Translator of the mystics and spiritual guide Mirabai Starr shares her definition of mystical experience:
A mystic is someone who skips over the intermediaries (ordained clergy, prescribed prayers, rigid belief systems) and goes straight to God. Meaning, someone who experiences the divine as an intimate encounter rather than an article of faith…. Mysticism is not about concepts; it is about communion with ultimate reality. And ultimate reality is not some faraway prize we claim when we have proved ourselves worthy to perceive it. Ultimate reality blooms at the heart of regular life. It shines through the cracks of our daily struggles and sings from the core of our deepest desires.
A mystic knows beyond ideas, feels deeper than emotions, is fundamentally changed by that which is unchanging. Mysticism is a way of seeing—beyond the turmoil, the rights and wrongs, the good guys and villains—to the radiant heart of things. [1]
On the Everything Belongs podcast, Starr explores how receiving divine love through mystical experience strengthens the mystic’s commitment to others:
Mystical experiences brim from all kinds of moments in any given day. This is not a rarefied, specialized, meritocracy-based reality; it’s not about some belief that I’m espousing or buying into. It’s not even necessarily about a practice that I’m engaged in, although there are some practices that are fairly reliable for opening the heart. A mystical experience is an experience of the heart opening—out of that open heart flows the parts of us that are often in the way of a direct experience of the divine and into that open heart flows grace, that sacred substance, that mercifully helps me forget for a moment that I am separate.
For me, the mystical path is not fluffy. This love of which I speak is what I think Jesus was referring to by the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13–14). It’s rigorous and demanding. This is a love that welcomes all that we are. As Richard Rohr so often teaches us, everything belongs in this love, but we have to show up for it and we have to do our work. Fr. Thomas Keating also taught me that this path of love requires courage and fortitude because it’s so much easier to actually just keep your heart closed. The thing about living with your heart open—and this is part of where the rigor comes in—is that it’s harder to “otherize.” It’s harder to make “the other” evil and wrong and stupid, and all of the things that we’re tempted to judge people for on a daily basis in small and larger ways. This mystical disarming of the heart creates a felt experience of our unity with all beings.…
The sacred is always brimming from the heart of everything. If what it means to be a mystic is to walk through this world looking through the eyes of love, then anything and everything that we do with the intention and attention on the sacred, including our most difficult experiences, counts and belongs. [2
| Learning from the Mystics: St. Teresa of Avila. (from John Chaffee) |
| Quote of the Week: “For the love of God, friends, let us benefit from our faults and learn from our mistakes. Then our imperfections will clear our vision, as the mud healed the blind man when our Spouse placed it on his eyes. By witnessing our transgressions we are able to surrender ourselves to the mercy of our Beloved so that he can draw goodness out of our negativity and we can be even more pleasing to him.”- From Interior Castle, 6.4. Reflection St. Teresa of Avila is a curious figure. Not only because she led a remarkable life, but also because she wrote remarkable things. Toward the top of the list is her insight that we can be thankful for our sins and mistakes. To many, this makes no holy sense. To those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is deeply sensible. Our sins and our mistakes, while they can certainly be repented of, are also gifts and teachers. They can humble us as well as to teach us. They, when responded to properly, tear down our pride, hubris, and defense mechanisms and display to us how we are still immature in the life of faith. “As the mud healed the blind man…” The “mud” of our transgression might be the very thing that God can use to bring us back to a larger fullness, wholeness, and holiness. To be sure, this is a paradox. However, God has the ability to reclaim, redeem and reconcile anything, and that includes even our own transgressions that have the potential to take us further away from God. As St. Teresa of Avila says, out of divine mercy our Beloved “can draw goodness out of our negativity and we can be even more pleasing to him.” Prayer Dear God, grant us the courage and the fortitude to look directly at our own transgressions, sins and mistakes. Help us to rest in the fact that these things do not inhibit Your love for us, and instead come to realize that these are the very things from which You wish to heal us. Help us to overcome our own pride and hubris, to take on the role of a student, and learn from our mistakes. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen and amen. |
| Life Overview of St. Teresa of Avila: Who is She: St. Teresa of Avila Where: Born in Avila, Spain. Died in Salamanca, Spain. When: 1515-1582AD Why She is Important: She was a member of the Carmelite order, and sought to help reform the Catholic church of her day along with St. John o of the Cross. Most Known For: St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle was considered a classic relatively quickly. Using the local imagery of castles, she wrote about spiritual marriage with God as “mansions/rooms” within the human soul in which the innermost “mansion/room” is where the Lord already sits enthroned. Notable Works to Check Out: Interior Castle | The Way of Perfection | The Book of My Life |
