The thing is, in our current society, it's quite easy to find some New Age-ish perspective that says something like "the world is awesome, man. Feel the vibrations." Yeah, ok fine. But this type of talk can take away from the serious point: — Manuel
The world is a mystery, existence is too. We have no idea why we are here, why things appear the way they do, or why we even have experience at all. — Manuel
It's a bit of a shame that many people, if told this, don't seem to care or think it's empty or something. Why complicate everything? Well, I don't have a good answer to that. But I think it's evident. — Manuel
I figure communicating with the dead should count as a mystical process. There are shamanistic practices from many different traditions that involve being a "medium" for the conversation.
There are many different forms of divination, from oracular pronouncements from "speakers" in contact with the gods to systems of interpretation like Tarot or the I Ching.
What some people shun as superstition is a valid practice for others. — Valentinus
Careful. This sounds a bit new agey. I read somewhere that a mystery is a part of us we have hidden from ourselves. I think it may have been in Alan Watts. That makes a lot of sense to me. There is no mystery, just things we're not aware of. The Tao, God, enlightenment, reality, whatever - it's sitting right here in front of us right now. — T Clark
There are lots of good ways to know the world. Different ways work for different people. None of these ways of seeing we are calling mystical are necessarily any better than other ways of seeing. They work for some people and not for others. — T Clark
I'd be interested in parsing the difference between mystery and mystical - I think the two become confused. — Tom Storm
It seems fairly clear that those who have mystical experiences don't generally view them as mysterious in the moment - the experience itself brings a type of grounding and certainty - perhaps a sense of oneness or a meaningful connection to higher consciousness. When encountered this is not doubted. — Tom Storm
Is there any thinking about any notions of good mysticism versus bad mysticism. Can it be graded in any way? Perhaps shallow versus deep? — Tom Storm
What are some of the better descriptions people have provided about the wisdom or insights they encounter through mysticism? Can it be brought back to the quotidian? Or does it remain resolutely first person and ineffable? I am particularly interested in whatever transformative capacities mysticism is said to have for people. — Tom Storm
As I said, I did this primarily for myself. If anyone has any comments on the definitions or any other aspects of mysticism, feel free to include them here. — T Clark
[The Orphic] myth describes humanity as having a dual nature: body (Ancient Greek: σῶμα, romanized: sôma), inherited from the Titans, and a divine spark or soul (Ancient Greek: ψυχή, romanized: psukhḗ), inherited from Dionysus. In order to achieve salvation from the Titanic, material existence, one had to be initiated into the Dionysian mysteries and undergo teletē, a ritual purification and reliving of the suffering and death of the god. Orphics believed that they would, after death, spend eternity alongside Orpheus and other heroes. The uninitiated (Ancient Greek: ἀμύητος, romanized: amúētos), they believed, would be reincarnated indefinitely.
Many of the examples start with 'belief that....'. The point about mysticism is that it is purported to provide an insight or realisation which is not a matter of belief. (Actually the term 'realisation' is key in this context - the enlightened 'real-ise' the higher truths, not as a matter of belief, but by direct intuition, and also 'making real'.) — Wayfarer
I mention this by way of rebuttal of (2) and (5). Mysticism is, for sure, a pejorative in many contexts and is generally abjured by the positivists and materialists. — Wayfarer
There's a rather quirky Wikipedia article I sometimes mine for references, on Higher Consciousness. I'm a firm believer in there really being higher and lower forms of consciousness - therefore a vertical dimension, the sense of which is all but extinguished in modern 'culture'. — Wayfarer
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet. — T Clark
Mystery means lots of things. In what way is it confused with mystical? — T Clark
:zip:There's stuff we don't know anything about.
When folk talk about that stuff, despite not knowing anything about it, they are being mystical.
Honest folk will remain quiet. — Banno
(re: #6 definition) Yeah, the more naturalistic-pragmatic interpretation daojia I'd say is more mystical (esoteric) than religious (exoteric).Is Taoism a form of mysticism? — T Clark
Most striking at first is this appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest sign of long, unconscious prior work. The role of this unconscious work in mathematical invention appears to me incontestable, and traces of it would be found in other cases where it is less evident. Often when one works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the first attack. Then one takes a rest, longer or shorter, and sits down anew to the work. During the first half-hour, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind. It might be said that the conscious work has been more fruitful because it has been interrupted and the rest has given back to the mind its force and freshness. 1
What "sudden" implies is this:I don't know why but the word 'sudden' seems slightly off target. — Tom Storm
:clap: :100: Thanks for this reminder."There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
.........
It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
“This is water.”
“This is water.”
It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out."
- David Foster Wallace — Manuel
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