Practical Mysticism

Practical Mysticism, by Evelyn
Underhill

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Underhill
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Title: Practical Mysticism A Little Book for Normal People
Author: Evelyn Underhill

Release Date: June 8, 2007 [eBook #21774]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRACTICAL
MYSTICISM***
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Transcriber's note:

In the original book, the Table of Contents was located after the Preface,
but I have placed it at the beginning of the text for this online version.

PRACTICAL MYSTICISM
by
EVELYN UNDERHILL
Author of "Mysticism," "The Mystic Way," "Immanence: A Book of
Verses."

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to
man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all
things through the narrow chinks of his cavern." WILLIAM BLAKE

New York E.P. Dutton & Company 681 Fifth Avenue Copyright 1915
by E.P. Dutton & Company

TO THE UNSEEN FUTURE

CONTENTS
Preface vii I. What is Mysticism 1 II. The World of Reality 13 III. The
Preparation of the Mystic 21 IV. Meditation and Recollection 56 V.
Self-Adjustment 29 VI. Love and Will 74 VII. The First Form of
Contemplation 87 VIII. The Second Form of Contemplation 105 XI.
The Third Form of Contemplation 126 X. The Mystical Life 148

PREFACE

This little book, written during the last months of peace, goes to press
in the first weeks of the great war. Many will feel that in such a time of
conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic
can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which is
called the "contemplative" attitude to existence is wholly out of place.
So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of
postponing its publication. On the one hand, it seems as though the
dreams of a spiritual renaissance, which promised so fairly but a little
time ago, had perished in the sudden explosion of brute force. On the
other hand, the thoughts of the English race are now turned, and rightly,
towards the most concrete forms of action--struggle and endurance,
practical sacrifices, difficult and long-continued effort--rather than
towards the passive attitude of self-surrender which is all that the
practice of mysticism seems, at first sight, to demand. Moreover, that
deep conviction of the dependence of all human worth upon eternal
values, the immanence of the Divine Spirit within the human soul,
which lies at the root of a mystical concept of life, is hard indeed to
reconcile with much of the human history now being poured red-hot
from the cauldron of war. For all these reasons, we are likely during the
present crisis to witness a revolt from those superficially mystical
notions which threatened to become too popular during the immediate
past.
Yet, the title deliberately chosen for this book--that of "Practical"
Mysticism--means nothing if the attitude and the discipline which it
recommends be adapted to fair weather alone: if the principles for
which it stands break down when subjected to the pressure of events,
and cannot be reconciled with the sterner duties of the national life. To
accept this position is to reduce mysticism to the status of a spiritual
plaything. On the contrary, if the experiences on which it is based have
indeed the transcendent value for humanity which the mystics claim for
them--if they reveal to us a world of higher truth and greater reality
than the world of concrete happenings in which we seem to be
immersed--then that value is increased rather than lessened when
confronted by the overwhelming disharmonies and sufferings of the
present time. It is significant that many of these experiences are
reported to us from periods of war and distress: that the stronger the

forces of destruction appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual
vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the
mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to
a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb: of
conferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreck. Yet it does not
wrap its initiates in a selfish and otherworldly calm, isolate them from
the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed
vitality; administering to the human spirit not--as some suppose--a
soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants. Stayed upon
eternal realities, that spirit will be far better able to endure and profit by
the stern discipline which the