The Unity of Mystical Traditions

The Unity of Mystical Traditions
Author: Randall Studstill
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047407210

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This book argues that mystical doctrines and practices initiate parallel transformative processes in the consciousness of mystics. This thesis is supported through a comparative analysis of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen (rdzogs-chen) and the medieval German mysticism of Eckhart, Suso, and Tauler. These traditions are interpreted using a system/cybernetic model of consciousness. This model provides a theoretical framework for assessing the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices and showing how different doctrines and practices may nevertheless initiate common transformative processes. This systems approach contributes to current philosophical discourse on mysticism by (1) making possible a precise analysis of the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices, and (2) reconciling mystical heterogeneity with the essential unity of mystical traditions.

Christian Mysticism

Christian Mysticism
Author: Harvey D. Egan SJ
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1998-09-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725206803

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Christian mysticism is unique in its view of Jesus' death and resurrection as the very cause and exemplar of the mystical life in all its purity. Jesus' saving death on the cross exemplifies the mystical letting-go of everything consoling, tangible and finite in order to surrender totally to the mystery of the Father's unconditional love. In this introduction to Christian mysticism, Reverend Harvey Egan, S.J. presents four Christian mystics as paradigms of the classical tradition: St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the unknown author of the Cloud of Unknowing. From this foundation he moves to two contemporary figures, Thomas Merton and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, each of whom reflects a contemporary transposition of the two mystical traditions, the apophatic, which emphasizes the radical difference between God and creatures, and the kataphatic, which emphasizes the similarity between God and creatures.

The Call of the Mourning Dove

The Call of the Mourning Dove
Author: Stephanie Rutt
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2019-05-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532661134

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Spiritual seekers across faith traditions share a fierce yearning for mystical unity with their God. While beliefs and practices differ, what ignites the human heart to quest for the mystical, the unknowable, the holy just beyond understanding, is the same. The Call of the Mourning Dove: How Sacred Sound Awakens Mystical Unity offers a new paradigm, the Sonic Trilogy of Love, that details how sacred sound, embedded in the ancient canons across faith traditions, creates just such a portal into this unmitigated experience of God. Because the experience is ubiquitous across faith traditions, it does not matter whether a seeker has embarked on an eclectic quest for God or remains deeply committed to questing within one particular faith tradition. All seekers, known as Lovers within the Trilogy, discover that by intoning the sacred sounds, the Love embedded in the ancient languages, the conditions are set to experience unity with God, the Beloved. This unity occurs in unforeseen moments, as love, the core organizing principle of the Trilogy, circles in on itself, dissolving all distinctions, leaving the Lover filled with only the silent wonder of God. And, graciously, nothing is the same.

Mystical Traditions

Mystical Traditions
Author: Muhammad Shafiq
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2023-05-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3031271211

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This book discusses mysticism and its possible contributions to a positive common human future. It is organized into three parts - “Studies of Mystical Traditions,” “Comparative Studies of Mystical Traditions,” and “Social and Ethical Implications." The approach is philosophical and critical. The contributors differ on whether or not mystical traditions would restore peaceful living and peaceful coexistence. However, the problem before this manuscript is the growing pain and suffering caused by greed in the world, greed causing economic disequilibrium, racism and divisiveness causing social unrest resulting in mass migration and refugees’ crisis. Through the lens of “mystical traditions," the manuscript proposes a balance approach between material and spiritual needs of people. To strengthen human spiritualty, the manuscript emphasizes practicing meditation, music, prayers, zikr, yoga, mindfulness, fasting and other methods of spiritual revival for peace within self and with others.

The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism

The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism
Author: Glenn Alexander Magee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 820
Release: 2016-04-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316679357

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Mysticism and esotericism are two intimately related strands of the Western tradition. Despite their close connections, however, scholars tend to treat them separately. Whereas the study of Western mysticism enjoys a long and established history, Western esotericism is a young field. The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism examines both of these traditions together. The volume demonstrates that the roots of esotericism almost always lead back to mystical traditions, while the work of mystics was bound up with esoteric or occult preoccupations. It also shows why mysticism and esotericism must be examined together if either is to be understood fully. Including contributions by leading scholars, this volume features essays on such topics as alchemy, astrology, magic, Neoplatonism, Kabbalism, Renaissance Hermetism, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, numerology, Christian theosophy, spiritualism, and much more. This Handbook serves as both a capstone of contemporary scholarship and a cornerstone of future research.

Mysticisms East and West

Mysticisms East and West
Author: Christopher Hugh Partridge
Publisher: Paternoster Publishing
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2003
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

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Mysticism is proving to be the chosen type of religion for future generations of believers in the West. As traditional institutional religion continues to decline, mystical thought is celebrated as a vital, subversive alternative. Evidence for this religious-cultural shift towards the mystical, the experiential, and indeed the creation-centered can be found in bookstores, most of which devote a large amount of shelf space to mystical themes and writers from the world religions. While this shift is not new, an increasing number of westerners are turning east because they find the fundamentally mystical thought of Asian religious traditions appealing. Furthermore, numerous westerners have actually become gurus and mystics within Eastern traditions. Mysticisms East and West examines the worldwide phenomenon of mystical experience across the world religions. In examining both Christian and non-Christian expressions of mysticism, this unique volume brings together a number of prominent evangelical scholars to analyze the central historical, cultural, and theological issues. Beginning in the East, these studies in mystical experience gradually move to the West and to Christian mysticism before concluding with a number of philosophically reflective essays examining the implications and nature of mysticism.

Mysticism

Mysticism
Author: Bruno Borchert
Publisher: Weiser Books
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780877287728

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Mystical experience is not really understood in our modern Western culture, but we have a rich history and traadition that can be traced from remote ages to the present day. It is a phenomenon common to all religions and races, differing in manifestation, but sharing a similar foundation#8212the realization from personal experience that all things are interdependent, that the source is One. The mystical experience is often brief, immediate, maybe mysterious#8212a last experience that rbings all-embracing emotion (love) into the bounds of concrete reality. Bruno Borchert brings mysticism into sharp focus by exploring ideas and concecpts from world religions and explaining Christian mystics in history, in perspective, and through art. He takes us from Zoroaster to European alchemists, explores the Hellenistic world, the feminine world-view, and the experience of God shard by saints and well-known mystics such as St. Theresa and St. Francis. Modern approaches explored by psychologists like Jung and Maslow, and the contemporary search for mystical love make this a necessary book for people who want to understand the spiritual path.

Mingled Waters

Mingled Waters
Author: Pir Zia Inayat Khan
Publisher: Suluk Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-05-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781941810217

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Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions gives an account of the deep ecumenism of Sufism as evidenced in a variety of historical, literary, intellectual, and spiritual convergences. Drawing on the Quran, prophetic traditions, classical Sufi sayings, traditional stories, and verses from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu divans, Mingled Waters examines the inner teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the perspective of Sufi gnosis. In the rivers of all the worlds revealed traditions the same water flows, the water of divine revelation. Mingled Waters peers into a handful of its sparkling drops.

Mysticism and Meaning: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Mysticism and Meaning: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Author: Alex S. Kohav
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2019
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 193148340X

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The volume investigates the question of meaning of mystical phenomena and, conversely, queries the concept of "meaning" itself, via insights afforded by mystical experiences. The collection brings together researchers from such disparate fields as philosophy, psychology, history of religion, cognitive poetics, and semiotics, in an effort to ascertain the question of mysticism's meaning through pertinent, up-to-date multidisciplinarity. The discussion commences with Editor's Introduction that probes persistent questions of complexity as well as perplexity of mysticism and the reasons why problematizing mysticism leads to even greater enigmas. One thread within the volume provides the contextual framework for continuing fascination of mysticism that includes a consideration of several historical traditions as well as personal accounts of mystical experiences: Two contributions showcase ancient Egyptian and ancient Israelite involvements with mystical alterations of consciousness and Christianity's origins being steeped in mystical praxis; and four essays highlight mysticism's formative presence in Chinese traditions and Tibetan Buddhism as well as medieval Judaism and Kabbalah mysticism. A second, more overarching strand within the volume is concerned with multidisciplinary investigations of the phenomenon of mysticism, including philosophical, psychological, cognitive, and semiotic analyses. To this effect, the volume explores the question of philosophy's relation to mysticism and vice versa, together with a Wittgensteinian nexus between mysticism, facticity, and truth; language mysticism and "supernormal meaning" engendered by certain mystical states; cognitive-poetic analysis of mystical poetry; and a semiotic scrutiny of some mystical experiences and their ineffability. Finally, the volume includes an assessment of the so-called New Age authors' contention of the convergence of scientific and mystical claims about reality. The above two tracks are appended with personal, contemporary accounts of mystical experiences, in the Prologue; and a futuristic envisioning, as a fictitious chronicle from the time-to-come, of life without things mystical, in the Postscript. The volume contains fourteen chapters; its international contributors are based in Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, and the United States.