(Friday, May 13, 2011, 11:46 AM)
Alchemic Eye of God Symbol
Alchemic Eye of God Symbol
All forms of mysticisms, I believe with Bertrand Russell, have these elements in common:
The mystics vary greatly in their
capacity for giving verbal expression to their experiences, but I think
we make take it that those who succeeded best all maintain:
(1) that all division and separateness is unreal, and that the universe is a single indivisible unity;
(2) that evil is illusory, and that the illusion arises through falsely regarding a part as self-subsistent;
(3) that time is unreal, and that reality is eternal, not in the sense of being everlasting, but in the sense of being wholly outside time.
I do not pretend that this is a complete account of the matters on which all mystics concur, but the three propositions that I have mentioned may serve as representatives of the whole.
-- Bertrand Russell, “Mysticism”, from Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1961
(1) that all division and separateness is unreal, and that the universe is a single indivisible unity;
(2) that evil is illusory, and that the illusion arises through falsely regarding a part as self-subsistent;
(3) that time is unreal, and that reality is eternal, not in the sense of being everlasting, but in the sense of being wholly outside time.
I do not pretend that this is a complete account of the matters on which all mystics concur, but the three propositions that I have mentioned may serve as representatives of the whole.
-- Bertrand Russell, “Mysticism”, from Religion and Science, Oxford University Press, 1961
To Bertrand Russell's three points above, I think it is necessary to add explicitly a 4th point:
(4) that the "god" of mysticism is ultimately and invariably non-personal, or anyway indistinguishable from the world and from "people".
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