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Apologia Report 18:14 (1,150)
April 18, 2013
Subject: A "riveting, readable study" of demon possession
In this issue:
BUDDHISM - defining enlightenment
DEMON POSSESSION - "must-reading for students of history, psychology and religion"
ISLAM - how political correctness denies that Islamism is clearly the leading global cause of terrorism
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BUDDHISM
"What Is Enlightenment?" Thanks to the decentralized voice of authority within Buddhism, this article is just one (helpful) example of the oft-asked question employed to stimulate thought. Here Joan Sutherland - a Zen koan teacher and founder of Awakened Life in New Mexico <awakenedlife.org> - explores what enlightenment is and isn't and how it can be experienced. She begins: "At the very heart of Buddhism is the promise of enlightenment. It's the bright flame illuminating the dharma [teaching], and the rich variety of practices developed in the traditions that make up Buddhism are all in some essential way in the service of that promise. ...
"In the West the idea of enlightenment has gotten a little bruised, in part because the intensity of our longings has made us so vulnerable to disappointment. ...
"Enlightenment is our true nature and our home, but the complexities of human life cause us to forget. ...
"The term 'enlightenment' is used to translate a variety of words in various Asian languages that, while closely related, aren't exactly identical. Most fundamentally, enlightenment refers to the Pali and Sanskrit word bodhi, which is more literally 'awakening.'
"'Enlightenment' has an absolute quality about it, as though it describes a steady state, something not subject to time and space or the vagaries of human life. We imagine that once over that threshold, there's no going back. In Buddhist terms, the way things really are is enlightenment, and our experience of the way things really are is also (the same) enlightenment. ...
"In contrast to enlightenment, awakening feels more like an unfolding process, which might explain why over time the ways of referring to it differentiated and proliferated....
"While what we awaken *to* is the same for all of us, *how* we awaken and express that awakening in our lives is endlessly idiosyncratic and gives the world its texture and delight.
"Which isn't to say that enlightenment and awakening are different things; they're just different ways of looking at the same thing. ... Perhaps enlightenment is that which comes toward us, a previously unimaginable grace, while awakening is that which arises inside us, to prepare for and meet the grace. ...
"One of the puzzlements of the Way is that some people can seem to have substantial, even operatic, openings and still behave like jerks. This is important because it speaks to the nature of awakening: having an enlightening revelation isn't the same thing as being enlightened; we have to let the revelation stain and dye us completely, in the exact midst of our everyday lives. ...
"Post-revelation, some people may believe that awakening is about them, when in fact it's the least about-you thing that's ever happened. And it's simultaneously the truest thing about you that's ever happened. Discovering how both these things could be so, and their implications for the way we live our lives, are what the paths of awakening are for.
"Because it's transpersonal, enlightenment isn't something that can be obtained, like the ultimate killer app. Neither can it be attained, like a skill or an understanding to be harnessed to the purposes of the self. ...
"Enlightenment is autonomous, existing before there were humans, or anything else, to experience it. ...
"Enlightenment is the awe-inspiring nature of the universe itself, and it is the way each of us thinks, feels, and acts when we're aware of and practicing in that vast enlightenment manifesting as us. ...
"Trying to describe all this is pretty much a fool's errand, which is why people have always enlisted poems and paintings and offers of cups of tea as invitations to see the original face of something before our judgments and opinions about it kick in.
"The teachings speak of a single enlightened thought as being the whole of enlightenment, and a single deluded thought as the whole of delusion. ...
"Whatever happens, you have to just keep showing up. Sit the meditation, attend the retreat, absorb the teachings, face the fear, feel the sorrow, endure the boredom, stay open to the disturbing and also the knee-bucklingly beautiful. ...
"Just keep showing up, no matter what, with an open mind and a whole heart. Allow your allegiance to be turned from the habits of exile to the promise of home, naturally. Make yourself unconditionally available, and trust that enlightenment will find you. ...
"Buddhism is nondualistic, so this isn't light as opposed to darkness but something that includes both. ...
"[I]t's not as though our awakening ends with revelation and then we figure out what to do with it; it's actually through embodiment that enlightenment completes itself in us.
"This is one of the great mysteries of the Way - that enlightenment not only illuminates ordinary life but submits to its discipline. We have to give ourselves to the daylit world to learn how to turn revelation into matter - and in this way our awakening continues. As with practice, this can't be accomplished by an act of self-will, which is why the Mahayana tradition offers the bodhisattva vow instead. The vow is usually described as the commitment to delay one's own departure from the wheel of birth and death in order to remain in the world, working toward the awakening of all. It's natural to see this as the most noble of sacrifices, but it's also a description of what has to happen for enlightenment to complete itself. ...
"After all, if enlightenment is the way things really are, it's already here, in large ways and small." Buddhadharma, Spr '13, pp26-33. <www.ow.ly/jPMqf>
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DEMON POSSESSION
The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West, by Brian P. Levack [1] -- "Exorcism. Once thought to be a relic of our superstitious past, a popular novel and movie gave it new contemporary life, creating a strong interest in demon possession and the means with which the church confronts the horror. In this riveting, readable study, Levack, a history professor at the University of Texas, Austin, offers readers a comprehensive view of reports of demon possession and efforts to rid victims of it. Focusing on the years leading up to and including 17th century Europe, a period the author cites as 'the golden age of the demoniac,' readers come away from this book amazed at the extent to which demon possession permeated a deeply superstitious Europe. Both individuals and groups were affected by the curse. And while the role of exorcist is sufficiently well known in Catholic circles, readers will be surprised at how common they were in Protestant societies. This is must-reading for students of history, psychology and religion." Publishers Weekly, Mar #4 '13.
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ISLAM
"Denying Islam's Role in Terror: Explaining the Denial" by Daniel Pipes -- the first article in a three-part survey. "The other two parts, by Teri Blumenfeld and David Rusin ... look at the specific phenomenon of denial in the FBI and the U.S. military, respectively. ...
"The establishment denies that Islamism - a form of Islam that seeks to make Muslims dominant through an extreme, totalistic, and rigid application of Islamic law, the Shari'a - represents the leading global cause of terrorism when it so clearly does. ...
"This pattern of denial is all the more striking because it concerns distinctly Islamic forms of violence such as suicide operations, beheadings, honor killings and the disfiguring of women's faces." Middle East Quarterly, Spr '13, <www.ow.ly/jPJgr>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West, by Brian P. Levack (Yale Univ Prs, 2013, hardcover, 360 pages) <www.ow.ly/jPI46>
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