Fwd: Ruminations: The Mystic Way

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Tue, 30 Oct 2001 18:24:31 EST

Ghazaleh

The Mystic Way

 

The following is a collection of quotes, stories and spiritual texts about

the mystic way. With special thanks to James Bean for offering some of the

material on his wonderful forum: "spiritualawakening".

 

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Experiencing union

 

I said Oh no! Help me! And that Oh no! became

a rope let down in my well. I've climbed out to

stand here in the sun. One moment I was at the

bottom of a dank, fearful narrowness, and the

next, I am not contained by the universe. If every

tip of every hair on me could speak, I still couldn't

say my gratitude. In the middle of these streets

and gardens, I stand and say and say again, and

it's all I say, I wish everyone could know what

I know.

-- Jalaluddin Rumi quoted on pp. 164-165 of

The Essential Rumi

 

"The secret of the mystic way -- including both path and goal, for they

cannot be separated -- is total, passionate love for God alone, for sheer

Divine Reality, however you may envision or experience it in the depth of

your being. This all-embracing, all-transcending love comes first."

 

Ramakrishna

The Great Swan

Lex Hixon

 

 

"Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal, live in the same tree.

The first one pecks at the fruit, sweet or bitter; the second looks on

without eating. Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world,

bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more. But when he meets the True

Self, the resplendent God, the source of creation, all his cravings are

stilled. Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself in the service

of all; good and evil both vanish; delighting in Self, playing like a child

with Self, he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.

 

"Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings, vaster than the vast,

subtler than the most subtle, unreachable, yet nearer than breath, nearer

than heartbeat. Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue utter it;

only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure and silent, merge with the

formless truth. He who finds it is free, he has found himself; he has solved

the great riddle; his heart is forever at peace. Whole, he enters the Whole.

His personal self returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless source. As

rivers lose name and form when they disappear into the sea, the sage leaves

behind all traces when he disappears into the light. Perceiving the truth, he

becomes the truth; he passes beyond all suffering, beyond death; all the

knots of his heart are loosed."

 

The Upanishads

 

 

"Each separate being in the universe

returns to the common source.

Returning to the source is serenity.

 

"If you don't realize the source,

you stumble in confusion and sorrow.

When you realize where you come from,

you become naturally tolerant,

disinterested, amused,

kind-hearted as a grandmother,

dignified as a king.

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,

you can deal with whatever life brings you,

and when death comes, you are ready."

 

Lao-Tzu

 

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Mysticism In World Religions

 

Mysticism is concerned with the nature of reality, the individual's struggle

to attain a clear vision of reality, and the transformation of consciousness

that accompanies such vision. This site explores the mystical traditions of

six religions by comparing and contrasting quotations drawn from their

respective literatures. These quotations have been organized by topic as seen

below. Because I didn't want to bias the presentation by using terminology

unique to a particular religion, I have tried to come up with broad,

descriptive names for the topics.

 

Focus on one religion

 

If comparative mysticism doesn't appeal to you, feel free to focus on

Judaism, Christianity, Islam/Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Taoism.

 

There's a reality beyond the material world

Which is uncreated.

No words can describe it

No example can point to it

Samsara does not make it worse

Nirvana does not make it better

It has never been born

It has never ceased

It has never been liberated

It has never been deluded

It has never existed

It has never been nonexistent

It has no limits at all

It does not fall into any kind of category

It pervades everything,

 

Meditate and realize this world is filled with the

presence of God.

-- Hinduism: Shvetashvatara Up. 1:12, quoted in the Upanishads

 

But remains beyond the reach of human knowledge and understanding.

 

... These are notions of the mind, which is like

a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying

to render it graspable and manageable. But that

which is beyond form is ungraspable, and that

which is beyond knowing is unmanageable. There

is, however, this consolation: She who lets go of

the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.

-- Taoism: number 13 of The Hua Hu Ching

 

 

You approach that reality by

Distinguishing ego from true self

 

The ego is entranced by ... names and ideas...

(However) names and concepts only block your

perception of this Great Oneness. Therefore it

is wise to ignore them. Those who live inside

their egos are continually bewildered.

 

Because clarity and enlightenment are within

your own nature, they are regained without

moving an inch.

 

Remember: if you can cease all restless activity,

your integral nature will appear.

-- Taoism: The Hua Hu Ching

 

 

Understanding the nature of desire

 

There is no satisfying the senses, not even with

a shower of money. The senses are of slight

pleasure and really suffering. When a wise man

has realised this, he takes no pleasure, as a

disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures

of heaven. Instead he takes pleasure in the

elimination of craving.

-- Buddhism: numbers 186-187 of The Dhammapada

 

 

Becoming unattached

 

Recognize that your imagination and your thinking

and your sense perception are reed canes that

children cut and pretend are horses. Deny your

desires and willfulness, and a real mount may

appear under you.

-- Islam:, Jalaluddin Rumi quoted on p. 5 of

The Essential Rumi

 

 

Forgetting about preferences

 

Tao is obscured when men understand only

one pair of opposites, or concentrate only on

a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression

also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming

this one aspect and denying all the rest.

 

The pivot of Tao passes through the center where

all affirmations and denials converge. He who

grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which

all movements and oppositions can be seen in

their right relationship... Abandoning all thought

of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in

direct intuition.

-- Taoism: pp. 59, 61 of The Way of Chuang Tzu

 

 

Not working for personal gain

 

(God) is not so much concerned with our works

as with the spirit with which we perform them

all and that we should love him in all things.

They for whom God is not enough are greedy.

The reward for all your works should be that

they are known to God and that you seek God

in them. Let this always be enough for you.

The more purely and simply you seek him,

the more effectively all your works will atone

for your sins. Christianity: Meister Eckhart

-- quoted on p. 27 of Meister Eckhart:

Selected Writings

 

 

Letting go of thoughts

 

If, then, you wish to behold and commune with

Him who is beyond sense-perception and beyond

concept, you must free yourself from every

impassioned thought.

-- Christianity: Evagrios the Solitary

quoted in The Philokalia

 

Thinking no thing, will limited-self unlimit. Hinduism/Buddhism: Shiva

quoted on p. 171 of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

 

 

Redirecting your attention

 

You constantly remember God and His love,

nor do you remove your thought from Him ...

to the point that when [such a person] speaks

with someone else, his heart is not with them

at all but is still before God. And indeed it may

be true of those who attain this rank, that their

soul is granted immortal life ... even in their

lifetime, for they are themselves a dwelling

place for the Shekhinah {i.e., the presence of

God}. Judaism: Nahmanides in his commentary

on

-- Deuteronomy 11:22, quoted on p. 175

of Gershom Scholem's Kabbalah

 

 

Being devoted

 

Lift up your heart to God with humble love: and mean God himself, and not

what you get out of him. -- Christianity: p. 61 of

The Cloud of Unknowing

 

 

Being humble

 

What does it mean to know and experience my

own nothingness? It is not enough to turn away

in disgust from my illusions and faults and

mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they

were not, and as if I were someone other than

myself. This kind of self-annihilation is only a

worse illusion, it it a pretended humility which,

by saying I am nothing I mean in effect I wish

I were not what I am.

 

... To really know our nothingness we must

also love it. And we cannot love it unless we

see that it is good. And we cannot see that it

is good unless we accept it... To love our

nothingness in this way, we must repudiate

nothing that is our own, nothing that we have,

nothing that we are. We must see and admit

that it is all ours and that it is all good: good

in its positive entity since it comes from God:

good in our deficiency, since our helplessness,

even our moral misery, our spiritual, attracts

to us the mercy of God.

 

The proud man loves his own illusion and

self-sufficiency. The spiritually poor man

loves his very insufficiency. The proud man

claims honor for having what no one else has.

The humble man begs for a share in what

everybody else has received. He too desires

to be filled to overflowing with the kindness

and mercy of God.

-- Christianity: Thomas Merton, pp. 38-40

of Thoughts in solitude

 

 

Invoking that reality

 

At first is remembrance with the tongue only.

The invoker unceasingly invokes with his tongue,

striving for the presence of the heart simultaneously,

since the heart must consent to be present in the

invocation... Then the light of the heart burns

away passions and evil spirits. Its own invocation

takes hold and that of the tongue becomes weaker;

the body and soul become filled with light; and the

heart is purified of other-than-God. At this stage

temptations cease...

 

The sign of the invocation's reaching the

innermost Self is the absence of the invoker

from both the invocation and the Invoked

(i.e. complete self-effacement before God).

The invocation of the Self is ecstasy and

drowning in it. Amongst its signs is that

when you quit the invocation, it does not

quit you. That is the exaltation of the

invocation in you that rouses you from

absence of mind to presence of mind. It's

spiritual lights never disappear...

-- Islam: Ahmad Ibn `Ata'Allah,

paraphrased from pp. 47-48, 50 of The Key to Salvation

 

 

Surrendering

 

In our practice, really to fail, once and

for all, to fail absolutely and completely:

that is it.

-- Buddhism: Dennis Genpo Merzel

on p. 112 of The eye never sleeps:

Striking to the heart of zen

 

That reality approaches you through

Grace

 

Holiness is twofold... At first it is effort, then

a gift. In other words, if you strive to be holy,

you are eventually endowed with holiness. The

effort consists in separating and removing

yourself from the material aspect of things and

linking yourself with the divine...

 

But it is impossible to attain this state on you

own. After all, you are physical -- flesh and

blood. So ultimately, holiness is a gift. What

you can do is strive to pursue true knowledge.

Be persistent in learning how to sanctify what

you do. In the end, the Blessed Holy One will

guide you on the path that it wishes and impart

holiness to you, so that you become holy. Then

you will succeed, attaining union continuously.

-- Judaism: Daniel Matt quoting Moses Hayyim

Luzzatto's Mesillat Yesharim on p. 158 of

The Essential Kabbalah: The heart of Jewish Mysticism

 

 

The teacher

 

Ramakrishna: The roof is clearly visible,

but extremely hard to reach.

 

Narendra: Yes sir.

 

Ramakrishna: But if someone who has already

reached it drops down a rope, he can pull another

person up. Hinduism: p. 488 of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

 

You're transformed so that you embody

That reality

by

Dying and being Reborn

 

God lavishes according to the divine force. The

one receiving, however, is bounded. So God

lavishes the good immeasurably ... although the

created receiver cannot receive it -- unless he

is completely shattered, and then repaired

through his desire to return to the limitless

source, to become one with the divinity. Thereby

the creature realizes himself, attaining the

perfection of the Creator, transcending the

boundary of the created. This would be impossible --

were it not for the overflowing goodness, beyond

one's capacity to receive.

-- Judaism: Daniel Matt quoting Abraham Isaac Kook's

Orot ha-Qodesh on p. 128 of The Essential Kabbalah:

The heart of Jewish Mysticism

 

 

Seeing the light

 

During the day he managed a patrician's household

and daily went to the palace, engaged in worldly

affairs, so that no one was aware of his pursuits....

One day, as he stood and recited, "God, have mercy

upon me, a sinner" (Lk. 18:13), uttering it with his

mind rather than his mouth, suddenly a flood of

divine radiance appeared from above and filled all

the room. As this happened the young man lost all

awareness [of his surroundings] and forgot that he

was in a house or that he was under a roof. He saw

nothing but light all around him and did not know

if he was standing on the ground. He was not afraid

of falling: he was not concerned with the world nor

did anything pertaining to men and corporeal beings

enter his mind. Instead, he seemed to himself to have

turned into light. Oblivious of all the world he was

filled with tears and with ineffable joy and gladness.

His mind then ascended to heaven and beheld yet

another light, which was clearer than that which was

close at hand. In a wonderful manner there appeared

to him standing close to that light, the saint of whom

we have spoken.

-- Christianity: St. Symeon the New Theologian in

The Catechetical Discourses XXII

 

Experiencing freedom

 

He offers no ancestral oblations; he praises

nobody, blames nobody, is never dependent on

anyone. He has no need to repeat the mantram,

no more need to practice meditation. The world

of change and changeless Reality are one to him,

for he sees all in God.

-- Hinduism: Paramahamsa Up. 1,2,4, quoted on

pp. 245-246 of the Upanishads

 

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Exact Quote of Aurobindo (well known as one of the truly Great Mystics and

Brilliant Minds): In ancient times the Veda was revered as a sacred book of

wisdom, a great mass of inspired poetry, the work of Rishis, seers and sages,

who

 

received in their illumined minds

 

rather than mentally constructed

 

a great _universal, eternal and impersonal Truth_

 

which they embodied in Mantras, revealed verses of power, not of an ordinary

but of a divine inspiration and source.

 

The European scholars took up the ritualistic tradition, but for the rest

they dropped Sayana overboard and went on to make their own etymological

explanation of the words, or build up their own conjectural meanings of the

Vedic verses and gave a new presentation often arbitrary and imaginative.

 

[...]

 

The preoccupation of the Mystics was with self-knowledge and a profounder

world-knowledge; they found out that in man there was a deeper self and inner

being behind the surface of the outward physical man, which it was his

highest business to discover and know. "Know thyself" was their great

precept, just as in India to know the Self, the Atman became the great

spiritual need, the highest thing for the human being. They found also a

Truth, a Reality behind the outward aspects of the universe and to discover,

follow, realise this Truth was their great aspiration. They discovered

secrets and powers of Nature which were not those of the physical world but

which could bring occult mastery over the physical world and physical things

and to systematise this occult knowledge and power was also one of their

strong preoccupations. But all this could only be safely done by a difficult

and careful training, discipline, purification of the nature; it could not be

done by the ordinary man. If men entered into these things without a severe

test and training it would be dangerous to themselves and others; this

knowledge, these powers could be misused, misinterpreted, turned from truth

to falsehood, from good to evil. A strict secrecy was therefore maintained,

the knowledge handed down behind a veil from master to disciple. A veil of

symbols was created behind which these mysteries could shelter, formulas of

speech also which could be understood by the initiated but were either not

known by others or were taken by them in an outward sense which carefully

covered their true meaning and secret. This was the substance of Mysticism

everywhere.

 

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see also: SufiMystic