“… mysticism [is] the critical means of gaining insight into life’s essential mysteries. … science’s particular tools cannot access the full spectrum of what we are, or of what the world is. … we have a noetic, experiential capacity for accessing knowledge, a mystical function of our being that directly accesses a truth unattainable by scientific or analytical means. There are methods whereby we can expand our minds, expand our consciousness, to the point where we can apprehend metaphysical dimensions of what we are (and of what the world is) that escape an exclusively rational or quantitative approach. … awakening to these noetic dimensions, as had been achieved in earlier generations by mystics in all cultures, is not only our innate human capacity but also a necessary step in our evolution as a species.
… Maybe people were assuming that their consciousness was fixed by its very nature when in reality it was only fixed by nurture, based on social conditioning and the momentum of everyday habits; maybe there is a wide band of possible experiences that we shut out daily because of that conditioning and the weight of our personal assumptions.”
Dana Sawyer “Huston Smith: Wisdomkeeper. Living the World’s Religions. The Authorized Biography of a 21st Century Spiritual Giant.” Fons Vitae, Louisville, KY, 2014.
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| Rhone Valley, France |
