All Truth is God's Truth

A Gnostic's achieving knowledge of self, a Buddhist's experience of enlightenment, Thomas's finding of the Kingdom, Tillich's moments of true reality, a Quaker's Inward Presence -- all may be regarded as different ways of referring to unitive experiences, which reach beyond the ordinary activity of the mind or belief in systems.

In much contemporary thinking "mysticism" has a negative resonance, suggesting something occult, supernatural, magical, intellectually mushy, paranormal. We might well be wary about reporting experiences to our friends as being "mystical." To admit the overwhelming character of a unitive experience goes against our pride in rationality. Scientific rationalism (which dominates our modern mind-set) regards mysticism with suspicion. And so do mainstream monotheisms, which regard Creator and creature as distinct entities and discourage private pursuits of enlightenment not mediated by the church.

Some mystics say that their illuminations are experiences of a kind wholly different from any other, having nothing to do with the life of this world. And yet every mystical system assumes that, from the first clouded glimpses of "truth," the seekers may progress toward higher and higher states until, if they are fortunate, they will have the ultimate flash of enlightenment. If only a few can scale Mount Everest, all presumably can explore with benefit the Himalayan foothills.

For most men and women mysticism embraces much more than the rapturous ecstasies of a few "perfected ones" and the associated speculations of mystical thinkers. The Buddha, it is said, pointed out that rain from the heavens waters alike all kinds of flora, growing in the same soil, but grass and bushes and trees grow to different heights according to their natures. In the same way, he said, the Enlightened One's teaching is of one essence, but each seeker will respond according to his or her capacity.

A leading Quaker writer notes that "all our human knowledge happens to us in world and time, and what seems to go beyond them, in moments of great spiritual experience, we do not know clearly but see as in a glass darkly. We have merely a feeling of something that transcends our grasp, that is, at the other side of "'knowledge'" in the more common sense of the word."