Title: A Spherical Model of Spirituality: A Pluralistic Perspective on the World's Religions
Abstract: I. A Two-Dimensional Model of Spirituality O my heart, if you wish to arrive at the beginning of understanding, walk carefully. To each atom there is a different door, and for each atom there is a different way which leads to the mysterious Being of whom I speak. To know oneself one must live a hundred lives. But you must know God by Himself and not by you; it is He who opens the way that leads to Him, not human wisdom. The knowledge of Him is not at the door of rhetoricians. Knowledge and ignorance are here the same, for they cannot explain nor can they de scribe. The opinions of men on this arise only in their imagination; and it is absurd to try to deduce anything from what they say: whether ill or well, they have said it from themselves. God is above knowledge and beyond evidence, and nothing can give an idea of His Holy Majesty. Attar (1) What does it mean to be spiritual? What is spirituality, and why has it been so important in human history? Does humanity have an inherent need to be spiritual? Whether or not spirituality is a need, the question of why one is attracted to spirituality is a fundamental one. The spiritual dimension of life has always been a matter of major importance to human beings. Our spiritual heritage (2) is perhaps our richest inheritance. The Perennial Philosophy (3)--the search for Wisdom--is a cornerstone of human civilization. The world's religions provide us with the most profound questions of human existence. They have much in common in their teachings on the purpose of life. (4) To describe what spirituality is and how it is related to religion, different models have been used. Models, similar to analogies, signs, and symbols, have their own limitations. A model, whether mathematical, physical, or spiritual, tries to explain an aspect of a phenomenon or an event in nature. To that extent, every model is built on a series of assumptions, some tacitly assumed. While there are many models describing the relationship between human beings and the Ultimate Reality (God, Truth), this essay focuses on a model that has been used by many mystics, especially the Sufis: a circle. There are other models. For example, the symbol of many lines' converging to the same point is olden employed to explain the various ways of reaching the same goal. (5) Other examples are that of the valley (6) and the mountain (7) or the ox-herding pictures that are used in Zen. (8) Different religions can be compared to different ways of climbing to the peak and possibly circumambulating as one is climbing. (9) Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam, (10) uses symbols to explain the essence of that religion. Nevertheless, like other forms of mysticism, it has a universal message. One of the most basic and fundamental assumptions in Sufism and mysticism in general is that we can know the Truth. However, before that happens, we, in our state of ignorance or illusion, have lost the ability to see and to know. To overcome this, there are certain spiritual faculties that need to be developed. With this in mind, I propose a spherical model by generalizing the circular model used in Sufism. A Sufi scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, has described this model as follows: From any point in space there can be generated a circle and an indefinite number of radii which connect every point of the circumference of the circle to the Center. The circumference is the Shari'ah whose totality comprises the whole of Muslim community. Every Muslim by virtue of accepting the Divine Law is as a point standing on this circle. The radii symbolize the Turuq (plural of Tariqah). Each radius is a path from the circumference to the Center. As the Sufis say there are as many paths to God as there are children of Adam. The Tariqah, which exists in many different forms corresponding to different spiritual temperaments and needs of men, is the radius which connects each point to the Center. …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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