MYSTICISM

in general, a spiritual quest for hidden truth or wisdom, the goal of which is union with the divine or sacred (the transcendent realm). Forms of mysticism are found in all major world religions, by analogy in the shamanic and other ecstatic practices of nonliterate cultures, and in secular experience. In the 20th century mysticism (the treasure hidden in the centres of our souls) has undergone a renewal of interest and understanding and even a mood of expectancy similar to that which marked its role in previous eras. Such a mood stems in part from the feeling of alienation that many persons experience in the modern world. Put down as a religion of the elite, mysticism (or the mystical faculty of perceiving transcendental reality) is said by many to belong to all men, though few use it. The British author Aldous Huxley has stated that a totally unmystical world would be a world totally blind and insane, and the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore has noted that Man has a feeling that he is truly represented in something which exceeds himself. in general, a spiritual quest for hidden truth or wisdom the goal of which is union with the divine or sacred (the transcendent realm). Forms of mysticism are found in all major religions, by analogy in the shamanic and other ecstatic practices of nonliterate cultures, and in secular experience. The following article is a brief treatment of mysticism. Articles providing fuller treatment appear in the Macropaedia. For the types, goals, and nature of the mystical experience, see Religious Experience: The experience of mysticism; for treatment of mysticism in specific religions, see Buddhism, The Buddha and; Christianity; etc. Although mysticism is often set over against theology and is said to be more authentic or more subjective or more impassioned, the two forms of religious thought have in fact existed side by side, frequently in the same individual. But this is not the same as saying that a reduction of the mystical experience to its theological implications does it justice. On the contrary, the mystical theologians have been most explicit in their insistence that no theological systematization can capture or explain the unique experience of mystical purgation, illumination, and union. More perhaps than any other religious system, Hinduism is naturally predisposed to mystical interpretation. As the highest ideal of Hindu religious practice, ascetic moksha (q.v.; release) has received most attention not only from Western students but from Hindu masters as well. At least in part, Yoga (q.v.) represents the rise within traditional Hinduism of a special mystical technique that was intended to make possible for the select few a level of mystical insight originally predicated of the many. The techniques of Yoga were combined with traditional Hindu doctrines about the absorption of the individual soul in the All. Other forms of Hindu mysticism are more personal, relating the devotee to a particular deity of the Hindu pantheon (e.g., Krishna or Shiva), while still others stress the passivity of faith as trust and surrender to the grace and power of the Ultimate Reality. Common to the various sects of Buddhist thought is an emphasis upon meditation and contemplation as means of moving toward Nirvana (Extinction), but each of the Buddhist traditions sets its own distinctive interpretation on that goal. Of special interest in any discussion of Buddhist mysticism are Vajrayana and Zen (qq.v.). Practitioners of Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, in Tibet combine Yogic discipline with an absolutistic philosophy and highly symbolic language to cultivate mystical ecstasy. Japanese Zen, on the other hand, because of its practical emphasis and matter-of-fact language, is often interpreted as the direct antithesis of the mystical strain in Buddhism, but its cultivation of praja (supreme intuition) over against the partial knowledge attained through ordinary means displays its affinities for mystical thought. The Sufi mysticism of Islam, like Zen Buddhism, arose in response to the practical religious needs of those for whom conventional answers were inadequate, and it caught up some of the tendencies toward mystical experience that had been indigenous in Islam from the beginning. Sufi mysticism, like numerous other varieties, including Christian, has often expressed itself in the metaphors of intoxication and of the love between bride and bridegroomlanguage that has not been easy to reconcile with the stress of the Qur'an upon the sovereignty and transcendence of Allah. At the same time, mysticism made the reality of the divine more accessible to those who found the wholly other god of the Qur'an too austere and distant. The foundations for Jewish mysticism were laid in the visions of the biblical prophets and the apocalyptic imagery of postbiblical Judaism. The most characteristic and profound theme of mystical Judaism is the Kabbala (q.v.), which reached its climax in the Sefer ha-zohar near the end of the 13th century. This Book of Splendour described the power and inner life of God and set forth the principles and commandments by means of which the true believer could regain the devequt (adherence to God) that had been destroyed by the fall of man from pristine purity. Upon this zoharic wisdom subsequent Jewish mysticism continued to build. The Hasidic form in particular (see Hasidism) had far-reaching effects upon the piety and practice of the common people; in the form it took in the thought of Martin Buber it shaped both Christian and secular thought as well. In contrast to the systematized esoteric traditions that characterize Eastern mysticism, the mystical aspects of Christianity have been manifested most clearly in a recurring pattern of movements. Gnosticism, an early Christian heretical movement that stressed the intrinsic evil of matter, appears to represent the survival of Jewish mysticism with Zoroastrian and other Oriental overtones. In the religion of Paul and John Christ-mysticism, frequently spontaneous and unsought, is fundamental. The Desert Fathers of the 3rd and 4th centuries established an eremitic tradition of conscious preparation and practice for mystical enlightenment. Augustine's account of the divine Light of being drew upon Neoplatonic themes and imagery that would figure strongly in the literature of subsequent mystics, perhaps culminating in Meister Eckehart (died 1329), who emphasized the reality of the ideal world, in which all things are eternally present as elements in the being of God. Mysticism flourished in the 14th century both within the Church and in numerous heresies, a dichotomy that was to characterize several later periods. In general, Protestant mystics explicitly recognizewhat is implied in Catholic teachingthat the divine Light or Spark is a universal principle. The history of Western philosophy since the Middle Ages includes a form of thought best characterized as cosmic mysticism, perhaps most brilliantly expounded as a philosophical system by Benedictus de Spinoza and in literature by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. According to this view, in a universe that often seemed to be absurd and threatening, man could find meaning by identifying himself with its structures and purposes and by cultivating attitudes of reverence and commitment. During the modern period, the relation between mystical vision and literary inspiration, as exemplified in works from the ancient epics to the poetry of William Blake, Stphane Mallarm, and others, became a major issue in aesthetics. Additional reading Richard M. Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind (1905, many later editions), introduced two important ideas as one, ideas that would recur, with modifications, in later writings. Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (1908, reprinted 1970), provided a balanced and liberal attitude that emphasized its experiential quality, its value as a practical guide, and the presence of a mystical brotherhood through the centuries. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, 12th ed. rev. (1957), has been a pioneer work, though its insistence on the Mystic Way has been questioned. Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1913, reprinted 1966), is one of the earliest studies in Sufism that still holds interest. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga (first published, serially, 191421, later in book form), with much collateral illumination, explains the idea of Integral Yoga. Henri Bergson, Les Deux sources de la morale et de la religion, 3rd ed. (1932; Eng. trans., Two Sources of Morality and Religion, 1935), forms part of a general thesis on creative evolution and, paradoxically, on the need for mysticism in an age of mechanization. Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 3rd rev. ed. (1954), clearly brings out the distinction that the concept of union is not an essential of mystical experience as understood in the Jewish tradition. Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (1946), is an anthology with sophisticated, sometimes cynical, commentary with an ascetic bias. Jacques de Marquette, Introduction to Comparative Mysticism (1949), is a fair and straightforward survey in which its relevance to modern life and thought is brought out and an awareness of possibilities hinted at. R.C. Zaehner, Mysticism, Sacred and Profane (1957), beginning as a caveat against the use of drugs for transcendental experience, goes on to make critical distinctions between four types of mysticism. D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist (1957), offers a sympathetic study of contrasts as well as some resemblances between two traditions. Radhakamal Mukerjee, The Theory and Art of Mysticism (1960), is an overall study, particularly good with regard to the Eastern material. Walter T. Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy (1960), is balanced and analytic but singles out introvertive mysticism as more genuine and superior. Sidney Spencer, Mysticism in World Religion (1963), is a helpful anthology with a reliable introduction to the field of comparative mysticism. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Le Phnomne humain (1955; Eng. trans., The Phenomenon of Man, 1959), though its scientific accuracy has been questioned, its poetic and impassioned attempt to mediate between religious insights and a hope for man and the future has made it the object of much attention. See also Louis Dupr, The Deeper Life: An Introduction to Christian Mysticism (1981); and Richard Woods, Mysterion: An Approach to Mystical Spirituality (1981).