There are certain general characteristics of mysticism that are shared by Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Christianity. This common ground is a unifying principle that positions the Divine in the midst of all genuine mystical experiences.

1. Running head: RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS: EAST AND WEST 1
Religious Traditions: East and West
A Contrast of the Mystical Elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Christianity
David Grinstead
Atlantic University

2. RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS: EAST AND WEST 2
Religious Traditions: East and West
A Contrast of the Mystical Elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, and Christianity
There are certain general characteristics of mysticism that are shared by Buddhism,
Taoism, Judaism and Christianity. This common ground is a unifying principle that positions the
Divine in the midst of all genuine mystical experiences. This statement from The Second
Vatican Council On Non-Christian Religions provides clear insight regarding this empirical
truth: “From ancient time down to the present there has existed among diverse peoples a certain
perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of
human life…The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true an holy in these religions.” (Fox
65)
The main point of this commonality is based upon a universal human desire to experience
and enjoy union with the Divine, and it is this seeking and longing for One-ness that is the
essence of all mysticism, both Eastern and Western. (Marby 149) The unification experience can
not be rationally explained, yet it is the mysterious cornerstone of the mystical experience. Albert
Einstein provides insightful understanding of the unification experience with this statement:
I want to know the mind of God. The rest is all details. The most beautiful
experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which
stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and
can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead. (Fox 47)
There are different kinds of union which are accompanied by different understandings of
the object with which union is achieved. Generally nature mystics experience an expression of
unity without a clear content. This is sometimes termed Pantheism which is the “doctrine that
God, or at least the divine being, is everything and everything is divine.” This may be a mistake

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because a “simple feeling of unity or exaltation does not necessarily involve any divine being or
theos.” (Parrinder 13)
Another type of mystical experience is sometime termed pantheistic, but in reality it is
monistic. In the strictest sense, monism is the belief there is only one universal being, force, or
principle. (Parrinder 12-15) Monistic mysticism seeks identity with this universal force which
results in the “obliteration of the distinction between Creator and creature.” (Parrinder 131)
Basically the I is God and God is the I.
Theistic mysticism seeks union with God, but there remains a distinction between the
divine and the human in this unity. An example is that of marriage in which two, who were
formerly separated, becomes one flesh; yet even with unity some differences remain. (Parrinder
14)
One major criticism often leveled against mysticism is that it is self-centered and places
an overemphasis on the individual experience at the expense of then needs of the collective. The
individual may become so concerned with the attainment of self-salvation or a state of
blissfulness that she fails to develop compassion or love for others. A mystical practice void of
compassion is in reality pseudo-mysticism. The unitive experience (an awareness that all are
inter-connected) of an authentic mystical practice will naturally lead the practitioner down the
path of compassion and love. (Fox 63)
Some doubt if Theravada Buddhism is a religion and if it is mystical? Early Buddhism
seems to be agnostic about God and the soul, so if the “monks rejected the idea of God and
soul,” there can be no unity or mysticism for either. (Parrinder 55) Buddha had many different
experiences that seem to be mystical, but there was no divine union; however, there seems to

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have been a self-unity. While Buddha taught that there is no permanent self (anatta), ego, or
personal survival after death, maybe what he meant was that the self cannot be comprehended.
Is it possible that he meant that the self is other than the five constituent elements of the
personality, and that at death there is an “extinction of desires, not of all being?” (Parrinder 57)
Theravanda mysticism is pantheistic in nature and seeks to go beyond the gods to the
Void. It considers its doctrines to be invisible to theists whose minds are “befogged by concepts
such as good and evil.” This strict reliance of self-power often seeks to save only self. It may
produce a primary concern for self-isolation and the removal of ego while ignoring the needs of
others less fortunate. (Parrinder 62)
What is taught in theory is often ignored by the religious masses. Where the original
Theravada form was practical and without any concept of eternal reality, over time the faithful
forgot or rejected certain doctrines and became attached to countless images, ceremonies, and
objects of worship and communion with them. “People believe in Buddhas and gods, worship
them and pray to them, speak of their souls and hope for personal rebirth, mediate little and
regard Nirvana as a far distant goal.” (Parrinder 55) Even in Theravada Buddhism “there is not
only the indescribable sate of Nirvana but a communion with Buddha.” (Parrinder 60)
Mahayana Buddhism has a great richness and variety n expressions of the supernatural
and can be compared favorably to Christian experiences. It teaches that all beings have the
Buddha-nature and are potential Buddhas. It is the Buddha within which makes us long for
union, and the union experience produces Buddha-wisdom. (Parrinder 60-61)
This is mystical theism which responds to the previous actions of the deity. The “Buddha
in the Lotus Sutra is called Father of the world, the Self-born, the Saviour, Protector of all

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creatures,” and he seeks to save all of creation via active love which reaches out to bring
salvation to all. The seeker of Buddha-union is responding to divine grace that is the previous
actin of a living God. (Parrinder 62-63)
Devotion to Buddhas and Bodhisattva is characteristic of Pure Land schools of
Mahayana Buddhism, though it affects all schools to some extent, and it shows
something of the potency of Buddhism as a fervent, all-embracing and communal
religion. It is not a mere ethic, but a religion which seeks mystical union.
(Parrinder 64-65)
The Tao is the undivided Great One that cannot be named or known but can be
experienced through mystical union. To know the Tao and how to live within it was common to
the ancients, but it is the people of Lao Tzu’s time (and ours) who have forgotten this truth and
need to rediscover it. (Marby 150)
Taoism is:
“…the way of man’s cooperation with the course or trend of the natural world.”
That’s it. There is nothing inherently spiritual about it. There is nothing in
Taoism that relies on some form of divine revelation, nothing that any sensitive
human being could not learn by simply observing nature.” (Marby 15)
The pure Tao mystical experience is not grounded in world-denial, but is instead a nature
mysticism that seeks union through the affirmation of nature and the world. (Parrinder 115)
At another level the Tao mystical experience is pantheistic. The Taoists sought to return
to the simplicity of the “Uncarved Block, the Great Concordance, the Great Way, the Mother of
all things, the original harmony of nature” (Parrinder 69) through the use of mystical intuitin
and the worship of Tao. By clinging to quietness and pushing out into the Void they tried “to
uncover the layers of consciousness so that they would arrive at pure consciousness, and see the
inner truth of everything.” (Parrinder 68)

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Because of this seeking after quietness, the effects to overcome self and cleanse oneself,
the efforts to obtain truth and happiness, and most of all to have power over self and the world;
Taoists were often called Quietists and condemned by critics as those “who walk by
themselves.” (Parrinder 68) There were and are Taoists who interpret the Tao Te Ching as a
creed for hermits who withdraw from society. This is not taught by Lao Tzu, but comes from
the later works of Chuang Tzu who was practically indifferent to society and sought to rise
above the world rather than to reform the world. (Parrinder 69-70) Lao Tzu did not teach
people to drop out of society, but instead to overcome self first and then to work behind the
scenes of society by serving others quietly without calling attention to self.
Theistic mysticism is grounded in the reality that the union between humans and God
results from divine grace and God’s initiation of the mystical experience. The God of Judaism
takes men in his arms, heals them, and “draws them with cords of a man, with bonds of love.”
(Parrinder 115)
Many claim that Judaism is focused primarily on the transcendental because of its
emphasis on the Wholly Other, but throughout the Bible there are a multitude of examples of
varying “forms of mystical experience, devotional, speculative and practical: Isaiah speaks of
God as being high and lifted up, transcendent, but also ‘with him that is of a contrite and
humble spirit,’ immanent. The Psalmists often felt the presence of God. Thomas
Aquinas…constantly used the words of the Psalmist, ‘Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.’
(Parrinder 113) Rabbi Barneet Joseph, in a lecture on Aspects of Jewish Mysticism, declared
that the ‘Bible is the world’s greatest classic of mysticism.’ (Parrinder 112)

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I have associates who view the Old Testament as a bloody book with a savage God. This
view stresses the dark side of the Old Testament at the expense of the light, and both are
contained and balanced throughout. They overlook the reality that the development of both
doctrine and morality in the Bible correlates with the state of men’s understanding of God
which “differs greatly in successive ages, and that men may learn from the past and progress to
a better understanding of God. Of course God is always the same, he is unchangeable.”
(Parariinder 112)
Contrary to Christian doctrines which emphasize the fallen state, Judaism teaches that not
only is man made in God’s image, but ‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.’
(Psalm 72.6) We are created in the divine image, “by the special love of God,” and “one man is
equal all the rest of creation.” World affirming Jewish mysticism is not linked with world denial
but is life-affirming because God made the world and ‘saw that it was good.’ (Parrinder 115)
Out of the Jewish experience during medieval times developed schools of practical and
speculative mysticism which evolved into the Cabbalah. Associated with the Cabbalah is a long
and complex work called Zohar, ‘Splendour’, which provides an exposition of mystical
speculation. The Zohar teaches that love is the secret of mystical union and that all levels of the
experience (moral and devotional work) ‘Love unites the highest and lowest stages and lifts
everything to the stage where all must be one.’ (Parrinder 117)
The most striking example of mystical imagery in the Old Testament is that of the divine
marriage, which is the closest form of unity, and is presented in the story of Hosea (representing
God) and his marriage to a prostitute (representing the nation of Israel). The Song of Solomon
is also a classic of mystical imagery considered to represent the passionate love of God for

8. RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS: EAST AND WEST 8
Israel. (Parrinder 114) Both of these examples are sometimes interpreted as representing the
passionate love of God for the soul which many believe is feminine in its essence. This love is
also found in many verses of the Zohar “in expositions of biblical texts, for when ‘Jacob kisses
Rachel’ (Gen. 29.11) it is the Lord who embraces each holy soul, foundling her and presenting
gifts.” (Parrinder 117)
Another mystical element of Judaism is the Hasidic movement which was popularized for
the modern world by Martin Buber. Buber teaches that mystical unity with God is not the same
as identity with God. While the experience may feel like an undivided unity, it is in reality ‘an
original pre-biographical unity.’ His position is that it is easy to mistake the basic unity in one’s
own soul, especially in a pantheistic environment, for identity with the divine Being. “Buber
contradicts those who maintain that I and Thou are superficial, and that deep down there is only
one primal being without any relationships.” (Parrinder 119)
Reflecting back to the days of my youth and growing up on a farm and hunting, fishing,
and camping; it is amazing how I never experienced a sense of unity or awe regarding the
natural world. However, after having a mystical awakening and turning my life over to a
Higher Power (I was still an agnostic), I was often overwhelmed by the awe of nature. At dusk
I would go walking around the farm and intense feelings and strange intimate energies of
intimacy would flood my body and overwhelm me. Impressions of God were so real. We were
as one and I felt like I would explode because my body could not contain the love and peace
which flooded it. Trying to describe the experience, I wrote these thoughts on June 6, 1974:

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Ocean … a depth fashioned of swirling currents consisting of infinite greatness …
an endless force stretching forever into tomorrow.
Trash, shells, and life forms coming together for one big party, praying for and
being preyed upon, life giving unto life.
Ocean … life … an analogy in time.
Though this was primarily a nature mystical experience and resembled pantheism, it was
not enough. I sensed the presence of something more standing behind but represented through
my encounter with nature. Now I understand that twenty-five years ago I was a nature mystic,
but now I am a Christian mystic. “For the Christian mystic, pantheism, though closely
resembling the experience of God in the physical world, is ultimately inadequate for it does not
allow the equally valid experience of God as transcendent; nor does the impersonal nature of the
pantheistic God allow for the personal aspect of god revealed to us in Jesus of Nazareth.” (Marby
156-157) There is a tension between those two realities of experience and it is a paradox; God is
present in nature and beyond nature.
Christianity differs greatly from Judaism in its doctrines of God (as expressed primarily
in the doctrine of the Trinity) and is more immanetal than Judaism (Parrinder 141-142), but it
shares common ground with the Hasidic traditions. This common ground is the love experience,
“the experience of ravishing love, of meeting a Divine Lover whose justice is consummate in
self-giving love” and the sense of “being saved from something by this love.” (Kelsey 87) This
love experience is a divine response to the “deepest yearnings of the human spirit for
transcendent meaning and authentic fulfillment, the experience of purification, illumination, and
with the ‘Beautiful Savior’ has succeeded in ennobling every natural sensibility and elevating it
into a means of grace.” (Pelikan 132)

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At its core, Christianity is concerned primarily with the lived experience. The New
Testament should not be regarded as a doctrinal statement, but as a “living testimony of what the
authors saw, felt and experienced to the depths of their being.” (Marby 148) Christian mysticism
is generally treated by the Western Church as a dangerous heresy, but this erroneous thinking
because mysticism is “an essential ingredient to vital Christian living.” (Marby 148)
The goal and the achievement of Christ-mysticism had been formulated in the
words of the New Testament: “We are God’s children now; it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is” (1 John 3.2) This could be interpreted as the promise that
the creaturely state of the soul would fly “from the alone to the Alone.” (Pelikan
132)
Mysticism may result in some people withdrawing from the world, but the doctrine of the
Incarnation, which means the marriage of Spirit and Matter, helps check this flight into world-
denial.
New Testament mysticism is conditioned by the fundamental belief in the love of
God … the divine initiative. Because of this love of God, Christian mystical
union looks outward to others and produces loving actions.” (Parrinder 144 &
145)
Excessive mystical individualism which promotes one’s own private relation to Jesus
while excluding or at least diminishing that to others is dangerous and ego-inflating. (Pelikan
132) “From the Christian point of view, experiences of God that do not bear the fruit of
increased love are either form the wrong source or have been misused.” (Kelsey 87) Christ-
mysticism is not anchored in belief but in relationship: the love of and for God and the love of
and for others.

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The ultimate mystery to me is how my mystical experiences have resurrected my
religious life:
One of the great surprises is that the fire of mysticism can melt even the rigor
mortis of dogmatism, legalism, and ritualism. By the glance or the touch of those
whose hearts are burning, doctrine, ethics, and ritual come aglow with the truth,
goodness, and beauty of the original fire. The dead letter comes alive, breathing
freedom. “God’s writing engraved on the tablets” is what the uninitiated read in
Exodus 32:16. But only the consonants are written in the Hebrew text: (chrth).
Mystics who happen to be rabbis look at this word and say: Don’t read charath
(engraved); read cheruth (freedom)! God’s writing is not “engraved,” it is
freedom. (Steindl-Rast)
“Saying more than she realized, a schoolgirl wrote, ‘Many dead animals of the past have
changed into fossils while others have preferred to be oil.’ This’s what mystics prefer, alive or
dead, they keep religion afire.” (Steidl-fast)

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References
Buber, M. (1970) I and Thou. New York: Touchstone
Fox, M. (1988) The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the
Birth of A Global Renaissance. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Kelsey, M. (1996) Companions on the Inner Way: The Art of Spiritual Guidance. New
York: Crossroad
Parrinder, G. (1995) Mysticism In The World’s Religions. Oxford: Oneworld
Pelikan, J. (1985) Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New
York: Harper & Row
Marby, J. (1994) God As Nature Sees God: A Christian Reading of the Tao Te Ching.
Rockport, MA: Element
Smith, H. (1989) The Religions of Man. New York: Harper & Row
Steindl-Rast, D. “The Mystical Core of Organized Religion,” Revison, 12 (1) (Summer
1989), 11-14.