What does "Mysticism" Mean to You?

[Sunstone]

What does the word mysticism mean to you?

 

[samosasauce]

Reminds me of Neopaganism, Paganism, Druidism, Wicca, psychics, Shamanism, visions, Voudou, and similar things

 

[Vouthon]

For me mysticism is synonymous with "contemplation":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8h3Hbf9wik

What is Contemplation?​

From New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton (1915-1968):​

Contemplation is the highest expression of our intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that source. It knows that source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason and beyond simple faith. For contemplation is a kind of spiritual vision to which both reason and faith aspire, by their very nature, because without it they must always remain incomplete. Yet contemplation is not vision, because it sees ‘without seeing’ and knows ‘without knowing’. It is more profound depth of faith, knowledge too deep to be grasped in images, in words or even in clear concepts. It can be suggested by works, by symbols, but in the very moment of trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has said and denies what is has affirmed. For in contemplation we know by ‘unknowing’. Or, better, we know beyond all knowing or ‘unknowing’.

Poetry, music and art have something in common with the contemplative experience. But contemplation is beyond aesthetic intuition, beyond art, beyond poetry. Indeed, it is also beyond philosophy, beyond speculative theology. It transcends and fulfils them all, and yet at the same time it seems, in a certain way, to supersede and to deny them all. Contemplation is always beyond our own knowledge, beyond our own light, beyond dialogue, beyond our own self.

To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die; but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we can know or treasure as life, as thought, as experience, as joy, as being. And so contemplation seems to supersede and to discard every other form of intuition and experience – whether in art, in philosophy, in theology, in liturgy or in ordinary levels of love and of belief. This rejection is of course only apparent. Contemplation is and must be compatible with all these things, for it is their highest fulfilment. But in the actual experience of contemplation all other experiences are momentarily lost. They ‘die’ to be born again on a higher level of life.

In other words, then, contemplation reaches out to the knowledge and even to the experience of the transcendent and inexpressible God. It knows God by seeming to touch him. Or rather it knows him as if it had been invisibly touched by him….Touched by him who has no hands, but who is pure reality and the source of all that is real! Hence contemplation is a sudden gift of awareness, an awakening to the real within all that is real. A vivid awareness of infinite being at the roots of our own limited being. An awareness of our contingent reality as received, as a present from God, as a free gift of love. This is the existential contact of which we speak when we use the metaphor of being ‘touched by God.’…It is a terrible breaking and burning of idols, a purification of the sanctuary, so that no graven thing may occupy the place that God has commanded to be left empty: the center, the existential altar which simple ‘is.’...

The life of contemplation implies two levels of awareness: first, awareness of the question, and second, awareness of the answer. Though these are two distinct and enormously different levels, yet they are in fact an awareness of the same thing. The question is, itself, the answer. And we ourselves are both. But we cannot know this until we have moved into the second kind of awareness. We awaken, not to find an answer absolutely distinct from the question, but the realize that the question is its own answer. And all is summed up in one awareness – not a proposition, but an experience: ‘I AM’.

 

[Vinayaka]

For me, and coming from a Hindu perspective, it means your inner life is far more important than your outer life. What happens when you close your eyes is more important than what happens when you open your eyes. It involves silence, intuition, and insight. (Note the word in-sight.)

It's also a process, not an end point.

Edited ... one more thing ... for me it's totally non-intellectual as well, so mystics don't argue.

 

[Willamena]

For me, it categorizes people by a particular understanding about the nature of themselves in relation to everything. For me personally that means that the world does not differ from the knowing of it.

 

[YmirGF]

Be, Here, Now! There's not a lot more to it.

For me, it represents the unlimited expansion of consciousness.

 

[YmirGF]

....so mystics don't argue.

Hehe. I'd argue that.

 

[Vinayaka]

Hehe. I'd argue that.

Go for it. Maybe someone will join you.

 

[crossfire]

Yeah, contemplation is a big part of mysticism.

 

[Vinayaka]

What does the word mysticism mean to you?

So ... what does it mean to YOU?

 

[Twilight Hue]

It's like Noah takes a photo of himself for six years. It's the transformation from day 1 to now upon which you reflect back.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

What does the word mysticism mean to you?

At the core is the mystic experience, an extremely intense physiological/mental/emotional state of consciouness that some might call a "peak experience." Descriptions of this particular kind of experience vary, and sometimes lead people into contemplation and speculation and poetry and other attempts at communication about what they experienced. Others, some of whom may not have ever experienced this particular kind of state of consciousness. Might also contemplate the reported experiences and speculate further. There's an awful lot of that attempted description and contemplation and speculation that falls under the term mysticism, clouding over that core.:yes:

 

[Sunstone]

So ... what does it mean to YOU?

It seems to me there's a certain kind of human experience that is relatively rare, but which might potentially be open for most people to experience. The experience can be found in all cultures, and in thousands of times and places. I call it the mystical experience.

Whenever it is described, it is likely to be described in terms of the religion and culture of the person who is describing it. But there seems a core to the mystical experience that transcends all religions and cultures, and remains more or less the same regardless of whether one is, say, a 500 BC Chinese sage or a 1500 AD Spanish monk.

That core can be described, as W.T. Stace did in his survey of mysticism, as either a sense of the oneness of all things, or as an experience of all things being One. Stace drew a distinction between those two ways of describing it -- designating them two varieties of the mystical experience.

Some mystics, perhaps the majority, identify the oneness or One with their local deity. That is, the deity or deities of their religion and culture. So, for instance, a Hindu might identify the experience as an experience of, say, Brahman. A Christian might identify the experience as an experience of, say, Jesus. And a Muslim might identify it as an experience of Allah.

But identification with deity is not always the case. Some mystics do not identify the experience with any deity at all.

It seems to me obvious from the fact that the experience occurs in nearly every culture, and in every major religion, that it is in some sense more primal than any religious or cultural doctrine, belief, or ideology about it.

The experience is often enough associated with tremendous feelings of well being and/or love.

In the 35 years during which I have been on and off interested in the mystical experience, I've come to understand the neuroscience of it -- that is, the experience seems very likely to be produced by certain regions of the brain simultaneously behaving in certain unusual ways, according to the available neuroscience. But, so far as I know, the ultimate cause of the experience is still a question mark. That is, why the experience occurs when it occurs is not at this time known to anyone.

 

[Vinayaka]

In the 35 years during which I have been on and off interested in the mystical experience, I've come to understand the neuroscience of it -- that is, the experience seems very likely to be produced by certain regions of the brain simultaneously behaving in certain unusual ways, according to the available neuroscience.

Thank you, Sir, for the response. In my very little readings, it's generally associated with the pineal. You probably haven't heard of this one, so I'll tell you. The kavadi arch used in Hindu asceticism mystically represents an electric connection between pituitary and pineal.

 

[Valjean]

I agree with Sunstone.
My experience is of a wholly altered perception of reality, a merging of subject and object and a transcendence of time and space. The effect is of a massive expansion of consciousness.

 

[StarryNightshade]

What does the word mysticism mean to you?

Looking within instead of outward for answers.

 

[Sunstone]

Thank you, Sir, for the response. In my very little readings, it's generally associated with the pineal. You probably haven't heard of this one, so I'll tell you. The kavadi arch used in Hindu asceticism mystically represents an electric connection between pituitary and pineal.

Interesting! I think you might find, "Why God Won't Go Away", by Andrew Newberg and Eugene D'Aquill, a fascinating read. It's a fairly gripping survey of mysticism in light of neuroscience. Newberg and D'Aquill describe some of the brain regions and mechanisms that they've found associated with the mystical experience, but do not get into the question of whether deity actually exists beyond a sort of agnosticism on the issue -- which appears to annoy atheists and theists alike.

 

[Quintessence]

Others have pretty much hit upon what is traditionally regarded as "mystical experience" but I think mystical religion when I hear the term mysticism.

The typical model of religion most people in my culture think of is knowing and understanding your path through a third party or external authority, whether that's a sacred text or a clergy figure. Mystical religion expects and demands first-hand experience and direct exploration of one's path. That inevitably is going to include what goes under the header of "mystical experience" but it may not be the traditional definition of such. Because the focus on personal exploration undermines the supposed authority of "traditional" religion in my culture, it has tended to be discouraged or marginalized. Many aren't even aware that this is a face of religion, so they call this sort of thing "spirituality" instead. Nope, it's still religion. Just mystical religion where you get to directly experience and know your gods instead of following someone else's say so.

 

[Vinayaka]

Just to be clear, I personally have had no direct experiences of which others here have spoken.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Just to be clear, I personally have had no direct experiences of which others here have spoken.

Friend, I hope that one day you have the experience. It is worth it!:yes: