|
Musings of a Modern Day Contemplative Mystic
This writing is a letter, written early AM June 18, 2007. The writing is a response to the question posed by two persons whom I had never met but had read of my mystical orientation. Here is the response.
Mystical orientation is the embodiment of the truth (so this is more than a philosophy of or a belief about ~ reading all the books on mysticism cannot make anyone a mystic, any more than reading all the books on deep sea fishing can catch fish for me) within oneself that we cannot~ no one can ~ grasp God with our human brains. God is not an idea: being Person, God, even the word "God," is not adequate to define or explain or contain.
Mystical faith is a means toward the Mystery ~ realization of it, not just talking about it. The nonmystical elements of faith can be true, generally, to the extent only that they are indicative, not explanatory, not propositional, not moralistic. To be moralistic is, ironically, to be immoral, for example.
Christian faith mystically points to the Divine, and respects different ways that Mystery will be defined by persons framing their belief and experience in different ways: it evokes from us a sense of awe and gratitude, not control or judgmentalness toward those who experience Truth differently. Love is at the heart of mystical faith (mystical is boundless): not Love as only an emotional quality of affection (though there is nothing wrong with such pure feeling), but a will to respect, kindness, graciousness ...
Too much that goes under the name Christianity makes an idol out of externals: words, creeds, confessions, rites, Scripture, teachings, symbols, ideas, morals ... of the faith. Open, flexible, and universal signs are made into closed, rigid, and group-tribal propositional dead ends. And the royal law of love is replaced by a myriad of staid "does" and "do nots." So, in some sense, mystical Christian faith is getting below the surface allegiances of nominal, cultural Christian faith: this is why it is always a threat to the status quo. Mystical says below the waves is the depths of the ocean: while many others are enamored with the waves, saying, "Look at the whole ocean." Mystical is like tracing the sunshine to the Sun, while others think the sunshine is the Sun, totally. Such is mistaking the true part for the whole Truth.
An idol set up in the head, even an idol of my own Christian faith, is as much idol as a pagan idol sculpted and put in my front yard.
Mystical faith is a fulfillment of Jesus' teaching in St. John, that Christ is one with the Father, and we can be one with Him and, therefore, with the Father.
Many treat God like an object, whom they relate to. Jesus says we can be "one with" Christ and the Father. In union with God "God" is no longer only an object of faith, but we have entered into experiential intimacy. We have moved, then, from "to" God, from "with God," to "in" God. And "in" God we can integrate all three.
God is no longer an idea or word, but More. Even the word God is no longer a necessity. Thus, Silence is stressed by those of mystical Christian faith... . Language, while a means to the Mystery, can become a distancing mechanism, then, to resist the full experience of the Mystery. Words can be the defense mechanism to "protect" ourselves from intimacy.
The person who thinks he or she "knows" God only "knows about" God. To fall in Love with God as God, not as persons speak "about" God, is to move into an intuitive, immediacy of knowing that is of the heart, and can never be framed in the picture of words or symbols, no matter how sacred. Now, if someone says to me from the linear, logical, rational consciousness, "How do you know God?," I cannot verify that from the same consciousness; the person would have to evolve that same consciousness to understand my response.
Recall: Jesus used the image of sexual intimacy and its union between man and woman of the experiential intimacy (i.e., lit. withinness) of the Church and Himself: that is mystery, mystical, and occurs both in sexual intimacy (not just "having sex") and in spiritual connection with the Divine. Reading a book on such union between two persons can only point to and evoke the experience of the union, if the person chooses to put down the book and open to the experience itself. A book on marital union cannot offer it, explain it, define it, or contain it.
The Christian faith cannot give intimacy with Christ; we go through and beyond the elements of the faith to the Truth ~ Reality ~ they point to. Christian faith ~ all religious faith ~ that does not lead to a transcendence of the faith as a rational, logical, and linear reality, no matter how sincere one is, becomes itself an idol blocking one from Truth. Truths substitute for Truth, and that is a poor substitute, for the heart is shaped for the Mystery. And it is somewhat like our talk about True Love [last evening]: when I enter the Mystery, I am no longer in control, and it can be scary, for Mystery has no reference points, and no boundaries (it is like being dropped off on another planet: boundless, timeless, referenceless~even the sacred symbols drop into the Silence).
See next page for Invitation to writer's contemplative village, purpose of OneLife, data on ordering author's book and upcoming devotionals 2008, and material on citations.
Continued... |
