Anyone who reads this blog will have noted that I'm fascinated by what James would term the "varieties of Religious Experiences." One of the things that is fascinating about studying other religions is the attempt to understand how their experiences differ from mine and what we have in common.
All of us express the spiritual experiences we have using the language we have available. And for each of us that language is embedded in a culture, a belief system, and a lifetime that (among other things) of a necessity forms the lens through which we view and by means of which we understand what happens to us. Add to this the fact recognized by almost all religions that human language seems to be incapable of fully expressing the contents of a religious experience and it becomes clear how difficult the task I have set myself can be.
It's odd, though. I'll be reading along through Nisargadatta explaining his experience from a Hindu point of view - alien and different as it is from mine - and then he'll drop a paragraph or a sentence or even a single phrase - and I have a sudden sense of recognition that lets me know that, different as our maps may be, they cover at least some of the same territory.
"You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
I Am That
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