The Daism Forum - Concerning Passionate Journeys and Spiritual Autobiographies|
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The following passage, from a Sufi teacher refers to a phenomenon the author terms 'hothouse enlightement'. The rest of the discussion resembles Intermediate Zone type experiences, but without the precision given by Sri Aurobindo's account.
The Knowing Heart, A Sufi Path of Transformation by Kabir Helminski, (exerpt): The Completed Human Being: The Drop that Contains the Ocean
Enlightenment and Maturity
"Many of us have experienced various disappointments and disillusionments in our search for a spirituality adequate to our times. Aside from those false teachers who are not really worthy of discussion, there are spiritual guides who clearly have some kind of enlightenment and yet fall short of what we would expect of even an ordinary decent human being. Such people may have charisma, the ability to read thoughts, the power to alter others' states of consciousness, and so on; yet they are immature in certain essential respects.
It may be possible to create what could be called a "hothouse enlightenment," a kind of theoretical or induced enlightenment that is nonetheless unripe and incomplete. If, for instance, it were possible to give a monkey in a laboratory an experience of monkey enlightenment, that monkey would not necessarily have the wisdom of a monkey who had matured in the jungle. Some people are granted the experience of very high states of consciousness, and yet if these states are not accompanied by a development of character through a prior education that involves every department of human experience, you might have an enlightened being whom you would not even trust to be a babyþsitter.
Worse still is the kind of teacher whose enlightenment has been used for egoistic ends, who manipulates others, who is incapable of having a mature sexual relationship with an equal partner, or who has addictions he or she cannot control. Our mistake was in assuming that people who have some attributes of enlightenment are perfected human beings.
In Sufism the phenomenon of immature enlightenment is well known. It is a biological and energetic transformation that directly affects the nervous system and energy centers, the result of which is that the veils between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind have been removed, yet the person has not necessarily acquired the qualities, experience, and virtues that I have termed maturity.
In Sufism, the point is not to enlighten everyone as quickly as possible, but to go step by step, developing the attributes of maturity without which enlightenment would be a curse. A certain prior education must be passed through before one has the privilege of receiving the kind of help that would increase the chances for the biological enlightenment.
What is a Spiritually Complete Human Being? Even the words with which we ask this question contain assumptions about what is attainable for us and how it is attained. Some of these assumptions are: that some kind of attainment or perfection is possible, and that we become complete through spirituality. Other ways we could ask this question: What is human perfection, enlightenment, or spiritual attainment? What are the ultimate criteria for human development? What is a full-spectrum development for the human being?
I do not claim that the following list is the ultimate answer to these questions—only that it represents my own present level of understanding."
For further discussion see the following Lightmind thread:
The Daism Forum - Concerning Passionate Journeys and Spiritual Autobiographies
