My view about mysticism has been closer to the one Bernie has expressed, I've had a connotation about it that links to mental images of a hermit sitting on a mountaintop or to New Age related movements, somebody sitting cross-legged and meditating "ohhmmmm". Mysticism to me has a tinge of escapism and goofiness, but from what I've read now, there seems to be a more neutral and broader definition that basically means, trying to figure out God through direct experience, intuition, or insight. This becomes semantics, but really, prayer then is mysticism, isn't it.
While the Quaker inner light concept is in that broader definition, the "fruits" of the Quakers show the opposite of the escapism and goofiness that the pejorative definitions have, so that was what I was trying to clarify. The Quakers are service-oriented and continue in modern times to pay out even the biggest act of love defined by Jesus, as they have throughout their history: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." See for example the story of this Quaker who was tortured and killed in Iraq.
Bernie:
What I was saying before is it's a Jesus teaching:I think the "God is within" is more pointedly a Gnostic and new age teaching, isn't it?
Luke 17:20-21
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."
What is your interpretation of Jesus' teaching that the kingdom of God is within? Thanks in advance.
A question for you Kurieuo:
Is there a chicken-and-the-egg problem though? If souls have a spiritual capacity that requires a "spiritual bodily form" in order to be expressed and function, but this "spiritual bodily form" only comes back if you are "born again", how do you become born again in the first place? Doesn't it require spiritual capacity to reach for God in the first place?One capacity I believe our soul has is a spiritual capacity (e.g., our "eyes" to God or the spiritual world), yet this requires the spiritual bodily component in order to be expressed and function. I often refer to this "spiritual bodily form" as our spirit. Our spirit is what I believe died in us when we sinned against God, severing our relationship with Him. Now we have to be spiritually "born again" (John 3:3-8) in order to receive our spiritual body back which allows us to perceive and even experience God again.
