Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation homepage > Notebooks of Paul Brunton



There is a type of mysticism calling for criticism. It is uncritically pantheistic and says it is "the conception of God in Man." An instance of this type is Al Bistami's utterance, "Beneath my cloak there is naught else than God." Another is Al Hallaj's words, "I am the Divine Reality." My view of this type, which may be called self-deificatory, coincides with that of Al Ghazzali, who is no pantheist, and who teaches that there is a spark of the Divine in man's soul and that man can know and recognize it. The correct type may be designated as agnostic mysticism. This asserts man's inability to unite with the Absolute, his incapacity to attain the Godhead because it is unknowable.

-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 1 : Their Meeting and Interchange > # 76