Tuesday, September 27, 2022

The mystery of mysticism


 

Are all mystical experiences on some kind of level identical? Or at least broadly similar? Theistic mystics say that the human soul "forgets itself" when it reaches the highest pinnacle and communes with God. And monistic mystics say that the soul actually becomes (or rather realizes its identity with) God. There is supposed to be some kind of ontological difference between these two states of mystical accomplishment, but what could it possible be? Note also that in both cases, the mystic "comes back down" to the human level again. What is the ontological difference between the two mystics then? 

My own personal take (which could of course be wrong - I´m not a mystic, after all) is that humans can´t just "merge into God". I mean, what kind of megalomaniac notion is that, anyway? Besides, what makes us think it really is "God" up there in the first place? It´s probably just the 5,000th henad down from the real divinity! 

Which doesn´t mean we shouldn´t try reach it. After all, the 7,000th level down isn´t much fun these days, is it now?


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