Customer Reviews

The History of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament

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Having written this history regarding the remarkable unanimity of God Realizers from around the world throughout recorded history from the perspective of one who has had the "vision" of God, Swami Abhayananda taps the essence of each of these remarkable visionaries. I highly recommend this book to those who want an overview of our shared spiritual heritage, including seers from our ancient past, the Greco-Roman period, early and late medieval periods, and the modern age.

I believe that everything that Abhayananda writes is very much worth reading. He is a writer of the greatest importance for the present age. History of Mysticism is, at this time, his magnum and a major work in the field we are longing for now in the curriculum, a comprehensive, non-sectarian, unified theology, or more technically, theological semantics, the study of divinely given meaning which leads to insight into the Truth. This study, as Abhayanada reminds us, with eloquence and unswerving devotion to his subject, is what has been called mysticism: that solitary path of the uncompromising Truth Seeker, trod by a hardy few, either by will or destiny or both, but touching us all. Abhayanada's claim, which he cogently delineates in these pages, is that the major revelatory insights of the ages, regardless of tradition or context, have basically expressed the same vision: the appearance of this ever-changing universe in which we live and die, in which all life forms are transient, subject to mortality, and which we call our reality is but the exponential emanation, manifestation if you will, of the one imperishable, unchanging, eternal, transcendent Supreme Self, which pervades and sustains all being.

I searched for a chronologically arranged study of the major statements of mysticism ( or the `perennial philosophy' as Aldous Huxley calls it in his good, but not overwhelming, anthology of citations from this universally acknowledged tradition) for much of my life. I find it in this book. History of Mysticism is state of the art. (Although, for a comprehensive view of the emerging field of what might be more directly called Truth Studies, additionally recommended, for different reasons, is the related work of Sanderson Beck in moral history and peace studies). Along with Abhayanada's considerable philosophic acumen in being able to derive and sustain a clearly consistent line of argument throughout the texts of perhaps twelve millennia (revelations of the whole Mahayuga), but at least the past three, he appears to be divinely guided in his choice of citation, and uncannily discovers the most memorably poetic and appropriate translations for each of the multitude of contexts discussed.

At this point, I would like to list the mystic sources examined in the book (copied from the front cover of the second edition), to give prospective readers an idea of the scope and precision which makes the book de riguer for any serious student:

The Vedic Hymnists, The Psalmist, The Upanishadic Seers, Kapila, Lao Tze, Chaung Tze, The Buddha, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates, Zeno, Philo Judaeus, Jesus, The Gnostics, The Hermetics, The Early Christians, Plotinus, Dionysius, Narada, The Tantrics, Shankara, Dattatreya, Milarepa, The Zen Buddhists, The Sufis, al-Hallaj, Ibn Gabirol, The Kabbalists, Ibn Arabi, Iraqi, Rumi, Jnaneshvar, Meister Eckhart, Thomas a Kempis, Nicholas of Cusa, Juan de la Cruz, Kabir, Dadu, Ramakrishna.

But this list in only partial. Further, the focused depth of the discussions is notable.

The book has my highest recommendation. One of my favorite questions as raised in the book by Iraqi, a 13th century Sufi:

"When shall you and I divorce ourselves? So that "You" and "I" are gone, and only God remains?"

The contemporary mystic and scholar, S. Abhayananda's History Of Mysticism: The Unchanging Testament is a fascinating anthology and study of the teachings of more than forty of the greatest mystics from the beginnings of recorded human history down to the present day. Each mystic is introduced and placed into historical perspective. History Of Mysticism features many previously unpublished translations, surprising discovers, and diverse perspectives on the "one ultimate reality" which is the common experience of all mystics regardless of religious or philosophical tradition. Also highly recommended for students of metaphysics is S. Abhayananda's earlier ground breaking work, The Origin Of Western Mysticism: Selected Writings Of Plotinus.

This book is divided into historical eras covering Mystics of the Ancient Past, Mystics of the Greco-Roman Era, Mystics of the Early Middle Ages, Mystics of the Late Middle Ages, and Mystics of the Modern Era. I thought this was a good way to break up the detailed information about the many mystics covered in this book.

The quality and depth of the information is fabulous, although I wasn't expecting the format it was presented in. I thought it was set out more like an encyclopedia, although this isn't really a valid description either - anthology is probably a better description of the presentation of the forty or so mystics in this book.

Some of the characters and groups explored include: the early Egyptians (as a group), Jesus of Nazareth, The Sufis, Jewish mysticism and Dadu, and twentieth century mystics. The amount of information and interpretation of facts I found to be well written and easy to understand - even for a beginner like me!

I recommend `History of Mysticism' as a reference book for serious students of the occult - particularly for those of you looking for direct reference to the various figures in the history of mysticism.

Stellar review of mystics across time. I've read almost all the mystic compendiums out there, and this one is absolutely stellar.

embarrasingly singular monothestic judeo chrstian perspective from One who claims to have reached ultimate Truth. Author states his criteria for geniune enlightenment: if agree with author then true. arrogance alarming. enlightenment is PROCESS. as endless as Truth...when u have The Answer...turn the other cheek n try again.