A mystic is one who has in some measure experienced the immovable ground of being. It is this ground in which they are rooted and from which they take their "stand" midst the unfolding uncertainties of life. Others seek to under-stand, meaning they seek a kind of security in a knowledge which shifts with time. Our religions, social institutions, traditions, rituals, belief systems and motivations are reflections of our under-standing - the futil knowing of that that which is temporary and changeable. This may give us the illusion of security, of peace, of happiness, but it is without foundation, it is all conditional and conditioned.
When I teach I expect that I will share information which will broaden anothers understanding - which will allow them to broaden their view of the issues presented. Yet this is not the primary intent of my sharing. My shareing is idealy to challenge the very comfort zone of understanding people continually build, revise and rebuild their thinking upon, that some superior truth may be distilled from it. Such a truth will remain only partial at best, whereas the truth which satisfies the desire for our higher good is that which sets us free. Such a truth is never an object of knowledge but is unfolded in the skill of letting go, of abandoning all that is changeable. It is like peeling an onion until finaly there is nothing left. This is the province of spiritual discipline. No amount of scholarship, no prestigious degrees, no amount of speculative reasoning can substitute for the direct experience of the mystic.
So this is what marks the mystic, not their knowledge of the changable but their experience of the naked eternity of being. Those who touch it are changed by it. No longer will they place false hope in that that which fades. And too, no longer will they presume to capture it in their understanding of history, or philosophy, or even science. They will see the limits of these clearly. The mystic understands knowledge as the intimacy and immediacy of personal experience. This has been
called "gnosis." It is an experience of the unarguable, undeniable and unchanging. In spite of this certainty it is often called "mystery" for it is beyond knowing and labeling in the piecmeal fashion of fact collection and interpretation which we exercise so incessantly in the cause of increasing our understanding.
As a teacher of the mysteries I majorly explore two choices by which others may be led to the precipice of this mystery above understanding. One is to use information to offer an ever wider viewpoint which challenges the student to revise their concept of the known. The other is to encourage the student to abandon all judgements and presuppositions, and question all second hand "facts" as they are but filters which hide the eternal. Both these processes are the same in the sense that they train the student to let go, to release their grasp on the false knowledge I refer to as undertanding. One route is faster that the other but requires a willingness to more directly tolerate ambiguity and insecurity. The other unfolds more gradually into the realization that understanding can not liberate us from ourselves.
It is here where I may be told by others that I have not made myself understood. It is also here where I may extend the invitation to explore the path of the mystic, the gnostic, the knower by exercise of experiential testing that words will always fail to capture. If I fail to inspire others to prove my words, then my time has been spent as an entertainer. I am a good entertainer. The problem with entertaining is that people always want another show, just like understanding always requires another detail.
One of the reasons I enjoy healing work so much is that the distinction between understanding and doing becomes crystal clear. To be sure debates can rage here over who has the superior understanding. One can educate and become educated about healing interventions, but such understanding does not heal. One must do, one must act. Even not understanding the mechanism healing or even having it be completely wrong, one may experience a healing. Understanding is indeed a booby prize if healing fails to happen. if it does happen words become unnecessary, even pointless. One is released into joy and gratitude.
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