Mysticism: Dialogue Between Lover and Beloved

By Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.

The treasures of mysticism can be found in all religions, and we should not confine ourselves to the tradition most familiar to us. No one age, no one people, no one persuasion has any monopoly on spiritual wisdom; the prize is there, and always has been for any man or woman who cares and dares to look for it. Of course, whichever mystic we turn to, we will meet the same truths, because the mystical experience is everywhere the same. There is only one supreme Reality, and there can be only one union with it. But the language, tradition, mode of expression, and cultural flavor will differ. One writes in French, another in Pali. One writes in poetry, another in prose. One speaks of the Mother, another of His Majesty, still another of the Beloved. -- Eknath Easwaran

Mysticism is a psychological and spiritual way of bringing the transpersonal unconscious into daily life with the help of spiritual practices. The underlying reality of all physical appearances is the transpersonal unconscious, which opens out into and fills the cosmos. The transpersonal or spiritual unconscious is the quantum reality-the wave-that yields archetypal information that helps form and shape the physical world. Spiritual practices bring the practitioner into a dialog with the transpersonal unconscious and help him or her realize that everyday reality is a God-present reality.

Easwaran's teachings include spiritual practices that are simple and accessible, helping to bring awareness of the spiritual unconscious to a busy American people. His eight-point program has its roots in the mystical writings of the East and the West. Easwaran's teachings are both introverted and extroverted, giving the student a middle road between the inward journey and the outward journey. Reading the mystics of the world can help a person by giving inspiration for the practices, strengthening psychology, and transforming the person into a child of compassion.

Two mystic paths—that of Native American mysticism and the artist as mystic—are examples of ways that sacred practitioners have culturally learned to find their channel to the Beloved. My discussion of the two mysticisms comes from my ongoing dialogue with mystical ways, and I hope this discussion will encourage people to read the mystics.

Native American Mysticism

Native American spirituality is a ceremonial and sacramental mysticism that celebrates the path of life in healing and renewal rituals. Community dramas are acted out in ancient, traditional ceremonies that build conversation and dialogue in a real meeting between the Great Spirit Creator and the community of sacred practitioners. The healing ceremonies and world-renewal ceremonies of the Yurok, Hupa, and Kurok Peoples in Northern California correct the cosmic imbalances that cause pollution to mother earth and harm to her inhabits. The rituals restore the order of the universe while maintaining the creativity of the world.

Dance makers, dancers, and community members collapse the wave—making the invisible visible—with their meditation and prayers, bringing information from the transpersonal unconscious into their center of the world and spreading the necessary waves throughout the cosmic soup. Like a stone dropped into a quiet lake, the ripples of healing created during the ceremonies affect the entire psychological, spiritual, and physical world. The hatred and violence of the world are rebalanced by the positive feelings, thoughts, and laughter that are created at the dances.

Dancing in the Native American ceremonies is a great sacrifice that involves the demanding spiritual practices of asceticism-isolation, fasting, praying, and 10 days of dancing. Compassion and altruism are ways to the Beloved for these lovers of humanity and nature who often live in poverty. They use their suffering as a focus of creativity to make exquisite regalia and beautiful dances and to feed the many people who participate in or watch the ceremonies. Their selfless service is given freely in order to end the suffering of all humanity.

Native American mysticism is a majestic drama of love that enfolds love, compassion, and altruism into the transpersonal unconscious of the cosmos, which thereby reassures humanity that love, compassion, and altruism will be unfolded in the future by the universe. This Path of Life, the way of nonviolence, the great mysticism of these tribes, makes the Kuroks, Yuroks and Hupas remarkable scientists of the sacred.

Artists as Mystics

The famous artist Henri Matisse said that his painting was a form of prayer. Art connects the artist to the archetypal images unfolding from the transpersonal unconscious through the delightful and sometimes anxiety-ridden dialog with their work as it is being created. Viewers of artwork in its many forms—sculpture, painting, plays, music, dance or any other medium—are connected to the spiritual unconscious through their willingness to receive the beauty and the harmony expressed through the artwork.

Concentration is essential for the artist to create an art piece. One-pointedness is required of the musician, the poet, and the actor or actress to create a performance that moves the observers into a different reality as they witness the production. The discipline of the dancer is a form of meditation that involves the necessary skill to control the body without being self-conscious of the body. Slowing down and being mindful are essential abilities of the great dancers, artists, composers, and musicians who let creativity unfold through their works from the spiritual universe at its own pace. Creativity needs to be full of joy and playfulness, balanced with seriousness and order, so there is room to risk and to allow for the flow to emerge.

The great artists are great mystics. The wonderful performances of dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Isadora Duncan are made of beautiful movements that are like poetry in motion. The beauty of God brings joy to the witness of their performances. The musical compositions of Mozart came to him in perfect form. His consciousness collapsed the wave-the invisible sound of the spiritual universe—as he received musical scores that arranged themselves in archetypal forms that he unfolded and performed. Through his wonderful work God's creation is able to hear the music of the spheres. Artists constantly feel driven to create. They must do their art in response to a deep resonance, a luring deep in their transpersonal unconscious to make novel things. The holographic/spiritual universe enfolds a personal mythology into the transpersonal unconscious of the artist in a special configuration of archetypes. The personal mythology and its patterns of archetypes create the drive to make things that unfold these special patterns in the life-world of the artist.

Easwaran encourages the reading of the mystics in order to discover the tradition of the transpersonal unconscious and the various ways that it has been expressed through different world cultures. The archetypal pattern of expression of love over hate, beauty over ugliness, and nonviolence over violence encourages us to have faith that beauty, love, and harmony reside at the core of the universe. Mystic writings are special expressions of this beauty and love that create a conversation between the lover and the Beloved. The grace of the Beloved is enfolded into the transpersonal unconscious of the lover/seeker. This enfolding leads to the unfolding of the love, compassion, creativity, and selfless service that are expressed in the many different forms of mysticism. The grace of the Beloved is the baffling mystery that drives us to have a union with God.

Reference

Easwaran, E. (1978). Meditation: Commonsense Directions for an Uncommon Life. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press.