Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What is a Mystic?

The Quest-affiliated Hawkins study group met on Monday, November 1. During our meeting, we read and discussed a section from Dr. David R. Hawkins’ third book I: Reality and Subjectivity. Altogether, Dr. Hawkins has written eight books. I’m reading two of them now. During our meeting, we also watched and discussed a portion of Dr. Hawkins’ DVD “The Mystic.”

Dr. David R. Hawkins
According to Dr. Hawkins, Jesus and Buddha were both mystics. Dr. Hawkins says that a mystic is someone who has transcended the illusions of this world. A mystic knows that he is a divine spiritual being and not just a physical body. He can laugh at the absurdities of this world which most people take so seriously.
As always, what I learned during the meeting enthralled me. To me, Dr. Hawkins is a mystic himself. The things I learned in our meeting left me wanting to know more about mystics.
Many people still think that a mystic is someone who engages in occult practices, renounces the world, and goes to live alone on a mountaintop. That’s a popular misconception.
Anyone could be a mystic. You could be. I could be. What qualifies us as mystics? Or mystics-to-be?
A mystic is someone who has undergone a profound shift in consciousness, or spiritual awakening. As a result of this awakening, a mystic enters into a sacred journey to try to find out what lies beyond the veil separating this physical world from the spiritual realms beyond. He seeks to learn the divine Truth. He hopes to establish direct and permanent conscious contact with God and dispel the illusion of separation from God.
A mystic is motivated by an insatiable quest for answers to the great spiritual questions: What am I? Why am I here? And what is God? Perhaps the mystic’s quest is a spiritual imperative that lies hidden within all of us. Sadly, most of humanity remains bogged down in the illusions of this so-called “physical reality” where the ego has firmly established its grip and won’t let go.
Throughout history, mystics have tried to show the way to the rest of us. But most of us have not experienced the kind of spiritual awakening that mystics have. So we have not been able to understand them. We have ridiculed and even despised them. That’s why Jesus was crucified.
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) published her best-known book Mysticism in 1911. In it, she describes the path we follow to become mystics. She says there are five stages on this path. They are:
1)  Awakening, when we start to become aware of divine reality.

2)  Purgation, when we discover our own imperfections and limitations.

3)  Illumination, when we discover a new heaven and new earth.
4)  Dark night of the soul, when we undergo a final purification and during which we experience a profound feeling of God’s absence.
5)  And, finally, union with God, when we have liberated ourselves from the ego’s stranglehold and the illusions of this physical world and have achieved a permanent state of transcendence with a new sense of purpose in life.
I am fascinated by all of this in my own continuing quest for spiritual knowledge and wisdom.
Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism and David R. Hawkins‘ I: Relativity and Subjectivity are both available at the Quest bookstore.

4 comments:

  1. Hi, Roy,

    Interesting blog!

    William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience" describes the characteristics of a mystical experience as follows:
    1. Ineffability. (It cannot be communicated using words.)
    2. Noetic quality. (Somehow the mystic just knows that s/he knows.)
    3. Passivity. (It just happens. It cannot be willed or forced. Of what value then are doctrines and commandments?)
    4. Transience. (It happens and passes, but the mystic never forgets it. As a Chinese proverb says, "Before transformation, chop wood and carry water. After transformation, chop wood and carry water.)

    Warm regards,

    Janet Smith Warfield
    Author of "Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World"

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  2. Hi Roy,
    I am reminded that all of the people that live in a small town need to take a different path to get to the same grocery store because they come from different places. So, How about this? "Seek And Ye Shall Find." There are many doctrines available to show the way. They seem different and they are, but the common thread that they all share may be the truth that opens the door. So the ongoing search is but a part of the process. I think that a Mystic is someone who has traveled this path and has found his or her understanding of this truth.

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  3. Great post Roy!

    I believe that the mystic is someone that is living in a world that is simply not explainable or even understandable by logical concepts from the mind.

    For them -- the miraculous becomes common place... The wildness of the non-linear, unpredictable, invisible power of God permeates through every fiber of their lives.

    People in their presence heal... become blissed-out and even their level of consciousness increases simply by being around them.

    Truly meeting a mystic is one of life's greatest experiences. I highly suggest to everyone reading this blog that they do what it takes to go meet Dr. Hawkins before he leaves his body.

    God Bless,
    Matheo

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  4. In response to reading your interesting and impactful article, I wrote the poem below, entitled Mystic.

    Mystic
    (Often mis-understood)
    November 6, 2010 - 6:55 a.m.
    I am on the path searching for Truth
    I AM a Seeker
    I AM Ordained
    II AM a Teacher
    I AM a Healer
    I AM Love
    I AM Peace
    I AM one with Divine Spirit
    Ever evolving
    In the NOW.

    Sharon Parris-Chambers

    ReplyDelete