Contents

The study
1. The nature and scope of this book
2. The perennial philosophy
3. The astronomer's universe
4. The problem of knowledge
5. The nature of scientific truth
6. The evolution of life: an interpretation
7. What we shall understand by the term mysticism
8. The mysticism of love and union and the mysticism of knowledge and understanding
9. Nature-mysticism, soul-mysticism, and god-mysticism
10. Characteristics of mystical states
11. The nature of mystical experience
12. The mystic way
13. The purgation of the self
14. Man's knowledge of God
15. The state of contemplation
16. The degrees of prayer
17. The mystical element in Buddhism
18. The higher stages of contemplation
19. The contemplation of immanence
20. The unitive life
21. The lesser mystic way: the mysticism of action
22. Mysticism and dogma: the insights of India, Palestine, and Greece
23. Mysticism and dogma: the Christian revelation
24. The coinherence of spirit and matter
25. The validity of mysticism
26. Conclusion: the mystic's universe
The anthology
1. Prologue: the timeless moment
2. There is nothing that is not spirit: the Upanishads
3. The Tao which can be spoken is not the true Tao: Tao Te Ching
4. The mysticism of loving faith and selfless action: the Bhagavad Gita
5. Emptiness and compassion: Buddhist mysticism
6. The father of Christian mysticism: Plato
7. Christo-mysticism: St. John and St. Paul
8. The kingdom of heaven is within you: the oxyrhynchus sayings of Jesus
9. Departure and return: the hymn of the robe of glory
10. The one and the many: Plotinus, the Enneads
11. The divine darkness: Dionysius the Areopagita, the mystical theology
12. Theosis: the deification of the creature: the mysticism of the eastern orthodox church
13. The mysticism of the intellect: St. Augustine, the confessions
14. The mysticism of love: St. Bernard of Clairvaux
15. The four degrees of passionate love: Richard of St. Victor
16. The Sufi path of love
17. Intellectual vision: Dante
18. Godhead, God, and the soul: Meister Eckhart
19. The active, inward, and superessential lives: the blessed John Ruysbroeck
20. Nothing burns in hell but self-will: the theologia germanica
21. The royal road of the holy cross: Thomas à Kempis, the imitation of Christ
22. God may well be loved but not thought: the cloud of unknowing
23. Practical directions for the following of the spiritual life: Walter Hilton, the ladder of perfection
24. The homeliness of God: Julian of Norwich, revelations of divine love
25. The coincidence of opposites: Nicholas of Cusa
26. The degrees of prayer: St. Teresa of Avila
27. The way of absolute detachment: St. John of the cross
28. Nature-mysticism and christo-mysticism: Thomas Traherne
29. The divine indwelling: William Law
30. Nature-mysticism and soul-mysticism: Richard Jefferies
31. The mysticism of the divine milieu: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Includes index