The Mystic Vision
|
In an effort to provide more substance in explaining and understanding the Supreme Being, we have the words of the mystics who have, throughout history and in all lands, directly experienced God. As the freed man from Plato’s Cave, they have found describing God almost impossible. As mentioned earlier, Eastern mystics have used the phrase “neti, neti," a Sanskrit expression meaning "not this, not this" or "neither this, nor that," to illustrate that no matter what words are used, they do not come close to accurately describing their vision of the Ultimate Reality. However, as you read herein, the mystics still try as best they can to convey the sublime nature of their exquisite experience. To the extent that they can describe different aspects of the Supreme Being, their words are remarkably consistent and provide a small glimpse into the Infinite.
This sub-section is a collection of quotations from the mystics. The quotations have been arranged under a few headings, as follows:
The Nature of the Supreme Being – here are the quotations of the mystics on the sublimely blissful, boundless state of Spirit and the beauty, timeless and infinite nature of God. “O You who are so unbearably beautiful” ~ Fakhruddin Iraqi
“I was universally present, existing in all as all. Not only was I all that existed in this universe, I was the center of all, the divine Mind from which all emanated forth. What I experienced my Self to be is what men have always referred to as “God” ~ Swami Abhayananda “In the mystic’s experience it is revealed that there is nothing other than God. He is the one Mind in whom everything exists. In other words, He is absolutely alone. He has no other to talk with or to whom He may relate - ever. Apparently, that is just how Existence is. There’s only Him. Realizing that, we may better understand why He recurrently fashions a universe, a cosmos of clashing diversities, within Himself. Does this universe have some other purpose besides amusement? I don’t know.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “It is so simple and unencumbered that it cannot be conveyed in speech. It is the ancient, unnamed God. It occupies its own place, its own dimension, quite sovereign and alone … It is its own perpetual delight and satisfaction.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Ever-new Joy Is God. He is inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile you with an infinite ingenuity.” ~ Sri Yukteswar “I am beyond everything finite; I now see that the spirit, alone in space with its ever new joy, has expressed itself as a vast body of nature. I am the stars, I am the waves, I am the life of all; I am the laughter within all hearts, I am the smile on the face of flowers and in each soul. I am the wisdom and power that sustain all creation.” ~ P. Yogananda “Realize that to be the Self, beyond the attainment of which there is no greater attainment, beyond whose bliss there is no greater bliss, and beyond the knowledge of which there is no greater knowledge.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “I cannot conceive of anyone who has glimpsed the beauty of the Transcendent Formlessness ever preferring cosmic beauty” ~ Franklin Merrell-Wolff “How expansive was the freedom that I felt! How flawless my delight! I saw with intimate clarity Eternity’s joy-filled peace” ~ Swami Abhayananda “… an abiding state of ineffable ecstasy” ~ Papa Ramdas “If only you knew what bliss I find” ~ Rumi “The feeling is indescribable. It was total bliss, total joy.” ~ Robert Adams “You can have, or rather you will yourself be, the highest imaginable kind of happiness. All other kinds of happiness which you have spoken of as ‘pleasure’, ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, ‘bliss’, are only reflections of the Ananda which, in your true nature, you are. It is impossible to describe samadhi since it transcends the mind. It can only be experienced.” ~ Ramana Maharshi “If you were forced to remain awake for a month and then you were suddenly allowed to sleep, then the joy that you will feel at the approaching of the sleep – multiply that a thousand million times. It does not describe the ever new contact of joy in ecstasy” ~ P. Yogananda “Pure eternal joy, ever new joy that you can never be tired of” ~ P. Yogananda “An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss.” ~ P. Yogananda “If you saw Him you would be so exhilarated that you couldn’t contain yourself.” ~ P. Yogananda “When we set out later for a stroll, I was still entranced in unspeakable rapture. I saw our bodies as two astral pictures, moving over a road by the river whose essence was sheer light." ~ P. Yogananda “Then there is an ecstasy, there is that living movement of truth, which is not an end, not a culmination, but an ever-creative living, an ecstasy which cannot be described” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti “Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.” ~ Eckhart Tolle “Though you see me here with you, performing on the boards, I’m there, in God’s unbounded bliss, my own eternal Self.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Smoldering joy … burst into immortal flames of bliss” ~ P. Yogananda “Words cannot describe the joy … Only those who experience this joy know what it is.” ~ the Maitri Upanishad “I am supremely blessed. There is no earthly joy to compare with my great bliss … How great my bliss, my infinite bliss!” ~ Swami Vidyaranya “Within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss” ~ Ramakrishna “Into my brain streamed one momentary lightning flash of the Brahmic Splendor which has ever since lightened my life … Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exaltation, of immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe … the soul of man is immortal.” ~ Richard Maurice Bucke “I was no longer myself, or to be more accurate, no longer as I knew myself to be, a small point of awareness confined in a body, but instead was a vast circle of consciousness in which the body was but a point, bathed in light and in a state of exaltation and happiness impossible to describe” ~ Gopi Krishna “In the genuine illuminative state, there is … an indescribable state of glory, happiness and love, coupled with the direct experience of an all-pervading, extended consciousness, or an Almighty, Omnipresent Cosmic Being” ~ Gopi Krishna “The treasure I have found cannot be described in words, the mind cannot conceive of it” ~ Shankara “It is the most intense experience of love, of wonder, of beauty, of music that you can ever have … that divinity, is not separate and distinct from you but your own self, holding you in an embrace that is rapturous beyond all description” ~ Gopi Krishna “For Him who is immersed in the bliss of the Self, arising from the extinction of the ego, what remains to be accomplished? He is not aware of anything (as) other than the Self. Who can apprehend his State?” ~ Ramana Maharshi “When one’s true nature is known, then there is Being without beginning and end; It is unbroken Awareness-Bliss” ~ Ramana Maharshi The Oneness of Spirit – here are the quotations that relate to the Oneness of Spirit and the merging of the mystic’s consciousness with God.
“In this experience of unity … there is no longer a veiling sense of duality; for when the “I” discovers that the “Thou” it sought is itself, then all duality vanishes, as a dream vanishes when a man awakes from sleep” ~ Swami Abhayananda
“The whole room, everybody, everything was immersed in light. All the children seemed to be myriad particles of light. I found myself melting into radiant being, into consciousness …… I realized that I was not my body. What appeared to be my body was not real. I went beyond the light into pure radiant consciousness. I became omnipresent. My individuality had merged into pure absolute bliss. I expanded. I became the universe. The feeling is indescribable. It was total bliss, total joy.” ~ Robert Adams “Is this living Splendor, this beaming Sun of Life, beyond the slightest touch of earthly sorrow, suffering or pain, my real Self? O wonder of wonders, am I this immortal Being, happy beyond measure.” ~ Gopi Krishna “Realisation is merging into pure Consciousness which is the uttermost Bliss” ~ Ramana Maharshi “There, the very earth was mine and all the starry heavens; And I was at the center, still, containing all. I had become the one great light, Begetting and illuminating every thing and beast; There was no other to behold, as all combined in me.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “When he re-identifies with his soul as individualized ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss, he then merges with the all-pervading ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss of Spirit - even as a droplet returns to the sea. Still, that individuality is never lost; that portion of Spirit eternally retains its "memory" of that individualized existence.” ~ P. Yogananda “The soul advances and is taken into unison, and in that association becomes one with the Divine Mind - but not to its own destruction: the two are one, and [yet] two” ~ Plotinus “When the soul is merged in God, there is no longer the duality of lover and Beloved, but only one blissful Self-awareness. When the soul is ‘merged’ in the Divine Mind, it sees from the vantage point of the Eternal.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “If you knew who I am, you would also know the Father. Knowing me, you know Him; seeing me, you see Him.” ~ Jesus of Nazareth “I and the Father are One” ~ Jesus of Nazareth “Thou art I, I am Thou” ~ P. Yogananda In the One, the two—soul and God—play their love game of devotion. At one moment, the soul speaks of God, its “Father”; at another moment, it is identified with God, and speaks of “I.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “For when you know yourself, your sense of a limited identity vanishes, and you know that you and God are one and the same” ~ Ibn Arabi “Some people think that they will see God as if He were standing there and they here. It is not so. God and I, we are one.. … I am converted into Him in such a way that He makes me one Being with Himself.” ~ Meister Eckhart “That awareness is transformed into a timeless, spaceless awareness of identity with the limitless and eternal Consciousness from which the universe emanates. That awareness transcends, not only the senses and the imaginative faculty, but the sense of self, or egocentric identity, as well, relieving the individual of the sense of a separate identity, so that his awareness is of the all-inclusive One. The individual knows this eternal Consciousness as his own, since there is no separate perceiver by which to see this Consciousness as other.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean, is the moment the wave realizes that it is water” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh “Mystical experience, in an instant, shatters the illusion that our subjective and objective worlds are the only actual realities. In the mystical state, a new element dominates the whole scene. The world of awareness and the world of matter fuse into one, a stupendous consciousness now penetrates and encompasses all in a blaze of glory impossible to describe.” ~ Gopi Krishna “Suddenly I knew; I experienced infinite Unity. And I thought, “Of course; it’s been me all the time! Who else could I possibly be!”… There was no longer any me distinct from that one Consciousness; for that illusion was now dispelled.… I was aware that I - this whole conglomerate of body, mind, consciousness, which I call “I” - am none else but that One …I am the Whole; all motion is contained in Me, yet I Myself am unmoving.… It is I who surge in the heart as joy, as surging joy … Like a thousand-rayed sunburst of joy, My love showers forth as the universe of stars and planets and men.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Exalted, drawn, and absorbed into the uncreated Light, I beheld that which cannot be related” ~ Angela of Foligno “My Me is God” ~ Catherine of Genoa “Individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this not a confused state but the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond words-where death was an almost laughable impossibility - the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, but the only true life … It is no nebulous ecstasy, but a state of transcendent wonder, associated with absolute clearness of mind.” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson “I was suddenly seeing from the perspective of the one eternal consciousness from whom the world of time and space is projected and sustained. There was no difference between that one eternal consciousness and I.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “As my vision expanded, I became aware of my deeper identity as the unmanifest Source of all manifestation, the one Consciousness, the sole Origin of all being. Whatever separate identity I entered that experience with had become transparent, and vanished in the dawning awareness of myself as the eternal Consciousness Itself.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “This is the realization of the one eternal ocean of Consciousness, That which has been called ‘God’, ‘the Absolute’, ‘the Unchanging Ground’, ‘the divine Self’. When it is known, It is known to be the ultimate Reality, the final irrefutable answer to the question, ‘Who am I?’” ~ Swami Abhayananda “When a jar is broken, the space that was inside Merges into the space outside. In the same way, my mind has merged in God.” ~ Dattatreya “It is like a drop of water blending with the ocean and becoming the ocean without altering it, or space within a vase blending with the space outside, extending freely throughout space without its being altered” ~ Dudjom Lingpa “There’s really only One here! All appearance of multiplicity is a dream, an illusion-- conjured up by the one Self for the purpose of multiplying Its enjoyment. To have experienced this Self directly, to know with complete and absolute certainty that there is really no one here but you - this is the real freedom, the ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction of all man’s thirst for truth, the final salvation.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “This is why the vision baffles telling; for how could a man bring back tidings of the Supreme as something separate from himself when he has seen It as one with himself?” ~ Plotinus “I am the Father of the world, sprung from myself!” ~ Buddha “This infinite Source of All dwells here in my heart with all the frailties or virtues I possess. This Cosmic Intelligence, this Almighty Sovereign of all creation is, at the same time, the individual self of all the six billion earthly human beings, the actor in all the six billion dramas of life, and billions upon billions of infinitely varied dramas on other planets in the universe, yet away and aloof from them all.” ~ Gopi Krishna “It is a breathtaking experience. The narrow, individual self is swept off from its anchor in the body and the world, like a straw carried away by a tidal wave of the ocean, to be confronted by infinity on every side.” ~ Gopi Krishna The Sense of Immortality – Spirit is ever existing bliss consciousness. In their experience of the Supreme Being, mystics realize their eternal, ever existing selves. Here are some quotations from mystics on their sense of immortality.
“… the mind … can enter into a world, which is far beyond the mind: the supreme Destination. ... Then one knows the joy of Eternity” ~ Mundaka Upanishad
“This experience is the revelation from which all religion derives. It is this mystical experience that provides the irrefutable evidence for the divine identity of the soul. Those who have not experienced that ‘mystical’ union may argue the question of the immortality of the soul, but for those who have been graced with that unitive experience, no question remains.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Eternal rays of all-pervading bliss … eternity and I, one united ray.” ~ P. Yogananda “When you experience the bliss that emanates from your own eternal Self, and when you experience the truth that all before your eyes is the glorious play of the One, then your soul will merge in Him, and know its own immortality.” ~ Swami Abhayananda “Every mystical experience is a testament to our eternal life. Not the life we spend in the embodied state but a life so glorious that it ravishes our mortal senses and the mind.” ~ Gopi Krishna “Imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sight and sounds but this one vision which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy, so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless” ~ Saint Augustine “… an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation and joyousness … a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal life” ~ Richard Maurice Bucke Having to Live in Plato’s Cave Knowing the Existence of the World Outside – for many mystics, the experience of God occurs only once or a few times in their life and they find themselves back in body-consciousness. Even Spiritual Masters or avatars, whose consciousness is normally with God, sometimes assume body-consciousness in order to help fulfill their role in helping mankind. Here are some quotations on what it is like to assume body-consciousness after having experienced God-consciousness.
“I felt as though I had been thrust back into a dream from which I had no power to awaken. My only thought was to return to that state I had known the night before. I rushed up the twisted road and scrambled up the hill to the cliff on top of the world, above the forest and ocean, where I had often conversed with God; and I sat there, out of breath, praying, with tears running down my cheeks, for God to take me back into Himself … During that night in the enchanted forest, I had been thoroughly transformed. I was never the same again. I had been given an enlightening knowledge that affected my vision of the world and myself forever.”
~ Swami Abhayananda “Suddenly the breath returned to my lungs. With a disappointment almost unbearable, I realized that my infinite immensity was lost. Once more I was limited to the humiliating cage of a body, not easily accommodative to the Spirit.” ~ P. Yogananda (the young Yogananda’s first adventure in Cosmic Consciousness) “When I see the new body and personality that I’m supposed to put on in order to come into this world, it feels like putting on an overcoat on a hot summer day - uncomfortable. But then I get used to it.” ~ P. Yogananda “When the available store of this new pranic fuel is spent, the mystic again reverts to his normal consciousness, returning, as it were, from a smiling, brightly lit Garden of Paradise to the humdrum existence of a prosaic world. No words can express the grandeur and sublimity of the experience nor the happiness and serenity felt” ~ Gopi Krishna “After tasting such bliss even once, one will repeatedly try to regain it. Having once experienced the bliss of peace, no one would like to be out of it, or engage himself otherwise.” ~ Ramana Maharshi View of the Universe – in the mystic vision, the entire cosmos can be seen and experienced.
“All space floats like an iceberg within my mental sea.
Colossal Container, I, of all things made. ~ P. Yogananda “A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being.” ~ P. Yogananda “Flung out into the endless reaches of infinity, worlds upon worlds evolve, enact their tumultuous dramas, and then withdraw from the stage once more” ~ Swami Abhayananda |
