Little Bear's Cave

What is a Mystic

Mysticism is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an important source of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

The word Mysticism comes from the Greek μυστικός (mystikos) "an initiate" (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, μυστήρια (mysteria) meaning "initiation")

Traditions may include a belief in the literal existence of realities beyond empirical perception, or a belief that a true human perception of the world transcends logical reasoning or intellectual comprehension. A person delving in these areas may be called a Mystic.

The term "mysticism" is often used to refer to beliefs which go beyond the purely exoteric practices of mainstream religions, while still being related to or based in a mainstream religious doctrine. For example, Kabballah is a significant mystical movement within Judaism, Sufism is a significant mystical movement within Islam, however Gnosticism can refer to either a mystical movement within Christianity or as various mystical sects which arose out of Christianity. Some have argued that Christianity itself was a mystical sect that arose out of Judaism. While Eastern religion tend to find the concept of mysticism redundant, non-traditional knowledge and ritual are considered as Esotericism, for example Buddhism's Vajrayana. Vedanta is considered the mystical branch of Hinduism.

Mystic - The above definition presents a modern Western/Scientific view on what a mystic is.

In the East, a slightly different perspective is that mystics can be considered as metaphysicians, philosophers, or thinkers who are more similar to the Greek root of the word philosopher - philosophos - meaning lover of wisdom than the present day meaning of philosopher.

The primal difference between a mystic and a present day philosopher would be that a mystic works towards spiritual fulfillment where as a present day philosopher in some sense works towards academic recognition, i.e. their motivation for their chosen paths are different. A mystic just as every other thinker, wants to help make a difference in the world, but understands the limitations of language. A true mystic then tries to approach the situation by being mystical and hence truthful to himself in his actions.

When we use the word reality it is in itself an oxymoron, as in the above definition where realities (the plural) is used. Two equivalent definitions of reality are (1) The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence, or (2) That which exists objectively and in fact. The two uses of the word are contradictory hence making the above definition of a mystic a one sided view.

This is better expressed in Okakura Kakuzo's words. “The ancient sages (mystics) never put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise." Good examples of a western mystics are William Blake and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Good examples of eastern mystics are Lao Tze and Swami Vivekananda