THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM AMS PRESS NEW YORKTHE ESSENTIALS of MYSTICISM AND OTHER ESSAYS, EVELYN, UNDERHILL 1920 LONDON & TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS Lrp. New York: E. P, DUTTON & CO. Jr so-77 BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Under, Evelyn, 1875-1941 "The esentals of mystlclam, and other essays. Reprint of the 1920 ed, published by J. M. Dent, London and Dotton, New York 1, Mysticism —Adareses, ess, lectures, 4. Tile Bysow.us 1976 2asla2 75-4127 ISBN 0-406-14620-1 Reprinted from an original copy inthe collections Of the University of Connecticut Library rom the edition of 1920, London, New York, and Toronto Fira AMS edition published in 1976, Manufactured inthe United States of America ‘AMS PRESS INC. NEW YORK, WY. 237740 By 5062. Us lag PREFACE, ‘Tae essays collected in this volume have been written ing the past eight years. They deal with various aspects of the subject of mystickm:: the frst half-dozen with its general hory and practice, and special points arising within It; the rest with its application as Sen inthe lives and works cof the mystics, from the pagan Plotinas to the Christian con ‘templatives of our own day. Most of them have already appeared elsewhere, though all have been revised and several completely re-written for the purposes of this book, "The Essentials of Mysticism” and "The Mystic as Creative Artist” were frst printed in The Quest; "The Mystic and the Corporate Life" Mysticism and the Doctrine of Atone~ ment," and “The Place of Wil, Intellect, and Fecling in Prayer” in The Interpreter “The Edveation of the Spit" in The Parents Revco ; “The Mysticism of Plots in The Quarterly Review ; “The Mirror of Simple Souls” and “Sur Thérése de !Enfant-Jésus ” (ander the ttle of "A, Modern Saint”) in The Forinighty Review ; "The Blessed Angela of Foligno" in Frascitcen Essays ; “ Jolian Norwich” in The St. Martin's Revie: and " Chasles Péguy’ in The Contemporary Review. All these are now repub- lished by kind permission of the editors concerned, Ape 130 EU,CONTENTS Pure. 5 Coo cs ‘Toe Essence oF Mvsrea oot ‘Tur Mvstc AND tmx: Consomare LiFe - 35 Mevsrcisu Ax te Docrue oF ATONEMENT 4 ‘Tux Mysnc as Caranve Annet. 64 ‘Tur Roveamion oF rae See. - sb ‘Tar Pace or Witt, Ievauizcr, axp Frsuinc mm PRavER 99) ‘Tar Mysnisw oF Ponce : 5 ood ‘Tense Meotevat Mvetics. one 1. "VERE DORROR OF SIMPLE SoULS” lu 1, SHE RLESSRD ANGELA OF MOLIGNO | S60) 1 JULIAN OF NORWICH + 183, Menai mr Mopeax Frasce . ss 199 1 SUR ménise DE Viwrawryésus . | 199 1, auete-cunssrine ss ats uenaniss Plowy 5s Ll aeTHE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM ‘Witar are the true extentils of mysticism? When we have stripped of those features which some mystics accept and some reject—all that is merely due to (radition, tem- Yerament ot unconscious allegorism—what do we find as the necesary and abiding character of al true mystical experience? ‘This question is rally worth asking. For some time much, attention has been given to the historical side of mysticism, land some—mch less—to its practice, But there has been zo clear understanding of the difference between its substance and its accidents: between traditional forms and methods, land the eternal experience which they have mediated. In iistial literature Words are frequently confused with things, nd symbols with realities; so that much of this iteratore tems to the reader to refer to some self-consistent and exelu- sive dreamworkd, and not to the achievement of univers truth, Thus the strong need for restatement which is being felt by institutional religion, the necessity of re-tanslating its truths into symbolism which modern men can understand land accept, applies with at least equal force to mysticism. Tehas become important to disentangle the fats from ancient formule used to express them, These formule have valve, ecause they are genuine attempts to express truth; but they are not themselves that truth, and failure to recognize this distinction has caused a good deal of misunderstanding. ‘Ths, on its philosophic and theological side, the mysticism ‘of western Europe is tightly entwined with the patristic and rmediaval presentation of Christianity; and this presentation, I , --||;__ FFXX | | - - “72 ‘THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM ‘though full of noble poetry, is now dificlt if not impossible to adjust to our eonceptions of the Universe. Again, on its peronal side mystics is a department of peychology. Now psychology is changing under our eyes; already we see ‘our mental life in a now perspective, tend to describe it under new forms. Our ways of describing and interpreting spiritual experience must change with the res, if we are to keepin touch with reality; though the experience itself be unchanged. 'So we are forced to ask olreves, what is the esseatial ‘element in spiritual experience? Which of the many states and revelations described by the mystics are integral parts of it; and what do these states and degrees come to, sehen we describe them in the current phraseology and stip off ‘the monastic robes in which they are usually dressed? What ements are due to the suggestions of tradition, to conscious ‘or unconscious symbolism, € the misinterpretation of emation, to the invasion of cravings from the lower centres, or the sisgused fulslment of an unconscious wish? And when all these channels of illusion have been blocked, what is left? ‘This will be a diffealt and often a painful enquiry. But it fs an enquiry which ought to be faced by all who believe in the validity of man's spiritual experience; in order that ‘their faith may be established ona firm basis, and disentangled from those unreal and impermanent elements which are certainly destined to destruction, and with which it is at present tco often confused. Tam sure that at the present moment we serve best the highest interests of the soul by subjecting the whole mass of material which is alle mystic fim” to an inexorable eritcsm. Only by inflicting the faithful wounds of a fiend can we save the science of the inner life from mutilation at the hands of the psychologists ‘We will begin, then, with the central fact of the mysti’s ‘experience. This central fact, it seems to me, isan over: whelming consciousness of God and of his own soul: con- stiousness which absorbs or eclipses all other centres of ‘THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM 3 interest, T i ssid that St, Francis of Assis, praying in the house of Bemard of Quintavalle, was heard to say again and agains "My God! my God! what art Thou? and what fam 17” Though the words come from St. Augustine, they frell represent his mental attitude, This was the only’ quos- tion which he thought worth asking; and it i the question which every mystic asks at the beginning and sometimes tnswers at the end of his quest. Hence we must put first famong our essentials the clear conviction of a living God 1 the primary interest of consciousness, and of & personal felt capable of communion with Him Having said this, however, we may allow that the widest latitude is posible in the mystic’ conception of lus Deity. At best this con- ception vill be symbolic; his experience, if gentine, will far transcend the symbols he employs. God," says the author of The Cloud of Bnknowing, "may well be loved but not thought" Credal forms, therefore, can only be for the rystic a scarold by which he ascends, We are even bound, T think, to confess that the overt recognition of that which orthodox Christians generally mean by a personal God is not fesential, On the contrary, where it takes a crudely anthro- pomorphicform,theidea of personality may bea disadvantage ‘opening the way for the intrusion of disguised emotions and estes. In the highest experiences of the greatest mystics the personal category appears tobe transcended." The light {nthe soul whichis inceate,” says Eckhart," not satished vith the three Porson, n so far as each subsists in its dies cence... but itis determined to know whence this Being ‘comes, to penetrate into the Simple Ground, into the Silent Desert within which never any difference has lain’” The albinelusive One i beyond all partial apprehensions, though the trie values ‘hich thote apprehensions represent. are conserved in it, However pantheistic the mystic. may be fn the one hd, however absolutist on the othe, his om- ‘union with God is always personal inthis sense” that i is4 THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM communion with 2 living Realty, an object of love, capable of response, which demands and receives from him a total selfdonation, This sense of a double movement, a sell- giving on the divine side answering to the sa-gving on the ‘human side, i found in all eeat mysticism, Tt has, ofcourse, lent itself to emotional exaggeration, but in its pore form seems an integral part of man’s apprehession of Reality. Even where it conflicts with the mystc's philosophy—as in Hinduism and Neeplatonism—ie is sll present. Its curious to note, for instance, how Plotins, after safeguarding his Absolute Ono from every qualification, excluding it from al ‘categories, desining it only hy the iey method of negation, ‘suddenly breaks away into the language of ardent fecing ‘when he comes to describe that ecstasy in whieh he touched the truth. ‘Then he speaks of“ the veritable lve, the sharp desir" which possessed him, appealing tothe experience of those fellow mystics who have” caught fie, and found the splendour there." These, he says, have "felt burning within themselves the fame of love for what is there to Jknow—the passion of the lover resting on the bosom of his love.” ‘So we may say that the particular mental image which the mystic forms of his objective, the traditional theology he accepts, is not esential. Since it is never adequate, the ‘degre of its inadequacy is of secondary importance. Though some creeds have proved more helpful to the mystic than ‘others, he is found fully developed in every great religion. ‘We cannot honestly say that there is any wide difference between the Brahman, Sos, or Christian mystic at their bet. They are far more like each other than they are like the average believer in their several creeds. What is essential is the way the mystic feels ehout his Deity, and about his ‘own relation with it; for this adoring and all-posessing consciousness ofthe rich and complete divin life over against the sels life, and of the possible achievement of a level of ‘THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM 5 ‘being, a sublimation of the self, wherein we are perfectly tnited with it, may faily be witten down as a necessary tdement of all mystical if This i the common factor which tmnites those apparently incompatible views of the Universe which have been claimed at one time or another as mysticl. Their mystical quality abides wholly in the temper of the tell who adopts thom. He may be a transcendentalist: but if soit is beeawse his intuition of the divine is so lofty that it cannot be expressed by means of any intellectual concept, and be is bound to say vith Ruysbroeek, "He is neither ‘This nor That.” He may be a unanimist; but if he is, itis becane te finds in other men~more, in the whole web of ie—thas mysterious living essence which isa mode of God's existence, and which he loves, seeks and recognizes every: ‘where, "How shall T find words for the beauty of my Beloved? For He is merged in all beauty,” says Kabir, “His colour isin all the pietares ofthe worl, and it bewitehes the body and the mind.” He may be—often is—a stera- mentalist; but if so, only because the symbol or the sacrament help him to touch God. So St. Thoma: Adore deste, tes Deas, ‘Gee's Mage ert” ‘The moment the mystic suspects that any ofthese things are obstacles instead of means, he rejects them; to the scandal of those who habitually confuse the image with the realty. ‘Thus we get the temperamental symboist, quiets, nature- mystic, or transcendentalist, We get Plotinus rapt to the “Dare pare One"; St. Augustine's impassioned communion with Perfect Beauty; Eeibart declaring bis achievement of the “ wildemess of God”; Jacopone da Todi prostrate in tidoration before the "Love that gives all things form”; Ruysbroeck describing his achievement of “that wayless abyss of fathorless beatitude where the Trinity of divine petsons possess their nature in the esential Unity; Jacob6 ‘THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISM Boshoe gazing into the fre-world and thete finding the living heart of the Universe; Kabir Hstening to the chythmie misc of Reality, and seeing the worlds tod like beads within the Being of God. And at the opposite pole we find Mech: ‘il of Madgeborg’samoroas conversations with her“ heavenly Bridegroom,” the many mystical experiences connected with the Eucharist, the Sof's enraptured description of God as the Matchless Chalice and the Sovercign Wine,” the narrow intensity and emotional raptures of contemplatives of the type of Richard Rolle. We cannot refuse the ttle of mystic to any of these; becanse in every cage their aim ie union between God and the sou. This is the one ecsential of mysticism, and there are as tnany ways ison one term to the other as there are variations in the spirit of man. But, on the other hang when anybody speaking of mysticism proposes an object that as less than God—increase of knowledge, of health, of happiness, eccultism, intercourse with spitts, spernormal experience in general-then we may begin to suspect that we are of the track ‘Now wre come tothe next group of essentials: the necessary acts and dispositions of the mystic himsalf, the development which takes place in him-the paychological facts, that isto say, Which are represented by the eo-called “ mystic way.” ‘The mystic way is best understood as a proces of sublimation, ‘which caries the correspondences of the self withthe Universe ‘up to higher levels than those on which our normal conscious ress works, Just as the normal consciousness stands over Against the unconscious, which, with its buried impulses and its primitive and infantile cravings, represents a eruder reaction of the organism to the extemal world; so does the developed mystical life stand over against normal canseious- ness, with its preoceupations and its web of illusions encourag- ing ‘the animal willto-dominate and animal wil-todive ‘Normal consciousness sorts out same elements from the mass ‘of experiences eating at our doors and constructs from ee ee eee ee ‘THE ESSENTIALS OF MYSTICISIC ? them a certain order bat this order lacks any deep meaning Grtzue colesion, beealsg normal consciousness is incapable Of apprehending the underlying reality from which ‘these feattered experiences proceed. “The claim of the mystical Consciousness 0 2 closer reading of truth; to an appreben- Son of the divine unifying principle behind appearance "The One,” says Plotinus, “is present everywhere and absent only from those unable (0 perceive it; and when ive do perceive it we “have another life. . . attaining the sim of our exislenee, and our rest”. To know this at fst hand—not to guess, believe or accept, but to be ccrtain— is the highest achievement of human consciousness, and the fakimate object of mysticism. How i it done? “There aze two ways of attacking tis problem which may conceivably help us. The first consists in a comparison of the declarations of diferent mystics, and a sorting out of ‘those elements which they have in common: a careful watch being kept, of course, for the results of constious er uncon- ious imitation, of tradition and of theological preconceptions. Tn this way we get some firstchand evidence of factors which are at any rate usualy present, and may possibly be essential ‘The second line of enquiry consists in a rectransation into payehological terms of these mystical declarations; when many will reveal the relation in which they stand to the eyehic life of man, ‘Reviewing the fisthand declarations of the mystics, wo inevitably notice one prominent feature: the frequency with Which they breakup their experience into three phases. Sometimes they regard these objectively, and speak of three ‘worlds or three aspects of God of which they become succes sively aware. Sometimes they regard them subjectively, fand speak of three stages of growth through which they pass, sich as those of Beginner, Proficient, and Perfect; or (of phases of spiritual progress in which Wwe fist meditate ‘upon reality, then contemplate reality, and at last are united