What is Mysticism? – 3

The basic thrust of Christian mysticism might be summed up in this way: Everything that is must be in relationship to the mystery of God, and in fact, penetrated by it.  The text from Psalm 46:11: “Be still, and you shall know that I am God,” invites us to open ourselves completely to infinite love, to the reality of who God is; the mystery who penetrates, surrounds, and embraces us at every moment. God is the atmosphere that our spirit needs to breathe in order “to live, move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Furthermore, there are two classic markers in the Christian mystical tradition: kataphatic and apophatic.  The kataphatic is the affirmative way to God.  The apophatic is the way beyond what we affirm of God, which is about transcendent negation.  The kataphatic focuses on experiences we have in relation to God expressed in such symbols as “savoring the divine sweetness,” or “spiritual marriage.”  Apophatic mysticism stresses divine mystery by reminding us that God is above names, thoughts, feelings, images, experiences, and even existence itself.  Through the negation of all God-talk, self-negation, the negation of experience, and negative union apophatic mysticism enacts Jesus’ command to die to self and even identifies with his abandonment and death of the cross to rise with him to new life in God.  “Negative,” here, means transcendent and mysterious.  “Mystic” comes from the Greek mustikos and is derived from the verb muo or muein, meaning “to close one’s eyes or mouth, hence to keep secret.”(Ordinary Mysticism, 8)  For Dionysius “mystical” refers to the hidden meaning of the scriptures (first usage in Christianity), the Church’s liturgies (second usage), and he is the first to apply it to the experiential encounter with the utterly transcendent reality that God is. (In which the “I” loses itself in God)

Divine Oneness – Not an Achievement

We don’t need to do anything to achieve oneness with God.  We are already one with God.  But we don’t know it because of all our attachments, false beliefs, illusions, blindnesses, resistances, and thinking.  God is so close that any thought at all can be an obstacle.  All of it is covering oneness.  There’s a lot in the way; our attachments block our enjoyment of divine oneness.  Meister Eckhart offers this metaphor about our situation:  “The sun never stops shining; but if there is a cloud or mist between us and the sun, we are not aware that it is shining.”  Just so, we are always already one with God but often not aware of it because we are so preoccupied with our attachments, our addictions, our opinions and judgments and illusions.  The new life which the Risen Jesus offers us is life that joyously lives oneness with God.  But, we have to go through a process of throwing out everything that is getting in the way of this tremendous gift.

Honesty

Humility

The Incarnation is God’s grand summons.  The Word made flesh means God wants us to become God.  But, here’s the rub!  God invites us to become God on God’s terms, not on our terms.  God is humble, not a god of violent power, strong-arm might, vengeful and arrogant.  That’s Zeus, Jupiter, or Odin – the father-god of the Greeks, Romans, and Vikings, respectively.  That is most definitely NOT the God of Jesus Christ.  Our God empties the divine self in becoming human and in dying on a cross.  Our God is nonviolent, gentle and subtle – power of a wholly different sort.  So, becoming God does not mean we can claim divine authority for our every act, much less do we get godlike powers.  To become God on God’s terms is to descend into humility, to let go of everything that gets in the way of love, and offer compassion even to the one who insults you.  Then, you are giving flesh to God!

The Incarnation

The Incarnation is God’s grand summons.  The Word made flesh means God wants us to become God.  But, here’s the rub!  God invites us to become God on God’s terms, not on our terms.  God is humble, not a god of violent power, strong-arm might, vengeful and arrogant.  That’s Zeus, Jupiter, or Odin – the father-god of the Greeks, Romans, and Vikings, respectively.  That is most definitely NOT the God of Jesus Christ.  Our God empties the divine self in becoming human and in dying on a cross.  Our God is nonviolent, gentle and subtle – power of a wholly different sort.  So, becoming God does not mean we can claim divine authority for our every act, much less do we get godlike powers.  To become God on God’s terms is to descend into humility, to let go of everything that gets in the way of love, and offer compassion even to the one who insults you.  Then, you are giving flesh to God!

Education or Transformation

I believe education is wonderful. We live in an age where educated people have given us many unbelievable things: iPads and smartphones and medical procedures unheard of that save countless lives. The speed with which we can travel and the amenities we enjoy are due to education and information and technological advancement.
Yet…I wonder if we have substituted education for transformation. One is not necessarily the other. Education works with and sharpens the mind. Transformation, in fact, involves going beyond the mind. When Jesus says “Repent” he means, “Go beyond your mind.” For the word “repent” in the original Greek (the language in which the gospels were written) is METANOIA – “meta” means “go beyond” and “noia” (from “nous”) means mind. How do we do that? Jesus teaches us to let go, pray in secret, forgive, seek God alone, sinking into mystery. Transformation can certainly include education, but education alone seems to cut off the possibility of transformation, of going beyond the mind into mystery. What do you think?

The Adult Spiritual Journey

The adult spiritual journey is a mysterious and radical transformation of human identity: a process of dying to the separate self sense and rising into divine unity. It culminates in the realization that ultimate human identity is found in God. We somehow become God while remaining human, or, better yet, we simultaneously become fully God and fully human. So, Christian transformation’s goal is the incarnation of God in all. Becoming as one with God as Jesus Christ is one with God is the goal of our present transformation. This process, according to Thomas Keating, is one in which we “consent to God’s intentionality, which is to transform us into Godself.” He asks, “Do you want to be God on your terms or do you want to be God on God’s terms?” We become God through grace, above all else, but also through the sacraments and a contemplative discipline of prayer or meditation. These are meant to facilitate the journey into higher levels of consciousness.

The Lie of Accusation

Did you know that the word “Satan” means “accuser”?  It is the Bible’s way of naming a great delusion all humanity suffers.  We suffer from the lie of accusation.  This means that we think the other is the problem.  We think other people, situations, life itself are the problem.  And so, we accuse everything and everyone.  We think evil is over there, in the other.  We do not recognize that we are the problem.  We do not see that evil is within us.  Because we are blind to our own complicity in evil, we believe that the only response to evil is to squash it, destroy it, and make it go away.  This is called “the myth of redemptive violence”: we deal with evil by killing it, blowing it up, wiping it out.  This myth has cast a shadow over every people, tribe, nation, and country.  In fact, this myth shows up in our movies!  Name any action movie and you will definitely see the myth brought to life.  Jesus reveals this myth for what it is: a lie.  And, Jesus shows us the best way to respond to all the evil and pain in the world: forgiveness, mercy, and holding the pain so God can use it to change you: is this not what Jesus did on the cross?

There is nothing separating us from God

Christianity is not so much a series of belief statements about God as it is growing in intimacy with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit.  The Christian faith is about participating in Jesus’ mysterious experience of Transcendent Reality as Abba – the God of infinite goodness and gentle mercy who lives within us.  This incorporation into Jesus’ relationship with Abba begins by waking up to God’s presence in our lives through deep prayer.  For, nothing in our lives is separate from God.  Let me say that again!  There is nothing separating us from God.  The new life the Risen Jesus brings us, the life of the resurrection, is a life of no separation from God.  it is living in, with, and as God here and now.  To do so is to practice deep prayer.  In truth, there are no obstacles to enjoying divine oneness, but the hard reality is we let things become obstacles to God.

          According to Thomas Keating, the greatest hindrance to realizing your union with God is the thought that you are separate from God.  When you see God as some thing or object outside of you, then you always try to get closer to that something.  For it is inherently separate from and not a part of you. When you treat God as an object, the sense of separation fills your spiritual life.  It means, practically, that you will continue to think that prayer, living the Gospel, and love are all things YOU do to GET God.  It keeps us focused on self as the center.

          Real prayer is not about relating to a thing, but about realizing that you are always in God’s dynamic, encompassing life— a life that is emerging all around you. God is more like water than merely like rain. God is beyond you, within you, and you are in God.  There is ultimately no obstacle to being in God, except the ones that are self-made.  Whatever you think is an obstacle is not.  In fact, thinking it is an obstacle is the problem!  All things are embraced by God.  The divine presence is present in all, and all is in God.  So the best disposition for pure prayer is to let everything be—all thoughts , effort, lack of effort, suffering, bliss, relationships, experiences, everything. Let everything be, just as it is, in God.

          Meister Eckhart says, “between God and you there is no between.”  Prayer teaches us how to embrace the presence and action of God amid the regrets, worries, chaos, and messiness— and equally with the joys, achievements, and triumph.  In the contemplative silence of pure prayer, one discovers that there is nothing between God and oneself, and that to embrace this nothingness is everything.