204 actas del ii congreso internacional de literatura mística Table 3 (continued) Textural Descriptions Structural Descriptions (3) Purification This is the therapeutic experience and/or flow of experiencings of (a) ‘emptying the self ’; (b) ‘dying to self ’; (c) purging the self-centric ego (i.e., false sense of self) and will; (d) disconnecting from the world; and (e) abandoning sins and natural inclinations and/or desires. These disrupt the path of spiritual ascendancy and mystical experience, i.e., the flow and/or movement toward the eternal reality in God. The techniques of the spiritual path facilitate the replacing of outward concerns with introspection. There is a sense of emptiness and fullness. Self-awareness expands into a place of emptiness that is both the ‘self ’ and not the ‘self ’; this is the first real awareness of the supersensory organ of spiritual cognition. In order to overcome identification with the body, mind, and thoughts, and thereby experience flow and movement toward the eternal, a series of steps are implemented that (a) foment detachment, (b) minimize distractions, and (c) promote movement toward God. The context is characterized by asceticism, watchfulness, and contemplative prayer. The indispensable nature of the latter, cannot be readily understood because, although it occurs as an embodied experience, [i.e., while in the body], it is not circumscribed by the body or the mind. Contemplative prayer leads to the development of a dialogical method of explication of the architecture of the psychic system commonly called ‘self ’, but which is in reality, the organ of spiritual cognition. The focus then shifts from the bodymind identification to the activation of the organ of spiritual cognition. (4) Perfection This is the flow of experiencings related to: (a) the eradication of pleasures, gratifications, and fulfillment; and (b) visions and flashes of spiritual knowledge, which are the first revelations of the energies and essences of God, the self, and the world. The sensations are the manifestation of the infinite, and the ‘self ’ experiences wholeness through the embracing of paradoxes that cannot be perceived or understood by the mind. The ‘self ’ is empty but full of quiet satisfaction. This is the experience of the process of illuminating and/or actualizing the organ of spiritual cognition. The context of the experience of perfection includes the systematic longitudinal explication of the interior meaning-structures of consciousness in the flow of experiencings related to: (a) the eradication of pleasures, gratifications, and fulfillment; and (b) visions and flashes of spiritual knowledge, (which are the first revelations of the energies and essences of God, the self, and the world). This can be viewed as a particular form of psychogenesis. The components of true ‘selfconsciousness’ are organized in the ‘internal space’ of introspection as layers around the central experience of the organ of spiritual cognition in the process of perfection.
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