19^th March, 2024 • Søren Aas

Chapter X - The Mystical Life

We have reached the final chapter. A chapter that drives home the practical and tangible results of our mystical journey. It explains what we have experienced and explains how the distance we have traveled does not leave us at a final destination, but rather prepared to take on the real work of helping the spiritual manifest in reality.

Humans are the meeting point of the Eternal and the finite. Of the spiritual and material. We can alternate between them, and this makes it possible to be informed by the Eternal and using that knowledge to shape the material. A mystics life is one of service to the greater truths that have been revealed to him or her.

Commentary

Fine, good, yes, well. What is the point of all this contemplation stuff? How does it help me? If nothing else, it has given you new experiences of life. But hopefully, if the material in the book was taken to heart and an effort made to try out the practices it outlines, and as a result our powers of perception of Reality have increased.

For what has really changed? Life still goes on. To mangle the old Zen saying a bit, Before contemplation; chop wood, carry water. After contemplation; chop wood, carry water. Let us hope we have gained a newfound sovereignty, we are individuals, but also dependent on the whole of creation. And in fact, glad to be dependent and part of it. Through the ability to gathering ourselves together, perceiving ourselves as a person and a spirit and observing our relationships with these other lives we have a more true knowledge of Reality and are better equipped to tackle the challenges life will ceaselessly continue to hand us. Being able to observe things without attachment, being able to see without being caught up in what we see, we can make sounder judgments.

Our journey becomes one where we have made possible to make choices that we have reflected on and reasoned about, we are not on an autopilot where circumstance dictates our route. This is not to say things are easy, merely that we now are able to better captain our ship. We have through our efforts uncovered our potential for creative freedom and a sense of a order to the universe. We realize we are part of Eternity, though we are bound by time.

Lets take a moment to consider our function in this twofold scheme, of Eternity and time. For are we not the meeting point of these two orders? And so, should we now, knowing what we do, to to express or manifest this understanding in our own lives? Through contemplation we can experience the spiritual and through action inspired by it we can invoke change in our material existence, making it more in tune with Reality. Have we not become transformed by first seeking for a deeper truth, then making an effort to experience it and finally made contact with. Have we not found vigor and passion to serve the Eternal Wisdom we have found?

The life of a mystic is an active life of both detached contemplation and active participation and service. It is a life of duality, alternating between rest and work, action and inaction, a creative act of both the material and spiritual. We are in a way a willing tool through which the Divine works. We are the way for the Divine to express itself in concrete, material forms.

What becomes apparent is that the material world is the clay that the spirit sculpts. The material may vary in how agreeable it is to sculpting, and the spirit may also vary in how much vigor it is prepared to spend sculpting. This inertness of things, this resistance in the material, is the thrust block the spirit needs in order for it to be able to act. Yes is only possible because there is also a no.

Through a greater awareness of Reality there begins to become clear that many things we encounter are not in alignment with said Reality. We encounter manifestation of falsehoods, for instance acts driven by convictions that are opposed to what we have experienced to be Real. Our experiences and powers of observation teach us to sort the Real from the unreal, allowing us to work towards aligning our material towards the spiritual. Healing the disharmony between the actual and the Real, as it where. Do not our mystical realizations compelling us to work towards bringing harmony between what we have contemplated and our actions? We all are able to contribute in our own way to increase harmony and in striving to live in accordance with our spiritual convictions our life will take on an intensity and meaning as we serve the Real.

Even though we have come to know the spiritual and we are able to discern what is the Divine will, we will live an existence of alternating between the spiritual and the material. We are both of time and the eternal, and the path is narrow. As we falter and fail, we must again and again return to the path. But now at least we have a sense of having found what we where seeking, we have an inward sense of security that is persistent.

Mysticism then is union with Reality, a condition of being. While our senses give us ability to adjust our behavior to the material world, and similarly our spiritual senses allow us to align our behavior to the Eternal.

Final thoughts

Through our mystical practice we have developed an ability to distinguish Reality, to be in Union with it. This is a skill we can use to inform our actions in the material world, a way for us to allow the Eternal to be created in the finite. We have experienced the why, and though we will constantly be correcting our course, we have found a conviction that will help us work at the how.