Einar Adalsteinsson

THE MYSTICAL APPROACH

There is an experience which we read of in prose and religious texts of every culture and time. This is the experience of oneness, the mystical experience in its waste variety. It is a special state of consciousness, where thought has totally ended and there remains only the silence of total peace in the mind. People fall into this state of mind, sometimes without noticing how or why. There is suddenly this overwhelming silence and the person stands thunderstruck against this totally new experience, for it is always new and fresh, even if he or she is experiencing it more than once. Common description might be something like this: "I was one with everything there is. I was the world and the world became I. My separation from the world disintegrated and instead there was love and oneness, impersonal, all encompassing. Hate was unthinkable and all my problems vanished into thin air. Everything was good" Such description is taken from ordinary people telling how they experienced their world when this special state of mind prevailed. "The world was as it had always been, nothing had changed except that the "I" had ceased to be, had blended into everything else". This has been called I-less-ness.

This is a state that is without problems and therefore rather comforting and desirable. You feel that you are nothing but the whole of existence, regardless whether you look to the stars or think of your neighbor. Everyone is a brother, whether he be rich or poor, good or bad, friend or enemy in the ordinary terms.

Often people feel that they are standing before God, sometimes even a picture of the Godhead appears before them. But we should bear in mind that God is an idea acquired from someone else. The God that the Christians see is different from that of the Hindus. You may have touched the universal Divinity, but its form is from your own religion or civilization. The aim of the mystical approach is to reach for this state of consciousness and the methods take form after that.

I every spiritual endeavor it soon becomes apparent that we don't master our basic faculties, our thoughts and our emotions. On the contrary we find that we are the slaves of those very faculties. To be able to begin to use our feelings and thoughts in our daily life, we have to know ourselves. To change, we first have to know how we are. We have to look inside and see what is taking place there. And in the mystical work this is the key to every change. Awareness itself is a subtle, ongoing change. We may have a desire to change, on the surface or deep down, we may see that our life is not quite as it should be, but this seems to be inadequate. The effort, the desire must go. We have to trust the escalation of the present, what is coming, from moment to moment. We have to let go of the desire, of the negative, of the fear. In fact we have to sacrifice our life to the becoming. This is of great importance for the mystical approach. You take everything as it comes, look at it, as from behind the scenes, like a divine comedy on the stage, everyone playing his role, spontaneously, intuitively, - you inclusive. Slowly you learn to direct your life, like the director of an orchestra or a drama, not participating, not intervening to much, rather influencing in a subtle way. You look, wait, patient and attentive, of what is going on, inside and outside.

Ordinary will is of no use. You see how it is always born of desire and fear, how it always relates to thought and reason. It breeds conflict, inside and outside. It simply doesn't fit into the scheme of things. But there is another factor, more related to the feelings, to sensitivity, a sort of Inner Will, impersonal, non formal. You are coming in touch with the informal side of the existence, where everything is related, and where there is an inner entrance to every soul. We are all open to the realm beyond, where we are almost visibly connected on the inside.

When there is silence and tranquillity we can begin to "use" this inner will or what I would like to call intent. Intent is in a way similar to ordinary will, something which we put in motion or give direction, and then allow to work its own way. We see a possibility, something that should be done, something that should be. We will it to be, intent it to be, wholeheartedly, but in the same moment give this intent to the whole of existence and look at its effects from behind, without a trace of desire for a result. This is the true prayer - I ask you, my lord, if it is according your divine will, - is the prevailing state of mind, and nothing else is needed. If it is to become, it will, and you look at it happen, sometimes like a miracle, mostly in an unexpected way, but you know that it works.

We may see someone in distress and feel the need to help. But even if we try all we can from the outside, it doesn't help. (It usually doesn't! - Right?) Let's stand by calmly and meditate. Let's feel the pain, the misery, the anger, whatever, and let's wish him or her all the good, intensely and sincerely, and then let it go, give it to the divinity, which means that the desire no longer exists. What will come out of it is not our business any more. We know that our petty desires are no match to the divine scheme of things anyway, so we only wish, but do not press. But we watch to see what happens, attentive, patiently, even a little curious. We can also look at it in another way, that we sink the wish deep inside, into the common unconscious, where all existence is at hand, whole and undivided.

My private will has no place in the scheme of existence, but if I see what is and place my intent according to it, then I am partaking in God's creation on his premises. To see what is, takes peaceful and quiet mind, still emotions and faith in life. Faith is something that comes slowly into being with increased impartial awareness. Of course it is only in our best moments that we really are in touch with this inner side of ourselves. Most of the time we are entangled in the daily struggle of the mirror world. But there are rare moments in our lives when we are in our natural state, atone with nature, atone with life.

There is a tremendous power at hand inside. It is not mine or yours, it is an impartial, living, compassionate force of love. You can't but feel it if you go inside in meditation. You can't touch it, but it reacts to your silent prayer, it interacts with your whole being. You find that you can trust it, with your life, with your whole existence. Slowly you build up faith in life, trust that nothing and no one can shake. It is not always prevalent on the outside-you, where the ocean of life still reigns, sometimes calm, sometimes rough, but deep down, you always feel it, like a rock on the bottom of your existence. You place your destiny in the hands of Him that knows all and rules everything. Your life becomes a service to him in all and everything. But such faith is no hallelujah. You have the feeling that such faith is the very power that could move mountains if needed.

By looking at the world in this way we slowly become aware of the becoming. We can see what goes on in the depth of existence before it comes to the surface. We become aware of the general direction of the whole, the ground reason for every instance, and nothing comes as a surprise anymore. This is also built into the awareness, the clear awake attention, and we can now meet the life in the sharp cut moment, right where it all happens. You probably don't know exactly what happens next, but you have a continuos awakening understanding of what is happening moment by moment. You clearly see the close connection between the inner and the outer, the relations between my inner being and the so-called outer world. I becomes clear that there is only one world, that what I meet inside is also outside. When there is calm inside everything goes smooth outside but if there is storm inside we find even so-called dead matter turning against us out there.

A curious factor for one that has believed in karma is to encounter its real and living counterpart in this co-existent inner-outer world. To see the lessons come, to try and meet them head on and take whatever comes. To realize over and again how deep ones real problems go, and how tamasic ones nature really is. To witness the delicate interplay between ones inner moods and the outer happenings. To take to the real tasks, the untying of the big knots of complex relationships that may take years or even lifetimes to disentangle. To find that all one karma is there, inside oneself, packed in neat parcels of tendencies, faculties, guilt, fear and so on. To realize the fact that the enemies inside, as well as those outside, must become friends, by ones very invitation, before they loosen their grip on the soul. To find out first hand that to conquer is to surrender to the truth, to reality itself.

All this and much more, is the work to be done by the mystical approach, and yet there is nothing to be done. Not to do but to be, not to will but to see, not to strive but to love. And lastly, there is nothing more important than enduring, patient, non attached and wide awake awareness focused on what is, on life itself.