Sunday, November 13, 2011
Mysticism
Mystical moments are experiences of enlargement and connectedness or union. Suddenly you’re bigger. You don’t feel a need to condemn, exclude, divide or separate. Unfortunately, most of us were sent on private paths of perfection which none of us could achieve.
The path of union is different than the path of perfection. Perfection gives the impression that by effort or more knowing I can achieve wholeness separate from God, from anyone else, or from connection to the whole. It appeals to our individualism and our ego. It’s amazing how much of Christian history sent us on a self-defeating course toward private perfection.
As a result, many people just give up—even many clergy and religious—when they see it isn’t working. They end up practical agnostics or practical atheists. They keep up the form, keep up the words, continue going to church, but there is no longer the inner desire and expectation that is possible with the path of union. It’s not mysticism that defeats the soul; it’s moralism that does.
