Walking in the shadows of the mystics.

Introduction

Mystical type experiences or a sense of wonderment have always held a sense of fascination. As a child what comes to mind are memories of a kind of a dreamy state of wonder which came over me at bedtime. My room with its long row of glass louvres over one side, adjacent to the giant hypnotic eucalypts behind our family home, was the perfect setting for imagined other worlds.

The rattle of glass window louvers shimmered in the pale light to the sounds of wind or rain and the incessant buzz of cicadas or the more strident cry of - “mowpoke!, mowpoke!" of the mowpoke owl before drifting off into sleep where strange creatures good and bad inhabited my dream world.  

Although I’m a more practical and skeptical type person that mystical dreamy imaginative sense of wonderment has also stayed with me to emerge in later life. This is manifested itself in the form of a recurring day dreaming state from which I imagined nothing whatsoever existed; but once it became uncomfortable I would return to my everyday perception. In some sense the mystical will capture our imagination and none more so than those who have shaped our thoughts throughout the ages and have become as the mystics.  This is a paper that explores this interesting topic and attempts to form some general conclusions. 

Declining church membership and increased interest in spirituality.

In Australia over several decades we have seen a minor renaissance in spirituality in contrast to declining church attendances. This is evident in increased environmental awareness and in added interest in the wisdom streams of ancient societies. Many older cultures, although beholden to magic and lacking scientific knowledge nevertheless were more attuned to harmonious co-existence with nature as a consequence of mystic wisdom streams.
But firstly I should define mysticism which is, according to the definition of my Oxford dictionary:

1. Chiefly the Christian church, the beliefs or mental tendencies characteristic of mystics; belief in the possibility of the union with or absorption into GOD by means of contemplation and self surrender; belief in or reliance on the possibility of spiritual apprehension of knowledge inaccessible to the intellect.

2. Religious belief characterized by self-delusion or dreamy confusion of thought; belief based on the assumptions on occult qualities or mysterious agencies.

3. But for the purposes of this paper I will define a mystic as one who has had a mystical experience(s) so profound that distinguishes such an identity from all others; to that extent and subsequent revelation it is transformational to societies in their practices and beliefs. We might say for instance, in that context, Augustine was "the founding father" of western mysticism, which later also became our theology. Just as he built upon the prior transformational revelations of St Paul.

Knowledge inaccessible to the intellect.
Adherents of mysticism may posit it to be potentially a method of knowing separate to the knowledge or the knower in question. Aligning that idea to something more tangible one might posit the idea of a mystical experience can be the actuation of our various gifts, which applies universally to everyone.  

This is the idea we are all mystics and have the choice of sharing in those gifts conferred upon us to varying degrees or otherwise according to our freedom. But that is not to say we have mystical experiences which we can rationally refer to at any time or that mysticism is a method to potentially override other methods of acquiring future valuable knowledge.

Rather we might feel energized or mindful that we are engaging our gifts in the manner as was intended which will allow us to freely change our minds and to gain new knowledge without the restraint or imposition of ideologies presupposing necessary outcomes.

Aborigines mysticism
It behaves us to explore mysticism as it is embraced by the oldest known continuous culture of the Australian aborigines. Their ancestral origins of mysticism reside in the dreamtime creation where all living things were believed to be made co-dependent and reactive to one another in one inseparable land.

So it was in the beginning the dreamtime was to dominate every facet of their rich life; in mythical creation stories, ceremonial art, music, ritualistic practice; initiation rites into adulthood; and in the repository of knowledge of the law handed down from one generation to another. Within the tribal system adolescents were isolated away from the rest of the tribe under the control of elders who provided tutelage on all matters of their law until they were sufficiently aware to make the positive transition to adulthood which carried with it the responsibility towards their tribe and the environment upon which they were dependent - Charles P Mountford – The Dawn of time.

The very idea of mysticism may be of interest to secular philosophers because of the strength of unity such a system has on members of the tribe and to the wider nations; to hold what things and ceremonies are sacred for life existence, to apportion responsibilities on attaining adulthood, to be seen fit and able to support a partner, to embrace life without a fear of death to return to the creative dreamtime and to share in all things.

The extent of this bonding and the ramifications of rejection became evident to me as a child, as I recall the inexplicable death of the Aborigine named Kimiko from bone pointing for tribal transgressions. Speculation was that his extreme fear caused his untimely death just five days after admission to hospital, as Medical Authorities were unable to find any injury, poison, disease or medical condition that could be held responsible. The theory is the offending person was considered dead by his tribe and family at that moment of bone pointing and would die in reality because his life was no longer supported. In essence, the man would die of heartbreak. The opposite end of that spectrum would be the continued mystical experience to feel the love of the tribe, its ritualistic confirmation in affirming ceremonial practices so that to be cut off from all of that, for some individuals, leads to a corresponding physical collapse and death.

Eugene Stockton is a priest who has spent many years with the aboriginals and talks about their tribes gathered around the campfires at night experiencing a mystical oneness with the environment.
Like many religions, aborigines were interested in the meaning of dreams which unlike other cultures were perceived as a mystical return to the past rather than to interpret the future.
Aborigines often interpret dreams as being the memory of things that happened during this Creation Period. Dreams were important because they were considered the time when one was transformed back into prior ancestral time. This linking of dreams to the Creation Period has led people to adopt the general term “The Dreamtime” in order to describe the time of creation in their religion. The term “Dreamtime” in Aborigines mythology is not really about a person having a dream, but rather, a reference to this Creation Period.

Ineffable mysticism and reverence for life
In modern day terms the divide between mysticism in religion and philosophy has become blurred since the ‘perennialists,’ attempt to identify common mystical experiences across various cultures and traditions. In that sense, it does seem possible to me, to generalize about similar experiences and say they are of philosophic interest as I have subsequently undertaken in the essay. For although the experiences of mysticism may be claimed to be ineffable (Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable), nevertheless for those traditions to take root and be successfully handed down from one generation to the next required a teacher able to coherently convey what is meant to ensure a future survival.

In the Taoist religion “The Tao” was considered with such reverence that any references made could no longer be considered the true Tao-Lao Tzu (Taoist), since such supremacy in spirit is also ineffable.

GOD was also ineffable in early Judaism
In early Judaism coherency in teachings was described by reference to GOD’S ways or actions in the mystical stories of the Old Testament. The Jewish approach to mysticism is complicated but generally it is agreed the mystics are to be interpreted in terms of allegory and imagination, a not dissimilar view held by scholars today in relation to the parables contained in the New Testament.

In the end any inherent complexity must become mundane for its future survival, as the old story goes of the student and his understanding of the various contemplative mysteries of the mountain whose enlightened state reveals it is a mountain.

In more recent times the definition of mysticism has also tended to be expanded to include the ecstatic experience of oneness found in Indian religions such as Hinduism or Sufism in Islam which aims at unity or absorption of the divine.

A similar theme is evident In Tathagatagarbha Buddhism to proffer the idea of an enlightened indestructible nature for all beings, obscured by moral and mental contamination but whose enlightened essence is the Buddha Nature, present also in Tibetan Buddhist texts and traditions. Nothingness does not mean an absence of anything but rather the enlightened state from which attachments bringing moral and mental contamination are removed.

Christian mysticism
Turning to Christian mysticism we find an amazing labyrinth of different strands from the medieval Christian mystics included St. Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Teresa of Avilia and Meister Eckhart and all of the other successors.

But by far the greatest of all of the Christian mystics is the apostle St Paul whose 13 letters make up half of the New Testament, although most scholars contend that only 7 were actually written or under the direction of Paul. Paul was a scholar, sail maker and mystic whose epic journeys established Christendom throughout the Mediterranean and ensured its spread throughout the world. Paul was seen as an apostle for the gentile’s yet in typical Judaist tradition frequently uses allegory by way of Old Testament references in his letters to the recently established infant communities.

Paul remains an enigmatically unique character – virtually unknown in a historical sense other than to be remembered in Jewish disagreements amongst followers, but one who professes to be willing to understand all things and become ‘as one’ to all men to further the cause of being “in Christ”. This arose from his mystical experience on the road to Damascus. I think this factor had led many to interpret his work in a more complicated manner than need be the case.

Many scholars remained unconvinced St. Paul was a mystic. A "mystical" experience does not a mystic make - at least not according to St. John of the Cross or Meister Eckhart.

But, a redefined meaning for mystics and mysticism emerged amongst many leading scholars from the mid-19th century onwards to firmly lump Paul in with the mystics. To reiterate, for the purposes of this paper I define a mystic as one who has had a mystical experience(s) so profound that distinguishes such an identity from all others; to that extent and subsequent revelation it is transformational to societies in their practices and beliefs. Under that more broad definition St Paul clearly meets that criteria. There can be little doubt Paul experienced a mystical experience which was continually subtlety evident thereafter, notwithstanding on face value his writings differ markedly with the more traditional mystics.

Although mystical experiences are said to be ineffable recipients gain insight and knowledge unavailable otherwise to the intellect which raises the question of contradictions since the experience is said to be ineffable. But this seemingly contradictory ineffable nature of the experience is coherently expressed in knowledge by reference to a metaphor or allegory or as is the case of St. Paul's to be mystically 'in Christ'.
The counter argument of course, is his letters bear no relevance whatsoever to mystical experiences but rather were simply inspirational to incorporate rational thinking.
Such an assertion however will lead us circuitously back to mysticism since Paul’s mysticism is evident in his frequent reference to this “In Christ” mystical experience. He uses the expression over 200 times but scholars are unable to unearth exactly what he means. The best one can interpret the oft repeated idea is it is meant to signify a mystical union, or existential bond made possible through grace. To reiterate what could be argued is this mystical experience gives way to the actuation of various gifts, in this case the gift to provide revelation in text and scripture to become representative of much of the church as we know it.

Much has been made of the abstract nature of Pauline theology as a bridge from the more individualistic Judaism into Christianity with the idea of justification by faith. But I think the primary aim of Paul was one of universal freedom from the law under the Jewish covenant about which he disagreed with Peter. His letters are best read simply as letters, not necessarily to be held as always Paul’s specific views but more to be understood as an encouragement and call to the fledgling communities to co-exist with love and respect for one another without the need for the prior ritualistic imposition of Jewish law.
St Paul is of significant interest to secular philosophers because his ideas carry with them the idea of a universal unencumbered system of unity which presupposes through grace existential philosophical aspects to life; to hold our life existence as sacred, to ascertain and acknowledge ones gifts for the benefit of the whole community, to joyfully exist in a state of grace without fear of death, to be free and remain free from guilt, to share in all things and to place love and affection ahead of all other known things. In the process Paul acknowledges our humanity and the imperfect cradle of existence which will continue to see communities straddle the idealism that is encapsulated in their new understanding and freedom from their law only to fall prey to the usual earthly failings.

Paul sends his letters of encouragement and hope in the expectation that the experience of freedom from the law will bring joy to existential living to transcend earthly suffering and sorrow.

CONCLUSIONS
Mystical experiences have been crucial in providing the creative imagination which helps shape our philosophies and give us that sense of self that gives rise to our humanity.

What is strikingly apparent from many of the mystics is the similarity in ideas about oneness and interdependence for all living things. Another is the wonderful philosophies which are suggested, through grace, as being available to all regardless of belief, to be simply experienced by engagement in mind and spirit. To find your own meaning to life (as opposed to seeking a meaning for life) as I see is in the use of one’s gifts in the way that was intended for a more complete and energised happy life for oneself and community. In that respect secular philosophers’ views often unintentionally reflect religiosity just as the more skeptical views of some religious commentators can be more secular than religious.

In another sense, in a more generalized universal viewpoint my personal philosophy leads me to believe that all life is sacred. We can learn from the mystics but ultimately we all determine what philosophy and life meaning we personally adopt. If you agree with me that all life is sacred then a call to arms must always be viewed with suspicion, except in extraordinary circumstances.