Bernadette Roberts on the experience of no-self

Bernadette Roberts is a former Carmelite nun and contemplate in the Catholic tradition. In this article she talks about her experience of enlightenment .

Bernadette Roberts: The Experience of No-Self


"If the content and purpose of this writing seems to be in total contradiction to the reader's beliefs and expectations regarding self and the journey, then he or she is advised to read no further. Those who do read further are advised to keep in mind that the Christian path is the only one I ever lived; thus what I know of other religious traditions and psychological paradigms is solely by way of reading and discussion with others. So, although I speak of Hinduism, Buddhism and the psychology of Carl Jung, I have never had their particular experiences or shared their perspectives. I trust readers will allow for this just as they allow for those who, never having lived the Christian contemplative path, nevertheless continue to give us their views on it." ~ Bernadette Roberts (former Carmelite nun and contemplative in the Catholic tradition. )

 

Wow that is a long article.

Enlightenment is really an eastern term. It doesn't have much to do with Christianity. Christianity defines things in terms like truth and wisdom.

 

Christianity is also an eastern religion. Eastern philosophy says that the Buddha nature or Self is within you.Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is within you.

I would say that there is a correlation between them which would not be visible if one stays stuck behind boundaries.

Bernadette Roberts using eastern terminology to describe her deeper experiences in Christianity also reveals this hidden correlation between them.

 

I've known a few accomplished Taoist masters, and even they have no clue what is coming. Already it has been established that those raised in extended families or who routinely volunteer their own two hands in service to their community, live longer and thrive better in the long run. Modern science is about to prove that metaethics, or karma, rule even the laws of physics and the human mind and brain, and that we are spirits in the material world, and start the next scientific revolution that bridges science and spirituality, emotion and logic. Soon enough, science will be able to quantify spiritual experiences and even tweak your brainwaves to produce different results. These are yin-yang push-pull dynamics, which imply faith must inevitably transform into the self-evident truth, as the greater context of the One Truth determines the identity of its contents in a more obvious, even pie-in-the-face, manner. Taoists prefer to talk about "novelty", but they are so conservative.

What is coming is the Mother of All, the Great Void, or collective unconscious or Yin World which is never anything like what anyone expects it to be. If it wasn't a surprise, it wouldn't be a miracle now would it? However, this miracle obeys modified Bayesian probabilities vanishing into indeterminacy that can be used to collate any data for low entropy, providing the most precise way to measure anything in existence. Mother nature comes with her own instruction manuals and complete tutorials, but be careful what you ask for... The nonlinear temporal dynamics are what confuse most people, just remember time is never what you think it is, until that time rolls round again, because it can be whatever you want it to be. When we no longer make distinctions between who we are and what we are doing, time seems to slow down, but it is our awareness catching up to the reality.

Time seems to go by so much faster normally, because we are busy ignoring different things. Time does so many funky things it makes my head spin, including what some of us call "time weather" that's like a temporal cold front that just descends and passes right through your body and you can see a vague image of what it looks like in your head. As crazy as that might sound, I've been a roomful of people who all experienced it at the same time, and we always agree on what it looked like. Its mother nature working her magic on somebody in the neighborhood. I tell people you know when God or nature is talking to you, and you better pay more attention.

 

“As a Christian, I saw the no-self experience as the true nature of Christ’s death; the movement beyond even his oneness with the divine, the movement from God to Godhead. Though not articulated in contemplative literature, Christ dramatized this experience on the cross for all ages to see and ponder. Where Buddha described the experience, Christ manifested it without words; yet they both make the same statement and reveal the same truth – that ultimately, eternal life is beyond self or consciousness. After one has seen it manifested or heard it said, the only thing left is to experience it.” ― Bernadette Roberts, The Christian Contemplative Journey: Essays on the Path


Here you can see the Christian sage Bernadette Roberts emphasizing the obliteration of the separative self or ego to experience the eternal life emphasized by Christ, and considers it equivalent to the no-self or emptiness emphasized by Buddha.

She also emphasizes the necessity of experiential understanding to experience this state for oneself, being beyond all conceptual beliefs.