We have now arrived at the
discussion of the deepest problems in the religious and political domains; at
the hidden layers of man’s mystic intuitions, on one hand, and on the other at
the highest social and metaphysical conceptions framed by the largest hearts
and the strongest intellects of the human kind. Mysticism stands to metaphysics
in the same relation as feeling does to thought; feeling is the mother of
thought. The contemplation of and the contact with the external world creates
the first, and out of the chaos of that dim sensation arises the clear
conception, the definite, logical idea. Hence are metaphysics nothing else but
mysticism pruned, verified, scientifically expressed and formulated.
Mysticism is metaphysics
in embryo, as feeling is thought in a crude, unclarified condition. It is drawn
from the deepest strata of the human self. It is the veiled, chaotic and
mysterious source of all the genuine impressions and holiest intuitions of
mankind. But it is also the spring of the very reverse of that. It is a most
dangerous brute force. It is any abyss paved with pearls and corals, swarming
with monsters and frights, as also full of common pebbles and mire. It
challenges the bold diver to bring forth the one or the other…[Mysticism]
offers the greatest prices and the direst disappointments. The noblest thoughts
and the most childish notions have arisen out of that chaos…Thus is mysticism
the great reservoir and the treasury of man’s mind. But it must be used
cautiously. The greatest good and the direst hallucinations have come forth
from that very same abyss. Religion, philosophy, ethics, laws, new nations and
sociological schemes, etc., are pearls fetched from that ocean. Fanaticism,
superstition, the devil, Baal-worship, etc., are its mud and mire. Originally
they all rested in the same bosom of the deep – mysticism; beware of it!
--Rabbi Maurice Fluegel, Philosopohy, Qabbala and Vedanta;
Comparative Metaphysics and Ethics, Rationalism and Mysticism, of the Jews, the
Hindus and most of the Historic Nations, as links and developments of one chain
of Universal Philosophy, 1902
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