What does it mean to have a spiritual life?
It means that you don't consider the material side af life to be all there is to life. It also means you have a certain inner pull towards realizing the most transcendental aspect of your owen being. Usually this urge towards the transcendental gets associated with ontological dilemmas regarding who you are, what the nature of "self" is, your relation to being and nothingness, God, etc. Having a spiritual life ultimately means living a life that is conducive to delving into such problems and hopefully also provides some answers.
Are you religious?
I wouldent say so. However, religion is a complex issue. I would never surrender to some faith, since I find direct experience more reliable in all matters, also spiritual. Faith has value as inspiration to seek some experience, but once you have the experience, faith becomes superfluous and with that, religion as a complex of dogmas and beliefs. However in the sense that religious means re-ligare, to reunite, I am religious. Reunite the individual with God, reunite Atman with Brahman, Shakti with Shiva, etc, whatever set of religious kliches you want to use to descibe the inner process of enlightenment. Religion deals with systems of belief. I dont trust beliefs, so I don't consider myself religious. However, I have experienced God in a mystical sense, so you could call me religious. But I will fervently protest against being put in that category. I prefer the phrase mystic to describe my inner life, since mysticism deals with direct experience, not with beliefs or autosuggestions of any kind.
Will you describe your inner life?
No!
Why not?
My inner life is that of a mystic. Mysticism lies beyond the descriptive,
or cognitive, abilities of discourse and semantics and thus can not be descibed.
If you would like to read someone who stands up to this realization, who
is definately enlightened, yet (ironically) has had his talks about it published
and freely distributed on the internet, then try this link. Very good reading
and very funny also. His name is U.G.
Krishnamurti (note: he's NOT J. Krishnamurti, the more well known ex-theosophist).
I gave up discoursing about it years ago like most mystics have done. So since
words fail, I tried painting. It turned out I could only express The Dark Night
of the Soul - you can read about that elsewhere f.eks. by downloading Juan de
la Cruz's book about The Dark Night here.
Unio mystica can not be described. You could also read my short article about
it: Gud lader sig erfare.
What is mysticism?
Ok. If you really insist on approaching the subject of mysticism through words, then by all means: study it with your mind and wrench it through the semantic meaning-grinder. If you want to know what mysticism is about, you must have your own transcendental experiences of it. However, study can point a finger in some relevant direction and inspire one to work for those transcendental experiences. Here are four links to pages, that give nice introductions to mysticism as a religio- socio-historic phenomenon (note: not an inner, transcendental phenomena):
Encyclopedia Brittannica's nice introduction to christian mysticism (Site has moved, sorry)
General page on various schools of mysticism in different religions
Or try the Catholic Encyclopedia for a short and biased view
The history of western (ie. christian) mysticism - (A very concise who's who?)
The Mysticism Resources page covers all major religions
Download writing by mystics from any major religion you like (from The Mysticism Resources Page)
An if thats not enough, and you really want to go into the christian lineage, read Underhill's book: Mysticism.. It's highly recomended, although it's biased in favour of catholic mysticism. Heres the book in a zipped version to download Mysticism.zip
One of the best contemporary studies of the mystic experience is undoubtedly Nona Coxheads "The Relevance of Bliss" (ISBN 0-7045-0499-5) because she seems to have experienced it herself. However, I can't provide you with a link to download it freely. I recomend you get it somehow and read it.
What is a mystic? What is sainthood? And whats the use of some such person?
Underhill defines mysticism and a mystic thus: "Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. The mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or less degree; or who aims at and believes in such attainment". Of cause this leaves one with en other even more irritating word to define: "reality". Anyway, I find the definition reasonable enough if one uses "reality" in the sense of "ultimate reality" wich obviously will be equivalent to "god" in the sense mystics refer to God. The mystic is thus a person undergoing the proces of theosis. Theosis is the sole raison d'etre of mysticism. Site re: the orthodox church
Where can I meet one of these fine mystical fellows?
Here's the homepage of undoubtedly the greatest saint and mystic i have personally met. Not a fellow, but a woman. She's Indian: Page telling about Mata Amritananda Mayi and where to meet her
But of course, there are others. She touched me deeply and stabilized my rampant kundalini, and so I introduce her to you. I have met others, but why go on listing them all. Look for youself. The important thing is not the person, but the inner transformation. So get the energy behind that going - and indeed going as strongly and forcibly as possibly.
Whats the force behind all this mystical inner life?
Kundalini is the source energy of the mystical transformation. The awakening of kundalini has been the greatest event in my life, and the ongoing internal transformation created by the kundalinioprocess has been the core of my life since my childhood. Heres a few links introducing kundalini:
First check out Spiritwebs kundalinipage
Kundalini Resouce Centre Europe (and its mirror site in north America)
What is kundalini - Frequently asked questions - by Kurt Keutzer
Site with links to other kundalini-related sites
Let me recomend a few books; I have experience much of what they write aboud a vouch for theire validity from my own experiences:
Swami Muktanandas little book Kundalini, the meaning of life.
B. S. Goel: Third Eye and Kundalini. ISBN 81-85082-01-4 or 81-85082-00-6.
Gopi Krishna: any of his numerous writings (just read a few, he repeats himself ad infinitum). I found "The Secret of Yoga" and "Ancient Secret of Kundalini" to be far the most interesting.
What is shaktipat?
Shaktipat is a spiritual initiation, where a teacher awakens the kundalini in a student.
I have received shaktipat from a source, that is not publicly accesible. I have since received it from Anandi Ma...Anandi Ma and the Dhyana Yoga Centres.
Undoubtedly Swami Shivom Tirth was one of the greatest kundalini masters. However he and his lineage seem rather inaccessible in Europe (if I'm wrong about this, please email me more info!). Heres a link to their website: The Tirth Lineage.
I myself give modest shaktipat initiations. I consider the spontaneous kundaliniyoga of kundaliniawakening-by-grace (shaktipat) the finest of all spiritual paths. During the last more than 20 years I have tried a lot, believe my.
OK. Kundalini and yoga is Indian stuff. You insist you are deeply rooted
in Western Mysticism; what Christian books have inspired you?
Kundalini is universal, not particularly Indian. I am not an indian, yet I have, experience and work with kundalini. Such distinctions between east and west are irrellevant.
As for the christian writings i must say frankly, that i havent found any (exept one) interesting, that were from after the reformation (the one who seems OK is Madame Guyon she was the principal Quitist), but early orthodox and early catholic mysticism is splendid. Here are two of my favourite Christian mystical writings that are also on-line and public domain, so go ahead and download as much as you want to read:
Juan de la Cruz: Dark Night of the Soul
The Cloud of Unknowing - Anonymous author
The Mystical Theology (A short treatise by Dionysius) is of course a classic and it inspired most of the medieval mysticism. Heres a link to an overview of Dionysius' influence on christian mysticism. And a biography. If you know of a link to an e-text with dionysius' writings, please mail it to me.
The Fire of Love and the Mending of Life (especially chapter 36-38)
I'd love to present you with a link to an e-text by Meister Eckhart, but I havent found any. Heres a nice biography of Eckhart, though.
And heres probably the best places to look for other similar books:
Links to Christian Books, most of wich are the classic mystics
or maybe New translations of medieval sources (much Aquinas, if you like him, I dont particularly; exept perhaps for part of his very last writings)
Another favorite christian mystic of mine is St Symeon of the early orthodox church, but I havent found any of his books on-line and public domain, unfortunately. This link is nice, though: Hesychasm.
But I highly recomend buying In the Light of Christ, St Symeon the
New Theologian, by Archbishop basil Krivocheine, Saint Vladimirs Seminary
press, 1986, ISBN 0-913836-91-5.
It would be obvious for anyone who has experienced a fair amount of the
kundalini process with some depth and some fair experience of samadhi, that
Symeon was subject to the kundaliniprocess in an extreme degree and took
it to its full conclusion.
Heres another one who describes the effects and experiences of a well working kundalini - without using that expression of course, he was a medieval catholic: Richard Rolle of Hampole (c.1290-1349) The Fire of Love and the Mending of Life
I have often been asked about Blake. In my pount of view he was more of a gnostic than a mystic, more a visionary than a seer. So in this context he is absolutely uninstering. That does not mean he is unintersting artistically or otherwise.
What do you think about scientific approaches to religious experiences and mysticism?
Heres the classic study on-line and public domain:
William James: Vaieties of Religious Experience (note especially chapter 7 on mysticism)
There are other studies, but frankly they are all just so many words. The only way to know about it is to go for it youself. I havent found any book on mysticism that was worth while, if it was not written by a mystic.
Evelyn Underhills book Mysticism is a fairly good study of Catholic mysticism, however it has some drawbacks due to her not having experienced the whole lot herself. But shes very well read and has a good intuitive understanding.
Also R.M. Buckes Cosmic Consciousness (from ca. 1900) is nice, but take care: it is very naive! Especially its foreword is so incredibly naive I would be embaressed to mention it if it wasent because of its impact in modern culture. It inspired Malevitch and Kandinsky etc. a lot, and helped them to dream up modernist aesthetics - that is: out of this world and into some suprematist delusion or theosophist cum antroposophical occult world of abstract expressionism. See my article Sort i Sort - Modernismens gæld til okkultismen og mysticismen and Modernismens astrallageme about the metaphysical sources of modernist aesthetics.
Rather than reading Bucke, you would benefit more from a contemporary
study like Nona Coxheads "The Relevance of Bliss" (ISBN 0-7045-0499-5).
Can you teach others mystical contemplation and the way of the mystic?
Yes. But you must be seriously interested and not afraid of kundalini (that is not afraid to surrender to an inner force of divine love so strong, it transforms you from deepest within - wether you like it or not). Also you must be sincere in your role as a student and prepared to work hard and persistently to get results.
(to be continued)