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Religious Experience versus Mystical Experience

Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Sees said:
Mystical in my opinion has kind of been taken over full-speed ahead with "oneness"...with people describing said experiences or states of mind as being a sense of great peace and clarity highlighted by seeing/realizing your self as "one" with all. It's a drop in the bucket of spiritual, mystical, transcendental, blah blah experiences.
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I usually include in the category of mystical experiences a variety of experiences ranging from prophetic dreams to experiences of oneness. But I also tend to sub-divide mystical experiences into two categories: (1) experiences of oneness, and (2) most everything else (which I call makyo). I do that for largely arbitrary reasons, though. It's just that I have until recently been much more interested in experiences of oneness than I have in, say, premonitions.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
nazz said:
One element of mysticism is the direct apprehension of the Divine.
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Just to clarify, are you saying that you define the word "mysticism" to include only experiences that are in some way a direct apprehension of the divine?
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
cafecorridor said:
Example of a religion that expects you to just believe - Christianity
Example of a religion that expects you to experience God - Hinduism

The former is a dogma based religion while the latter is a mystical religion.
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I think your distinction might be generally or vaguely true, but that it lacks nuance. For instance, Christianity has its mystics, just as Hinduism has its followers who at most believe.
 
Thana

Thana

Lady
cafecorridor said:
Example of a religion that expects you to just believe - Christianity
Example of a religion that expects you to experience God - Hinduism

The former is a dogma based religion while the latter is a mystical religion.
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That is so much BS I nearly choked on my drink when I read it.

I didn't become a Christian because I liked it or because it suited me. I became a Christian because I experienced God.

*Edited out temper tantrum*
 
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NobodyYouKnow

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
Thana said:
That is so much BS I nearly choked on my drink when I read it.

I didn't become a Christian because I liked it or because it suited me. I became a Christian because I experienced God.

So shove that up your limited view and please crap out a new one kthxbai.
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God must have been very angry when you experienced Him.
 
NobodyYouKnow

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
Thana said:
I may have a bit of a temper.... somewhat...

I don't think that invalidates my experience though.
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I know dear, I was just keeping it in check (I have one too).

We need reminders sometimes just to watch what we say and do. I just thought that response was a bit 'out of character' for you and rather excessive by my judgment. I apologise. :namaste
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
NobodyYouKnow said:
Not at all.

Maybe this 'inner peace' thing is just overrated and stereotypical. /sarcasm
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And you base your assumption that you possess superior wisdom, knowledge, insight into the nature of mystical experiences on what exactly? Your knowledge of ten or twenty of them? A hundred or two hundred of them? Has it occurred to you that millions of people may have had such experiences and that you yourself are not actually an authority on the content of all those experiences? Just wondering whether such a thought could possibly have occurred to you.
 
NobodyYouKnow

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
Sunstone said:
And you base your assumption that you possess superior wisdom, knowledge, insight into the nature of mystical experiences on what exactly? Your knowledge of ten or twenty of them? A hundred or two hundred of them? Has it occurred to you that millions of people may have had such experiences and that you yourself are not actually an authority on the content of all those experiences? Just wondering whether such a thought could possibly have occurred to you.
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It occurs to me. Not in the current context of this 'error of judgment', but it occurs to me.

I saw a reply made by somebody who I honestly felt was above such things. I made the remark in context.

I am not seeking any kind of invalidation, only awareness of controlling the temper.

One who has a 'mystical experience' should be able to do that. It is only logical.

One asked me yesterday if everybody has a different 'mystical experience' and now, I must answer yes. It is all self-determined and can even be found in the bottom of a whisky bottle.

*returns to Hindu DIR
 
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Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
NobodyYouKnow said:
One who has a 'mystical experience' should be able to do that. It is only logical.
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Logic alone is quite frequently misleading. That's why so much science crucially depends on checking the logic of the hypothesis against the reality of the experiment.

For instance, you say logic implies that someone who has a mystical experience should be able to control their temper. But how do you know that to be factually true if you are unable to check your logic against at least a representative sample of people who have had mystical experiences?
 
NobodyYouKnow

NobodyYouKnow

Misanthropist
Sunstone said:
Logic alone is quite frequently misleading. That's why so much science crucially depends on checking the logic of the hypothesis against the reality of the experiment.

For instance, you say logic implies that someone who has a mystical experience should be able to control their temper. But how do you know that to be factually true if you are unable to check your logic against at least a representative sample of people who have had mystical experiences?
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You know that I am totally incapable of quantative analysis *please stop trying to capitalise on that*, so I just have to rely on all the sacred texts of my own faith in regards to this. I can quote mountains of texts in support if you like, starting with Bhagavad Gita - how a man of wisdom should act/behave..etc

Seeing as how I admonished Thana, I shall return to the Hindu DIR, where all my 'experiences' are at least 'Hindu' ones.

Om Namah Shivay
 
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C

cafecorridor

Member
That is so much BS I nearly choked on my drink when I read it.

I didn't become a Christian because I liked it or because it suited me. I became a Christian because I experienced God.
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You must have experienced some other God. Shiva maybe? You cannot experience Christ according to the Christian scriptures. Or maybe like a cunning fox you must have the read the eastern scriptures and decided to dump whatever you learnt there onto Christ? It has to be the latter.
 
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