Are we to conclude that the logical outcome of mysticism is this
strange reproduction, in Teutonic Europe, of Indian Yogism? Many who
have studied the subject have satisfied themselves that Schwester
Katrei is the truly consistent mystic. They have come to the
conclusion that the real attraction of mysticism is a pining for
deliverance from this fretful, anxious, exacting, individual life,
and a yearning for absorption into the great Abyss where all
distinctions are merged in the Infinite. According to this view,
mysticism in its purest form should be studied in the ancient
religious literature of India, which teaches us how all this world
of colour and diversity, of sharp outlines and conflicting forces,
may be lost and swallowed up in the "white radiance," or black
darkness (it does not really matter which we call it) of an empty
Infinite.
The present writer is convinced that this is not the truth about
mysticism. Eckhart may have encouraged Schwester Katrei in her
attempt to substitute the living death of the blank trance for the
dying life of Christian charity; but none the less she caricatured
and stultified his teaching. And I think it is possible to lay our
finger on the place where she and so many others went wrong. The
aspiration of mysticism is to find the unity which underlies all
diversity, or, in religious language, to see God face to face. From
the Many to the One is always the path of the mystic. Plotinus, the
father of all mystical philosophy in Europe (unless, as he himself
would have wished, we give that honour to Plato), mapped out the
upward road as follows:--At the bottom of the hill is the sphere of
the "merely many"--of material objects viewed in disconnection,
dull, and spiritless. This is a world which has no real existence;
it may best be called "not-being" ("ein lauteres Nichts," as Eckhart
says), and as the indeterminate, it can only be apprehended by a
corresponding indeterminateness in the soul. The soul, however,
always adds some form and determination to the abstract formlessness
of the "merely many." Next, we rise to, or project for ourselves,
the world of "the one and the many." This is the sphere in which our
consciousness normally moves. We are conscious of an overruling
Mind, but the creatures still seem external to and partially
independent of it. Such is the temporal order as we know it. Above
this is the intelligible world, the eternal order, "the one-many,"
das ewige Nu, the world in which God's will is done perfectly and
all reflects the divine mind. Highest of all is "the One," the,
Absolute, the Godhead, of whom nothing can be predicated, because He
is above all distinctions. This Neoplatonic Absolute is the Godhead
of whom Eckhart says: "God never looked upon deed," and of whom
Angelus Silesius sings:
"Und sieh, er ist nicht Wille,
Er ist ein' ewige Stille."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account