The Essential Mystics : Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions

by Andrew Harvey

From the celebrated scholar and lecturer Andrew Harvey, a fascinating and inspiring introduction to the essential texts and themes of the great mystics. Not merely a feast of the greatest and wisest mystical revelations, 'The Essential Mystics' i

Genres: Spirituality, Mysticism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, History, Poetry

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Andrew Harvey is an author, religious scholar and teacher of mystic traditions, known primarily for his popular nonfiction books on spiritual or mystical themes, beginning with his 1983 A Journey in Ladakh.

From Wikipeadia

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am keeping this on my bookshelves so I can refer to it whenever I feel like some inspiration. A book like this is never completely 'read' no matter how many times you use it as a reference.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...Reader's Digest guide to World Religions. Nothing new here, except marketing such a book to our feminine side.
As one reviewer stated, would make a good reference book, if it provided an index...

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's a diverse curation and beautiful start to finish. Great comments to set up individual sections.

[A.R. Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an analysis of mysticism, it is a collection of primary sources grouped by the cultures that wrote them, with very brief introductions into each section. As such, it is an interesting first glimpse at the subject, but the author’s repeated references to the end of the world, “the human race may die out”, “in a time when the natural world is being destroyed”, “crucial now to our human survival”, “as we all face the threat of extinction”, make me think of a long-haired, white robed, man in the supermarket parking lot with a sign, handing out pamphlets of unintelligible gibberish. Why were these fragments chosen? Why were others omitted? Why be concerned about the fate of one planet, one species, even if it is ours, when mysticism claims the entire universe is “god”? I prefer my mysticism more up-to-date, sprinkled with a bit of quantum mechanics and wondering about the life that exists on the thousands of exo-planets recently discovered. This book is twenty years old, and we’re still here. We should look elsewhere for enlightenment.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of mystical revelations.
To be kept on the book case to be refered to from time to time.
To remind us that even hundreds of years ago man revered the natural world and all it has to offer and how important it was to preserve it. And how important it is for us to nurture our soul and our planet, and that material things are unimportant!

[David Palmacci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly full of meaning and connection to the truth our lives are more than what we see, that instead we are apart of something beyond what we can imagine in our present consciousness.
The best way to describe this book in my own words is the following; consider the fact there are many religions around the world. Each religion is a sort of path. This book states the principles of those "paths", and when you know the different paths you start to see a map of all of them leading to the same place. The world and its history have shown us how groups of different beliefs and ways of life fight amongst each other over who is right and who is wrong, when the fundamental truth is that we all travel to the same destination which is the next step of our existence into what is good.
This book covers Islam, Judaism, Greek Philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity.
I recommend it to anyone who seeks a positive enlightenment in your life.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

For an author who goes on and on about the importance of the “feminine” aspects of spirituality, he doesn’t seem to put a lot of effort into finding women mystics. He only includes a handful of the most well-known sources—in the “Christianity” section there are more excerpts from the New Testament (the easiest source to find) than there are women mystics.

Likewise, the attempt to present a snapshot of world religions is a Eurocentric hack job. Lumping ancient Egypt & Sumer in with modern indigenous North American sources is extremely thoughtless, especially when there’s an *entire* section on ancient Greek philosophy. At best, this is an uncomfortably out of date perspective.

There are some gems from mystics in here, but you’re better off finding them from another source. This book just made me want to go read Kabir or Julian of Norwich instead.

[Elizabeth Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Harvey has collected important mystical writings from major faith traditions, with each tradition given its own chapter. For each chapter he's written introductions highlighting particular themes. The collection is impressive in scope and depth, but would be more useful as a resource if an index were included.

[Jose · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book with a clear objective, I can appreciate that, to reivindicate the feminine nature of God. So the author basically goes over a bunch of mystic traditions, Budhism, Judaism, Catholicism, etc.. , introduces each of them with a little blurb on how they are in tune with the Mother nature of God and then puts some texts pertaining to that tradition without any further explanation.
Most of his little blurbs make no sense at all , they are just some new-agey enthusings about the patriarchy and how the divine is feminine as much as it is masculine which gets old pretty quickly mostly because, yes, God is all genders. He painfully explains what characteristics make the divine feminine which, of course, forces him to explain what he thinks feminine characteristics are beyond 'motherhood '.
So a book on mysticism seen through gender, with no further development or interest and a bunch of texts that he leaves the reader to read, some dreadful reductionist and biased theories about what each tradition represents and not much more. Waste of time. Unless you are truly a mystic and can forgive sloppiness and mumbo-jumbo.

[Amelia and John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the wide variety of mystic texts that Harvey drew from, including the First Peoples section which includes a wide sweep of indigenous thought from around the world.

Harvey takes a feminist and climatological approach, meaning that he selects texts which focus on the Divine as feminine, as well as texts which focus on the divinity or unity of creation.

Overall, very good for meditative and reflective reading.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice survey of mystic elements in range of world religions. Found it difficult to connect with a particular point or idea of any one of the religions as it is so high level and is largely a collection of short passages or poems trying to cover a lot of ground. Gave me a few ideas of things to pursue further.

[Dale Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Harvey grew up in India and pursued education in England. What impresses me most is that he spent time living in religious communities of the major religions and was personally mentored by mystics of those faith traditions. I love how he enters the world of the mystics, not through doctrine, but through spiritual experience.

[Meli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a labor of love from Harvey on pulling together existing writings from various religions.

[Maria Iliffe-Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound. I like how Harvey presents the wisdom of the traditions simply and without commentary.

[Ivan Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent anthology from Andrew Harvey. Poetry and brief excerpts from sacred writings among many world traditions: primal cultures, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Ancient Greece, Christianity, and Islam. Open to any random page and you’ll find an uplifting verse, saying, explanation, or wisdom story.

[Sharon Neufer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am using this book as a daily devotional, reading just one small section each day and reflecting on that. It's pretty dense to read straight through, and I am finding this a better approach for me.

[Carisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get into this book.

[Steve Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection contains some great writings from such a wide range of traditions. I will definitely re-visit this book from time to time.