MYSTICISM VS. RELIGION
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When we speak of mysticism we speak of experiential knowledge of God, not just a left brain mental belief system. A mystical experience is a grasp of the whole by the whole. That’s what makes it so transformative. God is another name for the heart or center of everything and it’s sole source of connectedness. When you say you love God, you are saying you love everything. Immature religion, fundamentalism, is an excuse for not loving a whole bunch of things and reveals you have not had an authentic God experience. An authentic God experience produces two things at its core: quiet confidence as opposed to argumentative confidence, and joyous gratitude. That’s why mystics can love their enemies. They don’t make the distinctions that low-level religion makes. Low-level religion is mostly just tribal belief systems which hold the group together. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad place as we all need a tribal container to hold us in place long enough to discover the real questions and struggle with them. It’s this struggle that leads us out. Unless we realize bondage we don’t have a desire for freedom. Organized religion never answers the real questions the soul is asking. In fact organized religion wants to silence the questions unless they are on its list of acceptable questions, to which It holds the infallible answer that needs no further questioning.
~Stan Tyra