31^st January, 2024 • Søren Aas

Chapter III The Preparation of the Mystic

If you have been following along, then you may have found this all to be very interesting and you are even prepared to do some work in order to see for yourself what Mysticism is about. The only thing is that it is not immediately obvious what you need to do to experience this union stuff and how on earth should you get your brain to shut up? The chapter ahead will sketch out a path for us to follow.

To progress on the mystics path we are required to discipline and simplify both our attention (Recollection) and will (Purgation). We do this so we can calmly observe, without thoughts and emotions blurring our observations. Observation is done from the stillness at our core, this must be found by searching within ourselves by continually keeping to return to our center when our attention focuses on something else, or our emotions flare. Once we get proficient at this we can go to the stillness within at will and keep our attention there. From this point within ourselves we can observe what is going on, but at a distance, thoughts and emotions do not interfere with our observing, they do not fully consume us as they once did. Observations keep rolling in, but like waves on the beach, they also wash away back to sea. We do not cling to them.

Recollection (cleansing of the senses) is observing our sensory input without reacting to it by judgment or labeling what we observe. Similarly Purgation (cleansing of the will) is about allowing ourselves to feel emotions, but to not dwell on them, they come, they go.

Recollection and Purgation are the first two stages that prepare us for union with Reality. The path then proceeds to the World of Becoming, the World of Being and finally the Ultimate Fact known by many names, the Absolute or God.

Commentary

In order to move towards the ways of a Mystic, the reader must be prepared to put in some effort in learning about it. Before we get to that though, the text tries to explain to us how our attention can be focused by way of an example of falling in love. We are talking the head over heels giddy type of love, something that consumes all attention all by itself, we are completely wrapped up in it. Love can focus all our awareness on the state we find ourselves in, we are not concerned about trivialities we are just in love. This focusing of awareness, or consciousness, on a single experience, is what Underhill calls simplification. What the mystic needs to learn is how to focus like this at will, and specifically how to focus on their attention on observing. The way to take this control for ourselves, so that we may experience unity, are through the purification of the senses and purification of the will.

The first step is to tackle mystical contemplation, which Underhill defines as two experiences union with the flux of life and union with the Whole. Contemplation may sound scary but it is a capacity innate to humans and something that we can improve through basic meditation practice. We will return later to explore meditation in more depth, but for now we can think of it as follows. We start by sitting and just being quiet. Then we try to just observe our thoughts and emotions, and as they arise in us, we note that they are present and gently let them fade away again. When we have done this for a while we will come to realize that our observations are from a state of stillness. This state can be very brief, but with time we can increase the duration.

Why do the senses and will need purifying, what made them dirty in the first place? We tackle the senses first. Lets return briefly to Chapter II The World of Reality and recount how we cannot know with certainty that what our senses tell us is real. Part of this is also that when we filter our sensory input through our analyzing mind. How this mind works can be affected by our previous experiences. Someone who was mauled by a dog last year will experience a friendly dog approaching them different to someone who works in a dog rescue shelter. But also more subtle filters may be applied, are you an optimist or pessimist, meat eater or vegan etc. Purification then is to try as far as is possible to not allow our filters to cloud our sensory perceptions. This is done by halting our need to classify and label and keep an open mind.

All the filtering we do, all the analyzing, all the labeling, we are not able to do without creating contradictions. To cope with this our consciousness increasingly flits from thing to thing, never dwelling too long for the contradictions to become apparent. The mystics hold that within all there is a stillness apart from the busy outward looking consciousness. The stillness is the center of our being and we can all return to it by turning our consciousness inward. In the stillness we can find calm and detachment and also the stages towards harmony with the Real. It is also in this stillness that life's paradoxes can be reconciled. There is room for both being right here right now, and growing into what we will become. In reconciling these paradoxes mystics may know that the spark of stillness within them is at once one with, yet separate from, the Universal Soul..

We talked earlier about the cleansing of senses, now we shall tackle the cleansing of will. Whilst the senses send streams of data to us incessantly, we are also experiencing emotions. Our will can be influenced by emotions, making us act in ways that perhaps are not optimal. From our stillness we can choose to can avoid our habitual, knee-jerk reactions to emotions and instead be still and listen for messages from the Divine level. This focusing of attention the mystics call Recollection.

A central question regarding will is how can we will one thing without our emotions attaching themselves to what we have willed? For instance if voting for one political party, how to not allow yourself to be negatively emotionally affected if the opposition wins? There are ways to think about it, such as "in 10 years it won't really matter anyway", but it boils down to effort, practice, and self-discipline.

Therefore union with Reality will involve disciplining attention (Recollection) and disciplining the will (Purgation). Let us round of the commentary by quoting the final words of this chapter, as they succinctly summarize the path ahead.

Final thoughts

What is clear is that the path of the Mystic requires effort to walk, as do all things worth while. Finding our inner stillness requires observing calmly and with detachment our thoughts and emotions. Once we have achieved this state we can begin to observe our sensory input (Recollection) and our emotions (Purgation). This will enable us to sense without our mind clouding what we see and to will without our emotions steering us, and ultimately lead us to what mystics call the Divine.