By Swami Abhayananda
Is a different booklet together with because it does the vast majority of the non secular traditions and plenty of of the best mystics philosophers and thinkers of all time. their assortment less than one disguise and the unifying subject matter of the singleness in their person messages brings to the reader a transparent realizing of the numerous contribution of every of those person academics and traditions. every one of those disparate mystics from diversified instances and traditions supplies expression to an analogous mystical event and describes the contents of that have in unvaryingly exact phrases. the non-public familiarity of the writer with such mystical states and his lifelong accumulation of information of the magical literature of the realm qualifies him to offer this fabric in a manner that's bound to fascinate and encourage the reader and depart him with an elevated feel of Diving chance.
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Extra resources for History Of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament (3rd Rev. Ed.)
Example text
When he knows the Self, the inner Life, who enjoys like a bee the sweetness of the flowers of the senses, the Lord of what was and what will be, then he goes beyond all fear. 8 When a man has seen the truth of the Spirit, he is one with Him; the aim of his life is fulfilled, and he is ever beyond sorrow. When a man knows God, he is free; his sorrows 42 HISTORY OF MYSTICISM have an end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union he is beyond the world of the body, then the third world, the world of the Spirit, is found, where man possesses all—for he is one with the ONE.
And to designate the creative Energy, which emanates from Purusha and manifests as the phenomenal world, he used the word, Prakrti. Prakrti is identical with Shiva’s Shakti, Brahman’s Maya, or Prthivi, the earth Mother of the Vedas. It is Prakrti which appears as atoms, molecules, and all the sentient and insentient world. These two, Purusha and Prakrti, are what we today might call “spirit” and “matter,” except that Prakrti is more than what we regard as matter; it is the substance of all forms, including thought-forms, dreamimages, and the individual psyche.
Whence all creation had its origin, only He, whether He fashioned it or not— He, who surveys it all from highest heaven—He knows. Or perhaps even He does not! 7 Why on earth, we must all wonder at some time or another, would God have given birth to this dream-like realm, where individualized souls struggle for wisdom and contentment while continually buffeted by passions, blinded by ignorance, assailed by pain, and 28 HISTORY OF MYSTICISM threatened with death? What could be His motive? As there were no witnesses to the initial Creation, there is no one to tell.