Some thoughts for discussion on Christian Mysticism (if anybody at all is interested).
“The Christian revelation at its richest contains and reflects the Kogi and Hopi knowledge of the interconnecton of all life, the Taoist sense of organic balance and the mysterious conjunction of opposites, the Hindu awareness of the grandeur of the soul, the Buddhist devotion to compassion and clear ethical living, the Jewish awe at the unutterable holiness of God and the sacredness of ordinary life, the Greek adoration of divine beauty, and the Islamic passion for God as the Beloved.†– Andrew Harvey, The Essential Mystics, Castle Books, 1996
In our haste around here to dismiss all things that smack of “organized†religion and authoritarian and patriarchal orders of theology, I worry that Christianity gets too easily rejected by those who see it, perhaps from childhood memories, as an instrument of either guilt or fear. And the beauty of the story of Jesus, the story of his life and death and resurrection, gets rejected along with the misguided perceptions of what it means to be a Christian.
This is no less than tragic and I think it’s about time somebody around here presented an alternative to what is unfortunately perceived as Christianity today, at least a nutshell version of what Christian Mysticism is all about.
Maybe this will be interesting. Maybe this will be a total waste of time. (I’m okay either way).
Mysticism gets its name from the Mystery Religions, early cults from the Hellenic and Roman periods that focused on union with God, rather than worship. Personal salvation and personal rebirth were prominent ideas in most of the mysteries, with a common motif being a myth of a dying and rising savior.
Mysticism has taken many forms since then and mystics can be Taoists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Christians. In its essence, mysticism is a spiritual approach towards the union of the soul with God, or whatever one considers as the underlying force of the universe. In mysticism we see a God that is accessible, able to be touched and able to touch. A God not at arm’s length, not worshipped from afar, but present here and now, searching as much for us as we search for Him. One can either find God deep within, moving away from the rest of the world, or find God without, in all things, in all beings. In philosophical terminology, mysticism is something of a pantheistic worldview.
For Christian mystics specifically, the approach is to find the underlying “true self†within, rejecting the “ego self,†that part of us corrupted by the material world and the erroneous choices we have made, through our free will, as we have stumbled blindly through life, moving farther from God rather than closer. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the story of Christ’s resurrection, the sacrifice of the body (ego self) to be reborn as spirit (true self). This is the meaning and the point behind the resurrection story, the central tenet of Christianity.
It was never about Heaven and everlasting life. Through the sacrifice of the ego self, through quiet and stillness and prayer and meditation, through harmony with the underlying reality of the universe (call it the Holy Spirit), one can find union with the Divine and one can find union at this moment. In this moment is eternity. All that there is, exists now. “The Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men see it not†(The Gospel of Thomas). All one need do, from a Christian mysticism viewpoint, is sacrifice that part of oneself that is not of God, and follow the God within. “Whosever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me†(Mark 8:34).
The union of created with Creator is a theme of wonderous beauty and divine love. Once one comes to understand that we are a part of God, an expression of God, a manifestation, a co-creator, an incarnation no less than was Jesus, then anything less than union with God is unthinkable. Upon this realization, the full realization of all of this, I might go so far as to say that anything less is - in fact – impossible, as God seeks union with us every bit as much as we with Him.
We find and we are found. We become God, God becomes us. This is the meaning of Christian mysticism. More than this, it is my opinion that this ought to be the meaning of Christianity and what it means to be a Christian.