Volume III: Ways of Knowing

¹If Volumes I and II addressed what is known and what must be done about it, Volume III addresses the question of how it is known. This is not a secondary question. The manner of knowing is not separable from the content of what is known, and in the spiritual domain, the manner of knowing is often the more fundamental consideration.

²The most radical insight across the spiritual traditions is that the ordinary modes of knowing—conceptual thinking, sensory perception, discursive reasoning, emotional reaction—are not adequate to know what is ultimate. Something else is required: a direct knowing that bypasses the conceptual apparatus, a knowing through negation that strips away every false identification, a knowing through the body that is not reducible to intellectual understanding, a knowing through love that knows the beloved directly rather than through description, a knowing through ethical living that discovers truth in the doing rather than the thinking.

³These various modes of knowing are not the same, and the traditions that emphasize them differently reveal something important about the limits of any single mode. The tradition that teaches that the truth can only be known through negation is not denying that the truth can be known; it is teaching that the truth cannot be known any other way. The tradition that teaches that the truth can only be known through love is not sentimentalizing truth; it is teaching that the truth is the kind of thing that can only be known in the way that love knows—through union, through intimacy, through the dissolution of the distance between the knower and the known. The tradition that teaches that the truth must be known through the body is not reducing truth to matter; it is teaching that the body is not an obstacle to knowledge but a vehicle of it.

⁴What follows is an attempt to gather these different modes of knowing into a single vision, recognizing both their differences and their common ground.

¹The most important distinction in the spiritual domain is between conceptual knowledge (knowledge by description, by representation, by the mediation of the mind) and direct knowledge (knowledge by presence, by contact, by immediate awareness). Conceptual knowledge is the ordinary mode of knowing in the world; direct knowledge is the mode of knowing that the spiritual traditions are primarily concerned with, even when they use the language of concepts.

²The Buddhist Theory of Direct Knowing

³No tradition has worked out the theory of direct knowing more carefully than the Buddhist tradition, and the epistemological structure of the Buddhist path is one of its most important contributions to the spiritual domain.

⁴The Buddhist concept of gnana (knowing, wisdom, insight) is distinguished from vijnana (consciousness, discrimination, the dualistic awareness of subject and object) and from vijñapti-mātra (consciousness-only, the awareness that is nothing but the transformation of consciousness). The difference between gnana and vijnana is the difference between the direct knowledge of the nature of things and the dualistic awareness of things as objects. The former is single and immediate; the latter is dual and mediated.

⁵The Satipatthana Sutta is in part a training in the cultivation of direct knowing, because the four foundations of mindfulness are the training of attention in the direct apprehension of the phenomena without the interference of the conceptual apparatus. "The monk observes the body as the body, without conceptualization, without discrimination, without the involvement of the self. This is the direct knowing of the body" (Satipatthana Sutta, MN 10, paraphrased). The same is true for the feelings, the mind, and the mental objects.

⁶The Pali Canon's distinction between panna (wisdom, insight) and sanna (discrimination, recognition, the conceptual label) is the most important epistemological distinction in the early Buddhist tradition. "Panna is the direct knowledge of the nature of things; sanna is the conceptual recognition of things. The person who has panna sees things as they are; the person who has only sanna sees things as they appear to be" (from the Pali Canon commentaries, as expressed in the Abhidhamma framework).

⁷The Mahayana Buddhist development of the concept of direct knowing is the most sophisticated in the Buddhist tradition, and it is centered on the teaching of the wisdom of the perfection of insight—the direct knowledge of emptiness. The Heart Sutra's most famous line, "When the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara was practicing the deep wisdom of the perfection of insight, he saw and observed that the five aggregates are all empty in their own nature" (Heart Sutra, opening), is the description of the direct seeing—the visual metaphor that captures the nature of the knowledge. It is not a deduction, not a conclusion, not a conceptual inference; it is a seeing.

⁸The Diamond Sutra's teaching of the direct knowing is the most radical in the Buddhist tradition. "What the Tathagata has taught is the raft, and the wise person has understood the raft is for crossing, not for grasping. The direct knowing of the dharmas is the crossing; the conceptual grasping of the dharmas is the clinging to the raft. The person who has crossed has let go of the raft, and the person who is still clinging to the raft has not crossed" (Diamond Sutra, paraphrase).

⁹The Lankavatara Sutra's teaching of the mind-only is the most extensive Buddhist account of the direct knowing of the nature of consciousness. "The external world does not exist apart from the mind; the mind, variously transformed, appears as the external world. The direct knowing of this is the liberation of the bodhisattva, because the bodhisattva no longer sees the world as external and separate from the mind, and therefore no longer clings to the world as real" (Lankavatara Sutra, Section 3). The direct knowing here is the recognition of the one reality behind the apparent duality of the mind and the world.

¹⁰The Tibetan Buddhist concept of rigpa (primordial awareness, the direct recognition of the nature of mind) is the most developed theory of direct knowing in the Buddhist tradition. The Dzogchen teaching is that rigpa is not a product of thought, not an inference, not a conclusion, but the direct recognition of what is already present. "The rigpa is the direct knowing of the nature of mind, the recognition of the luminosity and emptiness of the mind, the immediate awareness of the ground of all experience. It is not something to be achieved; it is something to be recognized, and the practice is the recognition" (Dzogchen teachings, from the Nyingthig Yabshi and other collections).

¹¹The metaphor of the sun in the sky is central to the Dzogchen teaching of direct knowing: "The sun is always shining in the sky, but the clouds obscure it. The sun does not need to be lit; it needs only to be revealed. The rigpa is always present, but the adventitious defilements obscure it. The practice of Dzogchen is not the cultivation of the rigpa; it is the removal of the obscurations, so that the rigpa can reveal itself" (Dzogchen teachings, paraphrase).

¹²The Mahamudra teaching of the direct knowing is the closest equivalent to the Dzogchen teaching within the Kagyu tradition. "Mahamudra is the direct recognition of the nature of mind, the direct knowing of the emptiness and the luminosity of the mind, the immediate awareness of the ground of all experience. It is not a conceptual understanding; it is a direct recognition, and the practice is the stabilization of this recognition in all circumstances" (Mahamudra teachings, from the Kagyu lineage).

¹³The Zen tradition's concept of kensho (seeing into one's nature) and satori (awakening, the direct realization of the nature of mind) is the most dramatic expression of the direct knowing in the Buddhist tradition. The koan is the most characteristic device for the cultivation of direct knowing, because the koan is designed to short-circuit the conceptual intellect and to produce the direct recognition of the nature of mind.

¹⁴Dogen's teaching of the direct knowing in the Shobogenzo is the most extensive in the Zen tradition. "To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by the ten thousand things. This is the direct knowing of the Way: it is not a conceptual understanding; it is the actualization of the Way in the person, the direct experience of the non-separation of the self and the ten thousand things" (Shobogenzo, Bendowa, paraphrased).

¹⁵The koan tradition's most famous koan, "Mu" (Zhaozhou's answer to the question whether a dog has Buddha-nature), is the most direct expression of the Zen approach to direct knowing. Zhaozhou's answer is not "yes" or "no" or "the dog has Buddha-nature just as all beings do" or "the dog does not have Buddha-nature because all beings are empty of nature." Zhaozhou's answer is simply "Mu"—no—and the point of the koan is that the answer is not a conceptual position but a direct pointing to the mind that is before all conceptualization. The student who works on the koan is not trying to solve a puzzle; the student is trying to recognize the mind that is the source of the answer, the mind that is before the question.

¹⁶The Ten Bulls (Oxherding Pictures) is the most influential Zen presentation of the stages of the direct knowing, and the tenth picture is the most important. The image is of the person in the marketplace, laughing and singing, with no ox in sight—in other words, the person who has recognized the nature of mind and returned to ordinary life, the person who has no special state to show, the person who has no attainment to display. "After all this, the person is back in the marketplace, laughing and singing, and the ox is nowhere to be seen. This is the true realization: the ox was never separate from the person, and the person was never separate from the ox" (Ten Bulls, tenth picture, paraphrased). The direct knowing is not a state to be maintained; it is the ground of all states, the recognition that is always already the case.

¹⁷The Upanishadic Theory of Direct Knowing

¹⁸The Upanishadic tradition's theory of direct knowing is the most important in the Indian tradition, and it is centered on the concept of anubhava (direct experience) and the distinction between the knowledge that comes from the study of the scriptures and the knowledge that comes from the direct recognition of the Atman.

¹⁹The Chandogya Upanishad's famous teaching of "Tat tvam asi" (That thou art) is the most influential statement of the direct knowing in the Upanishadic tradition. Uddalaka's instruction to Shvetaketu is not a philosophical argument but a direct pointing to what is already the case. "That which is the finest essence of the whole world—this is the Atman. That is the Reality. That is the Truth. Tat tvam asi, Shvetaketu" (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.8.7). The teaching is that Shvetaketu already is what he is seeking; the instruction is the direct pointing to what is already present, and the recognition of this is the liberation.

²⁰The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's teaching of the direct knowing is the most explicit. "The self is not the body, not the breath, not the mind, not the intellect, not the ego. The self is what remains when all of these are set aside; it is the seer that cannot be seen, the hearer that cannot be heard, the thinker that cannot be thought, the knower that cannot be known. This is the direct knowledge of the self: it is the knowledge of what cannot be known by the mind, because the mind is the instrument of the knowing, and the self is what is known by itself" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.21, paraphrased).

²¹The Kena Upanishad's teaching of the direct knowing is the most epistemological. "By what eye does the eye see, by what mind does the mind think, by what speech does the speech speak? It is not by the eye that the eye sees; it is not by the mind that the mind thinks; it is not by the speech that the speech speaks. It is by the Self that the eye sees, by the Self that the mind thinks, by the Self that the speech speaks. The Self is the condition of all knowing, and the Self cannot be known as an object of knowing, because the Self is the subject of all knowing" (Kena Upanishad, 1:1). The direct knowing here is the recognition of the self as the ground of all knowing, the recognition that the self cannot be known by the means of knowledge but only by itself.

²²The Mandukya Upanishad's teaching of the four states of consciousness and the fourth (turiya) is the most important theory of direct knowing in the Upanishadic tradition. "The fourth is not inwardly conscious, not outwardly conscious, not both-wise conscious, not a mass of consciousness, not conscious, not unconscious. It is unseen, beyond the reach of ordinary inquiry, ungraspable, indefinable, the essence of the experience of one's own self, the cessation of all phenomena, peace, bliss, and nondual" (Mandukya Upanishad, verse 7). The fourth is the direct knowing in its purity, the state of consciousness that is not objectified, not mediated, not dual, but the immediate awareness of the self as it is.

²³The Gaudapada Karika on the Mandukya Upanishad is the most important philosophical development of the non-dual teaching in the Indian tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the direct knowing of the non-dual reality is the only genuine knowledge. "The world is unreal, but not like a dream. It is like an illusion, but not an illusion that can be dispelled by another illusion. It is the appearance of the Real in the mode of limitation. The direct knowledge of the Real is the knowledge that the world is not other than the Real, and the world is not real in the way that the Real is real. This knowledge is not a conceptual understanding; it is a direct recognition, and the recognition is the liberation" (Gaudapada Karika, 2:1-10, paraphrased).

²⁴The Yoga Vasistha's teaching of the direct knowing is the most radical in the Hindu tradition, because it presents the recognition of the mind as the source of the appearance of the world as the direct knowledge that is the liberation. "The world is appearance in the mind; the mind is the world; the self is the consciousness that perceives both. When the mind is stilled, the world does not appear, and the self abides in its own nature. This is the direct knowledge: it is the recognition that the world is the mind, and the mind is the self, and the self is the one reality" (Yoga Vasistha, Book 6, Chapter 1, paraphrased).

²⁵The Ashtavakra Gita's teaching of the direct knowing is the most uncompromising in the Hindu tradition. "You are the infinite consciousness, free from all limitation. Why do you seek to know? What is there to know? You are already everything, and the seeking is the bondage. The direct knowledge is the recognition of the freedom that is already there, the recognition that you are not the body, not the mind, not the intellect, not the ego, but the infinite consciousness that is the ground of all appearance" (Ashtavakra Gita, 1:1-2, paraphrased).

²⁶The Vivekachudamani is the most important manual for the cultivation of the direct knowing in the Advaita Vedanta tradition, because it presents the systematic discrimination between the real and the unreal as the means of the direct recognition of the Atman. "The person who discriminates between the real and the unreal is the person who is ready for the direct knowledge. The discrimination is the recognition that the body is not the self, the breath is not the self, the mind is not the self, the intellect is not the self, the ego is not the self, and that what remains when all these are set aside is the self, the witness, the Atman, the Brahman" (Vivekachudamani, verses 217-227, paraphrased). The direct knowledge is the culmination of the discrimination, the recognition that is not mediated by the conceptual apparatus but is the immediate awareness of the truth.

²⁷The Taoist Theory of Direct Knowing

²⁸The Taoist theory of direct knowing is the most distinctive in the spiritual tradition, because it is not the recognition of a ground behind the appearance but the recognition of the way of the appearance itself, the recognition of the Tao that is the pattern of all existence, the recognition that the truth is not a hidden reality but the immediate actuality of what is.

²⁹The Tao te Ching's teaching of direct knowing is the most foundational. "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. Therefore, the person who knows the eternal does not speak of it; the person who speaks of it does not know the eternal. The direct knowing of the Tao is the knowing that is without words, without concepts, without the labeling of the experience" (Tao te Ching, 1). The very first chapter of the Tao te Ching establishes the primacy of direct knowing over conceptual knowing, and the entire text is structured around this distinction.

³⁰Chapter 16 of the Tao te Ching is the most explicit about the cultivation of direct knowing. "Attain the utmost emptiness, hold firmly to stillness. The ten thousand things arise and I watch them return. They turn and return to the root, and returning to the root is stillness. Stillness is called returning to the fate. Returning to the fate is the eternal. To know the eternal is enlightenment. Not to know the eternal leads to evil" (Tao te Ching, 16). The direct knowing here is the knowing of the eternal from the stillness, the recognition of the root of all things, the recognition of the way that the world moves.

³¹Zhuangzi's teaching of direct knowing is the most radical in the Taoist tradition, because it dissolves the very distinction between the knower and the known. In the chapter "The Equality of Things," Zhuangzi presents the recognition of the equality of all things as the direct knowing of the Tao. "The great understanding is broad and unhurried; the small understanding is fractional and busy. The great person does not have a self; the small person is the self. The great person does not have the feelings of gain and loss; the small person is the feeling of gain and loss. The great person does not have the feelings of right and wrong; the small person is the feeling of right and wrong. The great person dwells in the direct, the unadorned, the simple; the small person dwells in the categories, the judgments, the distinctions" (Zhuangzi, "The Equality of Things," paraphrased). The direct knowing is the dissolution of the small understanding into the great understanding, the recognition that the distinctions of the small understanding are not ultimately real.

³²The famous butterfly dream passage is the most eloquent expression of the Taoist theory of direct knowing. "Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. But between a man and a butterfly there is a difference. This is called the transformation of things" (Zhuangzi, "The Equality of Things," Chapter 2). The point is not that reality is an illusion but that the certainty of the knower about the nature of the known is an illusion, and the direct knowing is the recognition of the fluidity of the boundary between the self and the world, the waking and the dreaming, the real and the apparent.

³³The Liezi's teaching of direct knowing is the most practical. "The man who has no self is the man who has recognized that the self is not separate from the world, and that the attempt to make the self separate is the source of all suffering. The man who has no self is the man who knows without knowing, acts without acting, and dwells in the way" (Liezi, Chapter 6, "The Sage," paraphrased).

³⁴The Huainanzi's teaching of direct knowing is the most cosmologically grounded. "The human being is a small universe, and the cultivation of the direct knowing is the alignment of the small universe with the great universe. The practice is the circulation of the energy through the body, the cultivation of the five organs, the harmonization of the yin and the yang, and the alignment of the breath with the cosmic breath. When the person is in harmony with the cosmic order, the person knows the way directly, without the interference of the conceptual apparatus" (Huainanzi, Chapter 3, paraphrased).

³⁵The Secret of the Golden Flower's teaching of direct knowing is the most somatic. "The light is the light of consciousness itself; when the light is allowed to circulate freely through the body, the body becomes a vessel of spiritual transformation, and the person knows the way directly, without the interference of the mind, without the mediation of the concepts. The direct knowing is the knowing of the light, the knowing of the circulation, the knowing of the transformation" (Secret of the Golden Flower, Chapter 1).

³⁶The Christian Mystical Theory of Direct Knowing

³⁷The Christian mystical tradition's theory of direct knowing is the most distinctive in the Western tradition, because it is centered on the idea of the direct encounter with God, the direct presence of God in the soul, the direct knowledge of God that comes through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

³⁸The Desert Fathers and Mothers' teaching of direct knowing is the most practical. "The monk knows God not through books, not through study, not through reasoning, but through the direct encounter with God in the silence of the desert. The monk waits in the silence, and God speaks in the silence, and the monk knows God in the silence" (Sayings of the Desert Fathers, various apophthegmata). The direct knowing here is the knowledge that comes from the encounter with God, not from the study of the teachings about God.

³⁹The teaching of Evagrius Ponticus in the Praktikos is the most systematic. "The person who has purified the heart from the eight evil thoughts enters into the state of apatheia, and in this state, the intellect is no longer distracted by the thoughts, and the intellect can encounter God directly, without the interference of the thoughts. This is the direct knowledge of God: it is the knowledge of the intellect in the state of stillness, the knowledge of the intellect that is no longer dual, no longer distant from God" (Praktikos, prologue).

⁴⁰The teaching of the Cloud of Unknowing on direct knowing is the most apophatic. "The person knows God not through any knowledge, not through any vision, not through any understanding, not through any experience of God, but through the love that is directed into the cloud of unknowing, piercing the cloud with a single point of longing love. The person knows God in the darkness, in the unknowing, in the cloud, and this knowledge is more real than any knowledge that can be known through the mind" (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapters 3-4).

⁴¹The teaching of Meister Eckhart on direct knowing is the most radical in the Christian tradition. "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me; my eye and God's eye is one eye, one view, one knowledge, one love. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of God by the eye of God, the knowledge of God that is the knowledge of God by God. The person knows God when the person is no longer the person, when the person has become the eye of God, when the person has become the knowledge of God" (Meister Eckhart, Sermon 57, paraphrased). This is the most radical statement of direct knowing in the Christian tradition, and it is significant for the identity of the knower with the known, the identity of the person's knowledge of God with God's knowledge of the person.

⁴²The teaching of Julian of Norwich on direct knowing is the most loving. "The person knows God through love, through the vision of the love of God, through the contemplation of the suffering of Christ, through the recognition that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' The direct knowledge of God is not the knowledge of the intellect but the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of the love, the knowledge of the presence" (Revelations of Divine Love, Chapters 1-86).

⁴³The teaching of Thomas Merton on direct knowing is the most contemporary. "The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of God by the true self, the knowledge of God that is not mediated by the conceptual apparatus, not mediated by the images, not mediated by the desires, not mediated by the fears. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of God by the ground of the person, the knowledge of God by the person as God knows the person" (New Seeds of Contemplation, from Merton).

⁴⁴The Sufi Theory of Direct Knowing

⁴⁵The Sufi theory of direct knowing is the most eloquent in the Islamic tradition, and it is centered on the idea of the direct encounter with the Divine, the direct knowledge of the Divine through the annihilation of the self, the direct presence of the Divine in the heart.

⁴⁶The Masnavi's teaching of direct knowing is the most important. "The person knows the Divine not through the books, not through the study, not through the reasoning, but through the direct encounter with the Divine in the heart. The person waits in the heart, and the Divine speaks in the heart, and the person knows the Divine in the heart. The direct knowledge of the Divine is the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of the love, the knowledge of the presence" (Masnavi, Book 1, paraphrased).

⁴⁷The Conference of the Birds is the most famous allegorical description of the direct knowing in the Sufi tradition, and the final valley is the most important. "In the Valley of Poverty and Annihilation, the seeker ceases to exist as a seeker, and what remains is the Divine. The seeker sees himself, the thirty birds, and understands that he is the Simurgh. The direct knowledge is the recognition of the seeker that he is the sought, that the Divine is not other than the seeker, and that the seeker's true self is the Divine" (Conference of the Birds, Final Valley, paraphrase).

⁴⁸The teaching of Al-Ghazzali in the Ihya Ulum al-Din is the most systematic. "The person knows God through the direct encounter with God in the heart, through the purification of the heart from the attachments, through the illumination of the heart by the light of God. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of the light, the knowledge of the presence" (Ihya Ulum al-Din, "Book of the Heart").

⁴⁹The teaching of Ibn Arabi in the Fusus al-Hikam is the most metaphysical. "The person knows God through the knowledge of the self. Whoever knows himself knows his Lord. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of the self, because the self is the mirror in which God contemplates his own reality. The knowledge of the self is the knowledge of God, because the self is not other than God, and God is not other than the self" (Fusus al-Hikam, prologue, paraphrased). This is the most radical statement of direct knowing in the Islamic tradition, and it is significant for the identity of the self with the Divine, the identity of the knowledge of the self with the knowledge of God.

⁵⁰The teaching of Rumi in the Divan Shams is the most ecstatic. "I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was a man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as a man, to soar with angels blest. But even from angelic states, I must pass on. At last, I became a void, and from that void, I learned the secret of the universe" (Divan Shams, paraphrased). The direct knowledge here is the knowledge that is learned from the void, the knowledge that is not the knowledge of any thing but the knowledge of the secret of the universe, the knowledge that is the direct encounter with the reality that is beyond all things.

⁵¹The Kabbalistic Theory of Direct Knowing

⁵²The Kabbalistic theory of direct knowing is the most elaborate in the Western tradition, and it is centered on the idea of the direct encounter with the Ein Sof, the direct knowledge of the Divine through the sefirot, the direct presence of the Divine in the soul.

⁵³The Zohar's teaching of direct knowing is the most important. "The person knows God not through the books, not through the study, not through the reasoning, but through the direct encounter with God in the heart. The person waits in the heart, and God speaks in the heart, and the person knows God in the heart. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of the sefirot, the knowledge of the Ein Sof" (Zohar, III, 28b, paraphrased).

⁵⁴The teaching of the Sepher Yetzirah on direct knowing is the most systematic. "The person knows God through the knowledge of the twenty-two letters and the ten sefirot. These are the instruments of creation, and the knowledge of the instruments is the knowledge of the creator. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of the letters and the sefirot, the knowledge of the forces that constitute the world, the knowledge of the way that God creates the world" (Sepher Yetzirah, 1:1).

⁵⁵The teaching of the Lurianic Kabbalah on direct knowing is the most dramatic. "The person knows God through the knowledge of the sparks, the knowledge of the tikkun, the knowledge of the restoration of the world. The direct knowledge of God is the knowledge of the sparks that are scattered in the material world, the knowledge of the gathering of the sparks to their source, the knowledge of the restoration of the vessels that were broken in the beginning" (Etz Chaim, 2:1, paraphrased).

⁵⁶The Stoic Theory of Direct Knowing

⁵⁷The Stoic theory of direct knowing is the most practical in the Western tradition, and it is centered on the idea of the direct knowledge of the nature of things, the direct knowledge of what is within the power of the person and what is not.

⁵⁸Epictetus's teaching of direct knowing is the most direct. "The person knows what is within his power and what is not within his power. This is the direct knowledge: it is not the knowledge of the external things, but the knowledge of the power of the will. The person who knows this knows the truth, and the person who knows the truth is free" (Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1, paraphrased).

⁵⁹Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is the most extensive personal record of the direct knowing in the Stoic tradition. "The direct knowledge is the knowledge of the nature of the things, the knowledge of the change of the things, the knowledge of the interweaving of the things. The person who knows this knows the universe, and the person who knows the universe knows the truth" (Meditations, various passages, paraphrased).

⁶⁰The Egyptian Initiatory Theory of Direct Knowing

⁶¹The Egyptian initiatory theory of direct knowing is the most esoteric in the spiritual tradition, and it is centered on the idea of the direct encounter with the divine light, the direct knowledge of the nature of the self through the experience of the initiation.

⁶²The Opening of the Way's teaching of direct knowing is the most systematic. "The person knows the truth through the direct encounter with the Spirit, through the experience of the initiation, through the recognition of the nature of the self. The direct knowledge is the knowledge of the state of identification, the knowledge of the recognition of the Spiritual Witness, the knowledge of the union of the consciously divine and the consciously human" (Opening of the Way, Chapter 2, paraphrased). The key teaching is that knowledge is a state, not an information: "Knowledge is not a science but a state, the state of identification. To be identified with something is to be united with it and made one with it" (Opening of the Way, Chapter 2).

⁶³The teaching of the discernment of discernment is the most important. "The power to discriminate between perceived reality and the possibility that perception may be illusory is acquired by higher consciousness through genuine spiritual experience of identification. This is the discernment of discernment, and it is the foundation of the direct knowledge" (Opening of the Way, Chapter 2).

¹If direct knowledge is the knowing by presence, through negation is the knowing by the stripping away of every false qualification, the knowing of what is true by the elimination of what is not true. This is one of the most important modes of knowing in the spiritual tradition, and it is significant because it is the mode of knowing that is most resistant to the distortions of the conceptual apparatus.

²The Upanishadic Via Negativa

³The Upanishadic tradition's via negativa is the most systematic in the Indian tradition, and it is centered on the method of neti neti—"not this, not this"—the systematic negation of every identification of the self with the body, the breath, the mind, the intellect, the ego, and the ultimate recognition of the self as that which remains when all these are negated.

⁴The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's teaching of the via negativa is the most explicit. "The self is not the body, not the breath, not the mind, not the intellect, not the ego, not the will, not the emotions, not the senses. The self is what remains when all of these are set aside; it is the seer that cannot be seen, the hearer that cannot be heard, the thinker that cannot be thought, the knower that cannot be known" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.21, paraphrased).

⁵The Kena Upanishad's teaching of the via negativa is the most epistemological. "It is not by the eye that the eye sees; it is not by the mind that the mind thinks; it is not by the speech that the speech speaks. The truth is that which is beyond the instruments of knowing, beyond the subject-object duality, beyond the conceptual apparatus. The truth is that which is the condition of all knowing, and it cannot be known by the means of knowledge" (Kena Upanishad, 1:1).

⁶The Taittiriya Upanishad's teaching of the via negativa through the sheaths is the most influential in the Yoga tradition. "The physical sheath is the self, they say; but the physical sheath is transitory; it is not the self. The vital sheath is not the self; the mental sheath is not the self; the intellectual sheath is not the self; the bliss sheath is not the self. That which is beyond all these is the Self" (Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.3, paraphrased).

⁷The Upanishadic via negativa is not negative theology in the Western sense, because it is not the negation of the divine as a person but the negation of the false identifications of the self. The self is not the body, not the mind, not the intellect, not the ego—but the self is the ground of all these, the witness that is present in all experience. The negation is the stripping away of the false identifications, the recognition of the self as that which is beyond all of them.

⁸The Mantra of the Upanishads—"Om Tat Sat"—is the most famous expression of the via negativa in the Indian tradition. "Om is the sound that is beyond all sound; Tat is the reality that is beyond all description; Sat is the truth that is beyond all appearance. Om Tat Sat is the mantra of the via negativa, the mantra that strips away all the false qualifications and leaves only the truth" (from the Upanishadic tradition, as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, 17:23-28).

⁹The Taoist Via Negativa

¹⁰The Taoist via negativa is the most original in the spiritual tradition, because it is not the negation of the divine but the negation of the naming of the Tao, the negation of the conceptual understanding of the way, the recognition that the truth is not the object of the conceptualization but the subject of the realization.

¹¹The Tao te Ching's opening lines are the most famous via negativa in the East. "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name" (Tao te Ching, 1). The negation here is the negation of the possibility of the conceptual capture of the Tao, the recognition that the truth is not the thing that can be said but the way that can be lived.

¹²Chapter 81 of the Tao te Ching is the most radical. "The sage does not accumulate for himself; the more he does for others, the more he has himself. The way of Heaven is to benefit and not to harm; the way of the sage is to do and not to contend. The words of the sage are few; the actions of the sage are simple. The direct knowing of the Tao is the knowing that is without words, without concepts, without the labeling of the experience" (Tao te Ching, 81, paraphrased).

¹³Zhuangzi's via negativa is the most philosophical in the Taoist tradition, because it is the radical negation of all distinctions, all categories, all judgments. In the chapter "The Equality of Things," Zhuangzi presents the dissolution of all distinctions as the via negativa. "The ten thousand things are one. The one is the ten thousand things. The great understanding is broad and unhurried; the small understanding is fractional and busy. The perfect person has no self, the spiritual person has no merit, the sage has no name. ... Who knows the argument that brings the debate to rest? The sage does not argue; the sage knows the equality of all things" (Zhuangzi, "The Equality of Things," paraphrased).

¹⁴The Liezi's via negativa is the most practical. "The man who has no self is the man who has recognized that the self is not separate from the world, and that the attempt to make the self separate is the source of all suffering. The man who has no self is the man who knows without knowing, acts without acting, and dwells in the way. This is the via negativa of the Taoist tradition: the stripping away of the self, the stripping away of the desires, the stripping away of the knowledge" (Liezi, Chapter 6, "The Sage," paraphrased).

¹⁵The Huainanzi's via negativa is the most cosmologically grounded. "The human being is a small universe, and the via negativa is the alignment of the small universe with the great universe. The practice is the stripping away of the attachments, the stripping away of the desires, the stripping away of the knowledge, until the person is in harmony with the cosmic order" (Huainanzi, Chapter 3, paraphrased).

¹⁶The Christian Via Negativa

¹⁷The Christian via negativa is the most developed of the Western traditions, and it is centered on the idea of the unknowability of God, the need for the apophatic approach, the recognition that God is beyond all predication.

¹⁸The Cloud of Unknowing is the most important text of the Christian via negativa, and it is one of the most important texts of the apophatic tradition in the entire spiritual domain. The author's teaching is that the person knows God not through any knowledge, not through any vision, not through any understanding, not through any experience of God, but through the love that is directed into the cloud of unknowing, piercing the cloud with a single point of longing love.

¹⁹The "cloud of forgetting" is the first element of the via negativa: "You must cast all your thoughts, all your desires, all your fears, all your knowledge, all your concepts, all your images, all your experiences of God, into the cloud of forgetting. You must forget all that you think you know about God, all that you think you can understand about God, all that you think you can experience of God" (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 2).

²⁰The "cloud of unknowing" is the second element of the via negativa: "You must direct your love into the cloud of unknowing, piercing the cloud with a single point of longing love. You must not seek to understand, not seek to see, not seek to know. You must simply love God in the darkness, in the unknowing, in the cloud" (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 3).

²¹The work of the water is the third element of the via negativa: "You will find, in your prayer, that there comes a work of the water, a work of the darkness, a work of the spiritual irritation that arises from the cloud. This work is not your own; it is the work of God in you, and you must not resist it. It is the purification of your whole being, and it is the most painful and the most necessary of all the works" (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 9).

²²The Cloud of Unknowing is the most important Christian text on the via negativa because it is the most practical, the most systematic, and the most radical in its denial of the possibility of the knowledge of God through any created means. The author is not a philosopher; the author is a spiritual practitioner giving practical advice to another practitioner, and the advice is the most direct and the most uncompromising.

²³Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's Mystical Theology is the most important philosophical text of the Christian via negativa, and it is the foundation of the Western apophatic tradition. "The cause of all is beyond all assertion; it is neither one nor many, neither good nor being, neither wisdom nor power, neither life nor soul. It is beyond all these, and it is not any of these. The knowledge of God is beyond all knowledge; the contemplation of God is beyond all contemplation; the love of God is beyond all love" (Mystical Theology, 1, paraphrased).

²⁴The Divine Names of Pseudo-Dionysius is the counterpoint to the Mystical Theology, and it is significant because it shows that the via negativa is not the only way of approaching God but one of the two ways, the other being the via affirmativa. "The divine names are the ways in which God reveals himself to the human mind; they are the paths by which the person ascends to God. The divine names are good, being, life, wisdom, power, love, and all the other names that are predicated of God. The person ascends through the divine names, from the lower names to the higher names, and from the higher names to the love of God, and from the love of God to the darkness of God, where the person knows God beyond all names" (Divine Names, paraphrase).

²⁵Meister Eckhart's sermons are the most radical in the Christian tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the via negativa is the only way of knowing God. "God is not found by adding anything to the soul, but by subtracting everything from the soul. The soul must be emptied of all its self-understanding, all its knowledge, all its desires, all its fears, all its loves, all its hates, all its prayers, all its experiences of God. And when the soul is empty, God fills it, and the person knows God" (Meister Eckhart, Sermon 23, paraphrased). This is the most uncompromising statement of the via negativa in the Christian tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge of God is not the addition of something but the subtraction of everything that is not God.

²⁶The Buddhist Via Negativa

²⁷The Buddhist via negativa is the most systematic in the spiritual tradition, and it is centered on the concept of sunyata (emptiness) and the two truths doctrine—the teaching that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, and that the ultimate truth is the direct recognition of this emptiness.

²⁸The Heart Sutra's "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" is the most famous statement of the Buddhist via negativa. "The five aggregates are all empty in their own nature; the eye is empty, the ear is empty, the nose is empty, the tongue is empty, the body is empty, the mind is empty; all the dharmas are empty. The Bodhisattva does not see anything as existing or as non-existing, as permanent or as impermanent, as self or as not-self. This is the direct knowing of the emptiness, and this is the knowledge that liberates" (Heart Sutra, paraphrase).

²⁹The Diamond Sutra's via negativa is the most radical in the Buddhist tradition, because it is the negation of the very concepts of the path, the practice, the Buddha, the dharma, and the liberation. "If a person sees the Buddha in terms of form, or seeks the Buddha in terms of sound, that person walks a wrong path. The Tathagata is not to be seen through the forms; the Tathagata is the emptiness of the forms. The Bodhisattva does not see a self, a person, a living being, or a life-span. The perfection of wisdom is not a perfection, but it is called a perfection so that people can understand it. The person who has the direct knowledge of the dharmas is the person who has no conceptual understanding, no conceptual position, no conceptual grasping" (Diamond Sutra, paraphrase).

³⁰The Madhyamaka school of the Buddhist tradition, founded by Nagarjuna, is the most systematic philosophical development of the via negativa in the Buddhist tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that all positions are ultimately untenable, and that the only position that is viable is the position of the emptiness of all phenomena. Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way) is the most important text of the Madhyamaka school, and it is one of the most important texts in the history of philosophy.

³¹The Tibetan Book of the Dead's via negativa is the most experiential in the Buddhist tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the appearances of the bardo states are the projections of the mind, and that these appearances are empty, and that the recognition of this emptiness is the liberation. "The appearances that arise in the bardo are the projections of the mind, and they are empty; if one recognizes them as such, one is liberated. If one does not, one becomes attached and is reborn" (Bardo Thodol, Chapter 5).

³²The Dzogchen teaching of the via negativa is the most direct. "The mind is the ground of all experience, but the mind is empty of all substantiality. The practice of Dzogchen is the recognition of the emptiness of the mind, the recognition of the luminosity of the mind, the recognition of the ground of all experience. The via negativa here is the recognition that the mind is empty, and the recognition of the emptiness is the liberation" (Dzogchen teachings, paraphrase).

³³The Mahamudra teaching of the via negativa is the most systematic in the Kagyu tradition. "The mind is the ground of all experience, but the mind is empty of all substantiality. The practice of Mahamudra is the recognition of the emptiness of the mind, the recognition of the luminosity of the mind, the recognition of the ground of all experience. The via negativa here is the recognition that the mind is empty, and the recognition of the emptiness is the liberation" (Mahamudra teachings, paraphrase).

³⁴The Hindu Via Negativa

³⁵The Hindu via negativa is the most varied, because the Hindu tradition has multiple paths, and the via negativa is expressed differently in the different paths.

³⁶The Advaita Vedanta's via negativa is the most systematic, and it is the foundation of the non-dual teaching. The Vivekachudamani is the most important manual for the via negativa in the Advaita tradition. "The body is not the self, because the body is inert; the breath is not the self, because the breath is a process; the mind is not the self, because the mind is changeable; the intellect is not the self, because the intellect is an instrument; the ego is not the self, because the ego is a false identification. The self is the consciousness that witnesses all of these, and this consciousness is unchanging, pure, and free" (Vivekachudamani, verses 217-227, paraphrased).

³⁷The Yoga Vasistha's via negativa is the most radical in the Hindu tradition, because it reduces the entire world to the mind, and the mind to the self. "The world is appearance in the mind; the mind is the world; the self is the consciousness that perceives both. When the mind is stilled, the world does not appear, and the self abides in its own nature. This is the via negativa: the stripping away of the world as an independent reality, the stripping away of the mind as a separate entity, the recognition of the self as the only reality" (Yoga Vasistha, Book 6, Chapter 1, paraphrased).

³⁸The Ashtavakra Gita's via negativa is the most uncompromising. "You are the infinite consciousness, free from all limitation. Why do you seek to know? What is there to know? You are already everything, and the seeking is the bondage. The via negativa here is the recognition that all the objects of the seeking are not real, that all the desires for liberation are not real, that all the efforts for liberation are not real, and that the only reality is the infinite consciousness that you are" (Ashtavakra Gita, 1:1-2, paraphrased).

³⁹The Samkhya Karika's via negativa is the most philosophical in the Indian tradition, because it is the via negativa of the distincition between purusha and prakriti, the recognition that the self is not the prakriti, and the liberation is the recognition of the distinction. "The purusha is pure consciousness; the prakriti is matter. The purusha is not the prakriti; the prakriti is not the purusha. The liberation is the recognition of this distinction, and the recognition of this distinction is the via negativa: the negation of the identification of the purusha with the prakriti" (Samkhya Karika, 11-14, paraphrased).

⁴⁰The Sufi Via Negativa

⁴¹The Sufi via negativa is the most eloquent in the Islamic tradition, and it is centered on the concept of fana (annihilation) and the negation of the self.

⁴²The Masnavi's via negativa is the most important. "The self is a veil between the soul and God. The soul sees God through the veil, but does not see the veil itself; therefore, the soul thinks it sees God directly, but in fact it sees only the veil. The veil must be removed, and when it is removed, the soul sees God directly, and the self no longer appears. This is the via negativa of the Sufi tradition: the stripping away of the self, the stripping away of the veil, the recognition of the Divine as the only reality" (Masnavi, Book 1, paraphrased).

⁴³The Conference of the Birds' via negativa is the most dramatic. "In the Valley of Poverty and Annihilation, the seeker ceases to exist as a seeker, and what remains is the Divine. The seeker sees himself, the thirty birds, and understands that he is the Simurgh. The via negativa here is the annihilation of the seeker, the annihilation of the self, the recognition of the Divine as the only reality" (Conference of the Birds, Final Valley, paraphrase).

⁴⁴Al-Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum al-Din is the most systematic account of the via negativa in the Islamic tradition. "The heart must be stripped of all its attachments, all its desires, all its passions, all its loves, all its hates, all its cares, all its worries, all its fears. The heart must be empty of everything that is not God, and when the heart is empty, God fills it, and the person knows God" (Ihya Ulum al-Din, "Book of the Heart," paraphrase).

⁴⁵Ibn Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam is the most metaphysical. "The universe is the mirror in which God contemplates his own names and attributes. The person must strip away the illusion of the independent existence of the universe, and must recognize that the only true existence is God. The via negativa here is the recognition of the Unity of Being, the recognition that the only true existence is God, and that all created things are the shadow of God in the mirror of existence" (Fusus al-Hikam, prologue, paraphrase).

⁴⁶The Taoist Via Negativa in the Zhuangzi and Liezi

⁴⁷The Zhuangzi's via negativa is the most original in the Taoist tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that all distinctions are ultimately empty, and that the truth is the recognition of the equality of all things.

⁴⁸"Zhuangzi said: 'The ten thousand things are one. The one is the ten thousand things. The great understanding is broad and unhurried; the small understanding is fractional and busy. ... Who knows the argument that brings the debate to rest? The sage does not argue; the sage knows the equality of all things'" (Zhuangzi, "The Equality of Things," paraphrase). The via negativa here is the recognition of the equality of all things, the dissolution of all distinctions, the recognition that the categories of the small understanding are not ultimately real.

⁴⁹The Liezi's via negativa is the most practical. "The man who has no self is the man who has recognized that the self is not separate from the world, and that the attempt to make the self separate is the source of all suffering. The man who has no self is the man who knows without knowing, acts without acting, and dwells in the way" (Liezi, Chapter 6, "The Sage," paraphrase).

⁵⁰The Stoic Via Negativa

⁵¹The Stoic via negativa is the most practical in the Western tradition, and it is centered on the negation of the desire for things that are not within the power of the person.

⁵²Epictetus's via negativa is the most direct. "The person must strip away all the desires for the things that are not within his power, all the aversions to the things that are not within his power, all the judgments about the things that are not within his power. The person must focus only on what is within his power, and accept what is not within his power as it is. This is the via negativa of the Stoic tradition: the stripping away of the attachment to the externals, the stripping away of the desire for the externals, the stripping away of the aversion to the externals" (Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1, paraphrase).

⁵³Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is the most extensive personal record of the via negativa in the Stoic tradition. "The person must strip away all the judgments, all the desires, all the aversions, all the attachments to the externals. The person must focus only on the will, only on the reason, only on the virtue. The person must accept the world as it is, and the world as it is is the world of change, the world of flux, the world of impermanence" (Meditations, various passages, paraphrase).

⁵⁴The Kabbalistic Via Negativa

⁵⁵The Kabbalistic via negativa is the most elaborate in the Western tradition, and it is centered on the concept of the Ein Sof, the Infinite that is beyond all description, beyond all predication.

⁵⁶The Zohar's via negativa is the most important. "The Ein Sof is beyond all description, beyond all predication, beyond all name. The person cannot know the Ein Sof through any knowledge, through any concept, through any image. The person must strip away all the names of God, all the concepts of God, all the images of God, and must enter into the darkness of the Ein Sof, where the person knows God beyond all names, beyond all concepts, beyond all images" (Zohar, III, 28b, paraphrase).

⁵⁷The Sepher Yetzirah's via negativa is the most systematic. "The person knows the Ein Sof through the negation of the letters and the sefirot, the negation of the creation, the negation of the world. The person strips away all the letters and all the sefirot, all the creation and all the world, and enters into the Ein Sof, where the person knows God beyond all letters, beyond all sefirot, beyond all creation, beyond all world" (Sepher Yetzirah, 1:1, paraphrase).

⁵⁸The Lurianic Kabbalah's via negativa is the most dramatic. "In the beginning, the Ein Sof gazed into the mirror of the Supernal Wisdom and created the vessels of the lower sefirot. But the light of the Ein Sof was too great for the vessels, and they shattered, scattering the divine sparks throughout the material world. The person must strip away the illusion of the independent existence of the world, and must recognize that the only true existence is the Ein Sof. The via negativa here is the recognition of the Ein Sof as the only reality, and the recognition that the world is the shattered vessels of the Ein Sof, the scattered sparks of the Ein Sof, the broken fragments of the Ein Sof" (Etz Chaim, 2:1, paraphrase).

⁵⁹The Tibetan Buddhist Via Negativa

⁶⁰The Tibetan Buddhist via negativa is the most sophisticated in the Buddhist tradition, and it is centered on the concept of the emptiness of the appearances, the emptiness of the mind, the emptiness of the self.

⁶¹The Tibetan Book of the Dead's via negativa is the most detailed. "The appearances that arise in the bardo are the projections of the mind, and they are empty; if one recognizes them as such, one is liberated. If one does not, one becomes attached and is reborn. The via negativa here is the recognition of the emptiness of the appearances, the recognition of the emptiness of the mind, the recognition of the emptiness of the self. The person strips away all the appearances, all the projections, all the attachments, and enters into the clear light of the death, where the person knows the true nature of the mind" (Bardo Thodol, Chapter 5).

⁶²The Dzogchen teaching of the via negativa is the most direct. "The mind is the ground of all experience, but the mind is empty of all substantiality. The practice of Dzogchen is the recognition of the emptiness of the mind, the recognition of the luminosity of the mind, the recognition of the ground of all experience. The via negativa here is the recognition that the mind is empty, and the recognition of the emptiness is the liberation" (Dzogchen teachings, paraphrase).

⁶³The Mahamudra teaching of the via negativa is the most systematic in the Kagyu tradition. "The mind is the ground of all experience, but the mind is empty of all substantiality. The practice of Mahamudra is the recognition of the emptiness of the mind, the recognition of the luminosity of the mind, the recognition of the ground of all experience. The via negativa here is the recognition that the mind is empty, and the recognition of the emptiness is the liberation" (Mahamudra teachings, paraphrase).

¹The spiritual traditions have very different attitudes toward the body, and these attitudes reveal something fundamental about their understanding of the nature of knowing. The traditions that see the body as an obstacle to knowledge are the traditions that see knowledge as a purely intellectual or spiritual affair, and they are the traditions that are most likely to view the spiritual life as an escape from the body. The traditions that see the body as a vehicle of knowledge are the traditions that see knowledge as something that must be embodied, and they are the traditions that are most likely to view the spiritual life as a transformation of the whole person.

²The Buddhist Embodied Knowing

³The Buddhist tradition's attitude toward the body is mostly negative, because the body is one of the five aggregates (the first of the five aggregates is the body, the physical form) and the body is the source of the suffering that comes from the attachment to the impermanence, the uncleanliness, the insubstantiality of the body. But the Buddhist tradition has also developed some of the most sophisticated somatic practices in the spiritual tradition, because the body is the most accessible object of the mindfulness, and the mindfulness of the body is the first foundation of mindfulness.

⁴The Satipatthana Sutta's mindfulness of the body is the most important somatic practice in the Buddhist tradition. "The monk observes the body as the body: the breathing, the postures, the movements, the elements, the decomposition of the body, the inevitability of decay. He observes the body as the body, without attachment, without aversion, without confusion. Through this observation, the monk understands the true nature of the body: it is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. And through this understanding, the monk becomes dispassionate toward the body, and the body is abandoned, and the person is liberated" (Satipatthana Sutta, MN 10, paraphrase).

⁵The mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) is the most important practice of the embodied knowing in the Buddhist tradition, because the breath is the most immediate connection between the body and the mind, and the mindfulness of the breath is the foundation of all the other practices. "The person who practices the mindfulness of breathing is the person who observes the breath as the breath, without attachment, without aversion, without confusion. The person observes the breath as it is long, the breath as it is short, the breath as it is the whole body, the breath as it is the calming of the body. Through this observation, the person understands the true nature of the breath, and the breath is a vehicle of the knowing" (Majjhima Nikaya, Anapanasati Sutta, MN 118, paraphrase).

⁶The visualization practices of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are the most sophisticated somatic practices in the Buddhist tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the visualization, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is the most important text of the visualization practices, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the recognition, the body is the means of the liberation.

⁷The Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions are the most important in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for the embodied knowing, because they are the traditions that teach the direct recognition of the nature of mind, and this recognition is not purely mental but involves the body in a fundamental way. The recognition is the recognition of the body as the vessel of the rigpa, the body as the manifestation of the primordial awareness, the body as the expression of the nature of mind.

⁸The Hindu Embodied Knowing

⁹The Hindu tradition's attitude toward the body is much more positive than the Buddhist attitude, because the body is one of the five sheaths in the Taittiriya Upanishad and the body is a manifestation of the divine. But the Hindu tradition has also developed the most sophisticated somatic practices in the spiritual tradition—the yoga, the pranayama, the meditation on the chakras, the practice of the inner alchemy—because the body is the vehicle of the transformation, the body is the means of the liberation.

¹⁰The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali's asana is the most important practice of the embodied knowing in the Hindu tradition. "The asana is the posture of the body, stable and comfortable. Through the practice of the asana, the body becomes a vessel of the practice, and the body is the foundation for all the other practices" (Yoga Sutras, 2:46-48).

¹¹The teaching on the chakras is the most important development of the somatic theory in the Hindu tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the map of the spiritual life, the body is the instrument of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. "The chakras are the centers of the energy in the body, and they are the map of the spiritual life. The practice of the meditation on the chakras is the practice of the transformation of the energy, and the result is the transformation of the person" (from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the various tantric texts).

¹²The Tirumurai and the Divya Prabandham are the most important Tamil texts of the embodied knowing, because the hymns of the Tirumurai and the Divya Prabandham are the most direct expression of the devotion to the Divine, and the devotion is the most powerful means of the transformation of the person. "Shiva is the lord of all, the source of all, the destroyer of all enemies. The devotee who recites the hymns of the Tirumurai with the body, with the breath, with the heart—that devotee is freed from all the bonds of the enemies, and is united with Shiva" (Tirumurai, various hymns, paraphrase).

¹³The Devi Mahatmya is the most important text of the embodied knowing in the Hindu tradition, because the worship of the Divine Mother is the most powerful practice of the embodied devotion, and the embodied devotion is the most direct means of the transformation of the person. "The Divine Mother is the source of all power, the source of all courage, the source of all victory. The devotee who worships the Divine Mother with the body, with the breath, with the heart—that devotee is freed from all the bonds of the enemies, and is united with the Divine Mother" (Devi Mahatmya, various chapters, paraphrase).

¹⁴The Ashtavakra Gita and the Avadhuta Gita are the most uncompromising in the Hindu tradition for the embodied knowing, because they present the recognition of the true nature of the self as the only reality, and this recognition is not a purely intellectual affair but a direct experience that involves the whole person. "You are the infinite consciousness, free from all limitation. The body is an appearance in the consciousness; the mind is an appearance in the consciousness; the intellect is an appearance in the consciousness; the ego is an appearance in the consciousness. You are the consciousness that is the ground of all these appearances, and the recognition of this is the liberation" (Ashtavakra Gita, 1:1-2, paraphrase).

¹⁵The Taoist Embodied Knowing

¹⁶The Taoist tradition's attitude toward the body is the most positive of all the spiritual traditions, because the body is a manifestation of the Tao, the body is a small universe, the body is a vessel of the transformation. The Taoist somatic practices—the inner alchemy, the circulation of the light, the cultivation of the energy—are the most sophisticated in the spiritual tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the body is the primary vehicle of the knowing.

¹⁷The Tao te Ching's teaching of the embodied knowing is the most foundational. "The sage empties the mind, fills the belly, weakens the ambition, strengthens the bones. He always keeps the people without knowledge and without desire, so that those who have knowledge do not dare to act. He practices non-action, and nothing is left undone" (Tao te Ching, 3). The teaching is that the body is the vessel of the knowing, the body is the foundation of the practice, and the body is the means of the transformation.

¹⁸The Secret of the Golden Flower is the most important text of the Taoist inner alchemy, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the circulation of the light, the body is the means of the transformation of the essence into the energy, and the energy into the spirit. "The light is the light of consciousness itself; when the light is allowed to circulate freely through the body, the body becomes a vessel of spiritual transformation, and the person knows the way directly, without the interference of the mind, without the mediation of the concepts" (Secret of the Golden Flower, Chapter 1).

¹⁹Zhuangzi's teaching of the embodied knowing is the most radical in the Taoist tradition, because it presents the body as the partner of the mind in the practice of wu-wei. "Cook Ding laid down his knife and said, 'What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. ... Now I use my mind, not my eyes. My senses stop and my spirit moves as it will. Following the natural structure, I strike the empty spaces where the knife finds no hindrance. The blade works through without friction. ... At the joints, there are spaces, and the knife never meets any resistance. So it has lasted nineteen years, and the blade is as sharp as if it had just come from the grindstone'" (Zhuangzi, Chapter 3, paraphrase). The embodied knowing here is the knowing of the body, the mind that is in harmony with the body, the practice that is the expression of the body-mind unity.

²⁰The Christian Embodied Knowing

²¹The Christian tradition's attitude toward the body is ambivalent, because the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) but also the source of the temptation and the suffering. The Christian tradition has developed the most sophisticated ascetical practices in the Western tradition, and these practices are significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the transformation, the body is the means of the purification, the body is the instrument of the knowing.

²²The Desert Fathers and Mothers' ascesis is the most important practice of the embodied knowing in the Christian tradition. "The monk must train the body through the practice of the austerities: fasting, vigil, prayer, silence, poverty, obedience, humility, patience. The body is the vessel of the transformation, the body is the means of the purification, the body is the instrument of the knowing" (Sayings of the Desert Fathers, various apophthegmata, paraphrase).

²³The practice of the Jesus Prayer in the Eastern Orthodox tradition is one of the most sophisticated somatic practices in the Christian tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the prayer, the body is the means of the continual remembrance of God. "The person repeats the Jesus Prayer with the breath, with the body, with the mind, with the heart: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' The prayer becomes the rhythm of the person's life, and the person knows God through the continual repetition of the prayer" (from the tradition of the Orthodox hesychasts).

²⁴The Christian contemplative tradition's emphasis on the body is the most important, because the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the body is the means of the transformation. "The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the person must treat the body with respect, with care, with purity. The body is the vessel of the transformation, the body is the means of the purification, the body is the instrument of the knowing" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, paraphrase).

²⁵The Sufi Embodied Knowing

²⁶The Sufi tradition's attitude toward the body is the most positive of all the Islamic traditions, because the body is the vessel of the dhikr, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. The Sufi somatic practices—the whirling dance, the dhikr with the breath, the meditation on the heart—are the most sophisticated in the Islamic tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the body is the primary means of the encounter with the Divine.

²⁷The Mevlevi order's whirling dance is the most famous Sufi somatic practice, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the whirling, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the expression of the ecstasy. "The whirling is the expression of the soul's longing for the Divine; the right hand turned upward receives the grace from above, and the left hand turned downward transmits the grace to the earth. The whirling is the dance of the soul in the presence of God, the expression of the joy of the union" (from the Mevlevi tradition).

²⁸The practice of the dhikr with the breath is one of the most sophisticated Sufi somatic practices, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the dhikr, the body is the means of the continual remembrance of God. "The person repeats the dhikr with the breath, with the body, with the mind, with the heart: 'There is no god but God.' The dhikr becomes the rhythm of the person's life, and the person knows God through the continual repetition of the dhikr" (from the Sufi traditions).

²⁹The Kabbalistic Embodied Knowing

³⁰The Kabbalistic tradition's attitude toward the body is ambivalent, because the body is the vessel of the soul, the body is the means of the performance of the mitzvot, but the body is also the source of the distraction and the impurity. The Kabbalistic somatic practices—the meditation on the letters, the visualization of the sefirot, the performance of the mitzvot with the intention of the unification—are the most sophisticated in the Western tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the transformation, the body is the means of the rectification.

³¹The performance of the mitzvot is the most important Kabbalistic somatic practice, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the instrument of the tikkun, the body is the means of the gathering of the sparks, the body is the vehicle of the transformation. "Every commandment that a person performs with the body, with the breath, with the heart, lifts a spark from the klipah and returns it to the tree of life. The body is the means of the tikkun, the body is the vessel of the restoration, the body is the instrument of the knowing" (Etz Chaim, 3:1, paraphrase).

³²The meditation on the letters is the most sophisticated Kabbalistic somatic practice, and it is significant for the teaching that the body is the vessel of the meditation, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. "The person meditates on the twenty-two letters and the ten sefirot, and the body becomes the vessel of the meditation, the body becomes the means of the transformation, the body becomes the vehicle of the knowing" (Sepher Yetzirah, 1:1, paraphrase).

³³The Tibetan Buddhist Embodied Knowing

³⁴The Tibetan Buddhist tradition's attitude toward the body is the most positive of all the Buddhist traditions, because the body is the vessel of the subtle energy, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. The Tibetan Buddhist somatic practices—the tummo (the yoga of the inner fire), the subtle body practices, the completion stage practices—are the most sophisticated in the Buddhist tradition, and they are significant for the teaching that the body is the primary means of the transformation.

³⁵The Tibetan Book of the Dead's somatic teaching is the most detailed. "The body is the vessel of the subtle energy, the body is the means of the transformation, the body is the vehicle of the knowing. The dissolution of the body at death is the dissolution of the subtle energy, and the recognition of the nature of the subtle energy is the liberation" (Bardo Thodol, Chapter 4).

³⁶The Dzogchen teaching of the embodied knowing is the most direct. "The body is the manifestation of the rigpa, the body is the expression of the primordial awareness, the body is the vehicle of the transformation. The practice of Dzogchen is the recognition of the nature of the body, the recognition of the body as the manifestation of the rigpa, the recognition of the body as the vehicle of the knowing" (Dzogchen teachings, paraphrase).

³⁷The Mahamudra teaching of the embodied knowing is the most systematic in the Kagyu tradition. "The body is the manifestation of the mind, the body is the expression of the nature of the mind, the body is the vehicle of the transformation. The practice of Mahamudra is the recognition of the nature of the body, the recognition of the body as the manifestation of the nature of the mind, the recognition of the body as the vehicle of the knowing" (Mahamudra teachings, paraphrase).

¹The idea that love is a way of knowing is one of the most important insights in the spiritual tradition, and it is an insight that is largely absent from the Western intellectual tradition, which tends to privilege the intellect as the faculty of knowledge. The traditions that emphasize love as a way of knowing recognize that the most profound truths are not accessible through the intellect alone, and that the reality of the other—the other person, the other being, the divine other—can only be known through the love that dissolves the distance between the knower and the known.

²The Christian Theory of Love as Knowing

³No tradition has developed the theory of love as a way of knowing more fully than the Christian tradition, and the Christian understanding of the knowledge of God as the knowledge of love is one of the most important contributions of the tradition to the spiritual domain.

⁴The Gospel of John's teaching of the knowledge of God through love is the most foundational. "God is love, and the person who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in the person. The knowledge of God is the knowledge of love, the knowledge of the person who loves, and the knowledge of the person who is loved. God is known through love, and God is the object of love" (1 John 4:16, paraphrase).

⁵The 1 Corinthians 13 is the most important text of the Christian theory of love as knowing, and it is significant for the teaching that love is not merely an emotion but a way of knowing. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The teaching is that love is the condition of all genuine knowledge, and the person who does not have love does not have genuine knowledge, no matter how much the person knows.

⁶The teaching of the Cloud of Unknowing on love as knowing is the most important, because the author's entire method is based on the idea that the person knows God through love, not through knowledge. "The person must direct the love into the cloud of unknowing, piercing the cloud with a single point of longing love. The person knows God in the darkness, in the unknowing, in the cloud, and this knowledge is more real than any knowledge that can be known through the mind. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge" (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapters 3-4).

⁷The teaching of Meister Eckhart on love as knowing is the most radical. "The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me; my eye and God's eye is one eye, one view, one knowledge, one love. The love of God is the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God is the love of God. The person knows God through the love of God, and the person knows God in the love of God" (Meister Eckhart, Sermon 57, paraphrase).

⁸The teaching of Julian of Norwich on love as knowing is the most loving. "The person knows God through the vision of the love of God, through the contemplation of the suffering of Christ, through the recognition that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' The love of God is the vehicle of the knowing, the love of God is the means of the knowledge, the love of God is the condition of the knowledge" (Revelations of Divine Love, Chapters 1-86).

⁹The teaching of Thomas Merton on love as knowing is the most contemporary. "The love of God is the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God is the love of God. The person knows God through the love of God, and the person knows God in the love of God. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge" (New Seeds of Contemplation, from Merton).

¹⁰The Sufi Theory of Love as Knowing

¹¹The Sufi tradition's theory of love as a way of knowing is the most eloquent of all the traditions that emphasize this insight, and the Sufi poetry of love is one of the most beautiful expressions of the idea.

¹²The Masnavi's teaching of love as knowing is the most important. "The person knows the Divine through the love of the Divine, the love that is the fire that burns away the self, the love that is the longing that draws the soul to the Divine. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who knows the Divine without love knows only the shadow of the Divine; the person who knows the Divine with love knows the Divine directly" (Masnavi, Book 1, paraphrase).

¹³The Conference of the Birds' teaching of love as knowing is the most dramatic. "The journey through the seven valleys is the journey of the love, and the love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. In the Valley of Love, the seeker is consumed by the love, and all his limitations are burned away. The love is the fire that burns away the self, and the person who is burned by the love knows the Divine directly" (Conference of the Birds, summary of the seven valleys, paraphrase).

¹⁴The Divan Shams is the most ecstatic expression of love as knowing in the Sufi tradition. "I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was a man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as a man, to soar with angels blest. But even from angelic states, I must pass on. At last, I became a void, and from that void, I learned the secret of the universe" (Divan Shams, paraphrase). The Secret of the universe is learned from the void, from the annihilation, from the love that is the fire that burns away the self, and the love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge.

¹⁵The Bhakti Theory of Love as Knowing

¹⁶The Hindu Bhakti tradition's theory of love as a way of knowing is the most important in the Hindu tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge of the divine is the knowledge of the love, and the knowledge of the love is the knowledge of the divine.

¹⁷The Bhagavad Gita's teaching of love as knowing is the most foundational. "The person who worships Me with faith and devotion, who has surrendered all actions to Me, who has taken refuge in Me, who has given up all other dharmas, and who has sought refuge in Me alone—such a person is freed from all the bonds of the gunas, and is united with Me. The knowledge of Me is the knowledge of the love, the knowledge of the devotion, the knowledge of the surrender, the knowledge of the refuge" (Bhagavad Gita, 18:65-66, paraphrase).

¹⁸The Tirumurai and the Divya Prabandham are the most important Tamil texts of love as knowing, because the hymns of the Tirumurai and the Divya Prabandham are the most direct expression of the love of Shiva and the love of Vishnu, and the love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. "Shiva is the lord of all, the source of all, the destroyer of all enemies. The devotee who loves Shiva with the heart, with the breath, with the body—that devotee knows Shiva directly, and the knowledge of Shiva is the knowledge of the love" (Tirumurai, various hymns, paraphrase).

¹⁹The Devi Mahatmya is the most important text of love as knowing in the Hindu tradition, because the worship of the Divine Mother is the most powerful practice of the love of the divine, and the love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. "The Divine Mother is the source of all power, the source of all courage, the source of all victory. The devotee who loves the Divine Mother with the heart, with the breath, with the body—that devotee knows the Divine Mother directly, and the knowledge of the Divine Mother is the knowledge of the love" (Devi Mahatmya, various chapters, paraphrase).

²⁰The Taoist Theory of Love as Knowing

²¹The Taoist theory of love as knowing is the most subtle in the spiritual tradition, because the Taoist tradition does not emphasize love as the primary vehicle of knowing, but the Taoist teaching of compassion (ci) and kindness (ci) is the most important expression of the idea.

²²The Tao te Ching's teaching of compassion as knowing is the most foundational. "The sage has the heart of the world, and the heart of the world is the heart of compassion. The sage knows the way through the compassion, and the compassion is the vehicle of the knowing, the compassion is the means of the knowledge, the compassion is the condition of the knowledge" (Tao te Ching, 67, paraphrase).

²³The Tao te Ching's teaching of the three treasures is the most important. "The three treasures are compassion, frugality, and the refusal to dare to be ahead of the world. The compassion is the first treasure, the seed of all the other treasures, the root of all the other virtues. The sage knows the way through the compassion, and the compassion is the vehicle of the knowing, the compassion is the means of the knowledge, the compassion is the condition of the knowledge" (Tao te Ching, 67, paraphrase).

²⁴Zhuangzi's teaching of love as knowing is the most radical. "The perfect person has no heart of his own; the people's heart is his heart. The good he gives to others, he gives to himself. He does not accumulate for himself; the more he gives, the more he has. The sage knows the way through the union with the people, and the union is the vehicle of the knowing, the union is the means of the knowledge, the union is the condition of the knowledge" (Zhuangzi, "The Great Sage," paraphrase).

²⁵The Buddhist Theory of Love as Knowing

²⁶The Buddhist teaching of love as knowing is the most sophisticated in the spiritual tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge of the reality is the knowledge of the compassion, and the knowledge of the compassion is the knowledge of the reality.

²⁷The Metta Sutta is the most important Buddhist text of love as knowing, and it is significant for the teaching that the cultivation of loving-kindness is the most important practice of the heart, and the love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. "The person who cultivates loving-kindness toward all beings, without exception, without distinction, without limit, knows the beings directly, and the knowledge of the beings is the knowledge of the love" (Metta Sutta, paraphrase).

²⁸The Bodhicaryavatara is the most important Tibetan Buddhist text of love as knowing, and it is significant for the teaching that the compassion is the vehicle of the knowing, the compassion is the means of the knowledge, the compassion is the condition of the knowledge. "The person who cultivates the bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, knows the beings directly, and the knowledge of the beings is the knowledge of the compassion. The bodhicitta is the vehicle of the knowing, the bodhicitta is the means of the knowledge, the bodhicitta is the condition of the knowledge" (Bodhicaryavatara, Chapter 1, paraphrase).

²⁹The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra is the most important Mahayana text of love as knowing, and it is significant for the teaching that the compassion is the vehicle of the knowing, the compassion is the means of the knowledge, the compassion is the condition of the knowledge. "The Bodhisattva knows the beings through the compassion, and the compassion is the vehicle of the knowing, the compassion is the means of the knowledge, the compassion is the condition of the knowledge. The Bodhisattva knows the beings directly, through the compassion, and the knowledge of the beings is the knowledge of the compassion" (Vimalakirti Nirdesa, Chapter 2, paraphrase).

³⁰The Stoic Theory of Love as Knowing

³¹The Stoic theory of love as knowing is the most practical in the Western tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the love of the world is the knowledge of the world, and the knowledge of the world is the love of the world.

³²Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is the most extensive personal record of the Stoic theory of love as knowing. "The person must love the world as it is, and the love of the world is the knowledge of the world. The person must love the other persons as they are, and the love of the other persons is the knowledge of the other persons. The person must love the life as it is, and the love of the life is the knowledge of the life" (Meditations, various passages, paraphrase).

³³Seneca's Letters are the most practical Stoic texts of love as knowing, and they are significant for the teaching that the love of the world is the knowledge of the world, and the knowledge of the world is the love of the world. "The person must love the world as it is, and the love of the world is the knowledge of the world. The person must love the other persons as they are, and the love of the other persons is the knowledge of the other persons. The person must love the life as it is, and the love of the life is the knowledge of the life" (Seneca, Letters, various letters, paraphrase).

¹The idea that ethical living is a form of knowing is one of the most important insights in the spiritual tradition, and it is an insight that is largely absent from the Western intellectual tradition, which tends to separate ethics from epistemology. The traditions that emphasize ethics as a way of knowing recognize that the truth of the person's understanding is tested in the doing, and that the person who does not live the truth does not know the truth, no matter how much the person thinks they know.

²The Confucian Theory of Ethics as Knowing

³The Confucian tradition's theory of ethics as knowing is the most systematic in the world, and it is significant for the teaching that the person knows through the practice of the virtues, and that the knowledge is the result of the practice, not the cause of the practice.

⁴The Analects' teaching of ethics as knowing is the most foundational. "The person who is not humane does not know the Way, and the person who is humane knows the Way. The person earns the knowledge of the Way through the practice of the virtues, and the practice of the virtues is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the virtues is the condition of the knowledge" (Analects, various chapters, paraphrase).

⁵The Great Learning's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most systematic. "The cultivation of the person depends on the rectification of the heart; the rectification of the heart depends on the sincerity of the will; the sincerity of the will depends on the extension of the knowledge; the extension of the knowledge depends on the investigation of the things. The person knows the truth through the investigation of the things, and the investigation of the things is the practice of the ethics, the practice of the ethics is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the ethics is the condition of the knowledge" (Great Learning, Chapter 5, paraphrase).

⁶Mencius's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most important in the Confucian tradition. "The person knows the good through the practice of the good, and the good is the condition of the knowledge, the good is the means of the knowledge, the good is the vehicle of the knowing. The person knows the truth through the practice of the virtues, and the practice of the virtues is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the virtues is the condition of the knowledge" (Mencius, various chapters, paraphrase).

⁷The Buddhist Theory of Ethics as Knowing

⁸The Buddhist theory of ethics as knowing is the most systematic in the spiritual tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge is the result of the practice of the Eightfold Path, and that the practice of the Eightfold Path is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the Eightfold Path is the condition of the knowledge.

⁹The Eightfold Path is the most important framework for the Buddhist theory of ethics as knowing. "Right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration—these are the means of the knowledge, the means of the wisdom, the means of the liberation. The person knows the truth through the practice of the Eightfold Path, and the practice of the Eightfold Path is the condition of the knowledge" (from the Pali Canon, as expressed in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya 56.11, paraphrase).

¹⁰The teaching of the Karma Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita is the most important Hindu text of ethics as knowing, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge is the result of the practice of the action without attachment. "The person who performs the actions without attachment to the results, who offers all actions to Krishna, who has surrendered all actions to Krishna, who has taken refuge in Krishna—that person knows the truth directly, and the knowledge of the truth is the knowledge of the practice" (Bhagavad Gita, 2:47-48, paraphrase).

¹¹The Jain theory of ethics as knowing is the most rigorous in the spiritual tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge is the result of the practice of the non-violence, and that the practice of the non-violence is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the non-violence is the condition of the knowledge. "The person who practices the non-violence, the person who practices the truthfulness, the person who practices the non-stealing, the person who practices the celibacy, the person who practices the non-possessiveness—that person knows the truth directly, and the knowledge of the truth is the knowledge of the practice" (from the Jain texts, as expressed in the Tattvartha Sutra, 4:1-10, paraphrase).

¹²The Taoist Theory of Ethics as Knowing

¹³The Taoist theory of ethics as knowing is the most distinctive in the spiritual tradition, because the Taoist tradition does not separate ethics from the way of the Tao, and the person knows the Tao through the practice of the wu-wei, and the practice of the wu-wei is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the wu-wei is the condition of the knowledge.

¹⁴The Tao te Ching's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most foundational. "The sage does nothing, yet nothing is left undone. The way of the sage is to do and not to contend. The sage knows the Tao through the practice of the wu-wei, and the wu-wei is the means of the knowledge, the wu-wei is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the wu-wei knows the Tao directly, and the knowledge of the Tao is the knowledge of the practice" (Tao te Ching, various chapters, paraphrase).

¹⁵Zhuangzi's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most radical. "The perfect person has no self, the spiritual person has no merit, the sage has no name. The person knows the way through the practice of the wu-wei, and the wu-wei is the means of the knowledge, the wu-wei is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the wu-wei knows the way directly, and the knowledge of the way is the knowledge of the practice" (Zhuangzi, "The Equality of Things," paraphrase).

¹⁶The Christian Theory of Ethics as Knowing

¹⁷The Christian theory of ethics as knowing is the most structured in the Western tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge of God is the knowledge of the love, and the practice of the love is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the love is the condition of the knowledge.

¹⁸The Gospel of John's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most foundational. "The person who loves the other person knows God, and the person who does not love the other person does not know God. The knowledge of God is the knowledge of the love, the knowledge of the love is the knowledge of God" (1 John 4:7-8, paraphrase).

¹⁹The teaching of the Cloud of Unknowing on ethics as knowing is the most important. "The person knows God through the practice of the love, the practice of the compassion, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the love knows God directly" (The Cloud of Unknowing, various chapters, paraphrase).

²⁰The teaching of Meister Eckhart on ethics as knowing is the most radical. "The person knows God through the practice of the love, the practice of the humility, the practice of the poverty, the practice of the obedience. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the love knows God directly" (Meister Eckhart, various sermons, paraphrase).

²¹The teaching of Julian of Norwich on ethics as knowing is the most loving. "The person knows God through the practice of the love, the practice of the compassion, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the love knows God directly" (Revelations of Divine Love, various chapters, paraphrase).

²²The teaching of Thomas Merton on ethics as knowing is the most contemporary. "The person knows God through the practice of the love, the practice of the compassion, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the love knows God directly" (New Seeds of Contemplation, from Merton).

²³The Sufi Theory of Ethics as Knowing

²⁴The Sufi theory of ethics as knowing is the most eloquent in the Islamic tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge of the Divine is the knowledge of the love, and the practice of the love is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the love is the condition of the knowledge.

²⁵The Masnavi's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most important. "The person knows the Divine through the practice of the love, the practice of the compassion, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The love is the vehicle of the knowing, the love is the means of the knowledge, the love is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the love knows the Divine directly" (Masnavi, various chapters, paraphrase).

²⁶The Conference of the Birds' teaching of ethics as knowing is the most dramatic. "The journey through the seven valleys is the journey of the practice, and the practice is the means of the knowledge, the practice is the condition of the knowledge. The person knows the Divine through the practice of the journey, and the knowledge of the Divine is the knowledge of the practice" (Conference of the Birds, various chapters, paraphrase).

²⁷Al-Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum al-Din is the most systematic account of ethics as knowing in the Islamic tradition. "The person knows God through the practice of the virtues, the practice of the good deeds, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The practice is the vehicle of the knowing, the practice is the means of the knowledge, the practice is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the good deeds knows God directly" (Ihya Ulum al-Din, various books, paraphrase).

²⁸The Stoic Theory of Ethics as Knowing

²⁹The Stoic theory of ethics as knowing is the most practical in the Western tradition, and it is significant for the teaching that the knowledge is the result of the practice of the virtues, and that the practice of the virtues is the means of the knowledge, the practice of the virtues is the condition of the knowledge.

³⁰Epictetus's teaching of ethics as knowing is the most direct. "The person knows the truth through the practice of the virtues, the practice of the good actions, the practice of the service, the practice of the good. The practice is the vehicle of the knowing, the practice is the means of the knowledge, the practice is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the good knows the truth directly" (Epictetus, Discourses, various chapters, paraphrase).

³¹Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is the most extensive personal record of the Stoic theory of ethics as knowing. "The person must practice the virtues, the practice of the justice, the practice of the courage, the practice of the temperance, the practice of the wisdom. The practice is the vehicle of the knowing, the practice is the means of the knowledge, the practice is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the virtues knows the truth directly" (Meditations, various passages, paraphrase).

³²Seneca's Letters are the most practical Stoic texts of ethics as knowing. "The person must practice the virtues, the practice of the good actions, the practice of the service, the practice of the charity. The practice is the vehicle of the knowing, the practice is the means of the knowledge, the practice is the condition of the knowledge. The person who practices the good deeds knows the truth directly" (Seneca, Letters, various letters, paraphrase).

¹This volume has addressed the most important modes of knowing in the spiritual tradition: the direct knowing, the via negativa, the embodied knowing, the love as knowing, and the ethics as knowing. These are the modes of knowing that are the most directly relevant to the actual person, the most immediately applicable to the actual life, and the most difficult to actually implement.

²What has not been addressed is the question of the distinctive contribution of each tradition—the question of what it is that each tradition can teach that no other tradition fully teaches, and the question of how the various traditions supplement one another. This is the subject of Volume IV.