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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>First of all, let me thank you Dr. Elior, for your generosity in
sharing your time and insights with all of us. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>I have come into the course late so only
had a chance to put together my thoughts this afternoon (Sunday), India time. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I did found parts of the discussion in the book difficult to grasp, but
hope I got the essence.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Below are
my thoughts on the themes in the first chapter, and some questions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Concerning the definition of mysticism, I don’t find anything
culturally specific in my dictionaries, but certainly the discussion of Jewish
mysticism in this book is culturally specific to Judaism. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>I am curious, however, about Joseph Dan’s
reluctance (in The Heart and the Fountain) to use the term mysticism for the
Jewish experience of the exploration of the ‘hidden reality’, that
reality that lies beyond the physical world and which is considered by the
mystics to be more real than this physical world. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Is this just a question of semantics?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I definitely believe that mystical experience is a way to apprehend a
universal hidden reality that is shared in common by people of all faiths,
cultures, times, and places--that it is the spiritual core, the soul, the
particle of the divine that gives us life.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
</span>It is the same universal reality that is in all of us.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>That said, it is true that mystics who
come from different backgrounds will try to describe their experiences using
language, metaphors, symbolism familiar to their followers, appropriate to the
time and place. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Jewish mystics were unique in taking the history of the Jewish
people and using it as a metaphor for the experience of God’s reality,
the soul’s exile from its source in the Lord, and the eventual hoped-for
return. It is interesting that the doctrine of transmigration mirrors the
exile. <span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>The experience of the Inquisition
must have been traumatic and was woven into the yearning of the mystics to
experience God’s welcoming embrace and freedom from the pain of this
world.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>The mystic metaphor offered
hope.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>The concept of <span
class=SpellE>tiqqun</span> is a prime example of the healing that was
envisioned to rectify the catastrophe of <span class=SpellE>shevirat</span> ha <span
class=SpellE>kelim</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I have always assumed that the Jewish mystics’ use of language
was unique, but have read that Sufis also had these practices. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>In India, where I live, there is a belief
that Sanskrit is the holy language through which God created the world. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>They believe that the 52 letters of their
alphabet were the building blocks of the creation, and locate the letters on
the various symbols used to describe the inner journey, like the lotus.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>From what I understand of Jewish mysticism, the mystics had different
methods in different periods for reaching the hidden reality – some of
these methods overlap with others in the same period but reflect differing
approaches to the inner journey as well as the goal of mystic practice. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>For example, Abulafia used names and
language to ascend to higher realms, and was not caught up in meditation on the
symbolism of the sefirot, while other early Kabbalists such as Isaac the Blind
and some of the mystics of Gerona would meditate on the particular sefirot, and
even try to control their relationship among each other. They were an elite, as
were the kabbalists of Safed in the 16<sup>th</sup> century, who tried all
sorts of methods to unite their souls with the higher realms but were basically
trying to influence relationships of the various <span class=SpellE>parzufim</span>
in the higher realms. The goal of Abulafia I believe was unio mystica, but this
was not the goal of all Jewish mystics, many of whom thought it was
presumptuous. I don’t agree with Scholem, and think it is a semantic
distinction, to talk about ‘communion’ with the divine rather than ‘union’.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>I very much liked the point about the connection between the hidden and
revealed worlds; the reflection of the reflection. If I understand it
correctly, the revealed world is connected to the hidden because the same
divine essence is immanent in all the creation (like the story by the Besht about
entering the palace and <span class=SpellE>and</span> not finding any obstacles
or pillars, only the Lord himself).<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
</span>Therefore, everything is connected. The part contains the whole. The
mystical world view is totally holistic. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The language of symbols, like the sefirot, contains the multifaceted
hidden spiritual mystical truths that it points to. In fact, the symbols are a
far better language than the rational to express mystical truth as it connects
many things that seem to be separate to the linear, intellectual <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>mind but in truth exist as one. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Included under the mystical in Judaism are many mystically inspired
imaginative works. <span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>But imagination
is a faculty of the mind; the mind is creating a reality in itself, and a true
spiritual experience goes beyond the mind, to realms of pure spirit where soul
sees and hears with spiritual faculties, not mental. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It is really hard to know if the visionary works of the Jewish mystics
are literary exercises or if they are expressions of the inner reality they
experienced through their mystic transport (merkavah or other) modified
according to their literary sensibilities and their readers’ expectations.
<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>I think it is probable that they
projected the images from their religious and literary tradition which were
embedded in their minds, onto the screen of their minds, and thus their
experiences were authentic experiences of mystic transport expressed through
the symbols and metaphors and language of their religious background. <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>There is one part at the end of the chapter where I am surprised to see
that the mystical experience is described as an “unclear realm of
thought, dream, etc… even hallucination.” – a world of
imagination, and that the ‘real’ external world is considered to be
more real or clear.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>The experience
gained through mystical transport to spiritual realms is not colored by the
individual imagination. It is an objective experience of spiritual realms and
is actually more real and lucid that this physical reality, though it cannot be
described in terms of this physical ‘reality’. Some Indian mystics use
the example of trying to explain what the taste of a sweet desert is to someone
who has never experienced a sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>But what comes through very clearly in this chapter is the importance
of the personal experience of the mystic, over and above the authority of
religious law and scripture.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Also,
the importance for the mystic of sharing his conviction in the importance of
having personal experience vs. just knowledge about the mystic realms gained
through reading or hearsay. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks again. Look forward to your answer! <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><span class=SpellE>L’hitraot</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size=2 color=blue
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;
font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;mso-bidi-font-style:
normal;mso-no-proof:yes'>Miriam Caravella<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size=2 color=blue
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;
font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;mso-bidi-font-style:
normal;mso-no-proof:yes'>Radha Soami Satsang Beas<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size=2 color=blue
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;
font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;mso-bidi-font-style:
normal;mso-no-proof:yes'>Publications Department<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><font size=2 color=blue
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;
font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:normal;font-style:italic;mso-bidi-font-style:
normal;mso-no-proof:yes'>miriam.caravella@rssb.net<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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