MYSTERIOUS MYSTICISM

Though mysticism may be associated with religion, it need not be.  The mystic often represents a type that the religious institution (e.g. church) does not and cannot produce and does not know what to do with if and when one does appear.  Still, mysticism is the raw material of all religion and is also the inspiration of much of philosophy, poetry, art, and music, a consciousness of a "beyond," of something which, though it is interwoven with it, is not the external world of material phenomena.

It is a consciousness of an "unseen" over and above the seen.  In the developed mystic this consciousness is present in an intense and highly specialized form.  Though he may not be able to describe it in words, though he may not be able to logically demonstrate its validity, to the mystic his experience is fully and absolutely valid and is surrounded with complete certainty.  He has been "there," he has "seen," he "knows."

Mystical experience, however, is not the sole domain of the mystic, according to some.  As Ram Dass points out, there are many planes of awareness, many levels of consciousness.  William James said, "Our normal waking consciousness is but one type of consciousness, while all about it, separated from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie other types of consciousness, and we spend our entire lives not knowing of their existence.  But apply the requisite stimulus and there they are in their completeness."

The word "mystic" has its origin in the Greek Mysteries, the Eleusinian Mysteries.  A mystic was one who was initiated into these mysteries, through which he gained an esoteric knowledge of divine things and was "reborn into eternity." His goal was to breakthrough the everyday world into that of eternity and timelessness.  This entailed a secret wisdom about which it was unlawful for him to speak.  The word "mystery" (mysterion) comes from the Greek word "muo," to shut or close the lips or eyes. 

Both Vedanta and Buddhism are rooted in mysticism.  Even the nontheistic Buddhism has, without calling it such, its mystical aspects, found for example in the Jnana meditation of Yoga and early Buddhism, and in satori in Zen.