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Home , Absolute (philosophy), Ecstasy (philosophy), Martin Heidegger, State (theology), Wisdom

Was Heidegger a Mystic?

Jeff Guilford North Carolina State University Faculty Mentor: Marina Bykova North Carolina State University ABSTRACT The goal of ’s is to lead his readers to an of . Because Being is not conceived of as a thing, but as that which ‘transcends’ things, thinking and talking about it in traditional terms becomes impossible. Such a goal is strikingly similar to the goals of many of the ’s most prominent mystical , and prompts the question, was Heidegger a mystic? In this paper I seek to answer this question by comparing the ways in which Heidegger be- lieves that an experience of Being may be attained to the ways that mystics from many cultures have gone about bringing themselves to an experience of the transcendent. After demonstrating the strong between the methods of Heidegger and of the mystics, I conclude that Heidegger is indeed a mystic and that the experience that he hopes to help people attain is probably the same experience toward which the mystics have traditionally striven.

“There is a thinking more rigorous than the not red,’ the house is presented as an ob- conceptual” ~Martin Heidegger ject that lacks the of redness. Similarly, in the statement, ‘Being is not a “The is beyond is and is not. How do I thing,’ Being is presented as an that know this? I look inside myself and see.” lacks the property of thing-ness. But this is ~Lao Tzu a misunderstanding, and we must learn to think differently if we want to understand dmittedly, grasping the objective of and experience Being. In short, this is the A Heidegger’s philosophical inquiries primary goal of all of Heidegger’s philoso- is not easy. When we are first approached phizing: He hopes to lead those who will by his question, “What is the of listen to him into a new mode of thinking Being,” many of us smile at such a seem- and speaking in which Being can be fully ingly naïve question. “Being is obvious”, and clearly spoken, and thus truly we laugh, perhaps pointing to a rock in experienced. Essential to this goal is his order to prove our point. But according to critique of , which he claims Heidegger that rock, and indeed any thing, has been mistaken in the West for thought is not Being, but a being (note the capi- itself ever since the of , and which talization). Being is not a thing, but that he claims can deal only with and which‘transcends’ things,“the transcendens never with Being. In place of metaphysical pure and simple” (Letter on , thought he proposes a different way to ap- 251). Without Being, no thing could be. But proach Being. But Heidegger is not the first in the very fact that being is not a thing, to abandon the metaphysical project and to not an object, it becomes difficult to talk pursue an underlying through alter- about, for the structure of language forces native means. In fact such pursuit has ex- whatever we speak about into a state of isted for at least as long metaphysics itself, objectivity. In the statement, the ‘house is and has been given the name of .

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Like Heidegger, mystics reject metaphysi- appellation, for he himself once said that cal thought as an inadequate means by “the most extreme sharpness and depth of which the may be pursued, and thought belongs to genuine and great mys- seek different routes by which this pursuit ticism” (Caputo, 6). may be carried out. Still the question remains, what exactly In this paper I will demonstrate that is mysticism? Doubtlessly, giving a concise the affinity between Heidegger’s philoso- definition of this rich and multi-cultural phy and mystical thought is so deep and phenomenon will result in over-generaliza- thoroughgoing that one may accurately tion, but unfortunately the boundaries of label Heidegger’s philosophy as mysti- this paper demand that we treat the cal. At their hearts, both mysticism and briefly, and, therefore, I offer the definition Heidegger’s philosophy have direct knowl- that was put forth by a prominent edge of an as their final on the subject, , who says goal, but since both Heidegger’s Being and that “what the world calls ‘mysticism’ is the the mystic’s Absolute are held to be inef- science of ultimates… The science of self- and transcendent, and thus impos- evident Reality, which cannot be ‘reasoned sible to express in ordinary language, a di- about’…” (25). A mystic is one who yearns rect comparison of these goals cannot be for firsthand of that which is performed. Instead I will compare the ways Ultimate, but one who recognizes that in which Heidegger and the mystics claim this Ultimate may not come to be known that the Ultimate may be recognized and through the use of the intellect alone. approached. Because there are so many Rational thought is, as a general rule, seen striking analogies between the methods of by the mystics as an inadequate guide to Heidegger and those of the mystics, I will the spirit, and so they employ types conclude that Heidegger’s philosophy is in of mental activity in order to approach the fact mystical, and that it is reasonable to elusive Absolute. Every culture has its share think that the experience of Being to which of mystics, and though the names given Heidegger seeks to lead us, is essentially the to the Ultimate and the means by which same as the experience of the Absolute to- it is sought vary, the core of each tradi- ward which the mystics of all cultures have tion remains true to Underhill’s definition. persistently striven. Vedanta Yogis seek (the realiza- Before initiating this comparison though, tion of the ’s oneness with ) we must take a moment to clarify what is through ascetic and meditative practices; meant by the word mysticism. Often in Zen Buddhists seek to attain Satori (cos- philosophical circles the word is used as an mic ) through strict medita- insult for a system that is deemed vague or tion in which dualistic thought is willfully overly sentimental. In this paper, however, eliminated from the practitioner’s ; such derogatory connotations are not in- Sufis seek to experience the “transport of tended, and indeed, for a system to garner the soul” (direct experience of the divine) the label of mystical is, if anything, to be through lives of solitude, poverty and piety, considered an honor, for such a label would which are intended to “[detach] the heart signify that system’s participation in one of from all that is not ” (James, 455); the oldest and most venerable of - and Catholic saints, seek the Unio Mystico ity’s intellectual and spiritual traditions. (unification of the soul with God) through Perhaps Heidegger himself might have ob- , contemplation, and fasting. These jected to being labeled a mystic, but he cer- are only a few of the most well-known tainly would not have taken offense at the branches of mysticism, but the list could be

87 Explorations | Humanities and Fine extended indefinitely. The question now is supplement to a life otherwise centered in whether Hedeggerians, who seek to experi- the natural world. For the mystic, on the ence theTruth of Being through“meditative other hand, the experience of this feeling is thought”, disentanglement from the world so intense that when it occurs it initiates a of things, and distinction from das man, total reorganization of her world view and also participate in the mystical a reorientation of her priorities around the (Discourse onThinking , 46). A more detailed transcendental Reality that the experience comparison of Heideggerian and mystical reveals to her. Underhill calls this acute thought should yield our answer. experience awakening, and says that this is The first strong that exists be- almost always the catalyst of the mystic’s tween the mystical quest for the Ultimate journey from “things of the flesh … to and the Heideggerian quest for Being is things of the spirit”. She describes it in the that even before a true following way: and experience of the Transcendent is at- The awakening usually involves a sudden and tained, it may be sensed in a preliminary, acute realization of the splendor and adorable partial way. It is this initial “” of the Realityof the world—or sometimes of its obverse, Transcendent that motivates the subse- theDivine sorrow at the heart of things—never be - quent, ardent, often life changing search foreperceived. In so far as I am acquainted with the for total attainment of it. In the mystical resourcesof language, there are no words in which tradition and in Heidegger’s thought there this realization can be described1. It is of so actual are two ranks of these preliminary experi- anature that the normal world of past ences of the Ultimate, a lesser one, which seemsbut twilit at best. Consciousness has suddenly is mild but commonly experienced, and a changedits rhythm and a new aspect of conscious - greater one, through which the person’s en- ness rushes in.The teasing mists are swept away tire perception of the world is transformed and reveal the sharp outline of the Everlasting and a strong desire for an even more com- Hills (178). plete experience is kindled. This quote highlights three essential as- In her general study of mysticism, pects of the awakening experience: it is Evelyn Underhill calls “the power to per- sudden and powerful; it leads to a detach- ceive the transcendent Reality” “a power ment from worldly concerns; and motivates latent within the whole [human] race.” an intense drive toward further knowledge and says that “few people pass through life of that which has been revealed in the ex- without knowing what it is to be touched perience. It is important to remember that by the mystical feeling” (Underhill, 73). while the awakening experience is often de- Be it triggered by the sight of the sun on scribed as joyous and liberating, it can also distant mountain peaks, the sound of a be a fearful and sorrowful realization. Two symphony, the embrace of a long missed examples, one joyous, one anguished, will loved one, or the sight of a suffering beg- serve to illustrate this phenomenon. The gar, this “transcendental feeling wells up first is that of a little known monk named from another part of the soul and whispers Brother Lawrence, who reported that in to Understanding and Sense that they are his youth, as he was “seeing a tree stripped leaving something out” (74). But though this feeling is familiar to many, the mystics are distinguished from the common folk by 1 Heidegger’s anxiety also is a phenomenon that occurs beyond the realm of language. He says that their exceptional attunement to it. While “Anxiety robs us of speech. Because beings as a whole for the common person this feeling may be slip away, so that just the crowds around, in the momentarily edifying, it remains at most a face of anxiety all utterance of the ‘is’ falls silent” (What is Metaphysics? 103).

88 Jeff Guilford of its leaves and considering that within a characteristic of Da-sein, tends nowhere little time the leaves would be renewed … else but “in the direction of bringing man he received a view of that Providence and back to his ” and this essence is Power of God, which [had] never since called “the ecstatic inherence of the been effaced from his soul” and that “this of Being” (, 245) So, view had him perfectly loose from the for Heidegger, every human being has an world…” (190-191). The second is that of instinctual of Being and a drive to St. , whose “inward experience the Truth of Being, i.e., to grasp revelation” was characterized by ... “its “the transcendens pure and simple” (Letter anguish and abruptness, its rending apart on Humanism, 251). This is strongly anal- of the hard tissues of I-hood and the vivid ogous to Underhill’s observation that hu- disclosures of the poverty of the finite self.” manity has an instinctual attraction toward Catherine herself describes this experi- the Ultimate. ence as the “wound of Unmeasured Love” Heidegger also speaks of a greater type (196). An additional example of an awak- of preliminary transcendental experience, ening experience from a nonwestern source calling it “original anxiety” which “re- is that of The Buddha, who after seeing veals the nothing” lying ‘within’ all inner- earthly manifestations of age, sickness and worldly beings (What is Metaphysics, 103). death, realized the ephemeral of This type of experience can be seen to be worldly pleasures and gave up his luxuri- strongly analogous to the experience of ous life as a prince to practice in awakening as described by Underhill, and the forests of . These three examples could be considered an example of it. Like show that the awakening experience is trig- awakenings, original anxiety is a sudden, gered suddenly, can be either rapturous or often unexpected occurrence, which causes unpleasant, and leads one away from ma- a withdrawal from worldly things and of- terial, worldly pursuits, toward spiritual ten results in the long term rearrangement work. of a person’s activity toward transcenden- Heidegger also describes two levels of tal goals. Original anxiety, he says, “Can experience in which Being itself may be awaken in at any moment [and] revealed, which can be seen to be highly needs no unusual event to arouse it” (108). analogous to the awakening During this experience beings “become described by Underhill. Of the lesser, more wholly superfluous”, “slip away” and “pure common experience he says that an “av- Da-sein is all that is there”3 (103). During erage and vague understanding of Being such an experience there is only there-be- is a fact” and defines Da-sein2 as the be- ing. It is precisely during this sudden and ing that has “a relation to the question of unsettling occurrence, when beings slip Being itself” (Being & Time, 5). Elsewhere away, that Da-sein awakens to a new under- he says that care, which is an essential standing of reality and of its potentialities within it. “In the Clear night of the noth- 2 Da-sein is an important, but confusing term in ing of anxiety”, for the first time, Da-sein Heidegger’s philosophy. It literally translates to here- being or there-being, and he that Da-sein is the essence of a human being. What is special about 3 Similarly to St. Catherine’s experience, the is that they are capable of being here, in a situation, in experience of pure anxiety undoes “I-hood,” for relation to other things. He also believes that Da-sein as Heidegger says, “we ourselves … slip away from stands in relation to Being itself, but that this relation is ourselves. At bottom therefore it is not as though ‘You’ usually veiled by our everyday mode of relating to things or ‘I’ feel ill at ease; rather it is this way for some ‘one’” in the world. (What is Metaphysics? 103).

89 Explorations | Humanities and Fine Arts experiences beings as they really are, as Absolute of the mystic is lovable, attainable and things that are distinct from the nothing- real (Mysticism, 24). ness that it has just witnessed. Additionally In a similar tone, appealing to philoso- it reveals to Da-sein that it itself is not a phers on behalf of all mystics, Coventry mere being, but is instead a Patmore says: of beings in that it is a “being held out into Leaveyour deep and absurd trust in the senses, nothingness,” or, as Heidegger puts it in with their language of dot and dash, which may a later work, “a standing out in the clear- possibly report fact but can never communicate ing of Being” (What is Metaphysics, 105; personality.If philosophy has taught you anything Letter on Humanism, 248). Thus it is only it has taught you the length of its tether, and the through original anxiety that man can real- impossibility of attaining to the doubtless admi- ize Being for the first time, realize his “en- rable grazing land which lies beyond it. One after snarement” among beings and his “forget- another,idealists have arisen who, straining franti - fulness of Being”, and then to begin to take callyat the rope, have announced to the world their up an “authentic” relation to Being itself. approaching ; only to be flung back at last From all this, it should be clear that what intothe world of sensation… Philosophy tells you Heidegger calls original anxiety can accu- thatit is founded on nothing better than sensation rately be labeled as an awakening experi- andthe traditional of the race. Certainly ence as described by Underhill: it is a sud- it is imperfect, probably an illusion; in any event; it den acute experience; it reveals the relative nevertouches the foundation of things (Mysticism, unreality of worldly beings; and opens one 24-25). to a transcendent reality, often motivating Mystics from every tradition can be seen one to attempt to relate oneself to this real- to be in agreement with the two above ity more fully. quotes, and acknowledge the impotence This leads us to our next point of anal- of conceptual thought in bringing the indi- ogy between Heideggerian and mysti- vidual into contact with the Ultimate. The cal thought. In both types of thinking the Sufi writer Al-Ghazali says: transcendent reality that the awakening Irecognized that what pertained most exclusively reveals is understood as being unattainable tothe Sufi’s method is just what study cannot grasp, by means of traditional rational or meta- butonly transport, and the transformation physical thought, because it is beyond any of the soul … Just as the understanding is a stage relational which such thought may inhuman life in which the eye opens to discern vari - seek to enclose it within. Underhill says ousintellectual objects uncomprehended by sensa - that: tion; just so in the prophetic the sight is illumined Themystics find the basis of their method not in bya light which uncovers hidden things and objects logic but in life: in the existence of a discoverable which the intellect fails to reach (TheVariety of ‘real,’ a spark of true being within the seeking sub- Religious Experiences, 439-441). ject,which can in that ineffable experience which The Neoplatonic they call the‘act of union’ fuse itself with, and agrees, saying: “In seeing God, what sees is thusapprehend, the reality of the sought Object… not our , but something prior to and Inmysticism that love of truth which we saw as the superior to our reason” (458). St. John of beginningof all philosophy leaves the merely intel - the Cross does also: “We receive the mysti- lectual sphere and takes on the assured aspect of cal knowledge of God clothed in none of apersonal passion. Where the philosopher guesses the kinds of images, in none of the sensible and argues, the mystic looks and lives… Hence, representations, of which our mind makes whilstthe Absolute of the metaphysician remains use in other circumstances” (444). As does adiagram—impersonal and unattainable—the Lao Tzu: “The Tao is ungraspable/ How

90 Jeff Guilford can [the master] be at one with it? Because concealed from metaphysics” (248). This she does not cling to ,” and “My teach- realization in turn leads him to conclude ings are easy to understand … yet your in- that “in order to learn how to experience tellect will never grasp them” (, the … essence of thinking purely … we 21, 70)4. This list could be extended indefi- must free ourselves from the technical in- nitely, for the Mystics are nearly unanimous terpretation of thinking” (238). What new in their decision against the path of reason type of thinking must replace the techni- as one that can possibly lead to the summit cal in order that the truth of Being may be of the Holy Mountain. thought will be discussed in the subsequent In a similar manner, Heidegger comes paragraphs, but what should be noted now to denounce representational and meta- is that the transcendental experience that physical thought as wholly incapable of Heidegger seeks to lead us toward is un- leading man to an experience of Being. graspable by conceptual thought, just as This attitude is perhaps most clearly seen the mystic’s Absolute is ungraspable. in Heidegger’s condemnation in his later Now the question arises, how should works of his early work , in one go about seeking and attaining the which he sought to lead readers into an Transcendent if not by means of traditional understanding of Being. In this work, philosophical inquiry? Both Heidegger and Heidegger sought to remain within the the mystics propose similar answers to this “language of metaphysics,” in order to question: entering into a meditative men- “make the attempt at thinking recognizable tal state in which the dualistic judgments and at the same time understandable for of reason are muted and openness to the existing philosophy…” (Letter on Humanism, Transcendent is cultivated. Underhill calls 246, 263). But he later acknowledges that this state “contemplation,” and labels it “the such language “falsifies itself” and fails education which tradition has ever pre- because it “does not think the truth of scribed for the mystic…” (Mysticism, 302). Being and so fails to recognize that there She describes this as a “humble receptive- is a thinking more rigorous than the con- ness, [a] still and steady gazing, in which ceptual (263)”. In his later works he recog- emotion, thought and will are lost and fused nizes the inadequacies of traditional - … [in which occurs a] breaking down of the sophical thought which leads to his saying: surface-self and those deeper levels of per- “philosophy … always follows the course sonality where God is met and known ‘in of metaphysical representation; it thinks our nothingness’…” (304)5. The revelation from beings back toward Being,” which of the Ultimate through this state of recep- “means that the truth of Being … remains tiveness is central to all mystical traditions. St. Theresa reports such a revelation saying “One day, being in orison, it was granted 4 Another relevant passage: “Above it isn’t bright/ to to perceive in one instant how all Below it is not dark/ Seamless, unnamable/ It returns to the realm of nothing/Form that includes all form/ things are contained in God…” (Varieties of image without an image/ subtle beyond all conception/ Approach it and there is no beginning/ follow it and 5 An additional aspect of contemplation that there is no end/ You can’t know it, but you can be it/ Underhill notes is that it requires practice. “In its early at ease in your own life/ just realize where you come stages,” she says, “contemplation is voluntary, deliberate from/ This is the essence of ” (Tao Te Ching, and difficult” (Mysticism, 302). Similarly Heidegger 14). It should be known that Heidegger was extremely says that meditative thought, “does not just happen by interested in Taoist thought and at one point even itself any more than does calculative thought. At attempted to translate the work into German, but it requires a greater effort. It demands more practice” abandoned the project having only completed the first 8 (Discourse on Thought, 47). chapters. This fact helps to explain the striking affinities that exist between Heidegger’s later thought andTaoism.

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Religious Experience, 448), and St. John of the of indulging is a special sort of profundity Cross confesses similarly “that a single hour and of building complicated concepts; of meditation had taught him more about rather, it is concealed in the step back that heavenly things than all the teachings of the lets thinking enter into a questioning that doctors…” (447). Al-Ghazzali describes a experiences…” (Letter on Humanism, 255). In similar process, saying, “The first condition yet another work, Heidegger describes the for a Sufi is to purge his heart entirely of all kind of thought which alone allows access that is not God. The next key of the con- to Being, as a kind of will-less waiting, or templative life consists in humble as he says, a kind of “releasement,” and which escape from the fervent soul, and says that only through this kind of thought in meditations on God in which the heart can that-which-regions6 be experienced is swallowed up entirely” (440). An addi- (Discourse on Thought, 62, 66). It should be tional similar state is clearly recommended clear from these few descriptions that the by Lao Tzu when he asks, “can you coax kind of thought that Heidegger proposes to your mind from its wandering, and keep to be the means by which Being can be expe- the original oneness… can you step back rienced is very similar to the contemplative from your own mind and thus understand method of the mystic. all things,” and again when he asks, “Do Let us now look back upon what has you have the patience to wait till the mud been established. Three essential aspects settles and the water is clear” (Tao Te Ching, of mysticism are, a sudden awakening to 10, 15). In all these varied instances of the Transcendent in which worldly beings contemplation, the operations of the ordi- fall away, the acknowledgement that logi- nary mind are suppressed, in order to cre- cal thought is incapable of bringing about ate an openness to a greater reality which a full experience of this Transcendent, and the ordinary mind cannot perceive. the prescription of a non-conceptual type In order to experience Being, Heidegger of mental activity, which stresses receptiv- prescribes the same sort of mental exer- ity, as a means by which the Transcendent cise, which he sometimes calls meditative can be attained. Heidegger’s thought can thought, in contrast to calculative thought. be seen to be strongly analogous to mysti- Whereas calculative thought “computes cism on all three points: he speaks of origi- ever new, ever more promising … possibili- nal anxiety as the experience by which da- ties … races from one prospect to the next sein is revealed to itself in its transcendence; … [and] never stops, never collects itself,” he condemns representational, metaphysi- meditative thought, “contemplates the cal thought as capable only of thinking of meaning which reigns in everything that is” beings, never of Being, and he proposes (Discourse on Thinking, 46). This form of meditative openness and dwelling-with as thought, he says, need not be “high-flown,” a means by which Being itself can be ex- but can consist simply in “dwell[ing] on perienced. From these strong analogies what lies close to us and meditate[ing] we can conclude that the transcenden- on what is closest…” (47). Elsewhere, tal experiences, which both mystical and Heidegger says of the kind of thought that Heideggerian thought seek to approach, allows for the entering into the Truth of Being, that “because there is something 6 In Heidegger’s later thought this term, “that which simple to be thought in this thinking it regions,” seems to have replaced the of the “clearing seems quite difficult to the representational of being” but functions similarly to it. So to experience purely that-which-regions can be identified with the old thought that has been transmitted as phi- goal of experiencing Being. losophy, but this difficulty is not a

92 Jeff Guilford are probably identical. Though there are and, therefore, we may conclude that these surface differences between Heidegger’s experiences are of essential equivalence as thought and the various forms of mysti- well. I have shown the method by which cism, there are similar surface differences Heidegger seeks to experience the truth between all the other forms of mysticism of Being to be essentially the same as the as well7. And though Zen’s Satori and method by which the mystics seek to expe- ’s Unio Mystico are described in rience the Ultimate, and therefore we are totally different terms, the means by which justified in concluding that the two experi- they are attained are essentially the same, ences are probably one and the same.

7 One important disanalogy between Heidegger and mysticism that deserves further study is that while all mystics affirm that the Ultimate is absolutely ineffable, one of Heidegger’s main goals is to bring the Truth of Being to language. Does this mean that Heidegger’s goal is different than the mystics? Possibly, but I rather think that it is simply a reflection on the fact that Heidegger seeks to restructure language so that it can speak the truth of being, which is simply a task that no mystic has ever thought to take upon himself. In terms of ordinary language both are in agreement, that such talk never touches upon the Absolute.

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Works Cited

Caputo, John D. The Mystical Elements of Heidegger’s Thought. New York: Fordham University Press. 1986.

Heidegger, Martin. (1926). Being and Time. Translated by . New York: State University of New York Press. 1996.

Heidegger, Martin. “What is Metaphysics?” Basic Writing: from Being and Time to The Task of Thinking. Krell, David Farrell. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 1977.

Heidegger, Martin. “Letter on Humanism.” Basic Writing: from Being and Time to The Task of Thinking. Krell, David Farrell. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 977.

Heidegger, Martin. Discourse on Thought. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 1966.

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Modern Library. 1902.

Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephan Mitchell. Perennial Classics. 1988.

Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism:The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. 1911.

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