By E.G. Parrinder
This wide-ranging booklet covers all of the significant spiritual traditions, whereas exploring monistic and theistic mysticism, and such key concerns as altered states of cognizance, intercourse, and visionary reports.
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Extra resources for Mysticism in the World's Religions
Sample text
MYSTICISM IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS But while Buddhists deny or are agnostic about the soul, it is central to Jain teaching. If they have a mysticism it will be a soul-mysticism as in much of Yoga. For the Jains the universe is eternal, passing through infinite cosmic cycles of emergence, florescence and dissolution. In each cycle there appear Jinas or Tirthankaras, 'fordmakers', who not only themselves cross the river of transmigration but teach the way of salvation to others. In the present world aeon there have appeared twenty-four Tirthankaras, of whom the first lived millions of years ago and the last, Mahavira, 'great hero', was an older contemporary of Gautama the Buddha.
Omniscient and comprehending all objects, he knew all conditions of the world, of gods, men and demons. '* Jain mysticism of unification and isolation seems restricted and abstract and its non-theistic doctrines might appear to leave little ioom for warmer or more popular devotion, and yet the strong 1-lman desire for objects of worship finds outlets in Jain art and ritual. The twenty-four Jinas are represented in statues in Jain temples, which are places of worship and sacrificial offering. Mahavira, in particular, appears in paintings and sculptures, while in literature his life serves as a model for those of more legendary Jinas and the stories reflect the ideals and aspirations of worshippers.
Just as in polytheism it is not the solar disc or the vault of heaven but the indwelling spirits that are worshipped, just as 'the heathen in his blindness' does not bow down to wood and stone but reveres the power behind material objects, so most nature mystics seek for communion with that 'presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts'. This may be pantheistic or theistic, but it is mysticism, it is a communion which may claim unity or even identity with the divine. l2 S. Coleridge, 'Dejection', 111.