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The Pathway to Perfection
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Absolute and nothing else. Mysticism is the attitude of mind in which all other relations are swallowed up in the relation of soul to God.' It detaches the heart from all that is not God and directs it entirely to the divine being. All these conceptions of mysticism imply the existence of God and the communion of the soul with God. In this sense, we cannot speak of Jaina mysticism. That would be a contradiction.
But mysticism need not be defined only with reference to the communion with God. Otto and Stace, for instance, have shown that it is not necessary to postulate the existence of God for a theory of mysticism. Mysticism can also exist where there is no conception of God at all or where for the final experience itself His existence is a matter of indifference." Stace shows that an atheistic form of mysticism may exist, because the conception of a God need not be the central point of experience. In this sense the Buddha may be considered a mystic. The Buddha denied the existence of any Supreme Being, although he had the direct experience of Reality. He got the Enlightenment. The Jaina Tirthankara, as Arhats, had the vision of truth (Kevala Darsana and Jñana). Their experiences are not to be interpreted as communion with any higher Deity or God. If, therefore, mysticism is to be understood as an immediate non-discursive intuitive relation of the soul to God, there would be no mysticism in atheistic religions, like Buddhism and Jainism. But if mysticism is to cover the whole range of supra-rational experiences presenting the truth in all its aspects as one concrete experience, we can discover the meaning of mystical experiences.
6. Underhill (Evelyn): Mysticism (Methuen) 1945 p. 70 7. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. IV. 8. William James : Varieties of Religion experience (Longmans Green
1919) p. 402. 9. Otto (Rudolf): Mysticism East and West (Meridian Book 1957)
p. 141. 10. Stace (W.T.): Teaching of the Mystics (The New Am Library
(1960) p. 24
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