Egocentricity, coenocentrism, and the nature of human fulfillment

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The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, R. E. Hume, trans. 2nd rev. ed. London, Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 345.Google Scholar

Ibid. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, R. E. Hume, trans. 2nd rev. ed. London, Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 346.Google Scholar

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Watts, A.,The Way of Zen. New York, Random House, 1957, p. 40.Google Scholar

The Buddha, in the second Noble Truth, described the basis of human suffering as “tanhā,” which literally means “thirst” but actually refers to craving in general and, in particular, to the craving for existence.Google Scholar

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The ideas of incongruence and distortion between self-experience and personal identity are modeled after Carl Rogers's theory of the effects of defense on the symbolization of experience. See Rogers, C., “A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships, as Developed in the Client-centered Framework.” In Koch, S., ed.,Psychology: A Study of A Science, vol. 3. New York: McGraw Hill, 1959.Google Scholar

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Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that coenocentric moments are felt to be precious, they are all too frequently not appreciated as offering a taste of what life can and ought to be but are considered irrelevant to the importantbusiness of living.Google Scholar

As computed by Hume in Hume, R.,op. cit., trans. 2nd rev. ed. London, Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 47.Google Scholar

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Coenocentric justification for mystical monotheists is clear-cut, because here the mystic experiences a unity between the self and the kind of a God that is understood to be the only absolute and unqualified being and value in the universe. This sense of unity with God is present in those mystics whose church dogmas forbid such intimacy. (See, for example, Catholic mystics such as Ruysbroeck, who states that in the mystical experience “We behold that which we are, and we are that which we behold...” (from Samuel as quoted in Underhill,op cit. p. 423) or Eckhart, who discovers that “...God and I are One.” InMeister Eckhart, R. Blakney, trans. New York, Harper and Row, Inc., 1941, p. 232.Google Scholar

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—,The Sickness Unto Death, W. Lowrie, trans. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1941, p. 147.Google Scholar

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Ibid., p. 32.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 33.Google Scholar

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Leviticus 19, as quoted in Smith, H.,The Religions of Man. New York: Harper and Row, 1958, p. 283.Google Scholar

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Laski also reports that adamic ecstasies are almost always triggered by what she calls “unitive symbols,” that is, by objects such as ruins, the sea, earth, and mountains that are far older than the life of an individual.Google Scholar

Jeffries, R.,The Story of My Heart, as quoted in Happold, F.,Mysticism. England, Penguin Books Ltd., 1970, p. 388.Google Scholar

Ibid., p. 391.Google Scholar

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Hume, R.,op. cit., trans. 2nd rev. ed. London, Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 246.Google Scholar

Ibid. Hume, R.,op. cit., trans. 2nd rev. ed. London, Oxford University Press, 1931, p. 358.Google Scholar

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