By Richard H. Jones
This paintings is a entire examine of the philosophical concerns raised by means of mysticism. Mystics declare to adventure fact in a fashion now not on hand in general lifestyles, a declare which makes this phenomenon fascinating from a philosophical point of view. Richard H. Jones s inquiry specializes in the skeleton of ideals and values of mysticism: wisdom claims made in regards to the nature of fact and of humans; worth claims approximately what's major and what's moral; and mystical pursuits and methods of lifestyles. Jones engages language, epistemology, metaphysics, technological know-how, and the philosophy of brain. Methodological concerns within the learn of mysticism also are addressed. Examples of mystical adventure are drawn mainly from Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta, but additionally from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Daoism.
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Example text
Most mystical texts are not meditation manuals but discussions of doctrines, and to read all mystical texts as works about the psychology of different 12 Philosophy of Mysticism states of consciousness is to misread them badly in light of modern thought. Even when discussing inner mental states, mystics refer more to a transformation of character or an enduring state of alignment with reality than to types of “mystical experiences,” including any transitional “enlightenment experiences” that end a sense of self.
But even if beliefs and values are internalized in the enlightened state from the religious tradition in which the enlightened trained, the enlightened now know them to be true in a way they did not before. The persistent sense of permanence among inner and outer phenomena is uprooted, and one now actually sees in a nonconceptualized experience that the world is impermanent. 115). Naturalists may accept that, say, everything is made of one beingness, but only by “drinking the water” do mystics see that it is true and integrate it into how they live.
But mystics may conclude that what was experienced is ontologically more than simply their own consciousness: when the mind is completely stilled, an awareness bursts forth of a reality greater than consciousness or the being of the natural realm—an unmediated implosion of a more fundamental reality, with an accompanying sense of certitude and typically finality. Eckhart described it as the “birth of the son of God” in the “ground of the soul” where no images or powers (such as the will or the senses) have ever been (2009: 29–30).