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COMMONALITY AMONGST THE WORLD'S MYSTICS:

If you study the life of past mystics you'll find they share several things in common:

First, they all speak of an induction – or of a need to learn/realize a new level of understanding. They all speak of a fundamental shift in consciousness (be it called awakening, realization, divination, or being born again).

Second they all tell of making a journey into and through a despair process of being “undone” as the precursor to this fundamental shift in consciousness -- be it through experiencing 40 days and nights in the wilderness, starving under the boddhi tree, facing the dark night of the soul, or the hero’s journey. There is a Journey of metamorphosis that all mystics have undergone in some way.

Third, it is an inner journey that must be taken up and navigated alone. This is a hallmark of the mystic’s realization: The reason the journey must be alone is because that which must be faced, seen, and surrendered in order that something new can emerge, is only possible through sustaining the fear and despair process of being alone and meeting the ultimate and fundamental fear of “non-being” and annihilation.

Fourth, they all seem to realize the frustration of being misunderstood by those who have not yet been through the awakening journey -- “those who have ears to hear, let him hear.” A great deal of the mystical writings are devoted almost exclusively to the fact that fundamental spiritual truth cannot be understood by the intellect nor correctly put into words. Forever, the great spiritual teachers have tried through the insufficiency of words to point toward that which can ever and only be experienced and known on a level that is before and beyond the mind. This is something unfathomable to those who have not yet had this breakthrough revelation - and particularly so in our contemporary culture that has become so overly reliant and blinded by the limiting paradigm of the scientific method that forever reduces our understanding of intelligence to that which is sensory, measurable and linear in nature. (...Life isn't (only or always) linear .. In fact it rarely is, except in man-made constructions and habituated uses of the mind.)...........ronda larue, 2002

1 comment:

thomas ... said...

Ronda expresses very clearly what is required for Enlightenment.. You must face mental death of the self (ego), and you must mentally move beyond this fear of not existing, to achieve the Unity called Enlightenment.. This is the final sacrifice of your most precious gift, your life.. This is your death upon the Cross.. This is your Rebirth into Reality.. This is Love Reuniting with Love.........namaste, thomas