Shocker: The Mystic is Not Necessarily a Saint

A friend who studies with Jeffrey Kripal at Rice University recently posted this excerpt from Kripal:

"The mystical is not the ethical. The former arises from the death or temporary disappearance of the ego; the latter emerges from the affirmation of the ego among many other egos, that is, from an uncompromising privileging of the human person within a community of persons. The mystical cannot lead to the ethical without considerable help from outside and elsewhere, that is, from reason, political theory, moral debate, and a love of human beings, not as ciphers for grand metaphysical realities (“Christ,” Brahman,” “emptiness,” or whatever), but as human beings in all their mundane and messy glory. Mystical experience may thus gives us a unique access to the ontological dimensions of human experience, but this ontological level cannot help us with our social and ethical tasks. It is certainly possible that we may find its apophatic and deconstructive powers helpful in our initial task of calling into question our own dominant fictions, but in the end we must turn elsewhere, well outside the mystical, for the tools we will need to construct another, more adequate fiction." -- Jeffrey Kripal, Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom

I was considering how it all comes back to metaphysics: “as above, so below.” I’m not sure I agree with Kripal’s emphasis on ontological humanism or his use of the phrase “more adequate fiction.” As we know, some fictions are also more true. But we do need a story that moves us, that allows us to pursue it in a way that changes us, and offers a relationship that is open, dynamic, and inspiring.

There are plenty of non-dual neo-advaitists shuffling away from any story, and where does that lead us? Maybe with some contentment, but is that the whole point? I hope not, because it sort of makes the past 14 billion years seem like a waste of time.

Ultimately, it’s all about realizing that we become what we love. So while mysticism can unpack and enliven a lot for us, it may not be ethically sufficient for most (see Da Free John).

So while I agree with Ken Wilber’s assessment that there are lines of development, and the mystic may be underdeveloped here and there, I do believe we need to take it a step further. Or maybe this step was already taken for us, but we are too clever to buy into it.

"One cannot dispense with the experience of others, i.e. with authority, if one wants to avoid the traps set along the way of spiritual experience." – Meditations of the Tarot

"Experience is the worst teacher. It gives the test before giving the lesson." – unknown