Mysticism: The Preeminent Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness By Evelyn Underhill (Excerpts) Sri Anandamayi Ma Mysticism: The direct communion with Ultimate Reality. Contents Page 1. The Awakening of the Self Page 5. The Purification of the Self Page 16. The Illumination of the Self Page 25. Introversion Page 48. The Dark Night of the Soul Page 57. The Unitive Life Page 66. Conclusion Evelyn Underhill Evelyn Underhill (6 December 1875 – 15 June 1941) was an English Anglo- Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism. In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely read writers on such matters in the first half of the twentieth century. No other book of its type—until the appearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy —met with success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism , published in 1911. Underhill was a poet and novelist, as well as being a pacifist and mystic. An only child, her early mystical insights she described as "abrupt experiences of the peaceful, undifferentiated plane of reality—like the "still desert" of the mystic—in which there was no multiplicity nor need of explanation." The meaning of these experiences became a lifelong quest and source of private angst, provoking her to research and write. One of her most significant influences and important collaborations was with the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian mystic, author, and world traveler. They published a major translation of the work of Kabir ("100 Poems of Kabir") together in 1915, to which she wrote the introduction. He introduced her to the spiritual genius of India which she expressed enthusiastically in a letter: “This is the first time I have had the privilege of being with one who is a Master in the things I care so much about but know so little of as yet: & I understand now something of what your writers mean when they insist on the necessity and value of the personal teacher and the fact that he gives something which the learner cannot get in any other way. It has been like hearing the language of which I barely know the alphabet, spoken perfectly.” More than any other person, she was responsible for introducing the forgotten authors of medieval and Catholic spirituality to a largely Protestant audience and the lives of eastern mystics to the English speaking world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Underhill ) The most highly developed branches of the human family have in common one peculiar characteristic. They tend to produce--sporadically it is true--a curious and definite type of personality; a type which refuses to be satisfied with that which other men call experience, and is inclined to deny the world in order that it may find Reality. We meet these persons in the east and the west; in the ancient, mediaeval, and modern worlds. Their one passion appears to be the prosecution of a certain spiritual and intangible quest: the finding of a "way out" or a "way back" to some desirable state in which alone they can satisfy their craving for God. This quest, for them, has constituted the whole meaning of life. (Evelyn Underhill) -1- The Awakening of the Self Divine love draws those whom it seizes beyond themselves: and this so greatly that they belong no longer to themselves but wholly to the object loved. (Dionysius the Areopagite) The Awakening of the Self First in the sequence of the mystic states, we must consider that decisive event, the awakening of the transcendental consciousness. This awakening…is a disturbance of the equilibrium of the self, which results in the shifting of the field of consciousness from lower to higher levels, with a consequent removal of the center of interest from the subject to an object now brought into view: the necessary beginning of any process of transcendence. It must not be confused or identified with religious conversion as ordinarily understood: the sudden and emotional acceptance of theological beliefs… For the mystic, it means the first emergence of that passion for the Absolute which is to constitute his distinctive character: an emergence crucial in its effect on every department of his life. Sometimes the emergence of the mystical consciousness is gradual, unmarked by any definite crisis. The self slides gently, almost imperceptibly, from the old universe to the new. -3- The "two thirsts" of the superficial and spiritual consciousness assert themselves by turns. Each step towards the vision of the Real brings with it a reaction. The nascent transcendental powers are easily fatigued, and the pendulum of self takes a shorter swing. "I was swept up to Thee by Thy Beauty, and torn away from Thee by my own weight," says St. Augustine, crystallizing the secret of this experience in an unforgettable phrase. Commonly, however, mystic conversion is a single and abrupt experience, sharply marked off from the long, dim struggles which precede and succeed it. In some cases, the onset of this new consciousness seems to the self so sudden, so clearly imposed from without rather than developed from within, as to have a supernatural character. When, however, the subconscious intuitions, long ago quickened, are at last brought to birth and the eyes are opened on new Light--and it is significant that an actual sense of blinding radiance is a constant accompaniment of this state of consciousness--the storm and stress, the vague cravings and oscillations of the past life are forgotten. In this abrupt recognition of reality "all things are made new": from this point the life of the mystic begins. -4- "Divine love," says Dionysius "draws those whom it seizes beyond themselves: and this so greatly that they belong no longer to themselves but wholly to the Object loved." The process of conversion is not one-sided, not merely an infusion into the surface-consciousness of new truth, but rather the beginning of a life-process, a breaking down of the old and building up of the new. A never to be ended give-and-take is set up between the individual and the Absolute. The Spirit of Life has been born. It aspires to its origin, to Life in its most intense manifestation. The awakening of the self is to a new and more active plane of being, new and more personal relations with God; hence to a new and more real work which it must do. -5- The Purification of the Self No one can be enlightened unless he first be cleansed or purified and stripped. (Theologia Germanica) The Purification of the Self Here, then, stands the newly awakened self: aware, for the first time, of reality, responding to that reality by deep movements of love and of awe. She sees herself, however, not merely to be thrust into a new world, but set at the beginning of a new road. Under one symbol or another, the need of that long slow process of transcendence, of character building, whereby she is to attain freedom, become capable of living upon high levels of reality, is present in her consciousness. Those in whom this growth is not set going are no mystics. What must be the first step of the self upon this road to perfect union with the Absolute? Clearly, a getting rid of all those elements of normal experience which are not in harmony with reality: of illusion, evil, imperfection of every kind. That which we call the "natural" self, as it exists in the "natural" world, is wholly incapable of super-sensual adventure. All its activities are grouped about a center of consciousness whose correspondences are with the material world. In the moment of its awakening, it is abruptly made aware of this disability. -7- It knows itself finite. It now aspires to the infinite. It is encased in the hard crust of individuality: it aspires to union with a larger self. It is fettered: it longs for freedom. Its every sense is attuned to illusion: it craves for harmony with the Absolute Truth. Whatever form the mystical adventure may take it, it must begin with a change in the attitude of the subject; a change which will introduce it into the order of Reality, and enable it to set up permanent relations with an Object which is not normally part of its universe. Primarily, then, the self must be purged of all that stands between it and goodness: putting on the character of reality instead of the character of illusion or “sin.” It longs ardently to do this from the first moment in which it sees itself in the all-revealing radiance of the Uncreated Light. To the true lover of the Absolute, Purgation no less than Illumination is a privilege, a dreadful joy. However harsh its form, however painful the activities to which it spurs him, the mystic recognizes in this breakup of his old universe an essential part of the Great Work: and the act in which he turns to it is an act of loving desire, no less than an act of will. His eyes once opened, he is eager for that costly ordering of his disordered loves which alone can establish his correspondences with Transcendental Life. -8- “In order to overcome our desires and to renounce all those things, our love and inclination for which are wont so to inflame the will that it delights therein, we require a more ardent fire and a nobler love—that of the Bridegroom. Finding her delight and strength in Him, the soul gains the vigor and confidence which enable her easily to abandon all other affections.