Chapter 3. Mystical Union: A more detailed account of stage 12:
Toward the end of the Dark Night
(see Stage 11), during the two minute period (615 to 617) extending from the removal of the last knot from my heart to the experience of mystical union, my mind rapidly became completely absorbed with the God-infused present moment within and my heart continued to open. Psychic stress, fear of death, and prayer due to fear were rapidly disappearing and the intense energies associated with them were becoming transformed into a force powering a supreme inner attention and absorption. Then, quite abruptly, a cessation of all inner sense or movement occurred for a period estimated to be between four to seven seconds, during which I was in the state of mystical union.
In mystical union the following occurred:
- It seems that my body had ceased to function: The pumping
of my blood, the beating of my heart, the quivering or hum of my
nerves (or perhaps the latter was my body shaking) ceased quite
abruptly and I was left in a state of profound silence.
- Sentience or the train of inner sense stopped. That is, the increase and
decrease in intensity of inner sense such as psychic stress, fear of
death, and prayer due to fear ceased abruptly.
- With this cessation of inner sense the train of my sense of time
also ceased.
{This indicates that one's
sense of time and the experience of change of one's inner sense are
intimately linked.}
- At the same moment that the train of inner sense and the train
of time stopped, thought stopped.
- The mind was so intensely absorbed with the God-infused
present moment within that it was
unable to leave that spot to
generate thought or imagination or to recall from memory.
- Therefore, with the above cessation the cognition of time had
ceased; time did not exist for me. However, I was now aware of what
is known in the West as
Eternity.
- In Eternity there was an exaltation now on the spiritual level:
I had arrived at the supreme goal I had been seeking, unconsciously.
I was in a state where I felt I was experiencing the fundamental
note of my existence.
- In Eternity I was aware of
being in union with the God-infused
formless and timeless ground.
In addition I was aware of a supreme integrity and a true freedom while in
union with this formless ground. The two had become One.
- I was satisfied that this state was the end of the search:
- for the Ground,
- for Truth. (Here is my idea of Truth: my system was finally
running true, like when a rackety, complex machine has been carefully
adjusted and begins to hum.)
- for God.
- As I reflect on it now, I estimate that this timeless
state lasted around 4 to 7 seconds, although this estimate could be
way off. {However, such a brief experience of this state could be
dismissed as an unimportant anomaly in the vast expanse of physical
time and time's many uses in practical life, except that this experience
of the Eternal remains as a deep and abiding memory, like the mother's
memory of childbirth. The effect is that it brings about a conversion
and a salvation and becomes the
philosopher's stone,
the central ground of one's life from that moment forward.
With that seed, that pearl,
I had what I needed to begin to tread the mystic path leading to the
salvation of my soul.
I believe many unknown people have also experienced mystical union.}
- With the gaining of this pearl I had come to the end of my long
desperate search. I then let go and fell into a deep and abiding sleep.
To understand how I arrived at the above state of mystical union,
please study the dramatic narrative of the 21 month period leading
up to that state. During that time I was working as a project engineer.
I call the narrative,
An Engineer's Story.
Arlen Wolpert
November 1,2005
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
http://world.std.com/~awolpert/gtr23.html
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