No matter how cool-clad, tech-wise, contemporary-worded and scientifically-supported spirituality is presented today, truly: the ‘science of Enlightenment’ never reached the Enlightenment Age.
Traditional spiritual schools and post-modern movements, otherwise heavily antagonized, especially regarding their positions on authority and progress in society (for example, in respect to the role of women), found a common parlance—Liberation and Oneness—and a common enemy—science and reason.  Thus, the flag/motto, “Tyranny of science and reason,” became valid for both.
The power of reason that the awakening West initially disregarded as unimportant in spirituality, is now starting to be reconsidered and felt as extremely needed.
Book excerpt: Portilla, Isaac. The Possibilities of Spiritual Experience: An Autobiographical and Philosophical Exploration. Madrid: Editorial Mirlo, 2017. (Part: The Three Pillars Model; Chapter: 21st c.: The Age of Enlightenment of Spirituality?; Sub-chapter: Spirituality and the Enlightenment Age; p. 112-117)

Spirituality and the Enlightenment Age
By Isaac Portilla

After years of serious dedication to experiential spirituality and research, I arrived at a striking and paradoxical conclusion: spirituality—the so-called ‘science of Enlightenment’—never reached the Enlightenment Age.  Even though spirituality is the most important subject of human life (it deals with the essence and purpose of existence), it was never modernized—scientific reasoning and constructive criticism never came to affect its traditional ways, its approach and methods never evolved, its goals, assumptions and practices hardly ever changed.[1]  Subsequently, the benefits that modernity brought to all fields of knowledge did not reach spirituality, which remained isolated and numb in a changing world.  No matter how cool-clad, tech-wise, contemporary-worded and scientifically-supported spirituality is presented today, truly: the ‘science of Enlightenment’ never reached the Enlightenment Age.

            Indeed, spirituality fell behind all other fields of knowledge and today it is considered a side subject in our societies, without due academic recognition, far from the core of human life where it naturally belongs.  Much of the lack of advancement in spirituality has to do, not with its nature,[2] but with two historical circumstances:

—First, the Enlightenment—as the Age of Science—lead to the separation of religion from other fields of knowledge, and since mystical spirituality is associated with religion (mysticism being the inner aspect of spirituality while religious ritual the outer), it became bounded, to some extent, by religious traditionalism.  Today we still talk about ‘spiritual traditions’—the Christian tradition, the Buddhist tradition, the Taoist tradition, the Indian Dharma traditions—and not about ‘spiritual sciences’—the Christian science, the Buddhist science, and so forth, because, even when changes occurred, their approach to knowledge, their teachings, their goals, their practices, and so all their inner structures and beliefs were never affected by modernity in a substantial way.

—Second, even though the Enlightenment—as the Age of Reason—shaped modern Western thought and eventually the world’s modern thought in its entirety, ‘contemporary experiential spirituality’ was not affected by it because of two powerful influences. On the one hand, the Eastern schools that arrived to the West (e.g., Zen Buddhism, only-practice Yogic and Taoist Lineages, 20th century versions of Advaita, etc.), in general, pay little attention to reason and do not consider the Western approach to scientific method as a valid instrument applicable in spiritual contexts complementary to the classical spiritual methods (i.e., philosophical-scientific enquiry can discover new spiritual knowledge, improve spiritual philosophies, and produce transformative insights complementary to classical spiritual methods, but it is not acknowledged as having that capacity).[3]  On the other hand, the critique to the limitations of reason in the post-modern world played also an important part, as it deeply influenced contemporary spirituality, especially regarding its predilection toward ‘non-rational spirituality’.  Post-modernity helped to shape a favorable environment for alternative approaches to life where ‘emotions’ and ‘feelings’ were emphasized, and believed to be in conflict with ‘reason’ (the demonized ruler).  This belief caused many to welcome the aforesaid Eastern philosophical perspectives, trusting that their critique to the intellect was for the same reasons as theirs.[4]  In that social context, traditional spiritual schools and post-modern movements, otherwise heavily antagonized, especially regarding their positions on authority and progress in society (for example, in respect to the role of women), found a common parlance—Liberation and Oneness—and a common enemy—science and reason.  Thus, the flag/motto, “Tyranny of science and reason,” became valid for both.

            However, the prolonged period of unscientific and unreasonable spirituality seems to be slowly coming to an end—just by pondering the results of the lack of science and reason in spirituality in the last five decades, we could not expect it to be otherwise.  That is, the arrival to the West of Eastern spirituality since the 60’s proved not only the spiritual wisdom of the East and the deficiencies of the West in this respect, but also, overtime, the weakness of the East and all pre-modern spiritual systems in terms of practical psychology, scientific method, and evolutionary thinking.  Indeed, the power of reason that the awakening West initially disregarded as unimportant in spirituality, is now starting to be reconsidered and felt as extremely needed, especially after decades of disappointments with authoritarian Gurus, unfulfilled expectations of ever-lasting Bliss, and the often mistaken or inflated assumptions of ‘bubble spirituality’—an ultimate Nirvana, an eternal non-evolving teaching, the vision of an ‘Enlightened man or woman’ as an infallible figure, etc.  Thus, after spirituality lost track of the Age of Science and Reason, it is due time for spirituality to modernize.

[1] The Age of Enlightenment (i.e., the ‘Age of Science’ or the ‘Age of Reason’), highly influenced by the ‘scientific revolution’ (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton), is regarded as the period during which the freedom of the individual and her right to question the established beliefs and conventions was recognized as a necessity for progress.  Spirituality, however, did not experience any significant transformation regarding its mostly traditional and authoritarian approach; thus, its goals, teachings, and practices remained mostly unaltered (while these areas could have been updated in accordance to evolutionary changes in bio-social and spiritual-energetic conditions).

                  Here, I am not referring to the ‘Enlightenment Age’ applicable to spirituality as a more fashionable ‘cultural epoch’, but as the awakening of scientific thinking in spirituality, which serves to defend and support the eternal core of the spiritual impulse—Truth.

[2] The insight-based nature of spiritual teachings is not a reason to avoid scientific thinking and methodological enquiry, which can be pursued in parallel, out of a teaching context.  Also, the abstract terminology of spiritual knowledge is not an excuse for such avoidance.  In all fields of knowledge there is a separation between teaching and research, and all fields of knowledge reveal increasing complexities when studied deeply; this is the way a field of knowledge does not become stagnant, isolated, and eventually unrecognized in our society—by independent research.  Spirituality has much to learn in this respect.

[3] The Zen preaching of “no-mind,” the apparently “irrational” Koan practice, the Taoist poetic insights, and other non-rational approaches, which have an important place in teaching contexts (mostly dealing with spiritual Realization), should not be interpreted as a critique to the use of reason in spirituality (i.e., the limitations of reason as a means to realize Spirit should not be interpreted as a critique to the value of reason in any spiritual context as, in fact, the intellect is a crucial aspect for spiritual discovery, being also indispensible for the contextualization of spiritual insights and spiritual guidance).  Insight-oriented methods are not concerned with philosophical or scientific investigations, nor with defining reliable big-picture frameworks or existential cosmologies.  Yet, some of their effect-oriented statements have been unfortunately misinterpreted and taken out of context, as if they were ‘philosophical statements’ valid in all environments at all moments.  It is not likely that this misunderstanding will stop until the role of reason and the scientific method in spirituality is duly acknowledged.

[4] The heavy critique to science and reason (addressed as ‘tyrannical’ at times) became a problem when many anti-reason stances, quite valid in certain contexts, were taken out of the framework in which they were presented.  And so, the critique to intellectualization in some schools of traditional spirituality (valid in their insight-based teaching contexts) was welcomed as an ‘equal’ in contemporary equalitarian-relativistic movements, even though the motivation of these traditional schools was quite different—a strategic stance to realize spiritual Oneness beyond the intellect, but never the promotion of equalitarianism and relativism in such Oneness (that would be the post-modern Western interpretation of it).
© 2017 Isaac Portilla
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Preface: Beyond the Nirvanas. There are truths beyond the nirvanas and ecstasies, beyond the transcendental perspectives and the present-moment awareness, which are waiting to be recognized... (read more)
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My Awakening. In May, 2003, at the age of 25, I sat for meditation.  This was just a few weeks after I had decided to be truly committed to the spiritual path—“whatever that might be,” I used to think at that time....  (read more)
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Spirituality and the Enlightenment Age. After years of serious dedication to experiential spirituality and research, I arrived at a striking and paradoxical conclusion: spirituality—the so-called ‘science of Enlightenment’—never reached the Enlightenment Age...  (read more)
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Glossary (Three Pillars Model Terminology): Divine Cognition; Enlightenment; God (mystical-scientific def.); Light Threshold; Logos; Nadis; Overmind; Self Realization; Supermind...  (read more)