PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL HUMANISM
Möller de la Rouvière AUTHOR OF: SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT GOD SPIRITUAL HUMANISM DECLARES THAT: 1) To be a Humanist in the fullest sense of the word, is to embrace both the potential and direct experience of non-duality or wholeness as an integral aspect of human life. 2) The non-dual truth of the living moment is contained as potential within all aspects of human experience, and therefore does not exist as a metaphysical Self, Brahman, Godhead, or any other Unifying factor - all which are projected as having Their presumed existence both prior to, and after, the appearance of human life. 3) Wholeness or non-duality is neither the experience of one nor two. 4) Wholeness or non-duality is the mere sense of non-dual reality which remains alive as a human experience when the inner, fragmented and alienated sense of `I'-consciousness has been recognized as fundamentally false, and transcended through right practice and right living. 5) The word `spiritual' in the term `Spiritual Humanism' reflects the total field of subtle human experiences such as love, compassion, wholeness or non-duality, intelligence, pure emotional response- ability, emotional equanimity, reasonableness, softness of heart, human warmth, altered states of conscious awareness, insight, intuition and deep states of inner absorption. It further includes the appropriate use of instruments such as memory, attention, the sense of awareness and rational thinking in their relation to the diversity of that which appears in the human field of present arising. 6) No sustainable emotional equanimity or the functioning of the deeper intelligence associated with the non-dual revelation is possible without addressing and transcending the deep emotional shadow material which fundamentally controls and prejudices intelligent human behavior in general and, more specifically, responsive and dependable human relationships . 7) No sustainable intelligent and creative interaction with the world is possible without observing and transcending mental conditioning which projects and transfers itself onto the simplicity of human experience. 8) Non-duality is not to be found as an exclusive property somewhere `within' the bodymind. Non-duality or wholeness is the complete identification between the sense of being aware and the content which appears as form within this awareness. In this regard, no distinction could be made between the content of awareness and the awareness of content. 9) In the human context, there is no such experience as content-less awareness. Awareness can therefore not be an object of inner contemplation, neither can it contemplate itself. 10) Awareness is not a `thing' to be come upon `inwardly' or anywhere else. Awareness is the mere sense of being aware, which makes it a process and not the Ultimate Unifying Principle (or Great Metaphysical Thing) as projected by traditional Advaita Vedanta. 11) Meditation is a gradual movement through the disorder of the fragmented, conditioned and emotionally scarred human psyche to the unfolding of the natural non-dual potential within human nature. 12) Human life itself is the path, the practice and the fulfillment of the practice. The completion of spiritual life reflects the fulfillment of human life as a whole, and nothing Else. 13) A re-look at, and a radical re-cognition of, the entire process of the spiritualization of human life are required to free this enquiry from the binding and distorting dogmas of traditional religious and spiritual conformity. 14) A new, truly Humanistic vision of spiritual life, based on nothing but the unfolding and development of humankind's deepest potential for integral living, has to be explored as a matter of profound urgency. 15) God, as the ultimate projection of human well-being, order, beauty and happiness, should no longer, in any form whatsoever, be the basis of an uncompromisingly humanistic enquiry into the inherent spiritual nature of human existence. 16) Mind as the slayer of truth, is nothing other that the indiscriminate, conditioned, habitual and uninspected use of human faculties such as attention, thought, emotional response and the functioning of awareness in relation to these. 17) The `I'-conscious state is fundamental to fragmented living and many other forms of inner and outer disorder. As mere self-projection and self-focus this presumed inner entity creates a distinct and clearly observable destiny of suffering in its attempts to minimize the felt dis-ease of its own supposed separateness both from itself and life in general. 18) The path is a conscious inversion upon every aspect of inner contraction within the body-mind, and not a projected movement towards that which is presumed to exist as an Ultimate State eternally free, and thus fundamentally separate from, human life. 19) Human life is as real as every aspect of present human experience, whether pleasurable or painful. There is nothing more Real than human life itself. Both delusion and truth are functions of human existence and are perfectly real in themselves. 20) The false is real until re-cognized as such. The false can only be seen as the false in the light of the true. 21) Humankind has never fallen from Grace. Those who struggle in the web of self-created destiny, have simply never been anywhere else. The truth of non-duality lies dormant, as potential only, within the living experience of every moment or present arising, until allowed to become self-evident through appropriate practice and correct living. 22) The truth of non-dual present arising cannot be destroyed by any human activity. It can only be obscured. 23) There is no Other. There is only This. And `This' is always, and only, nothing but perfectly, and simply, human. Warm regards, Moller de la Rouviere www.spiritualhumanism.co.za ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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