Three Excerpts from Steve McIntoshs soon to be released book, The Presence

of the Infinite: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness (Quest
Books)
FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality
FROM CHAPTER 4: Contemporary Spiritual Currents: Progressive and Nondual
FROM CHAPTER 5: A Constructive Critique of Nondual Spiritual Teachings
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
The Rise of Evolutionary Spirituality
Evolutionary spirituality is being born out of the growing realization that the scientific and
historical story of our origins actually presents a profound spiritual teaching about the purpose
of the universe and our place within it. Evolutionary spirituality, however, is not a religion or belief
system. Rather, it represents a new level of cultural agreement that can include and uplift many
of the existing forms of spirituality found in contemporary culture. In other words, evolutionary
spirituality aspires to create a widely agreeable public form of spirituality that can provide a
greater sense of solidarity and cohesion for those living in the developed world, while
simultaneously retaining pluralism and making abundant room for a diversity of convictions
about what is ultimately real. In short, evolutionary spirituality endeavors to transcend and
include what is currently on offer in the spiritual marketplace of ideas through a new approach to
spiritual teaching and practice.
Evolutionary spirituality, as I understand it, transcends previous forms of spirituality through two
crucial insights that serve as its foundation. The first insight comes from an enhanced
recognition of the spiritual nature and behavior of the intrinsic values of beauty, truth, and
goodness. And the second insight involves what is coming to be known as the spiritual
teachings of evolution itself. As I argue in chapter 2, the scientific truths of cosmological and
biological evolution, together with the historical truths of humanitys cultural evolution, reveal a
truth so comprehensive and significant as to have spiritual implications of its own. Properly
interpreted, the evolutionary unfolding of nature and history, as well as the evolution of human
consciousness itself, represents a kind of revelation that serves as a useful criterion for
evaluationa reliable standard of measurementfor practically all spiritual truth claims.
Moreover, through the practice of evolutionary spirituality we become agents of evolution
emissaries of the futurewhose mission is the improvement of the human condition. And the
experience and creation of that which is spiritually realthat which is beautiful, true, and good
is ultimately how we make things genuinely better. In other words, we become direct
participants in evolutions unfoldingthe process by which something more keeps coming from
something lessas we work to increasingly perfect ourselves and our world. Thus, those who
are on an evolutionary spiritual path recognize that their purpose in life is to participate in the
gradual perfection of the evolving universe of nature, culture, and self.

FROM CHAPTER 4
Contemporary Spiritual Currents: Progressive and Nondual
[In this chapter] we consider the most recent trends in progressive spiritual culture that have
become evident since the turn of the millennium, leading to the conclusion that progressive
spirituality is reaching a kind of maturity or culmination through its growing agreement regarding

the nondual nature of ultimate reality. And this agreement itself is arising from the partial merger
of the practices and truth teachings of Advaita Vedanta Hinduism and Westernized progressive
Buddhism.
Once we have examined the recent maturation of progressive spirituality and the evolutionary
opportunity this creates, we will be ready to explore in the next chapter how evolutionary
spirituality can use this opportunity to transcend the limitations of progressive spirituality and
thereby achieve the next dialectical step in our societys cultural evolution.

An Existential Spiritual Polarity Becomes More Clearly Visible

The rise of nonduality as the mature expression of progressive spirituality provides new insight
into the landscape of spiritual experience itself. As discussed above, the teaching that ultimate
reality is essentially nondual has now brought together most of the major strands of progressive
spirituality into a widespread cultural agreement. And the emergence of this agreement itself
makes clear that nonduality is a vital and authentic aspect of spiritual reality.
However, no matter how popular this teaching may become and no matter how authentic the
spiritual experience of nonduality may be, this does not negate or subordinate the experiential
authenticity or cultural significance of other current forms of spirituality that are not nondual. In
other words, within the spiritual marketplace of ideas, both contemporary and historical, other
equally venerable kinds of spirituality can be found whose teachings point in a somewhat
different direction. While some proponents of nondual spirituality contend that such alternative
teachings are simply lower, or less true, the experience of nonduality itself does not justify such
a conclusion. In fact, one of the virtues of a nondual unitive experience is that it is completely
transconceptual, so it does not lend itself well to conceptual claims of belief system superiority.
As a result of its welcoming pluralism, the culture of progressive spirituality continues to
embrace a wide variety of convictions regarding the character of ultimate reality. Yet even when
we account for the full spectrum of diversity and acknowledge the myriad ways that people can
experience spirit, when we survey the field of contemporary spirituality a clear pattern can be
discerned. And as I will argue through the rest of this chapter, this evident pattern within spiritual
experience points to two fundamental ways in which ultimate reality is most often experienced
by spiritual practitioners: either it is experienced as unqualified unity, or it is experienced as a
transcendent Creator. Simply put, spiritual experience itself reveals two essential kinds of
ultimate reality, which can be loosely identified as nondual and theistic.
These two fundamental conceptions of ultimate reality, however, are not just lying next to each
other as alternative possibilities. Their dynamic relationship produces an interactive structure
that takes the form of an existential polarity. That is, within the ideational and experiential terrain
of humanitys search for ultimate meaning and value a dialectical tension exists between two
essential conceptions of ultimate reality. And as discussed in chapters 2 and 4, existential
polarities such as this can be recognized as systems of development providing openings for
further evolution.

The Polarity Exists within Spiritual Experience Itself

The experience of spirit itself seems to divide naturally into two distinct categories that provide
the foundation and determine the teaching themes for the nondual and theistic forms of
spirituality we are exploring. As we have seen, nondual versions of spirituality are founded
primarily on the universal mystical experience of formless unity. As Advaitan teacher
Nisargadatta Maharaj wrote, When you go beyond awareness, there is a state of non-duality, in
which there is no cognition, only pure being. In the state of non-duality, all separation ceases.

Conversely, theistic versions of spirituality rest upon another kind of deep and foundational
spiritual experiencethe love of God. For those who have a direct relationship with God, the
experience of being personally known and cared for by the Creator of the universe is a thrilling
confirmation of their faith. As Saint Augustine wrote, God loves each of us as if there were only
one of us.
But while formless unity is the experiential foundation of the nondual pole and the love of God is
the experiential foundation of the theistic pole, the experience of Gods love is not a perfect
polar mirror of the nondual unitive experience. The experiential basis for theistic spirituality is
more varied and not always mystical in character. Theistic spiritual experiences can include
awareness of loyalty and duty, as well as the other natural signs discussed at the end of
chapter 3. Such experiences can also include a sense of love, not just from God but from other
spiritual sources, such as from Christ. For example, philosopher and mystic Simone Weil
described her experience of Jesus as the presence of love, like that which one can read in the
smile on a beloved face.
Some have argued that the apparent differences found in descriptions of essential spiritual
experience can be reduced to interpretive constructions designed to justify previously
established belief systems. Others contend that such differences are due to the indeterminate
nature of spiritual reality, which is said to be best understood as a wide ocean of diversity rather
than as a structured polarity. However, after reflecting on this subject for quite some time, it
seems to me that the polar opposition I am describing does not result simply from previously
held biases toward doctrinal commitments. My conclusion is that the polar tension between
theism and nonduality reflected in the overall world body of spiritual teachings about ultimate
reality results from a polarity in the human experience of ultimate reality itself, rather than the
other way around. In short, the experiences produce the polarity in the teachings more than the
teachings produce the polarity in the experiences.

FROM CHAPTER 5
A Constructive Critique of Nondual Spiritual Teachings
A central feature of evolutionary spirituality is its vigorous pursuit of excellence and its relentless
striving for improvement. This penchant for progress creates a sense of restlessness and
discontent with current conditions. And this discontent becomes particularly acute with regard
to the developed worlds current state of spiritual evolution, which leads to this chapters
critique of nondual spirituality.
Recall that in chapter 1 we identified both the need and the opportunity for more agreeable and
inclusive forms of spiritual leadership in the developed world. And in chapter 2 we began to
explore how the rise of evolutionary spirituality could supply such leadership. Also in chapter 2,
we examined how harnessing the developmental potential of an existential polarity involves
using its inherent conflicts to discover the transcendent synthesis implied by the existence of its
dialectical tensions. Then in the last chapter we explored how the maturation of progressive
spirituality has revealed more clearly than ever before the existence of such an existential
polarity within the worlds spiritual teachings (both ancient and modern) and also within human
spiritual experience overall.
So now in this chapter we will use evolutionary spiritualitys method of dialectical epistemology
to help facilitate the emergence of evolutionary spirituality itself. In the context of contemporary
spiritual culture, this dialectical method involves working with the essential contradictions
between nondual and theistic teachings about the nature of ultimate reality. When we evaluate
the respective truth teachings of these two poles in light of the spiritual teachings of evolution,

we can begin to recognize certain underappreciated propositions of spiritual truth

(underappreciated within progressive spirituality at least) most often associated with theistic
spirituality. As I will argue, these truths are confirmed by the spiritual teachings of evolution
themselves and are thus rehabilitated and reclaimed by evolutionary spirituality.
As a preview, the teachings of spiritual truth that can be recognized as necessities from the
viewpoint of evolutionary spirituality include: (1) the necessity of a spiritually real evolving soul;
(2) the necessity of human free will; (3) the necessity of a spiritually real evolving finite universe;
and (4) the necessity of recognizing that ultimate reality possesses the personal powers of
intention and love. I believe these propositions of spiritual truth are necessary elements of
evolutionary spirituality because they follow directly from the spiritual teachings of evolution.
Simply put, the universe does not really make sense unless we acknowledge a place for these
truths within our spirituality.
While the recognition of these evolutionary necessities inevitably results in a constructive critique
of some of the teachings of nonduality, my arguments do not attempt to invalidate nondualism.
As I hope will become clear in the next chapter, the purpose of this critique is to help establish a
more roomy oneness within nondual teachings that can better accommodate the spiritual
parts within the spiritual whole. However, the same practice technique that allows us to engage
effectively the polarity of nonduality and theism in an evolutionary context also requires us to
reaffirm and preserve the core teachings of nonduality, even in the face of paradox and
contradiction.