"Psychology of awakening"

[Guest guest]

At 03:32 PM 4/26/00 -0400, you wrote:

>Dear Harsha-ji,

>

>One more reading I really like, just saw it yesterday. An article in the

>SPRING 2000 issue of TRICYCLE MAGAZINE:

>

>"The Psychology of Awakening," by John Wellwood.

>

>One of the clearest pieces I've seen on the difference between

>psychological and spiritual approaches. He sets out a very good, almost

>impassioned appeal to confuse spiritual with the psychological approaches.

>Each has its place, and it is a dodge or a misunderstanding to force one to

>accomplish what the other is supposed to do. He talks about "spiritual

>bypassing" and the mistake of "relativizing the sacred." I don't endorse

>or agree with everything he says in the article, but this disctinction is

>very clearly set out by him. Pretty good!

>

>See the link: http://www.tricycle.com/wellwood.html

>

>Love,

>

>--Greg

 

Greg -

his appeal probably was

"not to confuse" these

two?

 

if a "spiritual awakening"

isn't evidenced in day

to day relatedness, what

kind of awakening is it?

 

it seems to me that what

we're looking at when we

talk about two disciplines

for different realms is

a separated "spiritual

experience" which can be

considered apart from

"day to day experience"

with two separate ways

of working on each.

 

The Buddha's eight-fold

path included meditation,

relationship, and thought.

Why would these be considered

discrete realms for separate

disciplines, one 'spiritual'

and one 'worldly'?

Is practice really such

a fragmented affair?

 

I infer a problem with

relating awakening or realization

to a type of experience that

happens and then goes away, or

happens in one place but isn't

applied in another. As

one realizes Oneself, this

automatically includes

day-to-day relatedness.

Working on day-to-day relatedness *is*

awakening.

 

Love,

Dan