Then the Father chose three sons so trained
and sent them to us with weapons of love to take up the war
we had started. And their names were Vivekananda, Coomaraswamy
and Inayat Khan. And the sword of the first made music
like the deep notes of a cello and of the second like a fugal
violin and the third, the haunting tones of a primitive flute. SWG 17, pg129
When it comes to the use of ‘creative imagination’ in artwork, Ananda Coomaraswamy is our man. After all, he was one of the three sons, so trained and sent by God himself, to prepare the groundwork for the Avatar’s arrival. According to Ananda Coomaraswamy, the role of the artist is not to invent something new, but to give form to the eternal truths. He would say:
“The last desire of a true artist or thinker is to be original; he only endeavors to be true.”
Though often praised for being so original, Coomaraswamy thoroughly rejected originality. His rejection of originality stems from his mastery of the metaphysical significance these timeless, eternal, & universal truths. True art, he asserted, is not the product of an individual’s private thoughts and emotions, but rather a reflection of these perennial truths. He taught that, to reflect the infinity of the Truth in one’s work, ‘contemplation’ is essential. He would say:
“The man incapable of contemplation cannot be an artist, but only a skillful workman.”
For Coomaraswamy, the mother of true creativity was not boredom, but instead a deep yearning for communion with the Divine. He asserted that, instead of purposelessness, true art always has a purpose. For Coomaraswamy, the purpose of artwork was to emphasize the metaphysical significance of these eternal, unchanging, and immutable Truths.
Likewise, the use of ‘creative imagination’ for the ‘Purification of Intuition’ is not about creatively imagining something new or original; nor is it about expressing one’s individuality. The art of ‘contemplative imagination’ is about bringing out to the surface of consciousness these timeless, eternal & universal Truths that are ‘latent’ in us all. The role of ‘creative imagination’ in the Purification of Intuition, is thus, about imagining, as precisely as possible, through contemplation, the metaphysical essence & cosmology, contained in the revealed Truths – given to us by our Master, and his gang of fellow cohorts, known as the ‘Masters of Wisdom’.
IMAGINATION
It is through our ‘intuitive makeup’ or ‘perceptual framework’ that all our ‘perceptions’ are ‘perceived; and all our ‘conceptions’, ‘conceived’. Indeed, we can only ‘perceive’ the world through our worldview (or perceptual framework), and all that we can ever ‘conceive’, is through our worldview as well. In this way, our worldview (or perceptual framework) underpins all our ‘perceptions’ & ‘conceptions’.
Reimagining the ‘world – as we know it’, can be said to be the goal of General Meditation. The task of reimagining everything (including God & all of existence) through the use of ‘creative imagination’, guided (of course) by the revealed Truths, through the act of ‘contemplation’ – or revealed truth assimilation – is the task of General Meditation. In this way, through General Meditation, we can ultimately upgrade ‘the intuitive makeup of our active consciousness’.
For the purification of intuition, thus, ‘imagination’ is ‘key’. Meher Baba’s disciple Bhau Kalchuri once told us in person, (and I paraphrase):
“Imagination is what got us here — stuck here, in illusion – and it is only imagination that can get us out. We must imagine our way out!” -he would exclaim.
Meher Baba puts it this way:
“Imagination is false, but imagination itself is the medium for the INFINITE INTELLIGENCE to experience Its Reality.”
All imagination is false. But like a poison that cures a disease, imagination is the ‘means’ through which we can imagine our way out of imagination.
Creative imagination guided by the ‘revealed Truths’, coupled with a deep and living faith in the Master’s words, is precisely how the Aspirant begins to upgrade his worldview to the next higher fractal of understanding. In order to ‘grasp’ a revealed truth (or a set of interrelated revealed truths), we must be able to imagine it, first! We cannot grasp, that which we cannot imagine. What cannot be imagined (even a glimpse of) cannot be grasped.
Luckily however, our imaginations are actually up for the task. According to Meher Baba:
…. in man because of the creation of unnatural sanskaras imagination expands to an infinite extent.
It is this (expanded) imagination that enables us to ‘intuitively imagine’ *(at least a glimpse of) the higher Truths; The structures of speculation of our creative imagination are ultimately what enables us to imagine our way out of illusion.
On this point, the one revealed Truth that I’ve noticed that most Babalovers ‘seem’ to have assimilated (to one extent or another) is the revealed Truth that states that: “The world is but an illusion.” A Babalover I know well, would often say: “It’s all just an illusion, anyway? – right? – isn’t it?”
Adjusting our ‘worldview’ or ‘perceptual framework’ through the use of our creative imagination by seeing the world as ‘not real at all’ (yet karmically consequential, endowed with the full measure of karmic culpability for our deeds) is definitely one step towards seeing the world “as it IS”.
Let’s take another example from Meher Baba’s own atomic words. He says:
Imagine the Ocean as God’s INFINITE MIND, an Ocean of Mind, {an infinite shoreless ocean of Mind} and the drops in that Ocean as … the ordinary minds of men.
With this analogy, we can use our creative imaginations to imagine an infinite shoreless Ocean as the Mind of God, with all of our souls as drops in that Ocean, wherein (as He tells us) every drop contains the Ocean, and is the Ocean. As we dwell upon this most bewildering of paradoxes, we are engaging in the mystery of what Meher Baba calls ‘general meditation’; or what our Christian Saints called ‘contemplation’.
When it comes to the use of ‘creative imagination’ for the assimilation of the Master’s words, a good role model can be very helpful. In the Discourses, Meher Baba provides us with such a role model. At the very pinnacle of seeing the world through ‘Master’s words, stands a unique figure in all of history. His name was Kalyan.
KALYAN
One of the greatest things to possess is faith, which ultimately leads to conviction;
and from conviction one day arises realization {or Knowledge}.”
LISTEN, HUMANITY, pp. 184-185
Conviction in the Master is what leads to conviction in the Master’s words, and vice versa.
When it comes to revealed Truth assimilation, the degree of conviction for the Master’s Words that the Aspirant brings to the table is VITAL. At the very apex of the game of revealed truth assimilation stands Kalyan, who is referred to often by Meher Baba as the quintessential disciple ‘par excellence’, and role model for all truth-seeking aspirants everywhere. Meher Baba says:
If you have the complete faith that Kalyan had for his Master, in believing it was night, although it was day, because his Master said so, then you will know Me.
Upon hearing this, some of you might think that Kalyan was probably just a very gullible guy, perhaps not very educated, who due to his naïve credulity was engaging in nothing short of “blind faith” in his Master. But for an intellectual giant & scholar like Kalyan, nothing could be further from the truth. So, (you may ask) what’s going on here?
Let me explain. Meher Baba says:
“The right of testing the Master through critical reasoning has always been conceded to the disciples.” — since time immemorial. This is so that the disciples can arrive at (what Meher Baba calls) complete faith.
COMPLETE FAITH
There is an old saying that says: “there is more faith in an honest doubt.” We only become thoroughly convinced of the ‘things’ that we have doubted, tested & critically examined. Strong conviction is often preceded by strong doubts. Critically examining the Master, is not discouraged in True Faith; on the contrary, it is often openly encouraged, as in the case of the Buddha. The Buddha encouraged his disciples to critically examine of his teachings, instead of blindly accepting them.
Only False Faiths shy away from critical examination. Thomas (Jesus’ disciple, often referred to as “Doubting Thomas”) was never rebuked by Jesus for doubting His resurrection. It was only when Jesus allowed Thomas to touch his wounds, that his ‘shakable’ faith turned into ‘unshakeable’ conviction. Thomas was later to become the only male disciple to travel with Jesus to India.
About True Faith, Meher Baba importantly notes:
“Faith need not be at any stage be blind, in the sense that it is not allowed to be examined by critical intellect. True faith is a form of sight and not of blindness. It need not be afraid of the free functioning of critical reason.”
Blind faith in anything, always requires the ‘suspension of critical reason’. Blind faith in the Master therefore is not the ideal way for the Aspirant to proceed with his faith. As Al Gazali says, Comprehension is what gives birth to conviction, not self-coercion. Meher Baba says: Love is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together. Blind faith is a form of inner self-coercion, or inner force. And as such, the Aspirant need not at any stage resort to blind faith through inner force. However, Meher Baba adds:
But if, after testing and being satisfied about the Perfection of the Master, a disciple shows any wavering of faith, it is a result of a deplorable deficiency in his sincerity of approach and integrity of purpose.
In General Meditation, and in general, Meher Baba maintains that the Aspirant’s mind must “make intelligent use of the expositions of divine Truths given by those who know -without renouncing its critical powers and inherent zest for the Truth.”
If you ‘mischievously’ condense this statement just a little bit, Meher Baba just said:
Do not renounce the critical powers of your intellect.
Kalyan’s level of conviction could not be the result of self-coerced ‘blind faith’ induced through the ‘degeneration or suspension of critical thinking’; but instead, was the result of having already examined his Master’s Perfection with the full powers of his critical intellect. His faith in his Master, was already at a level of complete faith, wherein no doubt could any longer be shed on his Master’s words.
When the world suddenly turned to utter darkness, just because his Master said so, I suspect (for the first time) Kalyan was seeing the world for what it really was all along –Nothing – Nothing but the utter darkness of Nothingness –a discussion for some other time, perhaps.
The point Meher Baba is making here is that: The degree & strength to which the Master’s words leave an impression on the Aspirant’s mind, invariably determines the degree & strength of revealed Truth assimilation. Meher Baba has said: “My words are like Atom Bombs; But they have to be put into action.” Before they can be put into action, these expositions of divine Truths must first be intelligently grasped and wholeheartedly assimilated. After all, only assimilated Truths (assimilated into our hearts) can be put into action.
For Kalyan his Master’s words were indeed like ‘atom bombs’ that could radically reshape not only his worldview, but even the intuitive makeup of his active consciousness, literally on the spot. Contrary to naive credulity, or blind faith such perceptual malleability to the Master’s words, is an indication of Kalyan’s complete faith, & creative imagination. According to Meher Baba, such vulnerability to the expositions of divine Truths by the Master, is what makes Kalyan’s discipleship so exemplary.
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Now that we have armed ourselves with a better understanding of what Meher Baba means by ‘intuiting the Truth’, and how we can purify our intuition by “making intelligent use of the expositions of divine Truths given to us by those who know -without renouncing the critical powers of our intellect and inherent zest for the Truth”, let’s zoom out a little bit and look at the bigger picture of how intuition relates to humanity as a whole, from an Avataric standpoint.
THE AGE OF INTUITION
Meher Baba has said that he had come to usher in the ‘Age of Intuition’. By this, I’m sure what he meant was the ‘Age of higher purified intuition’, and not the ‘age of lower developed intuition’.
What is the purpose of ‘Revealed Truth’ anyway, if not to adjust how we see things? The purpose of Divine revelation, is to affect our worldview, our perspective, and through it ultimately the intuitive makeup of our active consciousness. According to Meher Baba the process of Revealed Truth Assimilation is what enables us to bring our lives into line with God’s purpose in the universe.
However, for these ‘revealed truths’ to even be articulated clearly and understood widely, a uniform system of philosophical thought was needed; and it was the ‘Age of Reason’ that provided humanity with the intellectual discipline necessary for such a system of thought.
THE AGE OF REASON
According to Meher Baba, ‘the age of reason’ (which is being brought to a close now) was the work of previous Avatars. It was Jesus (the very embodiment of ‘The Logos’) that ushered in the ‘Age of Reason’ or ‘the Age of Logos’; and it was the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) who further encouraged its development with powerful words like this:
…without the proper application of reason, your Taqwa (or relationship with God) is defective, your claim that you are a Muslim who has submitted to God is defective. You lower the standards so that you can master them. And thus, your love for God is defective…
It was the ‘Age of Reason’ that provided humanity with the necessary intellectual discipline required to properly receive and grasp divine Truths. The Prophet was warning us that without the proper application of intellectual discipline, our understanding of God may become defective; which could render our relationship with God defective, and even our love for God defective. The assimilation of defectively understood revealed truths can profoundly vitiate & deform our worldview, and through it the intuitive makeup of our active consciousness. Hence, when it comes to studying the revealed truths, the proper application of ‘intellectual discipline’ is strongly encouraged by the Prophet.
To love God ‘as he ought to be loved’ we must understand Him ‘as he ought to be understood’; which is the purpose of General Meditation. The great Al Ghazali once said:
“Fools cannot love Him, for the love of Him springs directly from the knowledge of Him.”
– Al Ghazali
PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM
However, it is important to note here that Meher Baba makes it very clear that the application of ‘intellectual discipline’ by itself, without the aid of Divine Revelation, cannot lead to conclusive results; he says:
Philosophical meditation that consists in free and (unaided) thinking does not lead to conclusive results.
By ‘unaided’ here, he means ‘unaided’ by the expositions of divine Truths by the Masters of Wisdom. Modern Secular Philosophy is man’s attempt at developing an intellectual grasp of the ultimate nature of life and the universe, but without the aid of Divine revelation. About this category of effort, Meher Baba has said:
Much of what is included in philosophy is a result of trying to develop an intellectual grasp of the ultimate nature of life and the universe. – but without the aid of Divine revelation.
Philosophical Naturalism is the view that everything in the universe is natural, governed by natural laws and processes, and is knowable through the scientific method.
What Modern Secularism reject most adamantly is Divine Authority – which (for us) is the Source of all Divine revelation.
However, Meher Baba tells us that all such endeavors to understand reality (without the true spirit of Religion) that rely solely on human intelligence & the machinations of human ingenuity are doomed to fail. He says:
In some parts of the West, particularly America, intellectual understanding of Truth and Reality is attempted, but without the true spirit of Religion.
It is all like groping in the dark. – He says.
THE AWAKENER MAGAZINE, vol. 12, pp. 2-3, ed. Filis Frederick
About this type of philosophical thinking, Meher Baba adds:
It often leads to diverse, conflicting systems or views;
{Which it certainly has. Yet, Meher Baba says}
Nevertheless… {listen carefully}
Nevertheless, philosophical thinking is not without value. Besides leading the aspirant, a certain extent into the realm of knowledge, it provides an intellectual discipline that enables him to receive and grasp divine Truths when he happens to come upon them through those who know. –a.k.a “The Masters of Wisdom”.
Thus, for an aspirant to think that philosophical thinking is frivolous, unnecessary, and irrelevant for all matters spiritual, would be a big mistake. For an Aspirant who is a seeker of the Truth, the intellectual discipline provided for by philosophical thinking (as Meher Baba says) is not without value because it provides the Aspirant with a proper ‘digestive system’ (so to speak) that enables him to receive and grasp (or digest) the expositions of divine Truths adequately (as intended by its Divine authorship).
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About why Modern Secular Scientific Naturalism could never arrive at the deeper Truths, Meher Baba explains:
“Spiritual experience has a hold on the deeper truths that are inaccessible to mere intellect; {He says} it cannot be born of unaided intellect.”
Yes, unless aided by the Divine, the limited intellect on its own has no chance at arriving at the deeper Truths. The transcendent understanding of Pure Intuition ‘latent’ in us all, can be ‘unveiled’ through Divine Aid, but it cannot be born of the ‘limited intellect’. Unaided, the intellect on its own has no chance at arriving at the deeper truths. Thus, Divine Aid is essential.
Among the many ways, the Divine can aid the Aspirant, Spiritual Experience is of the highest import.
The importance of SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
Meher Baba says:
What can be understood in a flash through spiritual experience takes ages to grasp intellectually. – The NEW LIFE
This is because:
The purely intellectual grasp of divine Truths remains feeble, incomplete, and indecisive, owing to the limitations of the experiences that may be available as the foundation of the structures of speculation.
Without the aid of ‘spiritual experience’ (which is a form of Divine Revelation or Divine Aid) our grasp of divine Truths can at best be feeble, incomplete, and indecisive. For an Aspirant, who is someone who seeks nothing short of direct experiential certainty, a purely intellectual grasp of the Truth could never quench his inherent zest for the Truth, anyway. Thus, for an Aspirant, the deeper experiences of the spirit is rightly seen as essential.
Yet, all of us have had ‘spiritual experiences’ to one extent or another. This is true even of Atheists. But, an atheist (by his own admission) is someone who’s structures of speculation do not allow the Divine foot in the door (so to speak). Even if such a person were to have a genuine spiritual experience, he is likely to dismiss it as a fluke of nature, or a hallucination of some sort.
But, for the Spiritual Aspirant, whose intuition has been dynamically energized by the assimilation of revealed Truth, a genuine spiritual experience can have a fundamentally transformative effect on his psyche. Meher Baba says:
The Religion of Life is — dynamically energized by the assimilation of Truth, grasped through lucid and unerring intuition which never falters and never fails, because it has emerged out of the fusion of head and heart, of intellect and love.
Emerging out of the fusion of head and heart (of intellect and love) is our purified intuition, which is dynamically energized by the assimilation of Truth. It is when a genuine spiritual experience, is AIDED by the assimilation of revealed Truth, that the deeper truths can (finally) become ‘accessible’ to the Aspirant. In this way, (Meher Baba says) knowledge of the deeper truths comes to those who use both discrimination and intuition.
In the Discourses, in a section (actually) titled: “Use of discrimination and intuition”, Meher Baba says:
“The sadhana of knowledge, or dnyan, remains incomplete unless the aspirant exercises constant discrimination and unveils his highest intuitions.” -261
For an Aspirant, he says:
Everyday life must be guided by discrimination and inspired by the highest intuitions. -262
For an Aspirant who already has a good grasp of Meher Baba’s metaphysics & cosmology, the teachings of the Masters of Wisdom, and his intuition should be enough to guide him further.
In that same section titled “Use of discrimination and intuition”, Meher Baba states:
The teachings that have come to humanity through the Masters of wisdom and the inborn sense of values that the aspirant brings with him {will} shed sufficient light upon the next step the aspirant has to take.
Reason is not the enemy of True Faith. Reason, discernment, discrimination, & critical thinking, could indeed be the enemy of False Faiths, but they certainly could not be the enemy of True Faith. True Faith, like True Mysticism, when it is, as it should be, a vision of reality, has no problem with the free and fearless functioning of critical reason;. Meher Baba says:
There is nothing irrational in true mysticism, when it is, as it should be a vision of Reality.
True Mysticism, and True Faith, may be supra-rational (even transcendent), but it certainly cannot be irrational. It can be paradoxical (or even supramental) but it cannot be contradictory. This is why what the Masters say, always makes so much sense.
Once upon a time, I had falsely assumed that True Mysticism was not rational. However, (thanks to Meher Baba’s expositions of divine Truths) I have since corrected my faulty worldview on this issue; or you could say that my faulty developed intuition on this issue was purified. It turns out, only false mysticism can be irrational. True Mysticism, on the other hand, enjoys nothing less than “The perfect absence of irrationality”. Meher Baba assures us of this, so we can rest assured, and have no doubts about it:
There is nothing irrational in true mysticism… NOTHING!
Yet many people of Faith nowadays (including many Meher Baba followers) seem to be firm adherents to the rigid dogmas of fideism.
FIDEISM
What is Fideism?
Fideism is a standpoint that maintains that faith and reason are antithetical to each other, and that they are hostile towards each other. The word fideism comes from the Latin word for faith, or ‘fides’, and literally means “faith-ism;” A Fideism–ist (or Faithism-ist) is someone who asserts that there is no place for reason in all matters of faith; or that, there is no place for ‘rational thinking’ in all matters, spiritual. But Meher Baba assures us that this is not true at all of True Faith. Only false faiths, are plagued with a variety of incoherences and contradictions.
If you think that Faith and critical thinking are antithetical to each other (as I once did), or that faith and ‘critical reason’ working together is barren, ineffective, and meaningless (especially, when it comes to all matters Spiritual), then you may be a bitter subscriber to the false ideology of Fideism.
In sharp contradiction, in the Discourses, in a section ‘actually’ titled Faith and critical reasoning, Meher Baba asserts that:
True faith is grounded in the deeper experiences of the spirit and the unerring deliverances of purified intuition. It is not to be regarded as the antithesis of critical reason but as the unfailing guide of critical reason. When critical reason is implemented by a deep and living faith based on pure intuition, its functioning becomes creative, fruitful, and significant instead of barren, ineffective, and meaningless. On the other hand, many forms of naive credulity cannot be broken through except by the fearless and free working of critical reason.
QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ASPIRANT: IV 367
I believe, that it is due to the prevalence of naive credulity (or gullibility) that the rejection of ‘discrimination’ and ‘critical reason’ has become so prevalent in the world today. Nowadays, more than any other time in history, critical thinking & discrimination have been demonized.
In sharp contradiction, Meher Baba tells us that it is only through the fearless and free working of critical reason (coupled with a deep and living faith in the Master’s words) that can break the grip of naïve credulity to these falsehoods. He further adds:
The perception of spiritual truths requires not merely strenuous and furious thinking but clear thinking, and true clarity of thought. 381
To recap: Meher Baba says:
The Religion of Life is dynamically energized by the assimilation of Truth, grasped through lucid and unerring intuition which never falters and never fails, because it has emerged out of the fusion of head and heart, of intellect and love.
Emerging out of the fusion of head and heart (of intellect and love) is our purified intuition, dynamically energized by the assimilation of Truth, and guided by the constant use of BOTH discrimination and our highest intuitions.
Could this not be what Meher Baba means by the “fusion of head and heart” or “the fusion of intellect & love”?
And could this not be how the ‘Age of Intuition’ will emerge, not out from under the ‘Age of Reason’, nor from its ashes, but firmly on its shoulders?
Now that we’ve seen how critical reason and True Faith can work together in a creative, fruitful, and significant way, in what Meher Baba calls the “effective manifestation of a rationalized faith”, let’s examine the role of Dogmas & Creeds in our worldview.
THE DOGMAS AND CREEDS
OF MODERNITY
Make no mistake, General Meditation is a War on falsehoods. When a ‘falsehood’ is ‘taken to heart’ as true, what we have is a false Dogma established in our heart.
Unlike casual opinions & theories, Dogmas are ‘core assumptions’ that are held firmly with enthusiasm by both the mind and the heart. The main source of obstacles that hinders General Meditation are the many false Dogmas entrenched firmly in our hearts. Replacing these false dogmas with the Truth, by contemplating on the revealed Truths, can therefore be said to be one of the ‘esoteric’ purposes of General Meditation.
Meher Baba says: “Faith is so indispensable to life that unless it is present in some degree, life itself would not be possible.” Everyone, even atheists, lives by faith. All faiths (including the faith of atheism) are comprised of ‘core assumptions or Dogmas that are taken to be true by the individual, ‘beyond question’. When a group Dogmas come together to constitute a person’s worldview, this worldview can be said to be the person’s faith. One’s worldview is one’s faith. A materialist, for example, is someone who has unwavering faith in the dogmas of materialism, which ‘presumes’ the primacy of matter, as the fundamental unit of reality. To him, he is nothing but a physical being made of nothing but matter, who came into existence by random chance, as a fluke of nature, in a utterly pointless universe.
However, In sharp contradiction, Meher Baba reveals to us that consciousness is the ground of being, upon which matter is nothing but a by-product, an illusion, having no reality of itself. It is the Soul that gave rise to the Mental World, which in turn gave rise to the Subtle World, which in turn gave rise to the Gross Physical World; and not the other way around. He says:
“It is not so much that you are within the cosmos as that the cosmos is within you”.
Life at its best-pg 43
Back in the 50s the word ‘cosmos’ was in wide usage. In modern terms, the same quote would be:
“It is not so much that you are within the universe as that the universe is within you”.
In fact, according to Meher Baba: “God alone is Real.” However, for a firm believer in the Faith of Materialism, it is his brain that has produced his thinking and awareness:
As an Aspirant, if you think your brain is doing your thinking – you may have to think again!
It is the Mind that has imagined a brain doing its thinking,
and not the brain that has imagined a mind.
The falsehood that our brains are producing our consciousness (as any so called ‘good’ neurologist nowadays might tell you) is not an easy false Dogma (or faith) to remove; For it is a falsehood that is wholeheartedly embraced by so many so called ‘educated’ people. All Dogmas are ‘presumed to be true’ by the person with both his mind and his heart. When a group of Dogmas come together to form a belief system, this set of dogmas can be referred to a creed. And everyone has a personal creed, even though they may only be adhering to it, unconsciously.
General Meditation is the process of removing false Dogmas & Creeds not only from our heads, but more importantly from our hearts; and this is done by replacing them with the Truth – through the process of revealed Truth assimilation.
Meher Baba says: “The acceptance of a falsehood is always a forced compromise.” He says the blind acceptance of a falsehood into our minds & hearts is almost always due to external conformity to the ways of the world, which requires the suspension of critical thinking. About Dogmas and creeds, Meher Baba explains:
Dogmas and creeds, as compared with barren views and doctrines, have the distinct advantage of being embraced not only by the intellect but also by the heart. They cover and affect a wider part of personality than purely theoretical opinions. Though the mind and the heart are involved in allegiance to dogmas and creeds, both function in such cases under the serious handicap of suspension of critical thought.
For an Aspirant, the suspension of critical thought is a serious handicap. About Dogmas and Creeds Meher Baba further adds:
Dogmas and creeds generally, however, are as much a source of evil as of good, because in them the guiding vision is clouded owing to degeneration or suspension of critical thinking.
For while dogmas or creeds are blindly accepted, they are often held with a fervor and enthusiasm that supply a dynamic element to the ideology that has been accepted by the person for the moment.
Meher Baba says that some dogmas and creeds, especially the ones that were provided for by the Major Avataric Religions (though blindly accepted) can still be a source of good and benefit. He says Even at the stage of shariat, or karma-kanda, allegiance to religions is not infrequently a source of inspiration for many selfless and noble acts. In fact, both Shariat for the Muslims and Karma-Kanda of the Hindus, he says, are the usual method for gradually dissipating the load of sanskaras.
But the same cannot be said about the many false Dogmas & Creeds of Modern Secular ideologies. By ideology (here) what Meher Baba is referring to (without being too specific) are the many post-enlightenment secular ideologies that have been accepted for the moment by the masses.
Unlike previous times in history, the main source of false Dogmas & Creeds in Modernity are the many well-established secular ideologies that together constitute what can be called the modern way of life, or what Baba calls ‘the ways of the world’. These dogmas and creeds of modern secular ideologies can be held by a person with just as much fervor and enthusiasm as any religious dogma or creed.
Let’s take a very prevalent modern secular ideology as an example.
SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM
“The Dark Ages were the ages of light: the Renaissance was the twilight of our present black night of materialism.” – Meher Baba through Francis Brabazon in (Stay with God, 94)
‘Scientific materialism’, is arguably by far the most influential and well-established modern secular Ideology in the world today. According to google:
Scientific materialism is a worldview that asserts that everything in the universe, including consciousness, is ultimately physical. Scientific materialism posits that only matter really exists, emphasizing the material world as the fundamental reality; It is an ideology that asserts that the laws of physics and natural science can account for all phenomena, including consciousness without the need for supernatural or non-physical explanations. – In other words, without the need for God.
THE CHURCH OF SCIENCE
The ideology of Scientific Materialism can actually be seen as a type of religion (or faith) replete with all the bells and whistles that you might expect of a religion. The “Church of Science”, if you will, has its own dogmas and creeds, rights & rituals and even ceremonies; It has a priest class of PhDs, its own form of ‘the inquisition’ known as ‘peer review’, and even a Supreme Council of sorts known as ‘a panels of experts’, whose integrity we dare not question. The ’Church of Science’ even has its own founding fathers, high priests, and even its own version of heroes & saints, and perhaps even a Messianic figure yet to come in the future…
If you want to test whether scientism is a faith or not, just add these three magic words in front of any assertion to someone you know and see what happens. The three magic words are “According to science.” Spoken by the right person, in the right way, say on a network news program, for example, these three magic words can deliver nothing short of “spellbinding” results.
The primary Dogma, or ‘first principle’ that ‘Scientific materialism’ ‘posits’ or ‘presumes’ is the ‘false assumption’ that matter is real; with consciousness being nothing but an epiphenomenon, an emergent property, a kind of ghost in the machine, if you will.
Further, it is important to note here that this ‘first principle’ of scientific materialism is not a conclusion that scientists came to through the so-called ‘Scientific Method’. The irony of all ironies is that the fundamental principle of scientific Materialism was never conclusion arrived at through the scientific method, but just presumptions – upon which the entire ‘Church of Science’ was built.
In sharp contradiction, according to all the major Avataric religions of the world, and their respective Masters of Wisdom, as well “According to Meher Baba” Spirit, Soul (or Consciousness) is the ground of Being, from which the physical world emerges only as an illusion, an epiphenomenon, an imagined creation, or byproduct.
What Scientific Materialism posits as its foundational ‘first principle’ (or primary Dogam), is literally a perfect inversion of the revealed Truth contained in All Divine Revelation.
On this issue, for the Aspirant, there can be only one of two choices. You can either go with “According to All Divine Revelation including Meher Baba” or go with “According to Science.” The only other option would be to choose a blatantly irrational & contradictory ‘cheep’ compromise between the two antithetical ‘posit’-ions. As two swords cannot be put in the same sheath, nothing can bring these two antithetical positions together.
Meher Baba says:
When a person gives up uncritically accepted dogmas and creeds in favor of views and doctrines to which he has devoted thought, there is a certain amount of advance-insofar as his mind has now begun to think and critically examine its beliefs.
According to Meher Baba, there is a rightful place & role for science, but answering ‘the big questions of life’ is not one of them. The answers to the ultimate questions of life (as we all know) are to be sought from ‘within’ and not from ‘without’.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Purification of Intuition requires the following 3 basic components (not in any particular order):
- Unwavering faith & conviction in the Master’s words (or revealed truths), which can become like ‘atom bombs’ for the manifestation of the Aspirant’s rationalized faith; as in the case of Kalyan.
- The intellectual discipline required to properly grasp, and digest the expositions of divine Truths, that are to be taken as a whole, comprehensively; through the use of both the full powers of our critical intellect as well as our highest intuitions.
- And finally, but not least, our creative imagination.
Once the revealed truths (taken together as an integral whole) are sufficiently imagined, and grasped by our Heads, then it is our Heads that can help assimilate these divine truths into our Hearts through the process of ‘contemplation’. Only when the revealed truths are finally assimilated into our Hearts, do they show up as a natural part of our intuitive makeup – or (more precisely) the intuitive makeup of our active consciousness. This fusion of the head and the heart, of intellect and love, through revealed Truth assimilation, is precisely how our Intuition is Purified.
“When it is from the mind, it is not intuition. Intuition means that which comes from the heart. In the divine path, first there is intuition, then inspiration, then illumination, and finally Realization. If it touches your heart, follow it. And God willing, from today you will know that if it is intuition, it is right.”
Jai Meher Baba!