Sunyata (Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen)
Evelyn Underhill has defined mysticism as the art of union with Reality. A “mystic” is an individual who has attained, or awakened into that union to a greater or lesser degree, or he is the one who has an inkling of that unity and who aims at it.
In the unity awareness of mystic, there is no sense of personal or individual identity – and yet it is a kind of a witnessing and affectionate awareness. In this awareness, there is affectionate detachment, appreciation of rightness, but no analyzing, no mental discrimination or judgement.
I, me and mine are not there – nor is there any sense of the past or the future. It is only awareness of Being. The External Now encompasses all that has been and is.
Nothing seems to be unnecessary or out of the place to a mystic. Harmony reigns in the mystic’s vision; unbroken perfection is in and over all. It is a perfect blending of all into an indescribable expression of grace, joy, peace, beauty, love, compassion, and wisdom awareness. The One is the non-dual experiencing, the non-thing-ness. To know God is to be God. Being Awareness Grace. Tat Twam Asi.
There is a new dimension, a realization that “all is well” now and always, that the power of love, empathy and “participation mystique” absorbs all and transcends all. Self, God, Grace is an ever-present reality that enfolds us always. In it, we live and move and have our Being.
This is the mystic’s experiencing in wholeness and grace awareness. Whether things we attain in the Life play or things we miss, everything is acceptable and right. It is all acceptance; it is in a new but very real sense, loving it, awaring and loving our Self in all things, phenomena and happenings.
Love pervades everything. All conflicts and sufferings are like surface waves upon the quiet ocean depth. There is nothing that we habitually call good either, since the truth of all opposites is beyond all seeming contradictions and takes them into the Self.
There is something perfect in all created things. Ultimately, they can live by it and nothing else matters. The mind’s knowledge is never certain. Intuition alone reveals Reality. Only Self awareness is certain.
The duality of body and soul does not exist for the Self-realized sage. In the bodily, mental and spiritual functions, there is only a difference of degrees, but not in essence. When the mind has become luminous, the body too must partake in this luminous nature.
This is the reason for the radiation which emanates from all saints and the Enlightened Ones. The aura which surrounds them is described and depicted in all religions. The radiation is visible only to the intuitive or spiritual eye. In ego surrender, the light of wisdom and the warmth of the heart are united.
A genuine mystic feels intuitively but knows very little mentally. Thought is still duality, whereas intuitive feeling can be ego-free and experiential. A mystic, pure and simple does not care. He is carefree, age-free and ego-free. All mystics feel the same intuitively, but they express it in different ways.
Grace is not the kind of euphoria hippies talk about. It cannot be ingested chemically. Spiritual consumatum can be achieved by everyone, “high caste, low caste, dog eaters – nay, even women,” as the Bhagawad Gita puts it so charmingly.
Excerpted from ‘Dancing with the Void’. Sunyata was a Danish mystic, horticulturalist and writer who lived in Europe, India and the US. His 131st birth anniversary was observed on October 27
