20.0 Mysticism – Usual Description Page 1 of 13

20.0: Mysticism – Usual Description

Professor F. G. Young, an eminent twentieth century researcher in biochemistry, was reported by Mervyn Stockwood in his book ‘Religion and the Scientists’ as stating that he had: 1

…no great faith in definitions, since a dictionary defines words in terms of each other and is therefore necessarily a vicious circle. It is clearly the concept rather than the definition that is important.

And to compound the difficulty further, Morton Kelsey suggested that: 2

One of the problems with understanding mysticism is simply the fact that this is too big a field for one word to cover. "Mysticism" conveys all kinds of meanings to various people, and too often a term that carries too much meaning ends up meaning little or nothing at all.

Nevertheless, in this chapter, I will try to give both a word based definition and sufficient a description for you to be able to appreciate what, from my spiritual perspective, I believe mysticism to be. In very broad terms it is: 3

…a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions

But to be more specific, and in a spiritual context, it is as defined in the Chambers Dictionary as: 4

The practice of gaining direct communication with God through prayer and meditation.

…and for a person engaged in such practice, it defines a mystic as:

Someone whose life is devoted to meditation or prayer in an attempt to achieve direct communication with and knowledge of God, regarded as the ultimate reality.

Moving from the dictionary definitions to a more descriptive one, Lumsden Barkway provided a few words from Evelyn Underhill’s book 'Practical Mysticism': 5

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or lesser degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment.

…and the Austrian-born American sociologist Peter Berger offered: 6

Mysticism, broadly speaking, is any religious practice or doctrine that asserts the ultimate unity of man and the divine. This fundamental quality of mysticism has been classically formulated in Hinduism by the formula 'tat tvam asi' - 'thou art that', that is, the depths of the human soul are identical with the divine depths of the

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universe.

From the pen of W. H. Dyson comes the simple statement that: 7

To enjoy God without intermediary, the first-hand experience of God, is the essential truth of ... Mysticism.

Just a word of warning. Many people consider mysticism and asceticism as synonyms. This is certainly not the case as was revealed by a monk of the Eastern Orthodox Church: 8

The masters of the spiritual life and, following them, recent Roman writers have had the merit of giving precision to this terminology. They give to the words 'ascetical' and 'mystical' a very strict technical meaning. The 'ascetical life' is a life in which 'acquired' virtues, i.e. virtues resulting from a personal effort, only accompanied by that general grace which God grants to every good will, prevail. The 'mystical life' is a life in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are predominant over human efforts, and in which 'infused' virtues are predominant over the 'acquired' ones; the soul has become more passive than active. Let us use a classical comparison. Between the ascetic life, that is, the life in which human action predominates, and the mystical life, that is the life which God's action predominates, there is the same difference as between rowing a boat and sailing it; the oar is the ascetic effort, the sail is the mystical passivity which is unfurled to catch the divine wind.

This lovely metaphor whilst it distinguishes these two terms, does set them within the one context; three is a very close relationship between them in which they are so intertwined as to be part of the same whole. This was explained in the same book ‘Orthodox Spirituality’ which highlighted that we must be careful: 9

...not to raise a wall of separation between mystical and ascetic life. The prevalence of the gifts does not exclude the practice of acquired virtues, any more than the prevalence of acquired virtues excludes the gifts. One of these two elements, of course, predominates over the other. But the spiritual life is generally a synthesis of the 'ascetical' and the 'mystical'.

Because of this, I have used the term ‘mystical’ to encompass both concepts.

So returning to mysticism, as I use the term, most descriptions of it indicate that the one and only focus of the mystic is God. From ‘An Anthology of the Love of God’ Lumsden Barkey indicated that Evelyn Underhill understood that: 10

The life of co-operation with Him must begin with a full and practical acceptance of the truth that God alone matters...

From an Eastern perspective, the 7 th century incumbent of the title Shankara Acharya looked at the endpoint of the mystic which he identified as: 11

For him who has discerned the true being of the Eternal, the ancient circle of birth and death has ceased.

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For all who have spent many of their years focussed on spiritual development comes, according to the founder of the "Omega Order", a mixed teaching and contemplative community, Peter Spink, an observation from Frederick Happold which may strike a deep chord: 12

As I draw to the end of a long and active life I have come to regard a capacity for intersection [between man and God] as perhaps the most essential quality of mind and spirit needed by twentieth century man.

This spiritual realisation is vital for our progress and therefore we must try to develop our own personal relationship with our Creator. This is often referred to as building a ‘union with God’ as discussed by Margaret Smith in her book ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’: 13

Therefore the human soul yearns for that blissful state again [union with God] , and this earthly life should be spent in the quest for that blessed life. St. Augustine urges men to follow the quest and to tread the Mystic Way...

She also stressed this by reference to St Bernard, who was the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order: 14

...for to occupy oneself with God, says St. Bernard, is not idleness, but the occupation of occupations.

This has been the backbone for the lives of mystics down the ages. Thomas Merton, worldly monk and a mystic, described this as a three stage process: 15

The mystical doctrine of Ruysbroeck is founded on the theory of 'unity of spirit' - first man's natural unity [as God lies within us] , secondly his supernatural union with God [awakening - support and awareness of spirit] by love and the virtues and thirdly his perfect union with God 'above all graces and gifts'.

Another way of viewing the stages towards union was offered by Bonaventure in the 13 th century. This Italian mystic informed us that Jesus the Nazarene: 16

…has taught the knowledge of truth according to the three ways of approaching theology: the symbolic, the proper, and the mystical, so that through symbolic theology we may rightly use sensible things, through proper theology, we may rightly use intelligible things, and through mystical theology, we may be rapt to ecstatic transports.

So it seems that this is what we ought to aim for too. But what does following the mystical path really entail? To help me to answer this question, I will enlist the help of one book in particular which has become a classic reference book on mysticism. That is called, not surprisingly, ‘Mysticism’ published in 1911 and written by Evelyn Underhill. The book is somewhat academic and, having read it three times myself, I would advise anyone who is hoping to follow the mystic way to also read it. Early in the book she explains the: 17

…three traditional stages of the Mystic Way: Purgation, Illumination, Union.

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Subsequently, she develops this further in the second part of the book: 18

Here, then, is the classification under which we shall study the phases of the mystical life. (1) The awakening of the Self to consciousness of Divine Reality... (2) The Self, aware for the first time of Divine Beauty... (3) When by Purgation the Self has become detached from the 'things of sense,'... (4) …final and complete purification of the Self, which is called by some ... Dark Night of the Soul... (5) Union: the true goal of the mystic quest.

Margaret Smith used the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite, an anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, to confirm Evelyn Underhill’s own analysis: 19

Dionysius marks out clearly, in 'The Heavenly Hierarchy' and 'The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy', the three stages of the Mystic Way, through Purgation and Illumination to Perfection, the Unitive Life.

And she too further explains this later in the same book: 20

...the Mystic Way, which must be trodden by all who seek to attain to that blessed communion with the Divine... The first stage is known as the Purgative Life, the stage of purification...... the next stage, known as the Illuminative Life ... Purifying the inner self, bringing all the faculties of thought, feeling and will, into conformity with that which he now knows to be the Divine Will ...... the last stage of the Way, which is also the goal of the quest, the Unitive Life, when the soul passes from that which is imperfect to that which is perfect...

There are many other noteworthy books on the subject of mysticism and you will see many of them referred to in this and other chapters of this section on mysticism. In one of these, William Johnston refers to the writings of a Jesuit priest by the name of Auguste Poulain who believed that: 21

...the writings of St Teresa of Avila in sixteenth-century Spain are the landmark in the development of the mystical consciousness and its scientific study. Teresa was the first, he claims, to analyse minutely the earlier states of consciousness which precede ecstasy; and he constantly appeals to her acute psychological analysis. Asserting that there are two great eras in the development of mysticism, the one before and up to the death of St. Teresa of Avila and the other from her death...

Evelyn Underhill also explained, often quite poetically, her view of the emergence of a mystical perspective in someone journeying along the spiritual way. She wrote: 22

We have said that this consciousness in its full development seems to be extended not in one but in two directions. These directions, these two fundamental ways of apprehending Reality may be called the eternal and temporal, transcendent and immanent, absolute and dynamic aspects of Truth. They comprise the twofold knowledge of a God Who is both Being and Becoming near and far: pairs of

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opposites which the developed mystical experience will carry up into a higher synthesis. But the first awakening of the mystic sense, the first breaking in of the suprasensible upon the soul, commonly involves the emergence of one only of these complementary forms of perception. One side always wakes first: the incoming message always choosing the path of least resistance. Hence mystical conversion tends to belong to one of two distinctive types: tends also, as regards its expression, to follow that temperamental inclination to objectivise Reality as a Place, a Person, or a State which we found to govern the symbolic systems of the mystics. There is first, then, the apprehension of a splendour without: an expansive, formless, ineffable vision, a snatching up of the self, as it were, from knowledge of this world to some vague yet veritable knowledge of the next. The veil parts, and the Godhead is perceived as transcendent to, yet immanent in, the created universe. Not the personal touch of love transfiguring the soul, but the impersonal glory of a transfigured world, is the dominant note of this experience: and the reaction of the self takes the form of awe and rapture rather than of intimate affection. Of such a kind was the conversion of Suso, and in a less degree of Brother Lawrence... This experience, if it is to be complete, if it is to involve the definite emergence of the self from 'the prison of I-hood,' its setting out upon the Mystic Way, requires an act of concentration on the self's part as the complement of its initial act of expansion. It must pass beyond the stage of metaphysical rapture or fluid splendour, and crystallize into a willed response to the Reality perceived; a definite and personal relation must be set up between the self and the Absolute Life. To be a spectator of Reality is not enough.

This last statement also typifies a mystic. Whilst most, but certainly not all, mystics have gained a level of knowledge of the spiritual milieu, it is in their mystical experiences that most of their awareness is developed. The closer a person gets to ‘union with God’ the more intense and exciting will be their mystical experiences. Such experiences were a mark of Ruysbroeck’s life which Evelyn Underhill recorded as: 23

Ruysbroeck says that he had experienced three orders of reality: the natural world, theatre of our moral struggle; the essential world, where God and eternity are indeed known, but by intermediaries; and the super-essential world, where without intermediary, and beyond all separation, 'above reason and without reason', the soul is united to 'the glorious and absolute One'.

She also used another short quote from Ruysbroeck, a 14 th century Flemish mystic, to try to explain the difficulties which mystics have always had in describing their experiences. 24

As none know the spirit of England but the English; and they know it by intuitive participation, by mergence, not by thought; so none but the 'deified' know the secret life of God. This, too, is a knowledge conferred only by participation: by living a life, breathing an atmosphere, "union with that same Light by which they see, and which they see."

Evelyn noted also that the documents that the mystics have left for us to read are in order for us to try to get a grip on what we may experience and to try to lead us along the right spiritual pathway: 25

…that mystics are above all things practical people. They do not write for the

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purpose of handing on a philosophical scheme, but in order to describe something which they have themselves experienced; something which they feel to be of transcendent importance for humanity.

Because these experiences are very personal and unique then, as Evelyn remarked: 26

...any attempt to reduce the soul’s intercourse with the Transcendent to a single system or formula is condemned in advance.

Herein lies one of the insurmountable problems of mysticism – the experiences and effects of ‘union with God’ are not scientifically repeatable or verifiable. That is why, as the English physicist Paul Davies discovered: 27

Most scientists have a deep mistrust of mysticism. This is not surprising, as mystical thought lies at the opposite extreme to rational thought, which is the basis of the scientific method. Also, mysticism tends to be confused with the occult, the paranormal, and other fringe beliefs. In fact, many of the world’s finest thinkers, including some notable scientists such as Einstein, Pauli, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Eddington, and Jeans, have also espoused mysticism.

Because mystical experiences and their consequences cannot be ‘proved’ does not mean that we should not believe in such encounters and their consequences. The Indian philosopher and statesman and second President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had this to say on the subject: 28

Many of us may not be made the mystic way and spiritual experience may not interest us. But it cannot be said that what our minds fail to grasp is unthinkable and what does not interest us is unreal. Supposing we shut our eyes to spiritual experience, it does not cease to be the truth. Though we may not understand, with all our efforts, Einstein's relativity, conscious ignorance or inability should not become unbelief.

Having an open mind is important until as we ourselves progress towards union when we too will experience the mystic’s ecstasy. For myself, I do not believe that I have achieved the status of being permitted to call myself a mystic as I have not attained anything like union with God. Nevertheless, there are many different levels of spiritual progress and, ultimately, one is able to label oneself as a mystic. One of the mentors of Evelyn Underhill was Baron Von Hügel and, according to his biography written by Franklin Chambers, he recognised that there are ‘degrees of mystical awareness’ and he expressed it as: 29

'Reality is a light, in its centre blindingly luminous, having rings around it of lesser and lesser light, growing dimmer and dimmer until we are left in utter darkness.' It is in such a surplusage of increasing dimness that a valid mysticism is found.

I suppose at the bottom end of the mystic scale would be those described by the Jesuit priest Gerard W Hughes as pilgrims. Based on the fact that he believed that a pilgrimage mirrored the spiritual life journey, he wrote: 30

Pilgrimage has been described as 'the poor person's substitute for mysticism'; for a direct experience of God.

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So somewhere in the inner rings of the Light we will find the mystic. To help us in this, Evelyn set out a number of tests and rules which are able to be used to ‘rank’ a mystic. These are: 31

1. True mysticism is active and practical, not passive and theoretical. It is an organic life-process, a something which the whole self does; not something as to which its intellect holds an opinion. 2. Its aims are wholly transcendental and spiritual. It is in no way concerned with adding to, exploring, re-arranging, or improving anything in the visible universe. The mystic brushes aside that universe, even in its supernormal manifestations. Though he does not, as his enemies declare, neglect his duty to the many, his heart is always set upon the changeless One. 3. This One is for the mystic, not merely the Reality of all that is, but also a living and personal Object of Love; never an object of exploration. It draws his whole being homeward, but always under the guidance of the heart. 4. Living union with this One - which is the term of his adventure - is a definite state or form of enhanced life. It is obtained neither from an intellectual realization of its delights, nor from the most acute emotional longings. Though these must be present they are not enough. It is arrived at by an arduous psychological and spiritual process - the so-called Mystic Way - entailing the complete remaking of character and the liberation of a new, or rather latent, form of consciousness; which imposes on the self the condition which is sometimes inaccurately called 'ecstasy,' but is better named the Unitive State.

You may think that, because most of the quotations that I have used are from Western writers, mystics are largely associated with Western religions or peoples. That is not so even though, like W. H. Dyson, many refer to mysticism as being Christian: 32

Christian mysticism, in its essential element, is the conscious communion of the soul with God... This definition is based upon the conviction that Christianity is a Life, spiritual, eternal, a Life, from its very nature, essentially mystical.

From a Quaker perspective this was confirmed by John Punshon who remarked that climbing the spiritual ladder leading to union with God: 33

...is perhaps the sequence of the mystical search, it is also the spiritual progression of the classical Quaker experience.

However, everyone should realise that, as Margaret Smith informed us: 34

Mysticism in its essence represents a spiritual tendency which is practically universal...

…and this was highlighted by Evelyn Underhill: 35

Hindu, Buddhist, Egyptian, Greek, Alexandrian, Moslem and Christian all declare with more or less completeness a way of life, a path, a curve of development which shall end in its attainment ; and history brings us face to face with the real and

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human men and women who have followed this way, and found its promise to be true.

This was further clarified by David Hay, a zoologist with a longstanding professional interest in the disputed boundary between biological science and the religious and spiritual dimensions of human experience. In his book ‘Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience’ he wrote: 36

But what may appear still more paradoxical is the idea that all these experiences from different cultures are, at a deep level, of the same kind. This is a view which has been implicit in what I have written so far, and is sometimes called the 'common core' theory. The best-known popular exponent of this view was Aldous Huxley. In his book 'The Perennial Philosophy' he drew together a fascinating selection of mystical writings from the major world religions in an attempt to show that they were basically in agreement, even in the language they used in their descriptions.

And from John Blofeld, who in his life straddled the East/West spiritual continents, there comes a recognition that the major differences in mystical perspectives are a consequence of the environment within which they live: 37

Mystics of every age and every continent, Plotinus, the Buddha, Lao-tse, Eckhart, Blake, countless Hindu sages and adepts of Sufi wisdom, though separated by immense distances of time and space, are remarkable for their unanimity. Were it not that their understanding of the supreme experience is coloured by their pre- conceived notions about God (Truth, Reality, the Godhead, Nirvana), their accounts of it would be almost identical.

As an individual climbs the mystical mountain, imperceptively they change. They become more aware of the Cosmic Truths and of the context in which they are developing and living. Those ‘looking in from the outside’, like Agnes Sanford, could remark: 38

What is this inner light? Oh, that I knew! The cloud of glory of which the mystics sometimes catch a glimpse.

I mentioned earlier the poetic nature of Evelyn Underhill’s writing. In another passage from ’Mysticism’ she attempts to reveal that the mystics approach was to develop the self into something better, something closer to God. In doing so she used the analogy with alchemy: 39

The art of the alchemist, whether spiritual or physical, consists in completing the work of perfection, bringing forth and making dominant, as it were, the 'latent goldness' which 'lies obscure' in metal or man ...Thus the proper art of the Spiritual Alchemist, with whom alone we are here concerned, was the production of the spiritual and only valid tincture or Philosopher's Stone; the mystic seed of transcendental life which should invade, tinge, and wholly transmute the imperfect self into spiritual gold. That this was no fancy of seventeenth-century allegorists, but an idea familiar to many of the oldest writers upon alchemy - whose quest was truly a spiritual search into the deepest secrets of the soul.

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The closer we get to the mystic’s goal, the better will be how people perceive us. That is, we will become ‘Mirrors of the Divine’ as was referred to by Martin Israel: 40

As we walk in the awareness of God's presence, so we are strengthened to continue with work of lightening the darkness that is always around us. This is the work of the saints of all ages.

The reason for this is that, through those mystical experiences and the dawning of spiritual wisdom, mystics can see the broad canvas of life. Frederick Crossfield Happold, in another classic mystical treatise ‘Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology’, wrote: 41

Mysticism is like a great fugal pattern, each part interwoven with the other, sometimes one theme, sometimes another predominating, but together forming one whole. It is seen to have three interconnecting aspects, which we have called the mysticism of knowledge and understanding, the mysticism of love and union, and the mysticism of action.

It is the latter, that is action or sometimes referred to as ‘service to humanity’, which is often forgotten but which, I believe, forms one of the bases of a modern mystic’s life. Not only do mystics give of themselves without question but they seem to be unaffected by the consequences of their actions. They will always do that which is spiritually best and, because of this, they unfailingly accept the outcome. In discussing the life of the Chinese mystic Chuang Tzu, Raymond Blakney reported that when speaking of the death of Lao Tzu he said: 42

When he happened to come, it was the Master's time to come; when he happened to go, he went, of course. Given calm acceptance of the time and place for everything, neither grief nor joy can intrude...

In this, he recognised the absolute impact of the law of cause and effect. The progress towards union with God brings other realisations and changes; changes particularly in how we see ourselves and others in the context of eternity. In an article published in the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, Blair Reynolds recognised the significant changes that are brought about by mysticism (or as he calls it Asceticism): 43

I wish to present a radical re-evaluation of ecstasy as essentially world-affirming. Asceticism, mortification of the flesh, and stoical resignation were in fact major aspects of the mystical journey to God; but, I emphasize, only in the initial stages of the quest, largely due to the fact that mystics began their journey deeply imbued in classical theism and its fundamental concept of God as immutable. However, the mystical quest for God underwent a major transition in that the unitive experiences of the ecstatics brought them to an experiential appreciation of the emotional inter- responsiveness that exists between the self, world, and God, which is the true ground of all life, both human and Divine. Ultimately then, the mystical message is that we are saved, redeemed, transformed, by our aesthetic quest from emotional stimulation and gratification.

The most significant change is brought about by the experience of communion with the Divine – to be one with God. This leads to a realisation that our souls are ‘a spark of God’ and as such have an eternal and life changing effect. The Shankara Acharya tried to convey

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The wise man who is one with the Eternal returns not again to the circle of birth and death; therefore, let it be truly understood that the Self is not separate from the Eternal.

Accepting that the essential characteristics of anyone walking the mystical path will completely change as their knowledge and experience expands. The Austrian philosopher and social thinker Rudolf Steiner recognised that throughout a mystic’s development his or her characteristics will change for the better: 45

The true mystic is a man who enters into full possession of his inner life, and who, having become cognisant of his subconsciousness, finds in it, through concentrated meditation and steady discipline, new faculties and enlightenment.

However, such enhancements of understanding, we have to recognise, comes at a price; mysticism is not an escape from reality, as Leslie Weatherhead declared that religion (I would say mysticism): 46

...is not dope nor insurance nor escape.

Using the analogy of the Tree of Life, we are given the following text from the ‘Essene Book of John’ which tried to explain the necessity of refinement: 47

And Jesus answered, Let not thy heart be troubled: ye believe in God. Know ye that in our Father's house there are many mansions, and our brotherhood is but a dark glass reflecting the Heavenly Brotherhood unto which all creatures of heaven and earth do belong. The brotherhood is the vine, and our Heavenly Father is the husbandman. Every branch in us that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Within every mystic is a driving force which continues to make inroads into their characteristics and assets, not necessarily by suppressing them but by setting them in the right context. For example, having possessions is not inherently bad but it depends what importance is placed on them. This particular relationship of the spiritual with the material has been articulated in probably all of the tomes on mysticism. I rather like the way Aldous Leonard Huxley tackled it: 48

Rumi, the Persian poet and mystic, thought that to seek for union with God while occupying a throne was an undertaking hardly less senseless than looking for camels among the chimney pots.

…and Margaret Smith in her ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’ stated that: 49

The first century of Islam was very favourable to the spread of asceticism, on account of the general disgust with the growth of materialism, in contrast to the simple ideals of life taught and practised by Mohammed.

It is not just the rejection of the objectives of a material society but a development of those

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‘good’ characteristics which the mystics strive for in the belief that they are stepping stones for their spiritual journey. Teresa of Avila identified three traits which are important: 50

It is important that we realise how important they are to us in helping to preserve peace, both inward and outward. ... One of these is love for each other, the second, detachment from all created things; the third, true humility, which although I put last, is the most important of the three and embraces all the rest.

Humility, to recognise just one trait, is difficult to achieve and hence there are very few mystics. In fact, as Frederick Happold noticed: 51

Throughout man's history, everywhere, in every age, there have been those who have been capable of treading this Way to the end, men and women endowed with a wider and different range of perception and awareness than that of normal people, which has enabled them to attain union with God and to see more deeply into the world of spirit and the nature of reality.

…and from F. P. Harton a realisation that this path is open to us all: 52

Union with Him, upon which all depends, is not the prize given to the few, though few attain to it in its wonderful completeness, but it is the condition of the supernatural life of all.

It is well to recognise that for those who are nearing the dizzy heights of mystical awareness the road does not get any easier; it is still strewn with bear-traps and other obstacles. The good thing is that the more spiritual one becomes these difficulties are taken in the natural stride and don’t cause undue hardship. Even martyrdom has been accepted by some mystics as a necessary trial. Of such mystics G K Chesterton wrote: 53

The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. .. And he is not what the people want, but rather what the people need.

…and continuing with such praise of mystics in general William Johnston declared that: 54

...next to God the most influential person in the cosmos is the mystic.

I hope that all the above has provided an insight into what mystics stand for and what a difficult journey they have through their earthly life – but what a springboard it is for their continuing eternal progress.

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1 Mervyn Stockwood, Religion and the Scientists, SCM Press, 1959. F. G. Young, (Pg 32) 2 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 12. Silence Mysticism and Religious Experience, (Pg 127) 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism 4 http://www.chambers.co.uk/dictionaries/the-chambers-dictionary.php 5 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. Introduction, (Pg 22) 6 Peter Berger, A Rumour of Angels, Pelican Books, 1971. 4 - Theological Possibilities: Confronting the Traditions, (Pg 112) 7 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter X - Spiritual Religion, (Pg 119) 8 A Monk of the Eastern Church, Orthodox Spirituality, SPCK, 1980. Chapter II: The essentials of Orthodox Spirituality, (Pg 25) 9 A Monk of the Eastern Church, Orthodox Spirituality, SPCK, 1980. Chapter II: The essentials of Orthodox Spirituality, (Pg 26) 10 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VII Discipline, The Training in Love: The Order of Love (The Spiritual Life), (Pg 196) 11 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - When the Eternal is Known, (Pg 69) 12 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 7: The Mystic and Healing, (Pg 106) 13 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 75) 14 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter II - Early Christian Asceticism, (Pg 12) 15 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. The Second Adam 16 Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, Hackett, 1993. Chapter One: The Steps in the Ascent to God and the Consideration of Him through his Vestiges in the Universe, (Pg 7) 17 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 145) 18 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Introductory, (Pg 169/170) 19 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 82) 20 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter I - The Meaning and Nature of Mysticism, (Pg 7/8) 21 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part I: Meditation. 4: The science of mysticism, (Pg 47) 22 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter II - The Awakening of the Self, (Pg 195) 23 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 18 / 19) 24 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter X - The Unitive Life, (Pg 420) 25 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 347/348) 26 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part Two - The Goals of the Inner Life, (Pg 59) 27 Paul Davies, The Mind of God, Penguin Books, 1992. Chapter 9: The Mystery at the End of the Universe - Mystical Knowledge, (Pg 226) 28 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 10. Spirit, (Pg 240) 29 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. A Biographical Preface, (Pg 31 / 32) 30 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Eight: Pilgrimage - Pilgrimage Mirrors the Journey of Life, (Pg 138) 31 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 81) 32 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter 1 - The revival of mysticism, (Pg 19) 33 John Punshon, Encounter With Silence, Friends United Press, 1989. Beyond the Quaker Meeting - The Power and the Light, (Pg 113)

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34 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter XI – Conclusion, (Pg 256) 35 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 31) 36 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Two: What is the Experiental Dimension - 7. Strange and Difficult to Describe: Context and experience, (Pg 93) 37 John Blofeld, The Wheel of Life, Rider & Co, 1959. Chapter 8 - Oases in a Blood-red Ocean, (Pg 180) 38 Agnes Sanford, Healing Gifts of the Spirit, Arthur James, 1999. Chapter 2; To Those Who Care, (Pg 43) 39 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 143) 40 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 6 - The Way of Awareness, (Pg 58) 41 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 26. Conclusion: The Mystic's Universe, (Pg 119) 42 Raymond B Blakney, The Way of Life, The New American Library; Mentor Books, 1964. Tao Tê Ching, (Pg 34 / 35) 43 R Blair Reynolds, Cosmos and History, Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, Vol 1, #2, 2005. Introduction 44 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Self is the Eternal, (Pg 40) 45 Rudolf Steiner, The Way of Initiation, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1912. The Personality of Rudolf Steiner and His Development by Edouard Schure, (Pg 3) 46 Leslie D Weatherhead, How Can I Find God?, Hodder & Stoughton, 1965. Part I: Are we hiding from Him? - V: In misusing religion to evade reality? (Pg 44) 47 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Fragments from trom the Essene Book of John, (Pg 85) 48 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 122) 49 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 154) 50 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter IV, (Pg 16) 51 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 10 The Nature of the Mystical, (Pg 114) 52 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 72) 53 G K Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dover Publications, 2009. I. On Two Friars, (Pg 4) 54 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part III: Healing. 12: Cosmic healing, (Pg 133)

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20.1: Mysticism – My Alternative Description

Let me start this very personal chapter with a beautiful quotation from the mystical writer Evelyn Underhill from one of her later books ‘The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today’ which puts the mystic in an overall context: 1

Here is our little planet, chiefly occupied, to our view, in rushing round the sun; but perhaps found from another angle to fill quite another part in the cosmic scheme. And on this apparently unimportant speck, wandering among systems of suns, the appearance of life and its slow development and ever-increasing sensitisation; the emerging of pain and of pleasure; and presently man with his growing capacity for self-affirmation and self-sacrifice, for rapture and for grief. Love with its unearthly happiness, unmeasured devotion, and limitless pain; all the ecstasy, all the anguish that we extract from the rhythm of life and death. It is much, really, for one little planet to bring to birth. And presently another music, which some not many perhaps yet, in comparison with its population are able to hear. The music of a more inward life, a sort of fugue in which the eternal and temporal are mingled; and here and there some, already, who respond to it. Those who hear it would not all agree as to the nature of the melody; but all would agree that it is something different in kind from the rhythm of life and death.

It is to those of you who accept this premise, this ‘melody’ that I direct this chapter.

The ultimate focus, for all that we think, say, and do, ought to be what we perceive our God to require of us; we develop our conscience and our Philosophy of Life in order to guide us towards this objective. This is no different from the accepted goal of the mystics.

However, it has been recognised for at least a couple of millennia that one step along this road is for the mystic to have direct communion with God. This I find really hard to understand. Let’s try to work out some numbers.

There are over 7 billion souls (in 2013) 2 living on the earth and an estimated 107 billion 3 souls who have previously lived on earth but now reside in the Spirit World. Now, taking the sum of these two figures, that is 114 billion souls we then multiply this by the estimated number of earth-like inhabitable planets. O n November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on the Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth- sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. 4

Doing the mathematics, and assuming the earth represents the average of planetary development then we have a broad estimate of about (114 billion x 40 billion) 4560 billion living souls which is over four and a half trillion or 4,500,000,000,000 souls, each of which, according to the mystics, has the potential to communicate with God simultaneously. OK, the numbers are somewhat tenuous, but it does give you a basis for some of the thoughts which have been in my mind.

On the basis of these numbers and the fact that my Creator is of a nature to communicate, I do not believe that any of the mystics communicate directly with God – whatever that means to you. I held this view for a long while without any corroboration until I read

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Estelle Robert’s book ‘Red Cloud Speaks’. In it she quotes the following words from Red Cloud, her spirit guide, mentor and communicator: 5

Do you honestly believe that any man or woman can be in supreme contact with God? No man can state that he is in direct contact with God because God is a Whole, not a being. The expressions of the Law in the highest stages of evolution are inexpressible in matter, and the higher you climb the ladder of evolution the less likely you are to remember earth and its groups.

Eureka! At least now I could move forward with a little more confidence. So when we encounter passages such as this one from Evelyn Underhill’s ‘The Spiritual Life’ as articulated by the Anglican vicar Lumsden Barkway: 6

Mysticism then is not an opinion; it is not a philosophy. It has nothing in common with the pursuit of occult knowledge. It is not merely the power of contemplating Eternity ... It is the name of that organic process which involves the perfect consummation of the Love of God: the achievement here and now of the immortal heritage of man. Or, if you like it better - for this means exactly the same thing - it is the art of establishing a conscious relation with the Absolute.

…we have to try to understand what is happening to mystics during their ‘Union with God’. During such events, a mystic will have potentially two distinct experiences. Firstly, they may communicate directly with higher level spirits. The existence of such beings and their impact on humanity has been documented from the earliest times. The English pathologist, Anglican priest and spiritual director Martin Israel states that: 7

The angelic hierarchy, an object of derision among materialists, is real enough to those with powers of seership - and the angels are very different from the winged creatures depicted in popular paintings.

And using the beliefs of Dionysius, Bede Griffiths, a 20 th century British-born Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India, wrote that: 8

On the other hand, this infinite Beyond is manifesting in the whole creation and particularly, for Dionysius, it is manifested in the celestial hierarchies, the hierarchies of the angels. So again we have this understanding that from the absolute, infinite One there comes forth, through the Word, this spiritual creation, the world of angels. Dionysius speaks of nine orders of angels. This concept of the angelic hierarchy is based on biblical tradition but it indicates an awareness of a cosmic order representing different levels of consciousness above the human.

Many others have postulated a similar type of angelic hierarchy. The regression psychotherapist Brian Weiss, based on his own experience, wondered about: 9

…the hierarchy of spirits, about who became a guardian and who a Master, and about those who were neither, just learning. There must be gradations based on wisdom and knowledge, with the ultimate goal that of becoming God-like and approaching, perhaps merging somehow, with God. This was the goal that mystic theologians had described in ecstatic terms over the centuries.

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Raynor Johnson, an English physicist and author who became increasingly interested in "the esoteric" and became connected with the Society for Psychical Research in London, also believed that it was probable that: 10

…this galaxy or world-system, of which our sun is but one star, is governed by a vast hierarchy of such beings - a truly Divine Society at the apex of which, primus inter pares, is One whom we may properly and naturally call God.

It is worth noting that there have been many attempts, by more esoteric writers both ancient and modern, to identify and describe the various levels and planes. These views of the structure of the Spirit World seem to be completely baffling, inconsistent and arguably unhelpful. So accept that they exist but don’t try to understand the mechanisms or detailed structure of the hierarchy.

There is a possible additional explanation which may also apply. That is, whilst we can connect to other spirit beings, it is possible that we can connect to another part of our own soul. Apparently, only part of our soul incarnates at any one time, leaving some to remain in the Spirit World. White Eagle, another great teacher from the world of the Spirit asked us to: 11

Conceive first then the soul of man, not as you know it in the personality of everyday life, but as something far greater, which dwells in the heaven world and is an aggregate of all experience of past incarnations. Personal man represents only a small part of the greater soul which dwells in a higher state of consciousness, although the personality can live in greater or lesser degree in touch with that greater soul, and can draw from it if it will.

Secondly, the mystics may, through their ability to raise their vibrations, reach out and ‘touch’ one of the many planes of the Spirit World. This was indirectly referenced by the teaching spirit White Eagle when he informed us that: 12

You may be a healer, a teacher, a musician, a writer, an artist: whatever your contribution to humanity, as you strive to attune yourself to the invisible planes so you will be used as a channel or a medium for the wise ones in the world beyond.

A similar thought was also expressed by the healer Harry Edwards. When he prepared himself for healing, he made sure that he was tuned in to the Spirit World in general, he raised his vibrations accordingly to meet that environment: 13

My colleagues and I never seek attunement with any particular healing guide. We know they are present, so we attune to the spirit realm.

The fact that there is some form of link between the earth plane and some of the spirit planes has been well recorded throughout recorded history and more so during the last 150 years due to the rise in the Spiritualist movement. There is also, as indicated by Simeon The New Theologian and recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’, a link between one sphere in the Spirit World and the next: 14

…the Divine Light penetrates from the first hierarchy to the second, from the

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second to the third and so on to them all…

We need to try to understand the impact, on any one soul walking the mystical way, of experiencing this link. It is not a direct link to God nor is it a psychic link which is all about one spirit communicating to another, as is the practice of earthly mediums. When I first experienced it – a connection to the spirit realm and not to one particular spirit, I felt that, for an instant, I knew everything and yet after that moment had passed, I could not recall what I knew. It was a link between my energy and that of the Spirit World. It is an awe inspiring sensation that fills the heart with joy and gratitude. Jacob Boehme, a renowned mystic born near to Dresden in Germany in 1575, referred to this as: 15

True knowing is the revelation of the Spirit of God...

Another reference to such knowing was recorded by the medium Marie Cherrie who described a communication from the deceased Maurice Barbanell, who when on earth was the trance medium and channel used by the spirit communicator Silver Birch. In it Maurice revealed that: 16

There are periods here which my friend and I, and others, have experienced in this world where for a moment we get a glimpse, and everything fits into place and we feel we know everything at that point and then it is gone. That is so much stronger over here and lasts, and it feels longer...

…and from Evelyn Underhill’s great tome ‘Mysticism’ we find that mystics: 17

Instead of sharply perceiving the fragment, we apprehend, yet how we know not, the solemn presence of the whole.

I believe that this only occurs when a soul at one level touches the level above that which they have spiritually attained. This can happen during deep contemplation or it can happen during other activities and when least expected. With this ‘knowing’ comes many different extreme emotional feelings; love, warmth, peace, and happiness being only four I can instantly recall. As with most mystic events, the totality is difficult to describe. F C Happold, a schoolmaster and mystic, tried to capture it by stating that the mystics’ objective: 18

…was to break through the world of history and time into that of eternity and timelessness.

Henry Thomas Hamblin, born into poverty in Victorian London and yet rose to be a well known mystic, put it in a similarly imprecise way: 19

All mystics down the ages, all the modern mystics tell the same story. Dwell deep, go within, seek with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and you will not be disappointed. Strong, sure and silent is That Something which declares Itself to the true seeker.

It is in these times of total communion with the Spirit world that the mystics gain their inspirations and experiences or, as others would say, become ecstatic. They do so to such an extent that drove the English Anglican priest Peter Spink to propose: 20

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…as a definition of the mystical path 'experiential wisdom'…

This means that the knowledge gained is from experience and not from others and second hand through reading, education, and social interaction. Similarly to Peter, John Blofeld, a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, created his own perspective and described it as: 21

…all that pertains to the search for intuitive experiences inaccessible to ordinary understanding and to the merging of one's being into something so exalted, so vast as to be beyond all human conceptions of divinity.

This comment was made because he truly believed that: 22

Unfortunately, almost everything pertaining to mysticism lies beyond definition and description.

Nevertheless, in each century, there have been many mystics who have been so moved by the materialism of the times in which they live, that they have tried to express their experiences so that others may be guided towards the Light. What we do have to realise is that the environmental context in which they live did colour their descriptions. Dr Rufus M Jones in his book 'Studies in Mystical Religion' (pg xxxiv), so W. H. Dyson recorded, articulated it in this way: 23

The actual mystical views of any given period, the symbolism through which these inward experiences are expressed, the 'revelations' which come to mystical prophets, all bear the mark and colour of their particular age. There are no 'pure experiences', i.e. no experiences which come wholly from beyond the person who has them .

This should not deter us from reading and trying to understand the essence of what the mystics are telling us; we can be guided by them. In order to use their teachings, we must use our ability to reason and our basic intellect to evaluate what the mystics are saying, and thereby be able to transpose what they suggest into the fabric of our own lives. No one can dictate what we ought to believe and neither should we accept blindly the teachings of others. This is where the strait-jacket which some religions impose on their followers is not very helpful for those wishing to follow the mystic way. Similarly, your belief system should be constructed from your own experiences and not those of others. This was a point made by White Eagle, the guide of the medium Grace Cooke: 24

Spiritual things can only be proven in a spiritual way; no-one can give you proof of reincarnation or of spiritual truth. Proof of reincarnation can only come to you through your own intuition, from your own experience.

This thought was expanded by Rosalind Heywood, a prominent British researcher in the field of psychical science, who believed that: 25

Those who have had these [mystical] experiences know, and those who have not had them cannot know, and, what is more, the latter are in no position to offer a useful explanation.

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…and from the spiritual healer and mystic Joel Goldsmith: 26

The spiritual life is an individual life.

This has always been the problem that mystics have encountered down the ages. Because people are unique and their Philosophy of Life is eventually based upon their own unique set of experiences, people don’t believe the mystics or if they do they don’t accept their advice. Reality is probably much worse than this, as I suspect that most people totally ignore their spirituality and the efforts of the mystics to bring us guidance. Evelyn Underhill, in her book ‘The School of Charity’ said: 27

That inarticulate aspiration, that "blind intent" as the mystics say, always reaching out to the deep fountains of eternal peace, is a factor of which we seldom think enough.

This is a great shame, particularly for those who are at science’s leading edge and who could well do with appropriate inspirations. There seems to be a great need for a fusion of the ‘art’ of mysticism and the ‘precision and consistency’ of science. Paul Davies, an English physicist working at Arizona State University, agreed with this view and suggested that: 28

If we [scientists] wish to progress beyond, we have to embrace a different concept of 'understanding' from that of rational explanation. Possibly the mystical path is a way to such an understanding.

If any scientists are reading this, then I must stress one important point. Taking the mystical route is not the same as developing your psychic abilities. I have said before that there is a world of difference between a psychic and a mystic. The ‘reason d’être’ of most psychic mediums is to demonstrate that there is a Spirit world and that when we ‘die’ we pass to another existence from where we can communicate through those sensitives to others still living on the Earth. A mystic has no such aspirations even though most of them are also psychic and have an explicit link to the higher spirits from whom they gain inspiration. This is summarised by White Eagle, who said: 29

The mystical path is that of the heart, and the occult that of the head.

Although the head, that is knowledge, intellect and reason, are subservient to the heart, that is intuition and mystical experiences, they are vital to the understanding of any received inspirations. How can you assess the value, make sense of what you receive intuitively, and use to build your life, if you have not the grounding in spiritual knowledge. Many books on the mystical aspects of development, such as the Tao Te Ching suggest that intellect is bad for the mystic to possess. This is where context is important; perhaps this was true in the distant past, but today, in the difficult climate of excessive materialism and global debate, the mystic must be able to assess all those factors which can influence his or her life – especially the spiritual elements. The mystic needs to balance the spiritual and material. For the mystics of old whose lives were very austere, as a sentence or two from 'The Three Renunciations' of St John Cassian, a Christian theologian known both as one of the "Scythian monks" and as one of the "Desert Fathers", will demonstrate: 30

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The first renunciation is to do with the body. We come to despise all the riches and goods of this world. With the second renunciation we repent our past, our vices, and the passions governing spirit and flesh. And in the third renunciation we draw our spirit away from here and the visible and we do so in order solely to contemplate the things of the future. Our passion is for the unseen...

Other than fleeing from the world, as many ancient mystics did, it is difficult to see how anyone can achieve these objectives. However, I do not believe it is through trying to sever our connections with our human heritage that a modern mystic can develop. It is through making sure that the allure of materialism and personal desires are set in their right context and proportion relative to our spiritual goal. We can be, as the saying goes ‘in the world but not of the world’. In this way we can balance the material responsibilities that we have to our family, friends and community with those of our spiritual calling.

There are other implications which stem from this changing approach to life and eternity. The mystic will do all he can, in the best way possible to help and support a fellow traveller. This is not unique to mystics, yet that which is special is the way they approach the outcomes of actions as indicated by St. John of the Cross: 31

This truth is that the will must never rejoice save only in that which is to the honour and glory of God; and that the greatest honour we can show to Him is that of serving Him according to evangelical perfection; and anything that has naught to do with this is of no value and profit to man.

From this the mystic can build a very simplified Philosophy of Life. On this point Evelyn Underhill said that mysticism: 32

…is no isolated vision, no fugitive glimpse of reality, but a complete system of life carrying its own guarantees and obligations. As other men are immersed in and react to natural or intellectual life, so the mystic is immersed in and reacts to spiritual life.

…and the early Sufi’s, too, according to Margaret Smith, understood that ‘union is life’ and the goals of both are the same: 33

This primitive Sufism was based on the assumption that devout practice would procure spiritual graces for the soul; it was therefore a Way of life, a journey to God, and all the asceticism of the Sufis was but a means to their end, the attainment of communion, nay, even of Union, with Him.

If we do all this, in principle mysticism, even though it is not easy, is not complicated as Evelyn Underhill recognised: 34

The great mystics, creators and inventors who have found a new form of life and have justified it ... join, upon the highest summits of the human spirit, the great simplifiers of the world.

Just to give concrete examples of these ‘great mystics’ I take a slice out of William Houff’s book ‘Infinity in Your Hand’. This American Unitarian minister wrote: 35

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Obviously there is an element of presumption and chance in declaring who is a mystic and who is not. And yet, in the name of making explicit what it means to progress on the mystical paths, let me suggest the names of some well known persons who were probably well along. I think of Thomas Merton, the Cistercian monk who wrote so many books on spiritual living. I think of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the East Indian who, in his eighties, attracted large crowds to his lectures. I think of Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations, and of U Thant, his successor. Certainly, Martin Luther King, jr., and Albert Schweitzer, Mahatma Ghandi, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta come to mind. So do Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, Evelyn Underhill, who wrote what is still the fundamental book on mysticism, and Saint Therese of Lisieux, a French nun at the turn of the century who led such an exemplary life of service that she was elevated to sainthood shortly after her death. I also have a growing conviction that all truly creative people are mystics. As examples I offer the authentic pioneers of modern physics: Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli. In other fields there are Carl Jung, T. S. Eliot, Simone Weil, and Doris Lessing. For every mystic who has somehow captured the world's attention, there is a multitude of unknown persons who, through the practice of spiritual disciplines and the living of lives useful to others, are also authentic mystics.

And he broadly suggested that a mystic is: 36

...a person who is serious about coming into harmony with the cosmic whole.

In fact I could summarise it all by describing a mystic as an individual who lives to give ‘Service through God which provides knowledge and experience for their benefit to serve humanity’.

…and perhaps go along with William Johnston’s description of mysticism which ought to be recognised as: 37

...an autonomous and unique science with psychological, physiological and neurological dimensions - but with a deeply religious core that is not determined by other disciplines.

Finally, just bear in mind the opinion of mystics given by Evelyn Underhill in ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’: 38

The land they see, and which they report to us, is the land towards which humanity is going. They are like the look-outs upon the cross-trees, assuring us from time to time that we are still on our course.

…and Evelyn’s view, extracted from ‘Mysticism’, of the importance of the mystics to each of us: 39

Hence, they should claim from us the same attention that we give to other explorers of countries in which we are not competent to adventure ourselves; for the mystics are the pioneers of the spiritual world, and we have no right to deny validity to their discoveries, merely because we lack the opportunity or the courage necessary to

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those who would prosecute such explorations for themselves.

...and, she confirmed that not only is materialism put in the right context but so is the person’s ‘self’ or ego: 40

In mystics none of the self is always dormant. They have roused the Dweller in the Innermost from its slumbers, and round it have unified their life. Heart, Reason, Will are there in full action, drawing their incentive not from the shadow-show of sense, but from the deeps of true Being; where a lamp is lit, and a consciousness awake, of which the sleepy crowd remains oblivious. He who says the mystic is but half a man, states the exact opposite of the truth.

And what a great shame that over the millennia the world has had so few mystics or at least that each of us develop some sense of the Mystic Way. Even if each of us only takes a small step along this pathway, the world would be a far better place. This point was made by William Johnston in his book ‘Silent Music’ which was referred to by Michael McLean, an Honorary Canon of Norwich Cathedral, in the introduction to Robert Llewelyn’s book ‘Julian - Woman of our Day’: 41

...the greatest problem of the world today is not air-pollution, nor population- explosion, nor sexual revolution, nor cultural change. The greatest problem ... Is our lack of mysticism.

You and I can change that...

Addendum: Recognising, therefore, that I believe that ‘Union with God’ is a combination of a communion with higher spirits and reaching, by the mystic, towards the spheres in which these spirits reside, then please bear this in mind when reading the rest of this book.

1 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter I: The Characters of Spiritual Life, (Pg 28 / 29) 2 https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=earth+population 3 http://personalityspirituality.net/2012/02/29/reincarnation-and-world-population-do-the-numbers-add-up/ 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_analog 5 Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud Speaks, Tudor Press, 1992. Chapter Nineteen: Questions and Answers, (Pg 91) 6 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: II Saints and Mystics, the exponents of Love: Mysticism (Mysticism), (Pg 118) 7 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 13: The psychic faculty and the spiritual path, (Pg 101) 8 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 11 Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism, (Pg 244) 9 Brian Leslie Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Judy Piatkus, 2002. Chapter Eleven, (Pg 161)

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10 Raynor Carey Johnson, Nurslings of Immortality, Pelegrin Trust, 1993. Chapter 7 -The Nature of God - Finite Gods: Divine Societies, (Pg 173) 11 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. VII: The Mind in the Heart, and the Awoken Memory of Reincarnation – The Greater Self, (Pg 103 / 104) 12 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. IV: Wisdom from Beyond the Veil, (Pg 50) 13 Harry Edwards, Spirit Healing, The Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary, 1978. Part One: Spirit Healing - Chapter Five - The Healing Gift, (Pg 44) 14 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - Practical and Theological Precepts: 157, (Pg 135) 15 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fifth Treatise on the New Birth that is (1622) Chapter Seven, (para 13) 16 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part II: Twenty-Four - 4th June 1986, (Pg 153) 17 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 330) 18 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 2. The Perennial Philosophy, (Pg 18) 19 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Forward, (Pg ii) 20 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 4: The Awakened Heart, (Pg 48) 21 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Preface, (Pg 12) 22 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 1 - The Wish-fulfilling Gem, (Pg 18) 23 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter II - Have the mystics a message for us? (Pg 24) 24 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - VI: The Purpose of the Intuition, (Pg 57) 25 Rosalind Heywood, The Sixth Sense, Chatto & Windus, 1959. Chapter XVIII - The Future, (Pg 180) 26 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FOUR - The Esoteric Meaning of the Easter Week, (Pg 68) 27 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part III - Chapter IX - The World to Come, (Pg 107) 28 Paul Davies, The Mind of God, Penguin Books, 1992. Chapter 9: The Mystery at the End of the Universe - What is Man? (Pg 231 / 232) 29 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - V: The Nature of the Intuition, (Pg 43) 30 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 6 Early Christian Mysticism: Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian, (Pg 96) 31 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter XVII, (Pg 262) 32 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 76) 33 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 169) 34 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter III - Mysticism and Psychology, (Pg 62) 35 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 12: Better Living through Mysticism - After letting go of the banana, (Pg 133 / 134) 36 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 12: Better Living through Mysticism - After letting go of the banana, (Pg 133) 37 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part I: Meditation. 2. The new science, (Pg 29) 38 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 58) 39 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter I - The Point of Departure, (Pg 4) 40 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter III - Mysticism and Psychology, (Pg 63) 41 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Introduction by Michael McLean, (Pg 4)

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20.2: Mysticism - Goal of the Mystics

The ultimate ideal is this mystical union with God. 1

This was Rabbi and theologian Dan Cohn-Sherbok’s view of mysticism; it summaries what most believe to be its ‘reason d’être’. And he stressed the point, writing: 2

The highest rank attainable to the soul is mystical cleaving to God (devekut): this is the goal of the mystic way.

Therefore, when you can say, as did the mystic Joel Goldsmith, that: 3

...I and the Father are one.

Then you will have climbed the spiritual mountain and, where the monk and mystic Bede Griffiths’ description comes into play, you will realise: 4

…that is the ultimate goal of life, to reach that total unity where we experience the whole creation and the whole of humanity reintegrated in the supreme consciousness, in the One, which is pure being, pure knowledge, and pure bliss, 'saccidananda'.

In order to reach this goal, the mystic realises the importance of the eternal relative to the transitory physical world and because of that, become a bridge between those worlds as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, an Indian philosopher and statesman, explored: 5

William James, in his ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’, writes: "The overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystic tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime and creed. In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we have the same recurring note, so that there is about mystical utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that the mystic classics have, as has been said, neither birthday nor native land. Perpetually telling of the unity of man and God, their speech antedates language, nor do they grow old' The immanence of God, the revelation of the meaning and mystery of life in the soul of man, is the substance of the mystic testimony.

…and it comes from every mystic. Of the mystic saints of the Middle Ages, spanning the 1000 years between the 5 th and the 15 th centuries, Morton Kelsey, the author of over 40 spiritually oriented books, realised that these spiritual giants: 6

...were convinced that the main goal of the human soul was a blissful union with God.

And Margaret Smith recalled the supplication of the 8th century Sufi Rabi'a: 7

My hope is for union with Thee, for that is the goal of my desire.

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In addition, Reza Aslan, an acclaimed spiritual writer, said, of all Sufis, that they: 8

…strive to eliminate the dichotomy between subject and object in their worship. The goal is to create an inseparable union between the individual and the Divine.

It is the final frontier for those living an aesthetic life on earth. In the early days of Christianity and in ‘The Gospel of Philip’ is recorded the effect of union with God: 9

If you become one with he who dwells above, saints in heaven will kneel down before you.

I’ll give three other statements which drive this message home. First from Henry Thomas Hamblin, then a few words by Aldous Huxley and finally from F C Happold’s book ‘Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology’:

The Kingdom of God, or Heaven, is Divine Union, nothing less . 10

...man's final end is the unitive knowledge of the Godhead . 11

The Unitive Life, or, to use Ruysbroeck's perhaps better term, the Superessential Life, is nothing less than the final triumph of the spirit, the attainment of a complete and permanent synthesis and recollection between the 'within' and the 'without' . 12

The ascetic life, which means giving up the so-called pleasures of the material life, was believed by many of the early Christians to be the only way to achieve union with God. This continued throughout the middle-ages and was typified, according to Kathleen Pond, by the writings of the Spanish Franciscan mystic Francisco de Osuna. He believed that the saints: 13

...desire only an eternal dwelling place and love nothing of this world, such people enjoy great peace of soul.

This type of extreme existence, according to Margaret Smith, represented: 14

...the practical Way to be trodden by those who sought the mystical knowledge which should lead them to the Vision of God, and the life in unison with Him, which is the goal of all mysticism.

The difficulty with the way many of the Western mystics lived their lives – in isolation and distant from everyone else – is that it divorced them completely from humanity. The real effective mystics (St Francis of Assisi, for example) combined their union with God with their work for those around them and their environment. In fact, as Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh noted in ‘The Path’, the 2500 years old teachings of Lao Tzu indicated that: 15

...not only are mystical enlightenment and our everyday lives related, but that by separating them, we have fundamentally misunderstood both.

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Additionally, in our current society the use of the term ‘mystic’ has for pure commercial and material reasons become tainted and misused. It has become linked and often associated with another distorted term; ‘psychic’. This distortion of the use of terms was a point made by Father Andrew in one of his many letter. He, too, believed that: 16

...the words 'mysticism' and 'meditation' have become rather like it [the word Mesopotamia] and really we could do very well without them. Mysticism meant to the genuine mystics the simple, direct approach of the soul to God...

If you look into the lives of those who we know have achieved this spiritual status then you will see something different from the run-of-the-mill spiritual person. You will be able to detect an ‘other-worldliness’, not that they are aloof or distant with outward shows of piety, but that they exude spirituality without pomp and without self-importance. The translator Susanna Winkworth has shown that Meister Eckhart continuously aimed for this to which all else was subordinate and eventually he: 17

…was the perfect repose of a spirit in absolute union with God, and dwelling in a region far above the clouds and tempests of this changeful, barren life of sense.

This is not something that is a unique opportunity to one or two people. It is offered to the whole of humankind, as the author, scholar, and spiritual director Andrew Harvey recognised: 18

...the complete divine madness, which is to be in unity with everything that lives and dies, that has ever lived or died. That is the supreme experience and that is what is being offered to humankind.

In fact, the young French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist Simone Weil whose short life ended in 1943 in Kent, believed that: 19

Man has the right to desire direct union with God alone.

I accept that starting on the mystical journey and reaching its end is a long and tortuous road. Any one mystic will be at some point along this pathway – some will have travelled far, others will have only just taken the first faltering steps. The aim of all however, is that organic process which Evelyn Underhill talks about: 20

…which involves the perfect consummation of the Love of God: the achievement here and now of the immortal heritage of man. Or, if you like it better - for this means exactly the same thing - it is the art of establishing his conscious relation with the Absolute.

…and, to stress even further that the path of the mystic is not an easy path to travel, the WWI veteran and mystic Frederick Happold understood that: 21

The goal of the Mystic Way is not, however, to rest lazily in a mass of pleasant sensations. The true mystic is not like a cat basking in the sun, but like a mountaineer.

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This goal of which we speak appears not as an instantaneous event but more it grows on the budding mystic and this growth eventually will lead to ecstatic experiences as the mystic penetrates deeper and deeper as the Jesuit theologian William Johnston described: 22

The undifferentiated consciousness represented by the circle is a fact of experience. No use denying it. As the human mind penetrates more deeply into reality, it becomes increasingly aware of unity. It comes to perceive that everything is one. And, at the same time, it knows that everything is not one. This is the great paradox of mysticism East and West.

So the ultimate goal of mysticism is Union with God or using the words of Martin Israel: 23

Mysticism at its peak is that union with the Divine.

And we all ought to try to attain this position. The reason being as expressed by Jim Elliot in Ben Patterson’s book ‘Waiting’: 24

He is no fool who will give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Finally, I’d like to extend this to cover every created element or as the spirit communicating through Dion Fortune said: 25

This is the goal of the evolution of every reflected atom in a universe ... to complete the evolution from the human to the Divine...

If you have read the preceding chapter, you will know that I believe that this union with ‘God’ is a combination of a communion with a higher Spirit and reaching, by the mystic, the spheres in which these spirits reside. Please bear this in mind for all the references in this book to ‘Union with God’.

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1 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 6 Early Christian Mysticism: Origen, (Pg 90) 2 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Introduction, (Pg 5) 3 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FOUR - The Esoteric Meaning of the Easter Week, (Pg 61) 4 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 2 The New Psychology and the Evolution of Consciousness, (Pg 56) 5 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter III : Religious Experience and its Affirmations - 6. God and self, (Pg 83) 6 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 12. Silence Mysticism and Religious Experience, (Pg 135) 7 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter X - Some Early Sufi Mystics, (Pg 224) 8 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way: (Pg 211) 9 Alan Jacobs, The Gnostic Gospels, Watkins Publishing, 2006. The Gospel of Philip, (Pg 113) 10 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XVI - The Way of Life I, (Pg 77) 11 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VIII: Religion and Temperament, (Pg 154) 12 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 20. The Unitive Life, (Pg 94) 13 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Francisco de Osuna - Of the Three Manners of Silence, (Pg 42) 14 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter II - Early Christian Asceticism, (Pg 33) 15 Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, The Path, Viking, 2016. 5: On Influence: Laozi and Generating Worlds, (Pg 94) 16 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Part II: Letters: To Spiritual Children (Various): To Miss H. November 10th. (Pg 210) 17 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Introductory Notice respecting Tauler's Life and Times by the translator: (Pg 105) 18 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 3 - Drying, Blossoming, (Pg 100) 19 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 135) 20 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact:Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 81) 21 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 21. The Lesser Mystic Way: The Mysticism of Action, (Pg 101) 22 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 7: Return to the market-place, (Pg 82) 23 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 14: Freedom and the will, (Pg 113) 24 Ben Patterson, Waiting, Intervarsity Press, 1989. Chapter Six: The Road Less Travelled, (Pg 95) 25 Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine, Helios Book Service, 1966. Chapter XIV: The Evolution of a Planetary Being, (Pg 69)

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20.3: Mysticism – The Pull of the Divine

God needs YOU.

You were created for a purpose which is to transform God. There are not many instances that I have found where mystics subscribe to this view. However Teilhard de Chardin, the 20 th century French born philosopher and Jesuit priest, hinted at it: 1

As a direct consequence of the unitive process by which God is revealed to us, he in some way 'transforms Himself' as he incorporates us.

Let me give you a very crude analogy. Consider the Pacific Ocean; it is vast, unfathomable and has a specific composition. If you wanted to reduce its salinity then by adding, drop by drop, water that contains less salt, you will, over time, change its make-up to something a little more pure. Compare the Pacific Ocean to God and each drop to each soul which has been tempered in the fire of many lives and situations. In this way by absorbing each totally developed soul, the energy that we know as God can be transformed. This is why God needs you; but how can this be achieved wondered the 13 th century Christian nun and mystic Angela of Foligno: 2

He does not draw me with anything that even the world's wisest person might be able to name or conceive of.

I believe that I can provide a sort of answer to her question. There are two aspects.

Firstly, deep within each one of us is the’ Spark in the Soul’ or ‘The Spark of God’; that essence of God from which each of us emanates. Although we may not realise it, this is the pearl of great price that draws us towards our spiritual destiny. In the ‘Way of Paradox’ the Benedictine monk Cyprian Smith, in recounting the spiritual life of Meister Eckhart, wrote that: 3

We are animals, begotten in a bed, and subject to all sorts of primitive and atavistic instincts, yet we have within us a spark of heavenly nature, and we are destined for union with God, the Ultimate Absolute.

The spirit communicator who channelled his teachings through Beatrice Russell also believed that this ‘spark’ is the stimulus for our spiritual development: In her book ‘Beyond the Veils through Meditation’ was written: 4

The Divine in Man will stretch out to the Divine Source and mingle with it.

…and the rabbi and Jewish theologian Dan Cohn-Sherbok confirmed that the absolute goal of the mystic is to: 5

…ascend the ladder of emanations to unite with Divine Thought.

John of the Cross who was a major 16 th century figure of the Catholic Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Carmelite friar and priest, used different words to describe a similar operation: 6

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Hence it comes to pass that the operations of the soul in union are of the Divine Spirit and are Divine.

The second way that God draws us spiritually upward is through the effect of his spirit agents; our guides and helpers. They have been tasked with supporting our spiritual, and possibly our material, progress using various means with the exception of compulsion. Our choices, be they good or bad, are sacrosanct.

I can compare these two methods to the first being the gentle gravitational pull which the earth has on, say, the moon, whereas the second is a much more local and noticeable attraction such as a magnet on a piece of iron. Thus, when a mystic talks of being ‘drawn by God’ you will appreciate what I take it to mean.

These two effects, I believe, contribute to the mystical view that we are drawn towards our Creator or as Hugh Martin recognised in the ‘Confessions’ of St. Augustine: 7

To most saints and mystics the religious life is a toilsome search for God. To Augustine God was seeker rather than sought.

…and this is our heritage; our destiny as the spiritual author Evelyn Underhill described in the introduction to her book ‘The Mystery of Sacrifice‘: 8

The unifying of body and soul, matter and spirit, by its redemption from egotism and total consecration to the purposes of God, is the special call and destiny of man.

In corroboration with this, the scholar Andrew Harvey declared that: 9

There is only one real task before any of us, which is to go towards this union with God so that the Divine Power can be real in us and so can help.

This means, as the spiritual director Père De Caussade realised, that we should all explore every avenue which we believe will bring us closer to the Divine: 10

Whereas when souls live in God, they must explore carefully and scrupulously every means they can find which may lead them to their union with Him. All their paths are clearly marked – their reading, values and ideas. Their Guide is by their side...

The process of communion with God is one which many believe to be a gift; a treasure which is bestowed upon us. Thomas Merton articulated this as: 11

If there is one thing we must do it is this: we must realise to the very depths of our being that this [union with God] is a pure gift of God which no desire, no effort and no heroism of ours can do anything to deserve or obtain.

It is God pulling us towards union rather than our own personal efforts and aspirations. St. Augustine, summarised by Margaret Smith, stated that: 12

In its journey along the way the soul has not to depend on its own strength, for it is

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from God that it derived that nature…

Further in the same book, Margaret, when she considered asceticism and mysticism in Orthodox Islam, explained that: 13

...yet man is set apart from the other creatures in being capable of receiving Divine revelation, and the Qur'an does given some indication of the possibility of a mystical union. There are some among mankind "who have near access to God" [Qur'an, chapter 3, verse 40] ,"God will guide to himself the one who turneth to him...” [Qur'an, chapter 13, verse 27,28]

Moving further East, John Blofeld, who wrote extensively on Taoism and Buddhism, explained that: 14

It is Buddha's compassion, not our own merits, that draws us there [towards union]

Union is only attainable with God’s stimulus was described well by Teresa of Avila when she said that Union with God: 15

…is a supernatural state, and, however hard we try, we cannot reach it for ourselves; for it is a state in which the soul enters into peace, or rather in which the Lord gives it peace through His presence ... In this state all the faculties are stilled. The soul, in a way which has nothing to do with the outward senses, realises that it is now very close to its God, and that, if it were but a little closer, it would become one with Him through union.

This does not mean that we just sit back and let it all happen to us. We have our part to play which is generally to spiritually develop as best we can. In one of his many letters the 18 th century French Jesuit priest Père Jean Pierre Caussade, so we are informed by Richard Whitwell, recognised that our efforts are important: 16

Let man fulfil his part, and God will do the rest. Grace, working by itself, effects marvels which surpass the intelligence of man. For as St Paul has written 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him', and which God executes by His power in souls wholly abandoned to Him.

Remember that this development is not just in studies and learning, but in experiential contemplation, meditation and prayer. In the 3 rd century Plotinus in his metaphysical writings, as noted by Evelyn Underhill, believed that the intellect is subservient to spiritual experience: 17

Plotinus the ecstatic is sure ... that the union with God is a union of hearts: that "by love He may be gotten and holden, but by thought never."

Therefore, with God’s agents by your side, you will be cared for - not molly-coddled - and supported on your road to enlightenment. St John of the Cross stated as much when he used the mother – child relationship as an analogy: 18

It must be known, then, that the soul, after it has been definitely converted to the

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service of God, is, as a rule, spiritually nurtured and caressed by God, even as is the tender child by its loving mother...

So that through this magnetic attraction to the spiritual we move closer and closer to our spiritual objective which, as declared by Margaret Smith: 19

…for union is the end of the quest.

…and in very simple terms as used by the 12 th century French abbot St. Bernard of Clairvaux: 20

...closer to God that it is better described as unity of spirit.

Meister Eckhart, too, was awestruck by union with God: 21

What a wonderful receptivity it is when the being of the soul can endure nothing but the pure unity of God.

Is there more? What comes after ‘Union with God’? As something to think about Martin Israel teasingly offered: 22

The unitive experience occurs as a milestone on the spiritual path.

Contemplate on this and see what inspirations you receive.

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1 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - III The Christic, or the Centrict d. Towards the Discovery of God, or an Appeal to Him who Comes, (Pg 53) 2 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. The Memorial of Angela of Foligno - The Seventh Supplementary Step, (Pg 69) 3 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 6 - The Incarnate Word, (Pg 73) 4 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Higher Evolution for Mankind, (Pg 24) 5 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part I The Jewish Tradition - 2 Medieval Jewish Mysticism: The Emergence of Kabbalah, (Pg 37) 6 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter II, (Pg 230) 7 Hugh Martin, Great Christian Books, SCM Press, 1945. The Confessions of St Augustine, (Pg 23) 8 Evelyn Underhill, The Mystery of Sacrifice, Longmans, Green and Co, 1948. Introduction, (Pg xii) 9 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 7 - Apocalypse and Glory, (Pg 213) 10 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 2: How to Arrive at the State of Self-Surrender and How to Act Before Reaching It – God Living in Souls and Souls Living in God, (Pg 20) 11 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 21 - The Gift of Understanding, (Pg 149) 12 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 76) 13 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VII - Asceticism and Mysticism in Orthodox Islam, (Pg 144) 14 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 6 - The Path of Meditation, (Pg 115) 15 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XXXI, (Pg 127) 16 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter 1 - The overshadowing Love of God, (Pg 16/17) 17 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VIII - Ecstasy and Rapture, (Pg 373) 18 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Dark Night of the Soul: Book 1 - Chapter I, (Pg 350) 19 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 76) 20 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter II - Three stages of the Spiritual Life, (Pg 18) 21 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 28, (Pg 235) 22 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 118)

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20.4: Mysticism - Mystics Characteristics

People are unique. The sum total of each person’s characteristics, which have been developed by contact with their family, environment, education, inherent characteristics and spirituality, provide this distinctiveness. This means that every mystic is also unique and hence how they live their mystic way is like no other. Taking the thoughts of James Henry Leuba, an American psychologist best known for his contributions to the psychology of religion, Evelyn Underhill quoted him as writing: 1

If the great Christian mystics could by some miracle be all brought together in the same place, each in his habitual environment, there to live according to his manner, the world would soon perceive that they constitute one of the most amazing and profound variations of which the human race has yet been witness.

This makes it difficult to be definitive about what are the general characteristics of a mystic. Nevertheless, there are some pointers which may provide some perspective as to their make-up.

To start with, let me offer a very brief recap, using Margaret Smith’s analysis, of mysticism. She described it as: 2

Firstly, it maintains that the soul can see and perceive by a spiritual sense … Secondly, Mysticism maintains that the soul, in order to know God, must itself be a partaker of the Divine nature... Thirdly, Mysticism assumes that none can attain to a direct knowledge of God except by purification from self... Fourthly, Mysticism assumes that the guide and inspiration of the soul in its ascent to God is Love.

St Theophan the Recluse whose life centred on the Russian Orthodox Church, told us that Macarius the Great had a similar view: 3

When the soul aspires to the perfection of the Spirit, after it has been entirely cleansed of all passions, and, after it has arrived at unity and dissolution with the Comforting Spirit in ineffable communion and being comingled with the Spirit, then it will become completely light, all-seeing, completely joyful, completely calm, completely loving, completely merciful, completely filled with grace and goodness.

From the pen of Al Ghazzali, a Persian theologian who brought Sufism and Islam closer together, we are provided with an insight as to the qualities necessary for a mystic to possess. He recalls a conversation which between Hatim al-Asamm, the disciple of Shaqiq al-Balkhi, and his teacher in which: 4

...it is said that Shaqiq once asked Hatim how long he had been in his company. Hatim replied, "Thirty-three years." Shaqiq then said, "And what have you learnt during this period?" "Eight things," replaied Hatim. .. Shaqiq then said "Well, out with these things and let me hear them." [Which I summarise as] Charity, detachment, poverty, piety, give my love to everyone, take Satan as an enemy, entrusted my fate to God and trust in God...

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In these brief descriptions the ‘purification of self’ is an essential ingredient of mysticism and this lies at the heart of the spiritual journey made by each mystic. The implication is that the person following the path of mysticism must deliberately change many, if not all, of his or her traits and this is best achieved through living their Philosophy of Life. This leads to a development of their conscience which is the arbiter in all they think, say, and do. Baron Von Hügel, Evelyn Underhill’s mentor, understood the extent of the changes that need to be made by any mystic journeying towards God: 5

Aesthetic Sense alone conveys the full and direct intimation of the Beautiful; yet it nevertheless requires, for its healthy, balanced functioning, the adequate operation of numerous other energies and intimations, from the senses up to mental processes, in the man who apprehends the Beautiful.

This, then, will give us a way of judging our actions, reflecting on them and changing our behaviour to one of ‘more good’. Lumsden Barkway in his ‘An Anthology of the Love of God’ which took the writings of Evelyn Underhill as its base, wrote: 6

Though the end of mysticism is not adequately defined as goodness, it entails the acquirement of goodness.

As far back as the 13 th Century, this was the theme of part of the Italian medieval scholastic theologian and philosopher Bonaventure’s thesis: 7

See, therefore, how close the soul is to God, and how, through their activity, memory leads us to Eternity, intelligence to Truth, and the elective faculty to the highest Good.

This ‘goodness’ comes at a price. The budding mystics must be much disciplined in everything that they do according to Abbot Christopher Jamison: 8

...to have a real interior life, we must have discipline of the body that is not simply bodily.

Of all the properties that a person may have, love is the greatest. Love for humanity, all other created beings and everything that our Creator triggered. Love, it seems to me, is a sort of collective word which covers a whole raft of feelings, states, attitudes and actions. It incorporates, at least, goodness, kindness, charity, compassion, gratitude, friendship, forgiveness, empathy and humility. It is through expanding these qualities that we can get closer to our Divine nature, as was in evidence in the writings of the 16 th century Carmelite friar St John of the Cross: 9

…the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, nor through enjoyment, nor through the imagination, nor through any sense whatsoever; but only through faith, according to the understanding; and through hope, according to the memory; and through love, according to the will.

As our love develops and becomes stronger, it appears that our desire for more and more also expands, as Evelyn Underhill explained: 10

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The innate longing of the self for more life, more love, an ever greater and fuller experience, attains a complete realisation in the lofty mystical state called union with God

All major religions follow this route – the path of love. Margaret Smith tells us that often, as with the Sufis, it is seen as the final objective: 11

The final stages of the Sufi Way were Love and Gnosis, leading to the Vision of God, and the ultimate Goal of the quest, Union with the Divine.

In fact, it doesn’t matter what religion a mystic adheres to, this thread of love and God can be found. The English psychologist Robert H Thouless realised this fact and wrote: 12

It is perhaps more disturbing to have forced on our attention the fact that there appear to be saints in other religions than Christianity, and that when a religious mystic talks to God, it may be impossible to know whether the one talking is a Roman Catholic, a Quaker, a Moslem, a Hindu, or of the Jewish faith.

The one aspect of love which I believe to be probably the most important is humility; understanding your own place relative to others and respecting their views and beliefs. It also includes an acceptance of our own limitations. The 20 th century monk Thomas Merton argued that: 13

The cornerstone of all asceticism is humility...

…which was expanded by Evelyn Underhill when she stated that: 14

Real mystics are not selfish visionaries.

The 19 th century Indian mystic Swami Vivekananda, when writing about ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’, used a similar adjective to describe the budding mystic: 15

Therefore we have first of all to see that the man who declares himself to be Apta [one who has seen the Truth] is a perfectly unselfish and holy person; secondly, that he has reached beyond the senses...

The importance of humility to saints and mystics was stressed in the philosophy of Philotheus of Sinai as recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 16

All saints, from the beginning of creation to our times, have always clothed themselves in this last holy garment of God (that is in humility) ... Likewise the angels and all the Divine powers of light...

The implication being that all those who profess to walk the spiritual pathway, irrespective of level of progress in this life or the hereafter must possess true humility. Al Ghazzali within his ‘The Book of Knowledge’ used words from the Qur’an to emphasise his believe in humility: 17

Thus knowledge is not attained except through humility and harkening. God said,

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"Lo! Herein is warning for him who hath a heart or harkeneth with his ear while he himself is an eye witness." [Surah L: 36] By 'him who had a heart' is meant the person who is prepared and capable of understanding knowledge but would fail to do so unless he would open his ears and heart and would attentively, humbly, thankfully, gladly, and gratefully receive whatever he is told.

In looking at our own humility, we are comparing our view of ourselves with others and with God. It is with the latter comparison with the ineffable and omniscient Deity which should leave us with the realisation that we have a great spiritual distance to travel to achieve our mystical goal. The brilliant 17 th century French scientist Blaise Pascal, according to Dan Cohn-Sherbok, had this feeling of nothingness especially as a result of his mystical experiences: 18

This religious experience intensified Pascal's appreciation of God's mercy as well as his sense of human nothingness in the face of God's majesty.

Other qualities have been grouped with humility in describing the mystic way. In John Moorman’s book about Saint Francis of Assisi, based on research that he undertook in 1940, he wrote: 19

Poverty, together with humility and simplicity, opened the gate to that "closer walk with God" which is the chief end of man.

According to Gerald Bullett, in the 17 th century, Ralph Cudworth, one of Benjamin Whichcote’s successors, was moved to include humility in his description of the spiritual direction we should take: 20

The way to obtain a good assurance of our title to heaven is, not to clamber up to it by a ladder of our ungrounded persuasions, but to dig as low as hell by humility and self-denial in our own hearts. And though this may seem to be the farthest way about, yet it is indeed the nearest and safest way to it. We must, as the Greek epigram speaks, ascend downward and descend upward, if we would indeed come to heaven, or get any true persuasion of our title to it.

Another property not yet mentioned is that of tenderness which I would describe as being sensitive to others and our environment – maybe touching on empathy. These properties expand as the mystic pathway is trodden, as the 19 th century a French Catholic Carmelite nun Therese of Lisieux realised: 21

A heart given to God loses none of its natural tenderness; on the contrary, the more such tenderness increases, the more pure and divine it becomes.

It is a cycle of development which is true for all the characteristics when we seek to expand.

There are many actions that many past prophets and mystics have taken which they believe takes them closer to God but which I’m not sure are fundamentally necessary for spiritual progress. One such set of activities involve abuse of the physical body in which I include walking barefoot, wearing of sack-cloth and hair-shirts, self-flagellation in imitation of Jesus the Nazarene’s suffering, carrying of heavy loads and extreme fasting. On fasting

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Saint Namdev (1270 – 1350) wrote in one of his poems: 22

Namdev, the slave, hath realised through union with the Lord: Fasting on the eleventh day and going on pilgrimages are futile. ..

Nevertheless, particularly in today’s social climate, taking control of your physical body through tempering excess is important. The Muslim period of Ramadan is considered not to be a period of self-abasement but one of self-evaluation and spiritual growth. This is what fasting should be, and I’m sure that such was the reason for Christopher Jamison saying of Jesus the Nazarene that his: 23

…self-awareness through fasting was an essential background to this prayer and discernment.

There have been many views on the relationship of intellect and knowledge to spiritual prowess. According to the work of sinologist Arthur Waley, in the early records of the Tao Te Ching {pronounced Dao De Ching} comes the view that we should: 24

Banish wisdom, discard knowledge And the people will be benefited a hundredfold…

These first two lines of Chapter 19 seemed to hold sway for many years but there has been an under-swell in recent centuries that intellect and knowledge, used properly, can aid a mystic’s development. Of many of the prophets and mystics Martin Israel noticed that: 25

The great mystics of the world have all had first-class minds. Think of Buddha and Shankara in the Eastern tradition or St Paul, Plotinus, St. Augustine, Meister Eckhart, St John of the Cross, and Jakob Boehme in the West.

Perhaps we ought to take the view of the Persian Sufi and Islamic theologian Al Ghazzali, who believed that: 26

...he who first acquires versatility in tradition and learning and then turns to Sufism comes off well, he who takes to Sufism before learning exposes himself to danger.

Let me explain my view on this. During contemplation, meditation and prayer when our whole being becomes receptive to inspirations from the Spirit World, we need spiritual understanding and knowledge with a smattering of reasoning ability in order to be able to interpret properly what we are receiving. Thus the route to enhanced development is to continue the study and learning which we had before we realised our spiritual journey. Thus learning and development are necessary bedfellows – always, of course, giving priority to spiritual aspects.

Often associated with intellect comes artistic ability. Many of the revered mystical poets had renowned intellect. In this category I would include St John of the Cross, Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, Thomas Aquinas, Rabindranath Tagore, John Donne, and lastly but not least William Blake, of whom Osbert Burdett wrote: 27

That a mystic, to whom self-experience suffices, should have been an artist also is the surprising combination in Blake.

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All the characteristics which I have mentioned so far are those which we can strive to attain in order to become better mystics. However, there is a whole raft of consequential traits. That is, those feelings and sensitivities which come from our spiritual progress. The one which springs immediately to mind is joy or happiness. This seems to elude those who chase it through pleasure seeking but which come certainly to those who have achieved a level of mystical awareness. This was highlighted by the Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who revealed that: 28

…in the heart of asceticism there is a flame of spiritual joy …

Mystics, and those who have studied them, have associated joy and happiness with different aspects of mysticism. The over-arching joy is that which stems from achieving the mystics goal of ‘Union with God’ as Blair Reynolds identified in his treatise ‘Cosmos and History’: 29

Ecstatics, then, enjoy a direct, immediate awareness of the passive, receptive dimensions of God, and therefore experience themselves to be contained within the very being of God. Meister Eckhart (1260-circa 1328), one of the giants of German Medieval mysticism, although initially quite dualistic in his view of God, eventually overcame his classical heritage and affirmed that the highest joy of the soul is to experience itself as a life literally within God.

…and the mystic Teilhard de Chardin recalled that: 30

Originally we had fellowship with God in the simple common exercise of wills; but now we unite ourselves with him in the shared love of the end for which we are working; and the crowning marvel is that, with the possession of this end, we have the utter joy of discovering his presence once again.

Of course we would expect this. However, as we tread the mystic way we can strum the same happiness chords when we become aware of some realisation imparted to us which rings in our ears. Because this changes our world-view then we can agree with F C Happold who captured some of this and understood that: 31

...side by side with an existential perception of the Presence and Being of God, a joyous apprehension of the Absolute, there is found a new vision of the phenomenal world, which lights it up and makes it appear quite different, as if there had been an abnormal sharpening of the senses.

Many mystics, as they experience these shafts of spiritual light which illuminate their whole being are often led, through the joy of the moment, to try to document as best they can what they have experienced. As Evelyn Underhill put it: 32

It is in these descriptions of the joy of illumination - in the outpourings of love and rapture belonging to this state - that we find the most lyrical passages of mystical literature.

As each mystic is unique so too are their feelings and how they react to their own similarly unique mystical experiences. For some, the received feeling is one of ‘complete knowing’

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…life becomes simple and easy. Every moment is rich in happiness. All events are intelligible, if not in their details at least in their relation to the great wholeness of life.

…and this simplicity and feeling of utter happiness was described by Aldous Huxley: 34

Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you wake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father's palace; and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys...

Have you felt like this? As you wake up, oblivious of your worldly burdens, your heart swells with happiness at … everything. This does not come with a particular thought or idea but as an overwhelming sensation, as G K Chesterton recognised particularly in relation to Thomas Aquinas: 35

…and the Mystics can be represented as men who maintain that the final fruition or joy of the soul is rather a sensation than a thought.

These, often unsolicited feelings, bring immense happiness. In fact, all mystical experiences which come to us whether during contemplation or not, bring joy as a consequence. In ‘The Christian Agnostic’, the priest Leslie Weatherhead highlighted this phenomenon: 36

The mystical experiences of all sorts and conditions of men, from the "ordinary man" to the saint, seem to be shot through and through with joy.

…and Professor Ursula King recalled that for Teilhard de Chardin: 37

…the mystic is plunged into an 'ocean of energy' from which he draws 'undiluted joy'.

You would expect, therefore, that because of the intense joy that mystics feel, that they would have a sense of humour. According to Andrew Harvey this is not the case: 38

The thing I have against most mystics is their lack of humour.

I do not know what mystics he had met, but the one which I spent many years with had a great sense of humour and I would associate him more with the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge’s relationship of mystic to a clown: 39

The true function of humour is to express in terms of the grotesque the immense disparity between human aspiration and human performance. Mysticism expresses the same disparity in terms of the sublime. Hence the close connection between clowns and mystics; hence, too, the juxtaposition on the great medieval cathedrals of steeples reaching up into the Cloud of Unknowing, and the gargoyles grinning malevolently down at our dear earth and all its foolishness. Laughter and mystical ecstasy, that is to say, both derive from an awareness, in the one case hilarious, in

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the other ecstatic of how wide is the chasm between Time and Eternity, between us and our Creator. .. How wonderful it is, this marrying of the ribaldry of gargoyles with sublimity of steeples, this seeing of a saint in every clown and a clown in every saint…

Thus is the impact of being a mystic on their happiness. Another ability which may develop in the mystic is awareness of members of the Spirit World and other unseen beings as recognised by Peter Spink: 40

...extra-sensory perception may accompany the path of the mystic.

This talent emerges as a mystic’s spirituality increases. For some it is a natural adjunct to mystic development but it can also be a life changing diversion; a blind alley for those who get absorbed in the phenomena of spirit contact and not treat it as ‘just one of those benefits’. William Johnston in his book ‘Silent Music - The Science of Meditation’ recognised the cul-de-sac which unfolding clairvoyance and other sensitivities can bring: 41

It is well known that with growth in mysticism comes growth in human potential - greater insight, refined perception, intuitive power and even extrasensory perception. In all the great religious traditions, these powers, known in Sanskrit as siddhis are a by-product of the true mystical experience and must never be sought for themselves.

Provided we used this emerging sensitivity to continue to build our mystical life and to help us to serve humanity then all to the good. It is a characteristic which each individual has to learn about and use appropriately within the context of their unique life. This ability is latent in us all although, again using words from William Johnston, few are aware of it: 42

It goes without saying that we are here confronted with a psychic dimension which is of the utmost importance to the full understanding of man. A century ago some people were content to look on mystics like St. Teresa as oddballs; others preferred to think that they received special powers from God. Now I believe we can say that they were normal people, making use of faculties inherent in man though the majority of people are unaware of their existence. How little of our potentiality we use!

Referring again to William Blake, one of our greatest mystics, artists, and poets who, according to Osbert Burdett, believed that he was: 43

…a companion of angels. May you continue to be so more and more; and to be more and more persuaded that every mortal loss is an immortal gain. The ruins of time build mansions in eternity.

We must always be on our guard; fixing our focus on any one of the emerging properties that are developing within us, will lead us away from our true path. Whether this is over indulgence with clairvoyance or a fixation on the process of development doesn’t matter – the impact is the same, as Thomas Merton astutely realised: 44

Too many ascetics fail to become great saints precisely because their rules and ascetic practices have merely deadened their humanity instead of setting it free to

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develop richly, in all its capacities, under the influence of grace.

Appreciating the talents mystics acquire through their development, leads to one of the greatest associated characteristics that all mystics possess; freedom. This release takes many forms and probably the greatest of these is detachment or freedom from the constraints of the self. Father Andrew stressed this aspect in his book ‘In the Silence’: 45

Detachment is, of course, the negative side. Attachment to God is the positive side. The freedom of the will gives to man the power to love God through all and in spite of all, and in that love to find a union with Him which leads to perfect freedom.

Father Andrew also recognised that the mystic, in following the Way, will, through the very process of spiritual attainment, release himself or herself from the ties of the material world: 46

We can only enter into the full power of the supernatural life when the natural life has ceased to have any power over us at all. ... It is all for life: it is all for freedom.

I believe that this occurs because all those aspects of the material, physical life are considered to be unimportant relative to the spiritual side of life. This increases as we tread our mystic path as the 19 th century French priest and spiritual director Abbé Henri de Tourville realised: 47

...because we realise that the heavy mantle of the past, of all the things which no longer have any meaning for our minds, is slipping irrevocably away and leaving our souls free.

...and in looking at the life of ‘Saint Francis of Assisi’, John Moorman wrote: 48

...all hindrances are lifted from the soul, so that freely she may join herself to God eternal.

This is another way of stating that freedom stems from ‘Union with God’. This was expressed by Joel Goldsmith as: 49

...but let each one of us maintain his oneness with God. In such a way lies true freedom, true liberty, and the obligation each one has is to his Maker and not to any man.

Trying to convey a similar idea, Thomas Merton also used the word ‘Freedom’ as another name for God: 50

The mystic, that is to say the contemplative, not only sees and touches what is real, but beyond the surface of all that is actual, he attains communion with the Freedom Who is the source of all actuality.

I suppose that if our soul is a spark of God then if we were able to ‘be’ our soul then all of us would be god-like. As this is not possible, we have to develop our life in such a way as to represent what we feel our soul would like it to be. This notion was perhaps in the mind of Martin Israel when he wrote: 51

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What we would aspire to if we only had the wisdom to do so, would be to live under the direction of the soul, for its dominion is free and joyous.

Emptying themselves of the worldly ties, the mystics turn more and more to God and, through this, develop a trust in the Creator which overcomes all obstacles. In Susanna Winkworth’s translation of the ‘Theologia Germanica’ we become aware that such mystics are: 52

…in a state of freedom, because they have lost the fear of pain or hell, and the hope of reward or heaven, but are living in pure submission to the Eternal Goodness, in the perfect freedom of fervent love.

Knowing that all the mystics have gained freedom, we should not be hesitant in looking at their lives and learning from them. However, never replicate their actions directly without giving them due consideration relative to your own Philosophy of Life. Some mystics and saints have taken some actions which I would not support at all. Simone Weil underlined one and observed that: 53

There were some saints who approved of the Crusades or the Inquisition. I cannot help thinking that they were in the wrong.

Perhaps Simone was referring to the 14 th century Italian Dominican theologian Catherine of Siena.

For the most part, the mystics have documented their spiritual experiences as best they can, so that we can take guidance from them. Evelyn Underhill, looking at this aspect of mysticism, compared these pioneers to mountain climbers: 54

The mystics, expert mountaineers, go before him: and show him, if he cares to learn, the way to freedom, to reality, to peace. He cannot rise in this, his earthly existence, to the awful and solitary peak, veiled in the Cloud of Unknowing, where they meet that 'death of the summit' which is declared by them to be the gate of Perfect Life: but if he choose to profit by their explorations, he may find his level, his place within the Eternal Order. He may achieve freedom, live the 'independent spiritual life'. ..

Up to now, I have outlined the freedom which comes from mystical progress. It is worth noting that this is not the only freedom, which is very personal, that each person has or seeks. There is that independence which comes from lack of oppression and movement which many seek on behalf of others. Nicolas Berdyaev, a Russian philosopher, published ‘Towards a New Epoch’ in 1949 which expressed his views of the subject of Russian freedom: 55

It is not, however, for himself that he ought to seek for liberty. Liberty for oneself has been the common desire of all the tyrants of the world. Freedom must be sought for others, for our brothers, for our fellow human beings. It is not only a formal liberty which must be sought but a real liberty, and the path to it is piled high with obstacles. Liberty is indeed difficult!

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All types of freedom are difficult to acquire and the mystic’s path to spiritual freedom is no different. Alongside such liberty, peace automatically arrives. In fact, this feeling of harmony with life often comes as a consequence of mystical experiences. In one of Saint Namdev’s poems, Adi Granth, he associates peace with mystical union: 56

Whenever I see Him, I sing His praises, And then I, His slave, attain peace and bliss. On meeting my Master, I merge in Melody Divine...

St. Namdev offers the term ‘bliss’ to represent his attained feeling. Others, similarly impressed by Union, use the term ecstasy to describe that overpowering emotion of integration. Evelyn Underhill summarises the view of the mystics in this respect: 57

All mystics agree in regarding such ecstasy as an exceptionally favourable state; the one in which man's spirit is caught up to the most immediate union with the divine.

She went on to further remark: 58

Many a time has the romantic quality of the Unitive Life - its gaiety, freedom, assurance, and joy - broken out in 'French-like rejoicings'; which have a terribly frivolous sound for worldly ears, and seem the more preposterous as coming from people whose outward circumstances are of the most uncomfortable kind.

Certainly, knowing the austere living conditions of the early mystics, you would not expect such rejoicings. Most of us live in much more comfortable conditions and therefore perhaps we ought to experience even greater freedom, peace and contentment which we associate with union with God. Being contented derives directly from being a mystic and the link with our God’s agents thus Father Andrew remarked: 59

...the deep contentment of the soul that abides in union with the Source of all peace .

From this complete fulfilment and with communion with God, emerges a feeling of safety and of utter security. Ralph Waldo Trine understood this and wrote: 60

One who comes to this higher realisation never has any fear, for he has always with him a sense of protection, and the very realisation of this makes his protection complete.

And from the ‘Musings of a Chinese Mystic’ Chuang Tsu, as far back as the 4 th century BC, argued that in this situation the mystic will always be free from harm: 61

It is in God that the Sage seeks refuge, and so he is free from harm.

In order to try to explain this, Margaret Smith refers to the sayings of the early Sufis and, written by Asin Palacios in his ‘Logica et grapha’, among which is one which Jesus the Nazarene said: 62

Verily the friends of God fear nothing and grieve for nothing. For they look upon the inner reality of this world, while other men look upon its outward appearance.

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Also they look forward to the end of this world, while others look to the immediate present here. They destroy in it what they fear may destroy them and abandon what they know will abandon them. They are hostile to those things with which other men make peace, and bless the things which other men hate. They show the greatest admiration for the good deeds of others, while they themselves possess goods worthy of the greatest admiration. Among them knowledge is guidance, by which they themselves gain knowledge. They do not put faith except in that for which should be avoided.

During the difficult processes necessary in spiritual development, which involve willingly setting aside the pull of the material world and all its variations, a surprising consequence ensures. Not only does our spiritual aspect improve but so does our physical situations. This was recognised by Meister Eckhart who, according to Cyprian Smith, in one of his sermons suggested that mystical experience: 63

…also affects our outer life, even our physical life, which Eckhart calls the 'lower powers' meaning feeling, imagination, bodily senses, perhaps even bodily strength and vitality.

On the whole, the characteristics which we can change and the consequential traits all come together within the mystic to give him, or her, a feeling of fulfilment. This was stated by Joel Goldsmith as: 64

Whatever it is that represents fulfilment in his life is attained by virtue of conscious oneness with God.

…and this sensation leads the mystic to reinforce the belief that the path being taken is the right one; that union with God is the right goal. This being the case then all other aspects of life pale into insignificance as Evelyn Underhill reported: 65

In the mystic the dominant idea is a great one: so great in fact, that when it is received in its completeness by the human consciousness, almost of necessity it ousts all else. It is nothing less than the idea or perception of the transcendent reality and presence of God.

Through all this progress you would think that the mystic is deserving of praise. That may be the case, but this is not something that the mystic seeks; fame is not important; earthly accolades are worthless. Of this, John Blofeld wrote: 66

It is the nature of true mystics not to proclaim their talents or in any way draw attention to themselves; for, with spiritual progress, the desire for fames fades.

Even the stimulus for Christianity, Jesus the Nazarene, took the same line as discussed by Graham Jeffery: 67

He does not blow his own trumpet. Nor, like some of us I fear, does he blow God's trumpet in such a way as to draw attention to the blower.

So, as every true mystic emphasises, don’t praise the mystic. In chapter 39 of the ‘Imitation of Christ’ Thomas A Kempis stressed: 68

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Praise be Thy name, Not mine; Thy work be glorified, Not mine; Thy holy name be blessed, And nothing of the praise of man set down to me.

Perhaps by always keeping in the background, like the early Chinese sages is the way to prevent being showered with accolades. In Arthur Waley’s translation of the Tao Te Ching this is expressed in its own inimitable style: 69

Heaven is eternal, the Earth everlasting. How come they to be so? It is because they do not foster their own lives; That is why they live so long. Therefore the Sage Puts himself in the background; but is always to the fore. Remaining outside; but is always there. Is it not just because he does not strive for any personal end That all his personal ends are fulfilled?

One way to achieve this anonymity is to hide what you do in service to humanity. This was suggested by Therese of Lisieux who was taught that the: 70

…only glory which matters is the glory which lasts forever, and that one does not have to perform shining deeds to win that, but hide one’s acts of virtue from others...

Even immortality has no bearing on the aspirations of the mystic. Raymond B Blakney in his version of the Tao Te Ching wrote: 71

Considering that the objective of great mysticism is union with God, it is hardly strange that mystics themselves should exhibit small interest in personal immortality. Poem 32 reaches its climax in an inspired quatrain that illustrates the irrelevance of immortality as the world generally conceives it:

In this world, Compare those of the Way To torrents that flow Into river and sea.

The mystic only needs his God. And even though all other relationships are unimportant, many people seem to clamour for his or her attention and advice. Teresa of Avila noticed that: 72

It is certain that a man who has no need of anyone has many friends: in my own experience I have found this to be very true.

Joy, freedom, contentment, fulfilment are some of the qualities which mystics acquire throughout their spiritual journey which culminates in ‘union with God’. This is the be-all-

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:19:23 20.4 Mysticism - Mystics Characteristics Page 14 of 16 and-end-all as was expressed by that immensely influential philosopher and theologian, St Thomas Aquinas: 73

...it is clear that the last end of all things is to become like God.

…and finally a question which Sophy Burnham once asked of Maharaj: 74

"Does the enlightened person know that he is enlightened?"

To which, smiling at her with sweet affection, he replied:

"He knows that he is different,"

That sums up nicely the mystic’s characteristics.

1 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 94) 2 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter I - The Meaning and Nature of Mysticism, (Pg 4/5) 3 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. 30 The Inner State According to Macarius the Great, (Pg 142) 4 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section VI On the evils of Knowledge .. (Pg 171 to 173) 5 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part Three: Religious - Man's need of Religion, (Pg 134)

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6 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VI Penitence, the Outcome of Love: Love and Vision (Mysticism), (Pg 184) 7 Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, Hackett, 1993. Chapter Three: The Consideration of God through His Image imprinted on our Natural Powers, (Pg 21) 8 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Fourth Thought Greed - The Demons of the Body, (Pg 131) 9 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter VI, (Pg 84 / 85) 10 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 30) 11 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 174) 12 Robert H Thouless, Authority and Freedom, Hodder & Stoughton, 1954. Chapter Four: The Religious Goal, (Pg 60) 13 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 6: Asceticism and Sacrifice, (Pg 99) 14 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 34) 15 Swami Vivekananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Watkins Publishing, 2007. Chapter I - Concentration: Its Spiritual Uses, (Pg 19) 16 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Philotheus of Sinai - Forty Texts on Sobriety – 14, (Pg 328) 17 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section V On the Properties of the Student and the Teacher, (Pg 130) 18 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 9 Early Modern Christian Mysticism: Blaise Pascal, (Pg 134) 19 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 2 Imitatio Christi, (Pg 39) 20 Gerald Bullett, The English Mystics, Michael Joseph, 1950. Benjamin Whichcote, (Pg 124) 21 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 9, (Pg116) 22 J R Puri & V K Sethi, Saint Namdev, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1978. Part II: Selected Poems of Namdev - Fasts and Pilgrimages, [Adi Granth, page 718] (Pg 62) 23 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Second Thought Gluttony - For Starters, (Pg 76 / 77) 24 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XIX, (Pg 166) 25 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 16: Discerning the spiritual path, (Pg 136) 26 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section II On Knowledge whose Acquisition is Deemed "fard 'Ayn", (Pg 52) 27 Osbert Burdett, William Blake, Macmillan & Co, 1926. Chapter XII - Blake and the Sublime, (Pg 191) 28 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter III : Religious Experience and its Affirmations - 8. Self-recognition and the way to it, (Pg 90) 29 R Blair Reynolds, Cosmos and History, Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy,Vol 1, #2, 2005. Ecstasy as World-affirming 30 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Part One: The Divinisation of our Activities, (Pg 63) 31 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 18. The Higher Stages of Contemplation, (Pg 85) 32 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IV - The Illumination of the Self 33 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 25 - Inward Destitution, (Pg 180 / 181) 34 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter IV: God in the World, (Pg 67) 35 G K Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dover Publications, 2009. III. The Aristotelian Revolution, (Pg 40) 36 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter XV: Heaven and Goal, (Pg 232) 37 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. II Eastern and Western Religions in a Converging World. 5: The search for Unity: From Monistic Pantheism to Mysticism, (Pg 113) 38 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. LORD MOTHER – SIX, (Pg 149) 39 Malcolm Muggeridge, Conversion: A Spiritual Journey, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1989. 7: The Journalist, (Pg 70 / 71) 40 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 9: Illusion and Reality, (Pg 129)

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41 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 8: A perilous journey, (Pg 97) 42 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 5: Initiation, (Pg 63) 43 Osbert Burdett, William Blake, Macmillan & Co, 1926. Chapter VII - At Feltham with Hayley, (Pg 111) 44 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life: II, (Pg 26) 45 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: V. Detachment, (Pg 81) 46 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: IV. Mortification, (Pg 72) 47 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. III - Our Own Day, (Pg 24) 48 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 2 Imitatio Christi, (Pg 38) 49 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter TWO - Erasing Our Concepts of God, Prayer, and Grace, (Pg 20) 50 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. The War Within Us, (Pg 10) 51 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 1: The measure of a man, (Pg 11) 52 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter X, (Pg 30) 53 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters; Letter I; Hestitations Concerning Baptism, (Pg 9) 54 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Conclusion, (Pg 448 / 449) 55 Nicolas Berdyaev, Towards a New Epoch, Geoffrey Bles: The Centerary Press, 1949. Freedom and its Difficulties, (Pg 80) 56 J R Puri & V K Sethi, Saint Namdev, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1978. Part II: Selected Poems of Namdev - The Mystic Experience, [Adi Granth, page 656] (Pg 56) 57 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VIII - Ecstasy and Rapture, (Pg 358) 58 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter X - The Unitive Life, (Pg 440) 59 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Union with the Will of God: VIII. Equanimity [calmness], (Pg 92) 60 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VII - The Realisation of Perfect Peace, (Pg 134) 61 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. The Mysterious Immanence of Tao, (Pg 57) 62 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 26) 63 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 7 The Way and the Goal, (Pg 90) 64 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter SIX - Contemplative Meditation, (Pg 96) 65 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter III - Mysticism and Psychology, (Pg 60) 66 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 2 - Remnants of the Three Teachings, (Pg 41) 67 Graham Jeffery, The Rabbi's Tale - Letters from Gamaliel, Palm Tree, 1989. Letter Sixteen, (Pg 47) 68 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XXXIX 69 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter VII, (Pg 150) 70 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 4, (Pg37) 71 Raymond B Blakney, The Way of Life, The New American Library; Mentor Books, 1964. Tao Tê Ching, (Pg 47) 72 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter II, (Pg 7 / 8) 73 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 12. How Things imitate the Divine Goodness, (Pg 90) 74 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 5 - Light and Heat; Burning with the Fire of Love, (Pg 94)

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20.5: Mysticism – Is it for You?

I was raised partially Methodist and partially Church of England. My paternal grandparents were Welsh Chapel and my mother’s side of the family had, for at least 400 years, followed the Anglican faith. This did not cause me any problems in my early years because the finer differences of these religions passed me by. I tended more to the Church of England as a young teenager, but by my late teens I started to question much of the dogma and creeds surrounding my belief in God which these organisations imposed. It was at that time that I went up to university and worldly matters seem to take over – not immediately, but they infiltrated my consciousness such that my spirituality lay dormant for about 40 years, even though they did try to reawaken during my late 20’s but soon went back to sleep.

In my late fifties I returned to the question of religion; but what religion? It took me a long time to realise that each and every religion which I tried to get to grips with, had one or more facets which I could not accept. Eventually I was led to spending a few years in weekly discussion with a modern-day mystic and this directed me to the Mystic Way. Let me remind you of the definition of a mystic: 1

mystic noun , relig someone whose life is devoted to meditation or prayer in an attempt to achieve direct communication with and knowledge of God, regarded as the ultimate reality.

Thus, if I accepted that route to God, then I did not need the intersession of any religion at all. This realisation created so much joy and relief and so, from those days, I consider myself to be someone who is following the direction given to us by the great mystics of the past.

What happened to me, in essence, was a type of re-birth; an awakening of my spiritual destiny. Evelyn Underhill recognised that something like this is necessary for everyone who wants to progress: 2

Since the soul, according to mystic principles, can only perceive Reality in proportion as she is real, know God by becoming Godlike, it is clear that this birth is the initial necessity. The true and definitely directed mystical life does and must open with that most actual, though indescribable phenomenon, the coming forth into consciousness of man's deeper, spiritual self, which ascetical and mystical writers of all ages have agreed to call Regeneration or Re-birth. Nothing that is within him is able of its own power to achieve this. It must be evoked by an energy, a quickening Spirit, which comes from beyond the soul, and "secretly initiates what He openly crowns."

Evelyn, a person following the Mystic Way herself, put these thoughts into a poem entitled ‘Transcendence’: 3

Within thy sheltering darkness spin the spheres; Within the shaded hollow of thy wings. The life of things, The changeless pivot of the passing years - these in thy bosom lie.

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Restless we seek thy being; to and fro Upon our little twisting earth we go: We cry, 'Lo, there!’ When some new avatar thy glory does declare, When some new prophet of thy friendship sings, And in his tracks we run Like an enchanted child, that hastes to catch the sun.

And shall the soul thereby Unto the All draw nigh? Shall it avail to plumb the mystic deeps Of flowery beauty, scale the icy steeps Of perilous thought, the hidden Face to find, Or tread the starry paths to the utmost verge of the sky? Nay, groping dull and blind Within the sheltering dimness of thy wings - Shade that their splendour flings Athwart Eternity - We, out of age-long wandering, but come Back to the Father's heart, where now we are at home.

The trigger which sets each of us on our spiritual pathway is unique. It is probably something to do with our life journey up to the point of realisation and the direction in which are lives are destined to travel. Many people associate mysticism with monasticism, which is wrong even though, according to Margaret Smith in concluding her book ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’, for the early Sufis: 4

…asceticism and the solitary life have usually been closely associated with the development of mysticism, because they provide a favourable sphere for the growth of mystical ideas and the practice of the mystic Way.

In modern times it is accepted that we can pursue the path of a mystic whilst living within the world; we live in it but not of it, to misquote the New Testament.5 Similarly, a few mystics have pursued their calling whilst living within the constraints of one of the existing religions. This is not easy but it is possible. Meister Eckhart is a 14 th century example of this; as, to some extent, are the 20 th century examples of Thomas Merton and Teilhard de Chardin. In some respects understanding a particular religion and its nuances and shortcomings can be a powerful stimulus for mysticism. At the time that I discovered mysticism, I was following and deeply engrossed in the Spiritualist movement. This tailored religion, I now believe, is heading along a spiritual cul-de-sac; it is now too concerned with organisational aspects and does not allow the development of mystical paths within it. Notwithstanding this, I still enjoy attending divine services at spiritualist or any other churches.

Whatever has triggered you to read these words seems to indicate that you have found something wanting in your religious, or spiritual as I would prefer to say, life. You maybe are searching for answers or at least you have some unanswered questions. Mysticism may be the path for you. You have found a need to walk a more spiritual path according to the beliefs that you are developing. You have been caught by God and are now responding to the Eternal Call. As the French mystic, Simone Weil, revealed: 6

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Man can never escape from obedience to God.

And to corroborate this statement, the eminent 17 th century French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal in his ‘Pensees’, according to Martin Israel, said: 7

I would not seek thee had I not found thee.

To expand this, it seems that once you start the path to the mystic’s goal, you never, knowingly or willingly, depart from it. This was confirmed by Teilhard de Chardin: 8

...I have always ... gladly surrendered myself to this active feeling of communion with God through the Universe.

This has huge implications. You will tread paths which are new and discard many of those things which have attracted you in the past. Your life will change as Aldous Huxley believed Meister Eckhart understood: 9

I tell you that no one can experience this birth (of God realised in the soul) without mighty effort. No one can attain his birth unless he can withdraw his mind entirely from things.

This is a tall order and not everyone is willing to take this enormous step. Are you? Peter Berger recognised that not everyone will be willing: 10

It is fairly clear that mysticism, or any other alleged experience of supernatural realities, is not accessible to everyone.

However, if you do take or continue with this mystical journey, you will recognise that you are different; that you are really special as the 14 th century English religious writer, Bible translator, and hermit, Richard Rolle recognised: 11

For this mystery [direct love of God] is hidden from the many, and is revealed to the few, and those the most special.

…special because you have ‘seen’ the light and are one of the people of whom Therese of Lisieux said that God: 12

…does not call those who are worthy, but those who He chooses to call.

I’m not sure that this is quite right. I believe that having the Spark of God within us, we are all called but few hear it. That is, we have within us the ‘call of God’, if only we can tune in to it. Morton Kelsey, I think, believed similarly: 13

If the essence of mystical experience is contact with a level of experience other than that of sense experience and reason, than all of us have this contact whether we know it or not.

…and quoting the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross as Aldous Huxley did: 14

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God does not reserve such a lofty vocation (that of mystical contemplation) to certain souls only; on the contrary, He is willing that all should embrace it.

This means that you must set your sights on the mystical horizon and strive as best you can with the help of Spirit to get as close to it as possible during this life of yours. Setting your heart thus is necessary. To give an example from Thomas Merton’s ‘Elected Silence’ (This European book is a slightly abridged version of the American version entitled 'The Seven Storey Mountain') where he recalled the conversation he had with a friend: 15

Lax said: "No. All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. Don't you believe that God will make you what He created you to be, if you will consent to let Him do it? All you have to do is desire it." A long time ago, St Thomas Aquinas had said the same thing - and it is something that is obvious to everybody who ever understood the Gospels.

Merton also cautioned us from believing that: 16

…no man can become a contemplative unless his whole life is always externally miserable and disgusting.

That is not true – there is great joy, peace and security the further along your journey you get. However, the experiences which you will have will differ from those of others, as possibly will the understanding that you have of the eternal truths. This was confirmed by the English Anglican priest Peter Spink: 17

The expressions and articulations of this experience will be as varied as are human beings.

The continuing experiences that we have, as mystics, will always drive us further towards Union with God. If you have not reached this point yet, don’t be alarmed. It is your intention which is important, and in fact, as the Cambridge schoolmaster and mystic Frederick Happold observed: 18

A man may be a mystic who is not, and never could be, a contemplative [one who achieves union with God] .

St John of the Cross, too, confirmed that many may not be able, in the short time available on this earth, to reach that point: 19

For, although it is true that a soul, according to its greater or lesser capacity, may have attained to union, yet not all do so in an equal degree, for this depends upon what the Lord is pleased to grant to each one.

Those that do reach this Union, Aldous Huxley declared (using a rephrased statement from the lips of Jesus the Nazarene 20 ), are rare beings indeed: 21

All are called, but in any given generation few are chosen.

Many years before, as a result of his own mystical revelations, Dante Alighieri recalled his

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And if on 'rose' thou turnest thy clear eyes, Thou'lt see that it has reference alone To kings who're many, and the good are rare.

Corroboration of this came from Evelyn Underhill as recorded in ‘An Anthology of the Love of God, by Lumsden Barkway: 23

The great man or woman of the Spirit who achieves this perfect development [union with God] is, it is true, a special product: a genius comparable with great creative personalities in other walks of life.

Evelyn Underhill, in her conclusion to ‘Mysticism’ stated the real value of mysticism, not only to the mystic themselves but to each of us who are trying to understand the right spiritual path to take. She described the mystic as: 24

…the pioneer of Life on its age-long voyage to the One: and shows us, in his attainment, the meaning and value of that life.

So use the teachings of the mystics and their biographers as road maps to your own personal destination. Even though perhaps, neither you nor I will ever reach such spiritual heights as these pioneers, we should continue to walk the mystical pathway.

Think more about the Mystic Way and I’ll leave you to contemplate the following words from T. S. Elliot which describes some of the paradoxes which all the mystics have to understand: 25

To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not, You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy. In order to arrive at what you do not know You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance. In order to possess what you do not possess You must go by the way of dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not You must go through the way in which you are not. And what you do not know is the only thing that you know And what you own is what you do not own And where you are is where you are not.

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1 http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php?query=mystic&title=21st 2 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter V - Mysticism and Theology, (Pg 122) 3 Transcendence, extracted from the book 'Immanence' as reproduced in 'An Anthology Of The Love Of God' of Evelyn Underhill's works - (Pg 112) 4 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter XI – Conclusion, (Pg 245) 5 Bible, New Testament, John 15:19, 17:14, Romans 12:2 and many others 6 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: The Love of God and Affliction, (Pg 72) 7 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 11: The agnosticism of real faith, (Pg 81) 8 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - III The Christic, or the Centrict b. The Universal Christ - 2. Conflict becomes Progress, (Pg 47) 9 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXVI: Perseverance and Regularity, (Pg 292) 10 Peter Berger, A Rumour of Angels, Pelican Books, 1971. 3 - Theological Possibilities: Starting with Man, (Pg 93) 11 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 2, (Pg 51) 12 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 1, (Pg 1) 13 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part One: A Basic Perspective - 1: Encountering God, (Pg 9) 14 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXVII: Contemplation, Action and Social Unity, (Pg 297) 15 Thomas Merton, Elected Silence, Hollis and Carter, 1950. Part Two - The Waters of Contradiction, (Pg 191) 16 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 24 – Renunciation, (Pg 167) 17 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 4: The Awakened Heart, (Pg 60) 18 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 7. What shall we Understand by the term Mysticism, (Pg 39) 19 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter V, (Pg 83) 20 Bible, New Testament, Matthew 22:14 21 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VIII: Religion and Temperament, (Pg 154) 22 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto XIII, (Pg 321) 23 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. V Sanctification, The Growth of Love: Reconstruction of Personality (The Life of the Spirit), (Pg 178) 24 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Conclusion, (Pg 447) 25 Extract from East Coker by T. S. Elliot

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20.6: Mysticism - A Hard Path to Tread

The life of a mystic is like one who is a traveller in an unknown and perilous country. Can you imagine what it was like for Dr David Livingstone in the 1850s exploring the unknown interior of Africa? The testimonies of others of monstrous beasts even before he set out on his mission, compounded by dangers he would face there from natural features, diseases, pestilence and warring peoples presented a frightening picture of his future adventure. Undeterred he ventured forward into vast unknown areas of interior Africa – it wasn’t easy. In fact during this time, he was attacked by a lion while staying in an African village, while trying to defend the village's sheep from the animal. The lion heavily wounded his left arm, and the wounds disabled his arm for the rest of his life. Such are the consequences of being a pioneer.

Even in the field of mysticism such pioneers exist. One such person was Emanuel Swedenborg who, about 100 years before Livingstone ventured into Africa, explored the spiritual terrain. He was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian, and mystic who, as his biographer George Trowbridge, explained provided us with: 1

…a traveller's descriptive notes of an unknown country.

…that unknown country, for the visionary Swedenborg, comprised the spiritual landscape as observed and understood by him.

Staying with the geographic analogy, progress through the renowned rain forests is very slow; the climate is overpowering and each new traveller has to forge their own path with machete in hand. Without resolve, many are tempted to turn back. The real difference between the geographic and the spiritual explorer is that the latter always has a guide; some loving friend from the Spirit World who is there when we need them. All mystics that I know of consider that this guide is our Creator and believe that all the mystical experiences come directly through their God. Thus, in all the following text I, along with all the mystics and their biographers, will continue to use the term ‘God’ even though I believe it to be a guiding spirit who is an agent of God but not directly my Creator.

Because our soul is a ‘spark of God’ and during our mystical journey God is close to us, there is always a feeling of being drawn ‘home’. This is why Evelyn Underhill, according to Brenda Blanch, said of the mystical journey that: 2

It consists in being drawn, but at his pace and in his way, to the place where he wants us to be; not the place we fancied for ourselves.

Taking the latter point from this quotation we can again draw another geographical metaphor. The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish Crown, departed from Palos de la Frontera in 1492 intending to discover a new route to the East Indies to cash in on the spice trade. However, he landed in his carrack, the Santa Maria, in the West Indies and hence opened up the Americas. We will never be able to predict what the future holds. All our lives are so interconnected with those of other people, that the best outcome for us cannot be computed – leave it to Spirit and be patient.

The journey of Columbus across the Atlantic took from evening on the 3rd August until

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2am on the 10 th October 1492; a period of waiting and uncertainty. Henrietta Leyser, an English historian, specialising on the history of medieval England, in her book on ‘Medieval Women’ referred to the 14 th century hermit mystic Richard Rolle’s patience. She wrote that: 3

His mystical experience, the foundation of his spiritual life, of warmth, sweetness and light came to him after nine months gestation.

From his own experience, the Reverend William Houff knew that: 4

Even with gentleness, patience and perseverance, Self-discovery is not an easy task.

Throughout our whole mystical journey we have to be patient. Spiritual development needs to be built upon solid foundations by small but sure and consolidated steps. Eventually the mystic may arrive at the destination of union with the Divine Spirit as the anonymous English author of the Cloud of Unknowing reportedly said of those following the mystical pathway: 5

If they humbly persevere and await God’s will with patience they will receive in full abundance that other crown in the bliss of heaven.

…and John Moorman, appointed Bishop of Ripon in the late 1950s, writing about St Francis of Assisi noted that: 6

It was a slow business waiting for guidance, and a great test of faith.

Using more modern terminology, the spiritual counsellor Andrew Harvey wrote: 7

Divine Technology doesn't divulge its secrets easily.

Slow it might be but not unaided. Our guiding spirit will always be there providing all that we need to progress. On this point, in ‘Ascent of Mount Carmel’, the 16 th century mystic St John of the Cross wrote: 8

…if the soul be faithful and humble, the Lord will not cease until He has raised it from one step to another, even to Divine union and transformation.

So, provided we have patience – a rather difficult property for anyone to develop – we can be assured that our journey will be fruitful. However, we do have to realise the real difficulties that we will encounter as stressed by that great spiritual teacher Silver Birch: 9

That which is most difficult to attain, the unfoldment of the Great Spirit within you, is the hardest of all.

…and Evelyn Underhill’s analysis agreed with this statement: 10

History assures us that there is no easy sliding into the life of the Spirit. …the spiritual life is never achieved by taking the line of least resistance and basking in the divine light.

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We have to take each day at a time, each trial in its own context, and hence each step will need to be fought over. Each test must be accepted, taken, and won. Another Spirit World resident who has, over the years, provided guidance for us on the Earth, has been White Eagle. He offered this advice: 11

Don't seek the short-cuts into the temple. There can be no gate-crashing ... Only a steady upward climb, during which many a test must be passed.

That means that another important characteristic for us to have is steadfastness; we need to be resolute and have total commitment as David Hay, a zoologist with a longstanding professional interest in the disputed boundary between biological science and the spiritual dimensions of human experience, advised: 12

Religious experience is a matter of total involvement.

Our belief, our Philosophy of Life, and all that we hold dear will be tested time and time again through all manner of trials; it will be a struggle. Lumsden Barkway, from the writings of Evelyn Underhill, described it in this way: 13

Nor do the struggles of the spiritual life - even the most crucial and most heroic - either look or feel very glorious while they are going on

Don Cupitt, an English religious philosopher, also recognised that our determination has to be unyielding: 14

What seems to mark an outstanding religious figure is the ardour of his religious longings rather than the serenity and security of his religious achievement. Untroubled, full-achieved and victorious sanctity seems to be found only in the lying and propagandist pages of hagiography, not in the real world. In reality, the very religious mostly have a hard time.

The road to union is a steep and tortuous climb which was described in the Jesuit Ladislaus Boros’s semi-autobiography ‘Open Spirit’ when he was thinking about St Gregory: 15

God is grasped in a ceaseless ascent of the soul

The metaphor of ascent and climbing has been used by many mystics in an attempt to convey the increase in spirituality and the fact that, in attaining it, comparison with mountaineering is appropriate. Margaret Smith tells us that in the ‘Book of the Holy Hierotheos’ there is written: 16

The mind of the mystic, therefore, seeks the way of ascent.

At each step on this climb there will be a test, and progress is only possible if the trial is completed successfully. These tests cannot be predicted beforehand and they may be difficult. Rick Warren, an American evangelical Christian pastor, accepted that if we have decided to take the Mystic Way then: 17

…that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the

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opposite of what you feel like doing.

Often in this step-by-step progress you cannot see beyond the next rung in the ladder. This, as St Augustine realised, should not matter if your determination is holding: 18

And he who cannot see afar off, may yet walk on the way, whereby he may arrive, and behold, and hold Thee.

This mountain path along which we climb is unique to each one of us. When we look back over the terrain which we have navigated and the crevasses which we have bridged, we are often thankful for the traditions which we have overcome and which we have, perhaps, used as stepping stones. Perhaps with this retrospective view we would perhaps consider that the journey could be assessed similarly to the Spanish mystic Alonso de Orozco who remarked: 19

O great God, at the beginning of our journeyings, when we were at the foot of the holy mountain, who should have thought that we had so great a height to climb.

The young French philosopher and Christian mystic Simone Weil believed that her climb up her ‘mountain’ was aided by the traditions of the Christian Church: 20

Most often, perhaps always, the soul which has reached the highest realms of spirituality is confirmed in its love of the tradition which served it as a ladder.

The unexpected and dangerous nature of mountainous terrain has ever been a useful analogy for the spiritual pathway. The Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Abbey in England Aelred Graham expressed his view that: 21

Thus there are 'cliffs of fall frightful' lying close along the path of those who would make the ascent to the summit of Mount Carmel.

Using the metaphor of a mountain gives the impression that there is, somehow, freedom of lateral movement; that there is one track leading upwards. I would prefer to use the analogy of a very high tree – the top third of which is in ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ and it is our choice as to which branch to follow. Some of these, of course lead us nowhere. We, can of course, fall off and we may be caught by some lower branches of this amazing tree and hence have to start climbing again from lower down. In order to avoid falling, we must try to keep our balance in life and take the surest way up the tree moving from branch to branch. It is a ‘narrow way’ and we must keep on correcting our direction so as not to fall.

This idea of the right spiritual path being narrow and difficult is one that has been used to describe the mystical journey from the early days. In the New Testament, Matthew tells us that: 22

…the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

…and a different statement, from the same epistle writer, is referred to within the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 23

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For this work demands great forcing, since "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life." [Matt.xi.12]

The 20 th century English writer Aldous Huxley who became interested in spiritual matters towards the latter part of his life, recalled that most mystics have echoed this advice: 24

But of those who "speak with authority", who has ever said that the road to complete deliverance was easy or the gate anything but "strait and narrow".

…and with Evelyn Underhill stressing the difficulties which lie ahead for those who do travel the narrow way: 25

If the road on which we find ourselves is narrow, with a bad surface and many sudden gradients, it is probably the right route.

Travelling this road needs us to step back from worldly attractions, as noted by the 15 th century Augustinian monk Thomas A Kempis: 26

They shall gain great liberty of mind Who step upon the narrow path for Thy name sake, And put aside all worldly care.

This last thought of Thomas A Kempis is easy to propose but very difficult to achieve in practice. This was expressed by Silver Birch as: 27

Sainthood, mysticism, mastery, these cannot be accomplished with ease. It is a long, slow, arduous, tortuous path which has to be followed, with constant sacrifices. Renunciation is the law.

This ‘law’ is one of the cornerstones of mysticism; to be able to step back from the material world and treat it with the disdain it deserves. I’ll let the Persian Islamic theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist and mystic, Ab ū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Mu ḥammad al-Ghaz ālī, commonly known as al-Ghazali, give you a feel for what this means. When writing about ‘spiritually’, learned men he said: 28

...should know that this world and the hereafter are diametrically opposed to each other, as hostile as fellow-wives - the more you please the one, the more you displease the other; or as the two scales of a balance - the lower one falls, the higher the other rises; or as the east and the west - the more you advance towards one, the farther away you go from the other; or as two glasses of water, the one is full while the other is empty - the more you pour out of the one into the other, the less water is left in the first.

Another Eastern mystic, Shankara Acharya, who lived 500 or so years before al-Ghazali, described this renunciation as being: 29

The first door of union is restraint of voice, freedom from covetousness, expectation and desire, continuous devotion to the one goal. Steadfast devotion to the goal ends the allurement of the senses; control stills the imagination; through peace, the impress of the 'I' is dissolved.

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The Spanish mystic St John of the Cross also considered spiritual progress to be inextricably linked to the reduction of dependency on the sense world: 30

But the spiritual person that would make progress must strip himself of all those pleasures and desires wherein the will can rejoice, for pure spirituality is bound very little to any of those objects, but only to interior recollection and mental converse with God.

In the very bald terms of the Anglican clergyman F P Harton: 31

Mystical union is given only to saintly and chosen souls after much purgation...

Here, the word purgation, in this context, is synonymous with renunciation, purification, detachment, mortification, and self sacrifice. Taking a different set of words, the spiritual director Swami Paramananda, when discussing the Upanishads, remarked that: 32

Immortality is gained when man transcends his apparent nature and finds that subtle, eternal and inexhaustible essence which is within him.

The young French Carmelite nun Therese of Lisieux posed a rhetorical question: 33

How can a heart that is taken up with human love be fully united to God?

…and responded:

I am sure it is not possible. I have seen so many people attracted by this false light fly to it as moths do and burn their wings then flutter wounded back to (God) the Eternal Fire which burns without consuming.

From all of these mystics we come to the conclusion as expressed by St. Philemon and recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 34

...there is no other way leading to heaven except complete withdrawal from all evil, acquisition of all good, perfect love for God and union with Him...

To get to this stage is a long and arduous process and, as the anonymous author of the Theologia Germanica remarked: 35

No one can be made perfect in a day. A man must begin by denying himself, and willingly forsaking all things for God's sake, and must give up his own will, and all his natural inclinations, and separate and cleanse himself thoroughly from all sins and evil ways. ... Also let him take and receive example and instruction, reproof, counsel and teaching from devout and perfect servants of God, and not follow his own guidance.

It seems that there is no other way to the goal of the mystic and perhaps it is one of the Universal Laws as suggested by Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows: 36

The ascent of man through fires of purification and the gates of mastery does not

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vary, the Law is perfect and allows no deviation.

Certainly it is hard, but even if we cannot achieve the spiritual heights of the renowned mystics, we can at least try and get as far as we can along our destined journey. It is our intentions which are important and the more we try with all our heart to develop our spirituality and to serve humanity we will always progress. F C Happold had this in mind when he wrote in his book ‘Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man’: 37

In our human state, however, the divinity is potential rather than actual; it has to be realised in each human being. The nearest approach is to be found in the unitive life of the contemplative saints. .. It can also be realised in the active life by a complete emptying of self in devotion to and service of one's fellows. 'There is no one in the world,' wrote the eighteenth century Jesuit, Pierre de Caussade, 'who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fulfilling with love obscure and common duties.'

Do your best and don’t be put off by those who do not understand the Mystic Way. Those who have mystical experiences have real difficulty in explaining the certainty of belief that comes from such events. Words cannot express the joy, peace and fulfilment that such enlightenment brings. It is like using contents of the Oxford English Dictionary to describe the taste of liquorice to someone who has never experienced it. This means that it is very difficult to explain to those who are not on the spiritual path. But don’t worry about it, you are only responsible for your own spiritual journey not that of others. Plato, as long as 2400 years ago, recognised this difficulty and of the mystic said: 38

As he forgets earthly interests and is rapt in the Divine, most men think him mad, and condemn him; they do not see that he is inspired.

…and not much has changed in the intervening years. Iulia de Beausobre told us that the Russian mystic Seraphim of Sarov believed that in contemplative prayer: 39

...we may choose to be a blessing in the eyes of God, even at the price of being condemned by men...

We have to choose – it is our responsibility. Those who do not follow the enlightened route are not preparing themselves for the next step after this life. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore explained that: 40

Those who have everything but thee, my God, laugh at those who have nothing but thyself.

Because most people do not understand the path of the mystic or even try to understand their Philosophy of life then there is often an assumption that the road is simple and easy. Idries Shah, an exponent of the Sufi traditions who was born in India but spent most of his life in England, went even further and wrote: 41

...to dissolve the aspirations of people who approach Islamic mysticism as if it were some sort of magical system which would give them power of enlightenment without training and discipline.

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It is recognised that this is not the case and the price to be paid by the mystic is great as the Anglican priest Martin Israel made clear: 42

If it [the Pearl of Great Price] were acquired without a sacrifice its value would be lowered in the eyes of the seeker and soon it would be defiled. It is a rule that, for most of us, the price adds to the value of an article; only an aware person can fully appreciate a gift .

Hence the value that the mystic places upon Spirit, and the communion that is achieved through union.

As each of us takes our first steps along this road, what are the stages, levels, actions that we need to take? As you would expect, there is no single consensus. Every mystic, because they follow their own unique pathway, seems to describe it differently, although as you piece the elements together maybe you can synthesise the right steps for you. Teilhard de Chardin used this idea of synthesis in describing his view of what we need to achieve: 43

...I am still learning by experience the dangers to which - by an inner law and necessity - he is exposed who finds himself led away from the well-beaten but now underhumanised path of a certain traditional ascesis, as he seeks in the direction of Heaven for a road (a road which is not a mean but a synthesis) where the whole dynamism of Matter and Flesh is directed into the genesis of Spirit.

It is necessary to take this analytical approach because mysticism is impossible to define, as the Iranian-American religious writer Reza Aslan realised: 44

...Sufism is a religious movement that can only be described; it cannot be defined.

Nevertheless, perhaps we can try to get a handle on this then. The first thoughts I’ll take from Evelyn Underhill: 45

The end and object of this "inward alchemy" will be the raising of the whole self to the condition in which conscious and permanent union with the Absolute takes place and man, ascending to the summit of his manhood, enters into that greater life for which he was made. In its journey towards this union, the subject commonly passes through certain well-marked phases, which constitute what is known as the "Mystic Way."

She, Evelyn, in her book ‘Mysticism’ goes into great detail regarding the constituent parts of the Mystic Way, and I commend this excellent, but rather academic, book to you. This book has been in print most of the time since its initial publication in 1911 and is still in print at this point in time (2015). This Mystic Way goes by a different name within Sufism as Reza Aslan explains: 46

The tariqah is the mystical journey that leads the Sufi away from the external reality of religion and toward the divine reality - the only reality - of God. As with all journeys, the Way has an end, though it should not be imagined as a straight road leading to a fixed destination but rather a majestic mountain whose peak conceals the presence of God. There are, of course, many paths to the top - one measured, controlled, and strictly supervised step at a time - passing diligently

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through specific 'abodes and stations' along the Way, each of which is marked by an ineffable experience of spiritual evolution, until one finally reaches the end of the journey: that moment of enlightenment in which the veil of reality is stripped away, the ego obliterated, and the self utterly consumed by God.

Thus progression is commensurate with enlightenment. The more illuminated the closer to God we become. In order to develop the right personal environment for these steps we need to change our relationship with the world. That is we have to develop our ‘self’, our consciousness as F C Happold referred to it: 47

The more immediate, developed and refined consciousness becomes, the more it moves into the realm of the mystical.

This step was considered by Meister Eckhart as ‘stripping away the veil’ which shields us from God: 48

The Transcendent God is a truth which can only be realised gradually by a progressive stripping away of the veils. The first veil to remove is that of the material world... The second veil to be removed is more inward, concerned with our mental, imaginative and emotional life, especially that area of it which we consider to be 'religious'.

Other writers have described these tasks in different ways. According to Dan Cohn- Sherbok, the Belgian born 14 th century mystic John of Ruysbroeck maintained that: 49

…the mystical life requires a threefold unity with God. The first aspect demands asceticism, good works, and involvement in sacramental life. ... The second aspect - union with God without intermediary - forces the contemplative to adhere to God in fathomless love. .. In the third aspect - union with God without difference - the contemplative passes beyond the soul's summit, plunging into the modeless abyss of bliss in which the Trinity gives way to essential unity.

Whilst in the treatise 'Of the Four Degrees of Passionate Charity', Richard of St Victor, one of the most important mystical theologians of 12 th century Paris, maintained: 50

…that the soul undergoes a progression in its quest for spiritual truth - initially it is nourished by meditation; then it is bound to the divine spirit in prayer; this is followed by complete surrender; the final stage is a transforming union.

…and the 14 th century English Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton, in his book ‘The Stairway of Perfection’, described in detail the three different steps which he perceived to be necessary: 51

The first consists in the knowing of God and spiritual things. This knowledge is obtained through reason, human teaching, and the study of Holy Scripture. ... it is a seeing of essential truth ... The second stage of contemplation consists principally in affection, without light for the understanding of spiritual things. Commonly, simple men, who give themselves diligently to devotion, experience this kind of contemplation.

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The third stage of contemplation, which is as perfect as contemplation can be on earth, consists both in cognition and affection, that is, in knowing God and loving Him perfectly.

I would include in these templates of mystical progress, the examples of the prophets such as Jesus the Nazarene, Mohammed, Buddha, and those who followed their teachings according to their spirituality. For example, the British Spiritualist Harry Earnest Hunt suggested that the spirituality of Jesus the Nazarene: 52

…is the path that we must follow if we would take the road to perfection. There be many other roads, and by-paths innumerable, joyous and delusive, feet-snaring and wit-bewildering, but they lead not to Perfection. The road to that is narrow, and few tread it.

Don’t forget the passionate descriptions of the many women who have forged their mystic way. Women such as Mechthild of Magdeburg, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Hildegard of Bingen, Margery Kempe, Catherine of Siena, Catherine of Genoa, and Julian of Norwich to name just the few who come immediately to mind. Most of these, you will realise, come from the Middle Ages and about whom the spiritual writer Angela of Foligno said: 53

...given the fact that the mystical way has been one of the few possibilities women had, in the Middle Ages and later, to achieve a certain stature in both lay and religious society.

This, however, does not detract from the messages that they have given to us and which should be examined with all the other mystical writings.

All this may seem confusing, but, in some respects, deliberate. You must read the experiences of the mystic pioneers and then form your own view as to the step which you need to take next. After each step review where you are and then determine the next, and so on. In that way your development will be flexed according to your current progress and opportunities.

…and the consequences of all this development is change! Change in your fundamental characteristics – it is inevitable. Fr Terry Tastard, Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Brook Green, London, wrote about special moments in life: 54

Kairos is the Greek word that is used in the Bible to designate a special moment of time when God visits his people to offer them a unique opportunity for...change and decisive action. It is a moment of truth, a crisis. Kairos is the time to act decisively that breaks with past patterns.

I propose that ‘Kairos’ is not just a community or national occurrence but a personal one too. When our belief system alters then our thoughts, words and deeds ought to change to match our new perspectives. Everyone on their spiritual pathway must do the same as Evelyn Underhill observed: 55

They must have an environment, they must be affected by it.

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…and more poetically from Martin Israel: 56

As a consequence the flame expands slowly into a glowing fire that both consumes the errors of the past and shows the way towards a new realm of values whose peak is the vision of God.

I’ll now relate a conversation which took place between two people. Paul, at the time, was living his normal life on earth and his late friend Maurice Barbanell had been in the Spirit World for a number of years. The medium who was instrumental in linking the two was Marie Cherrie. The conversation went something like this: 57

Maurice: He [Paul's deceased mentor Peter] also asked me why I worried about being alone. Paul: What did you reply? Maurice: That I didn't know I worried about it. He said, 'But you do, you are trying to stay with old relationships, with old loves.' He added, 'This is why those who would achieve spirituality, awareness in our world, had, in your world, to walk alone and be alone.' In other words again, distancing themselves from personal relationships. He said they did it there on earth, you're having to learn this thing here.

Many of the ‘old’ mystics also viewed abandonment of relationships and everything concerned with the material world as totally necessary. I think slightly differently. Firstly, I’ll accept that as we walk our life-path, relationships come and go; they come when we need them and they go when we do not. I do not intend that to seem callous and heartless, but we are here to learn and when people enter our lives it is for that express purpose and once achieved it is pointless to try to hold on to it when both ends of the relationship need to progress along different paths.

Secondly, we have relationships for which we have accepted responsibility and which we must uphold; parents, partners, children and other personal responsibilities which we ought to try to uphold – we should not abandon them.

The conclusion is that we must inevitably strike a balance between the material and the spiritual such that as we improve and leave much of our feelings for the physical behind, some will naturally remain with us.

Some of this change will be painful. Robin Waterfield in ‘Streams of Grace’ took from the letters of the Abbé Henri de Tourville the fact that we travel a bumpy road: 58

We all too often depict the path of virtue as being straight and narrow, whereas in fact it is full of bumps and shocks. It only becomes smooth, or at least less bumpy, when we realise that all the jolts haven't made us leave the road, nor do they prevent us from making some progress…

…and Evelyn Underhill agreed: 59

…the typical mystic seems to move towards his goal through a series of strongly marked oscillations between 'states of pleasure' and 'states of pain.' The existence and succession of these states - sometimes broken and confused, sometimes crisply

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defined - can be traced, to a greater or less degree, in almost every case of which we possess anything like a detailed record. .. The soul, as it treads the ascending spiral of its road towards reality, experiences alternately the sunshine and the shade. These experiences are 'constants' of the transcendental life. "The Spiritual States of the Soul are all Eternal," said Blake, with the true mystical genius for psychology.

One of the frustrating aspects of this mystical development is that we will never be able to reach our destination, our goal. The process that we have started will, as far as I can see, never finish; it will continue when we change our status and enter the Spirit World and carry on throughout our eternal journey. Every soul needs to start sometime – you are one of the lucky ones, having become aware in this life.

The implication is that we can only reach quite a low level of ‘union with God’ or should I say, ‘union with the level of the Spirit World which our spirituality permits’. Put into theological terms by Evelyn Underhill: 60

Though they know as well as the philosophers that "there must always be something symbolic in our way of expressing the spiritual life," since "that unfathomable infinite whose spiritual character is first recognized in our human experience, can never reveal itself fully and freely under the limitations of our earthly existence"

She also said in a different book: 61

Are humanity's small spiritual experiences testimonies to a vast truth, which in its wholeness lies far beyond us, or not?

Some writers assume that what we can experience in the extreme case in this life is the ultimate union with God. One such set of writings is the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 62

For the more our righteousness grows, the more we achieve spiritual maturity, until finally the mind reaches perfection and cleaves entirely to God, illumined by Divine light - and then ineffable mysteries become revealed to it.

I don’t think that we could ever reach this perfect state in one lifetime or even in hundreds of earth lifetimes. It will take eons within the Spirit World well after we have learnt all we can from our many lives on earth.

In summary I will leave you with a passage from Dean Inge’s book on ‘Christian Mysticism’ (Pg 325) which I read of in ‘Great Christian Books’ by Hugh Martin. This recognises the efforts which we have to make in order to follow our Mystic Way: 63

These men of acknowledged and pre-eminent saintliness agree very closely in what they tell us about God. They tell us that they have arrived gradually at an unshakable conviction, not based on inference, but on immediate experience, that God is a Spirit with whom the human spirit can hold intercourse; that in Him meet all that they can imagine of goodness, truth and beauty; that they can see His footprints everywhere in nature, and feel his presence within them as the very life of their life, so that in proportion as they come to themselves, they come to Him. They

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tell us that what separates us from Him and from happiness is first, self-seeking in all its forms, and secondly, sensuality in all its forms; that these are the ways of darkness and death, which hide from us the face of God; while the path of the just is like a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. As they have toiled up the narrow way, the Spirit has spoken to them of Christ, and has enlightened the eyes of their understandings, till they have at least 'begun' to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and to be filled with the fullness of God.

The mystic way is over and above all knowledge; it is an experiential path as was stated by the higher spirit communicating through the American medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer: 64

Coming into knowledge and truth does not make your path easier.

Follow the difficult Mystic Way; be determined and resolute and, with help and guidance your friends in Spirit, you will make slow but sure progress towards your eternal destiny.

1 George Trowbridge, Swedenborg - Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Society, 1935

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2 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 14) 3 Henrietta Leyser, Medieval Women, Phoenix, 2002. Chapter Ten; Anchoresses and Recluses, (Pg 217) 4 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 10: Taoism, the Natural Spirituality - Or, the joy of dragging one's tail in the mud, (Pg 124) 5 Clifton Wolters, A Study of Wisdom, Fairacres, 1985. (Pg 30) 6 John R H Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi, SPCK, 1979. 1 Vocation, (Pg 10) 7 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. LORD MOTHER – FOUR, (Pg 110) 8 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter XI, (Pg 107) 9 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 45) 10 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 53 / 54) 11 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - I: Truth, (Pg 19) 12 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Two: What is the Experiential Dimension - 7. Strange and Difficult to Describe: Common Ground, (Pg 98) 13 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VII Discipline, The Training in Love: Spiritual Warfare (The School of Charity), (Pg 200) 14 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 9 Is the Religious Ideal Attainable? (Pg 123) 15 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Gregory and Beauty, (Pg 102) 16 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 94) 17 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. The Heart of Worship, (Pg 84) 18 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Seventh, (XXI) 19 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. Alonso de Orozco - What Contemplation is and the Things which Favour it, (Pg 55) 20 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 119) 21 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Seven: Orthodoxy and Religious Experience, (Pg 108) 22 Bible, New Testament, Matt 7:14 23 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 49, (Pg 223) 24 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XVII: Suffering, (Pg 234) 25 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter V – Crucified, (Pg 62) 26 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter X(II) 27 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Five: The Fog of Matter, (Pg 53) 28 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section VI On the evils of Knowledge .. (Pg 158) 29 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - Right Renunciation, (Pg 59) 30 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter XXXIX, (Pg 321) 31 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter III Actual Grace, (Pg 27) 32 Swami Paramananda, The Upanishads, Grange Books, 2004. Kena - Upanishad - Part One: II, (Pg 86) 33 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 4, (Pg 44) 34 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Three: St Philemon the Abba - The Narrative – 12, (Pg 408) 35 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XIII, (Pg 42) 36 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter XIII: The Morning Star, (Pg 262)

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37 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 12 The Splendour of the Christ, (Pg 150) 38 Plato; Selected Passages, Humphrey Milford, OUP, 1945. Chapter II - The Spiritual Life: Love, (Pg 58) 39 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part Two: Return Manward - The Simple Soul, (Pg 148) 40 Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabinranath Tagore, Macmillan & Co, 1958. Stray Birds, (CCXXVI) 41 Idries Shah, The Elephant in the Dark, Octagon Press, 1985. Chapter 16, (Pg 66) 42 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. Prologue, (Pg xiii) 43 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - III The Christic, or the Centrict b. The Universal Christ - 1. The conflicts, (Pg 46) 44 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way, (Pg 202) 45 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 91) 46 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way, (Pg 206) 47 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 10 The Nature of the Mystical, (Pg 118) 48 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 3 The Silent Desert, (Pg 36) 49 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 7 Medieval Christian Mysticism: Flemish Mysticism, (Pg 115 / 116) 50 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 7 Medieval Christian Mysticism: Hildegard of Bingan, Richard of St Victor and Bernard of Clairvaux, (Pg 105) 51 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One, Chapters Four (Pg 66), Five (Pg 67) and Eight (Pg 70) 52 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). XLIII Be Ye Perfect, (Pg 146) 53 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. Interpretive Essay, (Pg 80) 54 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 1 - Finding another way, (Pg 4) 55 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 38) 56 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 1 – Intimations, (Pg 3) 57 Marie Cherrie, The Barbanell Report, Pilgrim Books, 1987. Part I: Twenty-Two - 19th March 1986, (Pg 135) 58 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 79) 59 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Introductory, (Pg 168) 60 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter V - Mysticism and Theology 61 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. Spiritual Life 62 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Three: St Philemon the Abba - The Narrative – 19, (Pg 414) 63 Hugh Martin, Great Christian Books, SCM Press, 1945. The Power of the Book, (Pg 13) 64 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. I: The Universe and its Beings - 6: The Others, (Pg 83)

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20.7: Mysticism and its Paradoxes

I’ll first of all define the word paradox: 1

A paradox is a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet might be true. Most logical paradoxes are known to be invalid arguments but are still valuable in promoting critical thinking.

I think that this idea of promoting deep and critical thinking through contradictory statements is one of the styles used initially in Taoism, primarily in the Tao Tê Ching, and subsequently incorporated into the Chinese and Japanese Buddhist movements. As for the Zen Buddhists, they: 2

…have a particular knack for making a virtue out of the inconsistencies arising from verbal communication, and with the koan system they have developed a unique way of transmitting their teachings completely non-verbally. Koans are carefully devised nonsensical riddles which are meant to make the student of Zen realize the limitations of logic and reasoning in the most dramatic way.

To some extent I don’t think that the paradoxes which emerge in mysticism follow the Zen formula. I think that they exist because the language which we use, based as it is on physical experiences, cannot cope with describing spiritual or mystical experiences. Because of this all mystical writings over the last two or three millennia have the thread of metaphor and paradox running through them. This linguistic difficulty does not depend upon which language we use – all have a similar problem as expressed by David Hay in his book ‘Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience’: 3

But what may appear still more paradoxical is the idea that all these experiences from different cultures are, at a deep level, of the same kind. This is a view which has been implicit in what I have written so far, and is sometimes called the 'common core' theory. The best-known popular exponent of this view was Aldous Huxley. In his book 'The Perennial Philosophy' he drew together a fascinating selection of mystical writings from the major world religions in an attempt to show that they were basically in agreement, even in the language they used in their descriptions.

The consequence of this is that mystics have to follow the pattern as described by Frederick Crossfield Happold: 4

We are, therefore, compelled to use the only language available, a language of symbol and paradox, which can be alien and incomprehensible to one not accustomed to it.

…and that is true. When I first encountered the Tao Tê Ching, it took me at least three readings to get to grips with the style. Frederick’s comments were echoed by the medieval theology academic Saskia Murk Jansen within her book about the Beguines 5 : 6

Prophets and mystics are those who perceive truth, not with their reason, but with their imagination. Their language tends to be full of metaphor, paradox and vivid

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imagery.

Because of the extensive use of the paradox in all mystical writings, it is not surprising that Henry Ernest Hardy [usually known as Father Andrew], an Anglican friar and Church of England clergyman wrote that Christianity: 7

...really is one great paradox, or unity of many paradoxes.

I will try to give you some idea of the different paradoxical statements which exist in the mystical genre of writings and I will start by quoting a sort of summary from St John of the Cross: 8

In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything, Desire to have pleasure in nothing. In order to arrive at possessing everything, Desire to possess nothing. In order to arrive at being everything, Desire to be nothing. In order to arrive at knowing everything, Desire to know nothing. In order to arrive at that wherein thou hast no pleasure, Thou must go by a way wherein thou hast no pleasure. In order to arrive at that which thou knowest not, Thou must go by a way that thou knowest not. In order to arrive at that which thou possessest not, Thou must go by a way that thou possessest not. In order to arrive at that which thou art not, Thou must go through that which thou art not.

…and before she listed these paradoxes in her book ‘Mysticism’, Evelyn Underhill wrote: 9

How then is this contradiction to be resolved: that the mystic who has declared the fundamental necessity of 'leaving all creatures' yet finds them pure to enjoy? The answer to the riddle lies in the ancient paradox of Poverty: that we only enjoy true liberty in respect of such things as we neither possess nor desire.

In the subsequent pages I will try to explain, as best I can, each of the different paradoxes which I have encountered within the books I have read on my mystical journey. Sometimes explanations lie within the texts that I quote, at other times I will try to give a cogent description.

Let me start with the second paradox on list of St John of the Cross, which was ‘In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing’. I do not like playing many of the electronic games which proliferate in the current computer and mobile phone market. That is to say, the pleasure and whatever other emotions and skills that I can gain from interacting with such games I either have no need of or I can gain from other sources. Hence, I already possess whatever gaming can give to me. This I believe to be the essence of St John of the Cross’s paradoxical statement. One exponent of this particular paradox was Meister Eckhart who lived between 1260 and 1328, and who was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic. According to Oliver Davies, Eckhart believed that

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…has everything they desire, since they desire nothing...

…and from the extraordinary writings of the Persian Sufi Jalal-ud-Din Rumi Andrew Harvey revealed that: 11

In one of the most beautiful and pregnant of Rumi's remarks in the 'Discourses', you will hear the final paradox: "When you give up everything, everything is yours."

Which is Meister Eckhart’s way of reiterating the words of St Paul [2 Cor 6:10]: 12

We should have as if we had nothing, and yet possess all things .

And even more cryptically from the 18 th century French Jesuit priest Père De Caussade, who declared: 13

With the Divine Will nothing is everything, but without it everything is nothing.

This notion can be developed into another ‘buzz-word’ of mysticism which is ‘detachment’. This is a task of the mystic whereby he or she empties themselves of material desires and passions. It is a step on the road to ‘possess everything and yet possess nothing’. This idea of detachment was at the back of the mind of the modern mystic Thomas Merton as it emerged in a number of his books. In one of his early books, ‘Seeds of Contemplation’ published in 1949 he wrote: 14

One of the greatest paradoxes of the mystical life is this: that 'a man cannot enter into the deepest centre of himself and pass through that centre into God, unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of a selfless love.'

Nearly 10 years later in ‘Thoughts In Solitude’ he more curtly said: 15

To unify your life unify your desires. To spiritualise your life, spiritualise your desires. To spiritualise your desires, desire to be without desire.

Then in 1961 after another 3 years he linked contemplation with detachment in ‘The New Man’: 16

Contemplation is the highest and most paradoxical form of self-realisation , attained by apparent self-annihilation.

Let me expand this a little. Through contemplation, meditation and prayer we learn more and more about ourselves; our real self, and about spiritual life in general. It is this result of contemplation which Eckhart Tolle said that: 17

It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you.

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Through this enlightenment, the pull of the material world becomes less and less, and we start to see ourselves in the correct eternal context. This tends to reduce the importance we place on the physical world and our desires which could be stimulated by it. Thus, it is from losing this dependency on the material that we gain understanding of the spiritual. Of this, the 15 th century Augustinian monk Thomas A Kempis advised us to: 18

Keep in memory a short and perfect saying, "Lose all, find all;" "Cease your longings, find your rest." Think well on this, Fulfil it; you shall understand it then.

This infinite series of your linked contemplative events is your route to unfolding and experiencing each mystic paradox. It is through these acts of complete stillness, solitude and surrender that inspirations arrive, and knowledge of spiritual truths develops. If you encounter times when you feel you cannot contemplate then follow the advice of St John of the Cross: 19

When the spiritual person cannot meditate, let him learn to be still in God, fixing his loving attention upon Him, in the calm of his understanding, although he may think himself to be doing nothing. For thus, little by little and very quickly, Divine calm and peace will be infused into his soul, together with a wondrous and sublime knowledge of God, enfolded in Divine love... And if, as we have said, such a person has scruples that he is doing nothing, let him note that he is doing no small thing by pacifying the soul and bringing it into calm and peace, unaccompanied by any act or desire, for it is this that Our Lord asks of us, through David [Psalm 46,11] , saying: Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus. As though he had said: Learn to be empty of all things (that is to say, inwardly and outwardly) and you will see that I am God.

Being still and quiet is not easy says the mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin: 20

The spiritual life is one long series of paradoxes, and this is one of them. The most difficult thing in the world is to be still, yet it makes life simple and easy. It removes all its cares, solves all its problems, takes away all its fears, relaxes all its strain.

This idea of stillness leads us to another well documented paradox; ‘do nothing and yet do everything’. ‘The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects’ revealed to Alexandra David-Néel, that: 21

In the first place, it is impossible for a living being to do nothing. To exist is, in itself, a kind of activity. The doctrine of non-action does not in any way aim at those actions which are habitual in life: eating, sleeping, walking, speaking, reading, studying, etc. In contradistinction to the Taoist mystics who, in general, consider that the practice of non-activity requires complete isolation in a hermitage, the Masters of the Secret Teachings, although prone to appreciate 'the joys of solitude', do not consider them in any way indispensable. As for the practice of non-activity itself, they judge it absolutely necessary for the production of the state of deliverance.

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In other words, we need to regularly sit in contemplative activity in order that we can be more and more aware of what we should be doing. This could also be translated as listening to Spirit so that we can appreciate the Divine Will in the actions which we will perform. Evelyn Underhill in her major opus ‘Mysticism’ (also recorded in the anthology of her works by Lumsden Barkway 22 ) stated that: 23

It remains a paradox of the mystics that the passivity at which they appear to aim is really a state of the most intense activity: more, that where it is wholly absent no great creative action can take place.

This, I think, represents physical passivity and spiritual activity and which is the subject of, according to Algar Labouchere Thorold, Père De Causade’s Letter XI - to Mère Louise Françoise de Rosen: 24

‘I do not care,’ you say, ‘to talk or write or read much.’ What a beautiful confession! It alone indicates a mind whose interior is ordinarily well occupied; a great Spiritual has said of such persons that they have immense occupations without labour. Another calls this happy disposition, holy leisure or holy disoccupation, for it seems that doing nothing means doing all things, and saying nothing, saying everything.

Through this stillness we learn about Self and about our Life’s Objectives and consequently we can implement what the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tsu believed life to be: 25

Resolve your mental energy into abstraction, your physical energy into inaction.

The outcome of physical inactivity can be the stimulus for spontaneous action. In the introduction to the ‘Musings of a Chinese Mystic’ it is written that Chuang Tsu: 26

...casually let fall "While there should be no action, there should be also no inaction.”... What he means is that any hard-and-fast, predetermined line of conduct is to be avoided, abstinence from action just as much as action itself. The great thing is that nothing be done of set purpose when it seems to violate the natural order of events.. On the other hand, if a certain course of action presents itself as the most obvious and natural to adopt, it would not be in accordance with the Tao to shrink from it. This is known as the doctrine of inaction, but it would be more correctly named the doctrine of spontaneity.

So we can, via this mechanism, make sure that most of what we do fits into the Divine Will – doing good by not really thinking about it; it becomes part of our nature to act in this way. This has been further expanded by Raymond Blakney in his translation and commentary on the Tao Tê Ching: 27

Wei wu wei. This paradoxical expression is the key to Chinese mysticism. It cannot be translated literally and still render its meaning. Wei is a verb corresponding to the English do or act but sometimes meaning other things, depending on the expression. Wu is a negative. Thus, clumsily, wei wu wei is to do without doing to act without action. Put positively, it means to get along as nature does: the world gets created, living things grow and pass away without any sign of effort. More exactly, Wu wei is man's part; he is to be still, quiet and passive so that the

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Way, ultimate Reality, the universe of being, may act through him without let or hindrance. The first wei is then the part of the Way. To use more familiar vocabulary, the idea is to let God be God in you. The result, we are assured, is incalculable accomplishment, but it might not be any civilization man has achieved to date. Wei wu wei occurs many times in the Tao Tê Ching. It has to be translated in almost as many different ways.

In parallel to this improving action on our part, we must remember that we continue to be helped and guided by spiritual forces as F. P. Harton explained, albeit from a Christian perspective: 28

The life of grace advances normally towards passivity, though many, perhaps most, souls do not arrive fully at this stage. This is not the passivity of emptiness and inaction, which is the Quietist's goal, but the passivity of constantly willed obedience to the guidance of the Holy Ghost...

Accepting Spirit and guidance therefrom is a theme, so says F C Happold, underpinning the advice from Krishna, who suggested that we should: 29

Devote yourself, therefore to reaching union with God. To unite the heart with God and then to act, that is the secret of unattached work.

Being unattached to our actions does not mean that we do not care how well we execute them, but it shows that we are not hide-bound by the results of what we do. This gives us real freedom. We are stimulated by the need to help our fellow traveller and unphased by the potential consequence of what we do. Putting this into one of the mystical paradoxes, Teresa of Avila told us that: 30

…in this work of spirit the one who thinks less and has less desire to act does more.

And the regression psychologist Brian Weiss gained, from his work, the idea that: 31

Paradoxically, by thinking of nothing, by clearing the mind, we are free to remember.

This takes us back to ‘emptying our glass’ – removing material dependency from our lives allows us to increase our spirituality.

Another paradox which bubbles from the well of mysticism is that of understanding the utility of ‘what is not’. Have a look at a chapter from Arthur Waley’s translation of the Tao Tê Ching: 32

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility of the vessel depends. We pierce doors and windows to make a house; And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the utility of the house depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognise the utility of

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what is not…

I’m not sure that this is really a paradox, but just a different way of looking at what exists. Certainly we need to look at all aspects of life and stitch what we find into our own philosophy. A similar, but different ‘not’ was considered by the Benedictine monk Cyprian Smith in his writings about the spirituality of Meister Eckhart: 33

The reason I quarrel with another person is because I am not him, and my interests are not his. It is the 'not' which creates the quarrel. The reason fire burns my hand if I put my hand into it is because the fire is not my hand. If I were the other person, I would have no quarrel with him; if my hand were the fire, it would not be burned by it. All imperfections in the world spring from this element of nothingness in things; therefore Eckhart says if you want to be free of suffering, get rid of 'not'.

Another aspect which, again, I do not think is a real paradox is what Carl Gustav Jung called the ‘paradox of death’: 34

This paradox can be explained if we suppose that at one moment death was being represented from the point of view of the ego, and at the next from that of the psyche. In the first case it appeared as a catastrophe; that is how it so often strikes us, as if wicked and pitiless powers had put an end to a human life. And so it is death is indeed a fearful piece of brutality; there is no sense pretending otherwise. It is brutal not only as a physical event, but far more so psychically: a human being is torn away from us, and what remains is the icy stillness of death. There no longer exists any hope of a relationship, for all the bridges have been smashed at one blow. Those who deserve a long life are cut off in the prime of their years, and good-for-nothings live to a ripe old age. This is a cruel reality which we have no right to sidestep. The actual experience of the cruelty and wantonness of death can so embitter us that we conclude there is no merciful God, no justice, and no kindness. From another point of view, however, death appears as a joyful event. In the light of eternity, it is a wedding, a ‘mysterium coniunctionis’. The soul attains, as it were, its missing half, it achieves wholeness. On Greek sarcophagi the joyous element was represented by dancing girls, on Etruscan tombs by banquets. When the pious Cabbalist Rabbi Simon ben Jochai came to die, his friends said that he was celebrating his wedding. To this day it is the custom in many regions to hold a picnic on the graves on All Souls' Day. Such customs express the feeling that death is really a festive occasion.

I’m sure you agree that this is just two ways of regarding what death means to an individual. As an aside, I am looking forward to when I return to the Spirit World although I do not look forward to the time immediately leading up to my death.

Let us return again to another paradox which can be described as ‘being nowhere and yet being everywhere’. In the anonymous mystical treatise ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ this paradox is, to some extent, explained: 35

Yet for fear you may be deceived and interpret what I say literally, I do not choose to express the interior life in this way. Rather, I will speak in paradoxes. Do not try

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to withdraw into yourself, for to put it simply, I do not want you to be anywhere; no, not outside, above, behind, or beside yourself. But to this you say: "Where shall I be? By your reckoning I am to be nowhere!" Exactly. In fact, you have expressed it rather well, for I would indeed have you be nowhere. Why? Because nowhere, physically, is everywhere spiritually. Understand this clearly: your spiritual work is not located in any particular place. But when your mind consciously focuses on anything, you are there in that place spiritually, as certainly as your body is located in a definite place right now. Your senses and faculties will be frustrated for lack of something to dwell on and they will chide you for doing nothing. But never mind. Go on with this nothing, moved only by your love for God. Never give up but steadfastly persevere in this nothingness, consciously longing that you may always choose to possess God through love, whom no one can possess through knowledge. .. For in this darkness we experience an intuitive understanding of everything material and spiritual without giving special attention to anything in particular.

I suppose that this is not much different from the premise that within your contemplation, clear your mind of everything and thereby you can let in the inspirations and feeling from Spirit. Keep this in mind when thinking about another apparent paradox which is ‘know everything by knowing nothing’ or expressed by Evelyn Underhill who said that a person’s soul during meditation: 36

…has participated for an instant in the Divine Life; knows all, and knows nought. She has learnt the world's secret, not by knowing, but by being: the only way of really knowing anything.

St John of the Cross also believed that eventually every soul: 37

...must pass beyond everything to unknowing. Wherefore, upon this road, to enter upon the road is to leave the road; or, to express it better, it is to pass on to the goal and to leave one's own way, and to enter upon that which has no way, which is God.

This knowing and not knowing is the difference between mystical experience and learning. Within contemplation and meditation we are given the keys to an increasing number of spiritual doors. Each of these provide us with knowledge which we will require on our journey; our eternal journey. There is a lot of knowledge which we have acquired over our lifetime which is irrelevant to our spiritual progress, and it is this that we need to jettison. This is the essence of chapter 47 of the Tao Tê Ching: 38

Without leaving his door He knows everything under heaven. Without looking out of his window he knows all the ways of heaven. For the further one travels [away from Tao] The less one knows. Therefore the Sage arrives without going, Sees all without looking, Does nothing, yet achieves everything .

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It all boils down to looking at the material and spiritual aspects of our lives in different ways. This may be one of the two great paradoxes. We are living a life in a material world and yet feel the urge to extend our knowledge of and into the Spiritual World. This is explained by Cyprian Smith: 39

It is very hard to face the fact of a being who is both divine and human, spiritual and material, mortal and immortal. The temptation is always to simplify the picture, to get rid of the painful paradox by suppressing one of its components. A being who is wholly spiritual and divine will not be troubled by the humiliating worldly facts of suffering, weakness and death. A being who belongs entirely in this world can cheerfully get on with the task of improving his material environment without being distracted by irrelevant and disquieting thought about the 'beyond'. To accept 'both' elements of the paradox, to recognise their truth, and to attempt to live them, is difficult and uncomfortable. It is not a task for the lazy, the complacent, the fanatical or the opinionated. It is, however, the only way to truth and life.

The second all time winner in the paradox stakes, is the concept that we are unique individuals and yet part of the One; we are one and yet many. From the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ we have: 40

A man who is blind in relation to one thing (to God) is totally blind in relation to all things; and a man who sees in the one (in God), has vision of all things. He is both removed from the vision of all things, and at the same time has vision of all things, and is outside all things visible. Thus being in the one, he sees all, and being in the all, sees nothing of the all. Seeing in the One, through him sees himself, others, and all else; and being concealed in Him, he sees nothing of the all.

...and with a slightly more lucid explanation from the Irish Jesuit theologian William Johnston: 41

The undifferentiated consciousness represented by the circle is a fact of experience. No use denying it. As the human mind penetrates more deeply into reality, it becomes increasingly aware of unity. It comes to perceive that everything is one. And, at the same time, it knows that everything is not one. This is the great paradox of mysticism East and West.

I’ll simplify by saying that our individuality stays for all time (we are a spark of God), and yet as we progress spiritually we are aware that we are part of Creation where everything is somehow intertwined and interrelated. Think on this and the other paradoxes, and eventually all will become clear …

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1 Retrieved 5 Feb 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox 2 Retrieved 5 Feb 2015 from http://theunboundedspirit.com/zen-buddhist-koans-exposing-the-paradox-of- reality/ 3 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Two: What is the Experiential Dimension - 7. Strange and Difficult to Describe: Context and experience, (Pg 93) 4 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. 11 The Divine Ground of all Existence, (Pg 124) 5 The Beguines were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Northern Europe during the 13th–16th centuries and who lived in semi-monastic communities They did not take formal religious vows yet stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty and care of the poor and sick. 6 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 2 The Literary Context, (Pg 39) 7 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. The Eighty-Fourth Psalm: IV. The Way to God, (Pg 123) 8 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter XIII, (Pg 62/63) 9 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self 10 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The Book of Divine Consolation - Chapter 2, (Pg 82) 11 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 9 - The Divine Child, (Pg 248) 12 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 23 On Inner and Outer Works, (Pg 48) 13 Richard Whitwell, J.P. de Caussade - A Spiritual Study, The Instant Publishers, undated. Chapter II - Framing Our Lives To His Will, (Pg 20) 14 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 47) 15 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life: XII, (Pg 55) 16 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. The War Within Us, (Pg 13) 17 Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of NOW, Hodder Mobius, 2002. ONE: Being and Enlightenment, (Pg 8) 18 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XXXII 19 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter XV, (Pg 129 / 130) 20 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XV - Life without Strain III, (Pg 74) 21 Alexandra David-Néel, The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, City Lights Books, 1981. Chapter VI, (Pg 92) 22 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953.IV The Spiritual Life: III Prayer, (c) Contemplation: The Gateway to Contemplation (Mysticism), (Pg 150) 23 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter III - Mysticism and Psychology, (Pg 50) 24 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book II - The exercise of the virtue of Self-abandonment, Letter XI - to Mère Louise Françoise de Rosen, (Pg 47) 25 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. Introduction, (Pg 19) 26 Chuang Tsu, Musings of a Chinese Mystic, John Murray, 1927. Introduction, (Pg 22) 27 Raymond B Blakney, The Way of Life, The New American Library; Mentor Books, 1964. Tao Tê Ching, (Pg 39) 28 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter VI The Gifts of the Spirit, (Pg 74) 29 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 21. The Lesser Mystic Way: The Mysticism of Action, (Pg 103) 30 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Fourth Dwelling Places - Chapter 3, (Pg 41) 31 Brian Leslie Weiss, Same Soul, Many Bodies, Piatkus, 2006. Chapter 11 - Contemplation and Meditation, (Pg 174)

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32 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XI, (Pg 155) 33 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 5 The Voice of God, (Pg 68) 34 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. XI On Life After Death, (Pg 346) 35 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 68, (Pg 136 / 137) 36 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 342) 37 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter IV, (Pg 76) 38 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XLVII, (Pg 200) 39 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 6 - The Incarnate Word, (Pg 75) 40 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - Practical and Theological Precepts: 35, (Pg 104) 41 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 7: Return to the market-place, (Pg 82)

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20.8: Mysticism and Divine Will

All that I believe and have tried to convey in these writings is tied up in what I understand a ‘Deist’ to be. From the internet I retrieved this description: 1

Deism is a natural religion. Deists believe in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion or religious authority or holy text. Because of this, Deism is quite different from religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.

In other words, I need to rationalise ideas and concepts which are presented to or uncovered by me. For example, why should an omnipotent Deity be concerned about what a human being wears? The priestly robes of some Christian clergy, the Jewish kippah 2, the Islamic taqiyah 3, the Sikh turban 4 are just a few examples of what I mean. Applying logic and reason to this idea of religious attire, leads me to believe that these are human inspired and developed traditions and not a mandatory requirement from the God in which I believe. This leads me further. Again from the internet: 5

By the exercise of reason, people possess the possibility of adopting a natural religion, that is, a religion grounded in the nature of the universe. At creation, God established this rational order, but although the prime and necessary cause of this order, God had become increasingly remote. The world, nevertheless, continued to function according to the laws that God had established at creation, laws that operate without the need of divine intervention

This encapsulates most of the spiritual framework in which I live and breathe. If I have been given the power of reasoning and the ability to develop its use by increasing intellect and knowledge, then, as with all qualities that I possess, it is up to me to use it according to what I believe my God to want of me; the Divine Will. It is this latter point which is the difficult bit; how will I be able to determine what my God requires of me? The answer to this question will become evident shortly but firstly, let me explore some of the things that I have read about Divine Will.

Certainly for every mystic the central focus of their spiritual lives is to implement the Divine Will, as the London born mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin summarised it: 6

And this brings us to the kernel of the whole teaching: doing the Will of God our Father, even as our Lord carried out His Father's Will. Because this is one of the stock phrases of organised religion, doing the Will of God may have become nothing but a pious platitude to us, yet in it is the deep secret of all attainment.

…and the spiritual author W. H. Dyson recognised that: 7

…this Divine Influence is of the very essence of Mysticism... The true mystical experience - conscious fellowship with God.

This thread, of understanding and implementing the Will of God, runs through every religion. Of Islam, the Sufi Idries Shah said: 8

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It is, of course, widely known that the name of the religion of Moslems is Islam, or Al-Islam, 'al' being the definite article in Arabic. Islam literally means 'submission, yielding, surrender' - to the will of God. 'Moslem' means one who is so surrendered. This etymology is important, because it is not just a name, it is a meaning. If you ask any Arab, 'Are you a Moslem?' he will often reply, 'If God wills', which is roughly equivalent to in colloquial speech to 'I hope so'. His attitude is that submission to the will of God is a matter of constant endeavour.

From the Christian mystic, Jacob Boehme, is a reiteration of the words of Jesus the Nazarene: 9

Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but those who do the will of my father [Matthew 7:21]

It is not just the spiritual life of the mystic which is gauged by what God requires but the whole of their life; every waking minute should see the mystic undertaking actions which are compatible with His Will. This holistic activity set was the objective of Brother Lawrence: 10

Let us thus think often that our only business in life is to please God, and that all besides is but folly and vanity.

This can be rephrased, according to Alan Young, as it was by a spirit communicating through the medium Olive Haisley: 11

The objective is to become a channel to be used as God wills.

From the mystic’s point of view, God must have had some objective in Creating the Universe and all therein. Even though we probably will not be able to establish whatever that goal was, we can assume that we ought to try to find out what God needs from us. Thus, taking the relationship between Master and minion, the mystic would agree with Evelyn Underhill’s submissive request to her God: 12

...accept me as your servant…

This master / servant relationship is not quite what I understand the mystical relationship with God to be. In such a relationship the master is able to demand of the servant – that is not the case. The link between God and the mystic is more like a friendship but I am sure that it is much more complicated than that. Certainly one friend can suggest to the other a course of action but never is there any feeling of compulsion. This seems to be one of the Natural Laws of the Cosmos and was expressed by Diana Cooper as: 13

...under spiritual law God will not force us to do his will.

Another way of looking at the relationship is a Parent / child. I was always taught about Father God which I presume intimated at the beneficial role that a parent would play during the upbringing of a child. This was nicely captured by Andrew Harvey in his book ‘Hidden Journey’ when he revealed what was written in a copy of Ramakrishna's teachings: 14

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The young monkey clings to its mother when she moves about. The kitten on the other hand mews piteously, and the mother grasps it by the neck. If the monkey lets go of its hold of the mother, it falls and is hurt. This is because it relies upon its own strength. But the kitten runs no such risk, for the mother herself carries it from place to place. Such is the difference between self-reliance and resignation to the will of God.

And from Brother Lawrence: 15

...and in the height of your sufferings beseech Him humbly and affectionately (as a child his father) to make you conformable to His holy will.

Such resignation is the way of the mystic. It is a component part of their spiritual journey as the American mystic Thomas Merton identified: 16

It is the yoke of His service, that is, doing his will as perfectly as we can, that is mild; but not to do His will, and not to accept His mild yoke, that is what is hard, and what kills us with sorrow.

No matter from what perspective mysticism is viewed, the underpinning requirement of every mystic is to do what he or she considers to be the Divine Will. According to the monk of the Abbey of St Maurice et St Maur, Clervaux, Luxembourg Jean Leclercq, no matter how different religious organisations subtlety change, what they believe to be the elements of a spiritual life are: 17

…the central fact sustaining and unifying all - that is, the special consecration and total gift of self to God - has no orders to disappear

Two very different spiritual ladies also expressed this ‘golden seam’ of Divine Will as the life-blood of mysticism. The French Catholic Carmelite nun Therese of Lisieux in her autobiography ‘The Story of a Soul’ stated that: 18

Yes, all is well when one seeks nothing but the Divine Will

…and the mystic and author Evelyn Underhill wrote in one of her anthologies: 19

The only thing that counts, and proves the presence of the Divine Life in us, is total dedication to God, total dependence on Him.

Just under 200 years before Evelyn, was born a mystical great; William Law. He had no qualms in advising all of us to have: 20

…the settled purpose and intention of your heart, to will nothing, design nothing, do nothing, but so far as you have reason to believe that it is the will of God that you should so desire, design, and do.

And 300 years before this visionary, emerged an Anonymous Teutonic "Friend of God" who wrote, in his Theologia Germanica: 21

Now, a man who should be in like manner possessed by the Spirit of God, so that he

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should not know what he doeth or leaveth undone, and have no power over himself, but the will and Spirit of God should have the mastery over him, and work, and do, and leave undone with him and by him, what and as God would; such a man were one of those of whom St. Paul saith: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,"

Even though we know that we are all ‘sons of God’, there is a very positive message which came from St Paul and from all those who echo his words. One such person was Rabindranath Tagore. He was a Bengali polymath who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and who became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his most famous and sensitive poem Gitanjali, he developed a way of describing his surrender to God’s Will; the surrender of his spiritual house: 22

Here I give back the keys of my door and I give up all claims to my house Now the day has dawned and the lamp that lit my dark corner is out. A summons has come and I am ready for my journey.

Others, who have departed this life and who reside in the Spirit World, have returned to us and through mediums have given us view of what they understand by Divine Will. One such spirit was the sister of Rev. C. Drayton Thomas who said: 23

On earth one interprets blindly the meaning of the Higher Will, and follows it as best one can; but here we can feel where one will have to follow next when the time ripens.

This highlights two points which are important. Firstly, that most people don’t give a great deal of thought as to what God’s Will really means to them and, secondly, in the hereafter each spirit ‘feels’ and ‘knows’ the best way forward. The former point I will develop later, after I have said a few words about ‘surrender’. This is a big subject for the mystic and one which I think is not completely understood. Almost every mystic gives his all to God and implores that Deity to do with him or her that which He requires. A good example of this lies within the personal writings of the 15 th century founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) St Ignatius of Loyola: 24

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You gave it all to me; to you Lord I give it all back. All is yours, dispose of it entirely according to your will.

In the 14 th century anonymous work ‘The Book of Privy Counselling’ by the same author as ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ it is suggested that we: 25

Look up joyfully, then, and say to your Lord, in words of desire: That which I am, I offer to you, O Lord, for you are it entirely.

About the same time as this was being written, in Germany’s Rhineland John Tauler was composing his sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent in which he wrote: 26

It is little we can bring to pass; but our will and desire may be large ... wherefore

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our part is to give ourselves over to God, and leave ourselves utterly in His hands, being wholly His. .. Therefore be God's; yield to His hand, suffer Him to do in thee, and to thee, and with thee, what He will; and then nothing here or hereafter shall be able to confound you.

…and from the pen of St Teresa of Ávila, the prominent 16 th century Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, we were instructed to: 27

...a full surrender to (God), so that He may do what he wants with the soul.

She also suggested: 28

Leave the soul in God’s hands, let him do whatever He wants with it, with the greatest disinterest about your own benefit as is possible and the greatest resignation to the will of God.

So this is the objective; to give our whole being to God. In fact, our innermost desire, in everything that we do, should always be to meet this objective as Thomas Merton recommended: 29

...in all things, in your interior life and in your outward works for God, you desire only one thing, which is fulfilment of His will.

Expanding this thought in much more emotional language, Joel Goldsmith beseeched his God to: 30

Mold me to thy will; bend me to thy will; make me yield myself unto thy will, and not mine, be done in me. Let me not have a will of my own; let me not have a desire; let me not have a wish: Let me completely yield myself to Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and be a beholder of what takes place in my life as I permit an All-knowing, All-power, All-presence govern my life.

And in very graphical words Thomas A Kempis wrote: 31

As I, with hands outstretched and body naked ... offered myself to God my Father…

Further, in the same book ‘The Imitation of Christ ‘, he also remarked: 32

I would keep nothing from Thee, Freely and willingly as on an altar I sacrifice myself, my all to thee

As far back as around 600 BC Zarathustra, also known as Zoroaster, was making his personal sacrifice to God: 33

1. Herewith, do I give to Thee 2. O Ye Bountiful Immortals! 3. Sacrifice and homage 4. With the Mind, 5. With Words, with Deeds, 6. And with my entire person,

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7. Yea, 8. I do offer unto Thee 9. The very flesh of my body 10. As Thine own.

Finally, in terms of surrender to God’s Will, I will quote from Jacob Boehme’s book ‘The Way to Christ’ in which he declares that the mystic: 34

...give himself wholly and completely to God’s grace.

In order to achieve this it appears to be necessary to forego one’s own will and merge it with the Divine Will. Margery Kempe, who, in the beginning of the 15 th century, wrote her autobiography, and in it prayed: 35

Good Jesus, make my will your will, and your will my will, that I have no will but your will alone.

This, of course, presupposes that Jesus the Nazarene and God are one and the same. This strange interpretation of the spirituality of Jesus the Nazarene did not affect the Sufi’s, who have always looked towards melding their will with that of their God. Nur ad-Din Abd ar- Rahman Jami, commonly known as Jami, one of the greatest Persian poets in the 15th century and one of the last great Sufi poets, wrote, according to Margaret Smith: 36

The Sufi has no individual will; his will is obliterated in the Will of God, nay, indeed, his will is the very Will of God.

It is likely that the Will of God and the will of man are so different in terms of their purity that the latter must go through some sort of purification process. At least, I think that this was in the mind of St Augustine when, in his ‘Confessions’ he requested of God: 37

Power of my soul, enter into it, and fit it for Thee, that Thou mayst have and hold it without spot or wrinkle.

...and he had previously exclaimed: 38

How did I burn then, my God, how did I burn to re-mount from earthly things to Thee, nor knew I what Thou wouldest do with me?

This total surrender - not caring whether the consequences are good or bad for the individual - forms part of aspirations of the mystic. John Tauler, in his second sermon for Epiphany said of those who receive Divine Light: 39

...are content to say in all matters, "As God will": in quiet or in disquiet; for their sole delight is the holy and excellent will of God.

…and even during those difficult times which affect everyone, don’t despair. This is not too difficult if your heart is filled with love. This was the view given by the spirit teacher White Eagle who summed it up as: 40

Those whose hearts are filled with love are never daunted, are not cast down; they

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do not give way to unworthy fears, either about themselves, their physical bodies, or the welfare of those they love, because they have been quickened by divine light and power, and therefore nothing can go wrong. ... If only you had the strength to live always within the peace of God, to live in the truth - thy will not mine.

Another way of expressing this love was given by the Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Dom Aelred Graham: 41

For a mystic is one with an instinctive knowledge and love of heavenly things, that is, who lives habitually under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It appears that love and Divine Will can be considered as being synonymous. From the first two commandments we have the instruction from Jesus the Nazarene to: 42

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jacob Boehme, in a letter to an enquirer, followed this command and wrote: 43

May the open fountain in the heart of Jesus Christ refresh us, and lead us to Himself that we may live in His power, and rejoice in Him; that so we may love and understand one another, and enter into one only will.

Some, such as John Tauler, consider love and Divine Will to be separate: 44

That man is most truly of God who works all his works out of love, and gives up his will to the will of his Heavenly Father.

However we think of love and God’s Will, it is important that we live our lives according to their dictates. In this way we can be certain of receiving all the help we need. On this Evelyn Underhill remarked: 45

On our souls too the Divine Charity must be incarnate.

Everything hinges on the development of our soul; this being the objective of our earthly life. Each step of this difficult journey increases our understanding of God’s will and therefore takes us closer to our Life’s Objectives. This ‘purification’ is vital to the mystic’s progress. St John of the Cross understood this and wrote: 46

…when the soul rids itself totally of that which is repugnant to the Divine will and conforms not with it, it is transformed in God through love.

Quoting words by Evelyn Underhill, Brenda Blanch advised us that there are the two great phases in the education of every mystic: 47

…and they are called in the language of the mystics the purification of the senses and the purification of the will.

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She went on further to say: 48

We begin therefore to see that the task of union with Reality will involve certain stages of preparation as well as stages of attainment: and the stages of preparation - for some disinterested souls easy and rapid, for others long and full of pain - may be grouped under two heads. First, the disciplining and simplifying of the attention, which is the essence of Recollection. Next, the disciplining and simplifying of the affections and will, the orientation of the heart; which is sometimes called by the formidable name of Purgation.

Thus through changing our attitudes and characteristics we can come closer to what we understand to be a more pure soul. This cleansing process allows us to eliminate from ourselves all those things which centre on our ego; the ‘I’, and if we can reach this stage of development then we are able to start to recognise what God’s Will is and implement it. Thomas A Kempis associated this with being ‘learned’: 49

Truly learned too is he, Who does God's will, Letting his own will go.

I don’t think that this is the same use of the word ‘learned’ which we have in the 21 st century. I would interpret this as referring to those people who have ‘seen the light’ and are set on the spiritual pathway; those to whom Meister Eckhart referred: 50

This is what someone said who wanted to begin a new life afresh and I replied: we must become somebody who seeks and finds God in all things and at all times, in all places, in all company and in all ways. Then we shall always be able to grow and increase unceasingly and without end.

Awareness is the trigger. We need to come to terms with our whole being and what this life we lead is all about; why are we here? This type of internal questioning is necessary before we start to investigate the ‘meaning of life’ and from these small beginnings we start to delve. This happens to us all and Meister Eckhart, according to Evelyn Underhill, wrote: 51

"In the book of Hidden Things it is written," says Eckhart, "I stand at the door and knock and wait' ... thou needst not seek Him here or there: He is no farther off than the door of the heart. There He stands and waits and waits until He finds thee ready to open and let Him in. Thou needst not call Him from a distance; to wait until thou openest is harder for Him than for thee. He needs thee a thousand times more than thou canst need Him. Thy opening and His entering are but one moment."

During the enhancement of our spirituality which follows on from being aware, we start to ‘feel’ the presence of Spirit. One of Meister Eckhart’s acolytes, John Tauler, in his sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity explained this in relation to Divine Will: 52

But now begin again, and give thyself to Him afresh; yield thyself captive to the Divine Will in rightful allegiance, and trust thyself to the power of thy Father, who has all power and might, and whose presence thou hast so often and so plainly felt, and art yet made to feel every day and hour. Trust Him wholly, and seek His

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righteousness. For therein is His righteousness shown, that He abideth ever with those who heartily seek Him, and make Him their end, and give themselves up to Him. In such He reigns, and all vain care falls away of itself in those who thus keep close to God in true self-surrender.

Taking the Giver’s perspective, the 15 th century mystic Margery Kempe ‘heard’ these words as she believed, from her God: 53

...for I take no heed of what you have been but what you would be.

How reassuring! There is always a point when we start to spiritually advance and when we look back from that point, we can recall all those things which we ought not to have done. Don’t worry about the past; it is the future that is important and the purification steps that you are destined to take. These steps were summarised by White Eagle: 54

Seek the will of God, and not self-will.

Walking the Mystic Way leads us through a number of stages until we arrive, through implementing the Divine Will, at the point of Union with God. This, said St John of the Cross, is the crux of mysticism: 55

For the whole business of attaining to union with God consists in purging the will from its affections and desires; so that thus it may no longer be a base, human will, but may become a Divine will, being made one with the will of God.

I seem to be using many different words to represent the same concept; love, purification of our Self, Divine Will and now Union with God. Perhaps this again emphasises the difficulty that mystics and their biographers have in describing their mystical experiences. Some writers, such as Saskia Murk Jansen, when recording the lives of the Beguines 56 , did link some of these ideas: 57

...among the Beguines for whom love means having the same will as God which is itself union.

Most only go as far as linking two of these notions. The Anglican friar Henry Ernest Hardy, whose religious name was Father Andrew, associated Union and Will: 58

The rest of the will is its union with the will of God. Thus it is most active and energetic when it is most at rest, and most at rest when it has attained to its true end, which is union with the will of God.

This is interesting as he has associated union of the mystic with the Will of God rather than directly with the Creator. John Tauler used a similar phraseology when he wrote: 59

To this state a man cannot attain except he unite his will with God, with an entire renunciation and perfect denial of himself, and all selfish love of himself; and all delight in having his own will be over-mastered and quenched by the shedding abroad in his heart of the Holy Spirit in the love of God, so that it seem as though the Holy Spirit Himself were the man's will and love, and he were nothing and willed nothing on his own account

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This is another interesting angle on the use of the word union. Most mystics have the main thrust of Union to be direct Union with God – the link of a man’s soul with his Creator; a fusion of two energies. I believe this is what Margaret Smith meant when she referred to the New Testament 1 John 4; 7,8: 60

This unitive life, lived in God, means an ever-present sense of the Divine power working within.

This living link between what is considered to be the Divine Will and our own self-will changes as time goes on. We become more and more dependent upon our inspirer and guide throughout everything we do. F P Harton captured this in his book ‘The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology’: 61

...the true dependence of the soul upon God ... fosters the right use of the will in faithful abandonment to the will of God in all matters and at all time, and so deepens the union between the soul and God which is the function of grace to actualise.

Because of this reliance, our gratitude to the helping Spirit also deepens which Thomas A Kempis expressed as: 62

But what am I to give Thee for this kindness, For charity so excellent? Nothing more grateful can I offer Him, Than wholly to give up my heart to God, joining it closely unto His.

According to W. H. Dyson, Thomas represented this feeling of gratitude in a prayer: 63

Blessed be Thou my God; for although I be unworthy of any benefits: yet Thy nobleness and infinite kindness never ceases to do good even to the ungrateful and to those who are turned away far from thee. Turn Thou us unto Thee, that we may be thankful, humble and devout; for thou art our salvation, our courage and our strength

This implies that through whatever means available, our Divine Source is drawing us towards our goal. In their guide to Sikhism, Kanwaljit Kaur and Indarjit Singh, stressed this particular point in another prayer: 64

O true King, O loved Father, we have sung thy sweet hymns, heard Thy life-giving Word, and have discoursed on Thy manifold blessings. May these things find a loving place in our hearts and serve to draw our souls towards Thee.

Probably more forcibly Lumsden Barkway used the ideas of Evelyn Underhill to state: 65

Incited by God, yet of its own free choice responding to that incitement, the fugitive and derivative creature draws near to the Unconditioned and Unchanging, and feed directly on the Divine Generosity; that, purified, transformed and strengthened, it may take up in its turn the vocation of charity and give itself without stint.

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This touches on the fact that one of our reasons for being on earth is, according to our abilities and opportunities, to serve humanity as best we can. Superimposed on this is the requirement to know and execute the ‘goodness’ within us as indicated by the Divine Will. This dual responsibility was mentioned in ‘No Man is an Island’ by Thomas Merton: 66

Always, and in all things, God's will for me is that I should shape my own destiny, work out my own salvation, forge my own eternal happiness, in the way He has planned it for me. .. Everything that God wills in my life is directed to this double end: my perfection as part of a universal whole, and my perfection in myself as an individual person...

Through giving ourselves to service to others we are progressing towards our Life’s Objectives. We cannot do this unaided. We need the help of Spirit, not only to stimulate us to start our journey but to continue with it day-by-day as St John of the Cross realised and recorded in his introduction to ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’: 67

A work of this magnitude must be begun by God, and accomplished by Him.

Another great mystic Jacob Boehme had similar thoughts: 68

Give me however Your lovebeams and lead me through this pilgrim’s path. Awake and bring forth within me whatever You will do through me.

This should not, however, remove from us our own personal responsibility which we have taken upon ourselves by forging this spiritual pathway. We must strive to determine and implement the Divine Will as the mystic William Law recommended: 69

Until, therefore, a man can show that he sincerely endeavours to live according to the will of God, to be that which God requires him to be; until he can show that he is striving to live according to [God]; whosoever he be, or wheresoever he be, he has all that to answer for, that they have, who refuse to live, who abuse the greatest trusts, and neglect the highest calling in the world.

This mystic path is not for everyone and, according to the 16 th century Italian Protestant Reformation clergyman Jerome Zanchius, perhaps God does not expect every soul, at a specific point in time, to follow the Mystic Way: 70

Since, as was lately observed, the determining will of God being omnipotent cannot be obstructed or made void, it follows that He never did, nor does He now, will that every individual of mankind should be saved. If this was His will, not one single soul could ever be lost (for who hath resisted His will?), and He would surely afford all men those effectual means of salvation, without which it cannot be had.

This idea that only some may participate in the Mystic Way has been a feature of many religious movements. The very influential Algerian Berber philosopher and theologian St Augustine believed that only the righteous can enter the ‘City of God’ and that all others are forever banished: 71

The city of God is the city of the righteous, a city pervaded by a system of right

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relations which unites God and His angels and the saints in heaven with the righteous on earth. It is a city of the Universe; and yet it does not embrace the whole Universe, for it excludes the fallen angels, the souls of the unrighteous, and the unrighteous who are living on earth.

I do not believe this to be true; the gate to the Mystic Way will open to everyone and anyone who wants to walk the spiritual pathway. Lumsden Barkway, using phrases from Evelyn Underhill, explained that the spiritual life: 72

…is not an aristocratic life. It is a life of which the fundamentals are given by the simplest kinds of traditional piety, and have been exhibited over and over again by the simplest souls. In unconditional self-surrender to the Divine Will, under whatever symbols it may be thought of; for we know that the very crudest of symbols is often strong enough to make a bridge between the heart and the Eternal and so be a vehicle of the Spirit of Life. A little silence and leisure. A great deal of faithfulness, kindness and courage. All this is within the reach of any one who cares enough for it to pay the price.

…and from a different book, Evelyn reiterated her view that: 73

Only those who place themselves in the hands of God without reserve and without fear are going to be used by Him...

Another 20 th century mystic Joel Sol Goldsmith, who was the founder of the Infinite Way movement, also put the onus upon each of us: 74

The secret of the spiritual life is to recognise consciously - consciously realise, accept and declare - our oneness with our infinite, immortal, eternal Source, and accept the scriptural statement that all that the Father has is ours and that the place whereon we stand is holy ground.

So the buck stops with you! Do you want to become a devout person; one who tries as best you can to do the Will of God? William Law defined such a person relative to the Divine Will: 75

Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God. He, therefore, is the devout man who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God; who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety, by doing everything in the Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory.

This is a step along the very, very long way. Even those who are able to affect God’s will are not there yet, as Meister Eckhart remarked: 76

I tell you by the eternal truth that as long as you have the will to perform God's will, and a desire for eternity and for God, you are not yet poor. They alone are poor who will nothing and desire nothing.

Although Mother Teresa, according to Malcolm Muggeridge was able to describe a devout

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:25 20.8 Mysticism and Divine Will Page 13 of 26 person someone where: 77

True holiness consists in doing God's will with a smile.

We all have different degrees of holiness; we are all at different stages in our spiritual development. Because of this, we can only achieve what we are able. That is why Zodiac, a spirit teacher, requested of his God: 78

...use us in the degree that we have made ready.

Of course, this is not a static situation. We can achieve a lot more, the more we develop our spirituality. In other words, looking at it from the other direction, the more we develop the more is expected of us. The well respected modern day mystic Teilhard de Chardin put it slightly differently: 79

It was a joy to me, O God, in the midst of the struggle, to feel that in developing myself I was increasing the hold that you have upon me; it was a joy to me, too, under the inward thrust of life or amid the favourable play of events, to abandon myself to your providence,

In a similar vein, F. P. Harton wrote: 80

...as the habitual action of God in the soul increases, its prayer comes to depend more on His action than its own, and He fills it more and more continuously with awareness of and desire for Him

I would not express it quite like that. I would follow the lead of William Law who stated that those who live according to Divine Will: 81

…are those, of whom much will be required, because much is given to them.

All of the above presupposes that we can develop ourselves so that we become more spiritual or that we can implement what is expected of us. In the classical expression of the mystic, ‘Thy Will not mine’. This phrase was used by Christine Page when she gave us a few optional phrases, which had been given to her, and which we may wish to choose in order to move spiritually forward: 82

Your responsibility is to make your way to the door and prepare yourself for the journey and then with humility wait patiently for the right time to pass through the doorway. So set an intention that cannot fail such as: * Let Divine Order and Divine Love work out * May I live out my Soul's incarnation * Thy Will not my will

How can we do these things? I will try to give as concise and accurate answer as possible. Firstly, try to understand what you are and identify what you would like to be. This may be as simple as ‘I am often impatient when walking in crowded places’ therefore one of my objectives is that I must try to be more tolerant of others around me. If you look at all the chapters that I have written for you in the two sections on ‘Love’ and look at yourself with

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:25 20.8 Mysticism and Divine Will Page 14 of 26 these as a mirror, then you will be able to see what you need to do to change your characteristics for the better. Through this process two aspects of your life will start to crystallise – your conscience and your Philosophy of Life. These are the two parameters which you use in assessing your thoughts, words and deeds. They represent the boundaries of your pathway. If you veer away from the ‘straight and narrow’ you will bump into the sides and be set back on course – these sides are your combined conscience and Philosophy of Life. The development of these leads you to understand the rules which allow you to test whether you are implementing the Divine Will or your own will and you will be able to recognise the fulcrum which you currently have between the material and the spiritual. Evelyn Underhill recognised that this point of balance, according to Lumden Barkway, will change as you progress: 83

As it advances, the soul becomes ever more flexible, more able to combine the uncalculating, genial life of service with a secret and austere renunciation; and the line between God's impulse and its own willed and generous action grows even thinner, until at last a stable union between spirit and Spirit is achieved.

…and from another anthology of Evelyn Underhill’s works, Brenda Blanch wrote that one way of changing this position is to look at things, persons and choices from the point of view of eternity: 84

For though we may renounce the world for ourselves, refuse to attempt to get anything out of it, we have to accept it as the sphere in which we are able to cooperate with the spirit, and try to do the Will.

In fact it is our learning sphere. We are living in the temporal in order to fit us for the eternal. Thus we should not despise the material and the world in which we live, but cherish it and develop our spirituality consciously. In this way we will be helped to live both lives effectively, as the barefooted French Carmelite monk known as Brother Lawrence suggested: 85

That we ought to give ourselves up to God, with regard both to things temporal and spiritual, and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will...

Therefore we have to realise that we are not on our own – we have spiritual help all the way along our journey. The more we develop, according to Dr. Christine Page, the more we are given: 86

But it became clear that the more I let go of control, the more new doors opened and the more I tried to use my will to determine my future, the more I met with brick walls.

Give yourself to implementing your philosophy and you will find that the balance will slowly but surely move away from the material. Sophy Burnham, an American spiritual author, related an experience of a Mrs Edwards who realised that: 87

…the glory of God had swallowed up every desire in her heart. All she wanted to do was God's will.

This is where it starts to get a little easier – the process that is not necessarily the tasks. You

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:25 20.8 Mysticism and Divine Will Page 15 of 26 are different from when you started your journey; you have changed. You have brought your will under control as was considered necessary by John Tauler who, in his sermon for Whit Sunday, said: 88

Wherefore I say too, that inasmuch as the disciples surrendered themselves utterly to the Divine Will, they were in the highest sense in harmony with nature; and their nature did not perish, but was exalted and brought into rightful order. There were no fewer images in their minds than before; but the images did not disturb their inward harmony or move them out of God. And when I said that their minds were to be emptied of images, it is to be understood in this sense, that it was just as when you set a lighted taper at midday in the sunshine, the taper continues to burn, and sheds forth no less light than it did before ; but its light is lost in the sunshine, because the greater light prevails over the lesser and absorbs it, so that it no longer seems to shine with a separate lustre, but is diffused and shed forth in the greater light. Thus I said of images and of creatures in the case of the disciples, that henceforth they performed all their works by means of the Divine light, and yet were much more according to nature, and their minds were as full of images as before.

Tempering one’s self in terms of doing what our philosophy considers to be ‘good’, leads us always to pursue the path that enhances our ‘goodness’. Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows phrased that as: 89

If man pursues only the path of good he cannot reap anything but good. Adherence to this rule is man's obedience to the law, otherwise known as the will of God.

This, as the Anglican priest and an emeritus professor at Cambridge University Don Cupitt recalled, may lead us into the same paradox as identified by the 18 th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. He recognised that: 90

…the habitual exercise of the good will is the only route by which we can gradually approximate to holiness, and yet in a sense the good will already presupposes the holy will.

Certainly we have to start somewhere, but once we have the initial momentum we will be helped to maintain our spiritual course. This means not just talking about what we believe but ‘walking the talk’ – living our philosophy; as Beatrice Russell was advised by her spirit communicator: 91

Let your passionate longing for surrender to God become a living truth...

This will happen if you hold your measure of goodness in your mind at all times. Put in theological terms in ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ this becomes: 92

Let nothing except God hold sway in your mind and heart.

And from the East, Shankara Acharya’s ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’ indicates that: 93

Ceasing to follow the way of the world, ceasing to follow the way of the body, ceasing to follow the way of tradition, set thyself assiduously to follow the Self .

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So as we progress the balance continues to shift away from the material and towards the spiritual; away from the ‘self’ and towards the Divine Will. Following this, will lead to what Evelyn Underhill describes as our desires changing from self-will to God’s Will: 94

…the work that we love done with zest and care, but done God's way not ours, at His pace not ours, for His glory not ours, and laid down without reluctance, as the movement of the Will demands.

Whatever we think, say or attempt to do must be within the boundaries of our philosophy; within what our conscience believes to be good. This is another way of interpreting ‘doing God’s Will’. Resigning to the Will in this way, all our difficulties melt into insignificance, as White Eagle suggested: 95

The answer to the problems of every soul is to surrender to the Will of God.

…which, as Terry Tastard saw in Galatians 2.20, it followed the realisation of St Paul: 96

I live now not my own life but with the life of [God] who lives in me

We will never be able to realise the degree of spirituality which many mystics and saints achieved; perfection is a long way down the road which we are travelling. Nevertheless, we must try as best we can to move our lives forward for the better as described in ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 97

A heart is called perfect when it is devoid of all natural impulse towards any thing or any image; a heart like a well polished tablet on which, being clean, God inscribes His laws.

As an aside this is a similar notion to that described in Chapter 19 of the Tao Te Ching where reference is made to an ‘uncarved block’ and where individuals return to their non- material ambitions: 98

Banish wisdom, discard knowledge And the people will be benefited a hundredfold. Banish human kindness, discard morality, And the people will be dutiful and compassionate. Banish skill, discard profit, And thieves and robbers will disappear. If when these three things are done they find life too plain and unadorned, Then let them have accessories; Give them Simplicity to look at, the Uncarved Block to hold, Give them selflessness and fewness of desires.

We can only do as much as we are able within the constraints of our knowledge, talents and our spirituality. Dionysius the Areopagite in the late 5 th and early 6 th centuries, according to Thomas Aquinas, also reckoned that we are nowhere near the perfection to which we currently aim: 99

The same things are like and unlike to God; like, according as they imitate Him, as

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far as they can, who is not perfectly Imitable; unlike, according as effects fall short of their causes.

‘Do what you can’ is also the view that Brother Lawrence adopted: 100

...I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him. I hope that when I have done what I can, He will do with me what He will.

Accept your life for what it is; don’t bemoan it. It may not have been or is currently everything that you dream of, but it is yours and you must make of it the best you can. The more mystical you become, the more you will put these feelings behind you and you will start to live life differently. This outward life, the life steeped in material elements was referred to in the Theologia Germanica: 101

So that the outward man saith in sincerity "I have no will to be or not to be, to live or die, to know or not to know, to do or to leave undone and the like; but I am ready for all that is to be, or ought to be, and obedient thereunto, whether I have to do or to suffer." And thus the outward man hath no wherefore or purpose, but only to do his part to further the Eternal Will. For it is perceived of a truth, that the inward man shall stand immoveable, and that it is needful for the outward man to be moved.

This looks at the two aspects of our life; the material and the spiritual. It puts the onus upon each of us to change our perspective of the material world in order to focus aright on the spiritual. This does not mean that we must forsake everything associated with the physical world. What we must do is to change our attitude to it; thereby we can live a more spiritual philosophy – doing those things that we have been sent to do. The way that many mystics relate to this is through ideas such as Algar Labouchere Thorold discovered in the spiritual letters of Père De Causade. In one such letter to Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Bellière he wrote: 102

Let God act; place no obstacles through your natural activity to His holy operation, and be faithful to him in the slightest things

We can see, through Evelyn Underhill’s eyes, this sort of thing played out in the lives of the saints and mystics of whom she said: 103

…persons whose lives of worship made them tools of God.

…and the only way for us to get anywhere near reaching this state is to put our total trust in God and His agents. This was the way Jacob Boehme suggested that everyone ought to: 104

…stand firm and hold God’s promise as a certain, unfailing truth and give himself to Him

How do we ‘give ourselves to Him’? Can we determine the Divine Will? There are three primary routes.

Firstly, which I will leave discussion of until a later chapter, is through the inspirations that you receive during your sleep-state. Often they are most apparent at the point at which you

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:25 20.8 Mysticism and Divine Will Page 18 of 26 are dropping off to sleep and at the moments when you are starting to awaken

Secondly, be aware of what is happening to and around you. This might seem very trite, but it is one way in which God’s agents nudge you into the right action. If you are meant to follow a particular pathway then things will happen in your day-to-day life which point you in that direction. If, for instance, you are meant to develop your spiritual counselling skills you may find that you will be asked by different people, within a short period of time, for your advice. Make sure that you look at such occurrences and gain the best from them – don’t miss a nudge.

Thirdly, take your contemplation, meditation and prayer seriously. It is through these combined or separate activities that the higher spirits will inspire you. Also you can communicate in a much less structured way by just talking to your guides and helpers as friends and colleagues. In the words given to Stephen Connor: 105

We ought to seek from God what is his very dearest will.

This structured ‘seeking’ ought to be frequent and regular – you are making a date with a fellow spirit and it is your responsibility to honour that appointment. Perhaps once or twice a day is as much as most of us could sit in contemplation. Some may sit more often but perhaps not as much as was suggested by Jacob Boehme: 106

For in his ‘Supersensual Life’ the Master says to the disciple who has asked, 'How shall I be able to live aright amid all the anxiety and tribulation of this world?': 'If thou dost once every hour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures into the abysmal mercy of God ... Then thou shalt receive power from above...'

So we must, as Teilhard de Chardin recommended: 107

…find and do the will of God...

…and he went on to say that this:

…does not imply either a direct encounter or a passive attitude.

Our purpose and objective, wherever we may be, is to try to understand what our aims are and then to live by them. Perhaps that this ought to be the subject of our petitions as Laurie Worger suggested: 108

Ask that God's will may be done in you and that you may know His will and purpose for you.

John of Ávila, born at the end of the 15 th century, became a renowned Spanish priest, preacher, scholastic author, and mystic used, in one of his ‘Cartas Espirituales’, a potter’s analogy to describe our desired to be shaped by God’s Will: 109

Submit yourself entirely to the will of God, and turn yourself round like a piece of clay and say to the Lord: I am clay and you, Lord, the potter: make of me what you will.

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Teresa of Avila also has instructed us as to the whole aim of any person who is beginning contemplative prayer 110

…should be that he work and prepare himself with determination and every possible effort to bring his will into conformity with God’s will.

Thus, through contemplation, we become aware of the inspirations from our spirit guides and helpers and from which we can develop an understanding of our required spiritual direction. We may not obtain a perfect grasp of what we are being advised, but at least we can have some idea of what the Divine requires of us. This was a reassurance that Thomas Merton gave: 111

It is true that we do not always know what the will of God for us really is. Perhaps we know it far less often than we imagine. That does not mean that we must not seek to know it.

There is one important caveat which I must emphasise when following guidance that you have been given through Spirit. This was highlighted by the epistle writer John: 112

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

This you must do. Question the advice that you have been given according to your knowledge, experience and reason. If there is any doubt, wait until you feel happy about what has been told. If the inspiration is correct and is meant to be, then it will come again from a difference source and in a different guise.

Another trap that you must not fall into is to not confuse the joy that you get from being of service to others with the necessary implementation of the Divine Will; the pleasure may be self satisfying. This problem was stressed in the introduction to Susanna Winkworth’s book about ‘The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler’: 113

...of mistaking the pleasure they feel in the performance of duty, for real submission to the Will of God;

Thus knowing His Will is not easy, but once we have found our own mechanism of determining what it is, then we will progress in leaps and bounds – because we are being directed. In a letter to an enquirer, Jacob Boehme wrote: 114

...and I resigned myself wholly to Him, that I might not live to my own will, but to His; and that He only might lead and direct me…

Similarly did Jack Deere, the pastor and theologian from the USA, advise us: 115

Put your confidence in His ability to lead you, not in your ability to follow.

Teilhard de Chardin expanded this in his inimitable style: 116

At the root of this invasion [of me by God] and envelopment I can distinguish, I believe, the rapidly increasing importance that was being assumed in my spiritual

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life by the sense of 'the Will of God': fidelity to the Divine Will. By which I mean fidelity to a directed and realised omnipresence, which can be apprehended both actively and passively in every element of the World and in all its events.

All this inspired direction is limited by what we are able to receive or should I say, by our degree of spiritual attainment. Aldous Huxley agreed with this and noted: 117

Grace and inspiration are given when, and to the extent to which, a human being gives up self-will and abandons himself, moment by moment, through constant recollectedness and non-attachment, to the will of God.

There is a strong relationship between self-will, Divine Will and freedom. The less our self-will dominates, the more the Divine Will is in control and the greater freedom we will feel. This is an echo of what the spirit communicator who used Irene Bays as a channel conveyed: 118

Free will which if used as it should be, will be handed back to the Father; will be handed back to the Creator, in order that His will may be yours. And by doing so you gain freedom.

This liberation is very uplifting; it is knowing that nothing that befalls you is important and that as Ralph Waldo Trine expounded, everything is possible: 119

God's Will is then your will; your will is God's Will, and "with God all things are possible"

Freedom soon ushers in tranquillity and peace. You will have a frame of mind which is unflappable; for others you become a rock to cling to in the storms of life. Père De Caussade talked about this peace in a letter to Sister Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux: 120

You do well to attach yourself strongly and, as it were, uniquely to the excellent practice of a complete self-abandonment to the will of God. There lies for you the whole of perfection; it is the easiest road which leads soonest and most surely to a deep and invariable peace.

Freedom, peace, in fact anything can we gain if we trust in Spirit and lead our life according to the Will; of God. Emile Cammaerts, the Belgian academic, briefly said: 121

To obtain anything, we must give everything to God.

How this will change our lives! We are moving from a cerebral activity of thinking about God and all that that entails, to an active life where whatever we do reflects our Creator. In the preface to Jacob Boehme’s book ‘The Way to Christ’, Winifred Zeller wrote: 122

The primary consideration of the mystic and Boehme is thus not for a philosophical concept of God which defines God’s being, but for a genuine spiritual relationship by which man looks to God as the spiritual power which determines his will and changes his life.

We are now one of God’s choristers; we react to His orchestration and play our physical

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:25 20.8 Mysticism and Divine Will Page 21 of 26 instruments according to the Conductor’s aspirations. This metaphor, according to Evelyn Underhill, was used by Plotinus hundreds of years ago to convey a similar ideal: 123

We always move around the One, but we do not always fix our gaze upon it. We are like a choir of singers standing around the conductor, who do not always sing in time, because their attention is diverted to some external object. When they look at the conductor, they sing well and are really with him. So we always move around the One. If we did not, we should dissolve and cease to exist. But we do not always look towards the One. When we do, we attain the end of our existence and our rest; and we no longer sing out of tune, but form in truth a divine choir about the One.

Such metaphors help us to appreciate our relationship to our Source. However, we have to be careful when interpreting words laid down hundreds of years ago because their meaning may be distorted through our current and different use of language. A similar judgement has to be applied to words and phrases used by a third party when reporting what another has said. This happens a lot in the Scriptures of all the major religions. For example, the words used by Jesus the Nazarene and reported by the Epistle writers many years later, should be interpreted as conveying an idea of what was said but not necessarily using the exact words which were originally used. An example of this is from Leslie Weatherhead who explained: 124

Christ's reported word, "I and the Father are one," a statement found only in the fourth Gospel, may only have meant that He had attained a unity of spirit and purpose with God.

In other words Jesus the Nazarene had developed to such a degree that he was in complete Union with God and able to implement His Will. There is one phrase at least which seems to convey everything that any mystic seeks to attain and is recorded in the Paternoster – ‘Thy Will be done’. Whether these were the original words used does not matter, it is the sentiment which is conveyed which is important. These have been used by most mystics whether Christian or not, to indicate that they only desire to enact their God’s Will. In Evelyn Underhill’s treatise ‘Abba’ she wrote: 125

Be it unto me according to Thy Word - here, where I am. Not my will but Thine be done.

These exact words were repeated in Lumsden Barkway’s anthology of her works 126 and the spirit of them by Malcolm Muggeridge: 127

I can never find anything to say to God except: Thy will be done.

…and more fully, again, from Evelyn Underhill’s book ‘The Spiritual Life’: 128

I go back to the one perfect summary of man’s Godward life and call - the Lord’s Prayer. Consider how dynamic and purposive is its character. Thy Will be done - Thy Kingdom come! There is energy, drive, purpose in those words; an intensity of desire for the coming of perfection into life. Not the limp resignation that lies devoutly in the road and waits for the steam roller; but a total concentration on the total interests of God, which must be expressed in action. It is useless to utter fervent petitions for that Kingdom to be established and that Will be done, unless

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we are willing to do something about it ourselves.

This simple message ‘Thy Will be done’ is what I want you to remember from this chapter. Don’t forget it; have it emblazoned on your soul. You can forget all the often confusing words and paradoxes which mystics use to develop a greater understanding of their experiences. For example from ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’, St John of the Cross, when talking about beginners on the mystical pathway, reported that they tend to: 129

…measure Him by themselves, and not themselves by Him, in direct contradiction of His teaching in the gospel; ‘He that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it.’ That is, he who shall give up his will for God shall have it, and he who will have it, he shall have it never.

You will need to take the phrase ‘Thy Will be done’ and put it in the context of your own life and the environment in which you live and serve. Diana Cooper did and interpreted that: 130

'Let thy will be done' means 'help me to make the choices from my higher self.'

To the 16 th century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila it meant that: 131

...it is always best to leave ourselves in God's hands.

…and, according to Aldous Huxley, St. Jerome, a Christian priest born in the 4 th century, believed it to reflect: 132

All that is necessary is to look into one's own heart; for what God asks of us is not found at a great distance.

In my view of ‘Thy Will be done’ I hope that I have expressed within this chapter and that you can take some direction from it.

I will leave you with two additional thoughts. Firstly from Evelyn Underhill, who in her life expressed the essence of mysticism so very well, and who gave us this little prayer: 133

Let me ever look through and beyond circumstance to Thee, so that all I am and do may become more and more worthy of the God who is the origin of all.

And finally from Andrew Harvey’s book ‘The Way of Passion’ another wonderful prayer from the Sufi mystic and poet Rumi: 134

O love, O pure, deep love, be here, be now, be all. Worlds dissolve into your stainless, endless radiance. Frail living leaves burn with you brighter than cold stars, Make me your servant, your breath, your core.

1 Downloaded 9 th February 2015 from https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=deist 2 A Kippah is a hemispherical cap, usually made of cloth, worn by Jews to fulfill the customary requirement that the head be covered at times of prayer.

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3 A taqiyah is a short, rounded skullcap worn by Muslims who often wear them during the five daily prayers. 4 Wearing a Sikh turban is mandatory for all baptized Sikh men. 5 Downloaded 9 th February 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_of_God 6 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XVII - The Way of Life II, (Pg 87) 7 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter XIII - The hidden life of the soul, (Pg 169) 8 Idries Shah, The Elephant in the Dark, Octagon Press, 1985. Chapter 13, (Pg 57) 9 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Third Treatise on Holy Prayer with an Order for each day of the week (1624), (para 3) 10 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Ninth letter, (Pg 50) 11 Alan Young, Cosmic Healing, DeVorss & Co, 1988. 3 Lessons for the Aquarian Age - The Healer, (Pg 41) 12 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: IV Christ The Healer, (Pg 62) 13 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter One: As above, so below, (Pg 4) 14 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. LORD MOTHER – FIVE, (Pg 118) 15 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Twelfth Letter, (Pg 55) 16 Thomas Merton, A Secular Journal, The Catholic Book Club, 1959. Part One: Perry Street, New York (winter 1939 - 1940), October 22, 1939, (Pg 12) 17 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Tradition and Evolution, (Pg 12) 18 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 9, (Pg109) 19 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. The Fruits of the Spirit: Part I; V Meekness and Temperance, (Pg 37) 20 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter XXII, (Pg 312) 21 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XXII, (Pg 68) 22 Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabinranath Tagore, Macmillan & Co, 1958. Gitanjali, (XCIII) 23 The Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Beyond Life's Sunset, Psychic Press, Undated. Chapter VIII: Happiness in the Life Beyond Death, (Pg 57) 24 Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, Penguin Books, 1996. The Spiritual Exercises: Additional Material: Contemplation for attaining love, (Pg 329) 25 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Book of Privy Counselling: Chapter 1, (Pg 151) 26 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, (Pg 296) 27 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Sixth Dwelling Places - Chapter 5, (Pg 104) 28 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Fourth Dwelling Places - Chapter 3, (Pg 42) 29 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 16 - Freedom Under Obedience, (Pg 116) 30 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter SIX - Contemplative Meditation, (Pg 105) 31 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter VIII 32 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter XVII 33 The Zend Avesta of Zarathustra, International Biogenic Society, 1973. YASNA 9: YASNA XII, IV, (Pg 70) 34 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Third Treatise on Holy Prayer with an Order for each day of the week (1624), (para 12) 35 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. Book II: Chapter 10, (Pg 294) 36 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter IX - The Mystical Doctrines of Early Sufism, (Pg 207) 37 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Tenth, (I) 38 The Confessions of S. Augustine, Seeley & Co, 1909. Book the Third, (IV)

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39 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Second Sermon for Epiphany, (Pg 239) 40 Colum Hayward, Eyes of the Spirit, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1987. Chapter Five - The creative power of thought, (Pg 105) 41 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter One: What Is the Spiritual Life? (Pg 26) 42 Bible, New Testament, Matthew 22:37-40 43 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - Selections - A Letter to an Enquirer, (Pg 62) 44 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Second Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter. (Pg 333) 45 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter IV – Incarnate, (Pg 44 / 45) 46 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter V, (Pg 80) 47 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. Mysticism, (Pg 44) 48 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. Mysticism, (Pg 44/45) 49 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life. Chapter III 50 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 22 On finding the right path, (Pg 44 / 45) 51 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 133) 52 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 53 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. Book I: Chapter 36, (Pg 126) 54 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - XII: Prayer, (Pg 123) 55 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter XVI, (Pg 260) 56 The Beguines were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Northern Europe during the 13th–16th centuries and who lived in semi-monastic communities They did not take formal religious vows yet stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty and care of the poor and sick. 57 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 3 Four Lives: Four Texts, (Pg 77) 58 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. Growth in Holiness: V. Affective Prayer, (Pg 39) 59 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for St. Stephen's Day, (Pg 406) 60 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 48) 61 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part I - Chapter III Actual Grace, (Pg 28) 62 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter XIII 63 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter V - Mystical Theology, (Pg 60) 64 Kanwaljit Kaur and Indarjit Singh, Rehat Maryada: A guide to the Sikh way of life, The Sikh Cultural Society, 1974. Section 1: Sikhism and the Individual; I Study of the scriptures and meditation on God. – ARDAS, (Pg 3) 65 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. III The Church and Sacraments: II The Sacraments, the Channels of Love: The Christian Paradox (The Mystery of Sacrifice), (Pg 93) 66 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 4, Pure Intention, (Pg 56) 67 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Introduction, (Pg viii) 68 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The first treatise on True Repentance (1622), (para 50) 69 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter X 70 Jerome Zanchius, Absolute Predestination, Sovereign Grace Book Club, Undated. Observations on the Divine Attributes, Position 8, (Pg 32)

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71 St Augustine, The City of God (De Civitate Dei), J M Dent, 1945. Introduction [by Sir Ernest Barker], (Pg xvii) 72 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. IV The Spiritual Life: I Life, the School of Love: The Price of Love (The Life of the Spirit), (Pg 104) 73 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: VI The Cross and the Sacraments, (Pg 83) 74 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter ONE - Conscious Awareness, (Pg 10) 75 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter I - Christian Devotion, (Pg 1) 76 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. Selected German Sermons: Sermon 22, (Pg 204) 77 Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, Collins, 1973. Mother Teresa's Way of Love, (Pg 67) 78 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. A Prayer, (Pg 79) 79 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Part Two: The Divinisation of our Passivities, (Pg 89) 80 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part IV - Chapter XX Recollection, (Pg 281) 81 William Law, A serious call to a Devout & Holy Life, J M Dent, 1906. Chapter V - Devotion to God, (Pg 48) 82 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Seven - The Power of Intention, (Pg 162) 83 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VIII Service, The Activity of Love: Martha and Mary (Man and the Supernatural), (Pg 219) 84 Brenda Blanch, Heaven a Dance - An Evelyn Underhill Anthology, Triangle, 1992. The Spiritual Life, (Pg 18) 85 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Conversations - First Conversation, (Pg 16) 86 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Ten - Maintaining Energy, (Pg 212/213) 87 Sophy Burnham, The Ecstatic Journey, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997. Chapter 7 - The Sweetness of the Pain of Love, (Pg 143) 88 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Sermon for Whit Sunday, (Pg 351) 89 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter III: The Cosmic Law of Karma, (Pg 46) 90 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 11 The Justification of Faith, (Pg 155 /156) 91 Beatrice Russell, Beyond the Veils through Meditation, Lincoln Philosophical Research Foundation, 1986. Immortal Life, (Pg 40) 92 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 40, (Pg 100) 93 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Way of Liberation, (Pg 46) 94 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter V - The Will, (Pg 43) 95 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part One: What the Intuition is, and is not - IV: Realising the Source - The Christ Within, (Pg 32) 96 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 3 - Meister Eckhart and God the Ground of Our Being, (Pg 54) 97 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 66, (Pg 236) 98 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XIX, (Pg 166) 99 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. 29. Of the Likeness of Creatures, (Pg 143) 100 Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Spire Books, 2007. Second letter, (Pg 35) 101 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XXVIII, (Pg 94)

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102 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book II - The exercise of the virtue of Self-abandonment, Letter XIV - to Sister Anne-Marguerite Boudet de la Bellière, (Pg 61) 103 Evelyn Underhill, Worship, Nisbet, 1946. Part I; Chapter IX - The Principles of Personal Worship, (Pg 163) 104 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Second Treatise on True Repentance (1623), (para 13) 105 Stephen J Connor, Everything as Divine, Paulist Press, 1996. Part II: Selections from the Counsels on Discernment - Counsel 11. What a man should when God has hidden himself… (Pg 48) 106 Alexander Whyte, Jacob Behmen an appreciation, Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1895. (Pg 63) 107 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. Part Two: The Divinisation of our Passivities, (Pg 92) 108 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 10: Progress Towards the Light, (Pg 103) 109 Kathleen Pond(ed), The Spirit of the Spanish Mystics, Burns & Oates,1958. John of Avila - to a Young Lady: That it is not for Man to Choose His Cross, but to Carry the One God Gives Him. (Pg 62 / 63) 110 Teresa of Avila, Selections from The Interior Castle, Harper Collins, 2004. The Second Dwelling Places - Chapter 1, (Pg19) 111 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 4, Pure Intention, (Pg 49) 112 Bible, New Testament, John 4:1 113 Susanna Winkworth, The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler with 25 of his Sermons, H.R.Allenson, 1906. Introductory Notice respecting Tauler's Life and Times by the translator: (Pg 139) 114 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - Selections - A Letter to an Enquirer, (Pg 63) 115 Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Kingsway Publications, 1994. Chapter 14 - Developing Passion & Power, (Pg 199) 116 Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter, Collins, 1978. Part I: The Heart of Matter - III The Christic, or the Centrict b. The Universal Christ - 2. Conflict becomes Progress, (Pg 47) 117 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXI: Idolatry, (Pg 253) 118 Irene Bays, Entwining Lives, Stonecliffe Publishing, 1994. Part Three: Chapter XV - The Final Chapter (Discipline), (Pg 383) 119 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter IV - Fullness of Life - Bodily Health & Vigour. (Pg 81) 120 Algar Labouchere Thorold, The Spiritual Letters of Père De Causade, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. Book I - The esteem and love of Self-abandonment, Letter I - to Sister Elizabeth Bourcier de Monthureux, (Pg 1) 121 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter vii - Under God, (Pg 159) 122 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. Preface: (Winifred Zeller pg xiv) 123 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism 124 Leslie D Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic, Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. Chapter V: Christ and His Achievement, (Pg 87) 125 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter V - The Will, (Pg 41) 126 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VII Discipline, The Training in Love: Unconditional Loyalty (Abba), (Pg 201) 127 Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, Collins, 1973. Something Beautiful For God, (Pg 38) 128 Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life, Mowbray, 1984. Part Three: The Spiritual Life as Co-operation with God, (Pg 77) 129 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Book 1 - Chapter VIII – 3, (Pg 32) 130 Diana Cooper, A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Chapter One: As above, so below, (Pg 6) 131 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XIX, (Pg 84) 132 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 101) 133 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter III - The Name, (Pg 22) 134 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 11 - In Love, As Love, For Love

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20.9: Mysticism and The Dark Night

The words ‘light’ and ‘dark’ have been used extensively in mystical literature to denote being near to and far from God. From ‘Pathway of the Immortal’ by the renowned English mystic and teacher Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, it was explained that: 1

The light of day can only be understood after one has experienced the darkness of night.

Another reference to moving from the ‘dark’ was given in the poetical works of the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore: 2

Here I give back the keys of my door and I give up all claims to my house Now the day has dawned and the lamp that lit my dark corner is out. A summons has come and I am ready for my journey.

According to Judy Martin, he also, very cryptically, said in ‘Fireflies’: 3

The darkness of the night, like pain is dumb; the darkness of the dawn, like peace is silent.

…and from the young French mystic Simone Weil: 4

Affliction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than light in the utter darkness of a cell.

However, the phrase ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ has been attributed to the very influential 16 th Century Spanish Roman Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross. He was possibly stimulated by the prayer attributed to the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th centuries Dionysius the Areopagite: 5

O Trinity, Essence above all essence, and Deity above all deity, supremely best Guardian of the divine wisdom of Christians, direct us to the supremely unknown, superluminour, and most sublime height of mystical knowledge. There new mysteries - absolute and changeless mysteries of theology - are shrouded in the superluminous darkness of silence that teaches secretly in a most dark manner that is above all manifestation and resplendent above all splendour

This thought was confirmed by Dan Cohn-Sherbok who suggested that St John of the Cross based his writings: 6

…on the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius, he described the soul's journey as proceeding through the dark night of the spirit to a union with the divine in perfect love .

The Polish nun, Helen Kowalska, also known as St Faustina, also according to Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok stated that: 7

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...she received communications from Jesus, the Virgin Mother, her guardian angel as well as the saints; in addition, she experienced ecstatic visions, mystical transports, and prophetic insights. .. Yet like other mystics, Faustina believed that one must undergo the dark night of the soul before reaching a state of divine illumination.

It is surprising that in the Eastern Orthodox Church, as indicated by one of its monks: 8

...spirituality has not much emphasised the night of the soul.

The adherents to this religion will certainly have experienced this because the ‘dark night’ seems always to be part of the mystics’ journey. From the mystic St John of the Cross, came this beautiful poem: 9

1. On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings--oh, happy chance!— I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.

2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised--oh, happy chance!— In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.

3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me, Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.

4. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me-- A place where none appeared.

5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn, Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone, There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks; With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.

8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved. All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

The main thesis of the poem: 10

…can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God.

In order to explain this journey of the soul, referred to as ‘The Dark Night’, from its physical home to its union with God, St John, in 1584 / 85, subsequently wrote a treatise entitled ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’. It is from this that this chapter takes its title.

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Every mystic, often on more than one occasion during their earthly spiritual journey, has experienced this crisis; this dark night of the soul. Eckhart Tolle, a German-born resident of Canada, in one of his news letters, described ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ as: 11

…a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life…an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness. The inner state in some cases is very close to what is conventionally called depression. Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything. Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level. The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example if your child dies. Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning – and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you had given your life for some reason collapses. It can happen if something happens that you can’t explain away anymore, some disaster which seems to invalidate the meaning that your life had before. Really what has collapsed then is the whole conceptual framework for your life, the meaning that your mind had given it. So that results in a dark place. But people have gone into that, and then there is the possibility that you emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness. Life has meaning again, but it’s no longer a conceptual meaning that you can necessarily explain. Quite often it’s from there that people awaken out of their conceptual sense of reality, which has collapsed. They awaken into something deeper, which is no longer based on concepts in your mind. A deeper sense of purpose or connectedness with a greater life that is not dependent on explanations or anything conceptual any longer. It’s a kind of re- birth. The dark night of the soul is a kind of death that you die. What dies is the egoic sense of self. Of course, death is always painful, but nothing real has actually died there – only an illusory identity. Now it is probably the case that some people who’ve gone through this transformation realized that they had to go through that, in order to bring about a spiritual awakening. Often it is part of the awakening process, the death of the old self and the birth of the true self.

It is, in some respects, similar to acedia 12 which was originally noted as a problem among monks and other ascetics who maintained a solitary life. Of this, Abbot Christopher Jamison of the Benedictine Monastery, Worth Abbey, wrote: 13

It comes as quite a surprise to lay people to discover that monks and nuns really are haunted by the thought that this whole spiritual project is a waste of time.

It is a feeling that one’s whole Philosophy of Life has crumbled and that all those beliefs that we once had are of no value or even wrong. As recognised by counsellor and retreat leader Joyce Huggett, this was echoed by the psalmist David in his cry of bewilderment: 14

Why have you forgotten me? [Psalm 42: 9]

…when he believed that God had left him. Other Biblical writings seem to agree with this diagnosis. The previously destroyed ‘The Scripts of Cleophas’, which was given to the world again through the mediumship of Geraldine Cummins, supplement the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul to this extent, that they furnish an account of the Early Church and the Apostles from immediately after the death of Christ to St Paul's departure

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:53 20.9 Mysticism and The Dark Night Page 4 of 19 from Berea for Athens 15 . In these scripts Barnabas said to Paul: 16

The Holy Spirit hath withdrawn from thee for a short space, so that thou mightest stand alone, for only in that manner mayst thou learn thy strength and thy weakness...

Although neither David, in the psalm, nor Cleophas in his scripts used the term ‘darkness’ to convey their feelings, I’m sure that their anguish stemmed from a similar source. This link to God was understood by St John of the Cross, who said: 17

All these mentions of darkness signify the obscurity of the faith wherein the Divinity is concealed, when It communicates Itself to the soul…

This link between the apparent absence of God and ‘darkness’ was also established by the epistle writer John as identified in the 15 th century by the monk Thomas A Kempis: 18

He that followeth me walketh not in darkness

Perhaps, therefore, this departure of the essence of God is only imaginary and that in reality it is just a trial, a testing time, on our spiritual journey. This certainly is the view of Rick Warren, a senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California: 19

To mature your friendship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation - time when it feels as if he has abandoned or forgotten you. God feels a million miles away. St John of the Cross referred to these days of spiritual dryness, doubt, and estrangement from God as "the dark night of the soul." Henri Nouwen called them "the ministry of absence." A.W.Tozer called them "the ministry of the night." Others refer to "the winter of the heart".

Baron Von Hugel, Evelyn Underhill’s spiritual mentor, used the term ‘dryness’ to describe such a situation and said: 20

If, then, spiritual dryness is indeed inevitable in the life of prayer, we will be much helped to bear these desert stretches, by persistent recognition - hence also, indeed especially, in our times of fervour - of the normality and the necessity of such desolation. ... There are generally a weakness and an error at work within us, at such times, which considerably prolong the trouble, and largely neutralise the growth this very trouble would otherwise bring to our souls.

In describing John Wesley’s experiences of ‘dryness’, John M. Todd described it as: 21

...a period of disillusion, of doubt, of a growing belief that he lacked something essential, a knowledge of Christ. This is the classic sign of the passive night, bewilderment in the face of the disappearance of consolations previously experienced. In the life of the contemplative religious it involves simply a movement away from the experience of sweetness in religious exercises and in the daily religious life to an experience of dryness, a feeling of futility and a general inability to concentrate or to have any conscious conviction of the value of religious exercises.

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Another more up-to-date description of the ‘dark night’ comes from the pen of the inspirational teacher Michal Levin who described it as: 22

...the moment we all dread. You feel you can’t go on. You feel all power has deserted you. You feel you don’t know anything. You don’t understand. Your meditation doesn’t work – or you’ve never had any luck with a regular practice. The complexities of energy are beyond you, developing your spirituality is beyond you. This is the dark night of the soul. Scott Fitzgerald said, ‘In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning,’ And so it is. For everyone there comes a moment – it might be a very private moment – when you feel the fire has gone out, and you are facing the dark. You can’t go on, or you feel there is no point in going on. When you know and recognise this point in yourself, and you know how to deal with it, this is a most exciting place – you are on the brink of a breakthrough. It is part of a pattern.

In fact, Michal, in her book ‘Spiritual Intelligence’ 23 compares our spiritual growth to the seasons; spring where initial growth takes place, summer the growth; autumn is the harvest of your talents and winter is the dark night. But wait, spring is on the horizon where you will emerge all the stronger. This cycle may happen more than once. She also compares this growth to a coiled spring; where there is a repeating cycle, and yet upward, growth; that of death and rebirth.

However this event is described, it is usual for mystics of the past in particular to describe it as the ‘dark night’ or ‘dryness’. Whatever it is called, most, if not all, mystics have tried to tell us about it. Evelyn Underhill recognised in her book ‘Mysticism’: 24

…that mystics are above all things practical people. They do not write for the purpose of handing on a philosophical scheme, but in order to describe something which they have themselves experienced; something which they feel to be of transcendent importance for humanity. If, therefore, they persist - and they do persist - in using this simile of 'darkness' to describe their experience in contemplation, it can only be because it fits the facts.

In a later book, ‘The School of Charity’, she described the onset of ‘the dark night’: 25

Those who give themselves to the life of the spirit are brought bit by bit, as they can bear it and respond to it, to that crisis in which all they have won seems taken away from them.

Why should everyone who is trying to follow their spiritual pathway at some point feel the pressure of the dark night? The Right Reverend Hassan Barnaba Dehqani-Tafti who, from 1961 until his retirement in 1990, was the Anglican Bishop in Iran, reiterated this question and provided a straight forward answer: 26

Now your question why some are called to experience descent into dark depths of despair. First, I think in order that they may be privileged to understand one part of the work of Christ which is hidden from those who have never had such deep experiences. Second, in order that they may be able to help others who through

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circumstances have to suffer in special ways.

But I suppose for a definitive explanation I ought to revert to the person who coined the phrase in the first place; St John of the Cross. He suggested that there are three reasons in a soul’s progress for the appearance of a ‘dark night’: 27

We may say that there are three reasons for which this journey made by the soul to union with God is called night. The first has to do with the point from which the soul goes forth, for it has gradually to deprive itself of desire for all the worldly things which it possessed, by denying them to itself; which denial and deprivation are, as it were, night to all the senses of man. The second reason has to do with the means, or the road along which the soul must travel to this union -- that is, faith, which is likewise as dark as night to the understanding. The third has to do with the point to which it travels -- namely, God, Who, equally, is dark night to the soul in this life. These three nights must pass through the soul -- or, rather, the soul must pass through them -- in order that it may come to Divine union with God.

From this, it appears that the period in which we experience ‘the dark night’ is a test of our resolve and our spirituality. In Margaret Smith’s book ‘Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East’ she refers to Dionysius who proffered something similar: 28

Unto this darkness which is beyond light, the mystic must seek to come, and through loss of sight and knowledge, pass beyond to the vision of Thee which transcends sight and knowledge.

This implied act of surrender to the Creator has been recognised by many other mystics. Evelyn Underhill records that: 29

The act of complete surrender then, which is the term of the Dark Night, has given the self its footing in Eternity: its abandonment of the old centres of consciousness has permitted movement towards the new. In each such forward movement, the Transcendental Self, that spark of the soul which is united to the Absolute Life, has invaded more and more the seat of personality; stage by stage the remaking of the self in conformity with the Eternal World has gone on ...

…and she further remarked: 30

Thus with Suso, as with St. Catherine of Siena and other mystics whom we have considered, the travail of the Dark Night is all directed towards the essential mystic act of utter self-surrender;

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton also understood that surrender to God was the way forward: 31

We need to leave the initiative in the hands of God working in our souls either directly in the night of aridity and suffering, or through events and other men.

Patience too is required as this is a period of deep learning and continual growth. The soul does not cease its progress during the ‘dark night’ even though it may appear to do so. The

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:21:53 20.9 Mysticism and The Dark Night Page 7 of 19 anonymous author of the ‘The Book of Privy Counselling’, a companion book to ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, wrote that God: 32

...will sometimes go [as in the dark night] and sometimes come, that by both his presence and his absence he may prepare, educate, and fashion you in the secret depths of your spirit for this work of his. In the absence of all enthusiasm he will have you learn the real meaning of patience.

…and Peter Toon, a priest and advocate of traditional Anglicanism, also believed that growth will happen even in the ‘darkness’: 33

However, it is a serious mistake to think that only when we have the most moving insights, illuminations, humblings and inspirations are we being spiritually renewed within. The saints tell us that times of seeming barrenness and darkness are also times of spiritual transformation.

This apparent removal of the presence of God provides mental space for further reflection as St John of the Cross explained: 34

When the desires are quelled, and the sensible joy and consolation withdrawn, the understanding remains free and clear for the reception of the truth, for sensible joy and the desire or even of spiritual things darken and perplex by the mind, but the trials and aridities of sense also enlighten and quicken and the understanding in the words of Isaiah [Isa xxviii.19] ‘vexation alone shall give understanding in the hearing.’ Vexation shall make us understand how God in His divine wisdom proceeds to instruct a soul, emptied and cleansed-for such it must be before it can be the recipient of divine inflowing-in a supernatural way, in the dark and arid night of contemplation, which He did not do, because it was given up to its former sweetness and joy.

So the reason for the ‘dark night’ is not just to test us, but to give us further time for development and to contemplate what our next step will be. It is another strengthening and redirecting process as Thomas Merton explained: 35

When the right time comes for us to go on to other things, God withdraws the sense of His presence, in order to strengthen our faith.

Joyce Huggett expanded this from her Christian perspective and started to describe what ‘the dark night’ is like: 36

One of the methods God uses to bring about this inner harmony in some people is an experience which is sometimes called 'the dark night of the soul'. This phase describes the phases of the spiritual journey when the senses no longer pick up the felt presence of Christ but seem to be conscious, instead, only of nothingness. During this winter of the senses God seems to be, not present and attentive and loving, but completely absent.

What ‘dark night’ means was a question that Evelyn Underhill posed: 37

What, then, do those who use this image of the 'dark' really mean by it? They mean

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this: that God in His absolute Reality is unknowable - is dark - to man's intellect ... Reason finds itself, in a most actual sense, 'in the dark' - immersed in the Cloud of Unknowing.

In The Cloud of Unknowing a more literal view of ‘darkness’ emerges: 38

When I speak of darkness, I mean the lack of knowledge. If you are unable to understand something or if you have forgotten it, are you not in the dark as regards this thing? You cannot see it with your mind's eye. Well, in the same way, I have not said 'cloud', but 'cloud of unknowing'. For it is a darkness of unknowing that lies between you and your God.

In this case then, all the knowledge that we have accumulated during our journey so far and the symbols that we use all come to naught. This was also the conclusion of the WWI veteran and mystic F. C. Happold: 39

In the literature of mysticism one finds descriptions of a state which is called a Dark Night. As souls, accustomed to rely on the dogmatic, doctrinal and historical elements of religion, become more spiritually mature, the particular symbolic structure of their religion tends to collapse, the image of God to which they have been accustomed fades, the familiar props and landmarks are left behind. As a result they feel a sense of emptiness, aridity and desolation. The consciousness of the Divine Presence, radiated through bold symbols, has disappeared. .. Yet the Dark Night can be a prelude to a greater spiritual maturity and lead to a new and deeper vision of God.

Such experience is not necessarily a one-off occurrence; the ‘darkness’ may occur many times. Each characteristic which form us as individuals may need to be changed to enhance our spirituality. Each time we try to control a particular desire or unruly trait, our ego may drive us into a ‘dark night’. This was Father Andrew’s view: 40

But God's pilgrims go from strength to strength. Darkness indeed descends upon them again and again, but in the darkness they learn to come out of themselves and not to depend upon themselves. Self-forgetting, and on God depending, they gain strength from their experience.

The relative frequency of the appearance of ‘dark nights’ may have led some mystics to believe that union precedes rather than succeeds ‘darkness’. Rosamund S. Allen understood that Richard Rolle was one such mystic and in her introduction to ‘Richard Rolle - The English Writings’ stated that: 41

The 'dark' or desolation of spirit which succeeds ecstasy of union is certainly not unknown to Rolle, although he does not use this image for the loss.

Joyce Huggett recalls that Thomas Merton makes the claim that these: 42

…[dark] night times of the senses increase in frequency as time goes on, that there is a sense in which they can be taken as signs of progress provided the prayer does not give up but determines to respond to the challenge, refuses to view this hollowness as spiritual doom or punishment for sin, but sees it, rather, for what it

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really is: the opportunity for growth.

She goes on to reveal, about her own spirituality: 43

At other times, I seemed to meet only darkness, pain and my own disobedience.

Even Evelyn Underhill believed that ‘dark nights’ are a recurring feature for those who undertake the spiritual pathway: 44

This consciousness, in its various forms and degrees, is perhaps the most constant characteristic of Illumination; and makes it, for the mystic soul, a pleasure-state of the intensest kind. I do not mean by this that the subject passes months or years in a continuous ecstasy of communion with the Divine. Intermittent periods of spiritual fatigue or 'aridity' - renewals of the temperamental conflicts experienced in purgation - the oncoming gloom of the Dark Night - all these may be, and often are, experienced at intervals during the Illuminated Life; as flashes of insight, indistinguishable from illumination, constantly break the monotony of the Purgative Way.

Veering from the Mystic Way, as all of us do from time to time, causes us to encounter barren periods; times when all seems lost and we feel that we are back-sliding rather than forging a forward path. At other times we are sure of our Philosophy of Life and believe that our spiritual progress is right. You can see therefore that some may oscillate between these two states as Evelyn Underhill noticed: 45

…that we have the first swing back of the oscillating self from the initial state of mystic pleasure to the complementary state of pain.

Maybe, however, you are one of the more optimistic mystics who tend not to swing between these two extreme states. Perhaps you are one of the ones that the 14 th century English mystic Walter Hilton referred to: 46

There have been many devout souls who, through grace, come into this darkness and experience self-knowledge and yet do not fully realise what all this is. .. Therefore, to all such souls, I say that it seems to me that this kind of [mystical] experience, though it may only last a short time and only come infrequently, is genuinely this darkness ...

The one thing, however, that we can be certain of is that ‘the dark night’ is an inevitable part of our spiritual development. In fact, as St John of the Cross described in the first stanza of his poem: 47

And it must be remembered that the first stanza, speaking of the sensual part, says that the soul went forth upon 'a dark night,' and here, speaking of the spiritual part, it says that it went forth 'in darkness.' For the darkness of the spiritual part is by far the greater, even as darkness is a greater obscurity than that of night.

So it is not a trivial matter; the darkness seems to deepen the greater one’s spiritual progress. As it happens, those who do not embark on their spiritual path way will not experience the ‘dark night’. This is a point which Morton Kelsey made: 48

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In fact, the deepest dread and pain [aka dark night of the soul] , which existential writers reveal so well, seldom comes to the surface until people are relieved of the struggle for existence which keeps them busy all of the time. So long as they are completely absorbed by the problems of getting enough food and fuel just to stay alive, they seldom have to face the despair of meaninglessness.

Hence, as Baron Von Hügel confirmed, those who are ploughing their spiritual furrow must expect to encounter these arid times: 49

Well, you will grow and attain to these things [virtues and service to God] if you will make them a slow and sure, an utterly real, a mountain step-plod and ascent, willing to have to camp for weeks or months in spiritual desolation, darkness and emptiness at different stages in your march and growth.

Whilst many of the writings of the mystics have tried to convey the message of their ‘dark night’ experiences, it is not just the renowned mystics who experience such anguish. The inspirational spiritual leader Gerard W Hughes believed that such experiences are: 50

...far more common than we think. When we come across the Dark Night in ourselves, or in others, we can misdiagnose the symptoms as indicative of wavering faith, or as the manifestation of long-buried guilt. We all have to undergo an experience of purification, or diminishment, as part of the process of ageing.

…and we have to realise that we may suffer as a consequence. Dan Cohn-Sherbok reckoned that this was due to the soul’s impurity, it: 51

…suffers immensely when the divine light assails it and brings about the darkness of the soul.

Whereas Evelyn Underhill believed that it was the withdrawal of God: 52

Therefore, whatever form the 'Dark Night' assumes, it must entail bitter suffering: far worse than that endured in the Purgative Way. Then the self was forcibly detached from the imperfect. Now the Perfect is withdrawn, leaving behind an overwhelming yet impotent conviction of something supremely wrong, some final Treasure lost.

And which, according to St John of the Cross, happens when we try to eliminate our human based desires: 53

…it [the soul] went forth (being led by God) for love of Him alone, enkindled in love of Him, upon a dark night, which is the privation and purgation of all its sensual desires, with respect to all outward things of the world and to those which were delectable to its flesh, and likewise with respect to the desires of its will.

Privation appears to be a feature of the experiences of those who pass through the ‘dark night’. In Geraldine Cummins’ ‘The Scripts of Cleophas’ we are shown that the apostle Luke passed through this phase. In fact: 54

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...even the power to pray had gone from him.

So, all the mystics, including the apostles, seem to have passed through this tortuous phase; this dark night. However, to compensate, a rather nice way of describing the ‘night’ effect was noticed by Gerald Bullett. In his book ‘The English Mystics’ he recounted the words of the 17 th century Shropshire priest Benjamin Whichcote: 55

The soul of man to God is as a flower to the sun: it opens at its approach and shuts when it withdraws.

…and even though the petals are closed, the flower still grows. It trusts that daylight will return and it can continue as it intended. We, too, should put our trust in our Creator who, through his guardians and guides, never leaves us. In ‘The Book of Margery Kempe’ the following words were clairaudiently heard by Margery: 56

And though I sometimes withdraw the feeling of grace from you, either in speaking or in weeping, do not be frightened at this, for I am a hidden God in you.

…and later in her book she wrote: 57

And immediately afterwards her good angel came to her, saying, 'Daughter, God has not forsaken you, nor ever shall forsake you, as he has promised you ...

This was confirmed in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 58

For being left by God to learn in no way deprives the soul of Divine light.

Because of the nature of the ‘dark night’, the first time it is experienced there is that feeling of being abandoned; being alone. Of course, this is not the case but it has to be personally realised. Such was the situation with the honorary canon of Derby Cathedral Michael Mitton, who had for months: 59

I had for months assumed that the darkness that I had experienced had indicated that I was in a period of absence from God's presence. But ... I realised that my gloom was after all the shade of his [God's] hand outstretched caressingly. All along I had assumed that the darkness had meant his absence. But then, and I remember the amazing sense of tenderness as I discovered this, I knew that my 'gloom' was none other than a shadow cast by the caressing hand of God. The very darkness that I had come to despise was in fact his tender touch, and I had been ... running, running, running with my busy life, failing to stop and allow that caressing hand to touch me.

This had been a learning exercise. The implication is that our entrance in the ‘dark night’ is somehow necessary in order for us to demonstrate our trust and acceptance of our spiritual direction and focus. On this, Martin Israel, who probably gained much of his early Christian knowledge from the South African servants of his parents, wrote: 60

As we enter the service of God, so we have to descend into the pit ... So are we also protected as long as we put our trust in God and never take our eyes off the present moment.

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And from Thomas A Kempis a plea for us to: 61

…let Him act as seems to Him good.

For they are testing times – it is a difficult road to tread. The spirit communicator who used Beth Collier as a channel told us that: 62

Abandoning yourself to God is a hard commitment to make. If you can bring yourself honestly to do it, you will be led through some very testing times when you feel lonely and full of doubt.

Francis de Sales, born in 1567 and who worked to convert Protestants back to Catholicism, also suggested that, in such times, we: 63

...be not troubled, however great your dryness may be, but continue to keep yourself in a devout attitude before your God.

Never let yourself be lulled into a negative view of your position. Your Divine Source will never allow you to be alone; the agents who have care of you will always be there. Take the advice of another discarnate from the Spirit World, Zodiac, who said: 64

...one of the bitterest temptations which comes to the pilgrim is that of thinking that God has forgotten their need…

It is in these times that many mystics believe that God is closest. This was certainly the view of the 12 th century Italian mystic Angela of Foligno: 65

When it seems to you that God has most abandoned you, that is when you are most loved by God, and He is in fact closest to you.

A couple of passages from ‘The Story of a Soul’ which provide an insight into the perspective of Therese of Lisieux who was also known as "The Little Flower of Jesus": 66

In the dark, I found my soul flooded with divine light.

…and: 67

...but then the dark night was lit by the pure rays of the light of Your grace.

Saskia Murk Jansen recorded some of the life of another very spiritual lady, Hadewijch, who was one of the Beguines 68 from Antwerp, and explained: 69

Nevertheless, the message of Hadewijch's mystic theology is that it is at the moment of feeling lost in the dark, of feeling crushed by despair, that (wo)man comes closest to being one with the God-man.

If we get closer to our spiritual Creator through experience of the ‘dark night’, then perhaps we get closer to what the mystics called ‘Union with God’. St John of the Cross, so Dan Cohn-Sherbok understood, focussed on the soul’s journey in which: 70

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...the absence of God is experienced as the threshold of union - it is the darkness that precedes the dawn.

In the translation of Angela of Foligno’s book ‘Memorial’ the following footnote was written by the American scholar Cristina Mazzoni: 71

At this point begins Angela's confrontation with darkness, her "dark night of the soul" ... This suffering is different from the mystic's daily suffering. Rather it constitutes an important phase in the mystic's itinerary into the divinity: in order to achieve mystical union with divine infinity, the finite soul must be radically transformed by God...

Having read and digested many of the writings of the pre-twentieth century mystics Evelyn Underhill comes to the same conclusion – that ‘the dark night’ is a precursor to union: 72

All the great experts of the spiritual life agree - whatever their creeds, their symbols, their explanations - in describing this stress, tribulation, and loneliness, as an essential part of the way from the Many to the One; bringing the self to the threshold of that completed life which is to be lived in intimate union with Reality.

Adding to this, the prolific twentieth century mystic Thomas Merton wrote: 73

The man who does not permit his spirit to be beaten down and upset by dryness and helplessness, but who lets God lead him peacefully through the wilderness, and desires no other support or guidance than that of pure faith and trust in God alone, will be brought to deep and peaceful union with Him.

…and in the words of St John of the Cross: 74

And thus, as the soul, for its own part, enters into this renunciation and self- emptying of forms, so God begins to give it the possession of union; and this God works passively in the soul, as we shall say, Deo dante 75 , when we treat of the passive night of the soul. And thus, when it shall please God, and according to the manner of the soul's preparation, He will grant it the habit of perfect and Divine union.

The coming together of the mystic and God in union subsequent to passing through the ‘dark night’ further hones and tempers like steel in the furnace the mystics’ philosophy. They are noticeably changed; re-born as Martin Israel realised: 76

The one who has tasted the dregs of psychic despair and inhaled the acrid fumes that spell death to all mortal passion, and yet has survived the ordeal, emerges as a changed person. It is as if he were born again; he has passed through the dominion of death and come out alive on the other side.

About 600 years before Martin was born emerged the spiritual treatise ‘Theologia Germanica’. The writer of this mystical work, according to its introduction, was a priest and a member of the Teutonic Order living in Frankfurt, Germany. This anonymous author must have experienced the ‘dark night’ in order to have been able to advise others who: 77

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...in this Present time entereth into this hell [dark night of the soul], entereth afterward into the Kingdom of Heaven, and obtaineth a foretaste there of which excelleth all the delight and joy which he ever hath had or could have in this present time from temporal things.

In order to reach this point, however, we all must pass though the dark night and, eventually, emerge strengthened and enlightened. As we strive to shoulder the burden of ‘the dark night’ we may be tempted to have recourse to contemplative practices. St John of the Cross advises us to refrain from even thinking about doing this: 78

The conduct to be observed in the night of sense is this: in no wise have recourse to meditations, for, as I have said, the time is now past, that the soul be quiet and the rest, though they may think they are doing nothing, that they are losing time, and that there lukewarmness is the reason for their unwillingness to employ their thoughts.

This ‘don’t meditate’ advice was the opposite of the suggestion madde by a higher spirit communicating through the medium Phyllis V. Schlemmer, who, responding to a question from someone who had become spiritually blocked, suggested that the best course of action was: 79

If you will discipline yourself to meditate for a minimum of nine minutes each day, but preferably eighteen when there is more allowance, to gather inner strength and guidance from your soul, all barriers to your spiritual path will be removed.

The main thing that we can do is to maintain our trust in our Maker and follow the course we have set in our Philosophy of Life. We must never waver as stated by the spiritual director William Clemmons: 80

We are to come to that moment when we serve God whether we feel good or not; whether we have a religious high or must continue out of faithfulness amid darkness, dryness, and discouragements.

Courage to be patient, resolute and persistent in the apparent time of darkness is what we all need, or as Sister Ritamary Bradley wrote in ‘Julian on Prayer’ stated: 81

One should persevere through dryness...

…and, perhaps, offer a prayer as suggested by Francis de Sales: 82

…let us say to God: O Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; but let us add with great courage: nevertheless not my will but Thine be done.

It would be easier to construct an appropriate prayer if we knew what was happening to us within the ‘dark night’. This was the problem that, according to Ronald Grimsley, faced the renegade philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: 83

It is terrible the total spiritual barrenness from which I suffer at present, just because it is coupled with a consuming longing, with a spiritual passion - and yet it

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is so formless, that I do not even know what it is I lack.

Perhaps he was trying to apply his intellect to the situation but, as we know, this and reason don’t seem to help as we progress spiritually. Of this Martin Israel said: 84

...the slow ascent of the mountain of transfiguration where [God] reveals Himself. But such a movement and belief are objects of faith, not reason.

It is in these times of difficulty that our spirituality is really tested, and as we emerge from the darkness we will have gained in stature; we will be more mature as Robin Waterfield recognised: 85

Our Lord wants you to become mature, and this means periods of darkness, disillusion and boredom. Maturity comes when we realise that we must love Our Lord without straining, in spite of the painful destitution we feel and which nearly everyone around us seems to feel.

As you now recognise, most mystics realise that everyone on their ‘upwards’ path must pass through the ‘dark night’. Other than in very broad terms they, the mystics, have not been able, categorically, to state what this really means. This is because we are all different; we are carrying different amounts of physical and spiritual baggage. Thus everyone’s ‘dark night’ is different. This was aptly put by Evelyn Underhill: 86

As in other phases of the Mystic Way, so here, we must beware of any generalization which reduces the 'Dark Night' to a uniform experience; a neatly defined state which appears under the same conditions, and attended by the same symptoms, in all the selves who have passed through its pains. It is a name for the painful and negative state which normally intervenes between the Illuminative and the Unitive Life - no more. Different types of contemplatives have interpreted it to themselves and to us in different ways; each type of illumination being in fact balanced by its own appropriate type of 'dark.'

As in all situations in life, when we are in most need, someone or something seems to miraculously appear. Our ‘dark night’ is no exception. Some mystics will be able to pass through the barrier themselves whilst others do need some support. Those who are fortunate to have a spiritual mentor ought to use them although, as the Anglican author Sibyl Harton points out, there may be limitations on this: 87

At times when the spiritual life seems to consist of one vast doubt, the soul's only anchor may be its director's word, and there can be no reliance on this if there is no established confidence in his authority as well as his enlightenment.

Another view on this was given by Abbot Christopher Jamison: 88

...just as we can learn to overcome our fear of the physical dark so too skilful friends can help us to overcome our fear of the spiritual dark.

Supporting someone through their ‘dark night of the soul’ needs skill and patience based on experience. It is not something to be done lightly. An example of this lies in life of Mère Ignace Goethals, the third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur. In a

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...do pluck up courage, or rather have patience to drive away these butterflies, black, white or coloured, which keep you in a state of torment, for after all they are only butterflies and not dragons!

Perhaps what Soeur Ignace was experiencing was not understood to be a ‘dark night’. Nevertheless, supporting someone though such a time is important and often necessary. And the advice and experience of close friends should always be welcome. In the same way, our own personal experience may be of help to others who are in the throes of darkness and aridity; our light can counter another’s darkness. In the book ‘Open Spirit’, the Catholic Jesuit theologian Ladislaus Boros discovered that St Gregory believed that: 90

When we climb up out of our darkness, we ourselves become light, as we approach the True Light.

This light, which we can freely give to another who is struggling on their Mystic Way, will counter their darkness. This is not to say that we can be a substitute for Divine Light but we can in some small way help our fellow traveller. All who are of the right intent are scheduled, according to Dionysius, to enter the ‘darkness’: 91

They who are free and untrammelled enter into the true Mystical Darkness of Unknowing...

…and from Evelyn Underhill: 92

All ... types of ‘darkness’, with their accompanying and overwhelming sensations of impotence and distress, are common in the lives of the mystics.

So we emerge from the ‘dark night’ spiritually stronger. Joyce Huggett expressed this gain as a feeling that: 93

…the world lost more of its lure, and lustre and what the mystics describe as the 'capax Dei’, the capacity for God, increased.

Thus through this period of dryness, the fulcrum of your life moves towards the spiritual and the material aspects of your environment mean less and less to you. This is real development – pursue it always, and recognise the positive value of the ‘dark night’.

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1 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Introduction, (Pg iv) 2 Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabinranath Tagore, Macmillan & Co, 1958. Gitanjali, (XCIII) 3 Judy Martin, A Modern Book of Hours, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989. Rabindranath Tagore (Fireflies 1928) 4 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: The Love of God and Affliction, (Pg 66) 5 Dionysius the Areopagite, A prayer from Mystical Theology, 1,1 6 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Introduction, (Pg 12) 7 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 10 Modern Christian Mystics: Elizabeth of the Trinity and Helen Kowalska, (Pg 148) 8 A Monk of the Eastern Church, Orthodox Spirituality, SPCK, 1980. Chapter III: The Baptising Christ, (Pg 55) 9 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Dark Night of the Soul: Prologue, (Pg 347 / 348) 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Night_of_the_Soul 11 http://www.eckharttolle.com/newsletter/october-2011 12 Acedia stands for a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world or a feeling that all previous beliefs are of no value. 13 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: First Thought Acedia - Monks and Married Couples, (Pg 63) 14 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 19: Some Results of Listening to God, (Pg 213) 15 Bible, New Testament, Acts xvii,15 16 Geraldine Cummins, The Scripts of Cleophas, Psychic Press, 1961. The First Parchment - Chapter XXVIII: The Temptation of Paul in the Wilderness, (Pg 97) 17 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter IX, (Pg 99) 18 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. The First Book - Warnings, useful for a spiritual life. Chapter I, (para 1) [John viii [12]] 19 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002. When God Seems Distant, (Pg 108) 20 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part Three: Religious - The Neutral Cost of Prayer, (Pg 159) 21 John M. Todd, John Wesley and the Catholic Church, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Three: Into the Dark Night, (Pg 57 / 58) 22 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part III: How to Live the Ideas. Chapter Fifteen – When the Fire Goes Out, (Pg 326) 23 Michal Levin, Spiritual Intelligence, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Part III: How to Live the Ideas. Chapter Fifteen – When the Fire Goes Out, (Pg 326 to 330) 24 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 347/348) 25 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter VI – Glorified, (Pg 63) 26 Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, Design of My World, United Society for Christian Literature: Lutterworth Press, 1962. Chapter Three: With Christ through Despair: Adversity and Trust, (Pg 50) 27 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter II, (Pg 19/20) 28 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 81) 29 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 402) 30 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 412) 31 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 24 – Renunciation, (Pg 171) 32 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973.: Chapter 20, (Pg 184) 33 Peter Toon, Meditating as a Christian, Collins, 1991. Part Two: How it Works. 5 Formative Reading, (Pg 62)

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34 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Book 1 - Chapter XII – 8, (Pg 57) 35 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life: XI, (Pg 54) 36 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 19: Some Results of Listening to God, (Pg 212) 37 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 348) 38 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 4, (Pg 53) 39 F C Happold, Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man, Pelican Books, 1966. Epilogue: He who sees not God everywhere, sees Him truly nowhere, (Pg 178) 40 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. The Eighty-Fourth Psalm: V. Strength in God, (Pg 129) 41 Rosamund S. Allen, Richard Rolle - The English Writings, SPCK, 1989. Introduction: Rolle's Mystic Experience, (Pg 31) 42 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 19: Some Results of Listening to God, (Pg 215) 43 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Preface, (Pg 12) 44 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IV - The Illumination of the Self, (Pg 241/242) 45 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter III - The Purification of the Self, (Pg 201) 46 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Seven, (Pg 259) 47 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter I, (Pg 68) 48 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Two: The Basic Climate for Meditation - 5: Cracking the Husk: Man's Need for God, (Pg 46) 49 P. Franklin Chambers, Baron Von Hugel: Man of God. An introductory Anthology compiled with a biographical preface, Geoffrey Bles: The Centenary Press, 1946. An Introduction Anthology - Part One: Personal - Counting the Cost, (Pg 54) 50 Gerard W Hughes, God in all Things, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004. Chapter Eleven: Unless You Lose Your Life .. Ageing and 'The Dark Night of the Soul', (Pg 203) 51 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 8 Post Medieval Christian Mystics: John of the Cross, (Pg 129) 52 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 389) 53 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter I, (Pg 18) 54 Geraldine Cummins, The Scripts of Cleophas, Psychic Press, 1961. The Third Parchment - Chapter XIV: Luke Recovers the Magicians' Maid After She has been Beaten, (Pg 231) 55 Gerald Bullett, The English Mystics, Michael Joseph, 1950. Benjamin Whichcote, (Pg 120) 56 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. Book I: Chapter 14, (Pg 66) 57 Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books, 2004. Book I: Chapter 59, (Pg 184) 58 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 85, (Pg 251) 59 Michael Mitton, Wild Beasts and Angels, Darton Longman and Todd, 2000. Chapter 4 - Listening in the Darkness, (Pg 90) 60 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 3 - The Shadow Antagonist, (Pg 26 / 27) 61 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book II - Warnings to draw us to the Inward Life. Chapter XII(III) 62 Beth Collier, Beyond Words, Triangle, 1987. 5 Giving up ourselves, (Pg 43) 63 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Second Part of the Introduction. Chapter IX - For the Dryness .. (Pg 86) 64 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. The Nearness of Christ, (Pg 101) 65 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. The Memorial of Angela of Foligno - The Fourth Supplementary Step, (Pg 56) 66 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 7, (Pg 91) 67 Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Anthony Clarke Books, 1973. Chapter 11, (Pg 153)

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68 The Beguines were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Northern Europe during the 13th–16th centuries and who lived in semi-monastic communities They did not take formal religious vows yet stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty and care of the poor and sick. 69 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 3 Four Lives: Four Texts, (Pg 72) 70 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 8 Post Medieval Christian Mystics: John of the Cross, (Pg 128) 71 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. The Memorial of Angela of Foligno - The Sixth Supplementary Step, (Pg 64, footnote 85) 72 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 401) 73 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 22 - The Night of the Senses, (Pg 156) 74 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter II, (Pg 232) 75 Translation - By the gift of God 76 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 7: Psychic Darkness: the Collective Pain, (Pg 78) 77 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XI, (Pg 34) 78 St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Baker, 1924. Book 1 - Chapter X – 5, (Pg 46) 79 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 18: Making a Difference, (Pg 248) 80 William Clemmons, Discovering the Depths, Triangle, 1989. 12 Living Out of the Depths, (Pg 133) 81 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Julian on Prayer by Ritamary Bradley SPCC, (Pg 71) 82 Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Burns & Oates, 1948. Fourth Part of the Introduction. Chapter XIV - Of Spiritual Dryness and Barrenness, (Pg 245) 83 Ronald Grimsley, Kierkegaard, Studio Vista, 1973. 2 First Works, Grimsley quoting from page 33 of Kierkegaard's 'Pilgrimage to Jutland' (Translated by T H Croxall), (Pg 19 - 20) 84 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 8 - The Dark Night of Faith, (Pg 75) 85 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 27) 86 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 387/388) 87 Sibyl Harton, Spiritual Direction - A Practical Essay, Mowbray, 1945. Characteristics of Wise Direction, (Pg 25) 88 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part ONE Purity of Heart: 2. Blessed are the Pure in Heart - Monastic Freedom, (Pg 35) 89 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter V: At Jumet - Headmistress of Boarding School (1826 - 1831), (Pg 89) 90 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Gregory and Beauty, (Pg 111) 91 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 81) 92 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IX - The Dark Night of the Soul, (Pg 393) 93 Joyce Huggett, Listening To God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. Chapter 19: Some Results of Listening to God, (Pg 214)

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20.10: Mysticism and Love

Love cannot be generalised; there is probably no lowest common denominator. We tend to use the word as a collective term for everything that we believe to be good. Because it is tied up with our own personal Philosophy of Life and conscience, which, combined, account for all that we stand for, potentially we all mean different things when we use the word ‘love’. To cap it all, its meaning depends upon the context within which we use it.

Notwithstanding that, I do not propose to provide a definition of love (you can have a browse through the two sections that I have devoted to this theme), I will try to put it in the context of the mystic. In G K Chesterton’s book, centred on St. Thomas Aquinas, he says that the mystic: 1

…is right in saying that the relation of God and Man is essentially a love-story; the pattern and type of all love-stories.

Love of God by the mystic and love of the mystic by God. This bidirectional emotion is very different depending upon which direction you are observing it from.

God’s love for all created beings is shown in the fact that all the conditions for their existence were created by that Divine Source, as is the supernatural support that is given to all. Does not that demonstrate the love that our Creator has for us? Our soul is the ‘spark of God or, put another way, it represents our spiritual DNA – that which is given by a creator to its entire offspring.

Looking from the opposite direction, our love for God is shown in the gratitude we have for all that we have been given, and the love that we give, likewise, to all God’s creatures whether terrestrial or discarnate.

If you remember these perspectives when you read the rest of this chapter, then you will, perhaps, understand how I view what I have written and what you are reading. In addition, you may recall that when an individual human being talks about ‘union with God’ or some such relationship with the Divine, I believe that this relationship that is being exhibited is one with the ‘higher’ spiritual being. To give this more emphasis, the great teacher from the Spirit World Silver Birch recognised that: 2

Real love is the union of two souls. .. In your world it is very rare.

…and the 16 th century Spanish mystic St John of the Cross, when writing in ‘Ascent of Mount Carmel’, said, of the soul that: 3

…the greater is its affection, the closer is the equality and likeness between them [the two souls] ; for love creates a likeness between that which loves and that which is loved...

He went on to say: 4

For love not only makes the lover equal to the object of his love, but even subjects him to it.

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Bearing this in mind, how can we ever assume that we can have this affinity to the creator of the Cosmos; that ineffable and omniscient energy which stimulated everything. How arrogant of us! What we can do is to try to understand what the Creator’s Laws of the Cosmos are, and then, to try to live them as best we can. This is how we can ‘love’ our Divine Provider.

The use of this term ‘love’ however, does not really clarify what every mystic tries to convey. Taking a leaf out of the writings of St John of the Cross, another mystical author Evelyn Underhill when discussing contemplation wrote: 5

This abyss of wisdom now lifts up and enlarges the soul, giving it to drink at the very sources of the science of love. Thereby it perceives how lowly is the condition of all creatures in respect to the supreme knowledge and sense of the Divine. It also understands how low, defective, and, in a certain sense, improper, are all the words and phrases by which in this life we discuss divine things; that they escape the best efforts of human art and science, and that only the mystical theology can know and taste what these things are in their reality

W. H. Dyson, during his explanation of what constitutes a mystic, explained: 6

In reading the books of the mystics many, I think, must have felt confused and troubled by the use of unfamiliar terms for spiritual experience. Again and again it seems as though some secret of life were about to be disclosed, and yet the secret, if such it be, is illusive. ... But pure, religious mysticism is not of this character. Its secret is an open one; it is the mystery of love, hid indeed from the unloving, and not to be known by reason, or scholarship, but only by loving. Where love is, all else is that is vital to true religion; where love is not, then all is wanting.

So ‘love’ and mysticism seem to be synonymous! It is not surprising therefore that there is difficulty in explaining both of these concepts. They are really inexplicable as the mystic Jacob Boehme accepted: 7

And when I further say ‘He who finds love finds nothing and everything,’ this is also true, for he finds a supernatural, supersensual abyss that has no place as its dwelling and finds nothing that can be compared to it. Therefore one compares it with nothing because it is deeper than everything. Therefore it is a nothing to all things because it is incomprehensible.

I think too, that this explanation is none too easy to understand! A totally different way of expressing love was given by F. P. Harton. In the chapter on Prayer, in his book ‘The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology’ he wrote: 8

There is ever-deepening knowledge in prayer, but the higher the prayer the less purely intellectual that knowledge becomes. It is more and more the intuitive knowledge of love.

This joining of intuition and love seems to represent the two ends of the link between the Spirit World and the mystic. Those agent’s of God who guide and help us from the Spirit World do so mainly through intuitive thoughts. These will then stimulate an increasing

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:22:22 20.10 Mysticism and Love Page 3 of 13 love, in us, not only for those who do help us, but for all created things in the universe; a desire welling up in us to do as much as we can for everything that we encounter in our life.

Thus we can reiterate; love is mysticism and mysticism is love. Mystic after mystic has stressed this idea. In describing the characteristics of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill stated that mystical experience is: 9

…at once an act of love, an act of surrender, and an act of supreme perception.

…and, from an anthology of her work by Lumsden Barkway, she stated that: 10

…mysticism is an exhibition of the higher powers of love: a love which would face all obstacles, endure all purifications, and cherish and strive for the whole world.

Supporting this holistic, powerful and enduring view of love came the spirit who communicated through Neale Donald Walsch: 11

There is no condition, no circumstance, no problem that love cannot solve. This does not mean that you must submit to abuse. ... It does mean that love, for yourself and others, is always the solution.

What power that is! This energy lies deep within us; it is the spark in the soul. There is a pull from God which is acting upon our soul and which inexorably draws us. Laurie Worger in his book ‘My Treasures For You’ wrote: 12

He who seeks diligently his higher self will find again unity with God, for the higher self leads towards God, and as the aspirant journeys forth with courage to achieve the great overcoming, the power and love of God flows into him.

…and many mystics recognised that it is through love itself that they could aspire to greater things. Thomas A Kempis was one such mystic who decreed: 13

But the gracious influence of love is the peculiar gift of Thine elect; Wearing this mark, they are deemed worthy of eternal life. So high it reaches.

We are bestowed with the potential gift of love, but very few take up the offer. Those who do can be easily recognised. They are aglow with love for every creature and every form; they do not discriminate. From Thomas A Kempis again: 14

So often he communicates in mystic wise, And is refreshed by One he cannot see, And his love burns anew

The feeling of being totally infused with love is one which was expressed by the Beguine Beatrix as recorded in Saskia Murk Jansen’s book ‘Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines’. Her experience revealed to her that once union with God was reached, her soul: 15

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...in this condition as a vessel that is so full that if it is moved it cannot help overflowing.

This love brings so much to each and every one of us provided we reciprocate appropriately. Love has to be from both ends of the relationship and when it is, the mystic will experience such untold happiness, peace and complete trust. Those mystics in ancient times are no different from those living now. The difference is only in the language they use to describe that love. Referring to the Eighty-Fourth psalm, Father Andrew wrote: 16

'My King and my God,' he [the psalmist] exclaims, and dwells on that attribute of blessedness which is deeper than happiness and more sacred than tranquillity, the deep calm of delight in the Presence of divine Love.

The acquisition of these attributes is inevitable, provided that love is uppermost. The London priest Terry Tastard looked at the lives of four mystics and came to the conclusion that: 17

But it is true that all of them seem to have had an intense experience of the love of God...

This will apply to every mystic. All those who follow their spiritual destiny and reflect the love of God in all that they encounter, will emerge stronger and will continue to receive the bounty that their spiritual state allows. In the 14th century an anonymous priest wrote the ‘Theologia Germanica’ which gave us the view that the more spiritual we are then the more we gain: 18

Now, wherever a man hath been made a partaker of the divine nature, in him is fulfilled the best and noblest life, and the worthiest in God's eyes, that hath been or can be.

God does not care from what religious or social background a mystic emerges because, provided that love shines from the person’s soul, then God will always respond with reciprocal love. In ‘Studies in Christian Mystics’ W. H. Dyson explained: 19

Whatever their outward condition of life, whether that of the Monk, the Priest, or the Layman, and whatever their ecclesiastical beliefs and observances, this was their one vital unity, a religion of the Spirit, the experience of God as Spirit in direct fellowship with the spirit which man also is; and this fellowship is in love, with God who is Love, and in the love of God, a love which is known best, and always expressed, in love one to another. "The Holy Ghost is Love" - so they found and taught.

This mutual love was also recorded in John Cirignano’s translation of Angela of Foligno’s book ‘Memorial’, Cristina Mazzoni summarised part and wrote: 20

Then Angela has a vision of God in glory as Beauty and the All Good, and sees God's infinite love for her and for humanity. She is told that, in return for divine love, God only requires love. Angela understands God to be nothing but love.

Because love is a necessary thread which runs through all our relationships with our

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Creator and implementing agents. Then it is not surprising that, as recognised by the Indian philosopher and statesman Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the language of love is used to describe mysticism and mystical experiences: 21

Religious mysticism often falls into the language of passionate love. It has been so from the Upanishads and the Song of Songs.

It was also realised that the expressions used by female mystics is often a reflection of the words and phrases used in bridal or nuptial circumstances. Thomas A Kempis understood this lover to lover descriptive association which female mystics used: 22

I would that one would grant me, O my Lord, To find thee only, and to open all my heart to thee, And take thee as my soul would long to do; That none would gaze at me, that no created thing would glance at me or trouble me, That thou alone wouldst speak to me and I to thee, As a lover talking to his loved one, A friend at table with his friend.

In her book about the beguines 23 entitled ‘Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines’, the academic Saskia Murk Jansen explained: 24

The mysticism of the Beguines is sometimes described as 'bridal' or 'nuptial' mysticism.

Evelyn Underhill further clarified that: 25

It was natural and inevitable that the imagery of human love and marriage should have seemed to the mystic the best of all images of his own 'fulfilment of life'; his soul's surrender, first to the call, finally to the embrace of Perfect Love.

…and she went on to say: 26

…for mystic and lover, upon different planes, are alike responding to the call of the Spirit of Life.

Another person who recorded this way of expressing mystical experiences was Blair Reynolds who, in Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, explained: 27

Consequently, in the context of this aesthetic-affective framework, God is no longer defined as the Passionless Absolute of classical theism, but instead is said to have deep personal feelings, which are sharable with creatures, and so is experienced as an all-encompassing matrix of sensitivity. Thus, the likening of God to an affectionate, gentle, supra-personal spouse is quite common throughout the mystical literature, as for instance in St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, Bernard, Blosius, Hugh of St. Victor. This parallels the major contention of process theology, that God is a loving and unlimited companion, 'the fellow-sufferer who understands,' as Whitehead puts it.

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Sometimes the use of this language appears too sensual and sexual and is often shied away from. But take it for what it tries to convey – that real loving relationship of two dear friends. Thus we should take the advice of Simone Weil: 28

It is therefore wrong to reproach the mystics, as has been done sometimes, because they use love's language. It is theirs by right. Others only borrow it.

I suppose that this is something like the title of ‘Dr’ which, for millennia, has been bestowed on successful doctorate-level degree holders and was subsequently ‘half-inched’ by the surgeon-barbers – the medical profession. It is interesting to note that i ts roots can be traced to the early church when the term "doctor" referred to the Apostles, church fathers and other Christian authorities who taught and interpreted the Bible.

Back to Love. Many other mystics link ‘fire’ with ‘love’, particularly in the sense of a burning passion to blend with God in union. According to Douglas Dales, the English historian and scholar, The Venerable Bede, around the turn of the 8 th century, used this concept in his interpretation of his mystical experiences. In Bede’s Ecclesiastical history is written: 29

The fragrance of spiritual prayers and heavenly desires through the fire of eternal love in the sight of their creator. We are on fire with the love of our redeemer but are not able to see Him face to face.

A similar type of reference was used by Walter Hilton, so Evelyn Underhill tells us, in his ‘The Scale of Perfection’: 30

…for wonderfully He stirreth and mightily He turneth thy heart into beholding of His goodness, and doth thine heart melt delectably as wax against the fire into softness of His love.

The 14 th century English mystic Richard Rolle, in his passionate book ‘The Fire of Love’, used the idea of a burning passion as a way of recognising a soul’s proximity to God. He wrote: 31

A human soul cannot know the fire of eternal love unless first he has completely cut adrift from worldly vanity of every kind. There must be a serious intention to study heavenly things, to long continuously for the love of God, and to give every creature its due need of affection.

Love, directed towards every other creature and Mother Earth, is a sign of a true mystic. It seems to be a natural consequence of mysticism and union with God. Evelyn Underhill , referring to The Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, wrote: 32

There is a wonderful chapter in Ruysbroeck’s ‘Book of the Twelve Béguines’ in which he describes the life of one who has achieved this state [Union with God] , as ‘ministering to the world without in love and in mercy; whilst inwardly abiding in simplicity, in stillness, and in utter peace’.

This is an unconditional and total surrender of oneself to the needs of others. W. H. Dyson

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…for Giver and gifts are one, the soul that so experiences God is moved to all spiritual endeavour, and freely gives itself in love.

In order to achieve this there has to be no sense, within the mystic, of ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘Mine’. The centre of spiritual attention is on union with God whilst earthly focus is on help for others. This is why Thomas Merton, recording one of his contemplations, decreed that: 34

…a man cannot enter into the deepest centre of himself and pass through that centre into God, unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of a selfless love.

…and from the 20 th century Benedictine monk Jean Leclercq: 35

We need to let ourselves be hollowed out by grace, emptied of all egoism and wide open to Love

Examples of such people are not difficult to find. Some of the greatest mystics have renounced wealth and titles in order to follow the spiritual path and service to others. In the Sufi tradition Jalal-ud-Din Rumi left a career as an accomplished teacher and jurist and became an ascetic ; St Ignatius who was born into a noble Basque family, became a Spanish knight and then rejected all to live as a hermit. Then there was St Francis of Assisi, as referenced by Laurie Worger, who is another excellent example: 36

How perfectly St. Francis expressed his freedom from earthly possessions, wanting to give ALL his love to God he said that all material things must be given some regard, time, and care, that which was given to them cannot be given to God.

We can follow such people, not necessarily by eschewing all material things and going to live in a cave, but by slowly and surely severing the ties that materialism has on us. In the preface to Collins paperback edition of the Poems of St John of the Cross I read: 37

The truth is that this mystical love cannot even begin until the emotions we have been thinking of [the five senses] have been hushed and put to sleep.

This is not an easy process. Walter Hilton, who during the 14 th century was head of a house of Augustinian Canons at Thurgarton Priory, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, explained that: 38

This is one point of the passion of love which, by great violence and mastery, breaks down all lusts and delights in any earthly things. It wounds the soul with the blissful sword of love, so that the body falls down and is unable to bear it. This touching is of such great power that the most vicious or fleshy man living on earth, if he were once well and powerfully touched by this sharp sword, would be completely serious and sober for a long time afterward and would loathe all those lusts and delights of the flesh and of all earthly things in which previously he had taken most pleasure.

In discussing Medievalism and Humanism the Belgian academic Emile Cammaerts recognised that the development of a stronger belief system comes from: 39

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…the renunciation of all that we call beautiful and true for the love of God.

It is moving our love from ‘things’ to God – for where our love lies, so does our heart. A similar description was used by the Sufi Al Ghazzali in his ‘Book of Knowledge’: 40

…all things come from God, a belief which rules out any consideration of instrumentation and (implies) worshipping Him and no other thing beside Him. Those who follow their own passions do not conform to this monotheism because anyone who follows his own passion makes them the object of his worship. Thus God said, "Hast thou seen him who hath made a god of his passions?" [Qur’an, Surah XXv:45, XLV; 22]

Other references within the Qur’an also major on the necessary love of God. Geoffrey Parrinder, an academic whose interest lay in comparative religious studies, in his book ‘Worship in the World's Religions’ indicated that the path of love, which was stressed by the Sufi mystics, is expressed in the traditional saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: 41

O Lord, grant to me the love of thee; grant that I love those that love thee; grant that I may do the deeds that win thy love; make thy love dearer to me than self, family and wealth.

…and from Jacob Boehme who was steeped in the Christian tradition: 42

The will of the creature with all reason and desire should completely sink into itself - taking to itself no knowledge or understanding, nor praying for nor desiring any knowledge from God in the creaturely self. Rather, it is only to sink itself unaffected and simply into the love and grace of God - and being dead to its desires, give itself completely to the life of God in love, so that He might use it as His instrument in whatever way or however He wishes.

Our passions therefore change as we develop our spirituality. They eventually become an urgency to unite with our Eternal Source. Using words from Evelyn Underhill, Lumsden Barkway in his discussion about the nature of love wrote: 43

...love is a passionate tendency, an inward vital urge of the soul towards its Source;

This urge will result, eventually, in Union with God as Andrew Harvey noticed: 44

The mystery of union begins when longing has softened you up enough to receive the tenderness of the Beloved.

Thus starts the beginning of the end, for Union with God is the goal of every mystic. According to Margaret Smith, St Clement writes in his ‘Protrepticus vi’ ("Exhortation to the Greeks"): 45

Let us, who are many, strive to be united into one love, corresponding to the Unity of the One Being.

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…and to emphasise this objective, Christine Page, a medic and subtle energy advocate stated that: 46

...love and unity are NOT options: they are a necessity.

And one leads to the other. I do not believe that anyone who is still living an earthly life will ever get to perfect union with God; there can never be such a deep relationship until the soul is advanced far beyond our physical potential. Some people do use the term ‘perfect’ when describing union and one such person is Evelyn Underhill: 47

Thus in the last resort perfection, in fact the whole course of spiritual life, is found to be the loving union of the human spirit with the Eternal Spirit of God.

Dan Cohn-Sherbok, a Rabbi and theologian, agrees that the door of union can only be opened through love; that is service: 48

The service of the Divine through love leads the soul to union with its place of origin and gives a foretaste of what will occur at death.

This was also highlighted by St Bernard of Clairvaux: 49

Now this union with God can only be secured by love. And the subjection to Him can only be grounded in humility. And the humility can only be the result of knowing and believing truth, that is to say, having the right notions of God and of myself.

All aspects of love come into this equation. Teresa of Avila added humility (even though I personally believe that this is an integral part of love): 50

These last effects [humility & love] which I have mentioned are produced in persons who have reached a high degree of perfection and to whom the Lord commonly grants the favour of uniting them to Himself by perfect contemplation.

Through contemplation we can intuitively appreciate much of what is Spirit, but in no way can we fully know all that is implied by the ultimate Union with God. On this point St John of the Cross remarked: 51

Wherefore no supernatural apprehension or knowledge in this mortal state can serve as a proximate means to the high union of love with God.

However far we reach into the spiritually unknown and whatever we learn through the process, it is always very personal. We are not capable of articulating the experiences sufficiently well to let others into the secrets which have been given to us. Following the Mystic Way is a personal journey; and experiential journey. For Evelyn Underhill communion of the mystics with God is: 52

...always personal in this sense: it is a communion with a living Reality, an object of love, capable of response, which demands and receives from them a total self- donation.

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Because experiences are unique to each of us then, in order to capitalise on them and all that we stand for, we must develop our Philosophy of Life. This set of tenets, combined with our conscience, allows us to set the right course to follow in our life. It may be detailed or it may be quite ‘high level’, it does not matter. What is important is that it is sufficiently structured and robust to become a template for our thoughts, words and deeds. At the highest level of all we could specify that all we believe love to be is the golden thread through everything. Other mystics use this metaphor differently, for example, Henry Thomas Hamblin: 53

There is a golden thread which runs through all the history of mankind and through all our lives. This golden thread, if followed to the end, leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. This golden thread is the Law of Sacrifice.

Even though this may seem totally different, perhaps it is not really so, particularly If we consider the sacrifice to surrender our ego to the love we have for our Creator and other creatures. Thomas Merton described this as: 54

We must indeed become indifferent to the things we have renounced; but this indifference should be the effect of love for God, in whose honour we renounce them.

More poetically from St John of the Cross: 55

Ignoring the created and inferior; Remembering above all things the Creator; Attention to the life that is interior; For the beloved love that's always greater.

…and from Basil the Great, an influential 4th century Christian theologian and monastic: 56

A lover of God flees all things and goes to God.

Preparing our Philosophy of Life will require us to consider all the aspects of our own personality and recognise that our own love will need us to sacrifice much but our gain will be immeasurable. Terry Tastard tell us that Thomas Merton in his ‘Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander’ reminds us that: 57

…what we really seek and need are ‘love, an authentic identity, a life that has meaning’. No amount of willing can bring them within reach, he says, for they: "come to us only as gifts. And in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open. In order to be open we have to renounce ourselves, in a sense we have to die to our image of ourselves, our autonomy, our fixation on our self-willed identity."

And no one can do this for us. It is our own responsibility and, as Evelyn Underhill stated, we can do it without anyone else as a go-between: 58

That God, since He is in all - in a sense, is all - may most easily be found within ourselves, is the doctrine of these adventurers; who ... claim with Ruysbroeck that "by a simple introspection in fruitive love" they "meet God without intermediary."

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Also bear in mind the caveat offered by Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows: 59

...developing oneness with the Creator will enable each individual to understand that all power is generated through the combined development of love and wisdom and that it must not be sought as an end in itself.

So, let us take the recommendation of the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling’ who advocated that we: 60

Step up bravely, then, and take this medicine. Lift up your sick self, just as you are, to the gracious God, just as he is. Leave behind all inquiry and profound speculation into your being or his. Forget all these qualities and everything about them. Whether they be pure or defiled, natural or grace-given, divine or human. Nothing matters now except that you willingly offer to God that blind awareness of your naked being in joyful love, so that grace can bind you and make you spiritually one with the precious being of God, simply as he is in himself.

Through that long and difficult process the link between the mystic and love will be strengthened and this will provide the light which our lives can follow. Aldous Huxley accepted that it is only those who embark on such a journey who will truly understand mysticism: 61

But the nature of this one Reality is such that it cannot be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfil certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit.

Finally, something for you to ponder upon. Spiritual invisibility is banished by the mystic because, as Simone Weil wrote: 62

Love sees what is invisible.

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1 G K Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dover Publications, 2009. III. The Aristotelian Revolution, (Pg 40) 2 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Nine: Love is Undying, (Pg 93) 3 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter IV, (Pg 24) 4 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book I. Chapter IV, (Pg 25) 5 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter VII - Introversion. Part II – Contemplation, (Pg 354) 6 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter IX - A Typical Mystic, (Pg 113) 7 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Sixth Treatise on the supersenual life (1622), (para 27) 8 F P Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A study in Ascetical Theology, SPCK, 1950. Part IV - Chapter XVIII Affective Prayer, (Pg 252) 9 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 84) 10 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VIII Service, The Activity of Love: Finding the Thoroughfare (The Mystic Way), (Pg 217) 11 Neale Donald Walsch, Friendship with God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Nine, (Pg 210) 12 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 13: More About reincarnation, (Pg 131) 13 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter LV(II) 14 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter X(II) 15 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 3 Four Lives: Four Texts, (Pg 64) 16 Father Andrew SDC, In the Silence, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. The Eighty-Fourth Psalm: III. Joy in God, (Pg 118) 17 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 1 - Finding another way, (Pg 6) 18 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XXXVIII, (Pg 126) 19 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter X - Spiritual Religion, (Pg 117) 20 Angela of Foligno, Memorial, DS Brewer, 1999. The Memorial of Angela of Foligno - The Second Supplementary Step, (Pg 48) 21 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter III : Religious Experience and its Affirmations - 4. Character of religious experience, (Pg 73) 22 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book III - A pious Encouragement to the Holy Communion, Chapter XIII 23 The Beguines were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Northern Europe during the 13th–16th centuries and who lived in semi-monastic communities They did not take formal religious vows yet stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty and care of the poor and sick. 24 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 2 The Literary Context, (Pg 46) 25 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 136) 26 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 89) 27 R Blair Reynolds, Cosmos and History, Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy,Vol 1, #2, 2005. Ecstasy as World-affirming 28 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 108) 29 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Bede, (Pg 42) 30 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Chapter IV - The Illumination of the Self, (Pg 242) 31 Richard Rolle, The Fire of Love, Penguin Books, 1972. Chapter 4, (Pg 55) 32 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part III - Contemplation and Creative Work, (Pg 73) 33 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter X - Spiritual Religion, (Pg 123) 34 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 4 - We are One Man, (Pg 47)

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35 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Tradition and Evolution, (Pg 20) 36 Laurie Worger, My Treasures For You, The Percival Book Company, 1965. Chapter 16: The Influence of Other People, (Pg 153) 37 Poems of St John of the Cross, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1891. Preface, (Pg 5) 38 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book One: Chapter Thirty, (Pg 99) 39 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter iv - Mediaevalism and Humanism, (Pg 76) 40 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section III, (Pg 85) 41 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part IV - The Near East and the West: Chapter 11 – Islam, (Pg 202 / 203) 42 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fourth Treatise on True Resignation (1622) Chapter One, (para 23) 43 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. I The Nature of Pure Love: Love and Desire (from Life of The Spirit), (Pg 29) 44 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 3 - Drying, Blossoming, (Pg 99) 45 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 50) 46 Christine R. Page, Spiritual Alchemy, C W Daniel Co, 2004. Chapter Six - Healing the Divide, (Pg 144) 47 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter VII, (Pg 111) 48 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part I The Jewish Tradition - 2 Medieval Jewish Mysticism: The Mystic Way, (Pg 45) 49 St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Love of God, Pickering & Inglis, 1983. Chapter 1 - The Dignity of Man's Soul, (Pg 8) 50 Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection, Sheed & Ward, 1984. Chapter XXXVI, (Pg 159) 51 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book II. Chapter VIII, (Pg 96) 52 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 10) 53 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter the Last - The Law of Sacrifice, (Pg 87) 54 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 6: Asceticism and Sacrifice, (Pg 90) 55 Poems of St John of the Cross, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1891. Poems - XXII - Summary of Perfection, (Pg 90) 56 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 71, (Pg 238) 57 Terry Tastard, The Spark in the Soul, Darton Longman and Todd, 1989. Chapter 5 - Thomas Merton and God Our Identity. 58 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter V - Mysticism and Theology, (Pg 100) 59 Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows, Pathway of the Immortal, International Publications Inc, 1980. Chapter VIII: The Mystery and Origin of Power, (Pg 157) 60 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Book of Privy Counselling: Chapter 2, (Pg 153) 61 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Introduction, (Pg viii) 62 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Essays: Forms of the Implicit Love of God, (Pg 91)

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20.11: Mysticism and Service

Service, by which I mean helping others either individually or collectively, is part of the life of a modern mystic and it is through service that spiritual development is naturally achieved. This has been the theme of many of the communications which have come from those who have lived lives on earth and who have many more years developing whilst in the Spirit World. The spirit teacher and mentor Silver Birch, who used the journalist Maurice Barbanell as his channel, claims that the essence of spiritual progress is: 1

…expressed in the one word 'service'.

…and he also told us that: 2

The real kernel of all religion, giving service to those who need it.

Another teaching spirit, White Eagle, who spoke through the mediumship of Grace Cooke, emphasised that: 3

The true self seeks to serve...

He also noted that: 4

…responding with 'true goodness' to life is the way of the active mystic, as with all great masters.

Talking of great masters, in terms of mystical service, the Spiritualist pioneer Arthur Findlay recalled the life of Jesus the Nazarene who: 5

…preached a gospel of love and service to our fellow men, and love to God, our Father in Heaven.

Of course, this is really a re-iteration of the first two commandments. And looking further into the life of Jesus, the Cambridge schoolmaster Frederick Crossfield Happold understood that: 6

The Sermon of the Mount ... is an expression of the mysticism of action.

In fact, I suppose this was summed up by Michael McLean, a Canon of Norwich Cathedral, in his introduction to Robert Llewelyn’s collections of theses about the mystic Julian of Norwich, in which he offered the view that: 7

The mystic is the most practical of persons.

Adding to this summary, the implication noticed by Dom Aelred Graham, who eventually served as superior of the Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, was that: 8

The brotherhood of man makes no sense without the Fatherhood of God.

In other words, as we are all a ‘spark of God’ and thereby created from the Divine

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Architect, we ought to consider ourselves as being closely and spiritually linked. Martin Israel, in his book ‘The Pearl of Great Price’ remarked that this bond that we have with other people is part of each of our heritage; part of our soul’s inheritance: 9

We operate decisively from the still point within: it is in fact the divine presence. This knowledge is unitive, binding us to the ineffable Creator and also to his creation, especially our fellow humans.

Because of this, service to each other is an imperative rather than a nicety. That is why for mystics, service is the key to expanding spirituality. Another Spirit teacher, Zodiac in the book ‘Gems of Thought’ asked us not to forget that: 10

…the only way we can progress is by helping someone weaker to be strong; the only way we can cast from us our chains is by going to others and by words of cheer, faith and wisdom showing them how to get free from that which binds. This is the Law of God, the law of service so wonderfully demonstrated by our Master Christ.

…and about 400 or so years before Jesus lived, according to James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers in their book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’, The Buddha: 11

…emphasised practical ways to realise nirvana rather than metaphysics and, through Buddhism has given rise to some of the world's more elaborate and sophisticated philosophies, this emphasis has endured through the centuries. As it developed, it spawned a powerful ethic of service to those in need.

In a more modern context, the Jesuit theologian William Johnston expressed his view that there are many, living in the present day, who show extreme service to humanity. He wrote: 12

Talk of altered states of consciousness, of interior senses, of ecstasy and the rest might give us the impression that meditators and mystics are divorced from reality - whereas the contrary is true. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dag Hammarskjöld, Thomas Merton still speak to us of a mystical life integrated with service to men.

From the Russian Orthodox Church, the life of St Serafim of Sarov, as portrayed by Iulia de Beausobre, was one of true devotion and service. She informed us that most of Serafim’s nights: 13

…he still spent in prayer, and his days were devoted to any one who chose to come.

…and from the book ‘Guidance from Silver Birch’: 14

All the great exemplars have tried to show by example, through healing, through comforting, through giving strength to the weary, through service, that the soul is uplifted. You express yourself by service, that is the Great Spirit in action.

This is not left just to the great masters and teachers of spirituality. All mystics help others. Again in the words of Silver Birch: 15

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There is no joy and no service that can match helping others.

Perhaps joy is the key! Not particularly that of the mystic but in his or her desire to bring happiness to others. The Christian author Martin Israel believed that: 16

The spiritual integrity of the mystic is inseparably related to the happiness of his fellows.

Each mystic has unique talents which have been developed and honed during their spiritual journey. It is these gifts which can be given to others through service. In her treatise ‘God alone Suffices’, the Carmelite hermit Elizabeth Ruth Obbard declared that the ability of ‘seeing’ was given to Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila as: 17

...a gift given for others through them, that Christians may believe and be strengthened.

From the pen of one of the great documenters of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, came the realisation that to be classed as a mystic requires: 18

An uncalculating surrender of our own premises to the general purpose, losing all individual preferences and reluctances in the vast outlines of God’s mysterious design, is the condition of that membership...

John Blofeld, a British writer on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, recalled his own practice which he described as: 19

Visualising the Buddha-Compassion in the form of a pure and lovely being, I serve by cultivating compassion myself, causing no wilful harm, helping beings as best I can, abstaining form the flesh of sentient creatures and withdrawing my mind from the passions and attachments that mar its purity.

Helping others is the real theme of the mystic’s life; of every life; of your life. It seems to be an inherent objective which perhaps is part of the spiritual DNA of every soul. The mid- 14 th century anonymous author of the Theologia Germanica put it in a nutshell when describing the goal of each mystic, who: 20

…longeth for the salvation of all men.

It appears that this feeling of ‘must do everything we can for every creature’ emerges within the development process. For many mystics it appears towards the end of their journey. William Johnston noted that: 21

…this stress on active service appears in Teresa's seventh mansion, which is the very pinnacle of the mystical life. In this respect it parallels the return to the market-place which comes at the end of the Zen journey.

Thomas Merton concurred with this view: 22

True solitude separates one man from the rest in order that he may freely develop the good that is his own, and then fulfil his true destiny by putting himself at the

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service of everyone else.

And Evelyn Underhill wrote about the final stage in the evolution of the great mystics, in which: 23

…they return to the world which they forsook; and there live, as it were, as centres of transcendental energy, the creators of spiritual families, the partners and fellow- labourers with the Divine Life.

The early 17 th century Bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales, according to Rabbi Dan Cohn- Sherbok, expressed the joy of service as it being one part of the mystic’s life: 24

In such a state of union, the soul experiences rapturous ecstasy. According to Francis, such sacred ecstasy is of three types: the first is ecstasy of the intellect when a new truth is encountered. ... The second type of ecstasy occurs when God attracts our minds to him through his beauty and goodness ... In addition ... God brings about ecstasy of work and life.

A similar description was used 300 years later by F. C. Happold: 25

To the mysticism of understanding and knowledge and of union and love I would add the mysticism of action. It is not a separate type, but originates in the first two and is the expression in the temporal world.

Thus, social action becomes part of the God ordained life of the mystic. In ancient times much mysticism was carried out in solitude with great physical sacrifice and often abuse of one’s human aspects. St Paul was not in favour of this and, as reported by Thomas Merton, felt that activity in the work place was a balancing factor: 26

Work and a supernatural acceptance of ordinary life are seen by the Apostle [Paul] as a protection against the restless agitation of false mysticism.

It can be seen, therefore, that the mystic’s journey is one of devotion interspersed with humanitarian activity; it is a balance which was described by Evelyn Underhill with reference to the 16 th century Carmelite nun St Teresa: 27

"You may think, my daughters," says St. Teresa, "that the soul in this state [of union with God] should be so absorbed that she can occupy herself with nothing. You deceive yourselves. She turns with greater ease and ardour than before to all that which belongs to the service of God, and when these occupations leave her free again, she remains in the enjoyment of that companionship."

It can be argued that the spiritual and physical lives that we all lead are incompatible with each other; that following one bars you from the other. This is not true as can be seen in the lives of the great mystics. Of this Martin Israel said that it must be emphasised that: 28

…mysticism is not only compatible with physical health and a balanced social life, but that the validity of the mystic depends on the contribution he makes both to the society around him in his lifetime and to the spiritual aspiration of subsequent generations.

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The reason why mystics undertake this balancing act is that they can show the potential impact of God on the lives of us all. As Andrew Harvey wrote: 29

What the great mystics show us, what has to be done, is to unify the Light with our daily work and practice. Why? By doing so we share something of the completeness of the being of God.

Thousands of mystics and spiritually advanced souls have shared their understanding through the written word; either recording their own experiences or through the writings of other biographers, analysts, and mediums. Rosamund S. Allen, a specialist in Old and Middle English Language, translated into modern English the writings of the 14 th century mystic Richard Rolle. In her introduction to ‘Richard Rolle - The English Writings’ she made the observation that Rolle’s aim: 30

...in writing his experiences and opinions was instruction. He made many different attempts, using different techniques, and two languages, to communicate his mysticism to others...

Rosamund uses Rolle’s own words extracted from the prologue of 'Incendium', to illustrate this: 31

Therefore, I offer this book for consideration not by philosophers, not by the worldly-wise, not by great theologians ensnared in infinite questionings, but by the unsophisticated and the untaught, who are trying to love God rather than to know many things.

Therefore, often using their own words, we can learn by the experiences of these masters. However, we must always bear in mind that what they experienced and what they have described are their own views in their own day. Often it is difficult to transcribe this into our own times. Nevertheless, we have to do the best we can with the resources we have and within the environment in which we live. This idea was not lost on Evelyn Underhill: 32

In studying all such experience, we have to remember that the men and women of the Spirit are members of two orders. They have attachments both to time and to eternity. Their characteristic experiences indeed are non-temporal, but their feet are on the earth; the earth of their own day.

In the conclusion to her book about the spirituality of the Beguines, the academic Saskia Murk Jansen called for us to appreciate that: 33

...true Christianity is not a matter of form and observance, but a way of life. A life of service for others out of love for humankind and God, a life of low prestige and little public recognition.

In their day, many of the mystics were pilloried, harassed and often persecuted for their outspoken beliefs. In our more tolerant society, whilst they are not openly tormented, they are not recognised as having any useful contribution to humanity. This is why White Eagle wrote: 34

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Your name may not be shouted from the hilltops; you may pass from your body unknown and unsung. That does not matter, but what does matter is what you are giving to humanity, what you are creating in God's universe.

So don’t be concerned if your actions are not praised. Know that the good that you do will support your spiritual development both now and in the lives to come. Never look towards reward but serve with love in your heart for all creatures. In the first mystical book that I read, Arthur Waley’s ‘The Way and its Power’ which is his translation with notes of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter Two reads: 35

It is because every one under Heaven recognises beauty as beauty that the idea of ugliness exists. And equally if every one recognised virtue as virtue, this would merely create fresh conceptions of wickedness. For truly 'Being and Not-being grow out of one another; Difficult and easy complete one another. Long and short test one another; High and low determine one another. The sounds of instrument and voice give harmony to one another. Front and back give sequence to one another'. Therefore the Sage relies on actionless activity. Carries on wordless teaching, But the myriad creatures are worked upon by him; he does not disown them. He rears them, but does not lay claim to them, Controls them, but does not lean upon them, Achieves his aim, but does not call attention to what he does; And for the very reason that he does not call attention to what he does He is not ejected from fruition of what he has done.

There is much to ponder upon in this passage, yet it is the last few lines which corroborate the idea that the mystic does not seek reward. Furthermore, in ‘Mysticism’ Evelyn Underhill, when discussing the characteristics of mysticism, wrote: 36

…the mystic serves without hope of reward. By one of the many paradoxes of the spiritual life, he obtains satisfaction because he does not seek it; completes his personality because he gives it up. "Attainment," says Dionysius the Areopagite in words which are writ large on the annals of Christian ecstasy, "comes only by means of this sincere, spontaneous, and entire surrender of yourself and all things."

It is service which is selfless; where the ego has no benefit. The 20 th century Catholic theologian and Jesuit, Ladislaus Boros, in his consideration of Dante’s vision stated that: 37

A man does not become holy in the first instance by being a 'specialist in divine things' but by selfless service to his neighbour in daily life…

…and, born in the 7 th century, the English historian and scholar the Venerable Bede, according to Douglas Dales, said of the saints that: 38

They become self-forgetful in the love of God and service of others

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They do whatever is needed irrespective of the consequences provided it is in keeping with their view of God’s requirements of them. Idries Shah, a 20 th century teacher in the Sufi tradition, upheld this view: 39

Service is the performing of duty without either reluctance or delight.

This is a typical Sufi approach to activity, particularly the activity of teaching. In her discussion of the rise of early Sufism, Margaret Smith declared that they, the Sufis: 40

…felt that they had found the way to salvation for themselves and were satisfied with that and with the task of showing the way to others who might come to consult them.

Some mystics go to apparent extremes to convey to others their experiences and wisdom. Theophan the Recluse, a well-known 19 th century saint in the Russian Orthodox Church, was such a person. In the preface to the translation of Theophan’s book ‘The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it’, Abbot Herman wrote: 41

Just like St Tikhopn of Zadonsk, he shed copious tears in the loneliness of his cell ... thereby acquiring wisdom not of this world and sharing it with millions of people through his books. During the last decades of his life he saw no one except his 'abba' (Tikhon, the Abbot of Vysha Monastery) and his cell attendant.

The advantage of taking that course of action is that many, many people can benefit from the words that are written – far more than just those who can see and talk to the mystic in person. Even though we all may not be able to capture the essence of our belief system in words, we can allow ‘God to shine through us’ in our everyday life. This was the point that the scholar and author Andrew Harvey made: 42

But, to be a friend of the heart of the human race, you have to have been through a complete mystical illumination and you have to want to give illumination away at every second to anybody who wants even a scrap of it.

This you can do not only for individuals but for groups both large and small. It becomes a social act. The English Anglican priest Peter Spink in his book ‘Beyond Belief’ understood that the mystic: 43

...relates not only to individual human beings but in a corporate sense to the beingness of humans. For this reason, far from constituting an isolated pietism, mysticism has from the first to last a social significance.

…and, in a very poetic turn of phrase, Evelyn Underhill recognised the need to: 44

...recover that sense of the forest, which gives all their meaning to the trees.

The mystic can help to achieve this collective unity which will lead to improved social adhesion and give meaning to community. Not all mystics will lean to this type of activity but, for those few that do, much can be realised. People such as Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, Martin Luther King and Dag Hammarskjöld are extreme examples and spring easily to the mind. Of this type of person, Martin Israel said: 45

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...the mystic should be in the forefront leading his fellow-men by the truth of his spiritual vision.

And Andrew Harvey, in the introduction to his ‘The Direct Path’, also realised that mystical experience: 46

...has to be made real in active service of all beings everywhere and in a burning commitment to transform the conditions of earth life in every way and on every level.

All this, of course, reflects John Donne’s view that ‘No man is an Island’. This was the theme of many of the lives of even the early mystics. The Venerable Bede was quoted by Douglas Dales as saying: 47

The holy man [Gregory the Great] says all this [his lament] in a spirit of great humility. We need not believe that he had lost any of his monastic perfection by reason of his pastoral cares. It would appear that he profited more by his efforts over the conversion of many than he had done from the quiet retirement of his earlier way of life

He was not the only mystic to move from aestheticism to service. In an article in the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, Blair Reynolds tells us of the passionate 14 th century German mystic Henry Suso: 48

Thus, the ecstatics’ unitive experiences with God correlate with monumental changes in their perceptions of the external world. Just the mere fact alone that ecstatics perceive of God as diffuse in the cosmos provides them with the basis for a spirituality in which purity is not found in a separation from the world, but in and through an ever-deepening involvement with life. That is the central theme in the writings of Henry Suso (circa 1300-circa 1366), a disciple of Eckhart, who, on the basis of instructions received through divine revelation, abandoned a twenty-year obsession with gruesome ascetic practices and went forth from the monastery into the world he had sought so hard to renounce.

A little later than Suso lived François Fénelon a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. He, according to the American newspaperman Sherwood Wirt, in one of his letters wrote: 49

Your eagerness to mortify yourself would never turn you from solitude, nor tear you away from external affairs.

…and from Professor Ursula King’s view of the spiritual life of mystic and palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin, she explained that eventually: 50

…he became firmly convinced that mysticism did not lead into isolation, out of the world, but into it.

It is perhaps a sign of the times in which we live that moves the mystic towards service for the common good. George King, a 20 th century inventor, author, lecturer and spiritual teacher also expressed this point: 51

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The Aquarian Age, with its emphasis on improvement of the conditions for the mass of humanity, demands the metaphysician to spend his time in service among men rather than isolating himself from mankind as he has been recommended to do throughout the past centuries in order to enjoy personal bliss.

The reason I prefer is the one given by Idries Shah which is: 52

…the service of man is the service of God, and discharging our duty to man is fulfilling God's commands, and hence surrendering to what he has commanded us to do. (One of the great Islamic mystic authors, the classical Persian poet Saadi, says in a famous passage: 'The Way is not otherwise than in the service of the people. It is not in rosaries and prayer rugs and robes.' Bostan,I.)

The implication is that mystics ought not to look for separation from the world, but get deeply immersed in it now that they have their spirituality to guide them. The life of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak (1469 – 1539), demonstrated how this can be achieved. In ‘Sikh Belief and Practice’, the author M. R. Thompson wrote: 53

Although deeply religious, Nanak did not seek the path of an ascetic - leaving home and family to achieve some personal spiritual goal. Rather, he thought it important to work and take on domestic responsibilities.

Perhaps all religions ought to take notice of this. Silver Birch, through the channel of Maurice Barbanell, had the same idea as Saadi and revealed that service to humanity: 54

…is a work greater than that done by many churches, chapels, synagogues and temples which are filled with dry, arid theology, but where the power of the spirit is absent .

Giving of yourself in this way is not an easy option for your life. It is very hard and as soon as you start you will begin to experience the sacrifices that you will have to continue to make. Stephen O’Brien, a well respected and dedicated British medium, expressed this selflessness as: 55

...a life dedicated to the service of others involves great personal sacrifices.

We have to put ourselves second; to realise that others are more important than ourselves. Humility is the keyword. Emptying our glass of materialism gives us the space to accept the gifts and energy of Spirit as Martin Israel believed: 56

When we are … empty of self, we are ready to receive the divine power, which is in fact the real reward for true service whether to God or simply to our fellow creatures.

In fact, what gives the mystic a sort of shield of wisdom to protect them from the arrows of materialism is their unyielding link with the Divine. Therefore, as Madame Guyon highlighted in her ‘Spiritual Torrents’, once union with God as been achieved and detachment realised then: 57

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...the soul ought to do the same actions it used to do before its losses, and do them without any difficulty; only doing them in God.

There seems to be a pattern which was noticed by Martin Israel: 58

The theme of spiritual growth is one of withdrawal followed by return. But the person who returns after the harrowing withdrawal that follows great suffering is changed, and in turn brings that change to the world around him, so that it attains to a greater measure of reality.

Through this change we can support humanity’s progress towards a better world. What gifts, abilities, capacity, faculties and talents we possess were given to us for a reason; to give away to others. Andrew Harvey’s mentor at the time of writing his book ‘Hidden Journey’ was Mother Meera. On one occasion she said to Andrew: 59

You, too, must learn to suffer what is necessary with joy and give everything I give you away. The richest inside give the most; this is the Divine Way.

Extending this, it is also recognised that the greater the gifts and the spirituality then the more is expected. Cyprian De Lapsis, an important Early Christian writer who died in 258 AD, understood this and, reminiscent of Luke 12:48, wrote: 60

To whom much is given, much is required of him; and on whom the more dignity is bestowed, of him the more service is demanded.

In giving in service, we should not throw away our wisdom out with our ego. What we do for people is dependent upon their needs not necessarily their wants. This means that we must be able to assess, according to our ability, what is best to do. Martin Israel believed that we can get support in this activity: 61

When we get out of the way in humble service, God can get in and so renew our mind that we can be what is right to the person with whom we are dealing.

Whatever the mystic does, it ought to fit in with the concept of ‘wu wei’ 62 or actionless activity. This concept emerged in the Tao Te Ching and ought to be the goal of every mystic. One description of this is to consider the planets which revolve around the sun in their determined orbits with apparent ease without any sort of force or attempt to go against this flow. They are operating in effortless and spontaneous movement. Using this, albeit imperfect, analogy you can see that if a person acts against or upon the extant forces they will disrupt the harmony that already exists. This is not to say that a person should not exert energy and will. Rather, it is how the mystic acts in relation to the natural processes already existing. The Tao Te Ching expresses it in this way: 63

True words are not fine-sounding; Fine-sounding words are not true. The good man does not prove by argument; And he who proves by arguments is not good. True wisdom is different from much learning; Much learning means little wisdom. The Sage has no need to hoard;

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When his own last scrap has been used up on behalf of others, Lo, he has more than before! When his own last scrap has been used up in giving to others, Lo, his stock is even greater than before! For heaven's way is to sharpen without cutting [to achieve the end without using material means] , And the Sage's way is to act without striving.

In modern terms perhaps ‘go with the flow’ best describes wu wei. This can be seen in action if we look at the mystic’s desire to impart the knowledge that his experiences have gained. If the mystic’s brief is to spiritually ‘educate’ then we must be able to recognise the level of knowledge that it is appropriate to impart. It is very unwise to try to raise a person’s spiritual level when they are not capable of understanding what is being said. In advising us on this Al Ghazzali, a 10 th century Islamic theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist and mystic of Persian origin, used a summary from Matt, 7:6,9: 16-17: 64

Jesus said, "Entrust not wisdom to those unworthy of it lest ye do it injustice; nor withhold it from those unworthy of it lest ye do them injustice. Be ye therefore like the skilful physician who applies the medicine to the sore spot."

All in all, the mystic’s objective is, somehow, to serve. This requires great humility and with it will be given greater and greater support from Spirit. This is described by St Gregory of Sinai as recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’ as: 65

Through this force a man sees himself as an organ of Divine powers and by its action performs inscrutable works of God.

This support will always be with us. Again from the Tao Te Ching in Chapter 35 is written the following: 66

If one looks for Tao, there is nothing solid to see; If one listens for it, there is nothing loud enough to hear; Yet if one uses it, it is inexhaustible.

We live to serve is a recollection of words reported in the Gospel of the Essenes. In the ‘Book of Moses’ Jesus the Nazarene is reported to have said: 67

Thou shalt love thy Heavenly Father With all thy heart, And with all thy mind, And with all thy deeds, And thou shalt love thy brothers As thyself.

…which stresses the importance of our actions relative to our spirituality.

To finish this chapter, I would like to share with you a few words from Luciano De Crescenzo who was born in 1928 and is an Italian writer, film actor, director and engineer.

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In a very unique way he emphasised our dependence on other people and other people’s dependence upon us. He observed that: 68

…we are all angels with only one wing; we can only fly while embracing one another.

So share your abilities and talents with others as you develop your spiritual nature.

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1 A W Austen, Teachings of Silver Birch, Psychic Press, 1993. Repressing Spiritual Gifts, (Pg 195) 2 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter One: Why did Silver Birch return? (Pg 29) 3 White Eagle on the Intuition and Initiation, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 2004. Part Two: Developing the Intuition - X: Beyond Thought and Emotion, (Pg 100) 4 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part Two - 13. Rays from the Spiritual Sun - A meditation on the sixth ray, (Pg 103) 5 Arthur Findlay, The Rock of Truth, SNU, 1999. Part I: Chapter IV: What did Jesus Really Teach, (Pg 89) 6 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 21. The Lesser Mystic Way: The Mysticism of Action, (Pg 102) 7 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. Introduction by Michael McLean, (Pg 4) 8 Dom Aelred Graham, Christian Thought in Action, The Catholic Book Club, 1958. Chapter Six: The Interior Life of the Christian Humanist, (Pg 95) 9 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 9 - The Still Point, (Pg 87) 10 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. True Worship, (Pg 14) 11 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part One - Awakening; 2: A History of Human Awakening: Buddhism, (Pg 31) 12 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 5: Initiation, (Pg 66 / 67) 13 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part Two: Return Manward - The Other Face, (Pg 134 / 135) 14 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Ten: What is the Spirit? (Pg 97) 15 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Seven: The Joy of Service, (Pg 65) 16 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 123) 17 Robert Llewelyn (ed), Julian - Woman of our Day, Darton Longman and Todd, 1986. God alone Suffices by Elizabeth Ruth Obbard, (Pg 105) 18 Evelyn Underhill, The House of the Soul, Methuen & Co, 1929. Chapter IV, (Pg 59) 19 John Blofeld, Beyond the Gods, E P Dutton & Co, 1974. Chapter 4 - The Path of Faith and Compassion, (Pg 75) 20 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter X, (Pg 30) 21 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part II: Consciousness. 7: Return to the market-place, (Pg 87) 22 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 15: The Inward Solitude, (Pg 219) 23 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter VI - Mysticism and Symbolism, (Pg 140) 24 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 9 Early Modern Christian Mysticism: Francis de Sales, (Pg 133) 25 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 21. The Lesser Mystic Way: The Mysticism of Action, (Pg 102) 26 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 6: Asceticism and Sacrifice, (Pg 99) 27 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part TWO: The Mystic Way: Introductory, (Pg 172) 28 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 122) 29 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 9 - The Divine Child, (Pg 247) 30 Rosamund S. Allen, Richard Rolle - The English Writings, SPCK, 1989. Introduction: Rolle's Poetic Skill: His Instruction of Others, (Pg 32) 31 Rosamund S. Allen, Richard Rolle - The English Writings, SPCK, 1989. Introduction: Rolle's Poetic Skill: His Instruction of Others, (Pg 34) 32 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 34) 33 Saskia Murk Jansen, Brides in the Desert - The Spirituality of the Beguines, Darton Longman and Todd, 1998. 6 Conclusion, (Pg 117) 34 Walking with the Angels - A Path of Service, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1998. Part Two - 21. Ritual, Ceremonial and Sacred Places, (Pg 137) 35 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter II, (Pg143)

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36 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Part ONE: The Mystic Fact: Chapter IV - The Characteristics of Mysticism, (Pg 92/93) 37 Ladislaus Boros, Open Spirit, Search Press, 1974. Dante and Vision, (Pg 161) 38 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Bede 39 Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, Penguin Books, 1975. Part Six: Themes for Solitary Contemplation. 2. A Sufi Notebook: On Service, (Pg 249) 40 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 158) 41 St. Theophan the Recluse, The Spiritual Life and How to be Attuned to it, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995. Preface by [Abbot Herman], (Pg 16 / 17) 42 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 9 - The Divine Child, (Pg 247) 43 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 7: The Mystic and Healing, (Pg 100) 44 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part One- The Heart of Personal Religion, (Pg 13) 45 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 15: Mysticism and spirituality, (Pg 122) 46 Andrew Harvey, The Direct Path, Rider & Co, 2000. Introduction, (Pg 22 / 23) 47 Douglas Dales, Called to be Angels, Canterbury Press, 1998. Gregory the Great: (Pg 14) 48 R Blair Reynolds, Cosmos and History, Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy,Vol 1, #2, 2005. Ecstasy as World-affirming 49 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 5 - From Letters of Spiritual Counsel by Francois de la Mothe Fenelon, (Pg 75) 50 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. I Unity of Life and Thought. 2: Early Contacts with the East, (Pg 52) 51 George King, The Three Saviours are Here!, Aetherius Society, 1967. Chapter Three: The Truths of Jesus, (Pg 33) 52 Idries Shah, The Elephant in the Dark, Octagon Press, 1985. Chapter 10, Pg (35) 53 M R Thompson, Sikh Belief and Practice, Edward Arnold, 1985. 3 Neither Hindu nor Muslim, (Pg 9) 54 Anne Dooley, Guidance from Silver Birch, Spiritualist Press, 1966. Chapter Seven: The Joy of Service, (Pg 66) 55 Stephen O'Brien, Visions of Another World, The Aquarian Press, 1989. 19 Touching Souls, (Pg 227) 56 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 5 - The Hollow Image, (Pg 45) 57 Madame Guyon, Spiritual Torrents, Christian Books, 1984. Part II: Chapter X, (Pg 85) 58 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 2: Journey into Truth, (Pg 23) 59 Andrew Harvey, Hidden Journey, Rider & Co, 1994. DOLPHIN CHILD – NINE, (Pg 214) 60 Cyprian, CYPRIAN De Lapsis and De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate, Oxford University Press, 1971. The Unity of the Catholic Church. 21, (Pg 91) 61 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 9 - The Still Point, (Pg 82) 62 Wu may be translated as not have or without ; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort . The literal meaning of wu wei is "without action" 63 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter LXXXI, (Pg 243) 64 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section III, (Pg 94) 65 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Gregory of Sinai - Texts on Commandments and Dogmas #117, (Pg 64) 66 Arthur David Waley, The Way and its Power, George, Allen & Unwin, 1936. Tao Te Ching: Chapter XXXV, (Pg 186) 67 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. From the Essene Book of Moses: The Communions, (Pg 41) 68 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part Three - Participating; 13: Transforming Culture, (Pg 169)

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20.12: Mysticism – A Mirror of the Divine

As we go about our daily life we reflect, through our aura and general demeanour, our beliefs and the implementation of our Philosophy of life. Irrespective of what we are doing, this human energy field radiates the essence of our being. Others who are sensitive to such energies are able to ‘read’ our inner self. For those who are spiritually developed, for example the mystics, this energy field is so intense that everyone whether they are ‘sensitive’ or not, can pick up their emanations and ‘feel’ their godliness. In this way, it is considered that the mystic is a mirror for the Divine; they reflect the perfect ‘goodness’.

As far back as the 4 th century, Ephraim the Syrian, so Margaret Smith tells us, used the analogy of a mirror: 1

By such self-stripping, purification is achieved, and Ephraim compares the soul to a mirror, a simile which was also used frequently afterwards by Muslim mystics.

Although in a different context, in 14 th century England Walter Hilton used the same metaphor of a mirror: 2

For your soul is only a mirror in which you will see God spiritually.

The mirror as a reflector has been a theme from many other mystical writers. About the same time as Ephraim the Syrian, there emerged John Chrysostom, one of the doyens of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was born in Antioch into a wealthy and aristocratic family. In 368 renounced his career as an advocate, received baptism and thereafter studied the scriptures. Eventually he gave away all his wealth and went to live as a hermit in a cave from where much of his writing came. He is recorded to have said: 3

As polished silver, illumined by the rays of the sun, radiates light not only from its own nature but also from the radiance of the sun, so a soul, purified by the Divine Spirit, becomes more brilliant than silver; it both receives the ray of Divine glory, and from itself reflects the ray of this same glory.

Each of us can be a reflector although the brightness of the resultant image will vary according to our level of spirituality. This ability seems to come from our soul, which is our spark of God, and pass right through us to other souls. Ryuho Okawa, the Japanese founder of the Happy Science religious organisation, believed it was the soul’s action that created this reflection and he wrote: 4

The soul has the ability to focus, absorb, radiate and amplify the light of Buddha.

Looking at it from God’s perspective was provided by the New Age pioneer Vida Reed Stone. In his channelled and thought provoking poem ‘Behold My Song’, Jehovah, the God of Abraham declared that: 5

In the still pool of thy being I alone am reflected.

If we can let this light of our Being shine then others may be positively influenced by what they see. We can be light in their darkness as the communicator to Neale Donald Walsch

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Behold the darkness, yet curse it not. Rather, be a light unto the darkness, and so transform it. Let your light so shine before men, that those who stand in the darkness will be illuminated by the light of your being, and all of you will see, at last, Who You Really are.

We all have this light within us; we can all be a beacon to light another’s difficult way. This is particularly noticeable in the great people of religions. My next-door neighbour Peter Mockford, a vicar for 25 years at our local Anglican church, supported this view and wrote that: 7

They have all been like bright lights shining in a world so often full of darkness, illuminating a better way and pointing people to God.

This is no different, in principle rather than by degree, from you and me; the more we use our light effectively, the greater that light becomes. This appears to be a feature of travelling the Mystic Way. In a conversation that Hazel Courteney, during her initial spiritual experiences, had with the spirit of Diana, Princess of Wales, Hazel was told that: 8

All of you carry the light, and we are sending more. When you live your life by helping others, you receive more light and begin to "shine" in other people's eyes. All humanity needs to wake up the light within them and open their hearts to receiving more, then the world will truly change for the better.' 'And what is this light?' I wanted to know. 'It is the frequency of unconditional love, this is what God is,' replied Diana. 'Some people will think that what you say is mad, but it is the truth.'

As this energy that we radiate is from the love that we have, then what people see and sense is what we really are. You cannot fake it. It is one of the Natural Laws of the Cosmos. Another way of representing this is as was used by John Templeton, an American-born British stock investor, businessman and philanthropist, in his book ‘The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God’: 9

Love cannot flow in unless it also flows out. .. God's spirit can flow through us and others can see His glory.

This notion of the essence of God flowing through and out of us was also recorded by the American author, teacher, spiritual healer and mystic Joel Goldsmith: 10

And so from the moment that we consciously perceive that we are always in the bosom of our Father and always one with our Source, indivisible and inseparable from that Source, it becomes clear to us that all that is flowing forth from that Lifestream, all that emanates from that infinite Source, is pouring Itself into, through, and from our individual consciousness.

This process of allowing love to enter our being and then radiating it to all that we meet was a theme of the Quaker Jim Pym’s philosophy: 11

We know the Light as the Unconditional Love of God which, if we can accept it, we

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are able to radiate as light to the world around us.

From a conversation with a higher spirit through the mediumship of Phyllis V. Schlemmer we have been told that it is important to know that each of us: 12

...has within you a crystallisation of the spirit that removes itself from the ins and outs of your life, and comes outward as a beam that touches and inspires, and brings to those in contact with you the necessary energies for changing the self within and creating a difference in their own and others' lives.

So that if deep within us is our undivided trust in a Divine Principle and through this understanding we mould our lives accordingly then we can say that we are, slowly but surely, becoming more and more like our Creator. Margaret Smith makes this point by referring to St Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians iii.19: 13

St Paul shows how those who gaze upon the Divine Beauty themselves become Godlike

Others have used the Bible to provide a reference to strengthen their case for us becoming more Godlike as our spirituality develops. One verse in particular, II Corinthians 3:18, was used by the 19 th century biblical scholar and minister of the Free Church of Scotland, Marcus Dods, which he quoted as: 14

But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

And 100 years later the mystic Martin Israel used the same reference from St Paul although couched in modern English: 15 and 16

And because for us there is no veil over the face, we all reflect as in a mirror, the splendour of the Lord; thus we are transfigured into His likeness, from splendour to splendour; such is the influence of the Lord who is Spirit.

How honoured we are to have the capability to do this, or as Silver Birch remarked: 17

How privileged we are to be in any degree the ambassadors of the Divine.

For a mystic to get to this stage, many trials and sacrifices will have to have been endured. It is not an easy path. In his book about the spiritual life of the 14 th century German mystic Meister Eckhart, the Benedictine monk Cyprian Smith asked the question: 18

What is the purpose of all this detachment, renunciation, letting go, casting aside self-will, that Eckhart talks about perpetually?

…and his answer was:

It is simple to create an empty, hollow space within ourselves, so that we can become a sound-board, or echo-chamber, for the Word.

This is one of the objectives of the mystic or, put another way; it is the destiny of every

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:23:18 20.12 Mysticism – A Mirror of the Divine Page 4 of 12 mystic. This turn of phrase was used by Evelyn Underhill: 19

Only the soul that has thus given itself to God becomes part of the mystical body through which He acts on life. Its destiny is to be the receiver and transmitter of grace. .. It is only when our hearts are actually at rest in God, in peaceful and self oblivious adoration, that we can hope to show His attractiveness to other people.

In other words, once we get to that position we will realise the significance of Simeon the New Theologian’s statement as recorded in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’: 20

God shines in a man's spirit...

The idea that our destiny is in our essence then, right from the beginning of our life, we will have been shaped and changed to become this vehicle of reflection; this mirror of Goodness. Again referring to Joel Goldsmith: 21

The only correct self-effacement there is, is the effacement of a personal sense of virtue and the acknowledgement that God had made or given us all that we are, and that God is functioning in us and through us.

In other words, as given by Martin Israel, the mystic is simply: 22

...God's collaborator in our world...

From more of a doomsday perspective, Andrew Harvey wrote that he believed that we: 23

…are all in the last moments of a civilisation, and facing tremendous, indeed, an absolute challenge. It is up to us, up to you and me, to sacrifice our every moment and thought to the Divine so the Divine can act through us at this moment to allow Its will to be done .

The future will decide if Andrew is right in his prediction although I do not believe that Armageddon is anything like imminent or that it will happen at all. Because of this I believe that there is great value in trying to convey our ideas and believes to others so that they can criticise them and develop their own philosophy into something better and greater. The mystics must speak to the future. Dante Alighieri, in the Paradise section of his Divine Comedy, beseeched that his God: 24

And make my tongue of so great puissance, That but a single sparkle of thy glory It may bequeath unto the future people.

Evelyn Underhill, in describing ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’, suggested that the peculiar sensibilities of mystics: 25

…like those which condition artistic genius, are the gates through which messages from the Transcendent come to humanity.

According to the essayist and author Aldous Huxley, the 11 th century Persian Sufi mystic

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Al-ghazzali took this much further, as he regards: 26

…the mystics not only as the ultimate source of our knowledge of the soul and its capabilities and defects, but as the salt which preserves human societies from decay. "In the time of the philosophers," he writes, "as at every other period, there existed some of these fervent mystics. God does not deprive this world of them, for they are its sustainers." It is they who, dying to themselves, become capable of perpetual inspiration and so are made the instruments through which divine grace is mediated to those whose unregenerate nature is impervious to the delicate touches of the Spirit.

At the end of the day, it is the descriptions and implication of their spiritual development and mystical experiences which may help others to undertake their own journey to God. Helena Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, was a Polish nun, mystic, visionary who also believed others, through critical examination of the lives of the mystics, could be aided. This was reported by Dan Cohn-Sherbok in his book ‘Jewish & Christian Mysticism’: 27

...Helen Kowalska was a mystic who believed that through her spiritual experiences others could be drawn to Christ. In her diary she reported the divine communications that had been disclosed to her from Jesus, the Virgin Mother, her guardian angel and the saints, as well as her ecstatic visions, mystical transports and prophetic insights.

This is one of the aims of the mystics; to try to tell people about their experience and through them to reflect the Divine. If we want to radiate the heart-felt beliefs which underpin our own lives, then we must try to emulate mystics such as the French philosopher and Jesuit priest, who also trained as a palaeontologist and geologist, Teilhard de Chardin who advised: 28

If we want the divine milieu to grow all around us, then we must jealously guard and nourish all the forces of union, of desire, and of prayer that grace offers us.

That is, using a different analogy, the 20 th century Chinese missionary Watchman Nee warned: 29

Man's spirit can be compared to an electric bulb. When in contact with the Holy Spirit, it shines; but should it be disconnected, it plunges into darkness.

The metaphor of our soul shining with divinity, was also used by the Venerable Basil Wilberforce, once the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who believed that: 30

The true test of the growth of the Godlike character is, without doubt, its progress along the whole line of human life, the whole range of human experience; it fertilises the whole field of a man’s being; where it is growing it slowly makes manhood manlier, home happier, business cleaner, tempers sweeter, desires more regulated; it cannot be hid, it shines out and blesses others.

Reflecting our Creator starts with our burgeoning awareness of Spirit and reaches its zenith

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:23:18 20.12 Mysticism – A Mirror of the Divine Page 6 of 12 once Union with God is achieved. Somewhere between these two extremes people start to notice that, somehow, we have changed and are reflecting the Goodness in which we believe. When writing about the mystical doctrines of early Sufism, Margaret Smith touched on this subject: 31

By Pure Love, then, the mystic is guided from one station to another until he comes to the end of the first stage of the Way, when the mirror of the soul has become as pure from self as flame from smoke, and is fitted to reflect the Light of God, by which it is illuminated in the second stage, that of ecstasy; and now the mystic enters upon that third stage, of attainment, which is indeed the end of his journey.

According to Oliver Davies, a specialist in German religious literature, in Meister Eckhart’s ‘Talks of Instruction’ he broached the subject of reflecting God’s glory: 32

Whoever possesses God in their being, has him in a divine manner, and he shines out to them in all things, for them all things taste of God and in all things it is God's image that they see. God is always radiant in them; they are inwardly detached from the world and are in-formed by the loving presence of their God.

It all depends on each of us. The greater our spirituality the greater will be our reflection of Goodness. This according to the spirit teacher White Eagle, humanity’s spiritual ‘reason d’être’: 33

The whole purpose of spiritual unfoldment is for the individual man so to train himself that he becomes a more powerful centre from which the love of God can radiate.

A similar sentiment was expressed by the 18 th century French Jesuit priest Père De Caussade: 34

So may this seed germinate in your heart, God’s secret hiding place, and through his mysterious virtue throw out branches, leaves, flowers and fruit which you cannot see but by which others will be nourished and enchanted.

In order to achieve this state we must be vigilant; we must make sure that we remain detached from worldly interference and as the French priest and spiritual mentor Abbé Henri de Tourville suggested: 35

...know that our whole duty lies only in keeping ourselves free and supple, in order that He may act in us.

Your power, the power of the mystic, grows with increasing spirituality and everyone around is affected by it even if they don’t know it. This point was well made by the German born Canadian Eckhart Tolle: 36

Everyone you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace that you emanate, whether they are conscious of it or not. … Animals, trees, flowers will feel your peace and respond to it.

Hence, in the words of the biblical scholar Marcus Dods, if you: 37

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...become a mirror to Christ your friends will detect it in a very few days; they will see appearing in you, the mirror, an image which they know has not been originated in you, and they will turn to look straight at the Person that you are reflecting. It is in that way that Christianity passes from man to man.

Of course, in this statement, I would replace ‘Christianity’ with ‘spirituality’. However, we have to be careful not to become inflated with what we have achieved so far. Realising that this may happen and potentially may cause us to slide back into the ego. We must guard against this as best we can and remain as detached as possible, keeping the ‘self’ in its appropriate place. We must also be aware that our talents, capacity and faculties are limited and as such we must not be tempted to extend our impact beyond our limits. In this way we can capitalise on our strengths. The Abbé Henri de Tourville is reported by the classical scholar and translator, Robin Waterfield, to have recommended that: 38

...we should stick to one task, and follow our calling, making full use of the grace that is granted to us, so that a trace of divine perfection may be seen in us in our thoughts, our actions and our deeds.

Each of these actions should reveal our Creator and the trust we place in that Divine Source. Al Ghazzali whilst referring to the Qur’an, said that no one will ever view the mystic or learned man as he referred to them: 39

…without being reminded of God. His face will reveal his works for the eye of the righteous one reflect his soul. The marks of the learned men of the hereafter, too, are recognised in their faces [see Qur’an, Surah XLVII:29] which reflect tranquillity, lowliness, and modesty.

The implication is that, try as hard as you like, you cannot keep your aspect from the world, as Evelyn Underhill wrote: 40

This larger and intenser vitality the mystics do not and cannot keep to themselves. They infect with it all with whom they come in contact, kindle the latent fire in them: for the spiritual consciousness is caught, not taught.

Now there is an important point; you can teach the principles of spirituality and of mystical experience, but the only way for this to become embedded in a person’s life is for them to have thought about and accepted or rejected part or all of the teaching. Spirituality can never be imposed, no matter how much coercion is used. This is why the mystic’s innate ability to reflect Goodness is so vitally important. It does not need explaining; people just catch the warmth and love as was explained in the 14 th century in ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’: 41

Nevertheless, through contemplation he [the mystic] is so growing in practical goodness and love that, when he speaks or prays with his fellow Christians at other times, the warmth of his love reaches out to them all, friend, enemy, stranger, and kin alike.

Another mystic whose expositions included the idea of warmth was Evelyn Underhill: 42

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And we observe too that the Ninth Perfection of the Buddhist is such a state of active charity. “In his loving, sympathising, joyful and steadfast mind he will recognize himself in all things, and will shed warmth and light on the world in all directions out of his great, deep, unbounded heart."

For many other mystics it was the analogy of the sun which caught their imagination. In the ‘Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood’ is written: 43

Wouldst thou grow strong in the Law? Be, then, as the sun at noonday, Which shinest with light and warmth on all men.

Which, whilst it was written with reference to the ‘Angel of the Sun’, could equally well apply to the ardent mystic. Such people, according to Shankara Acharya are natural reflectors: 44

...the ray of the true Self reflected in Goodness illumines the whole material world, like a sun.

Mirror, sun, warmth, rays of light and many other metaphors have been associated with mystics. All are valid, and until you have encountered such a person, you cannot really appreciate the intensity of their presence and thereby realise the inability of words to describe the effect. No matter what the mystic is actually doing, this part of them, their spirituality, touches everyone within reach. Describing this in a simple prayer, the British Spiritualist Harry Earnest Hunt wrote: 45

So may the God of love, and love of God fill full our hearts with wise beneficence, that we may stand avowed upon the side of light; so in reflection may our beams outshine upon a world obscure, bidding dark souls look up to see the Candle of the Lord.

In reflecting on the lives of the mystics, Evelyn Underhill, in her book ‘’The Life of the Spirit and the Life Today’, confirmed that whilst the life of the mystic is transformed by their experiences, so are the communities in which they live and work: 46

And the third feature we notice about these men and women is, that this new power by which they lived was, as Ruysbroeck calls it, “a spreading light." It poured out of them, invading and illuminating other men: so that, through them, whole groups or societies were re-born, if only for a time, on to fresh levels of reality, goodness and power. Their own intense personal experience was valid not only for themselves.

Nearly 20 years later in another book, ‘The School of Charity’, she described her own mystic’s life as one of complete service during which the mirror of the Divine was continually active: 47

We too, setting our face towards Jerusalem, must serve with humble self-oblivion up to the very end; meeting every demand on our patience and pity, and faithfully dispensing the Water of Life which may pour through us while leaving our own thirst unquenched.

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So come within the aura of a mystic and you will experience this reflected love for every thing. I can vouch for its impact; my mystic mentor David Perry had this quality. Ursula King, whilst writing of the life and spirituality of the mystic Teilhard de Chardin, captured his idea and stated that: 48

...to convince oneself of the authenticity of the mystical ... nature of [his] faith ... words were unnecessary. It was enough to see him...

No mystic sets out to be a reflector of the Divine, it happens as a natural consequence of their spiritual development. If you take this rocky path, then, during this process, as was indicated in ‘The Book of Privy Counselling’: 49

Your whole personality will be transformed, your countenance will radiate an inner beauty...

…and once you have reached a mystical level of spirituality, then we can learn, for us as individuals, how best to interface with the rest of humanity. In more religious terms Thomas Merton wrote: 50

And when we have gained possession of our souls, we must learn to 'go out' of ourselves to God and to others by supernatural charity.

The excitement which a mystic has in reaching union with God will always spill over to those who are close by. It is this joy which stimulates active service and where possible the truths that have been revealed to the mystic must be told. This is why the 14 th century anonymous author of the Theologia Germanica explained: 51

…when a man in whom the truth worketh, hath and ought to have a will towards anything, his will and endeavour and works are for no end, but that the truth may be seen and manifested…

Mystics are all supported in their development, not just for them to reach a level of spirituality but for a much more humanitarian reason; their destiny is to be a channel for everything divine. Evelyn Underhill, in ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’, used the words of the nun, writer and mystic Elizabeth de la Trinite, to make the same point: 52

Their [the mystics] point of view has been beautifully stated by a young French mystic. Elizabeth de la Trinite, who died a few years ago [1906] , 'I want', she says, ' to be all silence, all adoration, that I may penetrate more and more deeply into God, and become so full of Him that I can give Him in my prayers to those poor souls still ignorant of His gift.' She wants to be a channel, a duct, by which the love and power of God, of which she is so strongly conscious, can flow out to other souls. It is not for herself that she is working, it is for the world.

Evelyn Underhill’s own life, being a mystic herself, was one devoted to service and trying to get others to understand that what she was conveying was a reflection of her God: 53

...and gave myself to Him again of my own free will for this purpose, to be one more transmitter of God's power and love.

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This idea of being an instrument that is available for use by God, was also used by the Jesuit spiritual director Father Delcourt in a letter about Mère Ignace Goethals, who subsequently, became the Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur. He wrote that he believed that God: 54

...has chosen you as an instrument to show forth the grandeur of God; in order that you may reach very high perfection, cultivate in your heart gratitude, humility and courage. Have an immense trust in God, a big heart, wide views; be docile to grace; practice close union with God...

The sort of characteristics which the mystic displays for others to see and admire and hopefully to replicate, were outlined by another mystic, Henry Thomas Hamblin: 55

Our aim should not be our own comfort, but rather to bring forth the fruits of the spirit, which are: - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Additionally each mystic, each of us who are trying to follow the Mystic Way, will naturally be a bridge between this world, as most people see it, and the Spirit World, as documented by Eckhart Tolle: 56

It is quite possible to be conscious of the Unmanifested throughout your life. You feel it as a deep sense of peace somewhere in the background, a stillness that never leaves you, no matter what happens out here. You become a bridge between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God and the world. This is the state of connectedness with the Source that we call enlightenment.

Winifred Graham’s late father, communicating from the Spirit World, believed that anyone in this state of spirituality can be: 57

...a link between the Earth and Heaven.

However we develop our spirituality, we must bear in mind the words of Jacob Boehme. He received practically no education, at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a shoe- maker, and yet produced some of the deepest mystical writings that the world has ever seen. In his book ‘The Way to Christ’ he wrote: 58

Since the light of the divine power has been ignited in it, the creature (you the reader) must go forward as an instrument of the Spirit of God, and speak what God’s Spirit tells it to. It is then no longer its own possession but is an instrument of God.

Yes! A mirror of the Divine. So let each one of us be thus and be one of those who Al Ghazzali recalled: 59

A glowing wick is he Who gives his light and dies.

This was certainly true of Father Andrew about whom a young widow, whose husband was

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I have only know him for these few years, but in my life at least he has begun a change which I hope will only cease when the work is completed. And goodness only knows what that is exactly: it isn't only what he says, or writes or teaches, but essentially in what he is. When one is with him one just doesn't have any problems. There doesn't seem to be anything worth worrying about. He carries about with him too much of the peace of God.

Oh! That we could all deserve this epitaph.

1 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 88) 2 Walter Hilton, The Stairway of Perfection, Image Books, 1979. Book Two: Chapter Thirty, (Pg 273) 3 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: Callistus and Ignatius of Xanthopoulos - Directions to Hesychasts – 5, (Pg 166) 4 Ryuho Okawa, The Laws of the Sun, Element, 1996. Chapter Two: The Truth Speaks - The Truth about the Soul, (Pg 27) 5 Vida Reed Stone, Behold My Song, Willing Publishing Company, 1947. Behold My Song, (Pg 40) 6 Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God - Book 3 An uncommon dialogue, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999. Chapter 3, (Pg 68) 7 Peter Mockford, Light and Liberty, Instant Apostle, 2017. Foreword, (Pg 15) 8 Hazel Courteney, Divine Intervention, Cico Books, 2002. Chapter 12: The Long Road Home, (Pg 179) 9 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. XII. Love and Happiness. The True Test, (Pg 110) 10 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter ONE - Conscious Awareness, (Pg 10) 11 Jim Pym, Listening to the Light, Rider & Co, 1999. The Source, (Pg 46) 12 Phyllis V. Schlemmer, The Only Planet of Choice, Gateway Books, 1996. VI: Terrestrial Affairs - 18: Making a Difference, (Pg 248) 13 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 48) 14 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. How to Become Like Christ, (Pg 1) 15 Martin Israel, The Pain That Heals, Hodder & Stoughton, 1981. Chapter 16: Healing Prayer, (Pg 182) 16 Martin Israel, Healing as a Sacrament, Darton Longman and Todd, 1984. Chapter 5: The Unobstructed Vision, (Pg 48) 17 Stella Storm, Philosophy of Silver Birch, The Spiritual Truth Press, 1998. Chapter Two: The Result of his Mission, (Pg 34) 18 Cyprian Smith, The Way of Paradox [spiritual life as taught by Meister Eckhart], Darton Longman and Todd, 1996. 5 The Voice of God, (Pg 64) 19 Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life, Oneworld, 1999. Part Two - The Goals of the Inner Life, (Pg 47 / 48) 20 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part One: St. Simeon The New Theologian - Practical and Theological Precepts: 135, (Pg 129) 21 Joel S Goldsmith, The Contemplative Life, L N Fowler & Co, 1963. Chapter FOUR - The Esoteric Meaning of the Easter Week, (Pg 57) 22 Martin Israel, Healing as a Sacrament, Darton Longman and Todd, 1984. Chapter 7: The Sacraments in Healing, (Pg 66) 23 Andrew Harvey, The Way of Passion, Souvenir Press, 2002. Chapter 11 - In Love, As Love, For Love, (Pg 303) 24 Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Capella, 2008. Paradiso Canto XXXIII, (Pg 382) 25 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 56) 26 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XXVII: Contemplation, Action and Social Unity, (Pg 301) 27 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Introduction, (Pg 13)

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28 Teilhard de Chardin, Le Milieu Divin, Fontana, 1966. The Divine Milieu, (Pg 134) 29 Watchman Nee, When is My Spirit Normal?, Ministry of Life, 1927. Chapter 2 - The Laws of the Spirit (7) Irresponsibility of the Spirit, (Pg 158) 30 Ven. Basil Wilberforce, D.D, The Secret of the Quiet Mind, Elliot Stock, 1916. Dives and Lazarus, which? (Pg 48) 31 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter IX - The Mystical Doctrines of Early Sufism, (Pg 209) 32 Oliver Davies, Meister Eckhart - Selected Writings, Penguin Books, 1994. The talks of instruction - 6: On Detachment, (Pg 10/11) 33 White Eagle, Spiritual Unfoldment 1, White Eagle Lodge Publishing Trust, 1994. I: A Simple Approach – What is your Motive? (Pg 16) 34 Père De Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Fount, 1987. 6 With God the More We Seem to Lose, the More We Gain – God’s Mysterious Hiding Place, (Pg 57) 35 Abbé Henri de Tourville, Letters of Direction, Mowbray, 1939. XVI - God within Us, (Pg 87) 36 Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of NOW, Hodder Mobius, 2002 Eight: Acceptance of the Now, (Pg 106) 37 Marcus Dods, How to Become Like Christ, Thos. Whittaker and also available on-line through Project Gutenberg, 1897. How to Become Like Christ, (Pg 36) 38 Robin Waterfield, Streams of Grace, Fount, 1985. (Pg 89) 39 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section VI On the evils of Knowledge .. (Pg 200) 40 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 54) 41 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Cloud of Unknowing: Chapter 25, (Pg 81) 42 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter VIII The Life of the Spirit and the Social Order, (Pg 226) 43 Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, The Gospel of the Essenes, C W Daniel Co, 1976. Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood: The Angel of the Sun, (Pg 136) 44 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom - The Power of Maya, (Pg 27) 45 Harry Earnest Hunt, The Gateway of Intuition, Wright & Brown, 1930s (?). XIX Love, (Pg 76 / 77) 46 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 43) 47 Evelyn Underhill, The School of Charity, Longmans, Green and Co, 1934. Part II - Chapter V – Crucified, (Pg 61) 48 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. I Unity of Life and Thought. 3: East and West: The Spirit of One Earth, (Pg 83) 49 The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, Doubleday, 1973. The Book of Privy Counselling: Chapter 19, (Pg 182) 50 Thomas Merton, The New Man, Burns & Oates, 1985. Spirit in Bondage, (Pg 83) 51 Susanna Winkworth, Theologia Germanica, Macmillan & Co, 1874. Chapter XXVI, (Pg 90) 52 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 49) 53 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Light of Christ: VII The Glorified Life, (Pg 95) 54 Mère Ignace Goethals - Third Mother-General of the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, A Member of the Same Congregation, Alexander Ouseley Limited, 1934. Chapter IX: Mother-General (1838 - 1842), (Pg 168) 55 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter VI - The Inner Life V, (Pg 44) 56 Eckhart Tolle, Practising the Power of NOW, Hodder Mobius, 2002 Five: Beauty Arises in the Stillness of Your Presence, (Pg 56) 57 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. Be Thankful, (Pg 35) 58 Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, Paulist Press, 1978. The Fourth Treatise on True Resignation (1622) Chapter One, (para 29) 59 Al Ghazzali, The Book of Knowledge, SH. Muhammad Ashraf, 1991. Section V On the Properties of the Student and the Teacher: The Duties of the Teacher, (Pg 145) 60 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. 10 Return to Plaistow, (Pg 79)

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20.13: Mysticism and Monasticism

The religious way of life which is represented by monasticism or monkhood is where a person renounces worldly and material pursuits in order to be able to devote the majority of their time to spiritual matters. It is applicable to Christian traditions but also there are aspects which relate to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The scholar Margaret Smith has studied the lives of many early mystics and so was able to describe the ideal of monasticism as: 1

…the direct intercourse of the soul with God, we can well understand that it was among the ascetics and in the monasteries that the mystics were to be found. The aim of asceticism and the monastic life was the conquest of self, and renunciation, in order that the ascetic, having purified himself from all that would hinder his approach to the Divine, might live the perfect life of the soul, face to face with God, in direct intercourse with him. In the silence of the desert, and in the solitude of his cell, the mystic could ascend, freed from the entanglements of matter, to the mountain-tops, where he could contemplate and hold communion with the Absolute.

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton corroborated this description and wrote: 2

...the real business of the monk which is to seek God alone.

The use of the word ‘alone’ in this context not only specifies that the monk or nun has no other focus for life, but also that they do this in a solitary environment. It was with the latter meaning that it was believed that the only route to achieving union with God was this way, as Evelyn Underhill realised: 3

...we must remember that the original aim of monasticism was to provide a setting in which the mystical life could be lived...

This setting meant that the individual could detach themselves from the physical, material world. The desire for this was expressed by the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff: 4

But all the ways, the way of the fakir as well as the way of the monk and the way of the yogi, have one thing in common. They all begin with the most difficult thing, with a complete change of life, with a renunciation of all worldly things. .. From the very first day, from the very first step on his way, he must die to the world; only thus can he hope to attain anything on one of these ways.

Some individuals come into a monastic environment because the world holds little for them. Describing this Thomas Merton said: 5

It is a tremendous grace, then, and a great privilege when a person living in the world we have to live in suddenly loses his interest in the things that absorb that world, and discovers in his own soul an appetite for poverty and solitude. And the most precious of all the gifts of nature or grace is the desire to be hidden and to vanish from the sight of men and be accounted as nothing by the world and to disappear from one's own self-conscious consideration and vanish into nothingness

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in the immense poverty that is the adoration of God.

This, detachment from the world, could have been the mantra of all the early mystics. To Isaac of Nineveh, as reported Margaret Smith: 6

…withdrawal from the world seemed a necessary means to the practice of effective asceticism. No one could come near to God except by being far from the world.

Isaac, in ‘Mystical Treatises’, also described this in metaphorical terms: 7

Naked the swimmer dives into the sea to find a pearl, and naked the solitary should live in this world in order that he may find the pearl of great price.

The Christian theologian Saint John Cassian, known both as one of the “Scythian monks” and as one of the “Desert Fathers”, inspired the following remarks: 8

The true Way of life for the mystic is to go forth from this temporal world into that invisible world, and it is not possible to go forth from this world except by being remote from it.

The much more modern monk of the Abbey of St Maurice et St Maur, in Clervaux, Luxembourg, Jean Leclercq, expressed the disconnection from the world as: 9

Physical, exterior separation from the world is really our practical expression of an interior attitude... the detachment of the heart for union with God.

It is believed that the time that the monk or nun spends in contemplation allows themselves not only to become spiritually stronger and closer to God, but also to understand themselves in relation to the world much better. I think that was the idea behind another remark from Jean Leclercq: 10

They (the contemplatives) have withdrawn from the world not to keep themselves aloof from it, but to be one with it.

Thomas Merton, a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, in his book ‘Elected Silence’ (a slightly abridged version of the American edition entitled 'The Seven Storey Mountain') seemed to agree with Jean: 11

...the monk hiding himself from the world becomes not less himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.

Achieving this, even in a cloistered environment, demands detachment from sensual desires. Each of us will still have them, that is the nature of being human, but they must not drive our actions; they should never come to the forefront of our mind. Of these, the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross said: 12

For when all things are forgotten, there is naught that can disturb one's peace or that moves desires; for, as they say, that which the eye sees not the heart desires

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not.

Even the basic things in life could, if not managed, control our desires. Christopher Jamison, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at Worth Abbey, West Sussex, England, mentioned the need to do and take all things in moderation. Of food he remarked: 13

Eating modestly and only at set times is the monastic way of fasting and its aim is to prevent food thoughts dominating our lives.

This is just one example, but it could apply to all potential excesses. Another advantage of such a monastic environment is that times are laid down for particular activities. These may include reading and contemplation – for which, in the modern world of today, are difficult to make time for. The rules for living within a monastery or convent, as Peter Toon noted include times for: 14

...both the hearing and the reading of the Word of God and for individual reflecting upon it, by calling it to mind from memory.

Once these rules are embedded in the daily life then all sorts of passions and desires may be allayed and the monk or nun starts to realise the extraordinary freedom which this brings. This will result in acceptance of Christopher Jamison statement that: 15

The monastic tradition believes that the interior world is a place of freedom. The monk or nun reduces their external freedom in order to concentrate on their internal freedom.

But it is not easy … the author and former Anglican parish priest, James Bentley, described it as: 16

Even today the monastic life is a kind of spiritual martyrdom.

…and it needs, as explained by Thomas Merton, a person to have specific characteristics to benefit from such an environment: 17

That is why the purely contemplative vocation is not for the immature. One has to be very strong and very solid to live in solitude.

Perhaps, if there is a desire for a monastic life, it ought to be tried before complete commitment. Father Andrew, in his early life at Stanford, wrote: 18

Here it is possible for a man to see whether the life of ordered prayer and devotion cramps and narrows him, or whether he finds it, for all the aridity and dryness of certain seasons, a power to rise above self to God, and that peace which only comes when the will of the creature has learnt to repose in the Will of the Creator.

Here he mentions ‘dryness’ which is a synonym for another well used term in monastic circles ‘acedia’. 19 Of this Christopher Jamison wrote: 20

If we are going to be happy, we will need to learn to face up to 'acedia' rather than just avoiding it.

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He provided a further commentary on this when he wrote: 21

It comes as quite a surprise to lay people to discover that monks and nuns really are haunted by the thought that this whole spiritual project is a waste of time.

Christopher is an enlightened Abbot; in the past many have not been and have often taken a dim view of those mystics who are active in the community. An example of such a person was Pakhomius, who was Serafim's abbot and mentor. According to Seraphim’s biographer Iulia de Beausobre: 22

Pakhomius had darkly insisted that the path of a monk living in a community is easy - a life spent in fighting pigeons, compared with the path of the solitary which is hard and full of danger as a lonely fight in the heart of the taiga [the Siberian forest] .

Some of the other difficulties with which cloistered people have difficulty, are those properties of human beings which are necessary to meet their physiological needs – these comprise the need for air, water, food, clothing, shelter and not least the desire for procreation. The latter has caused much difficulty for which Christopher Jamison may have a solution: 23

If we can rediscover chastity as a privilege to aspire to and a gift to seek, then the context of our struggle for chastity changes completely.

Of course the other point of view is that human beings were created with an inherent drive to procreate, so why should this be denied those who are destined to follow God’s ways? Winifred Graham had the following communication from her deceased father: 24

The life of nunneries and monasteries is absolutely opposed to God's idea. He is the Creator of activity and endeavour. He likes progress and movement.

This, of course, is only one spirit’s idea which may or may not be correct. For me, those organisations that have taken the lives of prophets forward and formed religions have developed the teachings in such a way as to often shroud the spiritual truths. This ‘development’ of religious ideas has often created situations which were to the detriment of its adherents. Jean Leclercq, in discussing the lives of solitaries and hermits said: 25

But because the Congregation was highly centralised, the individual’s interests were often sacrificed to those of the institution.

This type of imposition is not compatible with the goals of mysticism and neither is the constraint on the mystic to be in total agreement with the Church which was suggested by Jean Leclercq: 26

There is no contemplative life unless there is union with the whole Church and her hierarchy.

This puts the Church on a par with God! How strange and difficult for the mystic. Thomas A Kempis also recognised that the powers of the Church often opposed those views which

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And most of all when bidden to do what does not suit you, and seems useless to you, And because, set under rule, you dare not say a word against the higher power, You think it hard to move at some one's nod, and put what you feel all aside.

Those who did not, for example Meister Eckhart, were often treated very badly. Fortunately those days have passed and there is much greater opportunity to develop as a mystic because it is recognised that isolation is not, and should never have been, a prerequisite. This was stated by Peter Spink: 28

To preserve your individual integrity does not mean isolation. The contemplative path has many pilgrims .

This fits in well with what the Sufi’s have been claiming for centuries. James Redfield, et al, discussed this aspect of Islamic tradition and told us that for most Sufis: 29

...ecstatic union with God does not require monastic life. To paraphrase the modern Sufi teacher Sheikh Muzaffer, we can "keep our hands busy with our worldly duties while our heart is busy with God."

This also hits on the head the idea, implied by Jean Leclercq, that an active life must be separate from a contemplative life: 30

Active religious see their services of others as the way to union with God, but contemplatives have no intention beyond union with God, who has the right to send them to help their brothers for his sake. There are very few who live exclusively for God in the world, but He himself has set aside some for whom he asks the extravagance of seeking himself alone. But their communion with others depends first of all on their communion with him.

Monasticism is not all it is cracked up to be. There are many more mystics and very spiritual people who are not monastic aesthetes but who are extremely spiritual and can claim the highest levels of mysticism. This is what Arthur Ford, the North American medium, said on the subject: 31

There are always shining exceptions, of course, but in general the ascetic monastic life has not proved a successful approach to spiritual development.

In summary then, Theoleptus, as articulated in the ‘Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart’, described monkhood (although I would say mysticism) as: 32

…a tall and fruitful tree, the root of which is renunciation of everything worldly; its branches - absence of passionate attachments in the soul and sympathy with things once renounced; its fruit - the wealth of virtues and love inspired by God, and the joy which is inseparable from them...

Remember that the urge to stay remote from the world and devote all our time to spiritual matters is there in all of us, although most modern day mystics try to balance the active and

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...so the monastic urge is present in all spiritually healthy adults whether or not they become monks or nuns.

…and if it is your spiritual pathway then there are great rewards to be gained, as Father Andrew noted: 34

I plumbed depths in the monastic life which I had never known before, and in those depths there were pearls to be found.

The contemplative and cloistered life, which was prevalent prior to the dissolution of the monasteries, was severely curtailed in the England during the mid-16 th century. At this time, so Peter Mockford reminds us: 35

...the Christian faith turned away from the contemplative practices that were in the monasteries. The result of this was that faith stopped being something that engaged with my deep fears and anxieties. It became much more something that I did as an external process, not realising or understanding that this had profound consequences for my internal dynamics.

It is only in recent times that a return to meditative and contemplative practices has had a significant impact on our spirituality outside the context of a monastery. However, for some, I expect quite unique people, monasticism gives them the right environment in which to spiritually develop. The mystic and Unitarian William Houff, explained this potential using reference to a lovely book titled 'A listening Heart' by the Catholic Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast in which he says: 36

'The monastery is a controlled environment for the professional pursuit of cultivating man's contemplative dimension'. It is a place where people have the time and support to simply listen. But why, asks the sceptic, is a community necessary to such a solitary pursuit? The response: because it is not only solitary. Steindl-Rast explains: 'Community is always poised between two poles: solitude and togetherness. Without togetherness community disperses; without solitude community collapses into a mass, a crowd. But solitude and togetherness are not mutually antagonistic; on the contrary, they make each other possible. Solitude without togetherness deteriorates into loneliness. ... Togetherness without solitude is not truly togetherness, but rather side-by-sideness. To live merely side by side is alienation. We need time and space to be alone, to find ourselves in solitude, before we can give ourselves to one another in true togetherness. ... A human being cannot survive without community.

At the end of the day, all mystics whether cloistered or not ought to be very grateful for the opportunities which present themselves for spiritual development and recognise that as Thomas Merton stated: 37

Gratitude is therefore the heart of the solitary life...

…whether the solitary aspect is with a monastery or in one’s own cell at home.

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1 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 47) 2 Thomas Merton, Reflections on My Work, Collins, Fontana Library, 1989. Preface to the Spanish edition of 'Seeds of Destruction', (Pg 117) 3 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 22) 4 Ouspensky P D, In Search of the Miraculous, Harcourt Inc, 2001. Chapter 2: (Pg 47) 5 Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, Hollis and Carter, 1949. Chapter 13 - Through a Glass, (Pg 103) 6 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 98) 7 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter V - Early Mysticism in the Middle East, (Pg 98) 8 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 1: Chapter IV - Early Mysticism in the Near East, (Pg 69) 9 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Separation from the world, (Pg 45) 10 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Relevance, (Pg 96) 11 Thomas Merton, Elected Silence, Hollis and Carter, 1950. Part Three - True North, (Pg 280) 12 The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1947. Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book III. Chapter V, (Pg 238) 13 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Second Thought Gluttony - The Happy Medium, (Pg 79) 14 Peter Toon, Meditating as a Christian, Collins, 1991. Part Two: How it Works. 8 Towards a Method, (Pg 84) 15 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part ONE Purity of Heart: 2. Blessed are the Pure in Heart - The Modern Heart, (Pg 37) 16 James Bentley, Secrets of Mount Sinai, Orbis, London, 1985. Chapter IX The Legacy, (Pg 190) 17 Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, Burns & Oates, 1997. 8: Vocation, (Pg 137) 18 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. 6 Years of Growth, (Pg 44) 19 Acedia is spiritual carelessness or apathy, pronounced ah-see-de-ya 20 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: First Thought Acedia - Monks and Married Couples, (Pg 67) 21 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: First Thought Acedia - Monks and Married Couples, (Pg 63) 22 Iulia de Beausobre, Flame in the Snow - A Russian Legend, Fount, 1979. Part One: Godward Bound - The Fight, (Pg 87) 23 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part TWO Eight Thoughts: Third Thought Lust - Love Chastity, (Pg 111) 24 Winifred Graham, My Letters from Heaven, The Psychic Book Club, Undated. A Different Aspect, (Pg 79) 25 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Solitary Life and Common Life, (Pg 53) 26 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Yesterday and Today, (Pg 64) 27 Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Elliot Stock, 1891. Book IV - Book of Inward Consolation, Chapter XLIX(II) 28 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 9: Illusion and Reality, (Pg 138) 29 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part One - Awakening; 2: A History of Human Awakening: Islam, (Pg 46 / 47) 30 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Yesterday and Today, (Pg 90) 31 Arthur Ford, Unknown but Known, Harper & Row, 1968. Chapter 11 : Developing Latent Psychic Ability, (Pg 158) 32 Writings From The Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, Faber & Faber, 1992. Part Two: Theoleptus, Metropolitan of Philadelphia - A Word .. – 1, (Pg 383) 33 Christopher Jamison, Finding Happiness, Phoenix, 2008. Part ONE Purity of Heart: 2. Blessed are the Pure in Heart - The Modern Heart, (Pg 39) 34 Kathleen E. Burne, The Life and Letters of Father Andrew, A.R.Mowbray, 1951. 6 Years of Growth, (Pg 46) 35 Peter Mockford, Light and Liberty, Instant Apostle, 2017. Chapter 5: Cursing – Relational Dynamics, (Pg 70)

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36 William Houff, Infinity in Your Hand, Skinner House Books, 1994. Chapter 5: Methods in the Paths of Discipline and Knowledge - Like the Zen archer: taking aim in the dark, (Pg 47 / 48) 37 Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude, Burns & Oates, 1993. Part Two: The Love of Solitude: XII, (Pg 101)

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20.14: Mysticism and Religion

While mysticism plays an important — and often essential — role in all the world's religions, mysticism itself is not a religion in the sense of what we consider a religion to be. However, within each of the major religions, mysticism exists. There are Christian mystics, Jewish mystics, Muslim mystics, Buddhist mystics, Hindu mystics, Protestant mystics, Catholic mystics, and also agnostic mystics.

In a most fundamental way, one or more mystics have been responsible for the emergence of most religions. Rishabha is the legendary founder of Jainism, Moses was the basis for the Jewish race, Jesus the Nazarene for Christianity, Mohammed for Islam, Zoroaster as founder of the Parsees, and so on – all of them mystics to a greater or lesser extent.

It is, to my way of thinking, a spiritual direction which everyone can take and it seems to be independent of what religion forms the basis of a person’s spirituality. Many mystics, their biographers and commentators use the word ‘religion’ where I would use ‘spirituality’. A good example of this is in Evelyn Underhill’s major work on ‘Mysticism’. In the preface to the 12 th edition the study of mysticism is: 1

…now more and more generally accepted by theologians, philosophers and psychologists, as representing in its intensive form the essential religious [I would say spiritual] experience of man.

My justification for this is that whilst mysticism is not the same across all religions, there is a sufficient similarity to consider it as being something which transcends any one religious setting. Bede Griffiths, a mystic who, although he remained a Catholic Benedictine monk ,he adopted the trappings of Hindu monastic life, wrote of mysticism: 2

It is of great interest that ... Jesus in the Gospel, Krishna in Hinduism, the Buddha and then Mohammed, a strikingly similar mystical doctrine emerges in each tradition, each with its own particular character but with an obvious unity behind it.

…and, as if to justify the inclusion of Christianity, he went on to say: 3

In the New Testament this mystical tradition is implicit. Because in the Bible it is not very explicit, Christianity generally has a much less developed mystical tradition than Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam, but we need to be clear that the roots of it are there in the New Testament.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Indian philosopher and statesman who was the second President of India, in ‘An Idealist View of Life’ discussed other religious and philosophical bases: 4

The saints who worship God do not worship man enlarged. As a new creation in the order of the universe, the spiritual is not a mere unfolding of the human. The Hindu theory has many analogies in the West. The Orphics refer to the feeling of ecstasy or possession by God, when the individual seems to pass out of himself and feel himself to be one with the universal God. In the cult of Dionysus, the chief

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aim of the ritual is the identification of the worshipping individual with God. In the Symposium Plato gives us the doctrine of a timeless existence attainable here and now by an escape from time and form. Islam describes the bliss of saints as consisting in union with God, a state which the mystics and dervishes wish to attain even in this life. The Neo-Platonists and Spinoza and the mystics of Christianity adopt a similar view.

The spirit communicator Zodiac, in discussing the prophets of yesteryear, said: 5

...even before Christ came in a body of flesh there were those inspired by the Holy Spirit who were true prophets, who gave out that which God directed.

And the Iranian-American activist and religious writer Reza Aslan, in describing the Sufi way, wrote: 6

In their rituals and practices, the Sufis sought the annihilation of the ego. And while this goal may be common to all mystical movements, there are few very important differences between Sufism and traditional ideals of mysticism. First, there exists in Islam a stringent anti-monasticism ... Islam is a communal religion. .. Secondly, the Quran categorically derides celibacy ... But perhaps the most important difference between Sufism and traditional religious mysticism is that the latter tends to remain permanently attached to its 'parent' religion, while Sufism ... treats its parent as a shell that must be cast off if one is to experience direct knowledge of God.

So we can see that the framework of religion may be necessary as a trigger for a person’s mystical journey, but once started, the ties of that religion seem to fade like a dissolvable suture. The 20 th century British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell recognised this: 7

But as men grow more reflective there is a tendency to lay less stress on rules and more on states of mind. This comes from two sources - philosophy and mystical religion. We are all familiar with passages in the prophets and the gospels, in which purity of heart is set above meticulous observance of the Law; and St Paul's famous praise of charity, or love, teaches the same principle. The same thing will be found in all great mystics, Christian and non-Christian: what they value is a state of mind, out of which, as they hold, right conduct must ensue; rules seem to them external, and insufficiently adaptable to circumstances.

In reviewing the relationship between the mystic and their corporate organisation Evelyn Underhill in ‘The Essentials of Mysticism’ came to the conclusion that mystics: 8

…live in an environment permeated by religious concepts - the accuracy in detail of the creed which that group professes, the adequacy of its liturgical acts, is unimportant.

The reason for this is that every mystic does not need to accept the prescribed view of his Creator because through his or her own mystical experiences they have created their own relationship with the Divine: 9

So we may say that the particular mental image which mystics form of their

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objective, the traditional theology they accept, is not essential... What is essential is the way mystics feel about their Deity, and about their own relation with it...

This statement by Evelyn Underhill was echoed, albeit with a different emphasis, by another 20 th century English mystic Henry Thomas Hamblin: 10

In the Spirit we all speak the same language, although outwardly we may differ as the poles as regards religious belief or doctrine. In the Spirit we are all one.

If religion has little impact on the developing mystic, then neither does their location. Around the end of the 7 th century there was born in Southern India a spiritual Buddhist who eventually took the title of Shankara Acharya. He wrote ‘The Crest Jewel of Wisdom’ in which he reported that: 11

The gaining of the fruit is the reward only of him who possesses the [four] qualifications; circumstances, such as place and time, merely co-operate in the result.

…and in ‘The Pearl of Great Price’, Martin Israel, who started life as a pathologist but not long after his 56 th birthday became an Anglican priest, stated: 12

...our true abode is with God, whatever country we may inhabit.

However, one aspect of mysticism that is common to all practitioners is the need to remove the ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘Mine’ from the relationship with their God. Aldous Huxley, who in later life became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, outlined this as: 13

Mortification or deliberate dying to self is inculcated with an uncompromising firmness in the canonical writings of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and most of the other major and minor religions of the world, and by every theocentric saint and spiritual reformer who has ever lived out and expounded the principles of the Perennial Philosophy.

It must be said that some writers, particularly those who are steeped in monastic life, consider that the underpinning religion and its associated ‘Church’ are fundamental aspects of mysticism. One such person was the 20 th century French Benedictine monk Jean Leclercq: 14

There is no contemplation without Scripture and the Church.

I do not hold with this view. I would much rather take the more extreme view of the newspaperman and chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, Sherwood Wirt: 15

True religion is the union of the soul with God...

If this is the case, then religion must change in order to be able to freely accommodate the spiritual experiences of many different mystics. David Hay, who took a professional interest in the disputed boundary between biological science and the religious and spiritual

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The fact that popular religion, or common religion [based mainly around folklore and personal experiences] as we prefer to call it here, lies outside the confines of official religion makes it no less significant. It has created significance if anything, since it survives only because of its continuing ability to express the transcendent element in people's experience, and to bestow meaning on what would otherwise be perplexing. Common religion has no ... organisational props. If it survives, it does so because it remains credible.

The need for this change, and the impetus that it has, seems to have come more to the fore during the 20 th century when the decline in some religions has become more noticeable. William Johnston, a Jesuit theologian who wrote extensively on Zen and Christian contemplation, observed: 17

If institutional religion has somehow failed those in search of meditation, this is partly because it has been unable to keep pace with the sudden evolutionary leap in consciousness that has characterised the last decade [the 1970's] . We are now faced with a new man, a more mystical man, and it is on the mystical dimension of religion that we must fix our attention.

Mystical experiences must be an inherent part of every religion. An interesting difference between the mystic’s ‘weltanschauung’ or ‘world view’ was highlighted by the Norwegian intellectual and philosopher Jostein Gaarder: 18

A mystical experience is an experience of merging with God or the 'cosmic spirit.' Many religions emphasize the gulf between God and Creation, but the mystic experiences no such gulf. He or she has experienced being 'one with God' or 'merging' with Him.

Reconciling this does certainly cause problems to some religions. However, it is possible that because of the difficulty in resolving all the fundamental problems different religions will use different routes. The academic Ursula King, in her review of the life of the French philosopher, Jesuit priest and mystic Teilhard de Chardin, expressed the differences in ‘Eastern and Western Religions in a Converging World’. She noted that: 19

All his comparisons between Western and Eastern mysticism are undertaken from the premise that man's spiritual quest is not perennially the same. A change in human consciousness and self-understanding, linked to the new historical and social developments, has brought about a situation where man's spiritual needs have come into sharp focus. .. What is ultimately at issue is the question of what pertains to spirituality today, and the answer may well lead to the parting of the ways.

In this East/West discussion, many people do not recognise the inherent focus of each of them. Martin Israel tried to explain this: 20

Many Westerners who study Eastern techniques [e.g. Yoga] do not see that the end of these systems is union of the soul with God. In this union, techniques, liturgies,

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rituals, and even objects of veneration, whether tangible or mental, are left behind.

There does not seem to be a way of reconciling the theological concepts embedded within religions with the experiences of the mystics. For someone like me and Pamela Young who are trying to follow the spiritual way, it is very disappointing. She wrote in her first book ‘Hope Street’ that: 21

...we could never discern any affiliation to organised religion in terms of what he [a communicating spirit] and the Philosophers said. They had progressed far beyond our earthly notions, and were not exclusive to Christianity.

If this is the case then perhaps mysticism will emerge in a new form as religions are unable to assimilate the experiences of mystics into their dogmas, creeds and formulae. In some respects, I am surprised that it has not happened already given the history of mysticism and religion. The American academic B. A. Gerrish, who majors on historical theology, in his treatise ‘A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology’ recalled: 22

An evangelical in England, like a pietist in Germany, was once a champion of experiential religion against the dead weight of traditional forms.

…and the English Anglican priest Peter Spink quoting F. C. Happold's writing from mid 20th century said: 23

It is likely that towards the end of this century the only religion acceptable to Western Man will be a mystical one, mystical in terms of experiential wisdom.

A very neat way of describing the veil that religion puts between mystical experiences and our earthly life was identified by William Ralph Inge, usually known as Dean Inge because of the office he held at St Paul's Cathedral: 24

An agnostic writer compares religion to a gorgeous curtain hung between us and reality.

…and in no way would many religions pull back the curtain so that you can see and experience that which is beyond. For mysticism is about experiencing; it is an experiential spirituality. You cannot just read about it and become an adept; you have to experience it. This is why it is a very personal approach to spiritual development. Again from B. A. Gerrish, he outlined this idea with reference to Schleiermacher: 25

The contrast between feeling and intellect, which begins to emerge as the cardinal point in our thoughts about him, could very well be illustrated from the second speech. There he argues that doctrines are not the essence of religion but simply the result of reflection upon religious feeling. It is absurd to think of a belief as mere acceptance of what somebody else says; each of us must rather see with his or her own eyes, and then our beliefs will be genuine expressions of our religious feeling.

Down the ages mystics have believed that each person is responsible for their own ‘religion’ which, as Radhakrishnan observed, is opposed to the tenets of science: 26

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The seers believe in an individualistic religion and plead for freedom and spontaneity. Science may impose a common standard for all, but in art and literature, philosophy and religion, individualism is more true.

From a different perspective the renowned Swiss psychiatrist and influential thinker Carl Jung reached the same conclusion: 27

Lord Jesus was to me unquestionably a man and therefore a fallible figure, or else a mere mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost. This highly unorthodox view, a far cry from the theological one, naturally ran up against utter incomprehension. The disappointment I felt about this gradually led me to a kind of resigned indifference, and confirmed my conviction that in religious matters only experience counted.

…and from the essayist and poet Gerald Bullett: 28

All genuine mystical philosophy has its root, not in a theory, but in an actual inward experience .

We can take this even further by recognising that religion is a consequence of someone’s mystical experiences. These pioneers were referenced by the Cambridge schoolmaster and mystic Frederick Happold: 29

Not only has mysticism its fount in what is the raw material of all religion, but also all the most profound insights of religious truth have their origins in the mystical experiences of those who have led the spiritual progress of the human race.

…he also commented that mysticism has led to advancements in many other spheres of activity where it is: 30

…the inspiration of much of philosophy, poetry, art, and music, a consciousness of a 'beyond', of something which, though it is interwoven with it, is not of the external world of material phenomena, of an 'unseen' over and above the seen.

To be a conductor of mystical inspirations it is necessary to make sure that our egos do not get in the way. The mystic must be detached from the physical and their love must always be focussed on their God. According to Margaret Smith, when Abd al-Wahid was once asked “Who were the true Sufis?”, and he answered: 31

Those who apply their whole minds to their [spiritual] concerns, and are diligent therein with their whole hearts, turning aside from evil of their carnal selves, and cleaving unto their Lord - such are the Sufis.

This was expanded by the English philosopher of religion and scholar of Christian theology Don Cupitt: 32

For it would be generally agreed that the mark of a truly religious character is that it displays a certain detachment, disinterestedness, egolessness, non-defensiveness, non-acquisitiveness, simplicity and absence of any drive to self-justification.

We do not have to be shut away from the world in order to reach this pinnacle; it can be

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:24:12 20.14 Mysticism and Religion Page 7 of 12 realised during our day-to-day work provided that our human passions do not control us. That is, in the words of Evelyn Underhill as recorded by Lumsden Barkway: 33

The true mystic quest may as well be fulfilled in the market as in the cloister...

This way of looking at things is opposite to some religions and theologists. Bede Griffiths noted that: 34

...the danger in Hinduism has been this separating away from the material world, from the human world, to concentrate on the Supreme beyond, and that leads to rejection of the material world.

As if in confirmation of this, it has also been said by the expert in comparative religion, Geoffrey Parrinder, that: 35

Worship is largely an individual matter for the Hindu .

The mystic exists to serve the world not to reject it as many of the Scriptures testify. It is unfortunate that often the word ‘religion’ is used where ‘mysticism’ would be better. For example in Sûrah 2 (Chapter 2) of the Qur’an it is stated: 36

…religion consists in the surrender of man's will and purpose to the Will and Purpose of the Lord of Creation...

All religions should be teaching us about this direction of travel and of those pioneers who have trod and opened the pathways before us. We ought to be directed to follow the ways of the mystics and not be tied to the dogmas, creeds and rituals which most religions impose on their adherents. We should follow in the explorer’s footsteps as was suggested in the book ‘God and the Evolving Universe’: 37

Countless pathfinders have opened frontier after frontier for us to explore.

Because many such mystics existed hundreds or thousands of years ago does not invalidate their messages. The famous German mystic Jacob Boehme, according to Robin Waterfield, in a letter to an enquirer wrote: 38

...albeit for their time they [ancient authors] have done enough, and they are in no wise to be despised and rejected, although some points might be amended. But their doctrine concerning the Union of the Deity and Humanity is very clear: and we may see how God's spirit hath been in them...

This mystical relationship of man with the Divine is the central pillar of Christianity, if we would but look for it. Evelyn Underhill pointed out that: 39

The Fourth Gospel and the Epistles of St Paul depend for their whole character on the soaring mystical genius their writers possessed.

…and of Jesus the Nazarene himself, the philosopher and mystic Ralph Waldo Trine stated: 40

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The great central fact of his [Jesus] teaching was this conscious union of man with the Father

This is the thesis of mysticism of which Karl Rahner, the 20 th century German theologian, declared: 41

Christ is the enfleshed mystical word - he is an exemplar of all authentic mysticism.

After much studying Emile Cammaerts, the Belgian academic, admitted that: 42

The teaching of Christianity was no longer for me a guide to happiness, or a blessing conferred upon happiness as a reward for virtue; it was a complete surrender to the will of God.

If that be the case then we ought to follow Father M. C. D'Arcy’s advice that: 43

The way to this union is by the imitation of Christ...

We can do no better than to mould our lives on those mystics who have been the stimuli for religions. However, if you do, you may not be readily accepted by others in your chosen religion. Of Christianity, W. H. Dyson revealed that: 44

The assertion that "the spirit of mysticism is the true and essential Christianity" has been objected to as an extreme statement, but such a criticism, as it seems to me, arises either from a wrong idea of Mysticism, or from an inadequate realisation of what is essential Christianity.

There is a long way to go to get across to religions that mysticism underpins and justifies them. This may be difficult to explain as Bertrand Russell realised: 45

Ought we to admit that there is available, in support of religion, a source of knowledge which lies outside science and may properly be described as "revelation"? This is a difficult question to argue, because those who believe that truths have been revealed to them profess the same kind of certainty in regard to them that we have in regard to objects of sense. We believe the man who has seen things through the telescope that we have never seen; why, then, they ask, should we not believe them when they report things that are to them really unquestionable.

Sir G. P. Thomson, one of the scientists whose relationship with religion was explored by Mervyn Stockwood, believed that too little effort: 46

…has been made by the Churches to justify the validity of religious experience for the benefit especially but not exclusively of those, probably the majority, who have to accept it at second hand.

But mysticism declares that everyone can, to a greater or lesser extent, experience the mystical and spiritual. We all have the latent ability but whether we choose to develop it is another matter. Perhaps we will not be able to reach the spiritual heights of the pioneers but we all ought to try. To justify the assertion that everyone should follow the mystical path, we ought to look at the impact that mystics have had. According to John M Templeton, the

DAJ 07/11/2019 20:24:12 20.14 Mysticism and Religion Page 9 of 12 philosopher Sören Kierkegaard taught that: 47

…the human race advances on the backs of those rare geniuses who venture into realms that most of us are afraid of.

And these types of people arise, as Evelyn Underhill noticed, during periods of times of Christian decadence, which: 48

… have always been periods when this costly interior life of personal devotion has been dim. Revival has always come through persons for whom adoring and realistic attention to God and total self-giving to God's purpose have been the first interests of life.

Such magnificent souls have endured many trials as W. H. Dyson, referring to 'Studies in Mystical Religion' by Dr Rufus M Jones, told us: 49

Far from being the unpractical, dreamy persons that are too often conceived to have been, they [the mystics] have weathered storms, endured conflicts, and lived through water-spouts which would have overwhelmed those whose anchor did not reach beyond the veil. They have discovered an inner refuge, where they enjoy the truce of God, even amid the din of the world's warfare. They have led great reforms, championed movement of so great moment to humanity, and they have saved Christianity from being submerged under scholastic formalism and ecclesiastical systems, which were alien to man’s essential need and nature.

The ball and chain of religion has hampered and deterred mystics down the ages. Some have overcome everything thrown at them but many have died in obscurity, suppressed by theology and organisation. Mystics, by their very nature, are heretics; their beliefs and experiences are strongly at variance with established religious beliefs or customs. Evelyn Underhill, that doyen of mysticism, explained using specific examples: 50

The experiments of St. Benedict, St. Francis, Fox or Wesley, were not therefore the natural products of ages of faith. They each represented the revolt of a heroic soul against surrounding apathy and decadence; an invasion of novelty; a sharp break with society, a new use of antique tradition depending on new contacts with the Spirit. Greatness is seldom in harmony with its own epoch, and spiritual greatness least of all. It is usually startlingly modern, even eccentric at the time at which it appears.

The French mystic, who died in England aged 34 during WWII, Simone Weil also cited another famous mystic: 51

When genuine friends of God - such as was Eckhart to my way of thinking - repeat words they have heard in secret amidst the silence of the union of love, and these words are in disagreement with the teaching of the Church, it is simply that the language of the market place is not that of the nuptial chamber.

Some scathing and uncomplimentary words have been spoken by mystics when referring to theologians. St John of the Cross, as recalled by Evelyn Underhill in her book Abba, said that: 52

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“It is those who know most of God," says St John of the Cross, "who understand most clearly the infinite reaches of His being which remain uncomprehended by us." ... it is those who see much, not those who see little, who realise how much remains unseen. That is why the theologian always has plenty to say about God; whilst the contemplative can hardly say anything at all.

…and from the pen of the North American clergyman and academic Morton Kelsey: 53

Therefore many theologians who write about these [mystical] things are like geologists who have never been in the field. Since they have had no taste of their own inner experience, seeking out their opinion is about like consulting a wine expert who is a teetotaller or a cheese fancier who have tasted only one kind.

So, don’t theorise but experience. Speak from the ground of your spirituality. Get closer to God through following your spiritual pathway and on that route you will be able to lift the boulders of ignorance and discover living truths beneath. Question everything and apply the combination of reason, knowledge and experience to provide the right direction. The 16 th century French preacher and theologian Sebastian Cestellio, according to Aldous Huxley, said: 54

We dispute not only of the way to Christ, but of his relation to God the Father, of the Trinity, of predestination, of free will, of the nature of God, of the angels, of the condition of the soul after death - of a multitude of matters that are not essential to salvation; matters, moreover, which can never be known until our hearts are pure; for they are things which must be spiritually perceived.

As someone following the Mystic Way, don’t be hidebound by theology and don’t be constrained by the nuances of religion. Pursue your spiritual journey with vigour and trust in the intuitive insights which Spirit gives to you.

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1 Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, Oneworld, 2005. Preface to the Twelfth Edition, (Pg vii) 2 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 7 The Cosmic Person in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, (Pg 143) 3 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 8 God and the World, (Pg 163) 4 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter VII : Human Personality and its Destiny - 11. What is salvation, (Pg 241) 5 Gems of Thought, The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Assn, 1989. How the Prophets of Other Religions Are Blessed, (Pg 131) 6 Reza Aslan, No god but God, Arrow Books, 2006. 8. Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine: The Sufi Way: (Pg 200 / 201) 7 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1960. Chapter IX: Science and Ethics, (Pg 224) 8 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 39) 9 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Essentials of Mysticism, (Pg 11) 10 Henry Thomas Hamblin, The Life of the Spirit, The Science of Thought Press, 1934. Chapter XVI - The Way of Life I, (Pg 78) 11 Shankara Acharya, The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, John M Watkins, 1964. The Crest Jewel of Wisdom – Invocation, (Pg 14) 12 Martin Israel, The Pearl of Great Price, SPCK, 1988. 2 - The Inner Directive, (Pg 11) 13 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter VI: Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood, (Pg 96) 14 Jean Leclercq, Contemplative Life, Cistercian Publications, 1978. Yesterday and Today, (Pg 60) 15 Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Exploring the Spiritual Life, Lion Books, 1985. 4 - From The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal, (Pg 52) 16 David Hay, Exploring Inner Space - Scientists and Religious Experience, Mowbray, 1987. Part Three: Modern Explorations - 11. Responding to Experience: Differences between Social groups, (Pg 160) 17 William Johnston, Silent Music - The Science of Meditation, Fount, 1979. Part I: Meditation. 1. The meditation movement, (Pg 21) 18 Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World, Phoenix, 1995. Hellenism, (Pg 106) 19 Ursula King, Towards a New Mysticism, Collins, 1980. II Eastern and Western Religions in a Converging World. 9: A New Mysticism, (Pg 194) 20 Martin Israel, Summons to Life, Mowbray, 1982. Chapter 10: Prayer, (Pg 73) 21 Pamela Young, Hope Street, Coronet, 2011. Part Three: Pamela's Journey, (Pg 141) 22 B A Gerrish, A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology, SCM Press, 1984. Religion and Reflection, (Pg 20) 23 Peter Spink, Beyond Belief, Judy Piatkus, 1996. 2: An Evolving God, (Pg 14) 24 Dean Inge, Goodness and Truth, Mowbray, 1958. Sermon 3: The Vision of the City, (Pg 42) 25 B A Gerrish, A Prince of the Church: Schleiermacher and the Beginnings of Modern Theology, SCM Press, 1984. Religion and Reflection, (Pg 13 / 14) 26 Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life, Unwin, 1980. Chapter III : Religious Experience and its Affirmations - 9. The life of the reborn, (Pg 95) 27 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana, 1995. III Student Years, (Pg 119) 28 Gerald Bullett, The English Mystics, Michael Joseph, 1950. 29 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 26. Conclusion: The Mystic's Universe, (Pg 121) 30 F C Happold, Mysticism - A Study and an Anthology, Penguin Books, 1971. The Study: 2. The Perennial Philosophy, (Pg 18 / 19) 31 Margaret Smith, Studies in Early Mysticism in the Near and Middle East, The Sheldon Press, 1931. Part 2: Chapter VIII - The rise of Sufism and the Early Ascetic Ideal, (Pg 185) 32 Don Cupitt, Taking Leave of God, SCM Press, 2001. 5 Worship and Theological Realism, (Pg 74) 33 Lumsden Barkway, An Anthology of the Love of God (from the writings of Evelyn Underhill), Mowbray, 1953. VIII Service, The Activity of Love: Finding the Thoroughfare (The Mystic Way), (Pg 216) 34 Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Fount, 1992. 9 The Ascent to the Godhead, (Pg 193) 35 Geoffrey Parrinder, Worship in the World's Religions, Association Press, 1961. Part II - India and Southern Asia: Chapter 2 – Hinduism, (Pg 47) 36 Qur'an (The Glorious Qur'an), Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc, 2000. Chapter / Sûrah 2 - The Cow, (Pg 24) 37 James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Silvia Timbers, God and the Evolving Universe, Bantam Press, 2002. Part One - Awakening; 2: A History of Human Awakening, (Pg 22)

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38 Robin Waterfield, Jacob Boehme, North Atlantic Books, 2001. Part Two - Selections - A Letter to an Enquirer, (Pg 75 / 76) 39 Evelyn Underhill, The Essentials of Mysticism, Oneworld, 1999. The Mystic and the Corporate Life, (Pg 55) 40 Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune with the Infinite, G Bell & Sons, 1931. Chapter VIII - Coming into Fullness of Power, (Pg 165) 41 Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Jewish & Christian Mysticism - An Introduction, Continuum, 1994. Part II The Christian Tradition - 10 Modern Christian Mystics: Henri Le Saux and, (Pg 155) 42 Emile Cammaerts, The Flower of Grass, The Cresset Press, 1944. Chapter vi - The Impact of Pain, (Pg 117) 43 Father M C D'Arcy, Thomas Aquinas - Selected Writings, J M Dent, 1950. Preface, (Pg xi) 44 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter 1 - The revival of mysticism, (Pg 17) 45 Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1960. Chapter VII: Mysticism, (Pg 177) 46 Mervyn Stockwood, Religion and the Scientists, SCM Press, 1959. Sir G. P. Thomson, (Pg 54) 47 John M Templeton, The Humble Approach - Scientists Discover God, Collins, 1981. VII. Creation Through Change, (Pg 57 / 58) 48 Evelyn Underhill, Worship, Nisbet, 1946. Part I; Chapter IX - The Principles of Personal Worship, (Pg 166) 49 Dyson, W.H, Studies in Christian Mystics, James Clarke, 1913. Chapter VIII - Practical Mysticism 50 Evelyn Underhill, The Life of the Spirit and The Life of Today, Mowbray, 1994. Chapter II: History and The Life of the Spirit, (Pg 38) 51 Simone Weil, Waiting on God, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952. Letters of Farewell; Letter IV; Spiritual Autobiography. (Pg 30) 52 Evelyn Underhill, The Fruits of the Spirit; Light of Christ; Abba, Longmans, Green and Co, 1957. Abba: Chapter III - The Name, (Pg 21) 53 Morton T Kelsey, The Other Side of Silence, SPCK, 1985. Part Four: The Use of Images in Meditation - 12. Silence Mysticism and Religious Experience, (Pg 129) 54 Aldous Leonard Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Perennial, Harper Collins, 2004. Chapter XX: Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum, (Pg 248 / 249)

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