The spirit refers to consciousness—whether the proto-consciousness of a plant, the semi-consciousness of an animal, or the full-blown consciousness of a human.
Once you understand what the spirit is, you will understand that the spiritual concerns the expansion and deepening of consciousness. It deals with awareness, not merely with feelings. This expansion and deepening of consciousness may produce feelings, but it is not identical with them.
An emotional experience is just that: it concerns feelings and emotions, not the expansion and deepening of consciousness. Emotional experiences have no inherent spiritual validity; at most, they reveal aspects of our mental state.
So when you see people becoming highly emotional about something religious, do not assume it is a spiritual experience. It may be—but it may not be. It must be judged by the fruit it produces: does it expand and deepen one’s consciousness? Does it lead to greater awareness of reality, a deeper connection with ultimate reality?
Author: Dr. Jay Forrest
Jay N. Forrest (D.Min.) is a Deistic Buddhist philosopher trained in Zen and Vipassanā, with advanced Buddhist studies at Harvard, Princeton, UVA, Naropa, Columbia, and Universiteit Leiden. He is a certified meditation teacher and the author of over a dozen books on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice.
Mystics are Spiritually Independent
A mystic is someone who seeks firsthand experience of Ultimate Reality, and that experience is bigger than any religion or philosophy. This can be a problem.
Mystics have a tendency to color outside the lines, and this often creates tension with the religious establishment. The first mystics in Christianity were the Gnostics, but their extreme independence led to persecution. Some learned to have their experiences while keeping them private; these became the Desert Fathers and Mothers.
In most ages, a mystic has identified with the dominant religion. Yet they pushed its boundaries, because reality is greater than what limited minds can conceive. This, again, often led to their being labeled heretics.
In modern times, many mystics have chosen to become spiritually independent. They have joined the “spiritual but not religious” movement. It makes sense to separate spirituality from religion: religion is the organization; spirituality is the reality.
Rami Shapiro offers us this manifesto: “Be your own authority. Determine for yourself, what is true. Take responsibility for your actions and the quality of your life. There is no one to turn to; there is no one to follow; there is no one to blame; there is just you in this moment.”
Walk the Pathless Path
We all want a map to guide us from here to eternity. But no such map exists, because the path is made by walking it. No two people are alike, and therefore no two paths are alike, for no one begins in the same place or faces the same challenges.
Just like a disease, each person faces their own afflictions. And therefore they need different medicine, different treatments, and therefore a different spiritual path. One size does not fit all. Even though the goal is the same, the paths are diverse.
My suggestion is that you learn widely, commit deeply, and borrow only where it serves the path’s true end. In practice, this means comparative study first, disciplined experimentation second, and ongoing discernment about whether a practice actually makes you less self-enclosed.
The wise are understanding and tolerant because they realize that everyone walks their own path. It is important to honor that—not to push people into something they are not ready for. Lead them; do not push them. People are not cattle; they are to be led, not driven. One mountain, many trails; one reality, many paths; one river, many wells.
The Mystic Way
The Mystic Way is to be understood as a way of inquiry and practice, not a fixed dogma. It suggests direction without demanding adherence to a single doctrine. It is an activity of transformation—the inward process by which a person moves toward union with Ultimate Reality.
The Mystic Way is focused on the staged spiritual journey itself: awakening, purification, contemplation, and union. It has one supreme objective, union with Ultimate Reality. So here, “way” means a lived process, discipline, and the ascent of consciousness toward the One rather than a denomination or doctrine.
At a certain level of spiritual growth, you realize that no one religion or philosophy has all the truth. You see that there is one mountain but many paths. You learn non-attachment to views and begin to live by the motto: Learn from all, cling to none.
Some mystics begin in one tradition, then grow beyond it—like a child growing out of clothes that no longer fit. Others become spiritual nomads, studying several traditions in depth and seeking to move beyond surface-level understanding without becoming identified with any one of them.
Neoplatonism and the Path to the One
Plotinus lived about 600 years after Plato, the famous student of Socrates. He lived an austere and highly disciplined life centered on philosophy and inner contemplation. He was said to eat very little—often only one meal a day or even less—avoided luxuries and bodily indulgence, and spent much of his time in quiet reflection, teaching, and conversation with students rather than pursuing public life.
This unusual man became the founding figure in synthesizing the insights of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics into what we now call Neoplatonism—a vision of reality that offers a coherent metaphysical path back to the One.
The Foundations of Henayana
Neoplatonism is foundational to Henayana, the Path to the One, in shaping both our metaphysics and our soteriology. Metaphysics, in this context, concerns the philosophical study of the fundamental nature of reality—existence, being, and first causes.
The historical Buddha, Gotama, tended to avoid metaphysical questions and focused instead on the practical path of Liberation. His followers, however, were never satisfied with this, which is why Mahayana emerged. Mahayana filled in the metaphysical gaps with innovations such as Buddha‑nature, pure lands, celestial bodhisattvas, and the erasing of the Gotama’s distinction between samsara and Nirvana.
Henayana, by contrast, seeks to augment rather than contradict the historical teachings of Gotama. It does this by bringing in the best insights from science, psychology, and Western philosophy.
The Neoplatonic Structure of Reality
Neoplatonism presents a metaphysical framework in which the structure of the universe corresponds to that of the human psyche. The macrocosm of the cosmos is reflected in the microcosm of the inner life.
Following Plotinus, reality has three major divisions:
– At the highest level, the One is the eternal, ineffable source or Ground of Being.
– The first emanation is the nous, the organizing principle of reality—the demiurge of Plato and the Logos of Stoicism.
– At the lowest level is the physical world.
Our internal psychological makeup mirrors this external order. The One is reflected in consciousness, which is my interpretation of psyche. The nous is reflected in cognition, the information‑processing aspect of the mind. And the physical corresponds to our brain and body.
Descent, Ascent, and Liberation
Another important aspect of Neoplatonism is the idea of descent and ascent. Our consciousness descended from the One into the physical and must now ascend and return to the One. Salvation or liberation is attained through union with the One.
Neoplatonism fills in the gap that Gotama left concerning the nature of reality. Yet it remains incomplete without the addition of process philosophy, which teaches that the world is a matrix of becoming—not of substances but of events.
Neoplatonism, like Buddhism, also accepts karma and rebirth. Most people are not aware that reincarnation was taught by Plato and Plotinus. Philosophers often ignore this inconvenient truth, but reincarnation was at the heart of Western philosophy.
Even more interesting—and rarely discussed—is that Neoplatonism taught a version of Nirvana. If the One is beyond becoming, and we return and are rejoined to the One, we enter into “the unborn, unformed, unmade, unconditioned” (Udāna 8.3). Liberation is attained by ascending out of the conditioned realm. The One is the only reality beyond the conditioned realm. Therefore, union with God is Nirvana. This is Henayana.
A Brief Glimpse into a Vast System
Neoplatonism is a very complex and detailed system subject to various interpretations. This is only the briefest introduction.
The Buddha Believed in the One
Five blind men encounter an elephant in the jungle, each touching a different part to “know” it.
One feels the trunk: “It’s a large snake!”
One grasps the tusk: “No, a spear!”
One touches the leg: “A tree trunk!”
One holds the ear: “A fan!”
One bumps the side: “A wall!”
They argue fiercely, each insisting his version is the truth.
A wise sage explains: “You all grasp fragments of the same elephant. Reality is one, but partial views breed endless strife.”
When I say the Buddha believed in the One, I am talking about the elephant—the whole, not the fragments.
Not a Personal God
The Buddha most certainly did not believe in a personal creator deity like the “Man Upstairs,” a bearded overseer on a throne handing out rewards and punishments. As you can see, everything depends on what you mean by the word “the One.”
In Udana 8.3, the Buddha said:
“There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned. If, monks, there were not that unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, you could not know an escape here from the born, become, made, and conditioned.”
I define the One as the unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned. In more modern terms, the One is not a being, but the Ground of Being.
The modern understanding of God as the Ground of Being was not available to the Buddha. At the time, the only “gods” he knew were those of Brahminism. And the Reality he encountered in spiritual experience was not a personal being, but something entirely different.
Therefore, he never called this Reality “God,” though he could call it that today. But even today there are connotations that come attached to the word God, such as maleness.
So even though I sometimes use the word God, I find it safer to follow Plotinus and stick with the One, or in more modern form, the Source. In Buddhism, the One is the Unconditioned. In Daoism, it is the Eternal Dao. In philosophy, it is called the Absolute or Ultimate Reality. Different names, same Reality.
Neoplatonic Buddhism
My aim as a philosopher is to bring together Neoplatonism and Buddhism into a coherent synthesis. In doing so, I draw upon comparative philosophy, current insights from psychology, and what we know from physics and biology.
This project is a life’s work—years of study, contemplation, and struggle have led me toward this synthesis. Many traditions contain profound wisdom, but these two stand out as the finest expressions of the Western and Eastern philosophical worlds.
They meet, I believe, in the same ultimate insight: There is an Unconditioned Reality beyond time and space.
We are Sparks of that Unconditioned Reality—expressions of the One, refracted into the world of becoming. We find ourselves in this matrix of change and growth not by accident, but because becoming is the arena in which the Spark evolves.
Our meaning in life is simple and profound: to return to the One from which we came. This takes place by awakening to our Source and evolving our consciousness, our spark, into the likeness of and harmony with the One. It is the flight of the alone to the Alone – Nirvana.