What Is A Mystic?

What is a Mystic?

This has been a difficult task. I included this page because I remember when I began to define for myself the term "mystic". I decided that if I am gong to "be" one, then I should know what one is. Don't think that I am clear on the fullest or most accurate understanding of this term. I am not clear at all. What I will present is an assortment of ideas that might encourage you to begin to explore and define for yourself. We are all something of a mystic. It will be good to have enough discourse going in order to discuss the subject.

More What is a Mystic "I" Becomes "We" Light Being

MY BELOVED

by Carol Whitewater Dawn, June 23, 2001

Last night I was with my Beloved, with my Beloved in a way never before experienced. There were many minutes of the "dream" before I met and was with him ... minutes that I can't yet recall. Perhaps later.

I see him some 15 to 20 feet away from me, with his back to me. He stands on a small rise of land, a mound that is slightly higher than the surrounding area. He looks like an Indian Mystic or Holy Man, a guru perhaps. His loose clothes of coarse, white, homespun cloth perfectly completes the image. He is obviously a spiritual leader. His hair, small braids and twisted tendrils, reach the hem of his garment. Individual sections of hair are wrapped with fiber and yarn and the many separate parts are woven together into a width that forms a kind of robe around his shoulders. I am aware that this is accomplished through accumulated acts of devotion and merit. Most of the colors are natural browns, grays, and a soft golden color but there were also highlights of bright color. He gently, almost reverently, touches a small tree full of a peach colored fruit.

Other individuals are nearby and are dressed similarly. Some of the long garments are belted at the waist but most hang loose and flow softly with their movements. They seem to be walking quietly and gently through areas of this peaceful garden. They move with purpose and direction but I can't comprehend just what they are doing. They are in my field of awareness but only in a peripheral way. My focus is on the other being.

I am drawn forward toward him. I move toward the special being that appears Christ-like in his demeanor. He turns and watches as I near. He smiles and extends his left hand to me in welcome. The moment he turns I recognize him as my Beloved. My heart is filled with pure love. As I step close he encloses me in his hair and fibers robe. I am enclosed in his essence. In that second He is my Beloved and I "am" the Beloved, for we are only One. I know (think to myself) "there will be no betrayal here, no pain, no fear, no lack of any kind". I am enfolded in the perfection of pure and perfect love, love surpassing any former knowing of love. There is nothing else but this perfection.

If I could have combined all my visions, hopes, and ideals of what this union might be like it would not have come close to this reality. Visions written about by the great mystics of time did not begin to express what I was experiencing. There is no earthly correlation, no comparison. Being "with" my Beloved is more than I ever guessed possible or dreamed of.

He explains that we have work to do together and that we will spend time together to be One, for me to learn, to know that Oneness in preparation for our work. For several days we walk, united, in this peaceful garden. I, for the first time, know what I have longed for. I feel what I did not expect to feel as long as I remained in my physical body. I am reminded of paradise as addressed in the Christian Bible. I understand what the Garden of Eden might have been like. The most beautiful plants and grasses are everywhere. There are no weeds or unwanted plants. There is no thought of unwanted or unacceptable. Every plant has a place and sits in its perfection. There is no competition for space, for sunlight, or for nourishment. Each and every plant knows that it is exactly where it should be and that it is doing exactly what it is meant to do. No plant is attempting to squeeze out another, or grow taller to surpass and suppress others. There is perfect harmony in the plant world. As soon as I become aware of this perfection in the plant life, I realize that the same is true of each rock and every element in existence here. There are no earthquakes, floods, or any form of destructive forces. Then, I understand that all of the beings are also in their place of perfection. There is no competition for home space, furnishings, or work ... no longing for more love, more possessions, no longings of any kind. There is no lusting or longing for what one does not have. Everyone has everything to the exact degree needed. There is no questioning of purpose or path. Everyone is doing and being exactly what they are meant to.

As the time for my Beloved and I to be in full union nears completion, we go together to a nearby marketplace. We are always together, one never two. At the market there is a vendor with brightly colored cloth and smaller finished pieces that are the size of Buddhist prayer flags. My Beloved indicates a collection of these cloths and tells me to pick one. I reach into the pile and my fingers select the touch of the perfect one. The one I choose depicts a Hindu type dancer of rainbow colors. My beloved tells me that I will add decorations of many colors on the borders. I think of the dance shawl that I made in my other reality, and I remember its fringed rainbow border. I want to tell my Beloved of my creation. I'm told that all that is of the past, it is to be left behind and no longer exists in any degree of importance. The mantra of the figure on the cloth is the Gate' Gate' mantra ... beyond, beyond, and even beyond all that, I go. I realize there is nothing left behind that is needed or wanted. I am full and complete. There is only going - beyond, beyond, and even beyond that.

As time nears for our work to begin I cut our hair to a length of about two feet long, just waist length. The woven braided section is then cut into pieces and distributed, to be provided as sacred relics for those beings remaining in Paradise and for the work they do. I don't understand their work. Nor do I understand the need for relics, but I begin to realize they are also sacred beings in and for other beings and worlds. I begin to think of the story of the three Rebbis that were allowed to visit paradise. I don't remember the details, but I think I remember that one went crazy, one died from the shock and one went into holy retreat for the remainder of his life. Only one could experience Paradise and survive. He was the author of many of the oldest sacred Jewish books. I remind my self to seek out the story if I ever return to my old life.

I begin to see geometric shapes. The pentagram or five-pointed star is one of the shapes. It is red-gold color and begins to dissolve into a fine, shimmering powder and the powder begins to slide down and pool into a sun. The Circle is a blue-silver color and vibrates with music. There are many other shapes and colors with sounds and textures. It is during my journey through the geometry that I realize I am slipping away from paradise and moving someplace else. My next awareness is that I am in my bed. I hold the Oneness of my Beloved within me and encircling me. I begin to have thoughts of waking and rebel against the thought. I hold long and tenderly to perfect peace of perfect love. After much time passes I am aware of the first traces of morning light penetrating through my eyelids and know that it is about 4:30. While basking in the memory of perfection, I realized how many people I know that could benefit through sharing this experience. I reached out to bring others into it with me. My first call was to John with his life and death struggle. Then I went to his sister Laura. Then I called my two daughters and their children, children who will help with the new world we are creating. I lay there and bathed in the perfection until long after the sunrise when the physical needs of my human body demanded that I get up.

I sat for about an hour in contemplation. Then I needed to tell my story. I cried as I told it. All day I have cried with the memory. The heavens cried with me - our first rain. My Beloved remains with me but the sensation is so diluted from my true experience. Many times I have gone into the deepest internal space I can reach in an attempt to regain the touch, but I can't adequately reproduce the original richness of the feelings. I am so very blessed to have been allowed to have the direct experience of my Beloved in all its fullness but I also feel so cushioned from its breadth. I continue to cry for the memory and for the joy. I haven't yet begun to attempt to understand any meaning. That will come. One deep knowing, and fear, is that part of my work is to bring "that" here, rather than my going "there" to experience it again. Unlike what I would have thought, I don't desire to die to be with my Beloved, I desire to bring my Beloved to me, to physical form in a merging of spirit and matter.

Three or four years ago I began to work with the concept of sacred marriage, union with holy spirit. I did ceremony and solidified my commitment just over a year ago. For the first years I kept this to myself. I didn't need to share it with others. It was union of my Beloved and me and wasn't explainable to anyone else. Then I talked about it at the Gathering of Circles last year, 2000, during a workshop on relationships that Pamela and Brett led. Some of the participants have since talked with me about how my sharing touched their life. I have long known that my only purpose in life was my spiritual path, and reminding others to Remember Who They Are. I live in a mystical world and live a mystical life, full of mystery and direct spiritual connection. All of my experiences have been full and enlightening but none has had this degree of ... I struggle for any word that might express the qualitative difference and find none. Never before have I been granted so full a knowing of the sacred - so full an experience of my/the Beloved. Never before have I felt the Beloved that I am simply through my being. Once again I fill with tears of joy and knowing as I attempt to put this into words. Recall, limited as it is, is so full that I cry for the joy of it.

I have read and re-read this. I am overwhelmed with my inadequacy of description. I feel as if I am describing a clear blue sky to someone blind from birth. I put myself in the place of the reader before having the experience and I find that there is no meaning behind the words. My thoughts might be "interesting", but I could have no real understanding of what is being described. Still, I feel the need to attempt expression. If others had not pointed toward something grander ... had I not allowed myself an internal (and external) stillness of openness ... this might never have come to me.

This is the most intense, most powerful, most deeply influencing experience of my life. I have an expanded understanding of descriptions of near death experiences. When people say they were drawn toward the light, there is a human response of understanding. But it is so very much more than those words can convey.

It is long after midnight and I am reluctant to go to bed. I dread the overwhelming loss I will feel if I cannot regain the connection. Simultaneously, I long to be as close as I can recreate through the twilight language of near sleep. And ... I dread waking in the morning to the loss what might have been. I have spent the day basking in the residual bliss and grieving the loss of complete oneness. I have a greater knowing of oneness and feel a greater sense of aloneness than ever before.

For more than a year I have been reading everything I can find on mystics and on enlightenment. I know that I walk the path of a mystic, and that I continue to dance through the fringes of enlightenment. I know that with enlightenment there are always higher experiences, experiences that surpass the last. I cannot conceive of anything higher than or beyond this.

Sunday morning.

Caring for babies has returned to my nighttime activities. They are not my babies but their survival is dependent on my care. There are many struggles and dangers are everywhere. Nothing is fully resolved, but progress has been made. Babies are safe. I am tired.

My Beloved is with me but not as vivid as I knew it. My ordinary body can't yet pull it into this realm. An overriding feeling of well-being is present. Having had the full experience of the Beloved, I can't feel too alone or distant. But I continue to long for more.

Mystic - "The only difference between the mystic and the schizophrenic is that the mystic knows who not to tell." Carl G Jung

Mystics have a way of seeing and knowing, an internal way of attaining knowledge and utilizing awareness beyond the conventional sensory perception input. Mystics have a way of examining conventional sensory perception beyond the ordinary limited interpretation. The mystic appears to perceive beyond the limits that others adapt to.

The stereotypic image of them mystic, is the near-nude yogi sitting in a mountaintop cave, in silent withdrawal. ... living outside the everyday world reality in a sphere of their own, where all is silence and separation from earthly concerns in order to commune with the mystic world beyond. This image was accurate in the past and to some extent is still enacted in today's time. The image, however, is not the path for many of us. Our role is to live the mystic life in a down to earth practical manner.

The ecstasies, visions, awareness, enlightenment, knowledge ... seeing in an extraordinary manner continue to happen. One of the first of the many difficulties in the life of a mystic is the lack of acceptance in today's western world. When we remember who we are, and remember that we are a mystic, we discover that there is no place or fit for the mystic in today's world. A few of us trailblazers or pathfinders are beginning to create a model for how to be who we are.

Christian mystic is one who has direct revelation from God. Mystics experience the divine ... directly, beyond faith and belief. Other beliefs would refer to an intimate union with primal source. All agree that being a mystic includes the experience of a pervasive awareness of deep peace. The mystic union is, always being in contact with the divine ... of knowing through direct awareness of divine knowing. it is said, "by their fruits shall you know them". Others might say, "they have a profound insight not created by imagination or fantasy.

It is the ability to tap into the collective consciousness. This perspective includes knowing in a way that is beyond the capability of ordinary individuals, a highly developed, intuitive, insightful way of knowing.

Insight has nothing to do with "what I, or someone else, 'want' it to be". It might also be said that a mystic is unconcerned with fame or money - or outcome. This is expression of the concept of non-attachment or detachment.

There are discussions in psychology classes about studies of the development of perception. One study deals with two sets of kittens. One set is reared in an entirely horizontal environmental - as an adult those kittens never learn to see the vertical world when it is presented to them. The other set is reared in just the opposite manner. Those kittens live their life in a vertical world unable to perceive the horizontal. The conclusion is that our brain neuronal systems develop pathways that are limited according to the environment where learning occurs. This study has major implications for humans and their learning environments.

Returning to the "traditional" meanings and description, I give you some more descriptive comments.

In Christian beliefs, a mystic is one who has direct revelation from God. Mystics experience the divine ... directly, beyond faith and belief. Other beliefs would refer to an intimate union with primal source. All agree that being a mystic includes the experience of a pervasive awareness of deep peace. The mystic union is, always being in contact with the divine ... of knowing through direct awareness of divine knowing.

A more logic-oriented description might say it is the ability to tap into the collective consciousness. This perspective includes knowing in a way that is beyond the capability of ordinary individuals, a highly developed, intuitive, insightful way of knowing.

By virtue of this deeper way of perceiving and interacting with the world, a mystic is bound by more responsible actions in the world. A mystic has or must develop a high degree of virtue, values, morals, responsibilities to adhere to the highest path, beyond ordinary responsibility. Innocence can no longer excuse less than exemplary behavior. Impeccability is required of a mystic.

In speaking of a Christian mystic, it is said, "by their fruits shall you know them". Others might say, "they have a profound insight not created by imagination or fantasy. Note - insight has nothing to do with "what I, or someone else, 'want' it to be". It might also be said that a mystic is unconcerned with fame or money - or outcome. This is expression of the concept of non-attachment or detachment.

More What is a Mystic?

Mystic/mysticism - definition Mystic: one initiated, one professing to undergo profound spiritual experience, visionary, spiritual, supernatural, transcendental, one overwhelmingly driven to follow the sacred.

Mysticism is the doctrine that knowledge of spiritual truths can be acquired by intuition and meditation.

Mysticism lies at the very depth of spiritual consciousness; it has an intensity, power, and energy, matched by nothing else.

Definitions failed to fill the lack of understanding so I began to examine examples of characteristic experiences. I came up with an extensive list.

Mystics experience to an extraordinary degree the profoundly personal encounter with the energy of divine life.
Mystics often perceive the presence of God throughout the world of nature and in all that is alive, leading to a transfiguration of the ordinary all around them.
Mystics experience an inner and an outer quest, a journey that leads deeply into the divine center of one's own soul but then moves outward again to the concerns of the created world and the world of suffering.
Mystics travel along the margins of the ordinary and the extraordinary, the world of the mundane, and the world of the spirit where all things are made whole.
Mystics seek participation in divine life, union, and communion with God.
Mystics experience a desire that is kindled by the fire of divine love itself, this moves the mystic in their search and leads them on arduous journeys, to discover and proclaim the all-encompassing love of God for all human kind.
Mystics quest for loving union and communion with God; this quest runs like a golden thread through life and the centuries.
Mystics experience God in a dazzling darkness brighter than the brightest light.
Mystics experience a splendor and empowerment that they ceaseless describe, even when affirming that it is entirely incommunicable.
Mystics represents the great company of such seers who want to pass on to others the precious riches bestowed upon them.
Mystics experience the sacred as the ultimate Godhead, or Ground of Being - God the Father and God the Mother - God intimately present.
Mystics may be passive mystics who reject the world and withdraw from it
Mystics may be active mystics who are led back into the world and become immersed in a round of activities, profoundly transformed by a new spirit.
Mystics communicate the inspiring heritage of a great mystery and an all consuming love, sometimes verbally and sometimes through silence, but always through the way they live their life..
Mystics experience a profound spiritual integration with the promise of joy and passion, ecstasy, and suffering overcome.
Mystics experience a spiritual wholeness and completion that reaches its goal in God.

Mystics struggle to find some kind of balance between the world they know as ordinary and that can become transcendent and the world of divinity where they can live fully in their spirit.

In Tantric studies mysticism is address as an expansion of consciousness toward consciousness (a greater more encompassing consciousness); toward union with all that we have come to call "God" in order to find inner peace of the spirit while here on earth.

A mystic accesses levels of consciousness that many people do not access.

"I" Becomes "We"
a mystical experience

Saturday, January 6, 2001

I have been sitting watching TV and "not thinking" about thinking and not thinking about the changes I am experiencing. Actually there are no changes. There is more of a return to a familiar absence, a familiar and comfortable nothingness that fits perfectly. I also have been contemplating how this awareness might be described or diagnosed according to psychological theories. I can come up with nothing even close.

For months now, years actually, through this illness I have been trying to maintain contact with what I have known and understood as union with the sacred. Much of my effort has been (or felt like) failure. Sacredness has seemed to be something just beyond my reach. Now that I am feeling better - much better - and I have allowed myself to feel and be where I am, I am more aware of the sacred union than ever before and I find that there is no meaning; no meaning at all. By this I mean that there are no concepts and no thoughts to process this event, this understanding. There is simply nothing and that nothing is a kind of fullness that I have not experienced previously. I cannot even describe this as an experience. It is a no-experience. It is also an openness - not openness as being something that has been closed then opened - but something that has no existence. There is no skin or containment, no object or description, no framework. I can find no boundaries of existence of any kind of theory or of idea. There are no expectations, no images, no illusions, just is-ness and is-ness is a word, a concept that has no meaning. As I write this I feel the emptiness of words and the lack of meaning and concept. Simultaneously there is a correctness of the way all things are.

With every "I" that I write, I feel the inadequacy of the word I. I am reminded of Susan Segal 's "Collision with the Infinite" where she attempts to describe the absence of a self that she formerly was. She talks about the non-"I"-ness that is her existence. She also discusses how impossible it is to write/talk about any experience without the pronoun "I" as a way of referring to self and the term "self" when there is no self. I have contemplated whether or not that is close to what I am in the midst of now. I continue to feel that I am an "I" to some limited degree but somehow it is a different kind of "I" than I have ever been aware of before.

For a few years I have been consciously working with what I term "sacred marriage" as relationship. The only relationship that exists is relationship with the self which is also Self or the absolute the Beloved. Work has centered around a "wedding" ring and meaning of wedding or marriage with me and with the Beloved. My focus has been wedding myself in a way that began many years ago with the Apache women. It has all been learning about union and beyond selfness. When I talked about my feelings and experiences at the relationship workshop that Pamela and Bret gave at the Gathering of Circles I gained new clarity around my "relationship". I also talked about the wedding ring that I had been wearing and working with. I was surprised that I shared anything about what I had been doing. I also felt that it had no significance to anyone but me. I have discovered that some did hear.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Kristy made a comment about "cheating on herself". Susan retorted that perhaps that was an extremely important statement she had made about herself. I have since spent much time in observing just how I am not true and faithful to me, how I betray myself through avoiding, making light of feelings, making statements that might be construed as a joke, or other ways of being less than true to myself. I have begun to expect at least as much of me as I would expect from any loved one. Then my expectations expanded to even broader boundaries of impeccability until I stretched beyond any boundaries. There are no exceptions. I am either faithful to myself or I am not faithful. Anything less than full faithfulness is cheating on me - cheating on my relationship with my Beloved.

While I was in Odessa I purchased myself an additional wedding ring with diamonds. I didn't remove the old plainer ring. They are a perfect pair and represent my path is a special way. The diamonds are the "diamond path" of Tantra that I follow - a very "hard" path. No one noticed and I probably facilitated that non-noticing. I didn't know if or how I would respond if questioned. I could not have been less than truthful with my comments and most don't want those kinds of comments. I am now clear on my response should there ever be a question.

Since purchasing and wearing these two rings, I am aware at every tiny portion of each second of what and why they were needed by me. And, that takes me back to the Absolute Nothingness - beyond conceptual framework, that is my life. It also takes me to the even grander requirement that every bit of this must merge fully and comfortably with every aspect of my life. Every action, thought, and word must reflect who I am within this relationship without ever speaking of the relationship. Anything ever expressed in words must be empty of ego and "I-ness" for there is no significance of I or me. The relationship would be lost in the "I" and "I" would once again simply be I or probably only i, less that ever before.

This is Saturday night and Monday morning I will return to my teaching and my interactions with this world. Interactions were easy and comfortable with family and my expectations are that it will be equally easy with my "former" life. I had no plans to sit and write all this but the words kept nagging at me until I got up and began.

Now, I am back to this great nothingness that is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. So great is the nothingness that it doesn't matter if I feel well or not, do well or not, am appreciated or not. There is no thing and no meaning, no time, no essence, no purpose, no doing, no being. I have an understanding of via-negativa that never before made any sense. Everything I know is known through what it is not rather than what it is. What "is" cannot be known.

A few years ago I has one of my insights. I now understand more fully the statement ... "my life has nothing to do with me".

Monday, January 8, 2001

In meditation this morning I began to think about my Beloved and what all that encompasses. Mother Theresa spoke of treating the world's "lowest" of beings and that it was easy for her because she saw the face of her Beloved in every face. In "bottom line" truth, every face is a reflection of both the Beloved and the Sacred and our self. Rather than attempting to direct my thoughts I allowed them to flow unhindered.

I thought about viewing myself through the eyes of others as looking in a mirror. I also thought about "God" as a mirror attempting to see Self through the back side of a mirror or through the forgotten side of Self within the ordinary self that we all are. This train of thought led me in many additional directions.

One really stray thought was concerning how we all want to see our self. My current belief of creation is that "once upon a time (without time)" 'God' Consciousness was all that existed. God became desirous of knowing/seeing itself. As a result of this desire the act of creation began through a division or separation. Sufi state that the reason we refer to God as He is a result of that original division. The He or masculine stayed in the non-conceptual state and all that was created in manifest form was the feminine. Our seeking is all about finding union with our original Self. This is also the expressed reason that we seek a companion in life - as a way of finding our God union. We are looking for wholeness. While we are looking for our wholeness we are also curious about who we are. We want to see our self. We want to know what we look like - physically and also in ways beyond the physical appearance.

I wondered if identical twins see themselves through the image of their twin or if they still see only "other". I also thought about how none or almost none of us really see ourselves as others see us - even when we look into a mirror. We see both the person we would want to be - better than we are - or see an only exaggerated image of our lacks and shortcomings. We tend to see all the things we find wrong about ourselves. So how could we possibly see self much less Self.

I also went back to the pronoun "I". I is always a capital letter, giving self some sense of self-importance - exaggerated, narcissistic in nature, as if the entire world revolves around us an "I". This thought led me to the concept of denoting "God" through the capitalization process. God is a supreme being, god of a mythological belief in something other than (less than) God. We carry this farther through capitalizing "He", meaning a male God.

If we are all creations of, reflections of, God in order that God might experience Self (as in a mirror) then are we not also God. Is not the mirror image also us? As God representations maybe we should also represent ourselves as "We" with the capital W. We are then recognizing that we are in union with the sacred. It also allows us to shed some of the "I"-ness of self-importance that we carry.

Of course We are aware that when We can comfortably incorporate the We-ness that We are there will be a return to a more complete and full "I" that is as inclusive as We - a true One.

I have watched movies and news announcements as royalty from some country uses the royal "We" in referring to themselves. Service professionals sometime us the term "we" when I as an individual recognize that they are not part of me in that they can't really know what I am experiencing and therefore see that term "we" a put-down. "Does our tummy hurt?" "I can't speak for you but mine does."

How might it change us as individuals if we began to think of self as "We"? If we change our pronoun "I" to "We" and really begin to think of ourselves as reflections or aspects of God - how might that change the world. If I say We and include all other components of existence then I can no longer separate and be something other than God-ness. We is inclusive and allows for no exclusion - God or other human beings - or other creations of my God-ness.

I have resolved for at least today to think of "I/me" as We and to observe how my individual "I" and the "other" that I interact with changes. I recognize that this is just another way of seeing the face of God in everything. For me it brings it all a step closer.

Just after the morning session...

How interesting. It was relatively easy to realize that we are all One and to see that each person is another aspect of me. As one person that I don't like or respect was speaking I found myself seeing him as something of a mole or a wart that has been present for years, nothing more than a small irritation. He was not one of what I think of as the more pleasant parts of me, but he could easily be accepted as me or We. Another person was something of a "shadow" aspect of me/We - not even a shadow that needed to be removed or integrated - just a shadow that is ever present and occasionally visible in consciousness awareness. Another was a part that I wanted to hide away, or ignore, or pretend did not exist. As We, it was not possible to pretend any longer. That aspect of me did and does exist.

I also thought of myself as a mirror seeing the reflection before me as We and wondering what that reflection saw in looking into the mirror. This might be something like a twin feels when looking its counterpart. I still couldn't see what "I" look like but, I could see my/Our reflection and could know that even with limited accuracy, it was still We.

It has been so easy in these beginning stages to drop "I" thinking and think of self and Self as We. I am curious to see if it is easy to maintain.

In the past I have often thought of humans as many cells in a single body. Some of the body parts are aware of some of the other body parts but not many; and there is no awareness of particular cells as individual aspects. There is often judgment about one or more of the body parts and what we as individuals interested in personal growth do is attempt to learn to come to terms with the body aspects that we don't particularly like. We don't pay a lot of attention to the things that we can't see or that don't directly affect the ordinary moment, i.e. we don't judge our intestines unless they malfunction and interfere with our external consciousness. We hide fat under clothes and pretend it isn't there.

This seeing everything as self and Self is both the same and very different. As long as another individual aspect of me that I formerly thought of as someone separate from me does not have any direct influence on or control over my life I don't feel a need to judge or even contemplate that person. As I think in terms of an all inclusive and absolute We, "I" must include more of "other" than ever before in the past. We must include "other" as self in a deep pervasive manner not just as an abstract concept.

We eagerly anticipate the future fuller awarenesses.

What is a mystic? The mystic appears to perceive beyond the limits that others adapt to. The stereotypic image of them mystic, is the near-nude yogi sitting in a mountaintop cave, in silent withdrawal. ... living outside the everyday world reality in a sphere of their own, where all is silence and separation from earthly concerns in order to commune with the mystic world beyond. This image was accurate in the past and to some extent is still enacted in today's time. The image, however, is not the path for many of us. Our role is to live the mystic life in a down to earth practical manner.

One of the roles or skills of a mystic is "doing without doing". Do nothing and everything gets done. No, I can't explain. My understanding is so limited that I can't put the truth of the statement into a contextual framework.

I seem to have run out of words for now. Do you have any better understanding of what a mystic is? Perhaps ... or not.

Light Being

I was watching TV - nothing special. For several minutes I had sensed an energy or a movement on the other side of the room. It was almost like heat waves - something, but not really anything. I easily brushed it aside in my mind. Then, inner awareness shook me. Fool! This is something you need to pay attention to. Turning off the TV, I did.

My first sensory experience was of a profound and exquisitely beautiful light. My left brain logic said, "Of course, people always see 'the light', it is the perfect metaphor for what can't be easily explained." My inner knowing chastised me and said to stop thinking and analyzing. Just experience. As my thoughts quieted the light energy became more existent, more real. My awareness sharpened without having to have conceptual thoughts.

I quieted my thoughts and I felt it come nearer to me. The closer it was the more I felt the embracing gentle power of sacredness, a divine being. It floated as a clear white wisp of fog might move. Watched, it might appear one second and disappear the next. I had my physical eyes closed but my intuitive vision watched it close the space between us and I delighted in the beauty of the apparition.

For a time it remained separate from me. There was an other and there was me. This other, which I can conceptualize only as an angelic being, came to my side permeating the environment around me with sensation something like liquid sunshine, without heat and without wetness. I felt embraced by bliss emanating from this being. The sensation of quiet ecstasy was being spread over and around me with movements of what might have been arms or wings. The spreading sensation was over me, under me, and throughout me. The movements caressed my skin as the brushing touch of the softest breath feather. It might have been brushing away the last remnants of ordinary experience or it might have been healing my less than well body. I could feel it as it touched my skin but it was so soft as to be thought a gentle breath. There was an almost sensation of color or perhaps the color contained in white light but visible only when broken into separateness by a prism. Smell, the sweetness of spreading fragrance, was there also, but it extended beyond ordinary sensory input. Sound was perhaps the most exquisite part of the visit. It was a non-audible sound originating deep in my head but from a place deeper than the centermost point. It was not a melody, but it had the flow of a kind of rhythm of the universe resonating someplace inside as well as far beyond my head.

I melded with the energy where only pure being exists. There was no "I" to have a body or bodily awareness, no me and no other to talk about. "I" existed only as and in that "Be-ing-ness." There was nothing else, no other existence. Everything I ordinarily knew had ceased and I simply was.

A moment might have passed or lifetimes might have been lived. It didn't matter. I had no desire of any kind, no expectation, no past, no future, and no awareness of a present state. No words of wisdom were given to me. There were no secret teachings, or earth changing messages. However, this was an experience that alters understanding of reality forever. I continue to explore how my defined reality has been altered.

In actuality, an hour and a half of clock time had passed since I recognized that I needed to turn the TV off and pay attention to another level of consciousness. I have since re-called the memory of that experience many times over the past few weeks. The sweetness and bliss is always there with me but I can't yet reproduce the totality of the experience. It remains a part of me as one of those moments in time that changes your life forever after even if you can't understand how anything at all has changed.

I am just now beginning to try to think about how I might translate the sensation into words for others to read. When the experience began, I began to think, "How am I going to describe this experience, what words am I going to use?" Those thoughts caused the experience to slip more distant from me. I would chastise myself, "Stop thinking" and then it would begin once again. After several thinking - non-thinking mind shifts I moved deeply enough to simply experience. I had to remain in the outer silence and the inner silence, the place of no place.

From my more ordinary consciousness, I have thought about it for a few weeks now. Any concrete thoughts diminish the experience. Still, I remind myself that if no one points out the possibility of experiences no one will awaken and be aware enough to "see" those things outside the ordinary. If no one attempts the description there will no experience to relate to and compare against. That leaves me with attempting to describe the indescribable. And that is followed with attempts to understand what it was that happened, how it happened, and how does it relate to ordinary life?

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