Mysticism in the World's Religions This book is both universal in its scope and discriminating in its approach, and may be recommended unreservedly to any serious enquirer.' ?-be Expository Times 'Professor Parrindefs volume has something of the objectivity of a scientific study while at the same time encouraging us to seek a wisdom which will give us a new vision and under- standing of our world.' The Tmes By the same author Religion in Afn'ca Religion in an Afn'can City African Mythology Witchcraft, European and Afn'can The Christian Approach to the Animist Comparative Religion Asian Religions Tbe World's Living Religions What World Religions Teach A Dictionary of Non-Christian Religions A Book of World Religions Avatar and Incarnation Upanishads, Gita and Bible Jesus in the Qur'an Sexual Morality in the World's Religions THE WORLD'S Geoffrey Parrinder Oneworld Publications (Sales and Editorial) 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England Oneworld Publications (US Marketing Office) PO Box 830,21 Broadway Rockport, MA 01 966 USA O Geoffrey Parrinder 1976, 1995 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1-85168-101-9 Printed and bound by WSOY, Finland NL08 CONTENTS PART I THE MEANING OF MYSTICISM 1. Introduction 2. Mystery and Union PART I1 MYSTICAL MONISM 3. Natural Pantheism 4. Indian Philosophical Monism 5. Integration and Isolation: Yoga and Jain 6. Buddha and Nirvana 7. Tao and Shinto 8. Asian and African Ecstatics PART 111 MYSTICAL THEISM 9. Indian Monotheism 10. Bible and Cabbalah 1 1. Muhammad and the Sufis 12. Christian Diversity PART IV EXPERIENCE 13. Visions, Raptures and Sex MYSTICISM IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS 14. Drugs and the Occult 15. Mysticism and Religious Experience Select Bibliography Index PART I The Meaning of Mysticism Chapter I INTRODUCTION There is a widespread modem interest in religious affairs in the broadest sense, from Hare Krishna to the Jesus People and from Transcendental Meditation to the Charismatic Movement. Much of this religious concern does not stop at the traditional borders of religion but penetrates into the mysterious, occult and unfamiliar. There are probably greater varieties of religious experiment today than the Western world has ever known. Experiment and experience are key words. One may try anything once, and discover by personal involvement whether what the gurus say is true. Religious experience rather than dogma and formal ritual seems to bring life into dull routine, although new movements may have their own dogmatic claims and ordered methods of meditation or worship. Experiment has also led to a search for physical and spiritual exaltation through drugs, music and trance, in attempts to discover higher levels of consciousness. This variety and experimentation have been greatly extended from the knowledge now available of ancient Eastern religions. This is one of the most significant factors in the religious scene of the twentieth century and it has created a new situation for traditional religion and theology. Serious study of the religions of Asia has been undertaken by Western scholars for about a hundred years, critical books have been written and selections from many scriptures have gradually been published. But for a long time the effect was limited and numbers actively interested were restricted. Small Buddhist or Vedanta societies were founded, and fewer Islamic or Taoist. There MYSTICISM IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS were rare centres of worship for visiting Asian ambassadors, traders or students. In the same period Christian missions were venturing into nearly every country in the world, establishing centres, building schools and disseminating literature. But now the compliment has been returned. Not only visitors but immigrants and missions come from Asia to Europe and America; Gurus and Swamis, Sufis and Dervishes, attract large audiences and often become established teachers of religious experimentation. Meanwhile the disappearance of old political empires has brought decline to some formal structures of the churches and has led to a reassessment of their role and message. The world becomes increasingly unified, religiously as well as commercially or politically, and this brings a shift away from exclusive organizations of former times. Religious experiment and interest in mystery have led naturally to mysticism. That mystical claims are made in many religions is taken both as proof of the universality of the inner life of the soul and as the real link between religions which may be divided by dogma but are really united in their quest for the universal One. What has been called 'neo-mysticism' is taken to include many diverse forms of experience and exploration. It follows that mysticism is not now generally thought to be confined to a few athletic heroes of spiritual life, monks in desert cells or yogis on mountain peaks. Mysticism is considered to be more than an esoteric and unusual religious perception, and a recent study of 'inglorious Wordsworths' discovered that there are transcendental experiences in childhood and adolescence among many people even in industrial societies. Mystical experience, it is claimed, is not merely an example and inspiration from the few to the many, but is something in which most people can share. Yet the variety and all-embracing claims made for mysticism are confusing, and different interpretations given in the world's religions are affected by theological attitudes. This book aims at providing clues to the diverse forms and expressions of mysticism, by considering some of the major religious traditions of East and West. These seem to fall naturally into two principal areas, Monistic and Theistic, though there are minor variations and often overlapping of INTRODUCTION these categories. After discussion of the major traditions there is reference to visions, sex and drugs, and a final consideration of the relationship of the expert to the ordinary seeker. The purpose of this book is to introduce the great religions in their mystical expressions. It does not profess to include all mystics, for even in one religion that would be impossible in one book, but selections are given from many teachers in original versions or from reliable translations, as these throw light on what mystics themselves believe has happened to them. Since it is commonly said that all mysticism is the same or, with equal assurance, that there are quite distinct types, light from mystical teachings themselves may be welcomed even when interpretation is difficult. This book is an expansion of the Westcott Lectures for 1973 under the Teape Foundation, which were delivered in Delhi and Madras, the first being given under the chairmanship of the Vice- President of India, Dr G. S. Pathak. I am deeply grateful for the honour of being chosen to lecture and for the hospitality of the Principal and staff of St Stephen's College, Delhi, and the directors of the Community Service Centre, Madras. There were discussions in other centres in Delhi, in the University of Madras arranged by Professor T. M. P. Mahadevan, and at the British Institute of Persian Studies in Teheran organized by Professor Hossein Nasr. Earlier that year I lectured on the same theme to the theological faculty of the University of Wales at Bangor, and conversations there and at many other places over the years helped to form views of the nature and variety of mystical experience. For over forty years I have collected works of mystical authorities from Dionysius to Traherne, and from the Bhagavad Gita to Jalalu'ddin Rumi. In writing other books on religion in Asia and Africa I have often made reference to mystical teachings, but this is my first venture into a full-scale study of the subject. Behind it there is not only reading, discussion and criticism, but personal conviction and experience. The question is often asked, 'Have you had mystical experiences, and what were they?' But one may take refuge in St Paul's statement that he had heard 'unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter'. Yet it is strange that mystics, with their unutterable claims, have uttered a great deal. There is a vast 5 MYSTICISM IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS literature of mysticism, for mystics are often assertive and state what they hold to be true and real. This truth and reality come out of their own experience, it is practically tested and brings conviction. Therefore what we are engaged in is not merely a detached study or a record of history, but belief and experience which claim to give the final truth about the universe. Mysticism is not a plug for gaps as yet unfilled by science but, on the contrary, its conviction of the mystical unity at the heart of things may alone provide that order and continuity upon which all other studies depend. Chapter 2 MYSTERY AND UNION THE MYSTERIES A Cabbalistic tradition said that mysticism is either a mystery or a mystery of mysteries. It is a mystery when the teacher understands it but the pupil does not, and it is a mystery of mysteries when neither teacher nor pupil understands it. Many people would agree that mysticism is mysterious, but to identify it with any kind of mystery is not helpful since in popular usage mysticism has been applied to the bizarre or occult. Thus a quality newspaper described a Cambodian general as 'an errant mystic who gauges his major decisions by the devices of fortune- tellers and the paths of the stars'. And the same paper had as its front page headline 'A Mystic and his Mayhem', telling of a Caribbean president whose office was littered with spiritualist magazines but whose police force beat up his opponents. At a more general level, but still unsatisfactory from a religious point of view, is the opinion that mysticism is vague and unpractical.