Mysticism

• Deidre Hillel
What Is Mysticism?
Deidre Hillel commenced by saying that the root of the word "mysticism" is from the Greek word "mustikos" meaning secret. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a mystic is someone "who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain union with or absorption into God". To be utterly absorbed in God to the point where, as St. Paul writes, you are no longer living your own life but it is God who is living in you. These things are secret because they cannot be put into words; they cannot be understood by the intellect. They are hidden to the mind.

The anonymous 14th century Christian classic The Cloud Of Unknowing describes the paradox:

"All rational creatures, angels and humans possess two distinct powers: that of knowing and that of loving. To the first, the creative God is forever incomprehensible. But to the second, to the power of love, God is totally knowable. Any single loving soul may know for itself the God who is incomparably sufficient to fill all the souls and angels that exist. This is a marvellous miracle of love. Flowering ceaselessly, it is the work of the eternal God".

Deidre then drew attention to the writing of Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Carmelite nun and mystic, which is in similar vein: "It is not a matter of thinking a great deal but of living a great deal, so do whatever arouses you most to love".

"It Is God Alone Who Acts"
The prayer of the mystics is an emptying of oneself so that, as with a vacuum, God’s fullness might be drawn into us. One thing the mystics agree on is that while a person might put themselves into a state of preparedness for God, it is God alone who acts. Our efforts cannot force God's hand, yet when there is such a depth of longing for God, how can he refuse? This paradox is met by the assertion of the mystics that the very longing with which we reach out to God is itself a gift of God.

Deidre provided further illustrations by quoting from the works of other writers. For example, Pascal describes God's reassurance in his Pensées: "Be of good heart: you would not seek me if you had not already found me".

Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote: "Prayer to be fruitful must come from the heart and must be able to touch the heart of God".

Teresa of Avila stressed that the root of such love is always good works. If we truly love God we will act for him in this world. In a sense God needs us: he needs as to do this for him. She puts it very beautifully:

"He has no body but your body, no hands but your hands, no feet but your feet; yours are the eyes through which he looks out with compassion at the world, yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which he is to bless us..."

And Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century French Carmelite, describes how everyday "kitchen sink" tasks can be done with love and be a form of prayer. The mystic who has been graced with God's love and a love for God has a heart so overflowing with gratitude that it cannot but be expressed in the impulse to act in the world as God would wish: the desire to love as he loves.

As St Augustine says: "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in you".

An Ignation-Type Exercise
To conclude her talk Deidre led us in an Ignation-type exercise designed to give a flavour of what the mystics were reaching out for. With eyes closed for a couple of minutes, and in complete silence, we were invited to breathe in our longings, desires, yearnings, and as we breathed out to let them simply be before God, and to have an awareness of his presence.

• Rabbi Larry Tabick
Devekut: Songs Without Words
Rabbi Larry Tabick said that he was going to start by getting us all to sing! He sang a "song" which was in two parts. He sang both parts separately, then sang the two parts straight through. He then repeated the two parts and the audience were invited to join in.

The two parts had "catchy" tunes, but the "lyrics" were a few meaningless words/sounds which were constantly repeated. He explained that the song is what is known as a Devekut. De means a melody (any melody) and Vekut means attachment to God. So Devekut is a melody for attaching to God, and is a characteristic of the Hasidic movement which began in the Ukraine in the 18th century.

Rabbi Tabick himself has composed many songs, and many of his songs have real words (in Hebrew usually but occasionally in Yiddish). Many of the Devekut type have no words because the words can get in the way of one's attachment to God. He mentioned that Deirdre referred to the fact that often our feelings for God cannot be put into words and therefore as no words are needed, it is only necessary to learn the melody.

The Hasidic Movement
Hasidism brought out certain aspects of theosophy that really were mystical and tried to bring them to the fore. There was a Rabbi Scholar Ba’al Shem Tov who taught a method which he said is basically open to anybody, and it is this method of attachment to God known as Deverkut. In modern Hebrew the word means "glue" so it is a sticking to God/attachment to God.

Sparks Of The Divine
Ba’al Shem Tov says that we can do this because we all carry sparks of the divine within us. He developed the notion of being connected to God but still living one's ordinary life - except that it's not an ordinary life any more if you are always connected to God, because you become aware that the ordinary things you do are also done in the presence of God. So it’s a way of purifying/refining one’s life, and he says in a very famous parable that if you can do this you realise something very important about God and the world.

Worship Through Corporeality
Later on in the Hasidic movement they developed the notion of worship through corporeality. This means that every task that we have to do, every object that we have to employ, every person that we encounter, represents a manifestation of God and, therefore, when we do that task, use that object, encounter that person, we have to see this is an act of worship, as an act of service to God.

Obviously some acts are easier to see as service to God than others. For example, everybody knows what prayer is about. Coming to the supermarket may not seem like a service to God, but from the Hasidic point of view even that is to be seen that way.

The Hasidic movement is, as the name suggests, a movement. It was never about individuals writing about their particular experiences. Mainly it is about teachers trying to share their approach and their techniques with their followers. So this is why they developed the songs - so everyone can get into the feel of it. They are the spirit that comes out of a battle to gain the Spirit that comes from above, and dance is part of that, as is singing and praying in a Hasidic community.

In contrast one of the Rabbis suggested that one should use a room which is not used for any other purpose, forget about everything except God, and pray for an hour a day to God. So you have a tension - worship through corporeality where everything becomes a form of service to God, a form of attachment to God, and on the other hand we all need special times to bring us back to that - so we have prayer times, perhaps meditation times, perhaps chants to God.

Even In Tesco's
By setting aside specific times for doing these things we can then go on, and even in Tesco's maybe connect with God. Rabbi Tabick concluded his talk with further singing and the audience joined in enthusiastically.

Questions
After the two presentations both speakers dealt with a number of interesting questions from the audience. The questions ranged over mysticism in general, specific mystics, the "problem of evil", and the current vogue of certain pop stars such as Madonna in involving or associating themselves with Kaballah (which is a Jewish form of mysticism).

- Bernard Tiley