Response to Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now, Appendix 1

I am struck by the irony of seeking a non-dual existence and simultaneously creating a dualistic paradigm that categorizes your progress on the path. Very much like the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures metaphors and symbolic representation of the Zen Path to Enlightenment. Or also like the ‘stages’ of consciousness. Our capacity to judge is facilitated by this hierarchy and also the tendency to measure ourselves against the delineated ‘stages’. It is so human of us. God bless the irony.

I would hazard a guess that the people who are attracted to this are the same ones who wish to transcend the dualism. I know that I am and I do seek to transcend the dualism. Much like the people that are attracted to Zen are the word and idea filled intellectuals that are about as far from Zen as you can get (which, by the way, is a VERY non-Zen idea since Zen is no ‘where’).

The other intriguing thought around this is that when you have an epiphany, ecstatic, or satori experience or even a Kensho moment, they come from a place that is unbidden. They don’t seem to come as you are struggling to climb from one area of development to the next on the ladder. They simply appear, not fitting into any neat little box. And they do change you. They change your inner landscape. Your viewpoints shift. Your view becomes less rigid and your insight becomes sharper somehow.

One last thought on this idea of levels and stages is our recognition of and placing of ourselves into these categories. People will say, “I must be a mystic because look at how I have checked off all of these boxes.” It reminds of the adage, ‘You can be the most wonderful person in the entire world, until you say you are’.