Exploring the frontiers of consciousness

An article from spiritual tree

Spirituality in concise # 8

The mystic lived on a mountain top. The scholar had great difficulty in climbing the mountain. As soon as the question was asked, the master handed the academic a delicious peach. When it had been eaten by the scholar, the master asked whether he would like another. The scholar ate the second peach. Then the mystic asked: "Are you interested in where this peach was grown?" "No," said the scholar.

That is your answer about my system, said the master.

Now very few people try to explore the frontiers of their consciousness. Their pleasure-seeking passion never permits them to sit quietly, wrote Soren Kierkegaard. Despite being a religious writer, he revolted against traditional religiosity. Agreeing with what Kierkegaard thought, William James, the father of paranormal psychology opined that religion was like a thin verbal oil slick floating atop the deep ocean of mysticism.

Mysticism is the purest form of psyche where the consciousness is not even aware of its existence. It is a non-physical connectivity with the superior cosmic intelligence. It is a flight of alone to the alone. The most beautiful experience we can have is that of the mysterious. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, wrote Albert Einstein. The tragedy is that technology has replaced mysticism from all spheres of life.

Technology, by offering us material benefits, has erased transcendence and mysticism from our lives. We are becoming spiritually bankrupt. Since mysticism is a kind of spontaneous revelation, it is always solo. The result is that mystics are always looked upon as outsiders and marginalized by society. Mystics also never make an effort to organize themselves and release a manifesto for the media. It is a silent revolution, where the transformation takes place only in an individual soul. One can never achieve this transformation by proxy.

Any event is interpreted on the basis of cause and effect theory. For the mystic, however, we find that an inexplicable law is working which has nothing to do with the theories or teachings we have evolved.

What is mysticism? Is it a call of the beyond? A message from nowhere or just a state of `no mind', which defies definition? Maybe it's a free zone which has nothing to do with codified religions. Ramakrishna Paramhans was a unique mystic. Everyday, taking flowers and Bel leaves in hand, he would touch his own head, chest, in fact the whole body including the feet and then offer them at Kali's feet. At other times, with eyes and chest flushed, he would move like a drunkard, with tottering steps from his seat to the throne of the Goddess, touch her chin as a sign of endearment and begin to sing, talk or even dance. Similarly, Lal Ded, the Kashmir poet, left her home and took to the life of a wandering recluse living in caves, going about in a semi-nude state.

Mysticism is the strength of primordial psychology. It's better called ontology ^ the science of self. It is a science and journey of human becoming from being. Technology is still a toddler and yet technology quite isomorphically makes tall claims that finally it will surpass cosmic laws. Technology has destroyed transcendence from our reality-map with no concern about the existence of a higher reality, the one that's with neither beginning nor end.

Regards

Neeraj Gupta