The Dangers Of A Spiritual Rationality

[Anton Rogachevski]

It's quite dangerous when the rational mind gets hold of "spiritual facts" without actually experiencing them, and is trying to fit them onto a logical framework in order to have strategic action steps.

The problem is that spiritual facts are beyond rationality and cannot be understood simply by grasping with the mind. And thus the rationality will twist them to fit into a little box and they will lose their true essence.

They've now been turned into moral codes and 1,2,3 rules of action without an authentic inspiration.

Actually an active ego will use them as an excuse for egoic actions.

That's how religions were turned into fanaticism.

An example of this phenomenon is trying to rationalise anger away by saying "You shouldn't be mad at illusion!"
This is basically a failure to accept and love the angry side inside you, which is the only thing that will transmute it to love.

Or saying that you shouldn't be jealous because of it's all illusion and you can't gain anything. It's okay to feel feelings. There are no wrong feelings. Allow yourself to feel, or you will suffer inner conflict and resistance.

Thinking the world is illusion is delusion. Because there's no outside witness that is real. You are part of the same illusion until you've woken up from it.
 

[Tancrede Pouyat]

YES! Finally, someone was able to put it into words.

I always dismissed those people out of hand, telling myself there was no value. Looking back on it I was rationalizing, not accepting, and just being like them. Yikes!

Well, I'm in love with them now

P.S. : I almost never use emojis

[Leo Gura]

Yes, ego will find a way to twist every spiritual fact to serve it's self-agenda. Cause that's what egos do. And they don't care about how they do it. If they can co-opt lofty "spiritual" ideas, all the better. Who would think of questioning an ego that was acting in the name of God or Jesus or Buddha or "decency"? Perfect cover for the ego from doing self-inquiry.

The whole point of religion -- and all ideology really -- is to avoid self-inquiry. It's been honed for this function for over 2000 years, and it does a damn fine job of it.

[PureExp]

@Anton Rogachevski I totally agree, nice post.

I'd like to add something...

A "rational" mind which simply accepts the so called "spiritual facts" without first experiencing them intimately and proceeds to an action plan is not exactly rational. Is it?

I'd rather call it an ignorant mind. In other words, mind of a believer, not of a seeker. A truly rational person will see the claims (say of non-dualism for example) and say - "well, interesting.. but I don't know". And when he does the actual exercises/mental experiments on the self, he may reach a stage where he says - "wonderful, so that's what it means, I can see it, but I still don't know".

You see, something that is above mind, namely a direct experience where the mind is not very much involved, will remain a mystery for the mind, and a rational person will accept it. It will look like a paradox. He will remain an agnostic. "It is the way it is". Therefore the wisest people on earth are mystics, those who say - I don't know.

Knowing is a function of the mind, experiencing is a function of the consciousness, its the witness. Experiences includes the experience of knowing.

So why do some people rationalize it? Its merely conditioning. They are taught since childhood to put all experiences through the mill of mind, and take what comes out. They do the same for spiritual stuff, they call it rational for some reason. So many scientists, philosophers and so called "educated" people suffer from this affliction. Reason is helpful in domain where mind functions, beyond it, reason is simply an experience among a billion other experiences that the consciousness can have.

[Anton Rogachevski]

@PureExp The ego loves the simplicity and certainty of an absolute fact. It's so easy to just say "I know."

Thank you for your insightful input, it really adds an edge.