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My description of this book is probably inaccurate and the language poor, since I'm not a native speaker of English, and I may have mingled my own opinions and judgements with that of the author. Scharfstein does take precautions against generalizations, but aside from all the differences he makes a conscious effort to gather together the similarities between various mystical schools as well as artists and creative scientists, and the similarities are striking. He doesn't claim to have it all sorted out, but he makes a valuable study out of the limited data he uses.
He also stresses the creative genius that often accompanies mystical thinking, such as that of Schrödinger or Einstein, or the various artists that have ventured into this area. But he makes a valid point when he asks us what we would have thought of Einstein if he would have just remained an unkempt disorganized incomprehensible introvert babbling something about his incommunicable personal experience of relativity. The mystic makes "discoveries" in the internal "astral" universe, which are of no meaning or consequence to the outside world if they remain rooted in his own consciousness, while the scientist or artist has his eyes fixed on the external world of concrete things and tries to understand it better, modify it or create something new out of it. Mystical experience may be valuable only as means but not as an end. If it's giving you insight and creativity that helps you solving real problems and functioning in life, then that's fine. If your search for it is merely alienating you from the real world, then you just drop it for a more useful outlook on life. I can't speak for you guys, but that's what works best for me. |
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