Mysticism

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Apr 12, 2001

It is from this mystery that the word 'mysticism' has evolved. Mysticism in general, is a spiritual quest for hidden truth or wisdom the goal of which is union with the divine or sacred (the transcendent realm). Forms of mysticism are found in all major religions, by analogy in the shamanic and other ecstatic practices of non-literate cultures, and in secular experience.

Although mysticism is often set over against theology and is said to be more authentic or more subjective or more impassioned, the two forms of religious thought have in fact existed side by side, frequently in the same individual. But this is not the same as saying that a reduction of the mystical experience to its theological implications does it justice. On the contrary, the mystical theologians have been most explicit in their insistence that no theological systematization can capture or explain the unique experience of mystical purgation, illumination, and union.

Mysticism is an immediate, direct, intuitive knowledge of God or of ultimate reality attained through personal religious experience. The word 'mystic' has passed from Greek religion into European Literature and is represented in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, the three chief languages of Islam by 'Sufi'.

Wide variations are found in both the form and the intensity of mystical experience. The authenticity of any such experience, however, is not dependent on the form, but solely on the quality of life that follows the experience. The mystical life is characterized by enhanced vitality, productivity, serenity, and joy as the inner and outward aspects harmonize in union with God.

Elaborate philosophical theories have been developed in an attempt to explain the phenomena of mysticism. Thus, in Hindu philosophy, and particularly in the metaphysical system known as the Vedanta, the self or atman in man is identified with the supreme self, or Brahman, of the universe. The apparent separateness and individuality of beings and events are held to be an illusion (Sanskrit: maya), or convention of thought and feeling. This illusion can be dispelled through the realization of the essential oneness of atman and Brahman. When the religious initiate has overcome the beginning less ignorance (Sanskrit: avidya) upon which depends the apparent separability of subject and object, of self and no self, a mystical state of liberation, or moksha, is attained. The Hindu philosophy of Yoga incorporates perhaps the most complete and rigorous discipline ever designed to transcend the sense of personal identity and to clear the way for an experience of union with the divine self. In China, Confucianism is formalistic and anti-mystical, but Taoism, as expounded by its traditional founder, the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu, has a strong mystical emphasis.

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