The real is more miraculous than the illusory psychic, more occult than the
so-called occult world, more fascinating than the fantastic.
MYSTICAL LIFE IN THE MODERN WORLD
1
Mysticism is simply an attempt to provide a system
for those whom ordinary religion has ceased to help. It says, in effect, here is
a practical means and a demonstrable method whereby you may verify for yourself
the essential basic truth that there is a soul in man.
2
The devotional life consists of prayer and worship;
the mystical life consists of intuition and meditation.
3
Mysticism is not a new creed which one slips on with
the ease with which we slip on a new dressing gown; it is a LIFE.
4
Few are able to have genuine mystical experiences
and yet be able to reflect on them impartially and knowledgeably. One who is
able to do this successfully should go far on the Spiritual Quest.
5
Mysticism is a mode of feeling which elevates
consciousness to its highest self.
6
There are certain conditions of the mystical life
which remain indispensable, quite irrespective of the century or the milieu in
which aspirants live. There are certain laws of mystical progress which remain
immutable under any or every kind of human situation.
7
Despite the large variations of belief, doctrine,
method, and experience, it would be fair to say there still remains a
considerable number of important principles which have been held in common by
mystics everywhere.
8
The dangers of a misguided mysticism are real, but
with the proper safeguards and protective disciplines they vanish. The shaping
of a sound, worthy, and strong character as prerequisite and accompaniment to
all intuitive or mystical experiences is the very first of these safeguards.
9
Mystical life is not merely a matter of set times
only, but is, for other types and temperaments, a matter of constant remembrance
and continual thinking which leads in the end to precisely the same result as
got by those who practise formal exercises at set periods. I know of mystics who
have attained the goal of self-realization without having passed through the
formal practice of meditation in the orthodox sense.
10
If the differences of view and teaching in
mystical circles are wide and striking, they ought not be allowed to obstruct
the more significant fact that the resemblances far outweigh them. Here on their
foundation there exists ready-made the material for a synthesis of Truths that
would be incontestable and universal.
11
Mysticism is not a thing we learn from clever
textbooks. It is life!
12
It must be clearly understood that mysticism is
distinct from religion; yet nonetheless, it is deeply religious.
13
The definitions of mysticism vary as widely as the
standpoints of the definers themselves vary. Thus we arrive at a curious
situation. A Theosophist like Annie Besant could applaudingly call it "esoteric
religion," whereas a theologian like Karl Barth could only disgustedly call it
"esoteric atheism."
14
It is a hard fact that few people possess the
mystical faculty and an even harder one that most people cannot acquire it by
conscious effort.
15
The list of things which are classified as
mystical has come to include such contradictory matters as the diabolical
and the divine. Could there be greater confusion in any field of thought?
16
My Webster defines a mystic as "one who relies
chiefly upon meditation in acquiring truth." This is a good dictionary
definition, but it is not good enough because it does not go far enough. For
every true mystic relies also on prayer, on purificatory self-denial, and on a
master. (p)
17
So many persons make the mistake of confusing not
only religion with mysticism but also occultism with mysticism. The true mystic
possesses in himself all that is best in religious feeling but does not
necessarily show any outward signs of being religious.
18
Mysticism extends both in thought and practice to
points far beyond the limits of religion.
19
There is no justification in this century, as
there was in an earlier one, for any mystic to make a statement of truth so
obscure and ambiguous that it needs another mystic to interpret it.
20
Culture has been continuously developed and
enriched, revised and enlarged, improved and perfected as human mentality and
experience have themselves expanded. Mysticism as a branch of culture cannot
exempt itself from this growth.
21
Such will be the shape of mysticism to come. It
will not seek to keep the old traditions alive but rather to create new ones in
conformity with twentieth-century needs.
22
After all, the prime business of such teaching is
to illumine the mind. Yet these exponents do their utmost through heavy
veilings, cryptic symbolism and overmuch mystery-mongering to darken it!
23
Life is too short, our days too hard-pressed to
spare the time to dig out the shadowy meanings of these unnecessarily obscure
writers of occultism and alchemy when the plain statements of those writers who
do not belong to such cults will yield clear meanings with only one-twentieth of
the study. It is an insult to modern intelligence to ask it to get itself
involved with all the tortuous draperies which have been wrapped, fold upon
fold, around truth.
24
Certain schools of medieval writers on mystical
subjects leave most readers the impression that the subject is too
unintelligible and too mysterious to be worth troubling about. They were overly
fond of writing in riddles, leaving their unfortunate readers to decipher
toilsomely much that could have been stated plainly. The tortuous expressions
and mystery-mongering phrases for which the alchemists, especially, acquired a
reputation irritate rather than inspire the modern mentality when it takes up
their belauded work - weighty with a dark jargon and mazed by a plethora of
cryptic metaphors. This applies to the interpretative side, while on the
material side one looks in vain for authentic evidence of successful results.
How many of the whole crew of medieval alchemists who wrote elaborate treatises
on the art of turning lead into gold, themselves died as paupers! The
consequence is that those moderns who do not investigate more deeply form the
natural but hasty conclusion that to adopt mystical practices is to turn back
the clock and to revert to worn-out superstition. But this conclusion is unfair
and mistaken. First, because amid all the ponderous gibberish and inflated
imaginations of the medieval stews of pure mysticism and adulterating magic,
there was an important residue of genuine irrefragable truth. Second, because
the price of religious heresy in those times was often persecution,
imprisonment, or even death and consequently mystical writers had to express
themselves guardedly, brokenly, symbolically, and vaguely. Today they are under
no such necessity. Today, on the contrary, it is their duty to try to leave no
opposite impression in their writings. The highest meanings can now be expressed
in the plainest possible manner. All mystical teachers are now free to put their
thought into direct and understandable language. And if they do not do so, it is
because they fail to remember that this is the twentieth and not the fifteenth
century, because they are mesmerized by the past, and because their
enlightenment is a borrowed and not a directly personal one. The wise student
will waste no time with them but rather will study the work of those whose
thoughts leave their pens not in dark symbol but in direct clear-cut statement.
For only those who know what they are thinking about are likely to know what
they are writing about. And only those readers who know what they are reading
about are likely to derive any profit from it.
25
The time has come for the more intelligent among
those who have followed these paths to re-examine their techniques and re-define
their goals. The others would deem such a procedure damnable heresy. But history
is curiously eloquent about the heresy of today being the orthodoxy of tomorrow.
26
Mysticism must try to extend itself today to bring
the everyday life of ordinary people within its sphere. But can this be done? It
seems so hard, nay impossible. Yet how else are those who feel attracted towards
it to benefit by it? Merely to spend the years reading about its achievements in
other and earlier times under other and different skies may be interesting but
does not solve the present problems.
27
The time has come when the ancient religions -
however many and fine the truths which they contain - must take note of the
changed circumstances in which we live today, must ruthlessly prune their
teachings and dogmas by the light of enlightened science without deserting the
religious intuition. If this is not done then new, vigorous, and modern sects
will keep on coming to birth, because they have more and better appeal to the
young minds.
28
It is dangerous to use terminologies and
vocabularies which the past and the present have associated with particular
cults, movements, groups, and organizations. It is better to find new ways of
presenting spiritual truths, new words with which to name them.
29
The seekers of the modern era still gaze backward
into the past, mesmerized by its revelations and fascinated by its records. In
doing this they are still antique or medieval and as out-of-date as a
bullock-cart on a transcontinental journey. The wisest among them, however, will
refuse to sell their birthright as twentieth-century individuals. They cannot
regard the ancient methods of devotional or introspectional patterns as ones to
be undeviatingly followed. It is true that all the forms and techniques which
they have at their disposal are not necessarily superior to those which the
ancients had. But the task of bringing both up-to-date has become historically
necessary. Therefore, contemporary living needs must dictate the pattern under
which to absorb them. Of course, the reference here is not to the essential
truths of the mystical life; its needs of sinking intellect in intuition, ego in
soul, and desire in serenity are unshakeable by time. They will never change by
one iota.
30
The time has come in this twentieth century to
bring into the daylight of scientific understanding all those occult matters
which have hitherto been playthings of esoteric societies, and the hour is ripe
to skim all useless verbiage from those explanations which have been handed down
to us by Oriental tradition. We may then find something useful where before we
could formerly find only difficult symbolism or incomprehensible mystification;
we may then be able to express in clear terms such ideas and facts as are
infinitely important for the life and well-being of modern man.
31
The modern mind does not favour the ancient
wrappings of mystery and magic around these deeper layers of human
consciousness. It believes that knowledge today ought to be shared and spread.
32
How can the Western mentality, brought up on
logical thinking and the scientific method as it is, become naturalized in the
incoherencies of Zen enigmas, puzzles, and riddles any more than it can do so in
the modern attempts to resuscitate the obscurities of medieval alchemy and
medieval occultism?
33
To try to live in blind imitation of the ways of
medieval men is sentimentality, not by itself spirituality.
34
Mystical human experience does not alter and
cannot alter from age to age. At its highest and best, it is always and ever the
same. But because human intelligence is itself evolving, then our thought about
such experience must evolve too. If the voice of contemporary inspiration is to
speak faithfully, it must speak in its own way and utter its own ideas.
35
The mystic who offers his special experience of
living to others may be ridiculed or ignored by a materialistic epoch, but the
fact is that he belongs to a continuing tradition that extends backward to the
beginnings of human culture. And because this experience is rooted in what is
basic and best in the human entity, the tradition will extend forward so long as
any culture remains at all.
36
Until a few years ago, very few had done more than
play with these ideas and not many had even heard of them. Here and there some
solitary individuals or occasional groups took them up and made queer and
freakish cults out of them. But today there are several signs of rapid change.
37
The occult groups and religious sects have
multiplied in our time - and not only among the uneducated or even the
half-educated.
38
It is good that world catastrophe, religious
decay, and scientific advance are turning more and more people towards
mysticism. But it will be bad if they turn towards an uncritical mysticism.
39
The failure of the historical element in orthodox
religion to withstand modern scientific examination is also one of the reasons
why educated minds have turned towards mysticism. For here they become quite
independent of the truth of the records or falsity of the myths of certain past
events.
40
Today the mystic is no longer a voice crying in
the wilderness, even though mysticism is still far from having a multitude of
voices.
41
Mysticism cannot continue to remain forever an
esoteric system cultivated only by an exclusive coterie and unknown to the rest
of humanity. It could easily remain aloof and apart only under the old forms of
civilization, but not so easily under the new forms which are emerging today,
with the immense widening of culture, communications, and privilege involved in
them. We are indeed coming closer and closer to the time when more people shall
be able to understand its teachings and many more people follow its techniques.
The reasons which kept this knowledge hidden in the past, or in extremely
limited circulation, are to a large extent less valid today. The spread of
popular education helps to support this view, but there are other grounds. The
fact is that esotericism has largely accomplished its function. So many
conditions and circumstances which formerly justified its continuation have been
so altered by time that they now justify not its cessation but, rather, its
modification. The truth in its dazzling fullness could not be dispensed to the
multitude while there was still no inward preparedness for its reception. If
today the ban has been partially withdrawn, that is because there has been
sufficient development to justify it. The old obscurantist attitude which would
forbid public instruction in mysticism and prevent promiscuous circulation of
mystical books cannot be fully justified today. The power which has been
manifesting itself will sweep aside the resistance of such selfish exclusionists
with the force of stunning shocks. If the esoteric path cannot entirely be made
into a common highway, it can at least be made into a useful one for the
increasing number of war-awakened minds who are fit to understand and follow it.
Although the promiscuous communication of these teachings is still a rash and
ill-advised undertaking, its judicious communication is now so no longer. If
this integral philosophy can be interpreted to those few whose right knowledge
and timely inspiration will thereby be used for the mental and physical
betterment of the masses, it will surely be helping, however indirectly, the
masses themselves. Taken as a whole, the masses are still not ready for the
higher philosophy. But there are individuals as well as large groups among them
who are quite ready for mysticism. It is a duty therefore to make it available
to such individuals, to see that their inner needs are not neglected, and to
leave all others to be taken care of by religion. The patriarchal age cannot
last forever. Humanity is on the move. It is beginning to develop intellect, to
read, learn, think, and observe for itself. This is to some degree apparent
everywhere, although its result will be apparent to the fullest degree only in a
few. And these are the few who will accept and appreciate the philosophic
mysticism here expounded. The others can be greatly helped by religious
mysticism.
42
What the mystic seeks is a direct experience of
the soul. This is an uncommon goal and calls for an inner boldness, a spiritual
venturesomeness which orthodox religion usually prohibits.
43
The rites and forms of religion arise logically
from the point of view that God is separate from, and external to, the creatures
in the universe. Hence the worship of, and communion with, God must be an
external affair too. The theories and exercises of mysticism, however, arise
from the point of view that God is internally linked to all creatures.
44
If the mystics' world is a world of imagination
therefore, from a practical standpoint, some imagination is worth having for we
have to live personally as well as enquire analytically. Art and its creations
are not rejected even if imaginary but on the contrary they are most valuable in
everyday life. Similarly the peace and absorption of the mystical experience may
even be imaginary but they provide a useful if temporary refuge from the
pressure of troubles and burdens. Even the illusiveness of his fantasy
experience is not entirely worthless when it reveals little-known powers of the
mind in giving back to man what he has once thought, thus proving their
subconscious existence. And like dreams, his mysterious visions and occult
experiences illustrate the wonderfully creative powers of the same mind. If the
forms taken by these phenomena are the working of imagination, the activating
power behind them is not necessarily so. We must never forget that the initial
movement of these experiences (in those cases where they are authentic and
inspired) starts in the Overself and is a manifestation of its Grace. If,
therefore, we want to understand the mystic's highest experience aright we have
got to get away from its concrete details and the intellectual paralysis that
often accompanies them and pay attention primarily to the state of being in
which it arises. He often tells us that its atmosphere is so sublime, so
peace-fraught, as to be beyond all human verbal description. It is indeed a
temporary expansion of consciousness because through it he has been led into the
presence of the Overself.
45
Yoga methods, meditation practices, and religious
mysticism have all been given to the world for a twofold purpose: (a) as
temporary disciplines, to sharpen the mind and enable it to concentrate on
abstract themes, and to purify the character so that strong worldly desires
should not interfere with one's power to think without prejudices such as, for
instance, the preconception that the material world is ultimate reality, and (b)
because at the end of enquiry, when all ideas are seen never to reach the
Thinker, the Yogi enters the Silence.
46
The right kind of mysticism is definitely useful.
At the least it helps those who are out of tune with life and brings a serene
temperament, a poised mind, equable emotions; it brings awareness of spiritual
truths about oneself which flood life with illumination.
47
It is wise and proper to recognize the limitations
and admit the mistakes of mysticism. But to ignore or abandon it on that account
is foolish and wrong.
48
The intellectual metaphysical and rational path is
secondary to the mystical feeling path, which is primary. For the Overself has
much more to be felt as a presence than merely thought as idea.
49
If there were nothing other than our ideas of
things, and if it were impossible to cross their boundaries, all that we could
discover would never be anything more than an exploration from our own
imaginings and conceptions. Then, everything holy and divine would be robbed of
its value and meaning. But mystical experience intrudes here to show us a world
beyond thoughts, a reality beyond ideas.(P)
50
When we tire of groping our way through the misty
profundities of metaphysics without ever arriving at any worthwhile goal, we
return to mysticism.
51
The true mystic does not look to other men for
enlightenment, does not fix his gaze outward but inward. He cultivates over a
long period, and at last fixes, the habit of sitting in quiet introspection, in
perfect repose, and in mental stillness.
52
Reject the one-sided narrowness of V.S. Iyer and
John Levy, successor to Atmananda, which makes them reject mystic experience and
mystic feeling. For then the intellect alone is made to serve the quest so that
the result is hardly a balanced one. Fanaticism is too limited a way to trace
down truth. Mysticism has its valuable service to render on its own level in
feeling and devotion.
53
Mysticism makes communion and worship wholly an
interior process.
54
Those who consider the mystical experience as
being a private hallucination or a piece of wishful thinking, are themselves in
error.
55
The mystic quietly declares that he has
experimental knowledge of a higher self, a diviner self than the everyday one.
56
Even if these mystical doctrines are doing nothing
more, they are at least bringing peace and solace and comfort to troubled souls
who can find help nowhere else.
57
The illusions and aberrations of historical
mysticism or religion need not make anyone reject its values, beauties,
intuitions, facts, and experiences. They remain unassailable and are entitled to
exercise their influence.
58
In religion the Divine is regarded as utterly
beyond, something outside, transcending the familiar or the ordinary, and quite
unreachable. But when this inaccessibility of the Supreme lessens and finally
disappears, a tremendous mystical experience arises.
59
What is often criticizable in persons who pursue
mystical studies is unfortunately quite true of most and partly true of many
others, since they turn to mysticism in search of escapism or consolation and,
more often than not, it remains little more than a branch of religion for them.
However, such criticism is thoroughly unjust to the few who are earnest seekers
of Truth. To those pioneers, mysticism, with or without its pleasurable
experiences - more often without - represents a necessary step forward on their
path of spiritual progress, one which will help to bring them closer to their
Goal.
60
If the metaphysician rejects the fallacies of
religion, if he abandons the exaggerations of mysticism, and if he expunges the
deceptions of occultism, let it not be forgotten that he also retains whatever
is valuable in them.
61
These explanations of mystic experience are not
intended to explain it away altogether. We must not discount either its reality
or its value merely because it may not be quite what the mystic himself
sincerely believes it to be. We must not dismiss it as worthless phantasy. We
must comprehend that it is the way in which a genuinely transcendental existence
necessarily expresses itself to the human mind at a certain stage of the
latter's development.
62
Here in mysticism is a world of thought, doctrine,
practice, and achievement which seems strange, remote and mysterious, for which
most people simply do not have the time but to which a few people are
tremendously attracted.
63
The masses are entitled to their surface
satisfactions of which several kinds exist. But a smaller group exists which
seeks better and higher ones. It is not the sensational and dramatic occult
experience they want, nor the self-flattering psychical one, but rather entry
into the inner stillness. They are the connoisseurs.
64
Though it moves in a quiet and unobtrusive manner,
the work of mysticism is no less vital and important.
65
The rhapsodic experience which culminates
devotional mysticism gives an intensity of bliss which amply pays for whatever
renunciations the mystic himself has made.
66
It is an error to say that mysticism and
metaphysics are on equal levels. The first is more important than the second.
There is no way to realize the Self which does not include going inside
consciousness. Thinking, however metaphysical, cannot do it. Action, however
self-denying, cannot do it. It must be found inside in the heart. The other
things are needful but secondary. Without the inner consciousness, action
becomes at best humanitarianism and thinking a photographic copy of the Real.
67
The point was reached where the possession of
strong interest in mysticism was regarded as an archaic and singular
superstition, suitable only for the neurotic among the educated and for the
credulous among the uneducated. But this picture is now changing before our
eyes. There is more respect, more attention, and more study of this subject than
there has been for two hundred years.
68
If we have the satisfaction of knowing that we do
not live in those miserable medieval times when the mystically minded were
persecuted with fire and steel, we nevertheless have the less lovely fact that
today we may be regarded as dupes and fools, as hallucinated at the least.
69
Where the factual and the fictional are so mixed
together that one can hardly be separated from the other, it is not surprising
that so many people sceptically dismiss the whole subject as unworthy of
investigation.
70
In the minds of several scientists the very term
mysticism is a synonym for credulity. This is as deceptive for them as it should
be disturbing for us.
71
The materialistic opponents and critics of
meditation fasten triumphantly on its unhealthy phenomena as constituting
sufficient grounds for condemning the practice outright. Nevertheless we reply
that those so-called scientific psychologists who analyse and expose only the
fantastic aberrations of mysticism, in the belief that they are analysing and
exposing mysticism itself, are themselves self-deluded. For unless they can
approach mysticism from the inside, from their own personal experience, as well
as from the outside, from what the observing world sees, they will blunder badly
into undue scepticism, unnecessarily materialistic explanations, and even wholly
false interpretations. But because few scientists possess such equipment, few
can offer an accurate, fair, sympathetic yet critical estimate of mystical
claims, or comprehend that all mystical experiences are not on the same level,
or that even those which are differ in kind and degree.
72
People with genuine mystical experiences are rare
enough - so rare that they are looked upon either as abnormal by sceptics or
supernormal by believers.
73
Religious people denounce a mystic as a heretic.
Worldly people denounce him as a fanatic. All this because he has the moral
courage to withdraw from religious tradition and to deviate from worldly custom.
74
That the mystic can possess dignity and display
intelligence is what has to be shown. That he is not necessarily a charlatan but
may well be a man of virtue is what also has to be shown.
75
Despite the swiftly begotten yet swiftly forgotten
enthusiasms and amid all this shallow omniscience which skims the surface of a
multitude of subjects and penetrates to the core of few, there is undoubtedly a
genuine public interest in mystical experience.
76
Because some kinds of mystical experience are
clothed in forms which are really projections of ordinary all-too-human
feelings, the materialist rejects the whole experience as being a fantasy. He
tears it to pieces by his criticism and imagines he has satisfactorily disposed
of the subject. But he fails to account for that part of it which is the deepest
and least human, the holiest and least ordinary, the truest and least imaginary.
He fails to account for the message which every genuine mystic receives when
standing on this sacred ground: that here is the ultimate significance of
all experience, including everyday experience.
77
The difference between a practising mystic and a
talking one is hard for the ordinary observer to detect.
78
For a long time - a hundred years at least - the
world did not want us mystics, had no use for our mysticism. And now it is
beginning to want us again. The wheel has turned full circle.
79
It is a poor logic which asserts, because some
"mystical" experiences are admittedly pathological and others illusory, that all
mystical experience is pathological and illusory. The fairest criticism such
detractors could make would be silence, so that they would then cease to profane
what they cannot understand.
80
The perils which beset the mystic's path have been
eagerly pointed out by critics and used by them as being sufficient reason for
forswearing that path altogether. We may admit the perils without admitting the
absurd counsel based upon their existence.
81
Mystics who have dared to carry a brightly flaming
torch into the dark places lit only by dim candles of avaricious priests, have
been reviled and slandered by the many, but received with love by the intuitive
few. Their accomplishments are not to be measured by the narrow and decaying
walls of societies and cults which are built by later followers. The mystic's
work is infinitely wider than that, and lives on apart.
82
Most critiques of mysticism stem from a character
and an experience which have certain limitations. Most are satisfied with
current scientific psychologic knowledge because they know almost nothing of
Oriental mysticism, which has thousands of years of experience and tradition
behind it.
83
To say that mystical experience has no validity
because it is subjective, is to say little.