[lit-ideas] Re: Kataphatic, Negative and Apophatic Theology

  • From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 19:08:51 -0400

"Phil Enns" writes:

: I wrote:
: 
: "At its simplest, how does one identify a mystical experience?"
: 
: to which Scribe1865@xxxxxxx replied:
: 
: "Doesn't that depend upon what one means by "identify"?  If one is
: making a rational argument, then identifying involves a consistent
: narrative that has to ground its premises. However one can also identify
: something without knowing precisely how one identifies it or why.
: Identification would seem to include a spectrum of possibilities."
: 
: First, I am not talking about making a rational argument.  It really is
: a simply question.  How does one identify a mystical experience out of
: the multitude of experiences we have all the time?  Is stubbing my toe a
: mystical experience?
: 
: Second, it isn't that any particular mystic has to provide criteria for
: identifying their mystical experience but these criteria must be at
: hand, in some form.  If there are no such criteria, then talk of the
: mystical is nonsensical.
: 
: Note, I am not trying to do away with mysticism but rather to suggest
: that it must be grounded in theology of some form.  One can't
: consistently engage in only negative theology.

Does this mean that Buddhists and other persons who don't have a
theology, not having a god, cannot be mystics?  There certainly
are a lot of Buddhists who would deny that mysticism is compatable
with Buddhism.  On the other hand the Buddhist emphasis on 
``emptiness'' at the core of all appearances certainly sounds
negative in the same way that negative theology sounds negative.

Is God great? 

No.

Does a dog have Buddha nature?

Mu.

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu   
        NOTE: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx no longer exists
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