What is Mysticism?

This won't be a favourite topic with most people but if you can keep an open mind - whether you believe in it eventually is another matter - you will find that Mysticism is actually very interesting. It will definately answer some of your questions about life and clear some of your doubts on matters pertaining to life.

My experience with Mysticism is mostly theoretical. The Organization which I was a member of (for a couple of years only - unfortunately) was based overseas. Thus, I was not able to participate in their activities. My understanding of Mysticism is from reading their publications. 

But first, let's see what Mysticism is all about.

Mysticism is the belief in the attainment, through contemplation, of truths inaccessible to the understanding. From a historical and psychological viewpoint, it is the search for and experience of the relationship of the individual himself and the totality that makes up the universe.

Mysticism brings all the various elements of man’s nature together into one beautiful synthesis. It develops every facet of a person, and evolves him toward wholesome maturity, as rays of the sun bring the budding rose into full bloom. 

The first and the essential element in mysticism is belief in mystical union. It does not matter what terms or symbols are used to express this concept. The point is that man is one with the whole. Union or oneness means direct knowledge of the Cosmic. This union is the basis of intuition, or knowledge derived from the Cosmic. 

This is explained by the second element: the Whole, the Cosmic, or God is essentially Mind – mental force and its manifestations of energy. There is no separation of even its objective manifestations. Human beings make this apparent separation. We realize separateness because of our own mental functions, thus bringing up a third factor: the basic union of fields of knowledge. 

We separate the Cosmic, its manifestations, and our own knowledge into categories in order to comprehend both the Cosmic and its manifestations. Objectively, we are unable to do otherwise, because our physical brain and nervous systems function that way. But the deeper levels of consciousness are capable of realizing the Whole as one and of transmitting this realization to the objective consciousness. 

In more specific terms, cosmology, ontology, psychology, physics, literature, and art are not truly separated divisions of knowledge. Each field of study is affected by others and is really inseparable from all knowledge as a whole. 

Logically, the fourth element is the belief in pantheism, or in monism, or both. Pantheism is the concept of the Cosmic Mind as the many manifestations of its principles and laws operating universally. Monism is the belief that actuality is one united, organic whole. 

This leads us directly to the next principle, the “As Above, So Below” axiom, which is simply a way of saying One is All and All is One. The microcosm, or man as the little world, corresponds to the Cosmic as the macrocosm or the great world.