The Spiritual Mystic
We’ve come to know in the 21st century, that how something is packaged, what type of container it is in, and the context it is viewed or consumed, matters to how we understand or experience that thing. The same can be said for our spiritual or religious experiences. In this regard, a Mystic – a person who believes in the possibility of transcending ordinary human knowledge by direct communication with the Divine – experiences spirituality differently than most traditional religious approaches because of the differences in their contextual relationship to the Divine itself.
The Divine, for a Mystic, is not something that is outside of themselves – something or someone who sits away at some great distance. The Divine for a Mystic is in fact within them and they (and everyone and everything in creation) is part of the Divine Creation and therefore interconnected.
The chart above gives a high level comparison of the Mystic view of Spirituality to more standard orthodox religious views of The Source, the Divine Creator, or God. As can be seen, the Mystic views the Source as the creator of all, therefore the Divine Circle encompasses everything – as it is creating everything and therefore, everything, is a part of it. Anything therefore inside of the Creation, is also a part of it, and intimately connected to everything else. There is no separation between any parts of the Creator or its Creations. This understanding leads to an awakening of Unity and a grasp of the Holistic nature of all reality. The Creator and its Creations are seamlessly connected.
The standard religious view, tends to look at the world differently. By definition of putting God or the Divine as a “separate” being, creates a context that makes everything in creation a separate item that does not necessarily have any inherent underlying interconnection. This view, unfortunately then leads to natural (intended and un-intended) distortions of thinking such as Us. Vs. Them, the Divine as separate, aloof, or dangerous, tribal mentality, and the acceptance of “middle-men” – those who can bridge the gap between “separate” entities in order to connect to the “remote” Divine (usually for a price, of course…).
The Kingdom of Heaven is within You …
The mystic view naturally leads one to Love and Unity. Everything and Everyone is part of, within, and created by one entity – the Divine Source. The standard model of reality, leads naturally to fear, hate, and competition. This is because the “other entities” are “outside” of you, including the Divine. And, with our five senses limited to seeing only 1% of all electromagnetic frequencies – we are unable to see the “invisible” linkages that connect us all. The standard model thus leads one into duality – the illusion of “us vs. them”.
The Mystic comes to realize there is no “them”, it’s all Us. If it’s all Us, then hating someone else, hurting them, or taking advantage of them (it’s just business…), becomes unthinkable. Would you find it reasonable for your left arm to “hate” your right arm? Of course not, you know they are part of the same entity, same organism. That’s what humanity is. One organism, one interconnected unit, one consciousness.
Great Mystics through the Ages
Every major religious tradition has elements of Mysticism within it or proponents of a mystic approach to their tradition. The Christians have had the French Priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and American Trappist Monk Thomas Merton. And of course Jesus himself – whose mystical thinking through which the Gnostic Gospels found in 1945 in Egypt describe so well. The Muslims have had the great poet and Islamic scholar Rumi, the Jews have the Mystical Teachings of the Kabbalah, and the Buddhists by definition of their core teachings take a mystical approach to life and modern day Zen teachers such as Thich Nhat Hahn continue that till today. The Chinese have had Lao Tsu, and the Hindus of course have had many mystic gurus over the last few thousand years, and in recent times Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi stand out. (We are fortunate today to have many wonderful teachers of mystic non-duality living among us. I’ve put down a few of them for you in the recommended resources below.)
Science Aligns with Mysticism
The Mystic view aligns squarely with what Quantum Science uncovered nearly 100 years ago – that everything in our universe, including us, is at the sub-atomic level, pure energetic vibrational frequency. Thus, as energy in an open system has no boundaries, everything and everyone, is interconnected. All energy has an infinite set of possibilities of turning into some material state (depending upon the energetic frequency arrived at) and the act of observing – having a thought, putting attention on something. We therefore are choosing our reality from a palette of infinite possibilities based upon our thoughts. We can do this as everything is interconnected and unified – our reality can thus seamlessly change and be created. Therefore, we and everything in our world are part of a holistic unified fabric.
The Life of a Mystic in the Modern World
Everything in the world can be viewed through the mystic lens very simply – does it create separation, or does it create unity? Only Unity, Wholeness, Oneness, is the Truth. All else is a temporary and unsustainable illusion. So no matter what the subject, a political philosophy, a business or product, all can be judged as Truth promoting, or elements of the “Divide and Conquer” philosophy. Does something promote and foster the creation of the greatest good for the greatest number, or is it an Ego-Driven approach that seeks to serve a small number at the expense of the vast majority of others? By adopting the mindset or philosophy in question, does one integrate with all, or does it lead to separating out, comparing, isolating? Does whatever solution is being considered require or lead to some being taken advantage of or injured in order for some others to benefit?
The Fractured Mind and Soul – Divide and Conquer
It doesn’t take much time to notice that our society is set up to promote Separation. One may be temped to think it has arrived at this state by accident. To some extent yes. But the Truth Seeker will come to know that there are those that are very motivated for us not to realize the Mystical view of Life. For to control a people, or an entire planet, they need to Divide (Separate) so that they can Conquer (control and profit). If we as a planet understood our inherent interconnectedness, their game would be over. They know this very well, so every element of our society is constructed to foster separation – business, sports, religion, science, education – all promote the idea of winners and losers, haves and have-nots, within the circle and outside the circle. Even Medicine can be viewed as approaching health either through a holistic approach that seeks to get to the root cause of an illness, or one that is based on looking at the patient as a collection of isolated parts and treating symptoms rather than understanding the systemic interconnections of the whole person and promoting true healing. Ultimately, we who participate in all these various areas of society, inadvertently support and perpetuate these systems of separation – though simultaneously we may want exactly the opposite of what they achieve.
The mystic strives to see the connectedness in all aspects of his or her physical reality. Though objects, appear to be separate, the mystic understands that the separation is an illusion meant to fool the senses. A device merely created to experience emanations of form manifesting from the infinite possibilities of the mind of the Divine Source. The varied forms are meant to be enjoyed and savored, not pushed against and abused. That would be like one leaf of a tree attacking another leaf. To the contrary, differences are appreciated and valued. They provide the opportunity to experience the Divine Source in all its forms, for all of the differences are also part of us. Certainly, some may resonate more strongly with us than others, but in the end, all are valued and cared for.
How Do You Adopt a Mystic Approach to Reality?
You go within – and the best way to do that is through regular, daily mediation. When we meditate regularly and learn to still the mind, we can tap into the Divine Source, which is the space in-between our thoughts – the source of infinite wisdom and knowledge. After some time we come to realize that if we are inside of the creator and we can directly connect to that Source, then the creative source energy is working through us and everyone. We are all then co-creators with the Divine Source and with everything else in creation. We are not separate entities banging about within a system of limited resources. The Divine Creation is infinite, which means there are infinite possibilities. We can tap into that if we allow the creative force to flow through us unimpeded – by our negative free-will thoughts, biases, and toxic material and electromagnetic hindrances to our physical body.
What that implies is that we need cleansing of our energetic body in order to strongly connect to the Divine Source and achieve the full power of Mystic Co-Creation with the Divine. That’s the topic of the next post…
Wishing you much Love and Light,
~Jay Kshatri
www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
Resources for Further Exploration:
- Your Unique Self – The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment, by Marc Gafni
- The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Spiritual Traditions,
by Andrew Harvey - The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, by Michael A. Singer
- A Journey to Oneness: a Chronicle of Spiritual Emergence, by Rasha
- The Field – The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, by Lynne McTaggart
- Mysticism: When Science and Religion Converge, article at CoreSpirit.com
- Breath by Breath – The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation, by Larry Rosenberg
- Resisting Structural Evil – Love as Ecological – Economic Vocation, by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda
- The Gnostic Gospels – A startling account of the meaning of Jesus and the origin of Christianity based on gnostic gospels and other secret texts, written almost 2000 years ago, discovered in 1945 in Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, by Elaine Pagels
- Channel Higher Self – the Youtube channel for non-dual teacher Lincoln Gergar.
- Buddha at the Gas Pump – podcast featuring non-dualistic teachers speaking of their spiritual awakenings and teachings.
