Mysticism from a Theistic Viewpoint

From a theistic point of view, mysticism is a relationship between God and the human soul. God is presented as being unlike anything else in creation, in that God is uncreated. Furthermore God is seen as pervading his creation. The soul, being created in God's image, shares in God's spiritual nature. However awareness of this spiritual nature is veiled by man's ego. The ego regards itself as being distinct from all else. Nonetheless the ego has a gnawing sense of incompleteness which it tries to overcome by acquiring things. However no matter what the ego succeeds in acquiring, the gnawing sense of incompleteness remains until man wearies of such things and turns to God. This shift of focus brings about the realization of one's True Self.

Mysticism from a Non-theistic Viewpoint

From a non-theistic point of view, there is an indescribable something that in reality is no thing at all, since it is uncreated. Being uncreated, it is beyond all dualities such as existence and non-existence. Whatever this no-thing is, it is the source of the dualistic universe. If man could only adopt the right way of seeing, he would realize that the universe in fact is made up of this no-thing, which can be thought of as pervading creation. However because man identifies himself with his ego; he feels incomplete and tries to overcome this incompleteness by acquiring things. This sense of incompleteness can be overcome when man realizes that his ego and all created things possess only an illusory autonomy. The individual's True Self is in its essence that very no-thing from which all these apparent created things arose.

Treading the Spiritual Path

The Obstacles -- there are a number of obstacles that prevent people from realizing their True Selves. These obstacles are:

Desire:

Seeking satisfaction in created things. These things may be concrete, such as money and food, or they may be relatively abstract, such as knowledge.

Hubris:

Seeking satisfaction in oneself. The individual desires such things as fame, glory, notoriety, popularity, reputation, and the esteem or fear of others. From a theistic viewpoint, this is appropriating attributes that properly belong to God (God is viewed as having attributes, while the Godhead is not). Whether you're theistic or not, hubris is just another instance of seeking satisfaction in created things, where the created thing in question happens to be your ego.

Knowledge and Understanding:

Knowledge and understanding rely upon dualistic thinking. Dualistic thinking is the process whereby a subject (a thinker) tries to comprehend an object (something other than the thinker). In order to comprehend the object, the subject makes note of the object's attributes by comparing and contrasting the object to other objects. However if dualistic thinking is directed to that which is outside of the created universe, it is doomed to failure. There simply is nothing else which is comparable to this uncreated entity. The very attempt to think about this entity demonstrates that the person still hasn't realized the entity's essential uncreatedness.

Surmounting the obstacles:

To tread the spiritual path is to engage in practices that help to surmount the above obstacles.

To overcome desire:

Practice detachment and renunciation. Do not regard certain things as being more satisfactory than other things (live without preferences). Do not engage in work with the expectation that the fruits of your labor will bring you any ultimate satisfaction (working for no thing). If you are theistic, regard everything in creation as being the property of God, and regard yourself as a humble caretaker.

To overcome the limitations of worldly knowledge and understanding:

Withdraw your mind from all created things (thinking about no thing). Such withdrawal of the mind is not the same as simply becoming unconscious, because there is a new focus of awareness. Redirect your mind to that uncreated entity that was discussed earlier: God if you are theistic, Buddha-nature or Tao if you're not (where to direct your mind). Because the object of your attention is uncreated and unlike anything else you've had an opportunity to experience, your mind will eventually become naturally quiet and still.

To overcome hubris:

Practice devotion and humility. Devotion may be directed toward God, or toward a spiritually realized individual (e.g. a saint, guru, sheik or roshi). Devotion benefits the practitioner in two ways:

1.The devotee assumes the attitude of a servant toward his Lord; such an attitude fosters humility. 2.The act of devotion engenders love for the one who is venerated. It is through love, and not through dualistic thinking, that an individual attains spiritual knowledge. The uncreated cannot be known by thought, but by love.

Spiritual discipline is usually regarded as preparing an individual for self-realization, but it does not bring about this realization in and of itself. In almost all religions, an outside force is regarded as triggering the ultimate realization. In most theistic religions, it is God's grace that brings about this spiritual transformation. In some religions, it is the teacher's grace that ignites the realization. Sometimes the teacher is perceived as being a vehicle for God's grace. In other cases, the teacher is perceived as embodying the impersonal no-thing (e.g. the Buddha-nature, Tao). In the latter case, the spiritually realized teacher is able to share or transmit his realization to other individuals if they have prepared themselves by engaging in the spiritual disciplines described previously.

Victory through giving up presents the one great irony of spiritual growth. We remain unenlightened because we are actively entangling ourselves in the phenomenal world by our desires, self-will, dualistic thought, etc. From a theistic point of view, we are actively resisting God's grace. To become enlightened all we have to do is stop resisting. Hence enlightenment is a by-product of giving up. Theists think of this as self-surrender to God.

When we give up, the ego is either regarded as dying, or as having become subordinate to one's True Self. The birth or realization of one's True Self is frequently accompanied by an inner experience of light, usually emanating from the heart, so spiritual awakening is literally an enlightening experience. Rather than speaking of the birth or awakening of the True Self, some theists describe this experience as the enthronement of God in the chamber of the heart.

Mystics describe Enlightenment as a union between the individual and the uncreated no-thing discussed above. There are several types of union. In some cases, the individual completely merges and loses any sense of being distinct from the uncreated no-thing. However in most theistic religions, a distinction usually remains between the soul and God even after union. In Christian mysticism, union is often described as a spiritual marriage between the soul and God. This experience is generally characterized as being blissful; after many years of wandering, the soul has found its center and its rest.

The liberated person describes characteristics commonly seen in spiritually realized persons. God pervades all things: Meditate and realize this world is filled with the presence of God.

(Shvetashvatara Up. 1:12), quoted in the Upanishads, (Hindu)

"Lo, I am with you always" means when you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes, in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self, or things that have happened to you. There's no need to go outside. Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself. Jalaluddin Rumi quoted in The Essential Rumi, p. (Muslim)

The Source is uncreated:

No words can describe it

No example can point to it Samsara does not make it worse Nirvana does not make it better It has never been born

It has never ceased

It has never been liberated

It has never been deluded

It has never existed

It has never been nonexistent

It has no limits at all

It does not fall into any kind of category

Dudjom Rinpoche on the Buddha-nature, quoted in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying p. 142, (Buddhist)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ego vs. True Self:

The ego is entranced by ... names and ideas... (However) names and concepts only block your perception of this Great Oneness. Therefore it is wise to ignore them. Those who live inside their egos are continually bewildered.

Because clarity and enlightenment are within your own nature, they are regained without moving an inch.

Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.

Lao Tsu, from the Hua Hu Ching, (Taoist)

Desire:

There is no satisfying the senses, not even with a shower of money. The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering. When a wise man has realized this, he takes no pleasure, as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving.

The Dhammapada,186-187, (Buddhist)

Detachment and Renunciation:

Recognize that your imagination and your thinking and your sense perception are reed canes that children cut and pretend are horsies. Deny your desires and willfulness, and a real mount may appear under you.

Jalaluddin Rumi, quoted in The Essential Rumi, p. 5, (Muslim)

Without preferences:

Tao is obscured when men understand only one pair of opposites,

or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being.

Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay,

affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest.

The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge.

He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point

from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship...

Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.

Chuang Tzu, quoted in The Way of Chuang Tzu, 2:3, p. 59, p.61, (Taoist)

Working for no thing:

(God) is not so much concerned with our works as with the spirit with which we perform them all and that we should love him in all things. They for whom God is not enough are greedy. The reward for all your works should be that they are known to God and that you seek God in them. Let this always be enough for you. The more purely and simply you seek him, the more effectively all your works will atone for your sins.

Meister Eckhart quoted in Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings, p. 27, (Christian)
 
 

Knowledge and Understanding:

... These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife,

always chipping away at the Tao,

trying to render it graspable and manageable.

But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and

that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable.

There is, however, this consolation:

She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.

Lao Tsu, from the Tao Te Ching, 13, (Taoist)

Where to direct your mind: You constantly remember God and His love, nor do you remove your thought from Him ... to the point that when [such a person] speaks with someone else, his heart is not with them at all but is still before God. And indeed it may be true of those who attain this rank, that their soul is granted immortal life ... even in their lifetime, for they are themselves a dwelling place for the Shekhinah {i.e., the presence of God}.

Nahmanides in his commentary on Deuteronomy 11:22, quoted in Kabbalah, p. 175, (Jewish)

Thinking about No Thing: If, then, you wish to behold and commune with Him who is beyond sense-perception and beyond concept, you must free yourself from every impassioned thought.

Evagrios the Solitary, "On Prayer," in the Philokalia, quoted in Selected Readings from Orthodox Christianity, (Christian) Thinking no thing, will limited-self unlimit.

Shiva, quoted in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled by Paul Reps, p. 171 (Buddhist) Devotion:

Lift up your heart to God with humble love: and mean God himself, and not what you get out of him.

Anonymous in The Cloud of Unknowing, p. 61, (Christian) Humility: What does it mean to know and experience my own nothingness? It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as if I was someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilation is only a worse illusion, it a pretended humility which, by saying I am nothing I mean in effect I wish I were not what I am.

... To really know our nothingness we must also love it. And we cannot love it unless we see that it is good. And we cannot see that it is good unless we accept it... To love our nothingness in this way, we must repudiate nothing that is our own, nothing that we have, nothing that we are. We must see and admit that it is all ours and that it is all good: good in its positive entity since it comes from God: good in our deficiency, since our helplessness, even our moral misery, our spiritual, attracts to us the mercy of God.

The proud man loves his own illusion and self-sufficiency. The spiritually poor man loves his very insufficiency. The proud man claims honor for having what no one else has. The humble man begs for a share in what everybody else has received. He too desires to be filled to overflowing with the kindness and mercy of God.

Thomas Merton in Thoughts in Solitude, pp. 38-40, (Christian)

Sacred invocation: At first is remembrance with the tongue only. The invoker unceasingly invokes with his tongue, striving for the presence of the heart simultaneously, since the heart must consent to be present in the invocation... Then the light of the heart burns away passions and evil spirits. Its own invocation takes hold and that of the tongue becomes weaker; the body and soul become filled with light; and the heart is purified of other-than-God. At this stage temptations cease...

The sign of the invocation's reaching the innermost Self is the absence of the invoker from both the invocation and the Invoked (i.e. complete self-effacement before God). The invocation of the Self is ecstasy and drowning in it. Amongst its signs is that when you quit the invocation, it does not quit you. That is the exaltation of the invocation in you that rouses you from absence of mind to presence of mind. It's spiritual lights never disappear...

Ahmad Ibn `Ata'Allah paraphrased from The Key to Salvation, pp. 47-48, 50, (Muslim)

Grace: Holiness is twofold... At first it is effort, then a gift. In other words, if you strive to be holy, you are eventually endowed with holiness. The effort consists in separating and removing yourself from the material aspect of things and linking yourself with the divine...

But it is impossible to attain this state on you own. After all, you are physical -- flesh and blood. So ultimately, holiness is a gift. What you can do is strive to pursue true knowledge. Be persistent in learning how to sanctify what you do. In the end, the Blessed Holy One will guide you on the path that it wishes and impart holiness to you, so that you become holy. Then you will succeed, attaining union continuously.

Daniel Matt in The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, p. 158, (Jewish) Victory through giving up: In our practice, really to fail, once and for all, to fail absolutely and completely: that is it.

Dennis Genpo Merzel in The eye never sleeps: Striking to the heart of zen, p. 112, (Buddhist) Ego death: God lavishes according to the divine force. The one receiving, however, is bounded. So God lavishes the good immeasurably ... although the created receiver cannot receive it -- unless he is completely shattered, and then repaired through his desire to return to the limitless source, to become one with the divinity. Thereby the creature realizes himself, attaining the perfection of the Creator, transcending the boundary of the created. This would be impossible -- were it not for the overflowing goodness, beyond one's capacity to receive.

Daniel Matt in The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, p. 128, (Jewish) The light: During the day he managed a patrician's household and daily went to the palace, engaged in worldly affairs, so that no one was aware of his pursuits. ...One day, as he stood and recited, "God, have mercy upon me, a sinner" Lk. 18:13), uttering it with his mind rather than his mouth, suddenly a flood of divine radiance appeared from above and filled all the room. As this happened the young man lost all awareness [of his surroundings] and forgot that he was in a house or that he was under a roof. He saw nothing but light all around him and did not know if he was standing on the ground. He was not afraid of falling: he was not concerned with the world nor did anything pertaining to men and corporeal beings enter his mind. Instead, he seemed to himself to have turned into light. Oblivious of all the world he was filled with tears and with ineffable joy and gladness. His mind then ascended to heaven and beheld yet another light, which was clearer than that which was close at hand. In a wonderful manner there appeared to him standing close to that light, the saint of whom we have spoken...

St. Symeon the New Theologian in The Catechetical Discourses XXII, quoted in Selected Readings from Orthodox Christianity (Christian) Union: I said Oh no! Help me! And that Oh no! became a rope let down in my well. I've climbed out to stand here in the sun. One moment I was at the bottom of a dank, fearful narrowness, and the next, I am not contained by the universe. If every tip of every hair on me could speak, I still couldn't say my gratitude. In the middle of these streets and gardens, I stand and say and say again, and it's all I say, I wish everyone could know what I know.

Jalaluddin Rumi quoted in The Essential Rumi, pp. 164-165, (Muslim)

The liberated person:

He offers no ancestral oblations; he praises nobody, blames nobody, is never dependent on anyone. He has no need to repeat the mantram; no more need to practice meditation. The world of change and changeless Reality are one to him, for he sees all in God.

Paramahansa Upanishads 1,2,4, pp. 245-246, (Hindu)