mysticism

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Dictionary: mys·ti·cism (mĭs'tĭ-sĭz'əm) pronunciation

1. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
2. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.
A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
Vague, groundless speculation.

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World of the Body: mysticism

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Mysticism is frequently defined as an experience of direct communion with God, or union with the Absolute, but definitions of mysticism (a relatively modern term) are often imprecise and usually rely on the presuppositions of the modern study of mysticism — namely, that mystical experiences involve a set of intense and usually individual and private psychological states. While figures such as Teresa of Avila, Bernard of Clairvaux, and John of the Cross are seen to be paradigmatic mystics of the Christian tradition, no ‘mystics’ would have defined themselves as such before the twentieth century. Furthermore, mysticism is a phenomenon said to be found in all major religious traditions — though the common assumption that all mystical experiences, whatever their context, are the same cannot, of course, be demonstrated.

Mysticism involves the practice of contemplation both in the philosophical sense of the contemplation of truth and in the ‘supernatural’ sense of having knowledge of God via a life of prayer. Nevertheless, the ‘mystic way’ is primarily practical, not theoretical, and is something in which the whole self is engaged; the great Christian mystics have spoken of how they acted rather than how they speculated. St Mechthild of Magdeburg wrote that the writing of her book had been seen and experienced in her every limb, seen with the eyes of her soul, and heard with the ears of her eternal spirit. Sharing the mental and physical suffering of Christ, in the meeting of the spirit with evil, is described by some mystics as central to their experience. Teresa of Avila warned her nuns that the trials given by God to contemplative could be intolerable, and that they might not be able to endure their sufferings for as long as a day. Images of action — battle, pilgrimage, search — are used to describe the mystic's inward work, which is, paradoxically, sustained by the outward stillness of contemplation.

Some have placed a particular emphasis on certain altered states, such as visions, trances, levitations, locutions, raptures, and ecstasies, many of which are altered bodily states. Margery Kempe's tears and Teresa of Avila's ecstasies are famous examples of such mystical phenomena. But many mystics have insisted that while these experiences may be a part of the mystical state, they are not the essence of mystical experience, and some, such as Origen, Meister Eckhart, and John of the Cross, have been hostile to such psycho-physical phenomena. Rather, the essence of the mystical experience is the encounter between God and the human being, the Creator and creature; this is a union which leads the human being to an ‘absorption’ or loss of individual personality. It is a movement of the heart, as the individual seeks to surrender itself to ultimate Reality; it is thus about being rather than knowing. For some mystics, such as Teresa of Avila, phenomena such as visions, locutions, raptures, and so forth are by-products of, or accessories to, the full mystical experience, which the soul may not yet be strong enough to receive. Hence these altered states are seen to occur in those at an early stage in their spiritual lives, although ultimately only those who are called to achieve full union with God will do so.

In Jewish mysticism, embodied in the collected teachings known as the Kabbalah, God is perceived as one who both reveals and conceals himself but who can be perceived through the practice of contemplation and resulting illumination. Because mystical knowledge can easily be misinterpreted, traditionally only people of a certain age and educational level, and usually men, were allowed to engage in mysticism. The role of the ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ body, and the place of gender relations, in Jewish mystical experience are illustrated by the story of Rabbi Nehunya ben Hakkanah, told in the sixth- or seventh-century Hekhalot Rabbati. The rabbi was in a mystical trance, at the sixth heaven but about to enter the seventh heaven, when the people with him wanted to ask him about his vision when he was speaking out loud to them while in his trance. They were faced with the question of how to get him out of his mystical trance, so they laid a piece of cloth on his knees which had been touched by a woman who had completed her menstrual cycle, had purified herself the first time, but not the second, and was therefore not quite pure. When the cloth touched his knees the rabbi came out of his trance immediately so they were able to ask him the question, and then he went back into his trance.

In the late nineteenth century mysticism became the object of much research, partly because of the development of psychology and partly because of the new comparative study of religion by which phenomena were observed and compared across cultures. Key figures in this scholarship were Evelyn Underhill and Friedrich, Baron Von Hugel, though their analysis of mysticism was not theological. Von Hugel emphasized the Transcendent, the ‘wholly other’ as a fact of religions across cultures and thus he influenced thinking about the mystic's union with that Transcendent being. Underhill in particular saw mysticism as a process or way of life and as a cross-cultural phenomenon, and thus envisioned the ‘mystic way’ as a series of psychological states which could be found in mystics across different religions, times, and places. While Underhill insisted that a feature of mysticism was the abolition of individuality, the new emphasis, also found in the work of the philosopher William James, on the psychological states of the mystic led to an assumption that mystical experience is an essentially private and subjective matter. It did not involve, for example, questions of social justice — though mystics have long claimed that the mystical experience is proven ‘true’ in its effects or fruits, such as greater humility, acts of charity, and love of others. James associated the mystical with subjective states of feeling and the notion of mysticism as ‘private’ remains in most subsequent philosophical treatments of the subject. Both Underhill and Von Hugel made it clear that mysticism was an essential element in all religion, but never claimed it to be the whole content of any religion. However, some Protestant theologians, such as Emil Brunner and Reinhold Neibuhr, came to reject it as anti-Christian, considering it to be too Neoplatonic, while others, including Anglicans like W. R Inge, Dean of St Paul's, went to the other extreme and saw mysticism as the essence of Christianity.

Michel de Certeau's work, in the latter part of the twentieth century, has compared the procedures common to both mysticism and psychoanalysis, suggesting that the body, far from being ruled by discourse, is itself a symbolic language, and that in both psychoanalysis and mysticism the body is perceived as responsible for a truth of which it is unaware. Thus the body holds the ‘key’ to the ‘truth’ of the ‘space’ represented by the mystical or unconscious. This has caused the modern study of mysticism to focus, like psychoanalysis, on the bodily manifestations of the psyche's or soul's condition in order to understand the ‘truth’ of that condition. Perhaps the ultimate example of this is Jacques Lacan's attempt to locate the apparent impossibility or unknowability of female desire in the mystical experiences of Teresa of Avila, as depicted in Bernini's sculpture in Rome; he states that on looking at that statue it is immediately clear to us, if not to Teresa, that she is experiencing an orgasm. Luce Irigaray, a feminist psychoanalyst, has appropriately responded (in This Sex Which is Not One) to this collapse and merging of female sexual desire and religious experience thus: ‘In Rome? So far away? To look? At a statue? of a Saint? Sculpted by a man? What pleasure are we talking about? Whose pleasure? For where the pleasure of Teresa is concerned, her own writings are more telling.’

— Jane Shaw

Bibliography

Underhill, E. (1995). Mysticism, (15th edn, revised). Bracken Books, London

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: mysticism

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Spiritual quest for union with the divine. Forms of mysticism are found in all major religions. Hinduism, with its goal of absorption of the soul in the All, is inherently predisposed to mystical experience. Buddhism emphasizes meditation as a means of moving toward nirvana. In Islam, Sufism employs metaphors of intoxication and of the love between bride and bridegroom to express the desire for union with the divine. In Judaism, the foundations of mysticism were laid in the visions of the biblical prophets and were later developed in the Kabbala and in Hasidism. Mysticism has appeared intermittently in Christianity, notably in the writings of St. Augustine and St. Teresa of Àvila, and in the works of Meister Eckhart and his 14th-century successors.

For more information on mysticism, visit Britannica.com.

Philosophy Dictionary: mysticism

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Belief in union with the divine nature by means of ecstatic contemplation, and belief in the power of spiritual access to ultimate reality, or to domains of knowledge closed off to ordinary thought. Also applied derogatorily to theories that assume occult qualities or agencies of which no empirical or rational account can be offered.

US History Encyclopedia: Mysticism

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Mysticism has many meanings in the study of the history of religions. In general it refers to a type of faith that emphasizes the direct experience of unity with the Divine. Theologically, mystical faiths tend to stress the divine immanence, and they often identify God with the structure of being. In the United States mystical forms of faith can be seen as a protest against the dominant religious tradition. Often centered around charismatic leaders, many of whom have been women, important strains of American mysticism have also set themselves explicitly outside Christianity.

The most famous mystic in early American history was Anne Hutchinson, whose mysticism evolved from the Puritan emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the means of grace. Her teachings were inflammatory, and for stating that she had communicated directly with God, she was exiled from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.

Although Jonathan Edwards, a leading preacher of the Great Awakening, was primarily interested in traditional forms of religious experience, many elements in his writings suggest mystical leanings. The description of his wife's religious experience in Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival (1792) is one of the classic accounts of mystical experience in American literature. Edwards's own theology presented a view of the world as filled with shadows and images of things divine and had elements in it similar to those found in mystical faiths.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was perhaps the most prominent proponent of nineteenth-century Romantic mysticism in the United States. Building on ideas ultimately derived from German philosophy and—in his later years—from the religions of the East, Emerson evolved a unique American mysticism that stressed the unity of humans with all nature. Through humans' communication with the world, Emerson argued, they could come to transcend it and recognize themselves as part of it at the same time.

In the years after the Civil War a variant of mysticism known as theosophy gained in popularity. Theosophy focused both on humans' ability to experience God and on the power of the human mind. Drawing on ideas from Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, charismatic leaders, such as Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Annie Wood Besant, attracted both numerous followers and considerable controversy. In 1875 Blavatsky helped found the Theosophical Society and Universal Brotherhood in New York City. Mysticism also became better known to Americans through the World Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893. Representatives of Eastern religions and Western mysticism presented their views of the religious life to large audiences.

In the Native American tradition, mysticism had always played a central role, and this tendency increased under the pressure of persecution and displacement from ancestral lands. The most famous example of this phenomenon is the rise of the Ghost Dance movement among the Plains Indians in the late 1880s. Inspired by the Paiute prophet Wovoka, who claimed transcendent experiences in the afterworld, Sioux believing themselves invincible to bullets came into conflict with the U.S. Army. In 1890 over three hundred Sioux were killed in what became known as the Battle of Wounded Knee. Although this massacre brought the Ghost Dance movement to an end, the ideas that had animated it lived on and became part of the Native American Church, founded in 1918. Native American mysticism after Wounded Knee often revolved around peyote, a hallucinogenic plant that was used as a sacrament in ceremonies.

The Roman Catholic Church has always had more of a place for mysticism than the Protestant churches, and the mystical experience has continued to be important in the lives of many Roman Catholic religious orders. Thomas Merton, a convert to Catholicism, was one of the influential voices for Catholic mysticism in the United States in the twentieth century. His exposition of the mystical way was marked by clarity and philosophical insight, and his works reveal a deep concern for social justice and a keen analysis of political issues.

The drug culture of the 1960s created a widespread interest in mysticism among the young. Many who tried mind-expanding drugs found the states they induced were remarkably similar to or even identical with the experiences of the great mystics of the past. This led many to explore or become followers of non-Christian faiths, such as Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and Native American religions.

Bibliography

Merton, Thomas. The Seven Storey Mountain. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948.

Miller, Perry. Jonathan Edwards. New York: W. Sloane, 1949.

Moore, R. Laurence. In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness. London: Methuen, 1962.

Columbia Encyclopedia: mysticism

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mysticism (mĭs'tĭsĭzəm) [Gr.,=the practice of those who are initiated into the mysteries], the practice of putting oneself into, and remaining in, direct relation with God, the Absolute, or any unifying principle of life. Mysticism is inseparably linked with religion. Because of the nature of mysticism, firsthand objective studies of it are virtually impossible, and students must confine themselves to the accounts of mystics, autobiographical and biographical, or, as the mystics themselves say, they must experience for themselves. The terms mystic and mysticism are used very broadly in English, being extended to mean magic, occultism, or the esoteric.

The Nature of Mysticism

There are certain common fallacies current about mysticism: that mystics are not “practical” and that they are revolutionary; on the contrary, many of the greatest mystics have been both intensely active as well as submissive to authority of whatever sort. Nor is the “solitary thinker” necessarily, or even usually, a mystic. There is no accepted explanation of mysticism, and few psychologists have interested themselves in its practice. William James studied the nature of mysticism but reached no conclusion that satisfied him. A significant philosophical evaluation of mysticism was made by Henri Bergson.

There are two general tendencies in the speculation of mystics—to regard God as outside the soul, which rises to its God by successive stages, or to regard God as dwelling within the soul and to be found by delving deeper into one's own reality. The idea of transcendence, as held most firmly by mystics, is the kernel of the ancient mystical system, Neoplatonism, and of Gnosticism. Their explanation of the connection between God and humans by emanation is epoch-making in the philosophy of contemplation. Among those who think of God, or the Supreme Reality, as being within the soul are the Quakers (see Friends, Religious Society of) and the adherents of Vedanta.

The language of mysticism is always difficult and usually symbolic. This is readily seen in the Song of Songs in the Old Testament, in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, and in the writings of William Blake. Mystics, especially those of the Roman Catholic and the Islamic traditions, have made use of a terminology borrowed from ordinary human love. A conventional analysis is as follows: The soul undergoes a purification (the purgative way), which leads to a feeling of illumination and greater love of God (the illuminative way); after a period the soul may be said to enter into mystical union with God (the unitive way), which begins with the consciousness that God is present to the soul; the soul progresses through a time of quiet and an ecstatic state to a final perfect state of union with God (spiritual marriage). Late in this process there is an experience (the dark night of the soul) wherein the contemplative finds himself completely deserted by God, by hope, and, indeed, even by the power to pray; it lasts sometimes for years.

Visions, voices, ecstasies may accompany any or none of the states of contemplation before the final union. It is because of these external and nonessential manifestations that the erroneous idea has arisen that all enthusiastic and nonintellectual religious movements are necessarily mystical. The positive convictions of the mystic arise from the fact that they are based on what he or she must regard as objective reality directly perceived.

Great Mystics and Mystical Traditions

Among the principal contemplatives of Christianity from post-Apostolic times to the Reformation are Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St. Augustine, the false Dionysius the Areopagite, Cassian, St. Gregory I, Erigena, St. Peter Damian, St. Anselm, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Joachim of Fiore, Richard of Saint Victor, Hugh of Saint Victor, Hadewijch, St. Gertrude, St. Francis, Jacopone da Todi, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, Dante, Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroeck, Groote, Thomas à Kempis, Nicholas of Cusa, Rolle of Hampole, Walter Hilton, Juliana of Norwich, Margery Kempe, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena, Gerson, St. Bernardine of Siena, and St. Joan of Arc. The Catholic tradition was continued by St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Theresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Theresa of Lisieux. Orders that have given their name to types of mysticism are Carmelites, Carthusians, and Cistercians.

Among great Protestant mystics are Jakob Boehme and George Fox, founder of Quakerism, the foremost Protestant mystical movement. In the 17th and 18th cent. much literature of the contemplative life was written by the metaphysical poets and by Henry More, William Law, and others. Extremes in post-Reformation mysticism are seen in Jansenism (see under Jansen, Cornelis) and in quietism; and Emanuel Swedenborg may be regarded as a Protestant mystic. Also included in the mystic tradition were the Hermetic philosophers and the Alchemists.

In Judaism the mystical tradition represented by the kabbalah was continued in the modern Hasidism. For Islamic mysticism, see Sufism; al-Ghazali; Farid ad-Din Attar; Jalal ad-Din Rumi; Muin ad-Din Hasan Chishti; Hafiz; Jami; Sadi. For Hindu mysticism, see Vedanta; yoga; Aurobindo Ghose; Chinmoy Ghose; Dayananda Saraswati; Ramakrishna; Vivekananda; Yogananda. For Buddhism, see Zen Buddhism; Buddha; Milarepa; Daisetz Suzuki. See also Taoism.

Bibliography

See R. M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (1909, repr. 1970); S. N. Dasgupta, Hindu Mysticism (1927, repr. 1959); E. A. Peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics (3 vol., 1927–60); E. Underhill, Mysticism (rev. ed. 1930, repr. 1961); J. de Marquette, Introduction to Comparative Mysticism (1949); D. T. Suzuki, Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist (1957, repr. 1971); W. T. Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy (1960); R. C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (1960, repr. 1969); G. G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (3d ed. 1961); D. Knowles, The English Mystical Tradition (1961); E. O'Brien, Varieties of Mystical Experience (1964); E. C. Butler, Western Mysticism (3d ed. 1967); L. H. Bridges, American Mysticism (1970); G. Parrinder, Mysticism in the World's Religions (1976); D. R. Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism: A Biography of Rama Krishna (1985).

Psychoanalysis: Mysticism

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Mysticism is a set of beliefs and practices evoking an intimate union of man and the principle of being (god or divinity). The term mystic (mystisch) appears in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a). In its March 20, 1907, session, the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society listened to a talk by Adolf Häutler on "Mysticism and the Comprehension of Nature," with critical comments by Adler, Rank, and Freud.

Mysticism was understood at that time in a pantheistic sense, as a union of man and nature and of nature with God. In a related sense, Freud "reserved for mysticism a consciousness of the inanimate," that is of matter and the mineral world (1915e).

The discussions between Freud and Romain Roll-and on the "oceanic feeling" and "Universal river" partook of the same pantheistic atmosphere that the French writer was fond of attributing to the "Germanic soul," and that he had borrowed from Indian thought. The feeling for nature and the idea of God were combined in a communion that drew equally on art and religion. For his part, however, Freud wrote to Rolland, on July 20, 1929, "I have as little appreciation for mysticism as I do for music."

Unlike Carl Jung, Freud was distinctly reticent about mysticism, which he felt had more to do with nature than with culture, more to do with intuition (if not drives) than with reason. Near the very end of his life, on August 22, 1938, he wrote in his notes: "Mysticism, the obscure self-perception of a kingdom outside the ego, or id." This obscurity, according to Freud, is not unrelated to the "dark continent" of the female psyche.

But although he seemed to reject mysticism, Freud acknowledged an irrational element in himself: the residue of his self-analysis, which he called "the specifically Jewish nature of [his] mysticism." Moreover, he loved mystery and wrote to Fliess (June 12, 1900) that he had dreamt of a marble plaque on his house that read:

In this house,
 on July 24, 1895,
 the mystery of the dream was revealed
 to Dr. Sigmund Freud.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1915e). The Unconscious. SE,14:159-204.

——. (1970). Letters of Sigmund Freud, 1873-1939. (Ernst L. Freud, Ed.; Tania and James Stern, Trans.). London: Hogarth.

Häutler, Adolf. (1962-75). Scientific meeting, March 20, 1907: Mysticism and the comprehension of nature. In Herman Nunberg and Ernst Federn (Eds.), Minutes of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (M. Nunberg, Trans., Vol. 2, 1906-08). New York: International Universities Press.

Jung, Carl Gustav. (1980). The psychology of the transference. Coll. Works, Vol. 16. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Vermorel, Henri, and Vermorel, Madeleine. (1993). Sigmund Freud et Romain Rolland. Correspondance 1923-1936.(Alain de Mijolla, Ed.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

—ODON VALLET

Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Mysticism

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The attempt of man to attain the ultimate reality of things and experience direct communion with the highest. Mysticism maintains the possibility of a relationship with God, not by means of revelation or the ordinary religious channels, but by introspection and meditation in conjunction with a purified life, culminating in the awareness that the individual partakes of the divine nature. Mysticism has been identified with pantheism by some authorities, and many pantheists have been mystics. However, mysticism is not tied to any particular philosophical or theological perspective.

Mysticism tends to differ from public religion, which emphasizes a worshipful submission to the deity and the ethical dimension of life, while mysticism strains after the realization of a personal union with the divine source itself. The mystic desires to be as close to God as possible, part of the divine essence itself, whereas the ordinary devotee of most religious systems merely desires to walk in God's way and obey his will.

Historical Survey

Mysticism has emerged as a strain in all of the major religious systems, both East and West. It tends to have a particular affinity, however, with some systems. While there is, for example, a perceptible mystical stain in Christianity, Judaism (Hassidism), and Islam (Sufism), Western systems that emphasize the transcendence of a personal all-powerful deity have made mysticism a secondary concern. In the East, where the unreality of material things is emphasized, mysticism is a more dominant form of spiritual life. The Sufis of Persia may be said to be a link between the more austere Indian mystics and those of Europe.

With the rise of Alexandrian Neoplatonism, mysticism attained a new level of presence in Europe. Neoplatonism made a definite mark upon early Christianity, and we find it mirrored in many of the patristic writings of the sixteenth century.

It was Erigena who, in the ninth century, transmitted to Europe the so-called writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, the sixth century Syrian thinker who synthesized Christian theology and Neoplatonism and thus greatly influenced the mysticism of the Middle Ages. Erigena based his own system upon that of Dionysius. This was the so-called "negative theology," which placed God above all categories and designated him as nothing, or the incomprehensible essence from which the world of primordial causes is eternally created. This creation is the work of the Son of God, in whom all substantial things exist; but God is the beginning and end of everything. On this system Christian mysticism may be said to have been founded with little variation.

With Erigena, reason and authority are identical, and in this he agrees with all speculative mystics. Scholasticism, however, is characterized by the acceptance by reason of a given matter that is presupposed even when it cannot be understood. It seemed to Erigena that in the scholastic system, religious truth was external to the mind, while the opposite view was fundamental to mysticism.

That is not to say that mysticism according to Erigena is a mere subordination of reason to faith. Mysticism indeed places every confidence in human reason, and it is essential that it should have the unity of the human mind with the divine as its main tenet, but it accepts nothing from without, and it posits the higher faculty of reason over the realization of absolute truth.

Medieval mysticism may be said to have originated from a reaction of practical religion against the dialectics in which the true spirit of Christianity was then enshrined. Thus St. Bernard opposed the dry scholasticism of Abelard. His mysticism was profoundly practical, and dealt chiefly with the means by which human beings may attain the knowledge of God. This is to be accomplished through contemplation and withdrawal from the world.

Asceticism is the soul of medieval mysticism, but St. Bernard averred regarding self-love that it is proper to love ourselves for God's sake, or because God loved us, thus merging self-love in love for God. We must, so to speak, love ourselves in God, in whom we ultimately lose ourselves. In this, St. Bernard is almost Buddhistic, and indeed his mysticism is of the universal type.

Perhaps Hugh of St. Victor, a contemporary of St. Bernard's, did more to develop the tenets of mysticism, and his monastery of Augustinians near Paris became a great center of mysticism. One of his apologists, Richard of St. Victor, declared that the objects of mystic contemplation are partly above reason, and partly, as regards intuition, contrary to reason. The protagonists of this theory, all of whom issued from the same monastery, were known as the Victorines and put up a stout fight against the dialecticians and schoolmen. Bonaventura, who died in 1274, was a disciple of this school and a believer in the faculty of mystic intuition.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the worldliness of the church aroused much opposition among laymen, and the church's cold formalism created a reaction towards a more spiritual regime. Many sects arose, such as the Waldenses, the Cathari (see Gnosticism), and the Beguines, all of which strove to infuse into their teachings a warmer spirituality than that which burned in the heart of the church of their time.

In Germany, mysticism made great strides, and Machthild of Magdeburg and Elizabeth of Thuringia were, if not the originators of mysticism in Germany, certainly among its earliest supporters. Joachim of Flores and Amalric of Bena wrote strongly in favor of a reformed church, and their writings are drenched with mystical terms, derived for the most part from Erigena. Joachim mapped out the duration of the world into three ages, that of the Father, that of the Son, and that of the Spirit—the last of which was to commence with the year 1260, and to be inaugurated by the general adoption of monastic and contemplative life.

A sect called the New Spirit, or the Free Spirit, became widespread through northern France, Switzerland, and Germany; and these did much to infuse the spirit of mysticism throughout Germany.

It is with Meister Eckhart, who died in 1327, that we get the juncture of mysticism with scholastic theology. Of his doctrine it has been said: "The ground of your being lies in God. Reduce yourself to that simplicity, that root, and you are in God. There is no longer any distinction between your spirit and the divine—you have escaped personality and finite limitation. Your particular, creature self, as a something separate and dependent on God is gone. So also, obviously, your creaturely will. Henceforth, therefore, what seems an inclination of yours is in fact the divine good pleasure. You are free from law. You are above means. The very will to do the will of God is resolved into that will itself. This is the Apathy, the Negation, the Poverty, he commends."

With Eckhart personally this self-reduction and deification is connected with a rigorous asceticism and exemplary moral excellence. Yet it is easy to see that it may be a merely intellectual process, consisting in a man's thinking that he is thinking himself away from his personality. He declares the appearance of the Son necessary to enable us to realize our sonship; and yet his language implies that this realization is the perpetual incarnation of that Son—does, as it were, constitute him. Christians are accordingly not less the sons of God by grace than is Christ by nature. Believe yourself divine, and the Son is brought forth in you. The Saviour and the saved are dissolved together in the blank absolute substance."

With the advent of the Black Death, a great spirit of remorse swept over Europe in the fourteenth century, and a vast revival of piety took place. This resulted in the foundation in Germany of a society of Friends of God, whose chief object was to strengthen each other in intercourse with the creator. Perhaps the most distinguished of these were John Tauler and Nicolas of Basle, and the society numbered many inmates of the cloister, as well as wealthy men of commerce and others. Ruysbroek, the great Flemish mystic, was connected with them, but his mysticism is perhaps more intensely practical than that of any other visionary. The machinery by which the union with God is to be effected is the most attractive. In Ruysbroek's lifetime, a mystical society arose in Holland called the Brethren of Common Lot, who founded an establishment at which Groot dispensed the principles of mysticism to Radewyn and Thomas Kempis.

The attitude of mysticism at the period of the Reformation is peculiar. We find a mystical propaganda sent forth by a body of Rosicrucians denouncing Roman Catholicism in the fiercest terms, and we also observe the spirit of mysticism strongly within those bodies that resisted the coldness and formalism of the Roman Catholic Church of that time.

On the other hand, however, we find the principles of Luther strongly opposed by some of the most notable mystics of his time. But the Reformation passed, and mysticism went on its way, divided, it is true, so far as the outward theological principles of its votaries were concerned, but strongly united in its general principles.

It is with Nicolas of Kusa, who died in 1464, that mysticism triumphs over scholasticism. Nicolas was the protagonist of super-knowledge, or that higher ignorance which is the knowledge of the intellect in contra-distinction to the mere knowledge of the understanding. His doctrines colored those of Giordano Bruno (1550-1600) and his theosophy certainly preceded that of Paracelsus (1493-1541). The next great name in mysticism is that of Jakob Boehme (1575-1624), a German Rosicrucian mystical teacher.

The Roman Catholic Church produced many mystics of note in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Francis of Sales, Madame Guyon, and Molinos—the last two of which were the protagonists of Quietism, which set forth the theory that there should be no pleasure in the practice of mysticism, and that God did not exist for the enjoyment of man. Perhaps the greatest students of Boehme were William Law (1686-1761) and Saint-Martin (1743-1803).

The Universality of Mystical Experience

It is clear from the statements of mystics that they are not limited to any given religion or theology. Given the elevation of the mystical experience over any theological reflection upon that experience, it has been relatively easy for mystics of different traditions to relate to each other, often finding a more natural affinity that with the non-mystic members of their own religious tradition. It is obvious that they are dealing with an element in human experience common to all of humankind. When Meister Eckhart stated, "If I am to know God directly, I must become completely He, and He I: so that this He and this I become and are one I," he comes to the same point as the Advaita Vedanta doctrine of Hinduism, where the jiva (individual soul) merges with Brahma the creator before absorption in Brahman, the non-personal divine ground.

Sufism, Islamic mysticism, first arose in the ninth century among the Persian Moslems, probably as a protest against the severe monotheism of their religion, but in all likelihood more ancient springs contributed to its revival. In the Persia of Hafiz and Saadi, pantheism abounded, and their magnificent poetry is read by Moslems as having a deep mystical significance, although for the most part it deals with the intoxication of love. It is certain that many of them exhibit the fervor of souls searching for communion with the highest.

The apparent differences between Hindu mysticism and Christian mysticism are nominal. Although Christian theology postulates the divine in the form of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, such distinctions become largely unimportant in the actual mystical experience. Similarly, popular Hinduism postulates hundreds of different gods and goddesses, but these are merely legal fictions to the Indian mystic, melting away in the totality of higher consciousness.

Because mind and emotion are transcended in the higher reaches of mysticism, they are seen by mystics as merely ways of reaching a reality that lies beyond them, a totality of consciousness without object, beyond the normal human limitations of individual body, ego, personality, hopes, and fears.

Like Christianity, Hindu Vedanta (inquiry into ultimate reality), has different schools of theology, ranging from Advaita (monism or non-dualism, claiming that all is one and only the divine ultimate has actual existence, all else being illusory) to degrees of Dvaita or dualism (claiming that there is one ultimate divine principle of God but that the soul is a separate principle with independent existence). Such schools are not really contradictory to the mystic, but rather different degrees of interpretation of one reality on the way to an actual mystical experience in which intellectual distinctions vanish.

The Way of the Mystic

In both Eastern and Western mysticism, withdrawal from the everyday life of a householder is recognized as an aid to mystical progress, thus both have monastic establishments at which one follows a life of prayer and meditation. In the initial stages, self-purification is facilitated by dedicated service to others, prior to the more secluded life of the contemplative.

Mystics have sometimes been accused of escapism, of retreating from the responsibilities of everyday life into a private world, and indeed, the descriptions of the ecstasies of spiritual awareness often sound rather like a selfish indulgence, oblivious to the problems of the outside world.

It is clear that the ideal mystic partakes fully of the duties and social responsibility of life after spiritual enlightenment, since mystical experience should give deeper meaning to the reality behind the everyday mundane world. For most individuals, however, a period of retreat from everyday life is helpful in disengaging oneself from the fears, desires, and egoism of mundane existence.

Hinduism places great stress on dharma, the duties and responsibilities of the individual, which take priority over any desire for transcendentalism. During this period one would observe the everyday religious rites and rituals related to the gods and goddesses of an individual's life. Later, however, when one had fulfilled one's responsibilities, married, begat a family, and provided for them, the realization that everything connected with the material world and physical life was transient would grow steadily, culminating in a hunger for knowledge of what is eternal.

At such a time, one might seek a qualified guru or spiritual preceptor and follow an ascetic life, discarding all material possessions, egoism, hopes, and fears in the quest for a higher spiritual awareness not subject to birth and death, or change and decay. Various pathways of yoga facilitated that quest, involving self-purification, service to others, and refinement of perception based upon physical health and its spiritual counterpart.

The Hindu emphasis on the duties and responsibilities of a householder taking priority over the quest for mystical enlightenment have something in common with Judaism, which does not seek to separate mystical experience from everyday life. Judaism is essentially pragmatic in its approach to the spiritual life and requires that mystical experience be interfused with daily life and religious observance.

The Jewish mystic typified in the period of eighteenth to nineteenth-century Hasidism, was a pious rabbi, living a life of prayer, study, and meditation within his community and sharing everyday social life and responsibility. In this respect he resembled the Eastern teacher around whom a group of pupils would gather for spiritual teaching and experience.

The Mechanisms of Mysticism

It is clear that the concept of self-purification in mystical progress involves psycho-physical mechanisms. Fasting, asceticism, mortification, and intense meditation have profound effects on the individual nervous system and other aspects of the body and mind. Very little discussion on this important area appeared in Western literature until Aldous Huxley published The Doors of Perception (1954) and Heaven & Hell (1956). The starting point for Huxley's speculations about the psychophysical mechanisms of mystical experience was his own experiment in taking mescaline, a psychedelic drug, and unfortunately this particular stimulus has overshadowed the wider implications of his discussion.

A more simplistic interpretation of Huxley's speculations leads directly to the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, spear-headed by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, based on the conviction that by merely taking certain chemical substances one could have a spiritual experience comparable with that of the great mystics of history. This was a concept that Huxley himself deplored in his later years.It is now obvious that the chemical ecstasy and visions produced by psychedelic drugs are qualitatively different from the transcendental union experienced by the mystic who has devoted years to self-purification of mind, inner exploration, and spiritual perception, and that unless there is such a purification of the individual, the consumption of drugs can produce an intense but ultimately shallow experience. The search for chemical ecstasy was soon abandoned by its major early exponents, such as Walter Houston Clark.

It is now clear that the gradual transformation of the personality on all levels—physical, mental, emotional and spiritual—involves specific psycho-physical concomitants. Some of these may be accessible to scientific inspection. It may also be possible to evaluate various degrees of transcendental experience, ranging from emotional euphoria to progressively more profound areas of higher consciousness.

The modern Hindu mystic Pandit Gopi Krishna, who experienced a dramatic development of higher consciousness following a period of intense yoga discipline and meditation, has published his experiences and the perceptions accompanying them in a series of books, which during the last years of his life attracted the attention of scientists in investigating the phenomenon.

Paranormal Side Effects

Most religions have reported miraculous phenomena associated with the path of mysticism, including visions, disembodied voices, levitation, and gifts of healing. Christian saints have their miracles and the yogis have their occult powers. It would seem that with the transcendence of normal mental and emotional life, there is an area of transcendence of normal physical law. However, the mystic is warned not to be snared by such phenomena, since it will activate egoism and pride, common faults of the beginner on the spiritual path.

A Turning Point in Western Mysticism

Recent studies of Christian mysticism recognize 1200-1350C.E. as a crucial period in Western mysticism history. The era witnessed new styles and forms of religion, including reformed attitudes toward the relation of the world and the church. No longer was withdrawal from the worldly considered necessary to experience the mystical. Language styles changed in mystical poetry, sermons, and hagiography. Most significantly, there was a growth in the number of mystics, both male and female, as women began to take on a more influential role in mysticism during this time. Among these women visionaries was the ecstatic mystic Angela of Foligno and several great spiritual leaders of the Beguine movement: Mary of Oignies, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete.

Sources:

"AE" [George W. Russell]. The Candle of Vision. London: Macmillan, 1919. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1965.

Augustine, St. Confessions. N.p., n.d. Blakney, Raymond B. Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation. New York: Harper, 1941.

Brinton, Howard H. The Mystic Will: Based on a Study of the Philosophy of Jacob Boehme. New York: Macmillan, 1930.

Buber, Martin. Tales of the Hasidim: The Early Masters. London: Thames & Hudson, 1956. Reprint, New York: Schocken, 1961.

Bucke, Richard M. Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind. 1901. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1961.

Cheney, Sheldon. Men Who Have Walked with God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. Reprint, New York: Dell, 1974.

Clement, Olivier and Theodore Berkeley. The Roots of Christian Mysticism : Text and Commentary. New York: New City Press, 1995.

Ferguson, John. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and The Mystery Religions. London: Thames & Hudson, 1976.

Gall, Edward. Mysticism Throughout the Ages. London: Rider, 1934.

Gopi Krishna, Pandit. The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

Hartmann, Thom. The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation. Northfeld, Vt.: Mystical Books, 1998.

Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954.

——. Heaven & Hell. London: Chatto & Windus, 1956. James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. London, 1902.

Johnston, William. Christian Mysticism Today. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.

Jones, Richard H. Mysticism Examined: Philosophical Inquiries into Mysticism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Lawrence, Brother. The Practice of the Presence of God. London, 1691. Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism. Edited by Louis Dupre and James A. Wiseman. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.

Maeterlinck, Maurice. Ruysbroeck and the Mystics. London, 1908.

McGinn, Bernard. The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350). New York: Crossroad, 1998.

McGinn, Bernard. The Foundations of Mysticism (Presence of God : A History of Western Christian Mysticism, Vol 1). New York: Crossroad, 1994.

O'Brien, Elmer. Varieties of Mystical Experience. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1964.

Pandit, Madhav Pundalik. Traditions in Mysticism. New Delhi, India: Sterling, 1987.

Patanjali. The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali. N.p., n.d. Roth, Ron and Peter Occhiogrosso. The Healing Path of Prayer: The Modern Mystic's Guide to Spiritual Power. New York: Harmony Books, 1997.

Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Love and Wisdom. New York: Swedenborg Foundation, n.d.

Underhill, Evelyn. The Mystic Way: A Psychological Study in Christian Origins. London and New York, 1913.

——. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature & Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness. London: Methuen; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1911.

Waite, Arthur E. Lamps of Western Mysticism. London: Kegan Paul; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Reprint, Blauvelt, N.Y.: Multimedia, 1973.

——. Studies in Mysticism. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906.

Younghusband, Francis. Modern Mystic. London: John Murray, 1935. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1970.

Zaehner, R. C. Mysticism: Sacred, and Profane. London: Oxford, 1957.

The Dream Encyclopedia: Mysticism

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Mysticism has become a highly imprecise term, partially because various popular writers have come to associate it with the occult and anything "mysterious." Originally, mysticism was a purely religious concept, referring to the experience of the direct union of the individual soul with the divine. Thus, people like St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Rumi, and a host of others were mystics in this pure sense. All true mystics would make a sharp distinction between the dream state and the state of divine union. For example, the Upanishads, a Hindu scripture that deals with mystical union, distinguishes between our normal waking state, the dream state, dreamless sleep, and the "fourth" state (i.e., the state of union with the godhead). Mystics do, however, often have visions and vivid spiritual dreams related to their quest for union with the divine. Thus, while it is not incorrect to associate dreams with mysticism, the dream state and the mystical state should never be confused.

Wikipedia: Mysticism

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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2008)

Mysticism (from the Greek μυστικός, mystikos, an initiate of a mystery religion^[1]) is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or awareness. Mysticism may be dualistic, maintaining a distinction between the self and the divine, or may be nondualistic. Differing religious traditions have described this fundamental mystical experience in different ways:

Nullification and absorption within God's Infinite Light (Chassidic schools of Judaism)
Complete detachment from the world (Kaivalya in some schools of Hinduism, including Sankhya and Yoga; Jhana in Buddhism)
Liberation from the cycles of Karma (Moksha in Jainism and Hinduism, Nirvana In Buddhism)
Deep intrinsic connection to the world (Satori in Mahayana Buddhism, Te in Taoism)
Union with God (Henosis in Neoplatonism and Theosis in Eastern and Catholic Christianity, Brahma-Prapti or Brahma-Nirvana in Hinduism)
Innate Knowledge (Irfan and fitra in Islam)
Experience of one's true blissful nature (Samadhi Svarupa-Avirbhava in Hinduism and Buddhism)
an ability to experience or tap into a List of superhuman features and abilities in fiction

Enlightenment or Illumination are generic English terms for the phenomenon, derived from the Latin illuminatio (applied to Christian prayer in the 15th century) and adopted in English translations of Buddhist texts, but used loosely to describe the state of mystical attainment regardless of faith.

Mystic traditions generally form sub-currents within larger religious traditions—such as Kabbalah within Judaism, Sufism within Islam, Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism within Hinduism, Christian mysticism within Christianity—but are often treated skeptically and sometimes held separately, by more orthodox or mainstream groups within the given religion, due to the emphasis of the mystics on direct experience and living realization over doctrine. Mysticism is sometimes taken by skeptics or mainstream adherents as mere obfuscation, though mystics suggest they are offering clarity of a different order or kind. In fact, a basic premise of nearly every mystical path, regardless of religious affiliation, is that the experiences of divine consciousness, enlightenment and union with God that are made possible via mystical paths, are available to everyone who is willing to follow the practice of a given mystical system. Within a given mystical school, or path, it is much more likely for the mystical approach to be seen as a divine science, because of the direct, replicable elevation of consciousness the mystical approach can offer to anyone, regardless of previous spiritual or religious training.

Some mystic traditions can exclude the validity of other traditions. However, mystic traditions tend to be more accepting of other mystic traditions than the non-mystical versions of their traditions. This is based on the premise that the experienced divinity is able to bring other mystics to their own tradition if necessary. Some, but not all, mystics are even open to the idea that their tradition may not be the most practical version of mystic practice.

Most mystic traditions have both positive (+) and negative (-) values of mystical experience within their own tradition. One example of this is in the New Age tradition, which simply calls these values positive and negative energy. Another example is in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, which would refer to these as the influence of good and evil spirits, or good and evil realms - in the case of an out of body experience.

Overview

See also, "Mystic". The term '"mysticism'" is used to refer to beliefs and practices which go beyond the liturgical and devotional forms of worship of mainstream faith, often by seeking out inner or esoteric meanings of conventional religious doctrine, and by engaging in spiritual practices such a breathing practices, prayer, contemplation and meditation, along with chanting and other activities designed to heighten spiritual awareness. For example, Kabbalah (based in Judaism) seeks out deeper interpretations of the Torah, and conducts spiritual practices based in song, dance, prayer and talmudic study, accordingly. Sufism (in Islam) extends and amplifies the teachings of the Quran in the spirit of universal love, most famously through their devotional musicians dancing Zhikrs and singing Qawwalis. Vedanta reaches for the inner teachings of Hindu philosophy encapsulated in the Vedas, and many students of both Shaivite Tantric schools within Hinduism, as well as Shakta Tantrics, along with usually more mainstream-oriented Vaisnaivas, will use the symbolism and mythologies of their gods and goddessess, to take the initiate home to their highest awareness, via mystical practices designed and proven for these purposes. Mystics hold that there is a deeper or more fundamental state of existence beneath the observable, day-to day world of phenomena, and that in fact the ordinary, world is superficial or epiphenomenal. Often mysticisms center on the teachings of individuals who are considered to have special insight, and in some cases - Christianity, Buddhism, Mosaic law... - entire non-mystical (doctrine-based) faiths have arisen around these leaders and their teachings, with few or no mystical practitioners remaining.

Different faiths have differing relationships to mystical thought. Hinduism has many mystical sects, in part due to its historic reliance on gurus (individual teachers of insight) for transmission of its philosophy. Mysticism in Buddhism is largely monastic, since most Buddhists consider jhana (meditation) to be an advanced technique used only after many lifetimes. Mysticism in Abrahamic religions is largely marginalized, from the tolerance mainstream Muslims grant to Sufism to the active fears of cultism prevalent among western Christians, with Chasidic Kabbalists of Judaism being the notable exceptions. Mysticisms generally hold to some form of immanence, since their focus on direct realization obviates many concerns about the afterlife, and this often conflicts with conventional religious doctrines. Mystical teachings are passed down through transmission from teacher to student, though the relationship between student and teacher varies: some groups require strict obedience to a teacher, others carefully guard teachings until students are deemed to be ready, in others a teacher is merely a guide aiding the student in the process.

Mysticism may make use of canonical and non-canonical religious texts, and will generally interpret them hermeneutically, developing a philosophical perspective distinct from conventional religious interpretations. Many forms of mysticism in the modern world will adapt or adopt texts from entirely different faiths - Vivekananda in Vedanta, for instance, is noted for his assertions that all religions are one. As a rule, mysticisms are less concerned with religious differences and more concerned with social or individual development; what mysticism is most concerned with, however, is having the most effective set of practices with which to attain enlightened consciousness/Union w/God. Not much else beyond this matters to a dedicated mystic - he or she focuses on the inner realms; mind-breath, non-thinking awareness, and so on. Mystics are not too concerned with the opinions or the religious tools of their more conservative religious compatriots.

The mystical perspective

Process

Author and mystic, Evelyn Underhill outlines the universal mystic way, the actual process by which the mystic arrives at union with the absolute. She identifies five stages of this process. First is the awakening, the stage in which one begins to have some consciousness of absolute or divine reality. The second stage is one of purgation which is characterized by an awareness of one's own imperfections and finiteness. The response in this stage is one of self-discipline and mortification. The third stage, illumination, is one reached by artists and visionaries as well as being the final stage of some mystics. It is marked by a consciousness of a transcendent order and a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. The great mystics go beyond the stage of illumination to a fourth stage which Underhill, borrowing the language of St. John of the Cross, calls the dark night of the soul. This stage, experienced by the few, is one of final and complete purification and is marked by confusion, helplessness, stagnation of the will, and a sense of the withdrawal of God's presence. It is the period of final "unselfing" and the surrender to the hidden purposes of the divine will. The final and last stage is one of union with the object of love, the one Reality, God. Here the self has been permanently established on a transcendental level and liberated for a new purpose. Filled up with the Divine Will, it immerses itself in the temporal order, the world of appearances in order to incarnate the eternal in time, to become the mediator between humanity and eternity.^[2]

Ambiguities of meaning

The mystic interprets the world through a different lens than is present in ordinary experience, which can prove to be a significant obstacle to those who research mystical teachings and paths. Much like poetry, the words of mystics are often idiosyncratic and esoteric, can seem confusing and opaque, simultaneously over-simplified and full of subtle meanings hidden from the unenlightened. To the mystic, however, they are pragmatic statements, without subtext or weight; simple obvious truths of experience. One of the more famous lines from the Tao Te Ching, for instance, reads:

My words are very easy to know, and very easy to practice;

but there is no one in the world who is able to know and able to practice them. (Legge, 70)^[3]

References to "the world" are common in mystical and religious traditions including admonitions to be separate and the call to detachment which is analogous to emptiness. One key to enigmatic expressions lies in the perspective that "the world" of appearances reflects only learned beliefs - based on the limitations of time, culture and relationships - and that unquestioned faith in those misperceptions limits one's return to the divine state. The cloaking of such insights to the uninitiated is an age-old tradition; the malleableness of reality was thought to pose a significant danger to those harboring impurities.

Readers frequently encounter seemingly open-ended statements among studies of mysticism throughout its history. In his work, Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem, a prominent 20th century scholar of that field, stated: The Kabbalah is not a single system with basic principles which can be explained in a simple and straightforward fashion, but consists rather of a multiplicity of different approaches, widely separated from one another and sometimes completely contradictory^[4]

Strategies

aphorisms, poetry, and etc.

semi-artistic efforts to crystallize some particular description or aspect of the mystical experience in words

God is Love (Christian and Sufi in particular), Atman is Brahman (Advaitan), Zen haiku, Rumi's love poems (Sufism). Over time many of these have become trite slogans, losing their core meaning as depictions of practical experience, i.e. "God is Love" - describing the power of creation inherent in pure desire/unconflicted singlemindedness of will.

koans, riddles, and metaphysical contradictions

irresolvable tasks or lines of thought designed to direct one away from intellectualism and effort towards direct experience.

The classic "What is the sound of one hand?" (Zen) (or the more popularly known as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?") or "How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?" (Christian). Sometimes these are dismissed as mere incomprehensible silliness (see humor, below); sometimes they are taken as serious questions whose answers would have mystical significance. In either case, the intention is lost; the point being that excessive effort in contemplating the impossible leads the initiate to give up the ego pursuit of doing/getting as opposed to the unity experience of being/having.
The evocative Taoist phrase - To yield is to be preserved whole, to be bent is to become straight, to be empty is to be full, to have little is to possess - is another example of a metaphysical contradiction describing the path of emptying of the learned self.

humor and humorous stories

teachings which simultaneously draw one away from serious discussion and highlight metaphysical points

Primary examples are the Nasrudin tales, many of which focus on the unreliability of perception, e.g. someone shouts at Nasrudin sitting on a river bank, "How do I get across?" "You are across." he replies; [Bektashi jokes] which serve as a means of opposing the pressures put on society by Orthodox Islam, and the Trickster or Animal Spirit stories passed down in Native American, Australian Aboriginal, and African Tribal folklore. Even the familiar "Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby", for example, is fairly acute psychology wrapped in a children's tale. Humor of this sort is often corrupted into mere jokes: some Nasrudin tales have a clear metaphysics built in, while others have devolved into little more than depictions of a crazy, dimwitted old man.

parables and metaphor

stories designed to teach a particular but unconventional metaphysical view of reality indirectly, by using analogy

One familiar example - the Garden of Eden story of Adam and Eve being cast out in shame - has lost its metaphorical meaning over time; the psychological/metaphysical consequences of shame when the innocent creative ego (feminine aspect) is tempted to reach for power and subsequently enters the belief in duality (eating of the tree of good and evil) because reason (masculine aspect of mind) has yet to waken. In the story, return to the Garden and Tree of Eternal Aliveness (divine reality) is only possible through purification of mind (the gate is protected by the lone innocent cherubim/Self wielding a flaming sword.) Compare this to the symbols of fire, masculine/feminine unity, time, fearlessness, and ego transcendence found in images of "Shiva the Destroyer" (Hindu) where the transformational process is described by visual metaphors. Christ is well-known for his use of parables, consistently using them to teach compassion and inclusion, while many contain hidden metaphorical content for "those who have ears to hear." In one of the most enigmatic stories from the Gospel of Thomas, he describes the Kingdom of Heaven as like an old woman returning home after a long journey, carrying all she values - a bag full of grain - on her back. A tear allows the grain to escape during the journey and she arrives home to discover it empty. Very Buddhist in tone, each word of the story has significance in describing the return path to the divine through a gradual emptying of earthbound value concepts and subtle internal conflicts. The use of the term, old woman, is a common metaphor related to the mind's incapacity to create, when controlled by embedded defensive ego values.

These categories are, of course, intended only as guidelines; many mystical teachings cover the gamut. For instance, Yunus Emre's famous passage:

I climbed into the plum tree

and ate the grapes I found there.

The owner of the garden called to me,

"Why are you eating my walnuts?"

is humor, parable, poem, and koan all at once as it describes the human potential for timelessness and moving beyond the vagaries of perception and levels.

Relation to philosophy and sciences

To an extent, mysticism and the modern sciences appear antithetical. Mysticism is generally considered experiential and holistic, and mystical experiences held to be beyond expression; modern philosophy, psychology, biology and physics being overtly analytical, verbal, and reductionist. However, through much of history mystical and philosophical thought were closely entwined. Parmenides, Plato and Pythagoras, and to a lesser extent Socrates, had clear mystical elements in their teachings; many of the great Christian mystics were also prominent philosophers, and certainly Buddha's Sutras and Shankara's 'Crest Jewel of Discrimination' (fundamental texts in Buddhism and Advaitan Hinduism, respectively) display highly analytical treatments of mystical ideas. Baruch de Spinoza, the 17th c. philosopher, while supporting the new discoveries of science and eschewing traditional Jewish concepts of God and miracles, espoused that Nature/Universe was one holistic reality with the highest virtue - the power inherent in preserving essence (being) or "conatus," and the highest form of knowledge - the intuitive knowing of the Real. These shared understandings occur again and again in the field of philosophy and yet some persist in disparaging the one over the other.

The pursuit of knowledge in the realm of physics has been accepted for much of history as inseparable from understanding the mind of God - including the 20th c. comment by Albert Einstein that "God does not play dice," referring to the unfathomable discoveries of quantum physics. The rift between mysticism and the modern sciences derives mainly from elements of scientism in the latter: certain branches of the natural sciences, broadly disavow subjective experience as meaningless, misunderstanding the limitations of the ancient languages. That said, several areas of study in biology (work of Mae Wan Ho and Lynn Margulis are two examples) and philosophy address the same issues that concern the mystic, and modern physicists now struggle to understand a multiple dimensional reality that mystics' have attempted to describe for millennia. Physicist David Bohm speaking of consciousness expressing itself as matter and/or energy would be completely understood by the mystic, whatever his cultural/religious heritage.

Furthermore, Continental philosophy tends to be concerned with issues closely related to mysticism, such as the subjective experience of existence in Existentialism. It should be noted that while existentialism suggests a nothingness rather than a oneness, the mystic's pursuit of emptiness - despite its fear producing angst - for the sake of union with the Divine, points directly toward a potential unity between physics and psychology that does not at present exist. The mystic's attempt to describe cause and effect between one's internal state and the miraculous, hints at a close connection between psychological stability (ego transcendence) and the mysterious realm of causality quantum physicists are now deciphering - dimensional reality shifts that synchronize with states of consciousness and unconflicted choices.

Ontology, epistemology, phenomenology

While the three philosophical fields - the nature of reality, knowledge and phenomenon - would appear to all relate to aspects of mystical experience, they have not as yet been correlated in a systematic way. Traditional use of the term ontology makes it a synonym of metaphysics. Prior to Immanuel Kant's theoretical separation of "reality" from the "appearance of reality," with human knowledge limited to the latter, the field of ontology/metaphysics concerned itself with the overall structure or nature of reality. Afterwards, philosophical and mystical approaches were seemingly separated in a permanent way. 'The general focus on experience in mysticism tends to belie ontological questions; mystical ontology is rarely stated in clear affirmative particulars. Often, it consists of generalized, transcendent identity statements—"Atman is Brahman", "God is Love", "There is only One without a Second" — or other phrases suggestive of immanence. Sometimes it is stated in negative terms, from the Hindu tradition for instance, the word Brahman is usually defined as God 'without' characteristics or attributes. Buddhist teachings explicitly discourage ontological beliefs, Taoist philosophy consistently reminds that ontos is knowable but inexpressible, and certain 'psychological' schools—spiritual schools following after Carl Jung, and philosophical schools derived from Husserl—concern themselves more with the transformation of perceptions within consciousness than the connection between transformed consciousness and the external Real.

Mysticism is related to epistemology to the extent that both are concerned with the nature, acquisition and limitations of knowledge. However, where epistemology struggles with foundational issues—how do we know that our knowledge is true or our beliefs justified—mystics often appear more concerned with process as the means to true knowing. However, every mystical path has necessarily as its ontological purpose, the discernment between truth and illusion, and many approaches emphasize the total discarding of beliefs as the prerequisite to knowledge in the phenomenological sense. Foundational questions are generally answered, in mystical thought, by mystical experiences. Their focus, less on finding procedures of reason that will establish clear relations between ontos and episteme, but rather on finding practices that will yield clear perception. The goals therefore are the same, but the mystic's awareness of evolving levels of consciousness encompass another realm altogether. At least one branch of epistemology claims that non-rational procedures (e.g. statements of desire, random selection, or intuitive processes) are in some cases acceptable means of arriving at beliefs, while the mystic's goal is discarding said beliefs as a limit to knowledge.^{[citation needed]} The term "mysticism" is also used in a pejorative sense in branches of epistemology to refer to material beliefs that cannot be justified empirically, and thus considered irrational.^[5] According to Schopenhauer,^[6] mystics arrive at a condition in which there is no knowing subject and known object:

... we see all religions at their highest point end in mysticism and mysteries, that is to say, in darkness and veiled obscurity. These really indicate merely a blank spot for knowledge, the point where all knowledge necessarily ceases. Hence for thought this can be expressed only by negations, but for sense-perception it is indicated by symbolical signs, in temples by dim light and silence, in Brahmanism even by the required suspension of all thought and perception for the purpose of entering into the deepest communion with one's own self, by mentally uttering the mysterious Om. In the widest sense, mysticism is every guidance to the immediate awareness of that which is not reached by either perception or conception, or generally by any knowledge. The mystic is opposed to the philosopher by the fact that he begins from within, whereas the philosopher begins from without. The mystic starts from his inner, positive, individual experience, in which he finds himself as the eternal and only being, and so on. But nothing of this is communicable except the assertions that we have to accept on his word; consequently he is unable to convince.

– Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. XLVIII<

The emphasis that is placed on subjective direct experience of the "divine and otherworldly transcendent goal of unity", makes it highly controversial to individuals who place a greater emphasis on emperical verification of knowledge and truth (such as scientists for example). In this sense, one again returns to a more philosophical context within the fields of Epistemology and the philosophy of perception, exploring the notions of truth, belief, knowledge and verification.

Phenomenology is perhaps the closest philosophical perspective to mystical thinking, and shares many of the difficulties in comprehension that plague mysticism itself. Husserl's phenomenology, for instance, insists on the same first-person, experiential stance that mystics try to achieve: his notion of phenomenological epoché, or bracketing, precludes assumptions or questions about the extra-mental existence of perceived phenomena.[1] Heidegger goes a step beyond: rather than merely bracketing phenomena to exclude ontological questions, he asserts that only 'beingness' has ontological reality (similar to Baruch de Spinoza's suppositions) and thus only investigation and experiencing of the self can lead to authentic existence. Christian mystics would assert that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within" references the same approach. Phenomenology and most forms of mysticism part ways, however, in their understanding of the experience. Phenomenology (and in particular existentialist phenomenology) is pre-conditioned by angst (existential dread) which arises from the discovery of the essential emptiness of 'the real' and can go no further; mystics, by contrast take the step beyond to "being" and describe the peace or bliss that derives from their final active connection to 'the Real'. Those who adopt a phenomenological approach to mysticism believe that an argument can be made for concurrent lines of thought throughout mysticism, regardless of interaction[2].

Other perspectives

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The integral theorist Ken Wilber who has also studied mysticism and mystical philosophies in some depth comments that:

"There is nothing spooky or occult about this. We have already seen identity shift from matter to body to mind, each of which involved a decentering or dis-identifying with the lesser dimension... consciousness is simply continuing this process and dis-identifying with the mind itself, which is precisely why it can witness the mind, see the mind, experience the mind. The mind is no longer a subject, it is starting to become an object [in the perception of] the observing self. And so the mystical, contemplative and yogic traditions pick up where the mind leaves off... with the observing self as it begins to transcend the mind."

"The contemplative traditions are based upon a series of experiments in awareness: what if you pursue this Witness to its source? What if you inquire within, pushing deeper and deeper into the source of awareness itself? What do you find? As a repeatable, reproducible experiment in awareness? One of the most famous answers to that question begins: There is a subtle essence that pervades all reality. It is the reality of all that is, and the foundation of all that is. That essence is all. That essence is the real. And thou, thou art that. In other words, the observing self eventually discloses its own source, which is Spirit itself, Emptiness itself... and the stages of transpersonal growth and development are basically the stages of following this observing self to its ultimate abode."

Q: "How do you know these phenomena actually exist?

A: "As the observing self begins to transcend... deeper or higher dimensions of consciousness come into focus. All of the items on that list are objects that can be directly perceived in that worldspace. Those items are as real in [that] worldspace as rocks are in the sensorimotor worldspace and concepts are in the mental worldspace. If cognition awakens or develops to this level, you simply perceive these new objects as simply as you would perceive rocks in the sensory world or images in the mental world. They are simply given to awareness, they simply present themselves, and you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if they're real or not."

"Of course, if you haven't awakened to [this] cognition, then you will see none of this, just as a rock cannot see mental images. And you will probably have unpleasant things to say about people who do see them".^[7]

According to author Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg" and "Evolution's End," we have transcendence itself as our biological imperative:

"...Spiritual transcendence and religion have little in common. In fact, if we look closely, we can see that these two have been the fundamental antagonists in our history, splitting our mind into warring camps. Neither our violence nor our transcendence is a moral or ethical matter of religion, but rather an issue of biology. We actually contain a built-in ability to rise above restriction, incapacity, or limitation and, as a result of this ability, possess a vital adaptive spirit that we have not yet fully accessed."

"Historically our transcendence has been sidetracked ... by our projection of these transcendent potentials rather than our development of them. We project when we intuitively recognize a possibility or tendency within ourselves but perceive this as a manifestation or capacity of some person, force, or being outside of ourselves. We seem invariably to project onto each other our negative tendencies..., while we project our transcendent potentials onto principalities and powers "out there" on cloud nine or onto equally nebulous scientific laws...we wander in a self-made hall of mirrors, overwhelmed by inaccessible reflections of our own mind."

"Culture has been defined by anthropologists as a collection of learned survival strategies passed on to our young through teaching and modeling...as the collected embodiment of our survival ideation, is the mental environment to which we must adapt, the state of mind with which we identify. The nature or character of a culture is colored by the myths and religions that arise within it, and abandoning one myth or religion to embrace another has no effect on culture because it both produces and is produced by these elements...That we are shaped by the culture we create makes it difficult to see that our culture is what must be transcended, which means we must rise above our notions and techniques of survival itself, if we are to survive. Thus the paradox that only as we lose our life do we find it."

"A new breed of biologists and neuroscientists have revealed why we behave in so paradoxical a manner that we continually say one thing, feel something else, and act from an impulse different from either of these...A major clue to our conflict is the discovery ...that we have five different neural structures, or brains, within us. These five...represent the whole evolution of life preceding us; reptilian, old mammalian, and human. Nature never abandons a good idea but instead builds new structures upon it...Thus, while we refer to transcendence in rather mystical, ethereal terms, to the intelligence of life, transcendence may be simply the next intelligent move to make."

"...Neurocardiology, a new field of medical research, has discovered in our heart a major brain center that functions in dynamic with the fourfold brain in our head. Outside our conscious awareness, this heart-head dynamic reflects, determines, and affects the very nature of our resulting awareness even as it is, in turn, profoundly affected."^[8]

Goals sought and reasons for seeking

Theistic, pantheistic, and panentheistic metaphysical systems most often understand mystical experience as individual communion with God. One can receive these very subjective experiences as visions, miracles, dreams, revelations, or prophecies, for example.

Going beyond "natural theology" (theologia naturalis) to direct experience of God is "mystical theology" (theologia mystica) or, as Thomas Aquinas defined it, "experiential knowledge of God" (cognitio dei experimentalis). In Catholicism the mystical experience is not sought for its own sake, and is always informed by revelation and ascetical theology. The effort being analogous to reentering a divine "field" which we misperceive we have been excluded - by sin/shame/remorse. Repentance (awareness of lower-self attachments) and ascetics (giving up the thoughts/behaviors) is the requirement for reestablishing divine communion/unity/grace.

Enlightenment is becoming aware of the nature of the self through observation. By examination of the interior thought system and emotions with detachment, one becomes aware of its processes without being controlled by them, allowing one greater creative capacity and ease of interaction with others and the environment.

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Sun Tzu, The art of war [3]

Terms descriptive of a desired "afterlife" include Moksha (liberation or release), Heaven (traditionally understood as a gathering place for goodly spirits, near to God and other holy beings), and Nirvana (literally extinguishing of the mental fetters or unbinding of the mind), but in mystical parlance these reference an experience of reality "different from the present here and now." "Afterlife" is not related to an extension of life after physical death, but sought as a direct experience of the perfect, the divine reality in the present life. The goal is generally established through an "accidental" revelatory or miraculous experience such as a dimensional shift between one structure of reality to another. Once this "potentiality" has been experienced/received/observed, understanding how and why it has occurred becomes the goal of the individual and permanently stabilizing this "direct experience of God" is obsessively pursued. Because terms descriptive of the divine "goal" are defined differently - even by individuals within a given religion - and their usage within mysticism is often no less imprecise, it is extremely difficult for anyone, who has not experienced the simultaneity of the "shift in awareness/reality" to translate mystical language in a useful way.

Types of experience

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes three common classifications of Religious experience:

Extrovertive – mystical consciousness of the unity of nature overlaid onto one's sense perception of the world.
Introvertive – any experience that includes sense-perceptual, somatosensory, or introspective content. An experience of "nothingness" or "emptiness", in some mystical traditions, are examples of introvertive experiences.
Theistic – experiences of God.

External or internal divinity

From the inner light of the Quakers to the Atman of the Hindu, many have found a soul or other essential essence within themselves to be a center of focus. Even the buddhist who seeks Buddhahood through anatta places a great deal of emphasis on their inner world.

In contrast some (particularly some gnostics and dualists) see the learned self (as opposed to essence) as wicked and deserving of punishment or extreme neglect through asceticism, with positive values placed only upon the transcendent true self.^{[citation needed]}

Mysticism and the soul

Abrahamic religions conceive of a soul that lies within each individual, which is of great spiritual significance. However, Judaism, placing more focus on this world than others, has resulted in multiple views ... that man is a partner in God, all the way to the mystical esoteric knowledge of numerology and the Kabbalah.

Christian mysticism has diverse takes on the relationship between God and the soul with purification and reunion the goal and the soul synonymous with the Christ Self or one's true God-given nature. In Catholicism, saints and other beatific individuals are sometimes said to have received the Holy Spirit — Who grants them miraculous, prophetic, or other transcendent abilities — and this belief is taken up in certain charismatic and evangelical faiths that seek out testaments to divine revelation through spontaneous speaking in tongues, faith healing, the casting out of demons, etc. However, the practice is generally unrelated to a disciplined mystical approach.

In the Quaker view, the soul is inner light, an inherent presence of God within the individual. Other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism, hold a more distinct division between the individual soul and God, given the traditional belief that the salvation of the soul and union with God will occur only at the resurrection after physical death, but these faiths generally hold that righteousness is possible and necessary during life. Eastern Orthodoxy holds that union with God happens in this life during baptism and continues via the process of theosis. Christian mystics, such as Jacob Boehme, seek this unity state of the soul while in the body, variously, through intense prayer, ascetism (purification), contemplation and meditation, to achieve resurrection of the Christ Self/nature in this life.

The Jainist view of soul is perceivable non-matter which has the ability to connect to infinite knowledge but cannot receive that knowledge without removal of the blanket of karma, but as self knowledge is gained, the hold of karma is loosened, everything can be seen clearly and nirvana(salvation) is achieved. The pure soul — divine unity — is accomplished when all the power of karma is destroyed.

Islam shares this conception of a distinct soul, but with less focus on miraculous powers; the Muslim world emphasizes remembrance (dhikr, zikr): the recalling of one's original and innate connection to Allah's grace. In traditional Islam this connection is maintained by angels, who carry out God's will — returning the soul to one's authentic origin — though only prophets have the ability to see and hear them directly. In Islam the mystical path is incorporated within Sufi and the Self/Soul is embattled (jihad) with the infidel/ego. Sufism holds that God can be experienced directly as a universal love that pervades the universe. Remembrance, for Sufis, explicitly means remembrance of the soul's love/purpose or returning to one's original divine state, and Sufis are particularly noted for the artistic turn their forms of worship often take.

Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism are concerned with the individual soul's dissolution of ego (moksha) into transcendent reality (generally Brahmanor Ishvara). In the mystical aspects of the Vedic tradition Atman (something not entirely different from the western conception of the soul) is believed to be identical with Brahman. Hindu mystical practices aim for God-consciousness and loss of lower self.

Buddhist teaching holds that all suffering (dukkha) in the world comes from craving, aversion and ignorance ('raga', 'dosa', 'moha'), and that freedom from suffering comes from the extinction ('nirodha') of these poisons which are the source of mental defilements ('klesha'), through the development of insight and equanimity. The doctrine of 'anatta' suggests that the perception of an unchanging and cohesive self (the 'me'), is itself a mere mental construct ('vijnana') to which one may be attached, and is thus also a major source of suffering. While Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist schools invoke various deities and venerated beings, the mystical sects of Buddhism are generally not concerned with, and even overtly deny, the existence of a permanent or unchanging self, or of a permanent or unchanging deity. There is no term equivalent to the Christian idea of 'soul' in the Buddhist lexicon however belief in rebirth is assumed throughout the Buddhist world.

Taoism is largely unconcerned with the soul. Instead, Taoism centers around the tao ('the way' or 'the path'). The human tendency, according to Taoism, is to conceive of dualisms; the Taoist mystical practice is to recapture and conform with that original unity (called te, de, which is translated as virtue).

Regardless of particular conceptions of the soul, a common thread of mysticism is the experience of a collective peace, joy, compassion or love.

Differences of terms and interpretation

Pantheism, acosmism, dualism, non-dualism, syncretism

Pantheism means "God is The All" and "All is God". It is the idea that natural law, existence, and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of 'God'.

In contrast Acosmism denies the reality of the universe, seeing it as ultimately illusory (maya), with only the infinite unmanifest Absolute as real.

There are also dualist conceptions, often with an evil (though existent) material world of the ego competing with a transcendent and perfect spiritual plane aligned with the true self/essence. Gnosticism is a term for various mystical initiatory religions, sects and knowledge schools which were most active in the first few centuries of the Christian/Common Era around the Mediterranean and extending into central Asia. These systems typically recommend the pursuit of special knowledge (gnosis) as the central goal of life. They also commonly depict creation as a dualistic struggle between competing forces of light and dark, and posit a marked division between the material realm, which is typically depicted as under the governance of malign forces, and the higher spiritual realm from which it is divided. As a result of these traits, dualism, anticosmism and body-hatred are sometimes present within Gnosticism. There is, however, variety, subtlety, and complexity in the traditions involved.

Mysticism is often found in common with nondual worldviews and many mystics, from whichever religion or tradition they originally came, also describe in many ways a non-dual view of existence. Ramesh Balsekar comments on nonduality and mysticism, that it is in order for phenomenae to occur, that the illusion of personal existence and doer-ship (ego) is present, and explains mysticism and nonduality in fairly accessible (conventional) terms:

"Consciousness-at-rest is not aware of Itself only the force around it. It becomes aware of Itself only when this sudden feeling, I-am, arises, the impersonal sense of being aware. And that is when Consciousness-at-rest becomes Consciousness-in-movement, Potential energy becomes actual energy. They are not two. Nothing separate comes out of Potential energy becoming the one true being... That moment that science calls the Big Bang, the mystic calls the sudden arising of awareness..."^[9]

Related to syncretism, mystics of different traditions report similar experiences of a world/reality outside conventional perception, although this does not infer an abandonment of knowledge understood through normal means. Mystics describe the same unity experience across history, culture and religion - despite the extreme individuality of the experience. If the attempt of religion, philosophy and science to describe reality is comparative to the fable of five blind men attempting to define an elephant by describing its parts, the mystic of every religion and culture sees the elephant despite the individuality of approach and differences in culture and language. Elements of mysticism exist at the core of all religions and in many philosophies, including those where the majority of the followers have no awareness of this. Some mystics perceive a common thread of divine influence in all religions and philosophies. The Vedic tradition is inherently mystic; the Christian apocalyptic Book of Revelation is clearly mystical, as with Ezekiel's or Daniel's visions of Judaism, and Muslims believe that the angel Gabriel revealed the Qur'an in a miraculous manner. Indigenous cultures also have cryptic revelations pointing toward a universal flow of love or unity, usually following a vision quest or similar ritual. Mystical philosophies thus can exhibit a strong tendency towards syncretism.

Mysticism and traditional religions

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Conventional religions by definition, are marked by strong institutional structures. A religion will generally include most or all of the following:

an established hierarchy
a definitive creed
a set of approved central texts
regular public services
an accumulation of rites, rituals, and holy days
a clearly stated ethical code or set of moral laws

Adherents of the faith are expected to respect or follow each of these closely. Most mystical paths arise in the context of some particular religion but tend to set aside or move beyond these institutional structures, often believing themselves to be following the 'purest' or 'deepest' representations of that faith. Thus, to the extent that a mystical path has a hierarchy, it is generally limited to teacher/student relationships; to the extent that they use a central text or ethical code, they view them as interpretable guidelines rather than established law. Conventional religious perspectives towards mystics varies between and within faiths. Sometimes (as with the Catholic church and Vedantic Hinduism) mystics are incorporated into the church hierarchy, with criteria set up for validation of mystical experiences and veneration of those who achieve that status. In other cases, mystical paths follow a separate but parallel course. Traditionally, Buddhist monks were closely interwoven into the fabric of village life through most of Asia, but had no authoritative position in the community; almost all the traditional Islamic 'orthodox' scholars, however, were Sufis, including Al-Shafi'i, Imam Nawawi, and Al-Ghazali.

Some systems of mysticism are found within specific religious traditions and do not relinquish doctrinal principles as a part of mystical experience. In some definite cases, theology remains a distinct source of insight that guides and informs the mystical experience. Some faiths—including most Protestant Christian sects—find mystical practices disreputable; so called mystic "practices" and beliefs generally restricted to specific sects, such as the Religious Society of Friends or certain Charismatic groups, which have implicitly incorporated them.

The mystic's disregard of religious institutional structures often lends a quasi-revolutionary aspect to mystical teaching, and this occasionally leads to conflict with established religious and political structures, or the creation of splinter groups or new faiths. The relation of mysticism to ethics and morality is more complex than is usually assumed. Mystical experiences do not guarantee that mystics will be compassionate or moral, nor on the other hand is a mystical state incompatible with being morally concerned with others. Rather, a given mystic's ethics will depend on the factual beliefs and values espoused in that mystic's religious tradition..^[10]

New religious movements, perennial philosophy and entheogens

The late 19th century saw a significant increase of interest in mysticism in the West that combined with increased interest in Occultism and Eastern Philosophy. Theosophy became a major movement in the popularization of these interests. Madame Blavatsky functioned as a central figure of the theosophy movement. This trend later became absorbed in the rise of the New Age movement which included a major surge in the popularity of psychological self-awareness groups such as EST and many others. At the end of the twentieth century books like A Course in Miracles (purported to be a channeled course of study dictated by Jesus) and Conversations with God (in which the author describes his direct communication with God) became popularized.

The term perennial philosophy, coined by Leibniz and popularized by Aldous Huxley, relates to what some take to be the mystic's primary concern:

[W]ith the one, divine reality substantial to the manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one reality is such that it cannot be directly or immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit.^[11]

Some mystics use the term to refer to a manner wherein the mystic strives to plumb the depths of the self and reality in a radical process of meditative self-exploration, with the aim of experiencing the true nature of reality.

In some cultures and traditions, mind-altering substances—often referred to as entheogens—have been used as a guide; the Uniao do Vegetal being a notable modern example.

It is important to note that many of the self-styled mystical belief systems arising in recent decades essentially differ from mysticism proper in that they rely on the individual seeker's power and will, whereas in the mystic traditions, the states cannot be initiated by the seeker himself, but only by the Ultimate Being. Hence the term mystikos. witch will relate to peoples belifes of mistical cows and turtles having seriously amazing powers that put you in awe.

In Rosicrucianism, Masonry and Golden Dawn

"The Temple of the Rose Cross," Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618.

The Rosicrucian Order is a legendary and secretive Order publicly documented in the early 17th century. It is associated with the symbol of the Rose Cross, which is also found in certain rituals beyond "Craft" or "Blue Lodge" Freemasonry. The Rosicrucian Order is viewed among earlier and many modern Rosicrucianists as an inner worlds Order, composed of great "Adepts." When compared to human beings, the consciousness of these Adepts is said to be like that of demi-gods. This "College of Invisibles" is regarded as the source permanently behind the development of the Rosicrucian movement.

Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization. Members are joined together by shared ideals of both a moral and metaphysical nature and, in most of its branches, by a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is an esoteric society, in that certain aspects of its internal work are not generally disclosed to the public,^[12] but it is not an occult system. The private aspects of modern Freemasonry deal with elements of ritual and the modes of recognition amongst members within the ritual.^[13]^[14]

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or Golden Dawn, as it is commonly referred to) is a tradition of magical theurgy and spiritual development, probably the single greatest influence on twentieth century western occultism and many other traditions, including Wicca, Thelema and other forms of magical spirituality popular today. By the mid 1890s, the Golden Dawn was well established in Great Britain, with membership rising to over a hundred from every class of Victorian society. In its heyday, many cultural celebrities belonged to the Golden Dawn, such as actress Florence Farr, Arthur Machen, William Butler Yeats, Evelyn Underhill and Aleister Crowley. Many men and women of the 19th century Fin de siècle social culture were members of the Golden Dawn.

Mysticism in Buddhism

Buddhism includes a vast array of scriptures, beliefs, traditions and practices. Many of these are not overtly mystical. Yet within Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism, there are doctrines which have a strong flavour of mysticism to them. Pre-eminent amongst these are the teachings of Dzogchen and of the Tathagatagarbha. Both of these doctrines indicate the presence of a hidden, deathless core reality within each being – variously called the Buddha Nature, Buddha Matrix, Awakened Mind, Mind Essence, Dzogchen or Mahamudra - which needs to be recognized and ‘entered into’. This Essence of Mind is empty of tangible substance and is resistant to the intellect’s efforts to conceptualise or ‘model’ it, but it is supremely Aware and filled with benevolence and compassion. Writing on this theme, Lama Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche explains the Buddha’s teaching on the ultimate nature of the Awakened Mind (‘bodhicitta’), stating:

‘What is ultimate bodhicitta? It is truly free from all mental constructs, like space; it cannot be indicated by any analogy whatsoever. It falls into no extreme or category; it is beyond mental constructs. It is the unity of emptiness and compassion; it is empty like space. Yet it is loving and compassionate, open and clear. That is ultimate bodhicitta …According to Mahamudra, the essence is nonarising [i.e. was never created – it was always present], its expression is unceasing, and its manifestation is the unity of these two. According to Dzogchen, the essence is empty, the nature [of that essence] is cognizant or luminous and the compassion is the unity of these two.’^[15]

In the same work by Chokyi Nyima, one reads that the essence of the mind is not a concrete thing, yet is not to be viewed as non-existent; nor is it a multitude of things or just one thing. It is an essence which might be termed the ‘I’ or the Ground of all that is:

‘It is not found to be a concrete thing … Yet it is not nonexistent, since your mind is vividly awake. It is not a singularity, because it manifests in manifold ways. Nor is it a plurality, because all these are of one essence. There is no one who can describe its nature … It may be given many kinds of names such as “mind essence”, “I”, or the “all-ground”. It is the very basis of all of samsara and nirvana.’^[16]

This spiritual essence is not something that has to be developed or created: it is primordially present within each being. It constitutes the inner ‘bodies’ or aspects of the Buddha found in every person. Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche writes:

‘Since primordial time, these have been one’s natural possession, intrinsic and inherent to one’s being. We learn that these kayas are not something which one achieves or which occurs through the compassion of the buddhas … It cannot be produced through applying the key points of Dharma [religious] practice. One has possessed them since the very beginning. The kayas are absolutely inherent to oneself, to one’s own nature. The kayas exist spontaneously within oneself. Their presence is not a product of blessings or something slowly produced through practice. One cannot create or manufacture one’s enlightened essence through one’s own intelligence or through study of the teachings. One possesses them primordially. The sutras and tantras all agree on this point.’^[17]

In the Tathagatagarbha tradition of Buddhism, this enlightened essence is called the Buddha Nature or (in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) the Self (see atman (Buddhism). It is the essential, indestructible nature of all beings, but is covered over by moral and mental contamination. Once that is removed, the inner ‘treasure’ of one’s true nature stands revealed in its full radiance and one becomes ‘Buddha’. In the Nirvana Sutra, the Buddha teaches:

‘”Self” means the matrix-of-one-gone-thus [i.e. Buddha Nature]. The basic constituent of a one-gone-thus [i.e. Buddha] indeed exists in all sentient beings, but it also is obstructed by types of afflictive emotions. While existing in them, sentient beings cannot see it … The Buddha-nature of sentient beings is, for example, like a treasure of jewels under a poor woman’s house, like a diamond on a powerful being’s forehead, and like a universal emperor’s spring of ambrosic water.’^[18]

Elucidating this notion of the Buddha Nature or Buddha Matrix, Professor Jeffrey Hopkins comments:

‘The basis [of the spiritual life] is the ground on which the spiritual path acts to rid it of peripheral obstructions, thereby yielding the fruit of practice. The basis is the matrix-of-one-gone-thus [Buddha Nature], which itself is the thoroughly established nature, the uncontaminated primordial wisdom empty of all compounded phenomena – permanent, stable, eternal, everlasting. Not compounded by causes and conditions, the matrix-of-one-gone-thus [Buddha Nature] … is not something that did not exist before and is newly produced; it is self-arisen.’^[19]

This unbegotten and immortal essence within each being is called the Dharma-kaya – Body of Truth – or Buddha Within (as Dr. Shenpen Hookham has termed it^[20] Its nature is described in the Samadhiraja Sutra, where the Buddha states:

‘the Body of the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] should be defined as … having its essence identical with Space, invisible, surpassing the range of vision – thus is the Absolute Body to be conceived. Inconceivable, surpassing the sphere of thought, not oscillating between bliss and suffering, surpassing the illusory differentiation, placeless, surpassing the voice of those aspiring to the Knowledge of Buddhi, essential, surpassing passions, indivisible, surpassing hatred, steadfast, surpassing infatuation, explained by the indications of emptiness, unborn, surpassing birth, eternal from the standpoint of common experience, undifferentiated in the aspect of Nirvana, described in words as ineffable, quiescent in voice, homogenous with regard to conventional Truth, conventional with regard to the Absolute Truth – Absolute according to the true teaching.’^[21]

Mystical traditions

An all-seeing Eye of Providence that appears on the tower of Aachen Cathedral.

Examples of major traditions and philosophies with strong elements of mysticism are:

Divine Science
Faith healing
The Fourth Way
Ghost Dance (Nineteenth century Native American)
Mystery religions
National mysticism
Greek mythology
Near-death experience
New Thought
Occult
Psychedelic experience
Religious Science
Religious Society of Friends
The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Rosicrucian)
Theistic Satanism
Thelemic mysticism (Thelema)
Transcendentalism (Unitarianism)
Unity
Wicca
Ascetism
Christian mysticism
Yoga (Hinduism)
Vedanta (Hinduism)
Tibetan Buddhism
Zen (Buddhism)
Gnosticism (Pagan)
Hesychasm (Eastern Orthodox)
Kabbalah (Judaism)
- Christian Kabbalah (Christian)
Sufism (Islam)
Taoism
Bahá'í Faith

References and footnotes

^ The Eleusinian Mysteries, Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries, begun in the Mycenean period (c. 1600 BC) [1][2] and lasting two thousand years, were a major festival during the Hellenic era, later spreading to Rome.[3] The name of the town, Eleusís, is a variant of the noun έλευσις, éleusis, arrival. The present meaning of the term mysticism arose, rather, via Platonism and Neoplatonism, which made reference to the Eleusinian initiation as a metaphor for the "initiation" to spiritual truths.
^ Greene, Dana, Adhering to God: The Message of Evelyn Underhill for Our Times, SPIRITUALITY TODAY, Spring 1987, Vol. 39, pp. 22-38
^ Legge, James; Lao-tzu (1891). Tao Te Ching (Sacred Books of the East, Vol 39). http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching_%28James_Legge%29.
^ Scholem, Gershom (1974). Kabbalah. Meridian. ISBN 0-452-01007-1.
^ Bothamley, Jennifer (1993). Dictionary of Theories. Gale Research. ISBN 1-873477-05-8.
^ Schopenhauer, Arthur (1844). Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. 2.
^ Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. pp. 197–208.
^ Pearce, Joseph Chilton. The Biology of Transcendence;A Blueprint of the Human Spirit. pp. 2–5.
^ Balsekar, Who Cares? You Don't!, p. 15-16
^ Jones, Richard (2004). Mysticism and Morality. Lexington Books.
^ Huxley, Aldous (1945). The Perennial Philosophy. Perennial. ISBN 0-06-057058-X.
^ "Aims and Relationships of the Craft". http://www.grandlodge-england.org/pdf/cr-rule-update2-141205.pdf.
^ Emulation Ritual. London: Lewis Masonic. 1991. ISBN 0-85318-187-X.
^ Griffin, Mark (2002). "Freemasonry: Your Questions Answered". http://www.grandlodge-england.org/masonry/YQA-secret-society.htm. Retrieved on 2006-11-23.
^ Chokyii Nyima Rinpoche, The Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 188-189
^ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, op. cit., p. 122-125
^ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, op. cit., 114
^ Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, Mountain Doctrine: Tibet’s Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix, Snow Lion Publications, New York, 2006, pp. 53-54
^ Professor Hopkins, op. cit., p. 8
^ Dr. Shenpen Hookham, The Buddha Within, State University of New York Press, New York, 1991
^ Dr. Konstanty Regamey, Philosophy in the Samadhirajasutra, Motilal Banarsidass, 1990, pp. 86-88

External links

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Supportive

A course outline An academic course outline from the University of Kent’s MA in the Study of Mysticism and Religious Experience with a select bibliography of books on mysticism published since 1978
Christian Mysticism Christian wisdom, philosophy and spiritual psychology
Mysticism Broad summary article from the MYSTICA.ORG encyclopedia
Mysticism: A Study in Spiritual Consciousness by Evelyn Underhill
Resources > Medieval Jewish History > Jewish Mysticism The Jewish History Resource Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"Mysticism" Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Mysticism" Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

Critical / Opinions

"Introduction to Mysticism", Mysticism Volume 1 "The Origin of World Religions" Wade Cox Mysticism published World Conference Christian Churches of God 2004, 2005. See also History of Religion
"A Brief Analysis of Mysticism" - a skeptical analysis by Hamed Vahidi
"Buddhism and Mysticism" from Atheists United
Mysticism - Part 1 in Think On These Things by Gary Gilley - parts 2 through 5 linked at bottom of page
"Buried Memories on the Acropolis. Freud's Relation to Mysticism and Anti-Semitism", International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, Volume 59 (1978): 199-208. (Jeffrey Masson and Terri C. Masson)

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Translations: Mysticism

Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - mysticisme

Nederlands (Dutch)
mystiek, mysticisme

Français (French)
n. - mysticisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Mystik

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μυστικισμός

Italiano (Italian)
misticismo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - misticismo (m)

Русский (Russian)
мистицизм

Español (Spanish)
n. - misticismo, mística

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mystik

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
神秘, 神秘论, 神秘教

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 神秘, 神秘論, 神秘教

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 신비주의 신앙, 망상

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 神秘主義

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) روحانيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מיסטיקה, מיסטיות, תורת הנסתר‬

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Did you mean: mysticism (in religion), The Elder Scrolls

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mysticism

Contents

Overview

The mystical perspective

Process

Ambiguities of meaning

Strategies

Relation to philosophy and sciences

Ontology, epistemology, phenomenology

Other perspectives

Goals sought and reasons for seeking

Types of experience

External or internal divinity

Mysticism and the soul

Differences of terms and interpretation

Pantheism, acosmism, dualism, non-dualism, syncretism

Mysticism and traditional religions

New religious movements, perennial philosophy and entheogens

In Rosicrucianism, Masonry and Golden Dawn

Mysticism in Buddhism

Mystical traditions

See also

References and footnotes

Further reading

External links

Supportive

Critical / Opinions

	Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis, a
	Jung, Carl Gustav
	Oceanic Feeling

	What are different stages of mysticism? Read answer...
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