the four spheres of awareness
The Scientist, The Prophet, The Poet, and God
Any new wisdom tradition is going to need a fair amount of new vocabulary. That’s one reason why I’ve introduced a handful of new terms in the first five essays of Love God: refreshing the language of the tribe. The other reason for introducing new terms: bringing a word from elsewhere.
These are both poetic ways of describing two different roles necessary in the creation, preservation, and destruction of wisdom traditions: poet and prophet. The poet “refreshes the language of the tribe.” The prophet “brings a word from elsewhere.” A new wisdom tradition – or a renewal of wisdom traditions, as I am proposing – needs both.
I am not an expert in developing or renewing wisdom traditions; I am learning on the go. But I have studied from afar a modern-day example (Plum Village, renewing Buddhism), and I have noticed patterns common to ancient examples (Christianity emerging from Judaism, Buddhism emerging out of Hinduism). For a long time, these two roles – poet and prophet – stood out to me in the process of wisdom-tradition evolution.
Yet, as my understanding grew, I saw there are at least two other necessary roles in the co-creation of a wisdom tradition: scientist and god. Here is a brief look at all four roles AND a key to reconciling wisdom traditions.
The poet
In the first 5 essays of Love God, I introduced a handful of new terms:
- The Way with a Thousand Names
- The Path of Love
- The Land of God’s Love
- Social Prayer
- Storyliving
(If anyone else is using these terms, I am not aware of them or their work. As far as I know, they are original to me. I have not seen them elsewhere, but I have not done a thorough search for them.)
New wisdom traditions tend to create new names for god. I’m not intending to do that; I think we’ve reached a kind of limit there. But not only do new traditions create new names for god. They also create new ways to talk about god, new ways to think about god, new ways to sing about god. Indeed, “Sing a new song unto the lord,” a Jewish psalm, sums up well the necessity of all new traditions.
And I’m introducing one more new term today, the most scientific term I’ve introduced yet: The Four Spheres of Awareness. I say it’s the most “scientific” yet for two reasons:
1. It’s the first quantity I have proposed so far. Sure, The Way with a Thousand Names is a quantity, but like the phrase, “Hinduism, the land of a million gods,” the number is figurative, not literal.
2. Quantities, for the most part, are verifiable. The science of numbers has its limits: we likely cannot know the number of atoms in our bodies, nor the number of stars in the cosmos. But we can count, with great accuracy, the number of mangoes on a tree, the number of steps in a pyramid, and the number of bones in the body.
The scientist
And this is where it gets really interesting. The science of spirituality – the ability to verify, through science, some elements of spirituality – is the next frontier of theology. Take the Ennobling Eightfold Path, for example. Either the path of awakening consists of 8 elements or it does not. In theory, there could be 6, or 7, or 9 elements. If there are not 8, then the Ennobling Eightfold Path of the Buddha is wrong. However, if there are 8, then the Buddha is right. The question is how do prove this definitively, one way or another?
Echoing the scholasticism of medieval monks, scientists Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld point out the need to reconcile differing theories by putting them side by side, and this way to prove, through new theories, a better understanding of reality.
It is easy to find a superficial analogy which really expresses nothing. But to discover some essential common features, hidden beneath a surface of external differences, to form, on this basis, a new successful theory, is important creative work. (286-7) … Science forces us to create new ideas, new theories. Their aim is to break down the wall of contradictions which frequently blocks the way of scientific progress. All the essential ideas in science were born in a dramatic conflict between reality and our attempts at understanding. (280) Evolution of Physics
To my mind, The Way with a Thousand Names, if presented as an isolated phrase without roots in a scientific system, is “a superficial analogy.” However, because it represents the application of a similar analogy from the world of myth (The Hero with a Thousand Faces), to the field of theology, it does say something new.
But going deeper, The Four Spheres of Awareness are the universal framework underpinning The Way with a Thousand Names. They represent the discovery of “essential common features, hidden beneath a surface of external differences” in multiple paths of awakening across diverse wisdom traditions.
The prophet
This is where the prophet comes in. To explain subtle truths with simple facts and common sense linked to transcendent wisdom and ultimate truth.
However, applying the scientist mind to the received wisdom of the prophets, I noticed that wisdom traditions as a whole had a very basic problem: they could not agree on the number of virtues. Back in 2008, I described the problem this way:
To date, a universally agreed upon catalog of virtue has eluded the human race. Where Plato and Socrates counted four, Aristotle listed twelve, and theologians added three. Other philosophers and religious thinkers also have unique lists: the Buddha’s Eightfold Path, Jesus’ two commandments, Moses’ 10.
With that cognitive dissonance residing in my mind for nearly 10 years, in 2018 a surprising discovery came into focus for me: the prophets actually agree on the number of spheres of awareness. Depending on how paths of awakening are composed, spheres of awareness can be explicit, semi-explicit, or entirely implicit. But ultimately, the sacred texts of major wisdom traditions were all working with Four Spheres of Awareness.
We've seen these before. Here they are again, isolated in the red ellipse, in bold:
To add just a little detail to the picture, here is what lives in each sphere:
Body: awareness of sensations
Spirit: awareness of emotions
Mind: awareness of thoughts
Existence / Awareness: pure awareness
And the chart shows the fruit of each sphere (in blue text) and the toxin of each sphere (in parentheses).
God
I mentioned a fourth role in the co-creation of wisdom traditions, that of god. So what does god have to say about this? This is where a name for god from the natives of Turtle Island comes in handy: The Great Mystery. Beyond words, beyond concepts, yet available through pure awareness. : )
And as Einstein said:
The most beautiful experience we can have is mystery. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
In sum: The foundation of future wisdom traditions rests on harmony among four roles: poet, prophet, scientist, and god. They have to agree, beginning with the simplest of things: how human beings experience reality. And they have to convince us of the same thing. Let's look at their attempts to date in future posts, god willing.