From: Scott Roberts (jse885@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2005 - 00:47:00 GMT
Platt,
> Just so I understand your view of mystic experience a bit better, would
> you say the following passage from Lila is descriptive of such an
> experience?
>
> "He found an example within the field of music. He said, imagine that you
> walk down a street past, say, a car where someone has the radio on and it
> plays a tune you've never heard before but which is so fantastically good
> it just stops you in your tracks.[etc.]
>
> From what you said below, I take it this is NOT descriptive of mystic
> experience.
Well, I don't know. I think there is something mystical about the fact that
some experiences are more intense than others. But I tend to restrict the
word 'mystical' for something radically transforming, which this is not.
After all, after getting bowled over by the song, you might still go home
and beat up your spouse. This is not to say that all mystics are saints.
Just that, say, realizing that attacking someone else is an attack on
oneself is likely to teach one not to attack.
But this is just a matter of how one wants to use a particular word, in
this case, 'mystical'. It is not a case of my being right or someone else
being wrong. If you want to know what I think the word 'mystical' should
apply to, I recommend reading Merrell-Wolff's book (actually two books
reprinted together) Experience and Philosophy. Or Bernadette Roberts (no
relation), The Experience of No-Self. You'll learn more from them than from
me.
- Scott
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