Jesus was a Jewish heretic. Buddha was a Hindu heretic... Mystical experiences inspired the founders and reformers of religion.

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Chapter 1

Mysticism and Religion

 

Enlightenment is real, and each of us, whoever we are, can in the

right circumstances and with the right training realise the nature of

the mind and so know in us what is deathless and eternally pure. This

is the promise of all the mystical traditions of the world, and it

has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled in countless thousands of

human lives. There are enlightened masters still on the earth. When

you actually meet one, you will be shaken and moved in the depths of

your heart and you will realize that all the words such as

'illumination' and 'wisdom', which you thought were only ideas,

are in fact true.

 

Sogyal Rinpoche, Modern Tibetan Lama

 

Mysticism is not religion. It is not concerned with beliefs and

doctrines, but with a natural state of consciousness which has been

experienced by people of all cultures, at all times in history, by

followers of every religion and no religion. This mystical awareness

is available to everyone, regardless of race, creed or culture. It is

the spontaneous experience of a wider reality, beyond the limited

horizon of ordinary existence. It does not invalidate the lives we

are living, but rather deepens them, filling them with joy and

meaning. Mystics discover a richer reality than they could have

dreamed of. They are immersed in a blissful love that they know to be

the very foundation of life. They are enveloped in a supreme oneness

that can embrace all of life's contradictions. Their lives become a

journey of spiritual awakening, to rediscover and live within the

truth they have glimpsed.

 

Mysticism is the contemplation of the essential mysteries of life. It

confronts the questions that all children ask, but most adults prefer

to push away: 'Who am I?', 'What is the purpose of life?' - questions

that cannot be solved by the rational adult mind, but only

'dissolved' into the child-like experience of mystic wonder. The

mystics do not want us to have blind faith in particular religious

creeds, but rather to set out on a personal exploration of

consciousness....

 

Religious authorities may say that God is this way or God is that

way, and that this is right or that another way is wrong, but when

the donkey brays, the mystics believe the donkey. They dare to trust

their own personal experience, rather than an external authority.

They question the prevailing beliefs of their culture or religious

tradition. They are open to new possibilities, willing to be

surprised, to have their world turned upside down, to let go of the

safety of mass consciousness and embark on their won spiritual

journey to find their own intuitive sense of meaning. This is why

they have so often been heretics and non-conformists.

 

Jesus was a Jewish heretic. Buddha was a Hindu heretic. The ancient

Greek state executed the great philosopher Socrates for his heretical

beliefs. Pythagoras was burnt to death along with most of his

fellows. Al-Hallaj, the tenth-century Sufi mystic, was crucified by

the Muslim authorities. The thirteen-century German mystic Meister

Eckhart was prohibited from writing by the Catholic Church and

eventually excommunicated a few days after his death. The

sixth/seventeenth century mystic Jacob Boehem, known as ‘the inspired

shoemaker', was chased out of his home town of Gorlitz in Silesia by

the Protestant authorities, who even desecrated his grave after his

death. The Church of Rome tortured the Italian mystic philosopher

Giordano Bruno over a period of eight years before he was burnt at

the stake.

 

Ironically, it is by losing themselves in God that mystics find the

rugged individualism courageously to follow their visions wherever

they may lead, in a world usually hostile to their penetrating

insight and spiritual values. The figure of the mystic appears

eccentric and challenging to those who want to remain secure in the

commonly accepted view of the world that happens to be prevalent at

the time. That is why so many mystics have been forced to live

precarious lives on the edges of social acceptability.

 

While some managed to maintain an uneasy alliance with the religious

authorities of the day, most mystics were vilified and horribly

persecuted for claiming direct personal knowledge of a God whom the

religious establishment wished to make accessible only via their

hierarchy of priests and theologians. Yet the natural experience of

spiritual awakening that lies in the heart of mysticism is the

birthplace of all religions, and they find their common ground in

this common source. Mystical experiences inspired the founders and

reformers of religion as well as its greatest heretics indeed, they

have often been the same people. The history of mysticism is the

history of their revelations. "

 

The Complete Guide to World Mysticism (Paperback)

by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, page 13-16

Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: Piatkus Books; New Ed edition (October 1998)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0749917768

ISBN-13: 978-0749917760