Three men stood by the ocean, looking at the same sunset.
One man saw the immense physical beauty and enjoyed the event in itself. This man was the "sensate" type who, like 80 percent of the world, deals with what he can see, feel, touch, move, and fix. This was enough reality for him, for he had little interest in larger ideas, intuitions, or the grand scheme of things. He saw with his first eye, which was good.
A second man saw the sunset. He enjoyed all the beauty that the first man did. Like all lovers of coherent thought, technology, and science, he also enjoyed his power to make sense of the universe and explain what he discovered. He thought about the cyclical rotations of planets and stars. Through imagination, intuition, and reason, he saw with his second eye, which was even better.
The third man saw the sunset, knowing and enjoying all that the first and the second men did. But in his ability to progress from seeing to explaining to "tasting," he also remained in awe before an underlying mystery, coherence, and spaciousness that connected him with everything else. He used his third eye, which is the full goal of all seeing and all knowing. This was the best.
The Urgent Need For Contemplative Seeing
Third-eye seeing is the way the mystics see. They do not reject the first eye; the senses matter to them, but they know there is more. Nor do they reject the second eye; but they know not to confuse knowledge with depth or mere correct information with the transformation of consciousness itself.¹ The mystical gaze builds upon the first two eyes -- and yet goes further. It happens whenever, by some wondrous "coincidence," our heart space, our mind space, and our body awareness are all simultaneously open and nonresistant. I like to call it presence. It is experienced as a moment of deep inner connection, and it always pulls you, intensely satisfied, into the naked and undefended now, which can involve both profound joy and profound sadness. At that point, you either want to write poetry, pray, or be utterly silent.
In the early medieval period, two Christian philosophers at the monastery of St. Victor in Paris had names for these three ways of seeing, and these names had a great influence on scholars and seekers in the Western tradition. Hugh of St. Victor (1078-1141) and Richard of St. Victor (1123-1173) wrote that humanity was given three different sets of eyes, each building on the previous one. The first eye was the eye of the flesh (thought or sight), the second was the eye of reason (meditation or reflection), and the third eye was the eye of true understanding (contemplation).²
I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the separation and loss of these three necessary eyes is the basis of much of the short-sight-edness and religious crises of the Western world. Lacking such wisdom, it is very difficult for churches, governments, and leaders to move beyond ego, the desire for control, and public posturing. Everything divides into oppositions such as liberal vs. conservative, with vested interests pulling against one another. Truth is no longer possible at this level of conversation. Even theology becomes more a quest for power than a search for God and Mystery.
One wonders how far spiritual and political leaders can genuinely lead us without some degree of mystical seeing and action. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that "us-and-them" seeing, and the dualistic thinking that results, is the foundation of almost all discontent and violence in the world.³ It allows heads of religion and state to avoid their own founders, their own national ideals, and their own better instincts. Lacking the contemplative gaze, such leaders will remain mere functionaries and technicians, without any big picture to guide them for the long term. The world and the churches are filled with such people, often using God language as a cover for their own lack of certainty or depth.
The third-eye person has always been the saint, the seer, the poet, the metaphysician, or the authentic mystic who grasped the whole picture. There is more to the mystical gaze, however, than having "ecstatic visions." If people have ignored the first and the second eyes, their hold on the third eye is often temporary, shallow, and incapable of being shared with anybody else. We need true mystics who see with all three sets of eyes, not eccentrics, fanatics, or rebels. The true mystic is always both humble and compassionate, for she knows that she does not know.
What It Means To Be A Mystic
Now do not let the word "mystic" scare you off. It simply means one who has moved from mere belief systems or belonging systems to actual inner experience. All spiritual traditions agree that such a movement is possible, desirable, and available to everyone. In fact, Jesus seems to say that this is the whole point! (See, for example, John 10:19-38.)
Some call this movement conversion, some call it enlightenment, some transformation, and some holiness. It is Paul's "third heaven," where he "heard things that must not and cannot be put into human language" (2 Corinthians 12:2, 4). Consciously or not, far too much organized religion has a vested interest in keeping you in the first or second heaven, where all can be put into proper language and deemed certain. This keeps you coming back to church, and it keeps us clergy in business.
This is not usually the result of ill will on anybody's part; it's just that you can lead people only as far as you yourself have gone. Transformed people transform people. From the way they talk so glibly about what is always Mystery, it's clear that many clergy have never enjoyed the third heaven themselves, and they cannot teach what they do not know. Theological training without spiritual experience is deadly.
We are ready to see and taste the full sunset now and no longer need to prove it or even describe it. We just enjoy it -- and much more!
1. Richard of St. Victor, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1979), De Sacramentis, I,X,ii, and The Mystical Ark (Benjamin Major), III-IV.
2. See David Berreby, Us and Them: The Science of Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
3. Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (New York: Harper, 1945), 294-95.
Three Ways to View the Sunset," Chapter Three of The Naked Now: Learning to See as The Mystics See, by Richard Rohr, copyright © Richard Rohr 2009, (The Crossroad Publishing Company 2009), was published in the October-December 2009, Volume 22, Number 4 of 'Radical Grace', with permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company.
Mysticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christian mysticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mysticism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
"After a cycle of universal dissolution, the Supreme Being decides to recreate the cosmos so that we souls can experience worlds of shape and solidity. Very subtle atoms begin to combine, eventually generating a cosmic wind that blows heavier and heavier atoms together. Souls depending on their karma earned in previous world systems, spontaneously draw to themselves atoms that coalesce into an appropriate body." - The Prashasta Pada.
As in modern physics, Hindu cosmology envisaged the universe as having a cyclical nature. The end of each kalpa brought about by Shiva's dance is also the beginning of the next. Rebirth follows destruction.
Unlike the West, which lives in a historical world, India is rooted in a timeless universe of eternal return: everything which happens has already done so many times before, though in different guises.
Polarity arises from the Taoist view of the cosmologicÂal origins of the universe: Before existence there was an idea--an Absolute. The Chinese call it T'ai Chi, the Supreme Ultimate. The Absolute, in a sudden and tremendous desire to know itself, divided itself from non-existeÂnce in a cataclysmiÂc event resulting in endless cause and effect--an event that neatly parallels the so-called Big Bang Theory. Instantly, space was formed and time began, and two charged states came into being, yin (negative) and yang (positive)Â. As a result of the complementÂary polarity of yin and yang, matter and energy, that were at first undifferenÂtiated, separated and regrouped into the physical reality that became our universe.
moment I am absolutely devouring them. Learning to see as the mystics see will be my next!
Through prayer and Gods Grace i hope to be able to live in the imperfect now without needing to fix and control and label..Thank you Fr Richard
Most of my seeing
is an illusion
because I see with two things,
my eyes
and my mind.
Objects appear to me
to be real
as my mind sees them.
Soul sees the spaces
between things.
My mind does not.
It can be contentious I suppose if one person's seeing differs from another, and to avoid contention I suspect many more people "see" than admit to it.
The movie "Avatar" hints at it rather loudly with the phrase "I see you."
"All spiritual traditions agree that such a movement is possible, desirable, and available to everyone."
Simply not true. Actually, quite the contrary. The early Christian church wiped out the Gnostics. Sufism was so persecuted by early Islam that they resorted to using allegory to talk about what the Truth for fear of death (Rumi, Kabir, Hafiz, etc.). Around 1000 AD, the religious right of India, the devout Hindus, virtually exterminated the tantric traditions. Truth is, "religion" cannot abide mysticism. For to truly "Know" eliminates the need for the middleman and that just wouldn't do.
f/f
Within Judaism there is renewed interest in Kaballah, the Jewish theosophic or mystical tradition which also includes a meditative tradition. The renewed interest both among Jews and non-Jews has been stimulated by the desire for “actual inner experienceâ€.
Within Judaism there are traditionally four levels of interpretation, the mystical is the fourth level. All four levels are valid.
Who ever said ignorance is bliss, missed the true beauty of knowledge.
"The Earth spinning around and around allowing for sunlight to reach all parts which allows for the energy of the sun to reach the surface causing plants to grow which feeds the world." The world is that and so much more
As for defining mysticism, it is rather difficult as the meaning shifts slightly from person to person or religion to religioun. But, as far as cloudy goes, the meaning is subjective therefore there is no real clarity. As the "clarity" is defined by the person experience which is not quantifiable. And to some degree when looking at mysticism through religious contexts it is an ignorance thing as it would be using faith as a cornerstone.
There is nothing wrong with ignorance. I am ignorant of many things, but the knowledge that I am ignorant is clarity of a different sort.
The world does not need be more then what it is. Which is amazing when you examine it through the spectrum of science. The reality of the world is more amazing then any sort of mysticism can bring to it. Learning the way things work is clarity.
Obviously; but WHY did the human race build the Hubble telescope, or any telescope?
If it ever goes down the same way it came up (east), do let me know!
It's been my experience that the fear of death keeps people coming back to church, and it's used constantly. Do what you are told, and spend a blissful eternity with God. Disobey [insert dogma here] and you will spend an eternity of torment and unending pain at the hand of the devil. It's the devil that has kept the clergy in business. Without fear, what is the need of a god?
How have you determined this? Do you operate an exit poll and ask people, "Why did you come to church today?"
I'll hold off on further critique until you have answered.
The strongest fear man has, is the fear of death. People that believe, think they'll continue to live after they die. The fear of he11 has been a very effective 'stick' for those who believe in such a place. The fear of dying and going to he11 keeps people in the church. Satan after all, has kept the church in business for all of these centuries, no "exit poll" required. It's common knowledge, and available to anyone who cares to investigatÂe.