Practical Mysticism

Friends,
This evening’s post is part of a talk I will be delivering tomorrow at the Whidbey Island Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island. I want to also share it more broadly through my Saturday Evening Post.
Peace,
Tom

Mysticism is a term used to explain how we experience the inexplicable and Unknowable in our lives. Have you ever been looking for help solving a personal problem, and you walk up to the bookcase and find just the right source of a poem or a quote you feel was meant just for you in that very moment? Or have you simply walked outside to find a glorious ray of sunshine beaming down on you? Or has your whole heart and soul been captured by witnessing the birth of a child? Or being bedside at the time of someone's death? These are examples of experiential moments in life that can’t be adequately described, but they bring us into a transcendent awareness of the profound mystery that encircles our lives, and the term mysticism is how we experience the inexplicable and Unknowable in our lives.
 
Since the beginning of consciousness humans have attempted to name the phenomenon of awe, wonder and grandeur they experience. Archeological and religious history are full of symbols, words, creeds and records of attempting to secure and maintain a personal relationship with the power of the mystery in nature and the life they are experiencing. We have given these expressions different names: Creator, Divine, the Holy, Goddess among others. But the most commonly used names are God or Spirit so those will be my primary references this morning. But ultimately, I agree with the Jewish tradition that acknowledges there is no adequate name for the defining the experience of a transcendent awareness of the mystery in life. So, they have traditionally referred the Great Mystery as YHWH, which is simply translated as “I am."   But however, we name the Mystery we experience in our mind, body, and souls, it is fair to assume some form of awe is universally experienced by all people.
 
For me these universal experiences are an affirmation that there is something inherent in every person's very being, perhaps in our souls, that opens us to experiences of wonder and awe. Something that is transcendent, more spacious, more imaginative than our regular consciousness. For millennia indigenous people around the world have experienced awe and found deep connections in the natural world where they experience animals, plants, sun, moon, the four directions, their personal being as sacred. In that sacredness, they find a sense unity with all creation that becomes the foundational reality of their very existence.  The ancient Celts also found awe in the Unknowable Spirit they saw in all creation including animals, brooks, grasses, everyday relationships and their daily work. And this profound experience of awe and the unity of creation, is the essence of what I mean by mysticism.
 
In his memoir Dave Cauffman suggests our expression of the transcendence we experience in our lives is a kind of “enchantment,” which is also a delightful word to substitute for what I refer to as mysticism. Or perhaps the term “spiritual” may be a more acceptable term for most of us, as in “I’m spiritual but not religious,” meaning I am often profoundly aware of the awe and grandeur in life, but I don’t ascribe to a common reference point for it in any organized or philosophy of religion.
 
My own tradition, Quakerism is to Christianity what Zen is to Buddhism and what the Sufis are to Islam. Like the other two mystical traditions, Quakerism has established a bridge from the mystical experience of transcendent awe to a shared and applied historical faith and practice that sustains and nurtures us both personally and communally, a faith and practice we call practical mysticism.

Peace,
Tom