VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2 FALL 2015

effective means in the order of psychological things, will not be successful in raising themselves into the transcendental world, no matter what philosophical system of spiritual education they may turn to. The means in mysticism are as simple as the lived sensory life itself. Correctly used causeless joyfulness leads to knowledge, only out of which the philosophy known as spiritual grows. If this philosophy doesn’t spring forth from this joyfulness, it is always only a series of speculations, which will lead their wearer to a spiritual, and oftentimes general, ruination. Therefore, it is necessary to rejoice. The very joyfulness, in particular the causeless one, is that spiritual arrow, by which it is possible to bring down the seemingly uncontrollable human nature, which once wants to rejoice, and then after saturation by joyfulness again suffer, to never leave the fluctuating path and to prevent a person from ever escaping from suffering forever. 2 Why to concentrate Concentration serves, above all, to the obtaining of knowledge. Thus, if even the most scatterbrained person has some knowledge, it means that they, now and then, settle on the perceived things for a while; only these fleeting moments of interest in something, thus actually moments of concentration, bring them knowledge. We can deduce from this fact, that if such fleeting moments are sufficient to obtain some relevant knowledge, then a longer settling on the observed things will provide one with a knowledge, which is deeper. This logic holds true in the practical psychology. However, we have in mind mysticism – a teaching, which can be considered, in the first place, a deep practical psychology. It is known in it, that each piece of knowledge, obtained by the settling of attention on the outer objects, is limited by the duration of this settling. This gave rise to the idea of concentration – how this term is understood in its conception. The experience with concentration has brought to the light of logical considerations an idea to use concentration for penetration beyond the curtain of the usual sensory perceptions. In the initial stages of the mystical training, the results in the form of knowledge – especially outer knowledge – are not thought of. Only the need to prevent wandering of the mind is taken into account, in order for the knowledge not to become mingled with ideas produced by the inner, and in particular, psychological, structure of the beingness. These ideas have a direct relationship to the karmic contents of the being, which were obtained by birth. Therefore, when using the concentration of thinking, the only aim is to remove the mental wandering in order to achieve the platform needed for the pilgrimage along the mystical path all the way to its highest goal. However, this platform would never be achieved if the concentration of the mind was too intensive; the goal is only to achieve an inner stability, which a mentally restless person lacks. Spirituality Studies 1 (2) Fall 2015 39 (7)

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=