Mysticism

from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/X/X_2.htm

Does the mystic make any effort to reach the highest realization? Yes. It is an art that is passed on from teacher to pupil. This art is handed down through the ages, from one person to another. One might ask, 'Why, if truth is within oneself, is there any necessity for such an art? After all, art is not nature. The animals and birds do not need an art, they are happy, they are peaceful, they are innocent; they are spiritual, really spiritual. They live in nature, their lives are natural.' The answer is, we live far away from nature, we have made our artificial world to live in, and that is why we require an art to free ourselves from it. I do not mean to say that we must abandon life, or that we must not have anything to do with life in order to be mystics; however, we have to practice that art which enables us to get in touch with reality.

That art is, in the first place, concentration. Concentration does not mean closing the eyes and sitting in church on Sunday. Many know how to close their eyes and sit there, yet their mind wanders about, especially when they have closed their eyes. Concentration means that every atom of the body and of the mind is centered in one spot.

The next step is contemplation; that is, to be able to retain an idea which raises one's consciousness from the dense world. The third stage is meditation, and that is to purify oneself, to free oneself, and to open oneself to the light of truth in order that it may abide in one's spirit. And the fourth step is realization. Then the mystic is no longer the knower of truth, but is truth itself.