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Mysticism
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Mysticism and Yoga are on the Esoteric pole: Mysticism and Yoga deal with the Esoteric practices and experiences, whether or not one follows a particular religion. In fact, the entire purpose of Yoga is nothing but the Esoteric pole, seeking direct experience of the deepest, subtlest, or highest realities of one's own being. (There really isn't an Exoteric version of Yoga, given the inherent higher purpose of authentic Yoga. That some might think that there is an Exoteric pole of Yoga is one example of the recent distortion that Yoga is merely a physical fitness program. See the article Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga.)
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Mysticism is a set of beliefs and practices evoking an intimate union of man and the principle of being (god or divinity). The term mystic (mystisch) appears in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a). In its March 20, 1907, session, the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society listened to a talk by Adolf Häutler on "Mysticism and the Comprehension of Nature," with critical comments by Adler, Rank, and Freud.
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Mysticism has a language of its own. Its name is Intuition. In it, no mind or mental analysis can ever exist. A mystic sits on the wings of the Intuition Bird and flies to the Ultimate Real. Intuition reveals the perfect oneness of the Transcendental Vision and Absolute Reality. A mystic is sincere enough to tell the Truth.
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Mysticism can be defined as the belief, based on the testimony of mystics, that God, Truth, or Ultimate Reality can be directly known through a profound unitive realization. Mysticism ... includes teachings and practices designed to help followers of the mystic path attain such a realization, and to integrate and manifest that truth ever more perfectly in themselves and the world. Mystics are found in all cultures and times, and are the original source and lifeblood of the world’s major religious traditions, as well as countless indigenous spiritual traditions. There are also mystics outside the religious and spiritual traditions who are poets, philosophers, musicians or simply ordinary people. Among all these mystics, there are genuine mystics as well as quasi-mystics and pseudo-mystics. And each has a particular brand of mystical teaching.
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Mysticism first appears in the medieval Church as the protest of practical religion against the predominance of the dialectical spirit. It is so with Bernard of Clairvaux (109053), who condemns Abelard's distinctions and reasonings as externalizing and degrading the faith. St Bernard's mysticism is of a practical cast, dealing mainly with the means by which man may attain to the knowledge and enjoyment of God. Reason has three stages, in the highest of which the mind is able, by abstraction from earthly things, to rise to contemplatio or the vision of the divine. More exalted still... is the sudden ecstatic vision, such as was granted, for example, to Paul. This is the reward of those who are dead to the body and the world.
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Mysticism in Buddhism has been considerably inspired and influenced by Hindu mysticism. Hence, far from being diametrically opposed, the two traditions practically come to realise the same Truth. Nirvana transcends pain and pleasure, birth and death. The blessedness of Nirvana is the highest mystic oneness with the Liberator. A Hindu mystic, on the strength of his self realisation... becomes one with the Absolute and is freed forever from the snares of pleasure and pain, birth and death.
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