Some of us read the word “mystic” and immediately turn our attention elsewhere, finding the word a bit too woo-woo. Others of us will perk up our ears, curious to read about those who have touched into the deeper mystery of life. Curious about what the qualities of a mystic might be.

The term, itself, is difficult to pin down. It seems to refer to anything from occult practices to transcendence of human understanding. I am using the term to mean a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with the absolute.

My teacher, Joel Morwood, defines a mystic this way: men and women who claimed to have discovered a universal and liberating truth about the ultimate nature of reality. These words — this possibility — are what excite and move me.

What Joel discovered on his search for liberating Truth that led him to study the writing of the World’s greatest mystics, was that these mystics, who had lived in very different times and places and come from different religious traditions, each were pointing to the same thing.

The mystics that Joel studied and what he now teaches range from the authors of the Hindu Upanishads to the sixteenth-century Spanish Christian mystic, from St. Teresa of Avila to West African Sufi Sage Cerno Bokar, from Tibetan master Dudjom Lingpa and thirteenth-century Ibn al-‘Arabi to Jesus, and many more over the ages.

I’m here to tell you that similar mystics sharing similar teachings are here and now living among us. These sages of today echo their counterparts of yore. All point to the ineffable, selfless awareness at the core of Being itself. It’s a message I never tire of hearing.

My mystery school

As a mystic-in-training, each of these modern mystics has profoundly influenced me on a journey of self-discovery — or should I say self-lessdiscovery. Together they form the basis of my mystery school.

These masters inspire me to investigate the Truth of underlying reality for myself. To see it not as a final goal, but a perpetual unfolding of Now. Again and again, through joy and grief, these masters encourage me to experience this moment as it is without the covering of my thoughts about what it is.

Mine has been a journey dotted with gnostic flashes of understanding — what I like to think of as moments when “I” disappeared — moments when I got naked along “The Way.” It’s a Truth worth becoming intimately familiar with, for I have realized it to be Goodness through and through.

It has been a time of great turbulence and change. For me personally, there has been both celebration (with the birth of a grandchild) and mourning (with the death of my father). As I have been navigating the joy of birth, the struggle of separation (amid Covid), and the fresh grief of my father’s passing, I have found myself drawn to re-read — leaning on their words for support — the works of these modern-day mystics. Maybe you will too.

Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle had a profound inner transformation at age 29 that resulted in the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Chances are you have heard of it and him. He is considered the most popular spiritual author in the USA and possibly the most spiritually influential person in the world.

His teaching is simple and points to transcending the ego-based state of consciousness. I sat with him at a daylong retreat in Seattle in about 1997. The stillness was so palpable, I can recall it now over twenty-five years later.

I frequently turn to his teachings and have participated in several of his online offerings over the years. Eckhart Tolle reminds me that Now is the only moment I have. Peace is here, now.

Cheri Huber

Cheri Huber’s background is Zen Buddhism. Her specialty is on teaching how to get rid of suffering by becoming familiar with the negative voices in the head and replacing them with your own inner wisdom.

She offers a plethora of practice offerings through her organization called Living Compassion. She has a radio show, Zen coaching, practice reminders, email classes, retreats, and online virtual meditations. I have been on a silent retreat at her Zen Monastery Peace Center in Murphy’s, CA. It is the location where the mystical events relayed in my essay Butterfly Kissing Life(selected for inclusion in the award-winning anthology Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short. Memoir, vol. 1) took place. (Living Compassion recently moved from Murphy, CA to Sequim, WA.)

Cheri has written a bunch of books. If you are not sure where to start, I recommend this one: There Is Nothing Wrong With You: Going Beyond Self-Hate. Cheri Huber reminds me to notice when the negative voices in my head have taken over, drawing my attention away from thisherenow.

Byron Katie

Byron Katie had a sudden awakening in 1986 after a prolonged bout of depression. She has no religious or spiritual training per se. Her specialty (called “The Work”) is in teaching a method of closely investigating your judgments of others to discover that they are not necessarily true and rather point to the source of your suffering.

Her method is critically helpful for any of you interested in truly embarking on a journey of self-inquiry where you root out the cause of your suffering by examining your thoughts.

I attended an evening workshop with her in Seattle around 1997 and spent some time with a group that practiced her work. Over the years I have repeatedly turned back to the power of her simple teaching. I currently am reading and loving her latest book: A Mind at Home with Itself. A good place to start with Byron Katie is her book, Loving What Is.

Byron Katie encourages me to investigate every thought I have to uncover those that are causing me suffering and to ask “Is that true?”

Adyashanti

Adyashanti comes from a Zen Buddhism background but teachings are free of any tradition or ideology. He says the Truth he points to is not confined within any religious point of view, belief system, or doctrine. He offers powerful teachings about how to “stop, inquire and recognize what is true and liberating at the core of all existence.”

His organization is called Open Gate Sangha. You can find lots of YouTube videos with him and also wonderful audiobooks. I attended a daylong retreat with him a couple of years ago. I have participated in several of his online offerings. I have read all of his books. Currently, I am deeply moved by his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to Evoke Awakening.

My husband and I have been reading this aloud to each other before bed every night for the last year. As soon as we finish this small book, we swap leads and start over. This book is not one where you are trying to soak up knowledge, but rather are tapping into a direct experience. It’s incredible. Even while grieving my father’s recent death, I have found solace in the presence Adyashanti brings me to again and again through reading The Direct Way. Adyashanti underscores with his every word the illuminating presence that I am and that it is already and always here.

Joel Morwood

Before Covid, I went on silent retreat every year (and hope to do so again soon!) When I go on retreat, I do so primarily with The Center for Sacred Sciences, usually with Joel, although with other teachers from CSS as well. Joel had an awakening in 1983. After which he lived at The Great Space Center in the Sierras with Franklin Merrell-Wolff (another modern mystic who died in the 80s)

At the Great Space Center, under Wolff’s tutelage, Joel began studying the mystics of all religions. Eventually, he started the Center for Sacred Sciences in 1987 in Eugene, Oregon. Joel offers an incredible structured silent retreat that is an immersion experience in contemplative awareness practice and draws from the wisdom of the mystics of religions.

His retreats have offered me the opportunity to go deep beneath my conditioning, allowing clarity to surface with insights into my stuck thinking. During these retreats, there have been glimpses of an underlying Truth of existence–what I would call Naked Awareness — that is shockingly pure. Nothing replaces a direct realization of Truth.

Joel’s primary teaching book is called: The Way of Selflessness: A Practical Guide to Enlightenment Based on the Teachings of the World’s Great Mystics. His organization (CSS) also offers distance studies to get started. Joel reminds me that I am my own mystic investigating the nature of reality for myself.

Christopher Wallis (aka Hareesh)

Christopher Wallis, also known as Hareesh, is a scholar-practitioner with thirty years of experience. His doctoral dissertation focused on the role of the spiritual experience in the tradition of Tantric Shaivism. He currently teaches meditation, yoga darśana (practical philosophy), Tantrik philosophy, Sanskrit, and mantra-science. He is the Founder of Tantrik Yoga NOW.

He has an outstanding online beginners class called “Foundations of Tantrik Yoga.” In it, you learn basic techniques in meditation and awareness cultivation. It is well-formatted, easy to follow and a joy to participate in. I highly recommend it.

His book The Recognition Sutras: Illuminating a 1,000-year-old Spiritual Masterpiece is phenomenal for the more advanced awareness practitioner. Christopher Wallis brings out my own joy of immersion into the very heart of Tantrik philosophy. His Foundations of Yoga class reminded me of the joy in becoming a beginner again.

Seeking help to end suffering

I have been on a mystical journey that has shown me that I share exactly the same awareness as you — that I and everything and everyone around me is fundamentally Goodness Through and Through.

Still, I am also a human navigating the terrain of my human heart and mind, struggling sometimes to embody my highest truth. This can be near impossible while I am suffering.

When I find myself unduly suffering (i.e. resisting whatever is happening), I turn to these modern-mystic members of my mystery school, silently entreating them to uplift me once again.

And they do.

(Photo Credit: Karolina Wv on Unsplash; Published in Mystic Minds on Medium)