19^th January, 2024 • Søren Aas

Chapter I What is Mysticism

The first chapter we tackle in this series begins to explain, in practical terms, what exactly mysticism is, in a approachable and no nonsense beginner friendly manner.

The first chapter of Practical Mysticism starts with Underhill explaining that trying to find answers to what mysticism is from outside sources is futile, these questions can only be answered from withing yourself. Therefore books, teachings, mystics and any other sources of information are of use only in as much as they can get us to start thinking for ourselves. The leap to understanding we must manage unaided, you must discover it for yourself.

To start the path of realization, we are given a definition of mysticism that contains the word union. Union is the central concept of this chapter that we must wrap our heads around, perhaps a working definition could be "experiencing life with no filter, without analyzing or labeling".

Commentary

Sensibly the first thing Underhill does is to define what she considers mysticism to be.

Of course the definition can raise more questions than it answers, but she asks us to put those on hold for now. These questions are not for a beginner to answer just yet. Instead the task she sets for us, dear reader, is that we begin our work by reflecting on the single word union.

Union in the sense meant here, is the action of joining together. Our next step is to get to grips with what exactly are we to join together. Before we press on however, it is worth saying that understanding this union business may require a significant leap of understanding, precisely because when it is explained it seems at first so obvious.

Let us use a loosely paraphrased fable of the fish who wants to understand its reality. The fish finds a wise guru fish who tells our hero that the he lives in water and to know reality he must know water. Water is all around it and binds all the fish together. Ok, sure the fish thinks "I get that, I just never thought about it because it is there all the time". And in some sense we to do not think to much about reality, because we are busy thinking about all the other stuff in our lives.

Underhill addresses the book to the practical man, someone who is concerned with making his way through life, and who often has not brought much thought to bear on the larger questions (what is reality etc). He is+ someone who considers himself as a separate entity and interacting with other entities who are also separate. The practical man may have many things going for him, but by thinking he is an island, someone who keep themselves to themselves, and who can stand apart, judging and analyzing are, according to Underhill, ignorant, or as we might say nowadays, plain wrong.

Now, let us return to what Underhill wants us to understand union to be. She now give some examples of people that know union.

• The patriot who feels part of his country
• The artist who feels his art is a part of him
• The lover who is fully united with his love

In a banal way it can be explained as doing something wholeheartedly or being in the zone. Union in the sense that what you are doing, consumes you completely, you are not also thinking about something else. You are not watching a series whilst also checking you phone and thinking about work.

To try to illustrate better, consider an example where a parent and child are reunited after a near-lethal hostage situation. Both parent and child, on reunion, are completely absorbed in the moment, of knowing that they are safe and together again, this feeling is all they are aware of right there and then. The point is not so much what is happening, but that their awareness is engulfed in the here and now. No one is thinking about their chores or analyzing their behavior, they are just glad to be together again. Union then, is of all we can choose to be aware of, what shall we choose to focus on, our incessant nagging about not having done that todo list item or to feel alive in the world. Kinda.

Underhill asserts that most of us do not like unknowns, she says we want things to be simple and intelligible. More precisely we want to know in the sense that we can slap a label on something and feel that Yes, indeed, we now know exactly what this thing is. But then as life happens we inevitably come face to face with the unknown again, it always leaks through our flimsy wall of known facts.

Say the first time a loved one dies too soon, we suddenly come to realize that loss is nothing at all like just a label meaning something is gone. It is gut wrenching agony, despair and darkness. We feel it with all our being.

Now to change gears, but keeping the idea that labels are not reality in mind, imagine instead of thinking this is a beautiful wood I am walking in (beautiful and wood being the labels), you instead really experienced that as real, just like the pain we just discussed.

Being aware of engaging and experiencing with life directly, and not from the outside looking in through labels, concepts, mental constructs etc. can be the beginning to understanding union. An understanding we know in our bones, in our gut, in our soul, not something we can abstractly reason about. The mystic is someone who has tuned in his awareness to all that he experiences, the practical mans awareness is focused on what he knows. He has allowed his awareness to shrink from reality, if not having cut himself off from union with creation entirely.

Final thoughts

The two key points of this chapter are that it is up to you to find your own answers and that you can start that by opening yourself up to feeling at one with your reality. To being in union.

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