[HOME] [Guideline] [Author] [College
of Foreign Languages] [Fu Jen University]
[Volume 31]
ABSTRACT
ON THE MYSTICAL PATH: A QUEST FOR THE TRANSCENDENTAL AND ITS REPRESENTATION
IN TAOIST, BUDDHIST, AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS
Doris Li-wen Chang
Mysticism, a crucial yet ambiguous term referring to quests for transcendental
union with the One, in Guiley’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal
Experience. is defined as "[t]he belief in or pursuit of unification
with the One or some other principle: the immediate consciousness of God;
or the direct experience of religious truth." Compiled within different
traditions in the fourth century B. C., the eighth and the fourteenth century
A.D. respectively, Chuang-tzu (²ø¤l), The
Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (¤»¯ª¾Â¸g),
and The Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen Showings Made to Dame Julian
of Norwich, all deal with such mystical experiences and are commonly
agreed to be mystical texts. Chuang-tzu is considered a masterpiece
of the Taoist tradition; Platform Sutra, an innovative Buddhist
literature of the Chinese Ch’an (Zen) tradition; and Showings, an
important text of Christian spirituality. By juxtaposing passages
representing mystical experiences in the three texts, we find striking
similarities: as all three represent quests for the transcendental experiences,
paths on which obstacles have to be removed, and experiences of enlightenment
leading to union with the Divine.
Granted that there are numerous textual problems and questions regarding
authorship and authenticity of the three texts as some portions of the
texts may be later additions, a comparative and contrastive analysis of
these texts sheds light on the nature of the mystical experience.
In spite of their differences as to narrative persona, narrator-reader
relationship, tone, narrative form, rhetorical devices, dominant interests
and emphases (differences result from their origin at different times and
within different traditions), the similarities in the three texts help
broaden our definition of and insight into the mystical experience.
By employing experienced mystics as narrative voices, the three texts depict
the “mystical experiences”as experiences in which a spirit of infinite
thoroughness and transcendental union is dominant. Besides, such
experiences involve processes of detachment and the transcendence of discriminating
consciousness setting the individual free from confining institutions and
ideologies of any form.
Copyright @ 1996 Fu Jen Catholic Universiy,
Taipei, Taiwan
[HOME] [Guideline] [Author] [College
of Foreign Languages] [Fu Jen University]