The Encyclopedia of World Religions

mysticism S 309

ativity seem to flow well and others when they run dry. So it is with the mystics. Teachers of mysticism in fact describe vari ous stages of the mystical path. One of the best known books on the subject is Evelyn Under hill’s Mysticism. Combing reports of numerous mystics, she outlines five basic stages. First is the Awakening, when—sometimes in a power ful conversion or “born-again” kind of encounter with the divine—one awakens to the reality of the spiritual life. This initial stage tends to be very emotional and erratic, though, and needs to be stabilized in the Purgative or Preparative stage, when the wise practitioner will deepen and stabilize the spiritual life with a disciplined life and regular prayer and meditation. This leads to the Illuminative stage, a basically happy time when God seems to be near, prayers answered, and the promises of religion fulfilled. For some, however, it is followed by some thing distressing: the Dark Night of the Soul, as it was called by the great St. John of the Cross. Now God seems to have withdrawn his presence, and one is left as though on a desert at night without a compass. Many give up at this point in despair. But the Dark Night is really a time of deepen ing and of purging away even the subtlest kinds of attachment to good religious feelings and the like one may have, that one may come to know God alone. For the Dark Night finally leads into Underhill’s supreme stage, the Unitive state, when one is united with God on so deep a level that the divine presence is always there, even when one is not thinking about it, and one is guided in all one’s doings by love. Religious traditions have evaluated mystical experience differently. Some, such as P URE L AND B UDDHISM and certain strands in Protestant Christi anity, have emphasized simple FAITH and harbored suspicions that too much craving for mystical “states” gets in the way of reliance on faith alone. Others might accuse mysticism of being “escap ist” and taking up time and attention that would be better spent in the doing of good works in the world, even though some of the greatest “do-good ers” from St. Francis to G ANDHI have also been

those religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that see God in terms of personal MONOTHEISM , and stress that a created being like a man or woman can never be absolutely the same as God the Cre ator, they will speak of the mysticism of love, and of being united with God in the same way as a lover yearns to be united with the beloved. However, it is important to realize that the speech and writings of mystics, even the greatest, are always an attempt to describe and interpret an experience that many of them nonetheless say is beyond words. The words of description are not the experience itself. Two people may have an experience of deep joy and rapture. One may take it to be just a psy chological experience, the other a religious encoun ter with the divine. Even the second will prob ably interpret it in terms of a religion with which that person is familiar, whether it is monistic or monotheistic. Even so, the great mystics East and West have greatly enriched their languages and literatures with beautiful and evocative attempts to communicate their deep and subtle encounters with divine grace. Many spiritual traditions teach techniques that help one to have mystical experiences. These include, first of all, PRAYER and especially MEDITA TION . Prayer is believed to bring one into contact with God, while stilling the mind through medita tion can allow the divine love or divine presence to well up deep within. Preparation for meditation like YOGA , sitting in the lotus posture, deep slow breathing, focusing the eyes or the mind on a sin gle point, and chanting a mantra or sacred set of syllables are all among the methods used. Others say that music, especially the beat of a drum, and dance like that done by Muslim Sufi and Jewish Hasidic practitioners, among others, can include mystical states. However, thoughtful teachers of mysticism warn that it is something far more subtle than a state that can be automatically brought about by practices or techniques. They can help, but in the end mysticism is more of an art than a science. Even the greatest artists sometimes have better days than others, times when the streams of cre