{"product_id":"2940012680075","title":"The Essentials of Mysticism and Other Essays","description":"What are the true essentials of mysticism? When we have stripped off\u003cbr\u003e   those features which some mystics accept and others reject -- all that\u003cbr\u003e   is merely due to tradition, temperament or unconscious allegorism --\u003cbr\u003e   what do we find as the necessary, abiding and essential character of\u003cbr\u003e   all true mystical experience? The question is really worth asking. For\u003cbr\u003e   some time, much attention has been given to the historical side of\u003cbr\u003e   mysticism, and some -- much less -- to its practice. But there has been\u003cbr\u003e   no true understanding of the difference between its substance and its\u003cbr\u003e   accidents; between traditional forms and methods, and the eternal\u003cbr\u003e   experience which they have mediated. In mystical literature words are\u003cbr\u003e   frequently confused with things, and symbols with realities; so that\u003cbr\u003e   much of this literature seems to the reader to refer to some\u003cbr\u003e   self-consistent and exclusive dream world, and not to the achievement\u003cbr\u003e   of universal truth. Thus the strong need for re-statement which is\u003cbr\u003e   being felt by institutional religion, the necessity of re-translating\u003cbr\u003e   its truths into symbolism which modern man can understand and accept,\u003cbr\u003e   applies with at least equal force to mysticism. It has become important\u003cbr\u003e   to disentangle the facts from ancient formulae used to express them.\u003cbr\u003e   These formulae have value, because they are genuine attempts to express\u003cbr\u003e   truth; but they are not themselves that truth; and failure to recognise\u003cbr\u003e   this distinction has caused a great deal of misunderstanding. Thus, on\u003cbr\u003e   its theological and philosophical side, the mysticism of Western Europe\u003cbr\u003e   is tightly entwined with the patristic and mediaeval presentation of\u003cbr\u003e   Christianity; and this presentation, though full of noble poetry, is\u003cbr\u003e   now difficult if not impossible to adjust to our conceptions of the\u003cbr\u003e   universe. Again on its personal side mysticism is a department of\u003cbr\u003e   psychology. Now psychology is changing under our eyes; already we see\u003cbr\u003e   our mental life in a new perspective, tend to describe it undser new\u003cbr\u003e   forms. Our ways of describing and interpreting spiritual experience\u003cbr\u003e   must change with the rest if we are to keep in touch with reality;\u003cbr\u003e   though the experience be unchanged.","brand":"Mysticism Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47078902825200,"sku":"2940012680075","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012680075_p0.jpg?v=1763571623","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012680075","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}