Expanding on my previous dialog, almost all mystical liturature begins by telling us that the mystical experience is "unknowable" Here are a couple of examples:
The primal center is the innermost light, of a translucence, subtlety, and purity beyond comprehension. That inner point extends to become a "palace" which acts as an enclosure for the center, and is also of a radiance translucent beyond the power to know it. The "palace" vestment for the incognizable inner point, while it is an unknowable radiance in itself, is nevertheless of a lesser subtlety and translucency than the primal point. The palace extends into a vestment for itself, the primal light. From then outward, there is extension upon extension, each constituting a vesture to the one before, as a membrane to the brain. Though membrane first, each extension becomes brain to the next extension. (From the Zohar, one of the older Jewish texts on Kabballah)See... the analogy is, none of us could possibly comprehend the center, or even the next step away from the center. The best we can hope for is to start to understand out there in some subdivision well separated from the palace.
And this one from the Tao Te Ching
The Tao which can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao; the name which can be uttered is not the eternal name. Without a name it is the Beginning of Heaven and Earth; with a name it is the Mother of all things. (Tao Te Ching; Chapter 1)
Again, there are many, translations of every verse in the Tao Te Ching, but again, the essence of this one suggests that no words could possibly describe the Tao. Again, we're just too limited to understand. There is more, much more from many different traditions that all suggest those who claim to "know" the Tao, don't understand it.
So, again, following my previous threads, I would contend that mystical vision, mystical understanding, the
mystical world view is not so inaccessible.A common saying (perhaps too common), is that "A picture is worth a thousand words"; and yet, no matter how many times you read the word lemon, it does not convey the same thing as a picture of a lemon; and could a thousand word essay actually produce the same thing as a picture? Probably not (though some may come close). Even more so, can a picture of a lemon produce the experience of tasting a lemon? Could you express through words, pictures, movies, sound, the experience of tasting a lemon?
And this is my point. While it may be true that the experience of the Tao and the Zohar, and other traditions are indescribable, so are all of our human experiences. That's why we use words. You cannot directly relate any experience to another human being (Vulcan Mind Melds not withstanding). So lacking the ability to telepathically communicate ANY HUMAN EXPERIENCE we resort to words (and pictures) to describe them. And after telling us we can't comprehend the Tao, the Ain Sof, or the mystical experience, all mystical liturature then goes on to describe it, like we do any human experience - in words.
So, while it may not be an overly common human experience, it is still just that, a human experience. It is no more mysterious than a lemon, and how lemon heads, lemon merrangue, lemon juice, etc, all relate. We know it, inately, without anyone having to tell us. I think the mystical experience is like this as well. A human experience that we find sometimes in many ways, many paths, many views. but knowable all the less.
My blog is to continue to explore that line between the Agnostic and the Mystic where we make the unknowable more accessible; try to shed some of the mysteries of the mystics, and make the Agnostics more knowledgable.
