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What Do "Mysticism" and "Spirituality" Mean to You?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Spirituality: "I believe there's something that infuses things I do with importance that's 'other-worldly' in some way, but my beliefs are too vaguely defined to explain them to others."
Mysticism: spirituality plus "there's something special about me that makes me uniquely qualified to hold my beliefs, so there's no point even trying to explain them to you."
I occasionally look 'Mysticism' up in the dictionary. Apparently it means that you believe in union with God or the universe in some kind of electric or sensual way.
Spirituality is when you consider the benefit of complete strangers to be somehow important to you.
Spirituality is when you consider the benefit of complete strangers to be somehow important to you.
"Spirituality is the knowledge of yourself as spirit/soul, and the understanding of your highest spiritual qualities and attributes, which are love, peace, purity and bliss. Being spiritual means the ego has dissolved, virtue has been restored to character and spiritual values connect your inner and outer worlds (thought to action). It is the ability to see every other human being as soul/spirit, and thereby transcend all the false identities of race, colour, gender, nationality, profession and religion. It is in this awareness that we are then able to recognise and connect with the Supreme Power.
When you realize who you really are you will be at peace with yourself not only because peace is your true and original nature but there is no longer any inner division and therefore conflict between the many identities that you had previously created (gender/nationality/profession/possessions etc).
When you realize who you really are you are at peace with others. You no longer have to defend or protect any false image of your self, so you no longer perceive anyone else as a threat to those images.
When you realize who you truly are you are at peace with the world because you will contain the world instead of it containing you. Whereas before you allowed the world to impose itself on you and shape your perceptions and feelings according to your particular sense of identity, now your self-perception is stabilized in the correct identity. " BrahmaKumari Sister Shivani
"Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
When you realize who you really are you will be at peace with yourself not only because peace is your true and original nature but there is no longer any inner division and therefore conflict between the many identities that you had previously created (gender/nationality/profession/possessions etc).
When you realize who you really are you are at peace with others. You no longer have to defend or protect any false image of your self, so you no longer perceive anyone else as a threat to those images.
When you realize who you truly are you are at peace with the world because you will contain the world instead of it containing you. Whereas before you allowed the world to impose itself on you and shape your perceptions and feelings according to your particular sense of identity, now your self-perception is stabilized in the correct identity. " BrahmaKumari Sister Shivani
"Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
To me, "spirituality" refers to the experience of those acts of volition in the environment, and the appreciation of those acts and their relationship to my own volition. It is perceiving with awe the beauty, wonder, and terror of the universe we are a part of, but do not fully understand or experience.
(I just constructed this, so it may take some refining/explaining.)
The mystic experience is perhaps the ultimate spiritual experience, where one not only perceives the others and their volition, but actually feels the connection, the oneness (which is really not the word I want, but it's close), the connectedness with the others and their volition.
(again, I just constructed this...)
Mysticism, then, is the acknowledgement of the mystical and spiritual experiences, the thinking and talking, the creation of artistic expressions, even the investigation of the experience, and the orienting of future behavior based on those experiences.
(I just constructed this, so it may take some refining/explaining.)
The mystic experience is perhaps the ultimate spiritual experience, where one not only perceives the others and their volition, but actually feels the connection, the oneness (which is really not the word I want, but it's close), the connectedness with the others and their volition.
(again, I just constructed this...)
Mysticism, then, is the acknowledgement of the mystical and spiritual experiences, the thinking and talking, the creation of artistic expressions, even the investigation of the experience, and the orienting of future behavior based on those experiences.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
I like the inclusion of insight and transformation here.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Hmmm. I use the term only for convenience. That said, I see it more as a placeholder to identify aspects of being that transcend the normal understanding of identity. Another way of putting it is, "There is so much more to being than meets the I." The so-called "mystical experience" is a conduit for apprehending a larger vision of self, being and identity. But, what would I know?
Not a lot. For me the term has too much religious baggage to be of much use.
Mysticism is the experiencing of an expanded awareness of reality beyond the natural limits of the mind. Consciousness is infinite and one, but is limited by the mind to be functional in the physical world.
Spirituality is a belief that we are more than matter and that the following of a path of peace and brotherly love gradually raises our level of conscious from the animal/human to the divine.
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An approach to religion (or "way of life" if we prefer) grounded in the contemplation of direct, first-hand experiences of the gods/numinous/universe, and the practices designed to cultivate those experiences. Mysticism involves practices that shift one's awareness or state of consciousness to open ourselves up to these direct experiences. The most familiar example of such a practice is probably meditation, which is a technique that helps focus your attention in a way to be more fully aware of the present moment... and if directed at a subject, to experience that subject more richly than you usually do. Kinda the difference between staring at a pile of sand and going "oh... sand" versus "I am the sand... what do I see? I see great stone that was my mother... powerful winds and waters tearing me from her body..." Characterized another way, mysticism is deep, DIY (do-it-yourself) religion. The bread and butter of Mystery traditions. And quite opposed to the framework typical of revealed religions, where adherents are not supposed to DIY and listen to authority say-so.
I do not use this term. I avoid it like the plague, actually. Nothing described by what others call "spirituality" strikes me as in any way distinct from "religion." "Spirituality" seems to be the word used by religious people who don't want to call themselves (or think of themselves as) religious. Alternatively, it's the word used frequently in New Age babble.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
I'm afraid I don't find either of these words very useful. They are so vague as to be meaningless, and yet people keep trying to claim a monopoly on the meaning.
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