The Teachings of the Mystics
Encyclopedia
The Teachings of the Mystics is a 1960
work of popular philosophy
by the Princeton
philosopher W T Stace
that lays out his philosophy of mysticism
and compiles writings on mystical experience from across religious traditions. The book’s comprehensive selections met with broadly positive responses.
, parapsychological phenomena, visions, voices, and anything ‘misty’ or vague. Stace distinguishes between two types of mystical experience: extrovertive mysticism experiences unity in the world through the physical senses, while an introvertive type experiences unity in the self. Stace sees introvertive mysticism as more important and the focus of The Teachings of the Mystics. He proposes that there is a core to mystical experience, which is more basic and important than superficial differences over time and across cultures. This hypothesis can only be justified by a survey of mystics’ descriptions of their experiences – the book purports to be that. Stace chooses texts that describe mystical experience, rather than interpret or analyse it.
Hindu mysticism
Stace selects from the Chandogya Upanishad
, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
, Svetasvatara Upanishad, and Sri Aurobindo
’s book The Life Divine.
Buddhist mysticism
Stace selects from the Udana
on Nirvana
, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta
of the Digha Nikaya
and the Majjhima Nikaya
from the Hinayana school. Mahayana
selections are taken from The Awakening of Faith by Aśvaghoṣa
, the Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya
and the Diamond Sutra
. Zen
is represented by DT Suzuki on Satori
, Eugen Herrigel
on the Koan and satori.
Taoist mysticism
Selections are taken from Laozi
’s Tao Te Ching
,
Plotinus
Enneads
selected include those that describe The Ascent to Union with the One.
Christian mysticism
Selections are taken from Dionysius the Areopagite
’s The Divine Names and Mystical Theology, various Meister Eckhart
sermons, Jan van Ruysbroeck’s The Adornment of Spiritual Marriage and The Book of Supreme Truth, excerpts from The Life of St. Theresa and The Interior Castle by St Theresa of Avila, and from The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.
Islamic mysticism
Mystics represented include Abu Said Ibn al Arabi's Kitab al-Wajd, Abu Yazid Al Bistami
, Ibn Sina (Avicena), Farid al-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds
, Ibn al-Arabi
, and Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Jewish mysticism
Stace quotes Gershom Scholem, the leading authority on Jewish mysticism, writing that union with God is extremely rare in Judaism, although there are some instances of this in Abraham Abulafia and some later Hasidism. None the less, Stace finds quotes from The Zohar.
After laying out the contemporary mystical experiences of Arthur Koestler
in his book The Invisible Writing
, Stace’s final chapter rounds up his conclusions drawn over the course of the book and looks to the future of mysticism.
, the book could be seen as a companion volume to Stace’s more academic work, Mysticism and Philosophy, although representing his ideas at an earlier stage. The Teachings of the Mystics helps overcome the difficulty that many readers experience with understanding the writings of mystics by its use of clear introductions and brief selections. However, Stace doesn’t spell out his concept of the ‘universal core’ of mysticism precisely enough. Writing in Mind
, Thomas McPherson regarded the book as a by-product of Mysticism and Philosophy, and despite quibbling over a few selections, he concluded the book’s introductory essay was useful and the selections sensible.
1960 in literature
The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....
work of popular philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
by the Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
philosopher W T Stace
Walter Terence Stace
Walter Terence Stace was a British civil servant, educator, philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, Mysticism, and Moral relativism...
that lays out his philosophy of mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and compiles writings on mystical experience from across religious traditions. The book’s comprehensive selections met with broadly positive responses.
Synopsis
An introductory chapter lays out Stace’s philosophy and psychology of mysticism. He defines the principal characteristic of mystical experience as ‘the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things’, and differentiates it from occultOccult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
, parapsychological phenomena, visions, voices, and anything ‘misty’ or vague. Stace distinguishes between two types of mystical experience: extrovertive mysticism experiences unity in the world through the physical senses, while an introvertive type experiences unity in the self. Stace sees introvertive mysticism as more important and the focus of The Teachings of the Mystics. He proposes that there is a core to mystical experience, which is more basic and important than superficial differences over time and across cultures. This hypothesis can only be justified by a survey of mystics’ descriptions of their experiences – the book purports to be that. Stace chooses texts that describe mystical experience, rather than interpret or analyse it.
Hindu mysticism
Stace selects from the Chandogya Upanishad
Chandogya Upanishad
The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the "primary" Upanishads. Together with the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it ranks among the oldest Upanishads, dating to the Vedic Brahmana period....
, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
The Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" Upanishads. It is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana, and its status as an independent Upanishad may be considered a secondary extraction of a portion of the Brahmana text. This makes it one of the oldest texts of the Upanishad corpus...
, Svetasvatara Upanishad, and Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
’s book The Life Divine.
Buddhist mysticism
Stace selects from the Udana
Udana
The Udana is a Buddhist scripture, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. It is included there in the Sutta Pitaka's Khuddaka Nikaya. The title might be translated "inspired utterances"...
on Nirvana
Nirvana
Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...
, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta
Mahaparinibbana Sutta
For the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra see Nirvana Sutra.----The Mahaparinibbana Sutta is a Theravada Buddhist sutta in the Digha Nikaya of the Tipitaka...
of the Digha Nikaya
Digha Nikaya
The Digha Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the first of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
and the Majjhima Nikaya
Majjhima Nikaya
The Majjhima Nikaya is a Buddhist scripture, the second of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism...
from the Hinayana school. Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
selections are taken from The Awakening of Faith by Aśvaghoṣa
Asvaghosa
' was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India to a Brahmin family. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivaled the...
, the Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya
Heart Sutra
The Heart Sūtra is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra. Its Sanskrit name literally translates to "Heart of the Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom." The Heart Sūtra is often cited as the best known and most popular of all Buddhist scriptures.-Introduction:The Heart Sūtra is a member of the Perfection of...
and the Diamond Sutra
Diamond Sutra
The Diamond Sūtra , is a short and well-known Mahāyāna sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment...
. Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
is represented by DT Suzuki on Satori
Satori
is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment that literally means "understanding". In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment, and is considered a "first step" or embarkation toward nirvana....
, Eugen Herrigel
Eugen Herrigel
Eugen Herrigel was a German philosopher who taught philosophy at Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Japan, from 1924-1929 and introduced Zen to large parts of Europe through his writings.While living in Japan from 1924 to 1929, he studied kyūdō, traditional Japanese archery, under Awa...
on the Koan and satori.
Taoist mysticism
Selections are taken from Laozi
Laozi
Laozi was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching . His association with the Tao Te Ching has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of Taoism...
’s Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching, Dao De Jing, or Daodejing , also simply referred to as the Laozi, whose authorship has been attributed to Laozi, is a Chinese classic text...
,
Plotinus
Enneads
Enneads
The Six Enneads, sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads , is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry . Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas and they were founders of Neoplatonism...
selected include those that describe The Ascent to Union with the One.
Christian mysticism
Selections are taken from Dionysius the Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, the author of the Corpus Areopagiticum . The author is identified as "Dionysos" in the corpus, which later incorrectly came to be attributed to Dionysius...
’s The Divine Names and Mystical Theology, various Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
sermons, Jan van Ruysbroeck’s The Adornment of Spiritual Marriage and The Book of Supreme Truth, excerpts from The Life of St. Theresa and The Interior Castle by St Theresa of Avila, and from The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross.
Islamic mysticism
Mystics represented include Abu Said Ibn al Arabi's Kitab al-Wajd, Abu Yazid Al Bistami
Bayazid Bastami
Bayazid Bastami , also known as Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami, was a Persian Sufi born in Bastam, Iran.- Background :...
, Ibn Sina (Avicena), Farid al-Din Attar’s The Conference of the Birds
The Conference of the Birds
The Conference of the Birds is a book of poems in Persian by Farid ud-Din Attar of approximately 4500 lines. The poem's plot is as follows: the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their king, as they have none. The hoopoe, the wisest of them all, suggests that they should find the...
, Ibn al-Arabi
Ibn Arabi
Ibn ʿArabī was an Andalusian Moorish Sufi mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī .-Biography:...
, and Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Jewish mysticism
Stace quotes Gershom Scholem, the leading authority on Jewish mysticism, writing that union with God is extremely rare in Judaism, although there are some instances of this in Abraham Abulafia and some later Hasidism. None the less, Stace finds quotes from The Zohar.
After laying out the contemporary mystical experiences of Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
in his book The Invisible Writing
The Invisible Writing
The Invisible Writing: The Second Volume Of An Autobiography, 1932-40 is a book by Arthur Koestler.It follows on from Arrow in the Blue, published a mere two years earlier, and which described his life from his birth in 1905, to 1931, and deals with a much shorter period, a mere eight years...
, Stace’s final chapter rounds up his conclusions drawn over the course of the book and looks to the future of mysticism.
Critical response
The Teachings of the Mystics was seen as a useful historical overview of the central ideas of mysticism, and despite losing something in translation between experience and authorship is never tedious. For Huston SmithHuston Smith
Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...
, the book could be seen as a companion volume to Stace’s more academic work, Mysticism and Philosophy, although representing his ideas at an earlier stage. The Teachings of the Mystics helps overcome the difficulty that many readers experience with understanding the writings of mystics by its use of clear introductions and brief selections. However, Stace doesn’t spell out his concept of the ‘universal core’ of mysticism precisely enough. Writing in Mind
Mind (journal)
Mind is a British journal, currently published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association, which deals with philosophy in the analytic tradition...
, Thomas McPherson regarded the book as a by-product of Mysticism and Philosophy, and despite quibbling over a few selections, he concluded the book’s introductory essay was useful and the selections sensible.