# Is Mindfulness the Common Denominator of Transcendence ## Introduction: Beyond Binary Spirituality We're familiar with the idea that sexuality exists on a spectrum—the Kinsey scale taught us that human attraction isn't simply heterosexual or homosexual but could exist on an infinite scale of possibility between the two. What if the same is true for mystical experience? What would the two poles be? In their groundbreaking work _The Psychology of Meditation_, Claudio Naranjo and Robert Ornstein reveal divergent ways of transcendence that I’ve come to call - the **mystic spectrum**. This spectrum is a gradient of contemplative approaches ranging from the cool detachment of Zen Buddhism to the ecstatic possession of shamanic traditions. Understanding this spectrum transforms how we think about meditation practice, moving us beyond the assumption that there's one "correct" way towards transcendence and instead offers unlimited hybridized models of spiritual practice and divine union. It is in my own experience of these practice that Ive come to believe this spectrum has a common denominator or a consistent thread throughout and that thread is mindfulness. The ability to hone a non-judgmental awareness in the present moments is valuable tool to navigate, conjure, and integrate the many colors of spiritual experience. ## The Two Poles: Detachment and Surrender ### The Way of Detachment (The Zen Pole) Zen Buddhism represents one extreme of the mystic spectrum. Here, the approach to meditation is characterized by what we might call radical non-attachment. In Zen training, practitioners are warned against _**makyo**_ which are considered "diabolical phenomena" including visions, revelations, and unusual physical sensations - the same ones considered so valuable during psychedelic work. The [[Za-Zen Yojinki]] (a classical Zen text on meditation) describes makyo as "not bad but an obstacle, an impairment arising from a maladjustment of the mind with the breath." The message is clear: don't get seduced by special experiences no matter how profound they may seem. Even experiences of enlightened states like ‘satori’ can become traps if we cling to them. As the tradition warns, "one who becomes attached to what he realizes through satori is also still lingering in the world of _makyo_." The goal of this approach is **awareness of awareness itself**. The zen are always "emptying their rice bowl"careful not to add layers to experience but to stay grounded in the most empty quality of awareness and stay perfectly detached from the *light show* of the mind. Heightened experiences are simply more things to watch and be aware of while stripping away any interpretations, symbolisms, mystic lore or creative epiphany is the goal. However if it’s the celestial artistry of the spirit we want to embrace we turn to the other end of the spectrum. ### The Way of Surrender (The Shamanic Pole) At the opposite end of our spectrum lies a radically different orientation: the domain of surrender and letting go. Another way to describe it is the way of possession. This includes: - Visionary experiences - Automatic writing and inspired utterance - The deliberate release of dormant energy - Spiritual possession as a valid spiritual state In these traditions, the altered states that Zen dismisses as makyo are not byproducts of experience to be observed as **sufficient ends in themselves**. These states are channels for revelation and connection to forces larger than the individual ego which can expand our consciousness and wisdom. The Sufi tradition offers a perfect example with its practice of opening the [[lataif]] (subtle energy centers). The explicit goal is bringing an individual into connection with their dormant powers, making oneself available as a channel for divine inspiration. Rather than watching experience from a distance, the practitioner surrenders to it, allows themselves to be moved by it, even possessed by it. And so we see the whirling dervishes dancing ‘drunk’ under the light of the moon in reverence and devotion. #### How is Detachment and Surrender Different? Through detachment we view experience from the vantage point of a witnessing awareness. We observe its quality of impermanence and impersonality. Without stimulating it we watch it pass away over time acknowledging its temporal nature while remaining faithful that any attachment to it will perpetuate the cycle of suffering. When we choose to be possessed by a mystical or transpersonal experience we become more than the awareness of experience but the *volition* of the experience itself. While awareness is constant in both instances the shaman is becoming the dance and allowing themselves to be moved by this divine force that has now merged with our human capacities. This union of sorts that transcends ordinary consciousness is meant to provide us with spiritual wisdom and personal revelation to be integrated into our lives by helping us gain perspective of our true nature beyond life and death. ## Mapping the Spectrum Between these poles stretches a full range of contemplative possibility: | Detachment Pole | ←――――――→ | Surrender Pole | | :------------------------ | :------: | ---------------------------------------: | | Dry asceticism of mind | | Tumultuous Dionysian spirit | | Serene spirit of monk | | Seeming madness of prophet | | Pursuit of emptiness | | Pursuit of possession by cosmic forces | | Detachment and equanimity | | Orgiastic pursuit of ecstatic experience | | Buddhism | | Shamanism | Naranjo and Ornstein point out that the main difference between these approaches lies in their relationship to **content**. Do we contemplate the unity of reality (the One) or its infinite manifestations (the Hundred Thousand Things)? Do we pursue the way of ascent toward emptiness as a omnipresent void or the way of descent into the particular manifestation of form? Both are divergent paths converging on the same goal but traverse vastly different terrain. ## The Paradox at the Center Here's where things get interesting: **the way of detachment cannot help but be permissive.** Consider _shikan-taza_, often translated as "just sitting." This quintessential Zen practice is described as the state of "not-doing but allowing." In its radical non-interference with experience, Zen's detachment becomes a form of ultimate permission. Anything can arise precisely because nothing is sought. This is the meeting point between detachment and surrender. Both poles require a fundamental letting-go, a release of ego-control over experience. As Ch'an Master Hsu Yun expressed it: > "Oh friends, if you do not attach yourselves to the Ten Thousand Things with your minds, you will find that the life spark will emanate from everything." This is the power of mindfulness across the spectrum. The ability to not identify with our false sense of self opens the possibility to explore the truth beyond illusion. Through the space created between our awareness and thoughts we can navigate the spectrum whether that is through the dissolution of stillness or the ecstatic expression of creative force. The seeming opposites begin to converge. ## Are all Artists also Shaman? This convergence becomes visible when we look at creative practice. For the artist, dancer, musician, or writer, their attunement to themselves or to *what wants expression through them* cannot be divorced from their process. Art becomes both a result and a discipline to the practice of surrendering to inspiration. History testifies to this shamanic dimension of creativity: - **Dante** confessed: "I am one who when love inspires me, takes note; and I go on setting it forth after the fashion which love dictates within me." - **Walt Whitman** experienced poetry as "a message from the heavens." - **Alfred Musset** described "some unknown person whispering in my ear." - **Socrates** spoke of his _daimon_, an inner voice that guided him. If these creative visionaries simply watched and observed their inspiration pass with cool detachment, considered them diabolical tangents of true zen focus, the flavor of life would be missing a key ingrediant. All point to creativity as a form of controlled possession, a channeling of forces beyond individual will. Naranjo claims, “In the modern world, **the analogy for shamanism is the artist following their calling.** Both undergo initiatory experiences that may resemble temporary states of psychosis that dissolve the edges of self to become permeable to larger forces. Both learn to allow these forces to take a positive course rather than fragmenting into pathology. The shaman's ecstatic journey and the artist's creative trance occupy the same region of the mystic spectrum: **surrender to what wants to come through and giving merit to the madness. ## Breath as a Microcosm of the Spectrum We can see this entire spectrum reflected in how different traditions work with the breath: **Pranayama** (yogic breath control) represents the concentrative, controlling end by deliberately manipulating the breath to achieve specific states. **Mindfulness of breathing** takes a passive path by watching the non-coerced, natural breath be spontaneous. Learning to be merely aware without interjecting. **Holotropic breathing practices** in some shamanic traditions represent the expressive end by allowing the breath to be taken over by larger forces, to become automatic or ecstatic. This is done initially by powerfully kickstarting a powerful cosmic flywheel. Naranjo and Ornstein observe that **for each type of concentrative meditation, one is likely to find a corresponding type of expressive meditation.** ## How Mindfulness could potentially Render the Spectrum Indifferent Back to our common denominator. **Mindfulness occupies a unique position because it can be practiced anywhere along the spectrum.** Mindfulness is simultaneously: - A technique of **detachment** (bare attention, non-reactive observation) - A technique of **surrender** (radical acceptance, allowing whatever to arise) When we practice mindfulness, we're not controlling our experience like pranayama, but we're also not lost in it. We're present to it as we watch it unfold with interest and not interference. This is why mindfulness can serve as the foundation for both concentrative and expressive practices. It's an **neutral observation that can either stabilize into stillness or open into flow.** ### Mindfulness as Meta-Awareness of the spectrum itself From a mindfulness perspective, the mystic spectrum itself becomes just another object of awareness: - Practicing detachment? Note that. - Surrendering to inspiration? Note that. - Somewhere in between? Note that. The practice doesn't privilege one pole over the other but brings **awareness** to wherever you find yourself on the continuum. You're no longer unconsciously identified with detachment or possession but aware of both as valid modes of being, both as territories to explore with curiosity rather than attachment. Having the space to zoom in and out of mystical encounters like mixing sound on an electric synthesizer. This is what makes mindfulness so paradoxically powerful: **it renders the spectrum indifferent not by denying its existence but by providing a stable ground to navigate it consciously.** ## The Movement of Practice **where we are on this spectrum constantly moves.** Spiritual practice isn't about establishing permanent residence at one pole or the other (unless perhaps you are a monk or a shaman) but about developing fluency across the full range of contemplative possibility. Some seasons call for the dry asceticism of pure awareness. Others demand the Dionysian surrender to creative possession. Some moments require the serene stability of the clergyman. Others need the seeming madness of the prophet. I myself have gone from spoken word poet to apprenticing vipassana yogi to shamanic medicine practitioner and back again. The urge for creative possession and surrendering responsibility to a greater force is very different from the desire for emptiness that strips us from having a self at all. The real work isn't choosing between detachment and surrender but cultivating awareness across the full spectrum. Learning to be equally at home in emptiness and possession, in stillness and flow, in watching and being moved. **Mindfulness provides the thread of continuity**. Mindfulness is the practice of maintaining constant awareness whether we're sitting in perfect stillness or channeling cosmic forces , whether we're cultivating serene detachment or dancing ecstatically in surrender. ## Conclusion: The Full Territory The mystic spectrum isn't a choice between opposites but a **map of the full territory of contemplative practice.** Mindfulness is the compass that helps us navigate it consciously, moving fluidly between detachment and surrender as life and practice require. While the poles blend together throughout the spectrum in different ratios there is something to be said about practices and developing familarity or procientcy in either poles pursest form. We can only develop zen awareness by sitting and practicing zen and we can only become attuned to "the whispering voice" by repetition of surrendered expression. Dedicated practice in each pole strengthen the entire spectrum while expanding it's range in either direction. Ultimately realizing the spectrum isn't a linear line but more like the ouroboros - the snake who eats its tail. Creation that devolves into destruction and destruction that evolves into creation. A cycle that converges again from its divergence. In this way, we can honor both the monk's stillness and the shaman's ecstasy, both the ascetic's renunciation and the artist's inspiration. ...and mindfulness is the portable practice of present -moment awareness that becomes the universal solvent allowing us to move freely through it all. --- ## Bibliography Naranjo, Claudio, and Robert E. Ornstein. _On the Psychology of Meditation_. New York: Viking Press, 1971. --- _About the Author: Michael is a meditation teacher, mindfulness mentor, and creative guide who works with individuals exploring the intersections of contemplative practice, creativity, and personal transformation. He teaches through Collective Therapy and Wellness and Omziel Healing Sanctuary, and offers educational resources through his brand Orien Star._