Overview

Mysticism is the pursuit of direct, unmediated contact with the Divine. It’s not about believing doctrines; it’s about experiencing God.

Core Idea

The core idea is Union. The goal is to dissolve the boundary between the self and the Absolute (God, Brahman, The One).

Formal Definition

A constellation of practices and discourses that aim at direct knowledge of ultimate reality or union with the divine.

  • Ineffability: The experience cannot be put into words.
  • Noetic Quality: It feels like deep knowledge, not just emotion.

Intuition

  • The Drop and the Ocean: The mystic seeks to be the drop of water falling back into the ocean, losing its individual identity to become part of the vast whole.
  • Falling in Love: You can read about love, but feeling it is a different mode of knowing. Mysticism is falling in love with God.

Examples

  • Sufism (Islam): Rumi, whirling dervishes. Seeking to annihilate the ego in Allah.
  • Christian Mysticism: St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila. “The Dark Night of the Soul.”
  • Kabbalah (Judaism): Esoteric interpretation of scripture.
  • Zen Buddhism: Satori (sudden enlightenment).

Common Misconceptions

  • Misconception: It’s magic or fortune-telling.
    • Correction: True mysticism is usually about inner transformation and surrender, not powers.
  • Misconception: It’s anti-rational.
    • Correction: It is trans-rational. It goes beyond where reason can reach.
  • Theism: Most mystics operate within a theistic tradition.
  • Pantheism: Mystical experiences often feel pantheistic (All is One).

Applications

  • Meditation: Techniques for quieting the mind.
  • Interfaith Dialogue: Mystics of different religions often understand each other better than the dogmatists do. “The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.”

Criticism and Limitations

  • Subjectivity: You can’t prove your vision to anyone else. It could be a hallucination.
  • Antinomianism: Some mystics claim they are above moral laws.

Further Reading

  • The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
  • The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley