Apophatic Mysticism: The Capture of Happiness
Three choices for you:
1. My book: You can read my book for free in various formats here: html | pdf | docx or docx | epub or epub
2. My latest writing on apophatic mysticism: html | pdf | docx or docx | epub or epub
3. This website’s content: scroll down
(A hardcopy of the book is also available from Infinity Publishing, and sometimes on Amazon)
You can contact me on the facebook apophatic mysticism page
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The method of attaining the skill which allows one to effortlessly fall in love with all beings is counter-intuitive and surprising to most of us.
The unexpected vehicle that takes one to this astonishing level of affection for others is unconditional self-love.
If I remain fond of myself no matter what I have done and no matter what I am doing, I will soon be in love with you and everything else.
Unconditional love is not an obligation; it is not something I "should do." It is a gift given to me if I will simply allow it to arise through natural grace.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Some mystics are Godless, some worship gods or a God, yet all mystics hold the same numinous thread; the very one you may be holding now.
Greetings to sister and brother travelers.
Most all of you have read about, or directly experienced, what we might provisionally call the spiritual source. This spiritual source has been described and depicted in a multitude of ways. The following writing will discuss an ancient way of approaching and intimately engaging this source; but the efficacy of this approach relies on ultimately relinquishing the desire to define or describe. Those on this path surrender any need to say exactly what the source of the spiritual experience is, and what it might demand.
"It is best to have an intimate relationship with God and best not to insist that she exists." Carla Ansantina
According to this apophatic way, in order to engage the spiritual source with the most intense intimacy, at the moment of union the mystic suspends all beliefs and disbeliefs. Taking an empty mind and an open heart, she steps over the mystical threshold and crosses into the realm of the unimaginable. This crossing into the state of complete surrender is the way of the apophatic mystic.
Apophasis can be defined many ways, one way
would be to simply call it the
emptying/opening of spiritual being.
One might also say that it describes an uncanny state of psychic integration resulting from the suspension of all mental estimates of the source, identity, meaning, purpose, or value of the world of phenomena. As a result of this surrender of ideation, which is seldom if ever complete, one is able to transparently perceive and precisely respond to the compelling force and content of immediate experience. It is through this encounter with pure immediacy that one most fully engages the source of spirit.
I hope that the following presentation will assist the reader in cultivating mysticism, a practice through which one embraces the core of human experience. If the material is found insufficient to that purpose, you are invited to contact me for suggestions on alternative approaches.
"One day my mind stuttered and then
froze. And suddenly the reality it had created completely shattered. I no
longer knew anything, but now everything made sense."
Carla Ansantina
Acknowledgements
Apophatic Mysticism: Table of
Contents and Introduction
Another view of mysticism: Traditional Religious
Mysticism
Other viewpoints: contemporary reflections by other
writers on the internet
Daoism
Links
What I am up to
***New Additions
This and that
Email: raymondsigrist@gmail.com