Christian Mysticism // MB 012

so it's important to understand that there's basically only two main approaches to any spiritual journey and this is true for any religion not just Christianity the two approaches are that of fundamentalism and mysticism now everyone exists somewhere on the spectrum between these two polarities fundamentalism is characterized by the deeply held belief that you are a separate entity from God and therefore the strict adherence to doctrines and dogmas and a literalistic approach to Scripture or what characterize the fundamentalist approach mysticism on the other hand is rooted in the deeply held belief that you are one with God and therefore a direct experience through deep contemplation and meditation and the love and service to others are what characterized the mystical approach and so every Christian exists somewhere on the spectrum some sort of combination or hybrid of the two but historically has always leaned heavily towards the fundamentalist side but we're watching a massive turning of the tide from fundamentalism to mysticism in our day and age and to me this is very indicative of the planetary shift in consciousness that we see occurring at this time so in this episode I want to highlight the main differences between these two approaches and now we're all very familiar with fundamentalism and I've already been over a lot of that on the show already so in today's episode we're gonna focus heavily on the path of mysticism and I've noticed that a lot of my followers and viewers are already mystics and just don't really realize it yet and so I think it's important to know the distinctions between these two different approaches so that you can really find the most fruitful way of seeking the divine but I want to also make the disclaimer that it's also important not to make this another ego identity badge that you wear and Trump it around everyone like I'm a mystic because that's a very UNMISS t'king to do but for those of you who haven't really dove into the literature yet on Christian mysticism I am very excited for you because there is a wellspring of spiritual wisdom and revelation to be gained here that very few people honestly find even many of those who claim to be mystics and the reason for this is that it's very easy to start walking this path and then quickly turn it into another form of fundamentalism and so I want to make sure that nobody who watches my videos falls into this trap and so this is going to be the first in a series of episodes on walking the path of Christian mysticism with authenticity and purity of heart so join me today as we kick things off on walking the path of Christian mysticism [Music] welcome back to moving backwards episode 12 so the Christian Church has historically always been very fundamentalist in its approach to Jesus other than maybe the first few decades of the Christian movement in the dark and Middle Ages there was such an extreme amount of human suffering and insanity caused by the Christian Church that many of the Saints alive at that time were forced to turn inwards in their search for God suffering is the great catalyst which leads to enlightenment and so the grace of this dark period of human history is that some of the best spiritual writings came out of this time period the books of the Christian mystics are so incredibly deep and profound that they still surpassed the majority of Christian teachings today this is for the simple fact that these men and women didn't have the comfortable lifestyles that we are afforded today they were surrounded by human suffering and misery constantly they witnessed perpetual warfare genocide burnings at the stake human torture famine disease and starvation and this kind of intense suffering forces a person to go inward and become very desperate in their search for truth and out of this desperation these people discovered a hidden depth in Christ which basically no one since Jesus himself had ever understood before so all spiritual journeys begin from the same place which is the original and innocent desire to know the truth no matter what spiritual or religious persuasion a person might be the desire to find the answers to the questions about our existence is universal but somewhere along the way this universal human path becomes a fork in the road revealing two paths and so the spiritual seeker is then faced with a decision on how they're going to continue seeking these answers whether on a conceptual level or an experiential level and thus the path of the fundamentalist and the mystic are created it's important to know that neither path is right or wrong or good or contrary to what religion has taught us the mind of God doesn't make these distinctions because both polarities play a very instrumental role in the Seekers journey and so the distinctions of good and bad belong uniquely to us but because one path leads to joy and the other leads to suffering the ego is quick to rush in and make a judgment call about it so we need to remember that it's only our suffering which causes us to learn and grow and to seek God with true humility and sincerity it's only our bondage which allows us to know freedom and so the world of form is the world of duality and so if we want to transcend duality then we have to remember that labeling one side of the coin is bad and the other as good only keeps us trapped in the game and so fundamentalism is not wrong and mysticism is not right they're just two different aspects of the spiritual journey and both play an equally important role after all unless the mystic had first been a fundamentalist they couldn't be a mystic and so to be human is to be identified with the thinking mind at least initially and so this identification with thinking is what causes the spiritual seeker to begin their quest with a strict adherence to concepts and so out of this search for truth through concepts the fundamentalist is born but sooner or later and usually later the fundamentalist begins to realize that seeking to understand the transcendent with the intellect is a lot like scooping up a handful of water and claiming that you hold the ocean as if infinity could ever be grasped at some point the absurdity of it all becomes readily apparent and this realization leads the fundamentalist to pursue a different kind of knowing the knowing of experience it's only when a person has tried to find God outside themselves over and over again and failed miserably that they finally turn their attention inward and it's at this exact moment that the mystic is born the mystic no longer seeks certainty but embraces mystery and this is not to say that conceptual understanding doesn't play a useful role because it certainly does it's only to say that the mystic recognizes that the divine lives only within the self and so he or she realizes that concepts can be useful pointers but they cannot satisfy in and of themselves and so the mystic looks to go beyond them so while the fundamentalist memorizes Scripture vigorously the mystic contemplates each verse delicately the fundamentalist recites ritualistic prayers while the mystic meditates and contemplates in silence the fundamentalist tithes and attends a weekly church service as their means of appeasing God while the mystic loves and serves others as their means of communing with God the fundamentalist devotes itself to doctrines and rituals as a means of showing its devotion to a God who exists outside of itself the mystic is usually a person who's done this long enough to have become so sick of thirsting for God that they would even drink a pool of mud if they believed God were in it and this is where we see the important role that both parts play in seeking the divine one is the cocoon the other is the butterfly but for the butterfly to look back on its cocoon with anything but love and gratitude would be a betrayal of the highest order and so the mystic is one who realizes that all doctrines and beliefs about God in and of themselves are ultimately false and idolatrous because they aren't God God cannot be contained in words or ideas so at best they can serve as pointers towards the divine but if someone points you to the moon you shouldn't worship their finger and so a mystical Christian is one who allows their direct experience of God to dictate their theology and how they interpret scripture and not vice versa and this is because subjective experiences cannot made into doctrines they only give us a taste of the infinite and were left in awe it's only concepts that can be turned into idols but experiencing God always humbles us and this is why experience is the path of mysticism and so the error of religion is that from the beginning it turned God into a set of doctrinal statements this might get butts and seats on Sunday morning but eventually the effect wears off it doesn't matter how good of a sermon you can preach if it doesn't eventually result in direct experience then it will inevitably fail and throughout church history Christianity has never dared to imagine that maybe the consciousness of Jesus might be the consciousness of the Christian this is something that only mysticism can offer and so because religion is a function of the ego by definition it's only capable of seeing God as separate from itself and so when Jesus says things like I am the father are one religion perceives that as Jesus making an exclusive statement when in actuality he was making a universal statement and so while religion affords Jesus the exclusive rights of being one with God if anyone else claims it as well they're quickly labeled a heretic and this is exactly why almost all of the Mystics of old had to hide in secrecy from the church most of them ended up dying in prison or in worst cases burned at the stake but these people didn't care what the consequences were because they had found something so perfect and beautiful within themselves that nothing could take it away they discovered that dimension of consciousness within themselves that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven and once this is found there's no going back religion is the water that makes you thirsty but Christ is the water that satisfies but not Christ the person Christ the dimension that lives in you and so if you're on this journey of moving backwards from a fundamentalist approach a mystical approach then I cannot recommend enough that you drop whatever you're currently reading and get your hands on some of these classic books from the Christian mystics the unfortunate fact is that mainstream Christianity has downgraded Jesus into some afterlife insurance policy and has done no real justice at all to his teachings but ironically the people that they persecuted as heretics were actually the ones who got Jesus right mainstream Christianity doesn't even scratch the surface on Jesus because they fundamentally do not understand his consciousness but nobody has plum the depths of Jesus like the Christian mystics have and so if you want to see just how deep the rabbit-hole goes then only the Christian mystics can take you there you can spend all of your time trying to deconstruct fundamentalism piece by piece or you can just take a juicy bite out of the delicious cake of Christian mysticism and have your appetite for God stimulated in such a way that none of that dogma and even matters to you anymore some of these books have impacted my spiritual journey in ways that I can never find words to describe and I want to share that with as many of you as possible so over the next few months I'm gonna be releasing individual episodes on some of my favorite books we're gonna read a few short passages from each one and then discuss the meaning and depth behind each teaching some of these books will include the spiritual guide by Michael molinos the interior castle by Saint Teresa of ávila the Cloud of Unknowing author unknown dark night of the soul by Saint John of the Cross the imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis and probably a few more in addition to this I'm going to also give you some helpful tools to use in your meditations to follow each episode and finally I'm going to continue to sprinkle in some really awesome guest interviews for you guys the next of which will be my good friend Bishop Derrick day the author of the book deconstructing religion a lot of great things coming your way my friends so be blessed and I'll see you guys next week with Bishop Derek Day

Channel: Aaron Abke

Views: 52,962

Keywords: christian mysticism, richard rohr, rob bell, fundamentalism, contemplative prayer, the christian mystics, alan watts, what is christian mysticism, ted nottingham, aaron abke, john crowder mystical union

Id: aQ_EkoxCPi8

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 12 2019