Transparent knowing: concepts and applications

Transpersonal Knowing

Authentic knowing is an activity of awareness in which the illusion of ego and self dissolves, and the individual gives up the separation between subjective self and objective reality that goes with active thinking. Instead of thinking, the individual is purely aware so that co-mingling or connections can occur. The result is authentic knowing. Empathy and discernment are components of this authentic knowing. By empathy is meant the ability to feel and experience another person in an intimate way. We touch them, we feel them, we are them, not necessarily in a physical way, but as "we touch the interiority of this person's psyche and from the view point of that interiority; 'feel with' him or her'" (Puhakka, 2000, p. 14). We have to give up our own sense of ego or identity in order to do this and open a space where we can be someone else through an intense and close awareness of that person's essence or being. We make contact with them, feel what it is to be them, and experience their being in an intimate way. Discernment, then, brings insight, which unbounded by the culture and language that usually guides us and our perceptions, sheds light and reveals something we did not see before.

Because we temporarily give up our sense of self or ego when we do this, we are discouraged from authentic knowing -- giving up one's ego and sense of self is a fearful endeavor. It is much more comfortable and safe to be thinking, planning, intending and coping. Because we don't understand that the ego is an illusion we create through our own mental activity, we believe this illusion to be the self and the essence of who we are, and we don't want to be annihilated by giving it up even momentarily. Thus, we tend to resist "knowing" because as the author states, "For every act of knowing, however fleeting and mundane, dissolves the self in the moment of contact" (p. 19). Because of the fear of ego's annihilation, Puhakka argues we are deeply ingrained with an unconscious taboo against knowing, one that is stronger than the taboo against incest, so deep we aren't even consciously aware of its existence in our psyches.

2. According to Nelson (2000), a mystical experience does not necessarily mean that spiritualization of the self has taken place. What happens during a mystical experience is that the individual "sees" and experiences awareness from a wholly new place or perspective where there is no sense of time or material boundaries. To experience the Light or the spiritual source of one's being (or the Implicate Order, as quantum physics would call it) is not an intellectual exercise nor does it depend on knowledge. It is an experience of authentic knowing, of pure awareness without human trappings. Nelson argues that such an experience triggers profound questions about the nature of Reality. He suggests, "Reality is experiential" (p. 66) rather than objective as the senses and physical science maintain. There is no separate material reality we are observing. Consciousness "is a collective emergent property arising from our awareness of the contiguity of previous present moments as they become the ever-receding past while yet remaining connected to the immediate 'now' through our present awareness" (p. 66). Consciousness then is a collection of "pure experience." As humans attach meaning to experiences, as they think about them, they inevitably draw a perceptual line that seems to separate inner thinker from outward world, subject from object. The separation is suppositional; a style of knowing that is basic to producing scientific knowledge. It takes for granted that everyday physical life is reality and indeed, the only reality. However, if as quantum physicists argue, we live in a boundless realm of multiple realities, then the mystical experience can be seen as an adventure across the usual boundaries of consciousness. Nelson argues that we define reality in terms of what we are aware of and where our attention is focused.

In the mystical experience, for example, we turn our attention away from the reality of everyday life and focus on the reality of the sacred realm. The experience causes us to radically deconstruct our old beliefs, attitudes and positions and construct new frames of reference for how we define and describe reality. With each new frame of reference comes a new view of a "bottom line," that is, of what the ultimate reality is. Nelson argues there is no bottom line or ultimate human reality but an unending series of new views. Realization of this involves a process of "unknowing," in which the individual eventually reaches a point in which "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me...one vision or seeing, and one knowing and loving" (Eckhart quoted in Nelson, 2000, p. 76).

The sense of spiritual connectedness that ultimately comes from deconstruction and reconstruction brings true morality with it. We cannot "sin" against our neighbor if we truly know he/she is part of our Self.

3. Spiritual inquiry is a quest, an activity that systematically seeks transformation of self into something better, higher and holier. There are practical methods people use to do this. Rothberg (2000) outlines five kinds of spiritual inquiry that he says will lead to greater spirituality: systematic contemplation, radical questioning, metaphysical thinking, critical deconstruction of metaphysical and other views, and the "cultivation of visions and dreams" p. 166). Rothberg sees these methods as complimentary to Western inquiry rather than in conflict with science or religion. For example, the individual is not forced to choose between them. Because spiritual inquiry involves alternative ways of knowing, radical transformation of understanding in realms like medicine, theology, and science is possible. A better world could emerge as the result.