The Themes
8 Themes
The Ground
The mystics' word for the place beneath the place. Different vocabularies for the same unsayable thing.
The Self
Every contemplative tradition arrives, eventually, at the same surprise: the one who looks is not the one who thought it was looking.
The Veil
The mystics agree the obstacle is not where you'd expect. It is not out there, in the world. It is much closer in.
The Practice
Insight without practice fades. The mystics built their traditions around what to do when nothing seems to be happening, when the door has not opened, and the only thing left is to keep showing up.
The Ego Death
Every tradition that goes deep enough arrives at the same uncomfortable arithmetic.
The Return
Homecoming, awakening, recognition, the unveiling, different names for an arrival that turns out to have been a return.
Divine Love
Of all the words the contemplatives reach for, the most embarrassing in a secular culture, and the most accurate, is love.
Divine Humor
The laugh from the height that sees the whole of it at once, and what it reveals when followed all the way down.