The Essentials Of Mysticism

Offering different essays of the practice of mysticism Underhill gives a thorough treatment of the practice that relies on experience rather than logic to justify the matters of faith. While a dangerous path to follow as it can quickly lead to paths away from God, this thinking is valid to a point in that we must be able to experience the fullness of God in some way to be fully alive in the realization of who God the Father is.

Evelyn Underhill was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century. Her legacy as a pivotal figure in Christian mysticism endures today. For her, true mysticism is first of all active and practical, an organic life process in which the whole self is engaged, rather than simply an intellectual apprehension. Underhill's essays on the topic merits a reexamination since it is still used in most courses that explore the experience of God called mysticism and still attracts contemporary spiritual seekers.Excerpt: What are the true essentials of mysticism? When we have stripped off those features which some mystics accept and some reject - all that is merely due to tradition, temperament or unconscious allegorism - what do we find as the necessary and abiding character of all true mystical experience? This question is really worth asking. For some time much attention has been given to the historical side of mysticism, and some - much less - to its practice. But there has been no clear understanding of the difference between its substance and its accidents: between traditional forms and methods, and the eternal experience which they have mediated. In mystical literature words are frequently confused with things, and symbols with realities; so that much of this literature seems to the reader to refer to some self-consistent and exclusive dream-world, and not to the achievement of universal truth. Thus the strong need for re-statement which is being felt by institutional religion, the necessity of re-translating its truths into symbolism which modern men can understand and accept, applies with at least equal force to mysticism. It has become important to disentangle the facts from ancient formulae used to express them. Contents: THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM THE MYSTIC AND THE CORPORATE LIFEMYSTICISM AND THE DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENTTHE MYSTIC AS CREATIVE ARTISTTHE EDUCATION OF THE SPIRITTHE PLACE OF WILL, INTELLECT AND FEELING IN PRAYER THE MYSTICISM OF PLOTINUS THREE MEDIAEVAL MYSTICS I. THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS II. THE BLESSED ANGELA OF FOLIGNOIII. JULIAN OF NORWICH MYSTICISM IN MODERN FRANCE I. SOEUR THÉRÈSE DE L'ENFANT-JÉSUSII. LUCIE-CHRISTINEIII. CHARLES PÉGUY

First published in 1911, Mysticism remains the classic in its field and was lauded by The Princeton Theological Review as "brilliantly written [and] illuminated with numerous well-chosen extracts ... used with exquisite skill." Mysticism makes an in-depth and comprehensive exploration of its subject. Part One examines "The Mystic Fact," explaining the relation of mysticism to vitalism, to psychology, to theology, to symbolism, and to magic. Part Two, "The Mystic Way," explores the awakening, purification, and illumination of the self; discusses voices and visions; and delves into manifestatioins from ecstasty and rapture to the dark night of the soul. Rounding out the book are a useful Appendix, an exhaustive Bibliography, and an Index. Mysticism is thoroughly documented with material drawn from such great mystics as St. Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, and St. John of the Cross, and this new Image Classic features a Foreword by Ira Progoff, translator of Cloud Unknowing and director of Dialogue House in New York City.

Evelyn Underhill (6 December 1875 - 15 June 1941) was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism.In the English-speaking world, she was one of the most widely read writers on such matters in the first half of the 20th century. No other book of its type-until the appearance in 1946 of Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy-met with success to match that of her best-known work, Mysticism, published in 1911.

Excerpt from The Essentials of Mysticism and Other Essays So we are forced to ask ourselves, what is the essential element in spiritual experience? Which of the many states and revelations described by the mystics are integral parts of it; and what do these states and degrees come to, when we describe them In the current phraseology and strip off the monastic robes in which they are usually dressed? What elements are due to the suggestions of tradition, to conscious or unconscious symbolism, to the misinterpretation of emotion, to the invasion of cravings from the lower centres, or the disguised fulfilment of an unconscious wish? And when all these channels of illusion have been blocked, what is left? This will be a difficult and Often a painful enquiry. But it is an enquiry which ought to be faced by all who believe in the validity of man's spiritual experience; in order that their faith may be established on a firm basis, and disentangled from those unreal and impermanent elements which are certainly destined to destruction, and with which it is at present too often confused. I am sure that at the present moment we serve best the highest interests of the soul by subjecting the whole mass of material which is called mysti cism to an inexorable criticism. Only by inflicting the faithful wounds of a friend can we save the science of the inner life from mutilation at the hands of the psychologists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

2. Mysticism: A Study in Nature & Development of Spiritual Consciousness3. The Essentials of Mysticism

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