History of Mysticism Quotes

“All suffering, according to Kapila, is simply the result of forgetfulness of one’s true Self, or Purusha, while identifying with the ever-changing world of Prakrti, and thereby being caught up in the play of light and shadow, believing that to be one’s self. And the means of deliverance from suffering is, first of all, to distinguish between the two, and to cease to identify with Prakrti. Since Prakrti is a mere display, intrinsically transient, it is, in the final analysis, unreal.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“This “vision” of the Self is described in the Upanishads as Liberation (moksha). It is a freedom, a release, from doubt, from uncertainty, from the fears attending ignorance, forever. All questions are answered; all desires and causes for sorrow are put to rest; for thereafter, a man knows the secret of all existence. All previous notions of limitation and mortality, all darkness of ignorance, is swept away in the all-illuminating light of Truth:”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Under the Ptolemys, the Museum Library of Alexandria grew to contain more than 700,000 scrolls, and included all the great classical works of antiquity. In 272 C.E. the main library was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Lucius Aurelianus, but much of the collection of classical works was saved by removing it to the nearby Temple of Serapis. In 391 C.E., under the Roman Emperor, Theodosius, the Christians, wishing to obliterate all centers of pagan (non-Christian) learning and culture, burned the remaining collection of classical literature, accomplishing the virtual elimination of all recorded thought of the remote past. It is for that reason that today we possess only scraps and pieces of scattered lines from the great mystics and philosophers of antiquity, along with bits of hearsay by later chroniclers who were, for the most part, indifferent or antipathetic to them.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“while those who presume to teach philosophy without that God-revealed knowledge, however well-meaning their endeavor, succeed, for the most part, in engendering only doubt and confusion in the world.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“But Heraclitus’ most significant contribution to the thought of subsequent authors of mystical philosophy was his establishment of the word, “Logos,” as a term for the immanent presence of God in the world of man’s experience.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Bhagavad Gita, “The Song Of God.” It is a philosophical dialogue, written by some illumined sage of the time (and attributed to the legendary sage, Vyasa), which offers the most comprehensive and definitive expression of the Samkhya philosophy ever written.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“gunas (strands). These correspond to what scientists today would call “positive,” “negative,” and “neutral” energy-charges. Kapila calls them rajas, tamas, and sattva. They are the three “strands” which, woven together, constitute the fabric of Prakrti;”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Purity” suggests a single, uncontaminated, element or quality. “Purity of heart,” therefore, is an undeviating regard to God alone, who has become the center and focus of all one’s thoughts, words and actions. Only by such purity of heart is the mind of man readied and prepared for the perfect concentration of mind, which is known as contemplation.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“as a man comes to know God in the unitive vision, he knows in that some moment, his own true Self. This intriguing fact is expressed most succinctly in a passage from the ancient Indian epic, the Ramayana; in it, Rama, who represents the Godhead incarnate, asks his servant, Hanuman, “How do you regard me?” And Hanuman replies: dehabhavena daso’smi jivabhavena twadamshakah atmabhave twamevaham (When I identify with the body, I am Thy servant; When I identify with the soul, I am a part of Thee; But when I identify with the Self, I am truly Thee.)1 These three attitudes represent progressively subtler stages of self-identification: from the identification with the body, to identification with the soul, until, finally, one comes to know the Divine, and thereby one’s eternal Self. While each of these three relational attitudes finds expression as the prevailing attitude within various individual religious traditions, they are essentially representative of the viewpoint from these different stages of self-awareness.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Between the 10th and 6th centuries B.C.E., the Canaanite cult of Ashera continued to resurface, as evidenced by the recurring injunctions against Her worship in many of the Old Testament books written during that time. And, eventually, the conflict between the Canaanite worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Baal and Asherah, and the Hebrew worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Yahweh and Chokmah resulted in the systematic slaughter of many of the Canaanites by the Hebrews. Ba’al was replaced by Yahweh, and Asherah was replaced by Chokmah. Chokmah (pronounced Hoke-mah), which means “Wisdom,” was the Hebrew version of the creative Power of Yahweh, synonymous with Prthivi of the Vedas. Later, in the Jewish rabbinical tradition, She would become Shekinah; and the Greek seers of a later time—notably the Stoics, and the Gnostics as well, would call Her Sophia, their own word for “Wisdom.” By both Jews and Greeks alike, She was regarded, not only as the creative aspect of God, but also as the principle of Intelligence inherent in mankind who is Her embodiment.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“This ‘shining forth’ as the universe of forms is not He, yet it is He. His “glory” stands in relation to the Absolute as the Sun’s radiating light stands to the Sun. They are different, yet they are one. The rays of the Sun have no independent existence, and exist only because of the Sun; the glory of God, which appears as the phenomenal universe, also has no independent reality, but exists only as a radiation or emanation from that pure Sun of Consciousness. “He transcends His own glory,” says the seer; remaining forever One, unchanging and pure, He appears as the multiform universe.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Another way of expressing this truth is to say that the appearance of the world-manifestation in and on the one Consciousness is simply the nature of That. All questions regarding the how and why of it are therefore alogical. It is like asking, “Why does light shine?” or “Why does a mind think?” Who knows why a desire arises? Who knows how a thought is formed? We are aware that our thinking processes are distinguishable from our background consciousness, which is merely a witness to the mind’s activity. We are aware that the thought-producing aspect of our mind is superimposed on our consciousness, but we don’t know how or why. It simply occurs. We say that it is merely the nature of consciousness to manifest as thought. Similarly, the nature of That, the one Consciousness, is to manifest as the phenomenal world. “Perhaps,” says our Vedic author, “even He doesn’t know the how or why of it.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“This has been seen in contemplation by all the mystics of every time.   6.  [But, after all,] who knows, and who can say whence it all came, or how this creation came about? The gods, themselves, came later than this world’s creation, so who truly knows whence it has arisen?   7.  Whence all creation had its origin, only He, whether He fashioned it or not— He, who surveys it all from highest heaven—He knows. Or perhaps even He does not!7 Why on earth, we must all wonder at some time or another, would God have given birth to this dream-like realm, where individualized souls struggle for wisdom and contentment while continually buffeted by passions, blinded by ignorance, assailed by pain, and threatened with death? What could be His motive? As there were no witnesses to the initial Creation, there is no one to tell. But what of the mystic? Surely, while he is lost in the depths of the Eternal, he is in a unique position to explain the ‘why’ of Creation! Unfortunately, even the mystic perceives no ‘why’. For, in that unitive vision, He alone is. The joyful expression, which is the universal drama, radiates from Himself, the one Mind. He alone is the one Cause. There is nowhere else to look for causation, for whatever appears from Him and before Him is His own most natural and unquestionable radiation of Bliss.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

“Nevertheless, if we do accept this evidence, from the pre-Aryan (Dravidian) civilization, of a full-blown Shiva-Shakti mythology, we may trace the manifestation of the Shaivite tradition to these pre-Aryan peoples, and account for the appearance of two separately developing traditions among the early Indian peoples: one, the long-established tradition of the aboriginal races, and the other, the imported Vedic pantheon of the invading Aryans. For the Dravidian population, the Absolute Being came eventually to be known as Shiva, and His world-manifesting Power was called Shakti; while the Aryan tradition eventually adopted the name, Brahman for the Absolute principle, and Maya for Its world-manifesting Energy. And, while these two traditions eventually intermingled and became recognized by the wise as representative of a common and identical worldview, for many centuries each retained a semblance of independence while coexisting alongside one another.”
― Swami Abhayananda, History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament