kamalamala1 wrote:YOur deffinition of mysticism is not so corect.
My understanding is in line with this Kamalamala. See:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/571823/Sufism
A mystic is a person who achieves mystical experience or an apprehension of divine mysteries, especially intuitive understanding; perception on a direct and immediate level.
Mystics believe that their experiences disclose the existence of an extrasensory dimension of reality: phenomena whose existence cannot be detected through sense perception become apparent during mystical experience. Mystics differ radically, however, in their claims about extrasensory realities. Ancient and Hellenistic philosophers offered three examples of the reality of the extrasensory: the numbers and mathematical formulas of Pythagoras; the forms (or “ideas”) of Plato and the universals (substantial and accidental forms) of Aristotle; and the Stoic concept of the lekton, or “saying.” Thus, a number or a mathematical formula exists or is true objectively, whether or not it is known by any person. It is an intelligible or thinkable reality, though not a sensible or perceptible one."
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mysticism : The practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them.
"The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an initiate of a secret cult or mystery religion. In Classical Greece (5th–4th century bce) and during the Hellenistic Age (323 bce–330 ce), the rites of the mystery religions were largely or wholly secret. The term mystes is itself derived from the verb myein (“to close,” especially the eyes or mouth) and signified a person who kept a secret. Early Christianity appropriated the technical vocabulary of the Hellenistic mysteries but later disavowed secrecy, resulting in a transformation of the meaning of mystes. In subsequent Christian usage, mystes, or mystic, referred to practitioners of doctrinally acceptable forms of religious ecstasy.
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Origin of the word mystic
via Latin from Greek mustikos, from mustēs mystery initiate; related to muein to initiate into sacred rites, In Middle English, the noun meant "symbolic meaning, interpretation" (early 14c.).
from Greek mystikos "secret, mystic, connected with the mysteries," from mystes "one who has been initiated" (see mystery (n.1)). Meaning "pertaining to occult practices or ancient religions" first recorded 1610s.
"mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of humanity and of God and to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world.
Islamic mysticism is called taṣawwuf (literally, “to dress in wool”) in Arabic, but it has been called Sufism in Western languages since the early 19th century. An abstract word, Sufism derives from the Arabic term for a mystic, ṣūfī, which is in turn derived from ṣūf, “wool,” plausibly a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics. The Sufis are also generally known as “the poor,” fuqarāʾ, plural of the Arabic faqīr, in Persian darvīsh, whence the English words fakir and dervish.
Though the roots of Islamic mysticism formerly were supposed to have stemmed from various non-Islamic sources in ancient Europe and even India, it now seems established that the movement grew out of early Islamic asceticism that developed as a counterweight to the increasing worldiness of the expanding Muslim community; only later were."
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"Early Christianity was a religion of the spirit that expressed itself in the heightening and enlargement of human consciousness." "
The mystical aspect of early Christianity finds its fullest expression, however, in the letters of Paul and The Gospel According to John. For Paul and John, mystical experience and aspiration are always for union with Christ."
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using ones common sense in all circumstances is best. The proof is "my" last comment above. "Someone" dear to me must have taken the opportunity to express in this forum her view and understanding on this issue in a moment where I left the computer while still conncted to Har 