These essays and quotations were directed to the more than five billion people who are active in, and/or identify with, some religion. There are at least one billion persons who are not religious.
Many truly religious people are bewildered by mysticism and some aggressively reject it because it upsets too many of their own cherished beliefs. Most mystics are deeply religious, but some of them, like Buddhists, do not believe in a soul or a Supreme Being. A few true mystics have no religion or religious faith: they speak of oneness, yet not with the divine. The other essays are from the perspective of those who do believe in a soul and a divine.
Each of us, whether religious or non-religious, has felt limitations of our bodies and of our minds. We all realize that our senses are restricted and our intelligence is not perfect. Some people, in their private moments, have resented the isolation of their individuality. For most of us, our egos refuse to accept death as The End. Many people want to believe they move on to heaven; many mystics feel that “heaven” is within us and must first be realized in life.*
There are a multitude of realities beyond our own experiences and knowledge: the Internet, television, radio, reading, or listening to other people tell us that. Our awareness and understanding of all life on planet Earth is incomplete. Although we know this Universe does exist, we realize that it far exceeds our comprehension. What Reality is both within and beyond this Universe? Can we know it?
Many people cannot fully appreciate the lives of those who have much less - or much more - than they do: either financially, socially, physically, mentally, and/or in other characteristics. Humans cannot wholly understand the daily existence of other mammals, of sea creatures, of insects, or of seemingly insentient entities like trees, rivers and mountains. We seldom entirely comprehend our own self, let alone completely intuit the inner self of other beings.
Astronomers continue to seek signs of life outside Earth and most have no doubt that it exists. Many scientists find latent intelligence in the structure of matter and living organisms. Much of what had seemed impossible 100 years ago is commonly accepted today. The unknown, however, still far exceeds the known. There is another level of existence which each of us can discover. It is here and now.
We know that we are surrounded by many things which cannot be sensed. Radio waves, various forms of radiation, even the air we breath cannot be perceived unaided. There is also an essence - call it vital or spiritual - which permeates everything, yet transcends them all. How can we become aware of this universal essence and then consciously live within it? How will that change our life?
Mysticism, the belief in direct experience of the universal essence, has been reported to date back more than 3,000 years. The number of people who have realized union, however, has been quite a small percentage of all humans. Most are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices and concerted efforts. Not many athletes ever earn an Olympic gold medal and relatively few persons have received a Nobel prize. Actualizing oneness in life is a greater achievement.
Two more quotations from The Enlightened Mind seem appropriate:
“The Tao is the law of nature, which you can’t depart from even for one instant. Thus the mature person looks into his own heart and respects what is unseen and