Some Additional Themes (to add to James ’ typology of mysticism)

1. Some Additional Themes (to add to James’ typology of mysticism) • Learning, spiritual pathway, difficulty (like seeing the sun the first time, it takes getting used to and focusing your goal – a.k.a. telos)

2. Some Additional Themes (to add to James’ typology of mysticism) • Mysticism of ascent – process includes rigor, intellect, rationality • Diotima • Virasaivas

3. Some Additional Themes (to add to James’ typology of mysticism) • Gender equality/equity • Spiritual experiences in general, and mysticism in particular in the literate traditions, tends to be an equal opportunity experience! (Diotima, AkkaMahadevi, Julian of Norwich) • This can extend to issues of class, education, etc.

4. Some Additional Themes (to add to James’ typology of mysticism) • Unconventional nature of spiritual experience • Questioning convention • Questioning the status quo • Questioning the nature of reality itself (i.e. the images in the cave are not real)

5. India: Hinduism Basics

7. Indian Sphere of Cultural Influence

8. Indian Diversity • There are 16 official languages in India (English not shown) • Basic division between Sanskritic and Dravidian language groups • Sanskritic languages are Indo-European (ex. Hindi); Dravidian languages are not (ex. Tamil) • Multiple scripts create need for transliteration - systems for consistently transcribing words between writing systems

9. World Religious Systems • There are three widespread cosmological frameworks – as mentioned before • Indigenous polytheisms and nature-based religions (includes Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Germanic and Celtic) • Monotheism directed through revelation (Abrahamic religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity, Islam) • Karmic religions rooted in meditation & ignorance/knowledge paradigm (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and most forms of Confucianism and Taoism)

10. Karmic Cosmologies • Karma literally means “action,” implying that all actions, and their consequences, are ultimately balanced. All action, though, embeds one in a dangerous web… • Karma creates the wheel of samsara: the cycle of birth-death-rebirth-REDEATH • The wheel of samsara is a bad loop; like Groundhog Day, the repetition of lives is a vicious cycle one should want to escape

11. Ignorance and Knowledge • What those in the west would call “sin” (and “sinfulness”) is understood in karmic cosmologies as “ignorance.” • When you put your hand on a hot stove, is that a sin, or a mistake? • If you burn your hand, you learn not to touch such places again: you’ve moved from ignorance to knowledge. • To paraphrase the great medieval Indian philosopher, Sankara, Action cannot destroy ignorance, only knowledge can

12. Ignorance and Knowledge • Take the same principle in relation to murder. Is murder a sin, or a mistake? • Even though your punishment for the mistake of murder might not be as immediate as a burned hand, that punishment is certain in a karmic cosmology (in which no one gets away with murder). It may take many lifetimes. But you will be punished.

13. Ignorance and Knowledge:Cultivating Knowledge through Discipline • When you understand this principle, you will want to escape the wheel of samsara. To do so will lead to enlightenment. • Yoga is a form of discipline that uses knowledge and control of the body to dispel ignorance • This is a contemporary sculpture of Siva as the original practitioner of yoga

14. Indus Valley Civilization • 3000-1500 BCE • Urban river culture • Culturally static • Evidence of yoga, zoomorphic dieties • Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa principal cities • Conquered by nomadic Aryans

15. Daily baths at public pool Indus Valley Civilization Dancing Girl Small seals are the art form most represented from Indus Valley

16. Yoga in the Indus Valley • Yogic positions have been found on seals from the Indus Valley • Both male and female yogi-s were present • Male yogi-s shown with erect phallus, indicating combination of ascetic and erotic

17. Aryan Invasion • Nomadic people from steppes of Asia • Trade routes existed between Indus Valley and Mesopotamia • Most likely an invasion

18. Indo-Aryan Culture and Nomadic Societies • Not much visual art work • Religious abstractions and rituals valued • Military success, and blood rituals involving animal sacrifice, are documented • Sacred books, called the four Vedas, are primarily concerned with ritual

19. Indo-Aryan Vedic Dieties • Deities often are meteorological or astrological in character • Disproportionate representation of male deities in pantheon • Indra = wind god • Surya = sun god • Sarasvati = originally a river goddess • Gods are not often represented visually at this time period

20. Caste System Caste system may have been based on racial distinctions Caste system homologized to the hierarchy of the body

21. Two Versions of a Hindu Trinity • Brahma - Creator god • Visnu - Sustainer god • Siva - Destroyer/Creator God • Devi - a.k.a. Durga/Kali/Parvati - The Goddess - Sakti, energy

22. Brahma • Creator deity, does not receive much explicit worship (fewer than five temples in all of India) • Attributes - number of heads, instruments held in hands • Spoon/scepter for pouring holy oil; prayer beads for measuring time; small jar for water as essence of creation; copy of the Rg Veda; four heads (a fifth burned off); four arms

23. Visnu (Vishnu) • Visnu is the deity who sustains the world • Appears in an embodied form when demons have gained too much power • These embodiments are called avatar-s; there have been nine so far, with one more enroute • Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is one of those avatar-s • Rama, Sita, Laksmana, and Hanuman

24. Visnu • Visnu’s standard attributes include an umbrella of cobras, conch-shell trumpet for battlefield leadership, spinning discus representing time being sustained, lotus flower representing the ever-emerging life, and the mace to represent discipline and strength

25. Siva (Shiva) • Combines opposites: Erotic/Ascetic • Destroyer of the world, often seen as both creator and destroyer • Most famous iconic representation is Dancing Siva • Cosmic fire circle surrounds image • Fire = destruction; drum (damaru) = creation (time) • One hand signals “do not fear,” while the other points to the demon of ignorance being crushed underfoot

26. Ganesa • Elephant-headed deity • May demonstrate continuity with Indus Valley • Auspicious for new enterprises • Remover of obstacles • Unites opposites • Attributes: Saivite forehead markings; bowl of sweets; an ax to cut through obstacles; hand raised in gesture of peace; opening lotus; and most famously, a mouse vehicle

27. Durga • Other gods are so scared, they are hiding in the clouds! • This nine-armed goddess holds weapons and attributes • Note how her arms form a circle of movement

28. Durga • Form of Devi, the Goddess • Manifested to slay Buffalo Demon • She and her lion mount remain calm while the demon and its buffalo are slain - and achieve enlightenment

29. Iconic Imagination • Devi/Durga appears to Siva, Visnu & Brahma, + sages • Powers of multiple limbs • Iconic yet active - Hindu paradox of erotic / ascetic

30. Kali Name cognate with “time” Necklace of skulls Necrophilia Described as the Mad Mother Represents confluence of birth and death Represents absolute power of divine She is, as a deity, a focus of death meditation for her devotees

31. Ramayana • One of two great Indian epics • Rama, Sita, Laksmana in the forest exile

32. Ramayana • Building the bridge to Lanka • Rama, Laksmana, Hanuman and the other monkey leaders

33. Vira-saiva movement • Vira-saiva, lit. heroic, militant faith in Siva • Kalyana - city in Karnataka where Vira-saiva-s met • Allamu Prabhu - leader of Vira-saiva • Basavanna - “older brother,” most talented poet and organizer of group, important civil leader as well • Anubhavamantapa - The Mansion of Experience where the Vira-saiva-s met

34. Terms from Sanskrit Saguna - conditioned Divine has attributes, characteristics Personal divinity Nirguna - unconditioned Sacred is abstract, conceived philosophically Impersonal Saguna and Nirguna Both are necessary to experience infinitude within any given religious system

35. AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160) Famous Vira-saiva saint and poet After leaving marriage, she wandered in search of other Vira-saiva-s, clothed only in her long hair Reaching Kalyana, she and Allama Prabhu engaged in a poetry contest to test her validity as a mystic She became an honored member of the Anubhavamantapa; the name “akka” is an honorific bestowed by the community, meaning “older sister” In the poems that follow, “Cennamallikarjuna,”“Mallikarjuna,” and “Lord White as Jasmine” are all synonyms for Siva

36. AkkaMahadevi (ca. 1135-1160) All the Vedas, scriptures and Sacred lore, canons and codes, Are but grist and husk ground in the mill. Why grind this, why winnow? When you behead the mind that Flows here and there, O Cennamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender, There remains eternal space.

37. Love’s Marvelous Ways Look at love's marvellous ways: if you shoot an arrow plant it till no feather shows; if you hug a body, bones must crunch and crumble; weld, the welding must vanish Love is then our lord's love

38. Linga imagery My heart is pierced with Linga ecstasy: How, then, can I Be part and parcel of Thyself? How, then, O Lord, can I unite with Thee? Tell me, O Mallikarjuna, where I can attain the Absolute, With my heart full and overflowing with The peace that comes of the supremest bliss.

39. Panentheism & material immanence When I didn't know myself where were you? Like the colour in the gold, you were in me. I saw in you, lord white as jasmine, the paradox of your being in me without showing a limb.

40. The Notion that ‘I know’ -another AkkaMahadevi vacana • The notion that 'I know' must miss the point, • As sod kicked by the foot must swerve aside. • The heart, forgetful of the world, engrossed • In Linga, is sickened of all circumstance. • Does arrow burnt in fire sport its feather? • One must unite with Lord Cenna Mallikarjuna, • As the wind blowing wantonly • Absorbs the scent.