Guess I'm here now

[Milton Platt]

Yup. Ex-Abrahamic.

Everybody has to be somewhere (some kind of cosmic law or something).

 

[Shem Ben Noah]

That word right there is what raises the bar. If you are seeking mystical experience, you will tend to find yourself not part of the pack right from the outset, and hence why you struggle letting others define God for you. You'll always be set apart from the masses of "believers" whose standard is that of faithfulness to the teachings. The path of the Mystic on the other hand is a largely solitary one, where ultimately all beliefs must be abandoned in the face of the Unknown.

All true, but there often is mystical traditions and/or schools within religions.
Kabbalah comes to mind, and there is both Jewish and non-Jewish versions.
In fact, right here on RF there is a Kabbalah DIR under the Mysticism DIR.

 

[Windwalker]

All true, but there often is mystical traditions and/or schools within religions. Kabbalah comes to mind, and there is both Jewish and non-Jewish versions.

Yes, this is true, such as the Sufis as another example. I've not been part of any mystic tradition myself so I can't speak from experience as to the dynamics of them from the inside, but I would wonder if you don't have a lot of the same having to follow beliefs and practices within the same constrictions. I have friends who are Tibetans and follow Tibetan Buddhism. Mystical experience is to say the least quite common as they are highly disciplined meditators. But despite their open invitation to come to their monastery and participate in practice with them, I hesitate to the point it's doubtful I ever will. I think that hesitancy bears out since I know that they are very much a "follow the rules", the "right way" to do things approach. I tend to think any lineage will inherently do that, because it is after all a "method" or a path, a discipline, or a teaching that was developed and taught from teacher to student through the ages.

For me that doesn't work. My example I use is that of me being a musician. When I was young I was taken to a teacher to learn piano. We had a piano at home and I would just sit down at it and work on stuff like Mozart's Sonata in C Major. I was five years old and could play it fairly well, for a five year old. But the teacher was having me work on stuff that was so basic it was ridiculous by comparison. I remember the workbooks, "Boy Scouts on Parade", whole note, whole note, half note, whole note..... When I would go home I was playing Mozart. The teacher finally told my mother after several months that should could not teach me, that I wouldn't do what she would give me to work on. That is an example of a bad teacher, one who insists on the "rules" rather than working with the individual's gifts to help shape and guide them on their own trajectory.

To me, what the mystic is is a true musician. They are not people who learned how to play music. They create music from within themselves. They are explorers of the interior, pioneers of themselves, of the ineffable, of the knowledge of God. This is what the mystic does. You don't learn "God" by learning rote scales and notes, memorizing scriptures and mastering meditation techniques. You discover God, you unfold God, you express God through you as you plumb the depths of the divine. Nobody can teach you that. That you have to do alone. The teacher can teach you how to put your fingers on the keys and teach you how to control the muscles and make sounds. But making sounds that mimic a song is not truly learning to be a musician. That moment suddenly erupts from within. And when and how that happens, that moment where suddenly it's not just notes that you are playing, but your voice you are speaking from the depths of your soul, is a self-discovery. It cannot be taught. Same thing with mystical experience.

So, I could certainly see why even if there are mystical traditions, some people, like myself, feel a certain cautious trepidation about having someone tell you "the right way" to do it. When you are taught "this is how", it can actually create a block that keeps you from seeing beyond that way into the discovery of the depths of the divine within. I love what the Christian Mystic Meister Eckhart said that I feel really reflects all that I'm saying here. "I pray God to make me free of God, for [His] unconditioned Being is above God and all distinctions." Any ideas we are told that this is the truth, puts a ceiling, a cap on possibility. But God is infinite. So to know God, is to be freed from the limits and restrictions of all our teachings. We have to "let go" in order to find God.

 

[Shem Ben Noah]

I will have to give more thought to this, but I'm currently on the road.

For myself, I'd have to say that discovering the Kabbalah's Tree of Life was like a primitive finding a piano, when the drum was the only instrument they knew.
Contemplation of the 10 Sephirot offered form and structure to something inside me, which had no structure before, but found it. It ...resonated?

 

[Shem Ben Noah]

OK, I've given it some thought and decided to put the mystical/metaphysical/theosophical part aside for a while.

That's more of a personal journey anyways.

What I need is a label. A group or faith to identify with.

When someone asks what you are, you should be able to give an answer.

Until now, I would have said Jewish. But, I'm rather displeased with Reform. Dropped out of the Temple in fact. My spouse feels the same.

Maybe I'll post about the hell I went through seeking an 'O' conversion, but I loathe even thinking about that.
Let's just say that didn't work out well.

I was raised RC. Maybe I'll post about the hell I went through in that, but it's even worse.

Jesus... ya, he's alright. Can't worship him tho. Nope, sorry mate.