Category: Uncategorized

Mystics arise!

Beyond the Map

Through much of my life, I haven’t given much thought to the word ‘mystic’.  I used to relegate it to someone who was ‘over the edge’ in their beliefs and kind of ‘spooky’ in their deportment.

But historically, in religious circles, the title ‘mystic’, is used to describe some of our notable contemplatives.  In the last couple of thousand years, these ancient church mystics possessed a relationship, piety, and reality in God that set them apart.  Some of the more commonly known mystics includeFrancisof Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, andJeanne Guyon, just to name a few.

Religious opinion and tradition generally require that to be called a mystic, one must have had a personal transformation… or must have effected transformation in someone else.

But if you think about it, that definition should apply to any seriously devout God-person.  In Christian…

View original post 392 more words

A Finger Pointing to the Moon – Weltanschauung

https://zenothestoic.com/2018/11/20/a-finger-pointing-to-the-moon/

I almost recommend this beautifully crafted essay by a Follower of this Blog wholeheartedly, because it seems to me he is on the very edge of Realisation, and indeed, very often experiences Its fringes without recognising it. He cannot let go the Siren call of the richness of his gifted human life. Or so it seems to me. You may receive his insights and intuitions differently. I can’t accept the essay wholeheartedly because of his apparently despairing flounderings into the dead end of psilocybins.

The Doors of Perception

Reposted from zenothestoic.com

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern”.

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Is it so strange that a deep interest in science should be combined with an equally deep desire for mysticism and transcendance?

I think not; the two can be seen as two sides of the same coin. Reality seen both from the intellect and from the senses. A yearning for transcendance. Some would say a desire to escape from the base reality. Which is all that is accessible to most of us in a “normal” state of mind.

Both science and mysticism offer us infinity. Infinite space and power. Infinite universes and time. Teleportation, downloading the mind into another form of matter, eternal life, time travel. Science is not ashamed to speculate on such matters. To an ancient people, we would appear as gods. In the far future, or in a distant corner of the multiverse, there exists intelligence with powers which even we would consider godlike.

The mind allows us to travel to such places and such times. To witness infinity, to feel the mind of “god”.

These days, few rational men believe in traditional religious systems. And yet through the ages the mystics have had glimpses of some alternate truth, some reality which in our ordinary minds is denied to us.

Science struggles to explain consciousness and yet some scientists tell us that consciousness is a law of nature all of its own. That consciousness “is”.

Not that consciousness is an emergent property of physical elements. But that consciousness is a law of physics itself. Universal consciousness, consciousness as the very “self” of the universe.

So listen to how the mystics describe their experiences.

Meister Eckhart:

“To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own.”

Alan Watts:

“What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself.”

Siddhartha:

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

Both science and contemplation seek knowledge. Self knowledge, truths, the “truth”.

Science uses instruments and machinery and conducts experiments. Science seeks truth through the intellect.

The quiet mind seeks experience directly. To feel the truth, to experience it.

Neither should be disparaged. Both should be embraced. Neither is complete without the other.

The Path of the Mystic: The Gospel Of John — Seeking Spirituality

If one were to ask for a list of the most influential and sacred scriptures regarding the Divine and its self-realization by mankind, I’m sure a number of different responses would be offered. But I am also sure that three sacred texts from three different world religions would be at the top of that list; […]

via The Path of the Mystic: The Gospel Of John — Seeking Spirituality

Choose your Own Adventure

QUANTUM AWARENESS

More and more every day modern science is coming to terms with what on the outset was an uncomfortable reality. That is that the observer (you and I) play not just an important role in reality or in our universal experience but actually that we are the deciding factor at the centre of it all. I think for the most part modern science has tried to stay an arm’s length away from any of the organised or generally accepted world religions and this is not necessarily a bad thing, while many of the world’s religions seem hellbent on destroying each other and have become so inflexible because of dogma. There is, however, one notable exception the Buddha Dharma. The Buddha Dharma is without a doubt the most peaceful, humanistic, and scientific of all organised religions. Please note that I personally do not subscribe to the fact that Buddhism is a religion, and…

View original post 1,001 more words