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Contemplativa: Journal of Contemplative Studies ISSN: 2591720X
http://contemplativa-journal.weebly.com/volume-1-2017/ Volume 1,
2017
Zhuangzi’s Spiritual Epistemology
And its Implications for Hermeneutics
And Sociality
Chris Kang
Singapore Institute of Technology
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mailto:[email protected]
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Zhuangzi’s Spiritual Epistemology
And its Implications for Hermeneutics
And Sociality
Chris Kang1
ABSTRACT
The ancient Chinese thinker Zhuangzi suggests a spiritual
epistemology rooted in a groundless ground of intuitive
wisdom – a source of knowing that is beyond linguistic and
conceptual mental activity yet eminently capable of knowing
what is true, not just in the relative but especially so in
the
ultimate sense. This article examines Zhuangzi’s
epistemology
and proposes a hermeneutics of spontaneity that follows from
the former to highlight a way of textual interpretation
beyond
logical and sentimental faculties of consciousness. The
potential of such a hermeneutics of spontaneity for
sociality
and for dealing with myriad upheavals of the contemporary
world is suggested.
1 Health and Social Sciences, Singapore Institute of Technology.
Email: [email protected].
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I. INTRODUCTION
The Zhuangzi collection of works can boast of content that
“alternates between
fantastically speculative metaphysics to profound skepticism,
from passages where
death is treated with wondrous agnosticism to stories about
dwelling with the
immortals …”.1 In the Zhuangzi, the spirit (神 shen) is given
pre-eminence over
other aspects of the person, being able to protect the body (体
ti) and be in turn
protected by it, as well as being able to forget the body and
leave it behind.2 For
the Zhuangzi then, the spirit plays a definitive role in the
identity of a person, as
the essence of who one is. Far more than the social or moral
self, the spirit is that
element of personhood in a human being that makes possible
everything else, e.g.
moral perception and action, emotional regulation, value
formation, and social
relationality. Following Berger, I suggest that, for Zhuangzi,
the ultimate
personhood and essence of a human being lies in their spirit.
Thus, the person,
who is fundamentally spiritual in nature, exists in unity with
heaven:3
… in Chinese philosophy we find theses of the unity of heaven
and man, the unity of knowledge and action, the nonseparation of
substance and function, the nonseparation of subject and object,
the nonseparation of principle and vitality, the oneness of
principle and nature, and the oneness of principle and mind. All of
these preferences for oneness and unity express a perception and
insistence on unity as both actuality and ultimate reality (benti).
There cannot be any unity without an underlying perception of
unified reality in a human being’s experience of himself, of life,
and of the world. Slingerland proposed the use of a cognitive
linguistics framework to grant
access to a “shared conceptual grammar” that facilitates
scholarly understanding
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of metaphors of the self in the Zhuangzi.4 Citing Lakoff and
Becker5 and Lakoff and
Johnson,6 Slingerland proposed the Subject-Self schema as a
general metaphoric
structure for conceptualizing the self in the Zhuangzi. With the
assumption that
this Subject-Self schema identified by the authors in modern
American English is
applicable to the ancient Chinese context of the Zhuangzi,
Slingerland theorized
that the Zhuangzi described multiple metaphorical variations of
this core schema.
In the Subject-Self schema, the Subject is regarded as
“person-like” with an
existence independent from the Self or Selves. This Subject is
variously
metaphorically represented as “locational self,” “essential
self,” “essential self as
container,” and “subject that escapes control of the self by
eliminating object
possession,” for instance. To all intents and purposes, the
Subject as the essence of
self and personhood is the most profound dimension of a human
being, one that
can be called the “spirit.”
Chong proposed that the book of Zhuangzi made use of “…
metaphors of
the heart-mind as a mirror and words that operate as the wine in
a goblet that tips
when full … [to] … project ‘stillness’ or equilibrium, without
its being stated
propositionally.”7 For Chong, this “… non-propositional strategy
… serves the
purpose of non-fixity, and is congruent with the maintenance of
equilibrium.”8
What the above quotations imply is the centrality of a certain
cognitive
decluttering that imbues a clarity of consciousness that is
non-attached to words
and propositions. This non-attached, non-fixated, “mirror-like”
awareness points
to a way of experiencing self, the world, and by extension
textual statements that
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is not fixed but fluid, non-propositional, and spontaneously
free. A passage from
the Zhuangzi depicting a conversation between Confucius and his
student Yan Hui
portrays this non-attached, non-evaluative, “mirror like”
awareness which Brindley
equates with “fasting of the heart-mind”.9
Such freedom echoes what Slingerland identified as the metaphor
schema
of “self-control as forced movement.”10 In this schema, when the
Subject imposes
control over the Self, force is exerted in such a way as to
cause repression of the
Self. Conversely, when the Subject does not impose forced
movement upon the
Self, there is “no-doing” (无为 wuwei) on the part of the Subject
resulting in “being
at ease” (安 an), “wandering free and easy” (逍遙遊 xiao yao you),
and “flowing with”
(顺 shun). The stance of effortless “no-doing” concomitant with
the non-fixity and
ease of fluid, non-propositional, flowing awareness evocatively
suggests a
distinctive mode of relating to and “interpreting” the world. By
extension, this
stance of “no-doing” can be applied to the interpretation of
texts. In other words,
what I term a “hermeneutics of spontaneity” can be evoked from
the metaphorical
structure of the Zhuangzi as an alternative approach to the
reading and
interpreting of texts. I would suggest that doing so enables the
reader to come to
deeper resonance with the life of any text in general, and with
the Zhuangzi in
particular.
In this article, I examine Zhuangzi’s concept of the spiritual
self and nature, the
mysterious ways of knowing as spirit flows in the dao (道) and
translates into skill
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par excellence that is effortless “no doing,” and the
implications of the foregoing
for textual hermeneutics from the vantage point of
non-propositional spontaneity.
II. SPIRITUAL SELF AND NATURE IN ZHUANGZI
In the Zhuangzi, there is recognition of the spiritual dimension
in humanity that
defies egocentric activity, cognitive-linguistic constructs, and
propositional
knowledge. This dimension has been given various names and
alluded to by
various metaphors and ideas. One striking metaphorical structure
proposed by
Chong is that of “goblet words” that are “empty” of
propositional meaning,
enabling the “heart-mind” to remain silently and flowingly clear
like a “mirror” or
“still water” without retaining clutter of words. Such
free-flowing, still, and
unobscured heart-mind is said to be congruent with the state of
the dao.11
As a concept, the dao is the epitome of the ultimately real and
the source of
all things. Non-personal and non-substantial, the dao
nevertheless makes all things
possible by its mysterious unfathomable dynamic of creative
transformation.
Neither matter, mind nor spirit, the ontological status of the
dao remains
unspeakable and elusive, beyond the ken of conception and
language. Yet, as a
metaphor for the primal source and effective cause of all that
is, the dao exerts a
potent pull on discursive consciousness to construct, contain,
and verbalize it.
Existentially and empirically, the dao comes close to being the
absolute truth that
underpins all existence. Thus, for the mind-heart to be
congruent and aligned with
the dao is to be united to the absolute truth of existence. Such
a unitive yet
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dynamic state can be described as spiritual – a mode of
consciousness unlike any
other, ensconced in the ultimate truth of the cosmos and life
that imparts vibrancy
to the mind-heart and vitality to the body.
For Zhuangzi, to abide as mirror or still water in total
congruence with the dao
is to dwell in profound rest and creativity in the realm of
spirit beyond knowledge
propositions, language constructions, self-conscious
occupations, and deluded ego
artifice. Dwelling in the realm of the spirit in total alignment
with the dao confers
a kind of knowing that transcends propositional knowledge and
linguistic artifice.
It is to this form of spiritual knowing that we shall now
turn.
III. EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE SPIRIT
In the chapter describing the cook carving up an ox for King Hui
of Liang, the
Zhuangzi paints a picture of a person highly skilled in the dao
whose heart-mind
is totally rested in the realm of the spirit.12 Unlike other
butchers who wear out
their knives (a metaphor for one’s psychosomatic being?) in a
matter of a few years,
the cook uses his knife for decades on end without any loss of
sharpness and
effectiveness. The reason he could do this is because he has
allowed his heart-mind
to rest in a condition of utter simplicity, non-doing, and
spontaneous flow. As he
rests ever so selflessly and effortlessly in his spirit that is
one with the dao, he is
able to wield his knife through the spaces and cavities of the
animal he is asked to
butcher up. In seamless displays of marvelous skill and speed,
the animal is cut up
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into perfect parts and proportions. Both the cook and his knife
remain as sharp as
ever.
This feat of seamlessly and effortlessly cutting up the animal
into parts
without blunting the knife demonstrates a profound truth about
knowing and
doing in the Daoist sense. In the Zhuangzi, the ability to wield
the knife with such
adroitness and restful ease is predicated on a special way of
knowing and seeing
the reality of the situation. In this instance, the cook is able
to know and see reality
so profoundly that he is no longer bound by mundane constraints
placed upon
him. These constraints include the physical obstruction of
bones, muscles, sinews,
and joints that confront his knife in every act of cutting and
chopping. For him,
such constraints do not hinder his strokes of the knife as his
vision goes deeper
and vaster than apparent signs of obstruction. He is able to see
not with his eyes
of the flesh, so to speak, but with eyes of the spirit that are
fully congruent with
the mysterious dao of the cosmos, simultaneously active and
present in each
moment of time, each particle of matter, and each point in
space. By seeing thus,
he is also in conscious unity with the dao that flows in him the
cutter, in the animal
he is cutting, in his knife that cuts, and in every stroke he
executes un-self-
consciously as his whole being remains at rest in the dao.
Thus, this way of seeing and knowing that the cook demonstrates
and
exemplifies so well, is one that seemingly transcends rote
learning, cognitive
problem-solving, linguistic verbalization, and propositional
knowledge. In other
words, we can speak of an alternative mode of knowing, an
epistemology of the
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spirit that is unlike familiar epistemological modes of sensory
perception
(empiricism) and inferential logic (rationalism). In the
Zhuangzi we see a fine
example of what I term spiritual epistemology – a way of knowing
that transcends
empiricism and rationalism as defined in Western philosophy,
rooted as it is in a
trans-rational, trans-propositional intuition where direct
contact between the
faculty of knowing and the object known is so interpenetrative
and holistic that
subject-object duality breaks down.
In this spiritual epistemology, there is non-dual knowledge
grounded in a
contemporaneous flow of the dao at once immanent and pervasive
in all things.
Such non-dual, non-propositional knowledge is co-extensive with
a degree of skill,
adroitness, and ease in the one who knows thus. This seamless
integration of
knowledge and skill is precisely what is exemplified and
demonstrated in the
butchering expertise of the cook. While being a mode of knowing
reality, spiritual
epistemology is at the same time immensely practical – its
natural radiance and
spontaneous manifestation is one of consummate skill and power.
The
spontaneous dynamism of such profound intuitive knowing enables
the
knower/doer to be restfully accomplishing all that needs to be
accomplished. In a
sense, it is a misnomer to term the one who know and acts as a
“knower/doer”
because in the free-flowing mirror-like awareness of such a one,
there is no sense
of a separate or autonomous agent standing apart from the
epistemic-praxic
process where knowing and acting are one.
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In so far as such spiritual epistemology is upheld as a
consummate skill for any
human being, it raises an interesting question of just how such
skill can be
fruitfully applied to the field of academic inquiry.13 What are
its parameters and
limits? How useful is such skill in probing the thorny issues of
interpreting texts
and extracting meaning from them? To what extent can such
spiritual
epistemology be a force for good in our world and positive
transformation in our
increasingly complex, volatile, ambiguous, and uncertain
society? To these
questions and the possible responses we shall now turn.
IV. HERMENEUTICS OF SPONTANEITY
Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation – its ubiquity,
nature, function, role,
scope, and implications for life, science, art, culture,
politics, economics, and all
aspects of existence. In particular, hermeneutics is salient in
the reading of texts,
specifically world religious and cultural texts. The Zhuangzi
itself is a Daoist text
that has been read by a multitude of readers from diverse
intellectual, cultural, and
religious backgrounds. Daoist believers and practitioners have
derived (or
constructed) meaning from it over many centuries of careful
study and application.
Modern scholars both Asian and non-Asian have conducted
extensive scholarly
investigations into the Zhuangzi using a variety of
methodological approaches.
Most if not all of these methodological approaches are of
Western origin derived
ultimately from Greek civilization. As such, it would be true to
say that in the
reading of the Zhuangzi by modern scholars, we are dealing with
scholarly use of
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a hermeneutic derived from sources alien to the cultural and
historical context of
the Zhuangzi itself. A case can be made for possible
incommensurability between
these hermeneutical strategies and the text of the Zhuangzi,
especially if the
epistemology promulgated in the text is the very epistemology
that is most useful
and appropriate in extracting meaning from its contents. Thus,
by adopting a
spiritual epistemology in reading a text like the Zhuangzi and
other possible texts
similar in tenor and outlook, we may find better resonance and
interpretive acuity
that demonstrates a greater degree of fidelity to the intent of
the author(s) of these
texts.
The question of authorial intent is a contentious one involving
robust
debates between scholars and thinkers of different intellectual
persuasions. The
linguistic turn in philosophy and cultural studies ushered in
powerful currents of
postmodern and deconstructive thought that have essentially
jettisoned the whole
notion of authorial intent. Be that as it may, we can question
to what extent such
a position can be justifiably applied to non-Western textual
traditions with
culturally-specific nuanced attitudes and approaches to the
production,
preservation, and transmission of texts. Classical Chinese texts
including the
Zhuangzi of the Daoist tradition are a case in point. This
article takes the
philosophical position that interpretive fidelity to authorial
intent is possible, for
classical Chinese texts in particular.
Without delving into the extensive debates on this issue of
authorial intent,
suffice to say that it is challenging but not impossible to
derive a possible
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hermeneutic for textual interpretation from the Zhuangzi. Given
that this is
possible and desirable, what are the contours of such a
hermeneutic? The simple
answer is this: in the Zhuangzi can be found the hermeneutics of
spontaneity based
on its spiritual epistemology. From the ground and perspective
of spiritual
knowing, a dynamic spontaneous movement of awareness flows forth
to contact
and merge with its objects of knowledge freely and unimpededly.
There is direct
unmitigated mutual contact, penetration, and luminescence of
knower, knowing,
and the known. In this expanse of non-dual knowing,
interpretation of meanings
takes place spontaneously without the mediation of language and
conception. This
interpretive process is founded not so much on a fusion of
horizons of the reader
and the text, but an empty clearing of both reader and text in
timeless, spaceless
knowing free of all reference points. A direct flashing forth of
knowledge of that
which is to be known appear like lances of illumination in an
unclouded sky.
Unclouded knowledge silently illuminates its objects, rested in
a vast expanse of
spontaneously manifest epistemic events without reifying self or
other.
Strange and unfamiliar as it may sound, the hermeneutics of
spontaneity
described above provides us a way of entering into texts without
mediation of
conceptual elaboration. Beyond phenomenological epoché that
relies on
bracketing of prior assumptions and ideas, such hermeneutics
cuts through
configured consciousness in such a way as to arrive directly at
non-propositional
knowing free of reifying duality and constructs. This feat is
possible only with
radical release of self-consciousness and self-identity through
non-contrived
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discovery of a dimension of awareness beneath cognitive
constructions of every
kind.
How would such hermeneutics impact the way we read and interpret
texts?
For one, spontaneous knowing enters into the lines and words of
each text by inter-
merging and inter-mingling of awareness and text. In this
dynamic process of
inter-mingling, a question can be raised on whether and to what
extent cognitive-
linguistic comprehension is involved. At first glance, it would
seem that an utterly
spontaneous and direct knowing free of reference points is
necessarily devoid of
cognitive-linguistic processes. This is because conception and
language necessarily
form a cognitive-linguistic structure that enables reading and
comprehension to
take place. In other words, the act of reading and comprehending
words in a text
is essentially mediated by language and conception. If this is
the case, what would
be the role of language and conception in spontaneous direct
knowing when it
comes to exegeting and interpreting a text?
There are two possibilities. First, spontaneous direct knowing
is completely
devoid of any involvement of language and conception.
Interpretation transcends
cognitive-linguistic processes and is none other than bare
trans-conceptual insight
into reality, which in the case of textual hermeneutics is the
truth and intent of the
text being interpreted. Second, spontaneous direct knowing is
largely free of
language and conception but requires cognitive-linguistic
processing just
sufficient for language comprehension. Thus, beyond minimal
language
processing no further conceptual elaboration is required for
spontaneous direct
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knowing to display its epistemological potency. In both cases,
spontaneous direct
knowing enters into the world of the text so profoundly that
insights into the
meaning and intent of text flash forth in (relatively)
unmediated open awareness.
Meanings that emerge from the text resulting from this
hermeneutical process may
be partially mediated or totally unmediated by
cognitive-linguistic processes. In
any case, the possibility of fresh and authentic meanings
aligned with authorial
intent as a result of such hermeneutics is one that deserves
recognition.
Among questions that may arise from the foregoing discussion
include
those that revolve around the issue of reader capacity for
spiritual epistemology. A
key question is this: is the ability to apply the epistemology
of the spirit innate in
all human beings and thus spontaneous and natural, or is there a
need to
intentionally cultivate this seemingly unfamiliar and rare
ability? If cultivation is
required, what sort of training is involved? It is not
immediately apparent from the
Zhuangzi just what sort of training is definitive and necessary.
That some process
of quietening one’s heart-mind into a limpid unobscured state is
required is
without question. What is uncertain is the specific mode and
detail of mental or
spiritual practice that is entailed, though some form of
meditative process to refine
awareness seems very likely.14
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V. IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY SOCIALITY
Having delved into the hermeneutics of spontaneity, what can we
say about its
implications for sociality and the contemporary world
characterized by volatility,
complexity, uncertainty, violence, and ambiguity?
For one, the hermeneutics of spontaneity relies on a mode of
knowing that
comes with the stilling and deepening of consciousness to a
degree not commonly
thought possible. The process of deep consciousness stilling is
accompanied by a
refinement of behaviour, thought patterns, and emotional
reactions to the extent
that an ethical purification can be said to have taken place.
This process can be
described as a contemplative one – a gradual refining of
attention with unforced
release of attentional imbalances progressing into a radical
self-emptying that
liberates awareness into its pristine, unconfined, uncontrived
state.15 Reactivity of
thought and emotion that would normally result in unethical
unskillful behaviours
is attenuated if not eliminated, conducing to a non-harming
ethically sensitive
lifestyle.
Such refining of attention with concomitant ethical purification
can have
social implications. Sufficient numbers of contemplatively
mature, spiritually
knowing, ethically sensitive, and non-harming persons can have a
positive impact
on the moral tenor of any society. Potentially, there exist
opportunities for leaders,
movers and shakers of society to imbibe a spiritual epistemology
in their personal
and professional lives. Transformative experiences with direct
spontaneous
knowing as hermeneutic can impact a person’s consciousness so
deeply that
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worldviews, cognitive frames, value systems, policy imperatives,
and action
strategies are all revolutionized. If anything, a deep
celebration of the possibility
of direct unmediated knowing beyond empiricism and rationalism
ensues to cause
a dramatic shift in leadership, management, policy, and
organizational thinking.
No longer as driven by arbitrary data and meaningless numbers
rooted in shallow
instrumental rationality, leaders and figures of authority could
potentially envision
and operationalize new ways of social, political, societal
organization grounded in
ethical sensitivity, harmlessness, compassion, and peace.
Members of every community stand to gain from familiarity with
spiritual
epistemology and the hermeneutics of spontaneity. Attentional
balancing,
emotional regulation, cognitive expansion, and ethical formation
can contribute
to individuals having a deep resilience that is not easily
shaken by upheavals in
their environment. In a world pervaded by terrorist and military
violence,
uncertain economic outlooks, political upheavals, resource
depletion, and
ecological disintegration, all occurring at a rapid pace, mental
resilience needs to
go deeper and broader to encompass the human spirit where the
eternal dwells.
In a disintegrating world that borders on the surreal, a
resilient spirit born of
contemplative stillness and spiritual knowing confers upon the
human psyche a
strength and flexibility that enables one to stay rested in the
midst of turmoil. Even
when circumstances become untenable and things fall apart, a
deeply resilient
spirit is what allows individuals to transcend their
circumstances towards a
luminous future.
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VI. CONCLUSION
Examining the spiritual epistemology found in the Zhuangzi, this
article has
elucidated the contours of a type of knowing that either does
not or minimally
relies on the cognitive-linguistic apparatus. Such direct
unmediated knowing is
intimately tied to a contemplative hermeneutics of spontaneity
wherein meanings
are captured from texts in dynamic acts of direct spontaneous
knowing. Such
epistemology and hermeneutics rest on the foundation of
luminously still, mirror-
like awareness beyond contrivance and artifice, not relying on
propositional
statements to make its case. Socially, the hermeneutics of
spontaneity can manifest
in both individuals and society a higher moral tenor born of
attentional emotional,
cognitive, and volitional balance. A deep resilience that is not
easily shaken by
external circumstances may also be had for those who have
imbibed and lived out
the hermeneutics of spontaneity in their lives.
In propounding an epistemology of the spirit intertwined with
a
contemplative hermeneutic that circumvents either fully or
partially the cognitive-
linguistic apparatus of the mind, this article argues for
inclusion of Asian ways of
knowing and acting into academic study of texts – Daoist texts
specifically, but all
texts generally.16 Given that such endeavor extends beyond
academic textual study
to positively impact on personal character formation and social
amelioration, it is
a project that deserves greater attention and investigation
beyond the scope of this
article.
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ENDNOTES
1. Douglas L. Berger, Encounters of Mind: Luminosity and
Personhood in Indian and Chinese Thought (Albany: State University
of New York, 2015), 47. Berger makes interesting observations on
the connexions between strands of Indian Brahminical (namely
Sāṃkhya and Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika) and Buddhist thought on the one hand,
and Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism on the other.
2. Ibid., 52. 3. Chung-ying Cheng, “An Onto-hermeneutic
Interpretation of Twentieth Century
Chinese Philosophy: Identity and Vision.” In Chung-ying Cheng
and Nicholas Bunnin, editors, Contemporary Chinese Philosophy
(Malden, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002), 367.
4. Edward Slingerland, “Conceptions of the Self in the Zhuangzi:
Conceptual Metaphor Analysis and Comparative Thought.” Philosophy
East and West 54, no. 3 (2004): 322-342. Slingerland’s analysis of
metaphors of the self in the Zhuangzi offers an interesting way of
looking at personhood is conceived in classical Chinese philosophy.
Borrowing from the work of Lakoff and others grounded in the modern
American context, questions on commensurability of epistemology and
ontology can be raised. It is difficult in my view to ascertain
unequivocally that the metaphorical structures of self employed by
20th century Americans can be applied unproblematically to
pre-Christian Chinese thinkers.
5. George Lakoff and Miles Becker, “Me, Myself, and I.”
Manuscript. (Berkeley: University of California, 1992).
6. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh: The
Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought (New York: Basic
Books, 1999).
7. Kim-chong Chong, “Zhuangzi and the Nature of Metaphor.”
Philosophy East and West 56, no. 3 (2006): 381. Chong makes cogent
observations on the various metaphors used in the Zhuangzi for
explicating ways of being that transcend normative modes of
linguistic and conceptual construction. Such metaphors while in a
sense linguistic and conceptual by nature do transcend linear
propositional logic through suggestive imagery and intuitive
allusions aimed at touching a deeper dimension of consciousness
beyond instrumental rationality.
8. Ibid., 381. 9. Erica Brindley, “Authoring Non-action in Early
China.” Journal of Chinese Philosophy
42:3-4 (2015): 267-283. Brindley’s analysis of non-action in
early Chinese philosophy strikes a resonant tone with separate
discussions on self and personhood by Slingerland and Chong. The
theories of action and identity in early Chinese philosophy can be
fruitfully juxtaposed to give a more holistic view of seminal
Chinese ideas with possible contemporary relevance in an age of
ontic and moral ambiguity.
10. Slingerland, 332. 11. Kim-chong Chong, “Zhuangzi and the
Nature of Metaphor.” Philosophy East and
West 56, no. 3 (2006): 375. See also Kim-chong Chong, “The
Concept of Zhen in the Zhuangzi.” Philosophy East and West 61, no.
2 (2011): 324-346 for nuanced and comprehensive discussion on
concepts of zhen (“true”) and zhenren (“true person”) in the
Zhuangzi that bears correlation and resonance with the notion of
existential
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alignment with the dao. Chong argues that these concepts of zhen
and zhenren point to a critique of Confucian rites and morality
(seen as artifice) to uphold the notion returning to the ways of
tian (“heaven”) and an originally simple and natural state of
affairs.
12. Brook Ziporyn, trans., “Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings
with Selections from
Traditional Commentaries” (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing,
2009), 3.3-3.5: 22-23.
13. Spiritual epistemology as consummate skill is highly prized
and valued in various Indic philosophical traditions, such as Yoga,
Buddhism, and Tantra. In the Indic context, spiritual knowing while
innate in human consciousness is manifested and developed through
an intensive process of attentional cultivation requiring many
thousands of hours of meditative practice. Through the perfect
attentional balance that ensues from such practice, awareness is
able to fluidly and naturally direct itself to any object of
cognition and derive unmediated knowledge of that object. I equate
the dawning of unmediated knowledge with the mode of knowing found
in spiritual epistemology. For more information on attentional
training, see B. Alan Wallace, The Attention Revolution: Unlocking
the Power of the Focused Mind (Somerville: Wisdom Publications,
2006). For more information on unmediated knowing, see Chris Kang,
The Spiritual Teachings of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar: Descriptive
Philosophy and Critical Comparisons. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation. (Brisbane: The University of Queensland, 2003),
103-108.
14. See notes 13 and 15. 15. See Wallace for detailed exposition
on various levels of attentional balance and
instructional methods to develop them. Further information on
liberating consciousness into its pristine condition can be found
in B. Alan Wallace, Minding Closely: The Four Applications of
Mindfulness (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2011),
275-312.
16. For arguments in favour of multicivilizational perspectives
on theoretical formulation and social good, see Marcus Bussey,
“Homo Tantricus: Tantra as an Episteme for Future Generations.”
Sohail Inayatullah and Jennifer Gidley, eds., The University in
Transformation: Global Perspectives on the Futures of the
University (Westport, CT and London: Bergin and Garvey, 2000),
187-198; Sohail Inayatullah, “Listening to non-western
perspectives.” David Hicks and Richard Slaughter, eds., World
Yearbook of Education 1998: Futures Education (London: Kogan,
1998), 55-68; and Chris Kang, “Buddhist and Tantric Perspectives on
Causality and Society.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 16
(2009):67-103.
