کتاب The Mystic Ladder

Preface
The truth is too delicate to be hunted by the mind. The holism beneath the sense of distinction could not be understood by the reductionist mind. Reasoning, philosophizing or overanalyzing does not seem to be productive in terms of discovery and the realization of truth. It can even be destructive at times, although thinking mind is a great tool in day-to-day problem solving.
Tracing back the history, we see many people who dedicated their lives to discovering mysteries of life as well as finding answers to the most fundamental questions or concerns of humanity, which could neither be found in books nor reached by education.
Questions like “where have we come from?” “What is going to happen after this life?” “What is life?”
“What is death?”
“What is the consciousness and is it affected by death?” “What is time?”
“Is there any right or wrong?”
And eventually what is the truth about existence?”
These questions and many others are discussed in the field of philosophy without any certainty rife with contradictions. Science tries to find such answers as well utilizing its very limited methodologies. It mainly woks based on the processed data which comes from measurement or from senses. Numerous experiments show the shortcomings of senses even in recognizing tangible environment, let alone the intangible part of nature that could not be perceived by our senses e.g. radio frequency and X-ray. For instance, when we move with the speed of light, the way we see the environment is totally different than what we see now. So which one is the reality? Does a reality exist at all the way we presume?
Even the qualities that senses perceive are relative rather than absolute. Thus, the scientific method tried turning quality into quantity with the aim of being able to measure and analyze. A big flaw some scholars have is trying to fit everything somewhere in science. In case they do not fit in, they are considered to be false or pseudo-science.
Every school is a paradigm in which some hypotheses are brought forth which justify phenomena and circumstances. Each fits in with certain mentalities, hence seeming comprehensive. Surprisingly, followers of each try to gauge and analyze what the others say with their own ideology and methods. When such personal comparative analyses fail, they deny and consider them wrong.
Some questions are answered by various religions which satisfy a group of people but a minority are not satisfied with the superficial justifications and beliefs of their forefathers and step into the journey of discoveries, knowing it might not get anywhere. They jeopardize their lives and sacrifice their comfort upon the truth seeking, while the ordinary people never volunteer to leave their comfort zones to have a different perspective of the world and challenge their credence.
Some even never realize that another perspectives might exist other than the one they perceive. Those people are the most dangerous of all. Prejudiced fanatics who oppose the words of the truth, persist on their ignorance and even make an attempt upon the lives of the truth speakers.
They have given up on their curious truth-seeking nature and they rather follow the old conduct of their predecessors without questioning. Some of them do so unconsciously for the fear of unknown, while others do not want to risk their belief system, position or fame.
The real seekers who are willing to risk their lives on the search for the deeper realities of life might eventually rise above the common illusion of the masses, however it is not guaranteed. That is why they are metaphorically called ‘the gamblers’.
From a historical point of view, nearly all of them were not only opposed and blamed, but also humiliated and considered insane. Upon some occasions, they were even threatened or executed for their disobedience. Throughout centuries, there have existed many bold and rebellious individuals that liberated themselves from the bounds which tied them to the old beliefs, clichés, and conventions, hence stepping in the infinite realm of personal discoveries.
Some of them hid their enlightened state of mind from the populace, while others put the words of the truth in the veil of poems or metaphors to be understood only by certain groups. Few voiced their discoveries, in open discourses, aiming to awaken people by sharing their wisdom.Well-known examples of those enlightened individuals who lost their lives over trying to spread the hidden treasures of true knowledge, include Jesus, Hallaj and many others. They were prisoned, tortured and killed by those who considered themselves loyal to former religions or belief systems, or by the tyrants who felt their power was in jeopardy by those messengers of the truth.
Nearly all the prophets had been either persecuted by the prejudiced masses or victimized by the greed of the others who ruled people by keeping them ignorant. The wisdom of those enlightened ones that might be called mystics, gurus and Sufis, based upon the background they come from, is the result of a constant inner work. Their messages also are alike, since the truth is one. The heart of the awakened ones becomes a clear mirror reflecting the truth through the light of devotion.
Mysticism is derived from the Greek root ‘mysticos’ meaning an initiation. The term connotes stepping beyond traditional interpretations. Mystics hold that there is a deeper and more fundamental existence beneath the appearances. Only a mystic is truly qualified to speak about mysticism for it can only be experienced by them.
A non-mystic script tends to communicate a piece of music through a written report which is written by someone who has never heard the piece. Some interpret mystical experiences as an altered state of consciousness, through which the disclosure of the extrasensory dimensions of the reality is realized. There are conceptual realities to be realized and phenomena to be encountered that only a spiritual experience can include.
Mysticism is usually understood in a religious context but many believe mystical experience may happen to anyone, regardless of religious trainings or inclinations. The latter is called secular mysticism. Mystics typically go beyond religious perspectives or dogmas and this points to a conscious and systematic attempt to gain mystical experiences through practices like meditation, chanting of mantras, asceticism, devotion, etc.
Some mystics find the spirituality to be immanent within the world of ordinary sense perceptions, but others reduce the perceptible world to an illusion and merely attribute the reality to the spiritual. There are similarities between various traditions of mysticism, for instance abstaining from a full satisfaction of earthly desires and so on. A few spiritual schools are discussed here very briefly:
Shamanism is regarded as a form of mysticism in which the world of spirits is accessed through religious ecstasy. The system includes visions, healing, interacting with spirits and channeling the higher energy to this world.
Judaism has two different kinds of mystic traditions, namely Merkaba and Kabala, the occult knowledge. The former is predated and the focus of the latter is mostly on visions. It is a set of esoteric teachings tasked with explaining the relationship between the unchanging eternal “no end” and the mortal finite universe, “his creation”. In Kabala, the Holy Spirit is emphasized as an intimate communion between human and God.
Hinduism includes various spiritual disciplines aiming to transcend one’s identification with mind and body and the liberation from the cycle of birth and death (reincarnation).There are at least ten schools of Vedanta.
Mysticism in Sikh Dhram began with a child having a mystical experience. It emphasizes that God must be seen with the inward eye or the heart of human being and it is the goal of the unity with God.
Buddhism is mainly about the discovery of the true self and like Hinduism, it aims at the liberation from the circle of reincarnation, transcendence and growth towards Nirvana. It includes self-control, meditation and self-restraint. It does not acknowledge the existence of a God, yet it assumes Nirvana as a transcendent reality.
Taoism, known as a type oriental wisdom, means ‘the way’ and it is defined as an ineffable cosmic principle. Its practices include exercises, meditations and rituals aimed at harmonizing Qi, the vital force, and striking a balance between two opposite concepts of Yin and Yang, which complete each other. Thus, the world is believed to be based on this opposition.
Paganism is a nature-oriented spirituality, in which the experience of mystical ecstasy as a state of psycho-spiritual consciousness takes place due to an awakened awareness. Allegedly, the mystical quest is an ultimate human endeavor. It is perceived as becoming one with the absolute and going beyond the dualism.
Christian mysticism suggests the notion of incarnation of God in man, namely Jesus Christ. The lofty father could only be known through the son and with the Holy Spirit they form a single divine that is imminent everywhere.
Mysticism in a broader sense is an insight of the divine presence rather than of just a paranormal experience, and as a fresh way of insight and love based on states of consciousness.
Some very brief classifications of mystical experiences are as follows:
Extrovertive is the experience of unity within the world versus introvertive, which is the experience of unity devoid of perceptual objects. It literally means the experience of nothingness.
A dualistic experience is maintaining the distinction between the subject and what is disclosed. The theistic mystical experience retains the distinction between the mystic and God. It contradicts the monistic experiences which distance from the separation between the person and God.
Theurgic experience is invoking the divine by practicing rituals, which might seem to be magical. It is more common in the Jewish mysticism. Non-Theurgic is the one in which the mystic does not intend to cause any miraculous phenomena.
Apophatic means negation or saying away and it is contrasted with Kataphatic mysticism which means affirmation or saying in. Apophatic type claims the experiences are fully indescribable, through which one could only say what God is not. On the contrary, Kataphatic makes claims about what a mystic experiences, meaning the divine can be partially described. These two opposites can present two stages in which Apophatic approaches are considered to be higher.
Some attributes of mystical experiences are as followes:
Neotic quality is referred to a genuine unmediated insight or the encounter with the ultimate reality. Ineffability speaks about incorporation of language in described experiences. Absolute ineffability directs even depiction through analogies and metaphors or art, turning the experience into something like a phenomenal object.
Paradoxicality describes mystical experiences as being out of ordinary with a unitive quality, out of reach and strange to most of us, which can cause the sense of paradoxicality, contrary to expectation. The forms of experiences seem contradictory because the experience often happens in a different realm or dimension, which can cause any statement to be in contradiction with what is perceived or described in a tangible realm. It makes the discourse difficult as

principles and features of the other side should be put in the language of this side.
Pure consciousness events suggest that the mystical experiences happen through emptying the content of the consciousness which includes thoughts, sense perceptions and concepts, yet remaining awake. This way, only the unconditioned consciousness remains, which is not affected by the preconditioned mind. However there are varying notions formed about the mystical experiences which are supported by a group of people.
Essentialism claims that there is a common core to all mystical experiences, independent of culture, era, religion, and traditions. Perennial philosophy is a perspective viewing all traditions sharing a single metaphysical truth which is expressed differently in different cultures or religions.
Constructivism is an approach which opposes both Essentialism and Perennialism. It suggest that an experience and the understanding thereof are defined in terms of each particular mystic’s era and culture, and is influenced by beliefs, memories and socio-psychological and linguistic factors.
On the other hand, Inheritists support the idea that what mystics experience are inherently religious, yet the Attributionists believe the other way around. The difference between Constructivists and Attributionists is that the former designates that the experiences are constituted from cultural conditioning but the latter believes what is experienced is contributed to be mystical or religious. Features of a mystical experiences are absorption, spontaneous ecstasy, and the time/space distortion.
Ontology deals with the question “what is?” while the epistemology addresses “how we come to know what is?” which could be studied in the frame of philosophy of mysticism.
Scientists have worked also on neural correlation of mystical experiences. They suggest the brain operates with feedback and feed-forward systems. The feedback system works with the information coming from the world about its efficacy of its words while feed-forward operates upon the world in a predetermined way, anticipating that it knows what it is doing.
This is how we construct time consciousness. The most intricate and evolved parts of the human brain are frontal lobes that support our understanding of perceptual input that we get. When its inhibitory system is suppressed, a new
way of perception comes to work, which perceive the mystical experience. Trauma and any lesions related to dorsolateral, prefrontal and the middle superior temporal cortex are also reported to lead to a markedly peculiar experience. This is referred to as pull-in theories. On the contrary, the theory recognizes a spot in the brain which is called the God spot that leads to God realization. What was mentioned above is indicative of the theory that brain is in charge of the mystical experiences, weather by suppression of some areas or activation of them. Form where I stand, the brain is a gateway for the consciousness to enter the body. Any changes in this portal can alter the perceptions.
Consciousness and a profound insight never arise from the mind but from deep within, as it is emphasized in various mystical systems as well as Sufism. Thus, a particular body of knowledge is not to be achieved from outside of us.
Every phenomenon in the universe, whether with its mechanism discovered or not, falls within the science of physics. If it is not describable by existing knowledge, it means it has to do with a part of physics that has been formulated yet. With the progress of modern physics especially the quantum theory, lots of phenomena that were considered supernatural, have been explained through those scientific theories. For instance, the timeless state or time-travel allegedly experienced by mystics could be somehow explained by the worm-hole theory or the altered consciousness. The string theory has provided a framework to confer the consciousness.
Such theories made thousands question the validity of their perceptions of the reality. Furthermore, a new and utterly mind-blowing definition of existence in the light of relativity theory and quantum mechanics was put forth, which challenged the reductionist approach of materialism. Also we cannot ignore the fact that quantum theory is not suggestive of a wholly material understanding of the reality.
Life itself is regarded as a shadow rather than an absolute reality by some insightful experts, as Plato expounds on it in the cave allegory. Michael Talbot in his book, The Holographic Universe, presents a different model for cosmos claiming every single particle in the universe carries the quality and data of the whole. Generally viewed, whoever questions the conventional knowledge is wise enough to commence the journey of the discoveries.

Likewise in philosophy, the knowledge concerning the reality has been challenged by various schools, for instance skepticism has a questioning attitude toward certainty in any knowledge, belief or dogma. Idealism, in which the fundamental nature of knowledge is believed to depend on the perceiving mind, is closely intertwined with the ‘idea’. This indicates that what we call reality might be a mental construct. There exists perhaps nothing primary to the human perceptions such as matter or material phenomena.
During the last decades, many marvelous movies with philosophical themes have been produced to convey such connotations beneath the plotline, which critics deliberated upon the impression.
Regarding the Middle-Eastern understanding of the existence such as Sufism somehow similar notions are propounded, especially very similar to the focus featured in empirical idealism branch, which acknowledges the primacy of human consciousness to the existing world.
Similarly, the notion of pantheism, a rather new term that has been put forth in the 17th century stating that nothing outside God exists or conversely God is identical to the cosmos. This notion also indicates the concept of unity cited in Sufism, which declares the divine and all the existence are one, and the universe we perceive as well as ourselves are nothing but the shadow of one truth.
In my view, mysticism regardless of its tradition, is the way of perceiving the hidden reality and the ultimate truth, along with acquiring direct knowledge and insight through subjective experiences, which are attained by human transformation supported by various practices and disciplines. Such experiences may happen spontaneously or during meditation in a trance state, which can also be called an ascetic revelation or a direct experience of unity of the mystic with the whole or the ecstatic state. They are sometimes characterized by a faded self or a felt interconnection with all existence.
In this survey, I have tried to avoid self-interpretations of Sufi teachings as well as my own perspective, being loyal to the original texts. Most of the content belongs to the direct translation of the Sufi literature with their references mentioned in the end of each quote, since the one who has not reached the point to be able to perceive the truth directly, he had better not speak or suggest any ideas.
Poem is the language of soul and most meanings and concepts of Sufism are wisely portrayed in poems. They also reflect the mental/spiritual status of the

poet directing the reader to their worlds. The Sufi teachings elicited from those lines, which are put in metaphorical way and sometimes in the form of allegories, provide an excellent way to convey the ineffable.
My attempt was to interpret the teachings with the minimum deviation from the exact literal meanings to the conceptual and abstract aspect of the words/phrases. Various traditions in the context of their cultures and languages have their own specific terminology in literature which is barely interpretable in other languages. Thus, they seem alien to readers with different backgrounds, but as I mentioned here I tried my best to phrase them according to common understanding of human psyche to make them understood.
Truth is one, but there are myriad ways to attain the climax of the wisdom. Each way has its own teachings and disciplines that are offered by the masters of those certain traditions. However, after reaching that ocean of awareness and insight, the master as well as the self, leave and only the ocean remains, in which one’s being is dissolved. Any biased attitude toward any ideology indicates nothing but ignorance. Then, here prejudice is avoided, merely to provide a brief touch on Sufi teachings.
I sincerely apologize for the mistakes and shortcomings and hope that the readers/critiques will help to correct my humble work in order to enrich the content of the book.