The 'Via Negativa'

There are traditionally two ways to reach God in the Western tradition, known as the via negativa and via positiva. The latter proceeds by praising the qualities of the Lord, and corresponds to a devotional path. The former works with the denial of all qualities, and corresponds to the intellectual path. These two ways are reflected in the Indian system of Bhakti and Jnana Yoga; the third way of Karma Yoga is not considered here.

There is an interesting point to make here about the negative way of knowledge, which is that it is characterised more by denial than by affirmation. Therefore, a School of Philosophy (which will have a natural bent towards knowledge) will often be making negative statements about things. This may sound rather mystical, but really it's simple enough. When His Holiness speaks about things, he generally states not only what they are, but also what they are not.

So, for example, when he describes the Way of Love, he makes the startling and unsettling remark that "love cannot see reason. And it never will"; and that "the establishment of truth is not essential on the way of love". This kind of statement can only be made by someone who really knows. It's easy to make positive remarks that sound kinda right; but it takes wisdom to state the negative.

The familiar story of the ten travellers whose boat is upset in mid stream relates to this. It is usually interpreted as a comment on the intangible nature of one's Self - we notice everyone else, but forget the Self. But what kind of Self is it we have forgotten? After all, one would normally feel highly conscious of oneself, and forget others. Clearly, the story is not about the ahankara. What it is about is self-examination. We examine others - that's easy - but we forget to look at ourselves. The point is brought home in an unusual retelling by His Holiness - quoted in the material given to the Senior groups of late - in which he interprets it as being about the ten philosophies.

Traditionally, in India, there are ten philosophies, ranging from the "Philosophy of the World" to Advaita Vedanta. But the point His Holiness makes here is not that one philosophy is more superior than any other, but that the proponents of each see only the flaws and weaknesses in all the others, and forget to look at their own assumptions. The true philosopher may have a 'point of view' - "Darshana" or 'view' is the word for philosophy - but he or she will be aware of having a point of view. The immature philosopher, on the other hand, believes that his or her philosophy is "The Truth", and so never looks critically at it.

Is this heretical? To some, perhaps it has that appearance. But to real philosophy, the only heresy is the inability to question limited knowledge. All philosophy that can be understood by a human mind is of necessity limited. That is what the via negativa tells us. To speak of "The Truth" is all right for the devotional person, but let us not forget, for the devotional person, truth is not really important.