Contemplative Spirituality & AS

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Can anybody relate to me?
I have recently been diagnosed with AS. It was such a life-saver after a life-time of loneliness, misunderstanding, and deep frustration and depression.

However, I am starting to feel rather lonely even in my new 'aspie community' as although I am getting some deep connection and identification with other members, i have not met any aspies that like myself take refuge from the world through contemplative spirituality.

Although my diagnoses was unequivocal leaving no ambiguity whatsoever, I feel rather alienated in that I have such little real interest in technology, engineering, 'alien type stuff' & the internet (apart from finding & using this site which is a real Godsend) etc.

The world I have always moved in and the language I have always used is very much the language of the heart. This was my 'otherworldlyness' and stills remains so. This has become my 'fixed interest'. This clearly has been a factor in my vocation as a spiritual director & in accompanying others in the spiritual journey.

I would like to ask two questions

1 Does this resonate with other members?
2 Are there any books on the subject of AS from a heart or soul point of view?

Much peace to you all
cx

Hi criss,

Im also interested in spirituality - the illusory nature of reality, universal conciousness, trying to live and experience the world through intuition/'heart' - feeling rather than thinking.

In purely spiritual terms, i have no particular interest in learning more about AS as its part of the illusion - the matrix that divides us and blocks the realisation that we are universal conciousness, making us feel small and limited when in fact we are expressions of the same limitless energy trapped in a bubble(s) of our own design.

Id be surprised if there are books that cover (high) spirituality in relation to AS as they belong to different paradigns, however it would still be interesting to read. I could email you some other books if you like.

hello. i have been a religious (christian) person all my life. several years were spent in spiritual formation as a contemplative, and i have read a great deal on conteplative spirituality. please tell me more about your life, criss! i think the prophets, poets, priests, shamans, seers of earlier ages were probably gifted contemplative people. i think some of the parts of Hebrew scripture could have been written by aspie-type people. the longing, solitude, saddness, and soul ache sound a lot like the mystics thru the ages. what do you think? thanks so much for writing. Maybe you will write again. fondly, L

Yes I relate. We're all different.

"I feel rather alienated in that I have such little real interest in technology, engineering, 'alien type stuff' & the internet (apart from finding & using this site which is a real Godsend) etc."

My interests have changed. I have things that interest me that few here do. What some of those that you have listed have in common is, to the depth that we might have taken them, obsession. None of this is a deciding factor. If you don't see the common thread/post for those talking about what you enjoy, start it, you might be surprised. I happen to be (according to The Wife) an expert in pre-historic NE American lithics, no school involved, even did it on a pro level. It doesn't bother me that there is no ongoing discussion about it, I know where to go else where if i thought it's what I needed. But then when I taught myself, the internet didn't have such things, come to think of it, there wasn't an internet, well not like now.

As to the message from the heart, the message from the "silent one", yeah I see it. My heart as been scarred a bit from an off shoot of this, got tossed a few curves balls I didn't duck to well, but I understand it. Looks good and I try to embrace it when this other s**t let's me. I'm no saint, a walking contridiction. That doesn't make me blind. And I have no need for a label for my beliefs.

As to your number 2? Write it

welcome criss,

AS is considered the loss of this world, which I see as a good thing. Others have had to renounce the world to walk the spirit path, we were chosen. We are but a part, observing the whole, but of the same.

WP is three years old, this is new ground. There is a shortage of the spiritual, Postpaleo is right, start writing. You will not harm us, and you will hear other points of view.

As a very technological person I will tell you, The Universe was Created in an instant from nothing, about 15,000,000,000 years ago. It is still the only thing in endless nothing we can perceive. It is much less than a grain of sand in endless nothing. Time, energy, gravity, did not exist before then.

The Universe, Time, Energy, Gravity, Matter, did not Create themselves. About this point I get thrown out of churches and universities. One claims I have a false God, the other that the Universe has no meaning.

Universe I, lasted 10,000,000,000 years, energy became gas, gravity drew it to centers, it formed suns that produced more complex elements, then exploded. It had to be so to produce the planet we are on.

Universe II, formed without life. It cooled off about 5,000,000,000 years ago, and sudenly, there was DNA. It is much too complex to form by any accident, 99% DNA dies, only perfect works, and reproduces. It is equal to the Creation of the Universe out of nothing, but 10,000,000,000 years later. Biologists reject me. It did not just live, it mutated and became all life.

It took both of these events to produce life. I am too scientific for religion, and too spiritual for science, so welcome to WP.

Criss: I was hunting for a topic on "mysticism" There's about 2000 threads in this forum and yours is the only one I found that came close. Thanks for starting it up, and I hope we can keep it going,

I started reading Evelyn Underhill and quotes from the Catholic mystics as a teenager and I have always been drawn to Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mysticism; but especially to aboriginal thinking, Taoism, and Mayayana Buddhism which I feel are mysical to the core. Now late in my life, I find myself drawn more and more to these themes, St. John of the Cross, the Tao Te Ching, The Cloud of Unknowing, Rabia.

I'm sure there must be a difference between "contemplation" and "Mysticism", but I see them as closely related.

Since Aspergers robs me of intuition and an ability to understand my feelings, I sometimes feel I am incapable of a) any kind of mystical experience, and b) the ability to trust any such experience that I might be given the grace to have. Nevertheless, I do believe that the only way to experience God is through the via negitiva, whether I am able to follow that path or not. So I can, and do, contemplate; and I study the mystical expertiences of others hoping some of the truth they learn will rub off on me.

thanks for the post. I hope more people contribute! fondly, L

I go to a great church with a great pastor. He is learned, tolerant, gentle, and intelligent. But, too often I get freaked becaise either a) It will be taken for granted that I believe or ought to believe something that I just can't swallow, or b) some hint of superiority over other paths will creep into the homily. This could be my problem because I know my pastor never intends these slips, so maybe I imagine them.

I like it that Christian mystics are accused of being Taoists, that Sufis are accused of being Christians, and that advocates of Native American spirituality are accused of being "New Age."What these accusations mean to me is that there is a commong core to mysticism that surmounts differences in theology, culture, history or religious conflict.

I know that Moslems say you must first be a Moslem before you can be a Sufi, and Buddhists say that you should be a Buddhist even before attempting a "formless path." People aware of my appreciation for Jesus, Francis, Theresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart,etc. assume I must be a Christian

But I think it is possible (and maybe even better) to approach contemplation with the fewest possible number of theological or cultural presuppositions. Eckhart was brilliant in part because he drew on Jewish and Islamic sources, and in part because when his perception of God came into conflict with Church dogma, he trusted his own perceptions.

"Yhe fountain from which I drank is here, and there are many other fountains if you are thirsty." Murat Yagan (Sufi)

I have had strong interests in religion and spirituality since I was a little boy, when I started my own religion (rather silly in retrospect), Soulology. Later, I became involved in Eckankar (surat shabd yoga), Sikhism, and (when no one had heard of it) Wicca.

I have been a member of the Bahá'í Faith since 1970 and have written extensively on the subject. For instance:

http://tech.structurization.com

I have a prayer life and also practice dhikr (meditation). Most of the "worlds" I have created relate, in some way, to religion and spirituality. For instance:

http://moyshe.structurization.com

I'm not "spiritual" in the sense of believing in supernatural "greater realities" and other such nonsense, I am an atheist, but I am "spiritual" in the broad sense of meaning a sense of awe and wonder towards the cosmos and all that exists.

im not even trying to be spiritual for the time being until i work on all the physical tangeble aspect of my being. plus i dont know how to work on something i cant see like my spirit. i supose i shall just keep the golden rule and continue to be charitable

Excellent start. Richardbenson, now just quiet the mind and sit. Read a book on Catholic, or Buddhist, or Chinese, or Hindu meditation. I don't know if there is a book on Sufi meditation? If there is I will read it. My favorite "how to" sources on spirituality are David A. Cooper, "The Heart of Stillness" and the chapter on "Contacting God" in Deepak Chopra's book, "How to Know God."

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All Creation is calling upon God. You cannot hear or see it on the outside, but the essence in everything is continuously remembering and calling upon God. Sheikh Muzzafer/