Today's discussion question

[Joseph Tracy]

Merton is an interesting choice. From secular skeptic to Trappist to a spiritually egalitarian embrace of Budhhism . This seems to mark the path of many mystics and the mystic within. Discipline is part of  a grounded and enduring spirituality, but no tradition of discipleship or practice can fully contain the the breadth of a spiritually liberated mind, no words can do it justice. 

Still I find much of what has been written as a result of these kinds of experiences inspiring, delightful and practically useful.  I also find that people who have been tempered by such experiences and who have treated religions with respect to be less intellectually brittle, less obsessively combative.  


On Aug 17, 2013, at 7:48 AM, alice wellintown wrote:

> I suspect that I am misreading Ian here....the idea that the mystical
> experience is ineffable, as William James defines it in his famous
> definition is, I now suspect, what Ian is getting at.
> 
> And, I agree with James and like his definition.
> 
> But to argue that mystical experience and, say traditonal religion,
> the great religions, organized religion...etc. is at odds with
> mystical experience doesn't make any sense. There is tension,
> certainly.
> 
> Take a look at Thomas Merton. What about the current Pope? All that
> money, tradition, power, bad history...but that man is a mystical one;
> he has experienced the devine. His practical approach to the church
> bank, to the homosexual faction in Rome, to his visit to Brasil, these
> may seem compromises a mystic would not make, but this is not the
> history of mystical experience.