The way of the mystic

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What is it that we sense when the heart is open and the mind is quiet? In what ways is reality different in such a state? When there are no stories to drown out the silence, no projections to generate the safe sense of the familiar, no thoughts to prop up the facade of conditioning, what then? What do we experience when we let go of the expected and sit in the center of our world with wide eyed awareness?  

The mystic is someone who seeks answers to such questions, but not in the usual ways of knowing, ie, via thinking, reasoning, researching the ideas of others, or relying on someone else’s experience. The mystic must find out for themself. Every breath becomes an experiment, every meditation an adventure. The mystic finds the inner life to be a universe to explore, an utter mystery from start to finish. There is no attempt to map out this territory, no thought to codify, systematize, or catalog what is being explored, no hope to understand, let alone explain, or come to control the vast inner life that one is discovering moment by moment. One comes only to love the Mystery, to yearn to lose oneself in It more and more until all is seen and known as That.  

The mystic is not so much interested in philosophies, in belief systems and intellectual constructs. The mystic longs for experience, experiences that connect one with the Mystery, for the Mystery is one’s sole (soul) motive, process, and goal. In the Tao Te Ching Lao-Tzu said, “In the pursuit of knowledge, everyday something is added. In the pursuit of the Tao, everyday something is dropped.” (chap 48) Just so, the mystic lets deepening experience of the Mystery strip him down to the luminous simplicity of first hand knowing that eludes words and categorizations. “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao.”  

The mystic seeks the Reality behind the appearance, the Formless within all form. For that reason the mystic learns to see all forms as expressions of the Formless and is therefore ever with his Beloved.   

The mystic sees no difference between the Formless and form, between Spirit and matter. Rather everything is seen and experienced as a multitudinous expression of One Supreme Consciousness.   

The mystic is born to live in two worlds simultaneously, the seen and the unseen, the physical and the spiritual. As such the mystic cannot know true fulfillment until she feels at home equally in both worlds and finds herself to be a bridge between the two -- and the two are experienced as One.  

The mystic feels a deep longing, a yearning in the heart that is a homing beacon back to Source, back to Oneness.   

The mystic has no preference regarding the names and descriptions of God, but worships the Mystery, the One Consciousness in all the expressions made known by the religions of the world and all expressions made known beyond religion.  

The mystic takes responsibility for his own state of mind and his own energy, not blaming what he is  experiencing on someone or something outside himself. All life experiences, even and especially the challenging ones are seen as important opportunities to learn, heal, and grow out of old patterns of unconsciousness.   

The mystic seeks to become more conscious in order to merge with Supreme Consciousness. She has given up old categories such as good and bad, right and wrong, and instead makes her choices based on whether a thought, word, or action results in greater consciousness and Light for herself and others.  

The mystic does not identify with the energies and patterns that move through the personality self, but instead constantly returns to and realigns with the Light of God, identifying as an expression of the Light even when the shadow of the ego seems to be so strong and tenacious.   

The Mystery is the mystic’s primary pursuit, priority, and relationship. This does not mean that the mystic does not value outer relationships, rather the mystic seeks to know the Formless in all form, and so everything is seen as a divine expression and every interaction a sacred encounter.   

The mystic seeks the Mystery within, knowing that it is her own Essence. Within means within her own awareness, which the mystic comes to experience as a focal point of the One Supreme Consciousness.  

The mystic does not seek isolation or withdrawal from the world, but balances worshiping the inner Stillness with loving the dance of the Divine in the outer Drama.  

The mystic releases concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, and pursues that which results in deeper alignment with the Mystery, knowing the Mystery to be beyond all categories and definitions. Therefore the mystic seeks deep mystical experience first, and allows words and concepts to follow as they will.  

The mystic has given up needing to be understood and accepted by others — only fellow mystics understand her path. She has relinquished attachments to people and things and comes to take them as they are, rather than trying to find fulfillment in them.   

The mystic interprets all things that comes her way, all experiences and interactions, however challenging and difficult, to be her path of deepening into the Mystery. She sees all things happening for her, rather than to her.   

The mystic understands the statement "It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (Antoine Saint-Exupery) and therefore practices to move through life with and as open-hearted Awareness.   

The mystic does not seek perfection, does not pursue enlightenment as a personal goal, but rather, understanding that his life is a microcosm of the Whole; he learns to deepen his presence into the multifaceted nature of his daily life process, using everything, including the most painful and difficult of experiences to lose himself and remember his Self.