Mysticism and the Upanishads

• Main Author: Trinidad, Jun Bernales
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1992
• Subjects: Mysticism; Upanishads; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1383
• Institution: De La Salle University

This paper is a thesis which is divided into two parts, each part lending support to the understanding of the other. The first part deals with the philosophy of mysticism. It discusses the general principles which try to explain such an effulgent reality called mystical consciousness. Likewise, it is the paper's purpose to clarify misconceptions about mysticism. The writer has quoted from writings of mystics, spiritual books, accounts of mystical experiences which are found in various religions, strains of ideas and philosophies which have traversed the historical continuum of thought. The first part of this dissertation wishes to show that there truly is such a reality called the mystical consciousness, though manifested differently in the most noble religions and philosophies. The second part of this study discusses mysticism found in the Upanishads. Indian philosophy is not merely metaphysical speculation, but has its foundation in immediate perception. God and the soul are regarded by the Hindu mind, not as concepts, speculative and problematical, as in the case of Western philosophy, but as things directly known. They can be experienced not merely by the chosen few, but, under right conditions, by all humanity. This insistence upon immediate experience is what distinguishes the Indian philosophy of religion from philosophy as Western thought knows it. Immediate perception or experience is the source from which springs all Indian thought. This perception, it must be made clear, is not of the senses, nor must it be confused with the operations of the intellect it is supersensuous, transcendental--something which can't be fully explained in strict logical or rational terms. The very heart of Indian thought has been captured by the Eastern wisemen and expressed in one of the sacred writings of the Indians--the Upanishads. Hinduism as a philosophy and a religion is steeped on mystical consciousness, which serves as the very foundation of its doctrines. The second part gives attention to the Upanishads as it ex