Yesterday I read about a guy in the United States who preaches something that he calls practical mysticism. Apart from the fact that he is in big trouble because three people died and many others are hospitalized after one of his practices in a sweat lodge turned bad, I’ve been wondering what « practical mysticism » could be. Seems to be what we call in English an oxymoron (two contradictory terms). By nature, what is « mystical » is not « practical » and what is « practical » is not « mystical. »
Meanwhile, here in Europe, while we sleep tonight what we agree is the « time » will not follow our usual notion of its pattern. It will « fall back. » Does that mean we will all be a bit younger? Or what if we are actually neither young nor old, the hour not ahead or behind? What if we are in fact time?
yes.
i gues we could also differentiate
"seeing" as in knowing without knowing
= Prajhna??? ( i don’t know how this word is used – maybe it is just "knowing"?)
no action
and prajhna into action = compassion???
doing without doing?
in this context, in conjunction with mysticism, as in the aforementioned guy’s "practical mysticism," we could say "practical" is like "concrete" perhaps, or "relative."
it is true that the relative and the absolute are not two. but they are not one, either.
what do you mean by practical, Sensei?
“Free us of silly devotion…” is part of a prayer?
I can appreciate a paradox and this one is a beauty!
Devotion certainly is our own doing, but is time our own doing as well?
Our measuring of time is.
And what is time if it is not measured?
What is anything if it is not measured, named and classified?
Truth.
It seems when we become self-aware as children – a relationship to past, present, future time is also born. eg Sometime before there was no "me" and sometime there will be no more "me".
See: Kohnstamm, D. "I am I. Sudden flashes of self awareness in childhood". Athena Press, 2007
Mystical – practical
Theresa of Avila had a prayer:
"Free us of silly devotion…" – and told her sisters to help one another instead.
I saw the website – it is more like: if you do this , then you get that…
c’est de la commerçe ???
By nature, what is "mystical" is not "practical" and what is "practical" is not "mystical."
what will "the mystical" be – if not right here , right now, concrete, practical???
I once saw " a master without words " just cutting the carrots…
What if time is just a concept to confirm our existence – ego?
where is the notion of time in pure awareness?