or nirguna Brahmanof Yoga. The point of non-harm, ahisma, is a little more oriented towards getting free of entanglements and desires, free of the concerns of samsara.

Western theology pretty much turns that notion on it's head. Dianoia and nous together are the virtue of theoria, contemplation. Sophia becomes the wisdom of knowing the intrapersonal perfection of a skilled participation in an interpersonal communion - perfectly fulfilled agape. Gnosis is the direct, unique, singular (simplex intuitiva) intimate personal familiarity of self, 'gnosis' with all the connotations of Adam 'knowing' Eve in the Genesis. Through phronesis and sophia, but mostly through agape (syneidesis, perfection of conscience), gnosis is born.

The entire substance of the Christian life, then, can be summarised as the Trinity, as the notion that prayer is perfectable, personal, relationship. Our relationship to God is contingent on our relationship with others.

The Jesus prayer of the Hesychast is therefore not a mantra. The Jesus prayer works only when it is conducted within the ethical askesis of participation in the life of the Church. It's point is to awaken us to deeper more responsive interaction with others within the Communion of the Saints. In this day and age, perhaps there's no need to be too fussy about the lines that are drawn between Ekklesias (and not only because politics as a notion makes me kind of want to throw up). Education and awareness through technology ground us in the sociological knowledge that we are connected to the entirety of humanity as we inhabit the globe, and indeed, we're connected to the globe Herself. Prayer because, and entirely because, we're human, sounds good enough as a principle to start from for me.

from: Dr. Thomas Mether, http://strannik.com/watchful_gate/node/13