Mysticism/spirituality thread

Do you have a spiritual practice? What is it like? What tradition do you follow? What are you insterested in, how did you start? Share with us

I have been following Buddhism for several years now, I attend a Rinzai zen group, we practice a bit of chanting following by about 30 minutes of sitting meditation, some walking meditation and another period of sitting. I started practicing secular mindfulness, and as I investigated into its source I got more and more interested in Buddhism itself.

In my private study I mostly read literature from the Theravada school, especially the Pali texts. Though I am also interested in the Buddhist tradition as a whole, especially the medieval Indian tradition (Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu).

Sometimes my curiosity takes me into other areas though, I have a great respect for the Hindu tradition too and recently I've been reading about and listening to lectures on Christian mysticism. I'm actually quite interested in reading the Cloud of Unknowing and also perhaps the Philokalia. I saw a doc about Orthodox monks, and I have developed a lot of respect for those guys, very serious monastics.

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I can't say ı have a practice, but ı'm certainly very interested in putting some of the ideas ı gathered to practice. Especially Taoism ı find very useful, and it has helped me learn to appreciate life a lot more.

I came to consider this kind of stuff seriously thanks to an approach to "Eastern philosophy" taking me out of deppression. Eventually ı came to be interested in Abrahamic faith too. Sadly, thanks to the happenings of life, bad management, and to the fact ı can't consider religion separate from the rest of my life, ı haven't found the time to get respectably deep into anything. And perhaps for the better, as ı think ı'd feel kind of phony giving in to a specific dogma, rather than buildng my own; but that, of course, proves very difficult, and nowadays ı've come to see just how monumental a thing ı would have to produce in order to really be comparable to the likes of Jesus or Gautama--especially if ı want to be alive to see even some of its effects, ı would need to be a World of my own, a truly monstruous. Now ı know this ambition is ridiculous, but ı'm not so stupid as to reject those that came before me. Ah well, drama is not worth so many sighs.

>recently I've been reading about and listening to lectures on Christian mysticism.
Would you mind sharing/linking some of them?

sure op
first read everything written by saint Augustine
writings of the desert fathers are interesting
the interior castle
thomas merton is good too

You and I are pretty similar, OP. I've been somewhat equally pulled between Buddhism and Christian Mysticism/Orthodox Christianity/Christian Existentialism for a few years now, although I've gotten much more serious with it the past year. I've explored most major occult practices in the past and found them all to be more novelty than anything (although some of the psychological principles of chaos magick and Thelma are still useful for any practice), as well as the whole postmodern/psychoanalytical approach to spirituality which, while certainly useful for an analytical understanding of spirituality's place in the psyche, leaves out a sense of essential lived experience that left me completely unsatisfied.

But for the time being I've completely embraced Buddhism, and am due to live at a Chan Buddhist monastery for 2 months in less than a month to develop the practice further and to really get a hold of that sense of lived experience that's perpetuated my unquenchable thirst for spirituality lately. But until then I'm just a layman, practicing basic vipassana before bed and reading koans and bits of suttas. Most recently I've tried getting into taoism through the Tao Te Ching, but I can't shake the feeling that it is somewhat life denying through its glorification of passivity. There is certainly wisdom to be found in it, but its not something I feel I can embrace in its entirety. But once I return from the monastic life I'm resolute on putting all Eastern thought on hold and getting around to reading through the entire Bible, and perhaps attending a local Orthodox church.

Does anyone have any recommendations for Christian mysticism materials aside from the Nagi Hammand Library?

Teresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Hildegard von Bingen, Edith Stein.

I spend almost all my free time (apart from shitposting on a Japanese war crimes forum) doing research into religion, occultism, philosophy mysticism, and so on.

In terms of practice: I go hard on meditation, and I strictly try to adhere to the 5 precepts from Buddhism (I am not a Buddhist, but keeping your shit in check is important).

I am also constantly trying to systematize my own form of practice. A lot of experimentation with pranayama, different forms of meditation from different traditions, occult practices, lucid dreaming/astral projecting. Anything that might be helpful in what I'm trying to achieve.

yo

'Everything is nothing, and nothing is everything' *stares into space*
'consider dying, how dying is like life and life is like dying' *eats a grain of rice*

Hermeticist here. I've studied the Greeks up to Plotinus, the Bible, the Corpus Hermeticum, Kabbalah, Sufism, Christian mysticism, Taoism, Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism, Hinduism and alchemy.

The Cloud of Unknowing is my favourite Christian work. Also check out Interior Castle and Dark Night of the Soul. Plotinus' Enneads are a useful bit of background if you've read the other Greeks.