Mysticism

[Anonymous No.13621056]

I'm interested in the mystical aspect of all the major religions. Where can I find a comparative text of the practice of such traditions?
Also best books on mysticism ?

[Anonymous No.13621083]

Do you think you can use magic to reverse your inceldom and finally have sex?

[Anonymous No.13621154]

>>13621083
Not really

[Anonymous No.13621159]

Varieties of religious experience

[Anonymous No.13621175]

>>13621159
Thank you, but I'm searching something more focused on the practical aspect of the Union with God. AKA how does one became one with good ? What are the steps ?

[Anonymous No.13621412]

>>13621175
James has a range of ways (though take no2 at your own risk of becoming steve-o) and most research builds on them to some extent. Large group awareness seminars and the like distill the physical aspects of how to induce a trance and sense of transformative enlightenment down to breathing exercises and chants and trust falls and such. Others use entheogenic drugs. Others use asceticism to pursue feelings of purity and detachment. Others use charismatic preachers and group expectations to produce seizures and glossolalia. It's all in James.

[Anonymous No.13621510]

>>13621175
William James is Anglo reductionist garbage and is best ignored, read Guenon's books on metaphysics and from there choose 1 or 2 schools of thought that he references to deeply study (e.g. Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Taoism, Tantra, some Mahayana Buddhism, Neoplatonism etc). In the translated writings of all these schools one finds all the advice and guidance on the practical aspects of mysticism and union with the divine that you are looking for. If you devote yourself to the study of 1 or 2 of these schools and read through the entire corpus of its main thinker(s) and its most important scriptures/treatises you'll find an immense wealth of knowledge and advice on mysticism/metaphysics and how to experience them firsthand. Ignore any and all books that try to shoehorn these experiences through the lenses of psychology and other naturalistic/scientific explanations.

[Anonymous No.13621532]

>>13621510
That's precisely what I don't want to do. I've already read the main text of the traditionalist school and I have a good understanding of advaita Vedanta and Christian mistycism. What I was asking for is some text to start a comparative work of the practice of all the traditions. Not the believes (even if I know they are present in the meditations) but only the practical aspect.

[Anonymous No.13621619]

>>13621175
>how does one became one with good ? What are the steps ?
die

[Anonymous No.13621636]

>>13621532
Reading the writings of the Traditionalists is not a substitute for reading the actual writings of those schools of thought, for all the seriousness with which they take the subject of their writing, Guenon and the rest of them were only ever able to give comparatively cursory and brief summaries of those schools of thought. The best place to read about the practices of those schools is in the writings that belong to them, because books *about* them are never able to go into the subject with the same level of detail and expertise that the writings belonging to these schools do. Nevertheless if you really insist on reading a summary instead of the primary texts themselves, something that might fit what you are looking for would be 'Paths to Transcendence: According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi & Meister Eckhart' by Reza Shah-Kazemi

[Anonymous No.13621655]

>>13621636
Thank you, I think you are right. Do you know where I can find a good reading list of the mystic texts for each tradition ? I tried online and j can't find anything good.

[Anonymous No.13622012]

>>13621655
bumping while I write a brief guide

[Anonymous No.13622017]

>>13621056
Indians, Neoplatonists, and the Egyptians are what you want

[Anonymous No.13622024]

>>13621083
Yes, with the teachings of my master E. A. Koetting finding a suitable femoid to carry my seed won't be a issue anymore.

[Anonymous No.13622027]

>>13621056

[Anonymous No.13622040]

>>13622012
Thank you so much

[Anonymous No.13622072]

>>13621056
Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena
Cloud of Unknowing

[Anonymous No.13622081]

Also read this, your mind will become a pretzel. You may want to find a cheaper version if you can
https://www.amazon.com/Coomaraswamy-One-Selected-Traditional-Symbolism/dp/0691098859/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=coomaraswamy+selected&qid=1565545060&s=books&sr=1-3

[Anonymous No.13622138]

>>13622081
Volume 2 is what you want if you're wanting metaphysics. It's kind of expensive. Fun fact though the author knew about 35 languages ancient and modern, was on the stamp of India once

https://www.amazon.com/Coomaraswamy-Selected-Papers-Metaphysics-v/dp/0691018731/ref=pd_sbs_14_2/144-1875253-2824720?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0691018731&pd_rd_r=97fa7d33-90dd-4a26-9a24-e6a2d13d4bee&pd_rd_w=I262L&pd_rd_wg=lh8lZ&pf_rd_p=43281256-7633-49c8-b909-7ffd7d8cb21e&pf_rd_r=BBAGKAZ8E0QNYX3DMB67&psc=1&refRID=BBAGKAZ8E0QNYX3DMB67

[Anonymous No.13622167]

>>13621655
Advaita Vedanta: Adi Shankara's writings are a must, his Vivekachudamani and his Bhagavad-Gita commentary are both summaries of Advaita and both explain many different practices one can do. Also, the Yoga Vasistha and the Ashtavakra Gita are excellent

Sufism: Ibn Arabi one of the most important to read, his Fusus al-Hikam is a good overview and he also has other works focusing on various spiritual practices. Also, the Kashf al-Mahjub by al-Hujwiri is a good read. There are various Sufi poets like Rumi and Hakim Sanai as well who are great supplements to the prose Sufi texts

Taoism: Tao Te Ching (worth reading multiple translations of), the Zhuangzi, the Liezi, The Secret of the Golden Flower (this one is especially about spiritual practices, Jung's translation gets things wrong though), and Thomas Cleary has a large anthology of various translated minor Taoist writings

Tantra: Kashmir Shaivism is one of the most sophisticated Tantra schools, a good place is to begin is one of the classical commentaries on the Siva Sutras, Abhinavagupta is the schools most important thinker and should be read, his Tantrasara is a condensed summary of KS teachings. Arthur Woodroffe also has translations of various earlier non-KS tantric texs.

Mahayana Buddhism: begin with reading some Pali Canon suttas to get a feel for the basis of the whole thing, then read Nagarjuna of the Madhyamaka school then read early Yogachara like Vasubandhu/Asanga. Then you can read various Mahayana sutras which combine all the aforementioned stuff like the Lankavatara, Platform, Lotus, Heart, Diamond sutras, also the Tathagatagarbha-class sutras. Once you've read this you can get into reading Chan, Zen and Tibetian writings which combine the ideas of and reference all of the above, from the Tibetian stuff I recommend Dzogchen and Jonang.

Neoplatonism: the pre-socratics, Plato, Plotinus' Enneads, out of the post-Plotinus neoplatonists, I believe Proclus is more about theory/systematizng while its the ones like Ilambicus, Damascius and Porphry get more into practices like Theurgy.

[Anonymous No.13622215]

>>13622167
Thank you so much

>>13622081
>>13622138
Thanks

[Anonymous No.13622240]

>>13622017
>Egyptians

they left behind nothing

[Anonymous No.13622243]

>>13622138
go away ken wheeler

[Anonymous No.13622247]

[Anonymous No.13622275]

>>13622247
bad

[Anonymous No.13622310]

>>13622240
That's true but the ancient Greeks were definitely inspired by them

http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/ten_keys.htm

[Anonymous No.13622344]

>>13622275
Something good about Christian mysticism ?

[Anonymous No.13622384]

>>13622344
Also interested, i would like to know more about it. Is there a comparative idea to Hesychasm in non orthodox traditions?

[Anonymous No.13622420]

>>13622344
the writings of Jean Borella

[Anonymous No.13622437]

>>13622384
Hindus have ascetic practices being internal tapas which seem to involve what Hesychasm is aimed at some of the time

[Anonymous No.13622522]

>>13621056
I cannot find the fucking book, don't remember what it's called, but it was a look into the similarities of mystic experiences from different cultures, and it was very accurate, i know because I had a classic 'outer' mystic experience.

Youll know if it's the correct one if it starts talking at the start about the lives that mystics live, and how their episodes occur rather than the nature of mysticism itself.

I know this post is highly useless but i just can't find the book and it is very good, it was some university study of mystics.

[Anonymous No.13622542]

>>13622522
It'd be much appreciated if you'd continued your search

[Anonymous No.13622563]

>>13622542
im still looking lol, searching variations of keywords on google, i hate when this happens.

[Anonymous No.13622581]

>>13622167
>Secret of the Golden Flower
How did Jung get it wrong? I haven't read anything whatsoever about his alchemy so I wouldn't know, just curious.

[Anonymous No.13622609]

>>13621056
>>13621175

For more of a practical step by step guide, check out Initiation into Hermetics, Franz Bardon.

[Anonymous No.13622701]

>>13622581
By my understanding, there are two different texts called Secret of the Golden Flower in Chinese. It just so happened that Wilheim and Cleary chose different texts for their translations.

[Anonymous No.13622706]

More mysticism for op:

Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism
Philosophy and Theurgy
Davis Uzdavinys

Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Hermeneutics)
Gregory Shaw

On Aristotle: Metaphysics 3-4
Syriannus

The Enneads
Plotinus

Check the translations on this one b/ there aren't any decent ones in English, Thomas Taylor is supposed to be good but his is incomplete

Elements of Theology
Proclus

[Anonymous No.13622720]

>>13622167
Great summary, but I want to add if you are looking for modern scholarly translations of Taoism texts, Fabrizio Pregadio's translations are a great resource.

[Anonymous No.13622924]

>>13622701
So you're saying they are two different books entirely, by the same title? I guess that would make things confusing, how are they different?

[Anonymous No.13623068]

Anyone read ladder of divine ascent, John Climacus?

[Anonymous No.13623085]

>>13622420
Any suggestions?

[Anonymous No.13623296]

>>13622563
News?

[Anonymous No.13623299]

>>13621056
The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

[Anonymous No.13623418]

>>13622924
Pregadio mentions it in his anthology of Taoist alchemical texts. If I remember correctly, he thought the text Cleary translated was more authentic and based his translation of the Golden Flower of of that. I'll post the passage when I get home.

[Anonymous No.13623463]

>>13623296
I honestly cant find it, i have no idea where it went. You should read Evelyn Underhill though she understands a lot about it, and I think the study I read must have incorporated her work on the stages of mysticism in life.

[Anonymous No.13623697]

>>13621056
>>13621159
http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani

reading divinely inspired or illuminated texts itself can be a mystical experience

[Anonymous No.13623735]

>>13621056
Avoid porphyry like the plague. Jung is alright.

[Anonymous No.13623819]

[Anonymous No.13623885]

>>13621056
Practical application (theurgy) involves an acceptance of the metaphysical quandary between the idea of the undescended soul (Plotinus) and the embodied (Iamblichus), or theurgical modality, wherein the soul has indeed descended into a body which must must make peace with daimons (Plato) through ritual alignment with a positive relationship with the cosmos—rather than “demons”, which ignorantly are supposed to be the material evil that only a philosophic elite must escape. These latter follow the supposition that the self is equatable to nous, that these are undescended from the cosmos, by which one must “escape” material life.

[Anonymous No.13624537]

>>13623418
>>13622924
I was mistaken about the authenticity part. Aslo, Thomas Cleary abridged some parts of TSofGF.
>There are several versions of the Jinhua zongzhi, none of which can be considered as the "authentic" one. The selections below are translated from the version found in the Daozang xubian (Sequel to the Taoist Canon). This version belongs to the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage, and in particular to its Jingai branch, which regards the Jinhua zongzhi as the main text on the cultivation of inner Nature (xing).2
>There are several differences between the selections published here and the corresponding portions in other published translations of the text. In particular, the first section is much longer and detailed compared to the version translated by Thomas Cleary, and certainly contains portions written by Min Yide (1748-1836, the main Jingai master) or by another author before him (possibly Tao Sixuan, ?-1692, another Jingai master).

Footnote 2
>Richard Wilhelm's translation, which includes the "psychological commentary" of C.G. Jung, is based on an edition published by Zhan Ranhui in 1921. Thomas Cleary's translation (also entitled The Secret of the Golden Flower) is based on the edition in the Daozang jiyao (Essentials of the Taoist Canon), first published by Jiang Yuanting in ca. 1800.

[Anonymous No.13624977]

>>13624537
Good info, I’ve yet to confront alchemy but I feel it drawing closer to me. I figured I’d observe the unconscious phantasm as long as I can until life’s responsibilities come at me full throttle since I’m still in school

[Anonymous No.13624986]

Joseph Campbell: The Power of Mythology. Fucking amazing read

[Anonymous No.13625040]

You'll know what to read after these.

[Anonymous No.13625125]

>>13624977
If you want to get started with Taoist alchemy, I suggest reading Cantong Qi and Yinfu Jing since those two are considered to be the primary texts of Inner Alchemy (neidan). Of course it goes without saying you should read the three main texts of Taoism first before studying alchemy (Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzhi, Lie tzu).

[Anonymous No.13625134]

>>13625125
>Taoist alchemy
>Medieval alchemy
Are they both related to soul transformation? I may just stick to Jung/Von Franz if it better appeals to my western spirit

[Anonymous No.13625155]

>>13625134
There are definitely broad similarities between the two. Esoterically, they provide methods to return to the spirit to the paradisial state at the beginning of Creation, or transmuting the base metals into gold. They even share the Sulfur, Mercury, and Cinnabar symbolism. Jean Cooper's Chinese Alchemy discusses the similarities and differences between Western and Eastern alchemy, even though it's about Taoist alchemy.

[Anonymous No.13625248]

>>13625155
The idea of investigating alchemy just seems a bit redundant, isn't one's general self-growth only accomplished in the visceral/experiential sense of overcoming fear at surface reality? Such as the idea of doing something skillfully, being nervous during the process, and proceeding to act skillfully without the state of nerves affecting the purpose at hand? That at least seems like the driving concern for (good) psychologists.

The metaphysical context I could see as being valuable, as far as the problem of embodiment or a paradoxical condition of holding the spirit with a perfected mimesis as well as forming the material with the spirit goes, the forethinking I'm giving it's entirety is almost like an outdated symbolism for hermeneutics more suited to the study of linguistic history than of meta-cognition?

[Anonymous No.13625901]

>>13623885
Where can I find more ?