Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Mystical Consciousness!
qu'est ce que c'est ?
you might say!


The Contemplative Freemason,
Walking The Mosaic Pavement
With Faith In Deity.


(The Entered Apprentice's 1st Lesson)
Painting of Asclepius healing

"All that man has externally here
in multiplicity is One.
Here, all blades of grass, wood and stone... All Things Are One.
This Is The Deepest Depth."
Meister Eckart, 1260 - 1329


"The first act of a mystical teacher is to introduce the idea that the world we think we see is only a view, a description of the world. That the mystic is an observer.  Every effort of a teacher is dared to prove this point to his apprentice.  But accepting it seems to be one of the hardest things the apprentice can do.
We - complacently caught in our particular view of the world - are compelled to feel and act as if we knew everything about he world.  A teacher, from the very first act he performs, aims at stopping that view.   Mystics call it stopping the internal dialogue, and they are convinced that it is the single most important technique that an apprentice can learn.
"Tales of Power", Carlos Casteneda

As an apprentice in the Mystical teachings there was a book from my youth. "The Teachings Of The Mystics", Walter T Stace.  A Mentor Book published 1960. This book will be a reference used in future lessons. I found and read it in the early 70s.  What I would call a great primer on Mysticism particularly Christian Mysticism. One of the best explorations into the history and experience of Christian Mysticism I ever read. 
He writes, " there is no good reason for supposing that Jesus was a mystic in the sense of a person possessed the mystical consciousness as described in the Gospels and defined by classical definitions today.  Before the Pentecost "Quickening", as expressed in 1st - 3rd century texts, Mary Magdalene, The Apostle Paul, The Apostle John and others experienced the resurrected Christ in the form of physical manifestations and visions.  Mary's description of Jesus at the Tomb is explained as a vision.  Seeing two "men in shining clothing" standing next to them in Luke.  In Luke the disciples are described as perplexed which of course means they could not understand what they were experiencing. After Pentecost, as described in the book of Acts and in the Gnostic texts, the multitudes experienced the resurrected Christ Jesus as a physical manifestation and in visions.
Is there a case for believing that Christian Mystical teaching originates with the Apostle Paul?  The famous vision and voices on the road to Damascus do not constitute a mystical experience - because visions and voices, involve sensuous imagery, whereas the mystical consciousness is non-sensuous.  A physical manifestation or a vision, as defined by the Mystic, is not something that is experienced with our senses.  A vision is not experienced as something we see, a sound, a taste, or a touch. We don't have visions in dreams.  A vision is experienced as an introvertive thought without senses.
There are however, one or two passages in Paul's writings that seem to have something of the genuine mystic ring and render it probable that he had some degree of mystical consciousness.  The most famous is "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me."  Although a bit vague and ambiguous, Paul himself would have been brought up before the inquisitors for making this "Platonic" statement.  The phrase is evidence of an introvertive mystical consciousness. 


Mystical consciousness... qu'est ce que c'est ? you might say!  
Well, if we refer to the above description, there is more to what it may not be than what it may be.
Get It?
"One's Perception Of Nothing May In Fact Be The ALL Of Everything!"

More On Christian Metaphysics
For The Contemplative Freemason:
Meister Eckhart
Wolfgang Smith