Panikkar- Phenomenological Tensions and Tangents

Pannikar's phenomenological tension between "having and being", advaitic relationship, where he cannot identify himself with either his body or his mind, leads to a profound realization of the truth of the experience of contingency wherein we can “discover the tangential touch between immanence and transcendence, where “I am the point of the tangent in which those two poles [World and God] meet: I stand in between,” is a lot to chew on.

According to the traditional Biblical story of the creation of humanity in the image and likeness of God; and our subsequent fall from that relationship, is the issue of sin (hamartia) and the need for repentance (metanoia). This of course has been convoluted through the centuries from Augustine's idea of Original Sin and Calvin's concept of Total Depravity; and has caused much pain and suffering in the Western tradition of Christianity, catholic or protestant. I think the Eastern Orthodox understanding is much closer to what Panikkar is trying to get at or at least my take on it.

According to Kyriakos C. Markides' book, "Gifts of the Desert: The Forgotten Path of Christian Spirituality", can be summarized as the Threefold Way (or three identifiable stages) of the soul's journey toward union with God. I'll try to summarize from my notes from this book:

Hamatria or sin (which means to “miss the mark” or to be off your mark) does not mean the violation of some moral injunction as it is often taught in the west but means a life cut off from God. The Fall of Man in Adam does not mean that we’ve become totally depraved but that we’ve been wounded and broken and cut off from God. We've lost sight of God or our consciousness of direct union with God. This ignorance or forgetfulness is our fundamental “illness of the heart”. We were created in the Image and Likeness of God. We never lost that. All men, even though due to the "Adamic fall", have lost our consciousness of God, still have the very image of God within us. We all have "the Christ" within our very nature but because of the fall, we have been separated from conscious union with God.

Metanioa. Eventually/hopefully, the prodigal son realized his separation from His Father and decides to return, trusting in his Fathers compassion and forgiveness. This is when the soul goes through metanoia or repentance which is a radical transformation of the heart and mind. It doesn’t just mean to feel sorry for our sins (the loss of conscious union with the divine) and say a sinners prayer (which isn’t in the Bible anyway. lol). “To repent is to awaken from the deep sleep of ignorance (or unconsciousness), to rediscover the soul, to gain the meaning and purpose of our lives by responding to the incomparable love of the One who is not of this world.”

Catharsis- the systematic struggle to purify their hearts to make them vessels of the Holy Spirit. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”- Jesus. For as long as our hearts are hostage to worldly passions and desires we cannot really experience the fullness of divine grace. This Grace resides deep within us but in our blindness we are unaware of its presence.

Askesis is the methodology of purifying the heart so that it may begin to become aware of God’s presence deep within us. Askesis is a set of spiritual exercises or disciplines for overcoming egotism; and acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit. (To buffet the body- St Paul). These methods of askesis includes- fastings, confession, holy communion, self-observation, alignment of thoughts and actions with Christ’s commandments, study, ceaseless prayer, meditation, etc, etc.
Also, this is the only level we can do anything about. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling for God works in us. The following two stages are purely the work of Grace. This one is too but we are actively involved in it. The next two is strictly a work of grace.

[KENOSIS- However, I would insert here that Panikkar and Cynthia Bourgeault and Jesus Christ himself promote a different approach. Not askesis but Kenosis- the radical emptying of ourselves through non-concentrative methods like Centering Prayer].

Fotisis- means illumination. It’s the enlightenment of the soul, the awakening to what we truly are. One of the things Christ came to do was to mirror for us who we truly are. To experience the Uncreated Light of Tabor, i.e., The Taboric Light.

Theosis or Deification- the ultimate attainment of the human soul- the original split between the self and God is overcome and the soul experiences Divine Union with God- a return to the primordial state of man. Salvation is not so much about getting our ticket to heaven. Its about a restored consciousness of our oneness with God:

"In Christian spirituality, the soul upon deification maintains its autonomy within the oneness of God. The self does not get diluted into the All. What is annihilated is the sum total of egotistical passions and desires, not our uniqueness as persons created in the image of God for eternity." -Bishop Maximos (Anastasios) of Cyprus.

Anyway, this seems a much more holistic understanding of story of the creation of humanity in the image and likeness of the divine, our fall from consciousness of this divine union, and our restoration or re-awakening to consciousness of our union with God. Its already present but we've lost consciousness of it; but through such practices like Centering Prayer we are gradually led to a place of re-awakening to what we are by nature, or as Panikkar puts it, to discover" the tangential touch between immanence and transcendence, where “I am the point of the tangent in which those two poles [World and God] meet: I stand in between...”

Well, anyway, this has been my meditation on this passage from Pannikar. It seems much truer to my own experience of God, at least since began the contemplative journey under the teachings of Fr. Thomas keating. Before this, I grew up under the cloud of total depravity and the saved-lost-saved-lost concept or Arminius. I was damned by Calvin and was perpetually in fear of losing my salvation because of Arminius! I must have been"saved" a billion times during my childhood. But understanding that "salvation" in Christ is about awakening to the realization and consciousness of union with God, "I am the point of the tangent in which those two poles [World and God] meet: I stand in between" gives me great hope and liberation from the tyranny of fear and shame I once knew.