History Of Mysticism Other books by Swami Abhayananda:
The Supreme Self History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament The Wisdom of Vedanta Jnaneshvar: The Life And Works Dattatreya: Song of The Avadhut Thomas á Kempis: On The Love of God Plotinus: The Origin of Western Mysticism Mysticism And Science: A Call for Reconciliation The Divine Universe Reflections On The Soul Body And Soul Mystical Theology HISTORY OF MYSTICISM
The Unchanging Testament
by Swami Abhayananda
ATMA BOOKS
Newly Revised Twenty fifth Anniversary Edition 2012 Copyright © 1987, 1994, 1996, 2009, 2012 by Swami Abhayananda Published and printed in the U.S.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Address all correspondence to: Swami Abhayananda at: [email protected] website: www.themysticsvision.weebly.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data
Abhayananda, Swami, 1938 History of mysticism : the unchanging testament / by S. Abhayananda. 5th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 914557 21 1 (pbk.) 1. Mysticism History. I. Title. BL625.A297 1996 291.4’22’09 dc20 95 35127 CIP
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness, and offer my sincere gratitude, to the following publishers and authors for the use of brief quotations from their works: Basil Blackwell Publishers for quotations from Ancilla To The Pre-Socratic Philosophers , by Kathleen Freeman, published by Harvard University Press. Beacon Press, for quotations from The Gnostic Religion by Hans Jonas. Bobbs Merril Co., for quotations from Recollections Of Socrates by Xenophon , by Anna Benjamin. Chicago University Press, for quotations from Giordano Bruno And The Hermetic Tradition , by Frances A. Yates. Doubleday Anchor Books, for quotations from The Spiritual Heritage Of India , by Swami Prabhavananda; The World Of The Buddha , and Zen Poems, Prayers, Sermons, Anecdotes, Interviews , edited by Lucien Stryck. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., for quotations from The Vision Of God , translated by Emma G. Salter. George Allen & Unwin, for quotations from The Philosophy Of Ibn ‘Arabi , by Rom Landau, Grove Press, for quotations from Essays In Zen Buddhism (First Series) , by D.T. Suzuki; and Manual Of Zen Buddhism , by D.T. Suzuki. Harper & Row for quotations from The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. by James M. Robinson. Harper Torchbooks, for quotations from Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation , by Raymond B. Blackney. ICS Publications, for quotations from The Collected Works Of John Of The Cross , translated by K. Kavanaugh & O. Rodriguez. Jewish Publication Society, for quotations from Selected Religious Poems Of Solomon Ibn Gabirol, translated by Israel Zangwill. Martinus Nijhoff, for quotations from Hierarchy And The Definition Of Order In The Letters Of Pseudo-Dionysius , by Ronald Hathaway. Oxford University Press, for quotations from The Early Church Fathers , by Henry Bettenson, The Essence Of Plotinus , by Grace Turnbull, and Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa , by W.Y. Evans Wentz. Pantheon Books, for quotations from Teachings Of Ch’an Buddhism, by Chang Chung yuan. Paulist Press(Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York), for quotations from Philo Of Alexandria , translated by David Winston, Ibn Arabi: The Bezels Of Wisdom , by W.W.J. Austin, Meister Eckhart: Essential Sermons , by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. & Bernard McGinn, and Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes , by W.C. Chittock & Peter Wilson. Penguin Books, for quotations from The Upanishads, translated by Juan Mascaro, and The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Juan Mascaro. Princeton University Press, for quotations from Plato: The Collected Dialogues , by Edith Hamilton & H. Cairns. Rama Tirtha Pratisthan for quotations from In Woods of God-Realization edited by Narayan Swami. Ramakrishna