Prof. Ed Mooney over Mysticism

Mysticism, as a strain of religious as well as non-religious writing,  practice, and experience,  provides luminous accounts of  a human sojourn,  in all its varieties and complexities.  It often springs from wounds or trauma  yet blossoms  toward  surpassing repose,  beauty, and sublimity, toward wondrously subtle appreciations of nature and spirit and others.  Though its background may be unspeakable horrors, in the writing of Thoreau and Teresa, St Francis,  Rumi  and endless others, it evokes, in its alliance with art, literature, and philosophy, resources for celebration of  presence to whatever life delivers -- hence ways to stave off at least part of the suffering that afflicts us. The texts we read evoke struggles no life can escape between defeat and defeat's defeat in hope or serenity.  The quest for the sort of vision and sensibility we call mystical  is part of humanity's effort, individually and collectively, to shore up capacities for poise  in the face of all that would crush us. Prof. Ed Mooney

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Asadullah Syed