Mystics in the Making

MYSTICS IN THE MAKING
Current mood: contemplative

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite quotes, from one of my all time favorite authors. Evelyn Underhill became my mentor through her writings when there was no other female minister I could look to as a role model to influence and teach me. She taught me the things that I hungered and craved to learn concerning The Presence of God in the life of a Mystic. Although she died in the 1940’s, her writings still remain challanging and thought provoking to me and I still continue to draw from the wells of her revelations concerning the inner life. I’ never met her, except on the pages of her books that are now writen in my heart. ENJOY!

THE “EYES” AND THE “NO EYES”

MYSTICS IN THE MAKING

“The old story of EYES and NO-EYES is really the story of the mystical and unmystical types. “NO-EYES” has fixed his attention on the fact that he is obliged to take a walk. For him the chief factor of existence is his own movement along the road; a movement which he intends to accomplish as efficiently and comfortably as he can. He asks not to know what may be on either side of the hedges. He ignores the caress of the wind until it threatens to remove his hat. He trudges along, steadily, diligently; avoiding the muddy pools, but oblivious of the light which they reflect. “EYES” takes the walk too: and for him, it is a perpetual revelation of the beauty and wonder. The sunlight inebriates him, the winds delight him, the very effort of the journey is a joy. Magic presences throng the roadside, or cry salutations to hIm from the hidden fields. The rich world through which he moves lies in the foreground of his consciousness; and it gives up new secrets to him at every step. “NO-EYES”, when told of his adventures, usually refuses to believe that both have gone by the same road. He fancies that his companion has been floating about in the air, or beset by agreeable hallucinations. We shall never persuade him to the contrary unless we persuade him to look for himself. Evelyn Underhill – Practical Mysticism

A MYSTIC DEFINED

A mystic is not a person who has queer experiences; but a person for whom God is the one reality of life, the supreme Object of love. He is a religious realist. Mysticism, then, far from being abnormal is an essential part of all religion which the mystics cast on the normal spiritual life, their disclosure of the landscape in which we really live, not their occasional excursions into an abnormal spiritual life, which gives them their great importance.

A NEW WAY TO SEE AND HEAR

“A POET IS A MYSTIC IN THE FACT THAT HE HAS ACHIEVED A PASSIONATE COMMUNION WITH DEEPER LEVELS OF LIFE THAN THOSE WITH WHICH WE USUALLY DEAL—AND HAS THRUST PAST THE CURRENT NOTION TO THE FACT. A VISIONARY IS A MYSTIC WHEN HIS VISION MEDIATES TO HIM AN ACTUALITY BEYOND THE REACH OF THE SENSES. THE PILOSOPHER IS A MYSTIC WHEN HE PASSES BEYOND THOUGHT TO THE PURE APPREHENSION OF TRUTH. THE ACTIVE MAN IS A MYSTIC WHEN HE KNOWS HIS ACTIONS TO BE A PART OF A GREATER ACTIVITY. ALL FOUR EXHIBIT DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE WORKING OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS; A FACULTY, WHICH IS PROPER TO ALL MEN, THOUGH FEW TAKE THE TROUBLE TO DEVELOP IT. THEIR ATTENTION TO LIFE HAS CHANGED ITS CHARACTER, SHARPENED ITS FOCUS: AND AS A RESULT THEY SEE, SOME A WIDER LANDSCAPE, SOME A MORE BRILLIANT, MORE SIGNIFICANT, MORE DETAILED WORLD THAN THAT WHICH IS APPARENT TO THE LESS EDUCATED, LESS OBSERVANT VISION OF COMMON SENSE.” Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)