The Unity of Mystical Traditions; the Transformation of Consciousness in Tibetan and German Mysticism.

by Randall Studstill

This book argues that mystical doctrines and practices initiate parallel transformative processes in the consciousness of mystics. This thesis is supported through a comparative analysis of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen (rdzogs-chen) and the medieval German mysticism of Eckhart, Suso, and Tauler. These traditions are interpreted using a system/cybernetic model of consciousness. This model provides a theoretical framework for assessing the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices and showing how different doctrines and practices may nevertheless initiate common transformative processes. This systems approach contributes to current philosophical discourse on mysticism by (1) making possible a precise analysis of the cognitive effects of mystical doctrines and practices, and (2) reconciling mystical heterogeneity with the essential unity of mystical traditions.

Genres: Mysticism

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Seekers of Unity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, great book.

In the first chapters and in the appendix he gives a solid survey of the preceding literature, both on the debates surrounding the definition of mysticism and on the perennial/essentialistic vs constructivistic/contexulaist debate. Breaks the perennial/essentialistic into some useful subcategories.

Followed by a sever, thorough critique of Katz/constructivism.

He then goes on to present his ‘systems theory’ on mind, I found this less interesting, might be more interesting for someone that’s into cog-sci.

What follows next is fantastic tho, he gives an short, to the point, historical sketch of Tibetan Buddhism, followed by an epic presentation of the fundamental philosophy/metaphysics of the tradition, and then does the same for German mysticism (Eckhart et. al.) followed by a chapter pointing out the obvious points of comparison between the two and an attempt to explain how they both make sense within his pluralistic “systems theory” of mysticism.

Appendix B is a very fun survey of different typologies of mysticism and where they fall short, his conclusion is somewhat unsatisfying, but well worth reading none the less.

Great work, well researched, well thought out, well presented, and does a good job at being transparent with all his prior assumptions and biases.

If you're into these kinds books, you'll probably dig my channel; youtube.com/seekersofunity
Come say hi, tell them Zevi from goodreads sent you .

[Dans]

Second read. The first three chapters are about different approaches to mysticism (constructivist, pluralist and essentialist). The author favors a pluralist approach - multiple metaphysical truths being valid. He was really critical of the constructivist approach which implies all mystical experiences are a construct of language and culture and considered that to be a kind of generalised “essentialist” take on mystical experiences that doesn’t really explain the commonality between different mystical experiences across time and space .

Fourth Chapter is my favorite starts getting deeper into how the mind works and how we relate to thoughts and Dzogchen. Timothy Morton is now also into Dzogchen and I want to read more on that. I just think that path while difficult seems the most reasonable to me, accepting thoughts as thoughts instead of creating repressive loops in mind feels right. There are also a lot of interesting bits on the self an self image and autoeroticism that I want to revisit.

Great book, the author wrote it and left academia sadly