The written word that tries to capture the original encounter inevitably replaces the personal experience of awe. So that “live doctrine fossilizes into dogmatism,” and the ethics and morality that attempt to translate “mystical communion into practical living” are reduced to moralism.21 But despite the dogmatism and moralism that inevitably muck up the system, the mystics have always come along with an embarrassing reminder for the self-appointed enforcers of the establishment’s rules and regulations. When it comes to “God”—a word rarely used by the mystics—there is total unanimity on one
...more
