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Spirituality and Philosophy: can they sit side by side?

The relationship between spirituality and philosophy has been very much a love-hate relationship over the years. Many philosophers view mysticism as unfounded on hard facts, whereas spiritual people claim that philosophers focus too much on reasoning and not enough on direct experience of the Truth.

Part of the problem is that we view spirituality and philosophy as two competitors scrabbling for the same ground: the right to unfold the mysteries of existence. People who do not live a spiritual practice sometimes fall into the trap of believing that there is only one approach to finding the true meaning of existence, that of reasoning, method and deduction. They are not aware of any other mode of perception outside the mind, and so they judge spirituality on how well it stands up to the mind's scrutiny. As we well know, spirituality and religion often don't meet these criteria satisfactorily, and are ridiculed for doing so.

But perhaps not enough attention is paid to why spirituality doesn't meet these criteria, and why so many normal sane everyday people practice spirituality regardless. Simply put, spiritual practice enables you to feel the Truth in the very core of your being, in a way that does not involve the mind at all. In fact, all masters of meditation recommend that the key to true wisdom is to practice keeping the mind completely still through meditation. This understandably generates a certain amount of apprehension to those not familiar to meditation and believe that the mind is absolutely indispensable - what will happen when there are no thoughts whatsoever? According to Sri Chinmoy, Indian philosopher and meditation teacher, "You must not think that when there is nothing in your mind, you will become a fool or act like an idiot. This is not true. If you can keep your mind calm and quiet for ten or fifteen minutes, a new world will dawn inside you. This is the root of all spiritual progress."

Almost all the great spiritual traditions - Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism - have at least one school of practice which brings your attention through prayer or meditation into the heart, that space in the middle of your chest where we all point to when we say 'me' (and therefore the most natural place to start any journey of inner discovery). However, this centre is also the centre of empathy and identification. With more practice concentrating on the heart centre, your perspective on life grows vaster and vaster and you begin to feel the interconnectedness of all beings.

This also gives you a new perspective on the workings of the mind, now that you have another mode of perception to contrast it to. You can see that the mind primarily works by division and separation, by classifying and categorising information - in other words the mind tries to shrink and simplify experiences into something understandable, whereas the heart tries to expand itself outwards to feel and identify with that same experience. The mind is therefore capable of only exploring one simplified facet of human existence - much of Western philosophy, for instance, has been this kind of exploration, shining light on one facet of meaning at a time.

This does not mean that the mind is rendered completely redundant - in fact, the key to making philosophy and spirituality work together lies in having the mind working together with the heart, rather than the two being at cross purposes. Many Eastern philosophers manage to achieve this balance, by basing their philosophical output on their inner spiritual experiences and then offering it to the world for everyone to test against the light of their own experiences.

(Photo of bowing statues in Chiang Mai, Thailand - taken by Kedar Misani)

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