S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 2 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 6 4 5 Květoslav Minařík 4 AWarning A mystic, who walks the path of the mystical development independently, must act wisely and not unwisely. By no means must they let their inner inspiration advise them. This inner inspiration seems holy to them and, as a rule, it appears when one reads books about the mystical practice. Even less may he or she let anyone, who is talking about mysticism, give them advice. The mystical education must be based on the practical psychology and, moreover, on the mystical experiences of those who have already had a great success in the mystical practice. This, by itself, suffices for the advice that it is not correct to choose the mystical practices according to one’s own discretion, if the mystical experience is lacking here. We have already seen results of that. How easily did those, who were predisposed for mental illness, choose their mystical practices! The illnesses then broke out in them, because they, instead of the mental effort which would lead them to activity, devoted themselves to inner passivity which quickly facilitated the outbreak of their mental illness. Therefore, even if psychiatry claims that mysticism is a frequent cause of mental illness, it is not the case, because, in the true practical mysticism, the element of an active inner effort is always predominant. Only a dilettante mysticism does not pay attention to the difference between an active mental effort and an inner passivity. However, this mysticism does not lead to any positive results and, in general, to anything good. The experts in the mystical development, for example, know very well that the path to the spiritual perfection can be very much quickened by means of dissociation of consciousness. Psychiatry perhaps knows about it only not more than that the dissociation of consciousness is a path to schizophrenia. However, is it really like this? The training in concentration of the mind cannot go without a double awareness, namely, an awareness of the object of concentration on the one hand, and the outer things on the other, because, if it is not like this, the concentration very easily becomes a fixation of mind; this is, in turn, a fixed idea – a mental illness of its own kind. Towards the double awareness, one proceeds step-by-step, in the mystical development. It is practiced in such a way that the student of mysticism focuses his or her mind on a sole object which is either imagined or real and, at the same time, avoids losing the phenomena of the surrounding world from their evidence. It is possible to practice it in this way or vice versa. In the latter case, the student of mysticism trains himself or herself in a precise perception of the outer phenomena, but, simultaneously, tries to be aware of some imagined object somewhere in their being or even only of a place on their, or in their, body. The ability to perceive both kinds of phenomena improves with practice. When it improves, the student of mysticism will attain the ability to thoroughly perceive the outer world as About the author Květoslav Minařík, a Czech mystic (1908–1974), who, in his youth, learned in the deepest detail and in himself realised, the highest spiritual and mystic ideals of the East, without losing contact with the social and the working life. Later, he has formulated his experience into an original, authentic experience based spiritual teaching, based on the ways of thinking and psychology of a contemporary European. The teaching leads him or her through life, and perfects their being as a whole; it does not only deal with the physical, moral or mental component, it develops all three in harmony. Out of the great spiritual teachings of the world, his teaching is closest to the Mahayana Buddhism.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=