#mystic

Let it be stated clearly that mysticism is an a-rational type of experience, and in some degree common to all men. It is an intuitive, self-evident, self-recognized knowledge which comes fitfully to man. It should not be confounded with the instinctive and immediate knowledge possessed by animals and used by them in their adaptations to environment. The average man seldom pays enough attention to his slight mystical experiences to profit or learn from them. Yet his need for them is evidenced by his incessant seeking for the thrills, sensations, uplifts, and so on, which he organizes for himself in so many ways--the religious way being only one of them. In fact, the failure of religion--in the West, at any rate--to teach true mysticism, and its overlaying of the deeply mystic nature of its teachings with a pseudo-rationalism and an unsound historicity may be the root cause for driving people to seek for things greater than they feel their individual selves to be in the many sensation-giving activities in the world today. ↗

— Paul Brunton

#religion #experience

I call this theory mystical pluralism because of its similarity to John Hick’s pluralist interpretation of religion. The theory is essentialist in both the therapeutic and epistemological senses described above. Its thesis is that mystical traditions initiate common transformative processes in the consciousness of mystics. Though mystical doctrines and practices may be quite different across traditions, they nevertheless function in parallel ways—they disrupt the processes of mind that maintain ordinary, egocentric experience and induce a structural transformation of consciousness. The essential characteristic of this transformation is an increasingly sensitized awareness/knowledge of Reality that manifests as (among other things) an enhanced sense of emotional well-being, an expanded locus of concern engendering greater compassion for others, an enhanced capacity to creatively negotiate one’s environment, and a greater capacity for aesthetic appreciation. ↗

— Randall Studstill

#religion #transformation-of-consciousness #experience

It is the eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that, where one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. ↗

— Junius

#eternal #member #members #mystical #political

The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. ↗

— Hans Hofmann

#comes #experience #mystic #realm #through

The immediacy of mystic experience simply means that we know God just as we know other objects. God is not a mathematical entity or a system of concepts mutually related to one another and having no reference to experience. ↗

— Muhammad Iqbal

#concepts #entity #experience #god #having

Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#along #become #cutting #desire #desires

It is not a mystical thing, however, it is obvious and practical and I think that what the performer does is to try to get to that point with every choice you make from the phrasing in a tune to the choice of tunes. ↗

— Leo Kottke

#does #every #get #however #i

Anyone who really studies Catholicism deeply is aware of the mystical nature of our faith. Even references to Christ's mystical body has connections to that principle. ↗

— Dennis Kucinich

#aware #body #catholicism #christ #connections

There is a kind of mysticism to writing. ↗

— Irvine Welsh

#mysticism #writing

I'll tell you what: I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it. ↗

— Elie Wiesel

#endeavor #equipped #i #i believe #must