Where Does Mysticism Take Us?
The Pursuit of Common Ground
By Brian Flynn
[R]eality itself is one, an integral whole, just as the cosmos and nature are one.… The Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Jew, the Jain, the Sikh, the Christian and the agnostic all belong to the same planetary environment … It has to be accepted that we all share in the same system of reality, while our views on its nature may differ. It is essential for the future for all the religious traditions to recognize this underlying unity.–Wayne Teasdale
As I walked into the sanctuary of a local Lutheran church with a few friends of mine one Sunday evening, I realized we should have come a little earlier. The place was filling up quickly. The special guest speaker was Thomas Keating, a Catholic monk considered one of the main individuals responsible for introducing contemplative prayer into the mainstream. While I knew quite a bit about Thomas Keating’s beliefs and teachings, I was not prepared that evening to hear the disturbing and haunting remarks made by this priest in an evangelical church.
The event was sponsored by the Minnesota Contemplative Outreach. Their newsletter states that over a recent twelve-month period, they have:
• Served over 44,000 people through 3000 programs.
• Supported over 120 Chapters in 30 countries.
• Reached 12,000 people through Centering Prayer Introductory programs.
In Keating’s “Transforming the Heart of the World” brochure, he states, “Contemplative Outreach aims to transmit the experience of Divine Love to the global community.”
Keating began the evening’s service by leading the more than 300 in attendance through a twenty-minute centering prayer meditation.
When the meditation time ended Keating proceeded to share his views on contemplative prayer. He said that by practicing this mantra-style prayer on a regular basis, the practitioner can erase the causes that affect unwanted, negative behavior.
Quoting Sigmund Freud and espousing the philosophies of Carl Jung to support his views, Keating stated that our psychological unconsciousness drives our behavior based upon influences from childhood, which he said is what causes sin. He claimed that contemplative prayer can cleanse wounded people from repressed self-knowledge and childhood trauma. In a kind of out-with-the-bad and in-with-the-good mode, Keating said that contemplative prayer was the vehicle to wholeness. Not surprisingly he offered no scriptural references to back this.
From such remarks as “we are the fruit of thirteen and a half billion years of evolution” to “contemplation is the heart and soul of the Gospel” I shuddered to think that this man considered himself to be a spokesman for God. Yet, as I glanced around the room, sure that many others in the room would look as shocked as I know I must have looked, the majority of people sitting there that night smiled, gazed admiringly, and even laughed. I had to remind myself that I was not sitting in a New Age meeting but was actually in an evangelical church. The words apostasy and paradigm shift flashed across my mind. When Keating said, “God is not the fearful God in the Old Testament,” I remembered the words of David the psalmist who said: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).
Keating described contemplative prayer this way:
Contemplative prayer is the opening of mind and heart, our whole being, to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions. It is a process of interior purification that leads, if we consent, to divine union.
Divine union, according to Keating, means not simply that we have fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ, which we do have, but that we actually share God’s divinity. According to the Bible, Jesus has bridged the gap between man and God, but we remain human and not divine. Keating suggests that in the silence of contemplative prayer we actually get in touch with our divinity, thus divine union.
Christian theologian Robert Dabney describes the problem of unification this way:
The Christian believer, after he or she has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is “still a separate person, a responsible free agent, and a man, not a God. The idea of a personal or substantial union would imply the deification of man, which is profane and unmeaning.”
Unity of Experience
Is the Christian contemplative prayer experience similar to Eastern transcendental meditation? In an article in Newsweek magazine, “Religion and the Brain,” the author describes how our brain functions in relation to meditative spiritual experiences:
Although the field is brand new and the answers only tentative, one thing is clear. Spiritual experiences are so consistent across cultures, across time and across faiths, … that it “suggest[s] a common core.”
These studies go beyond the research by Herbert Benson mentioned earlier in this book where he proves that a repetitive process brings one into an altered state of consciousness. These researchers actually locate the brain waves that prove a real biologically-based event.
In Why God Won’t Go Away written by Dr. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania and the late Eugene d’Aquil, the authors use brain-imaging data they collected from Tibetan Buddhists who were in trance-like meditative states and from Franciscan nuns deep in contemplative prayer.
One of the Buddhist monks described his “moment of peak transcendence” (which he has practiced since he was fourteen) this way:
A feeling of energy centered within me … going out to infinite space and returning … a relaxing of the dualistic mind.… I felt a deep and profound sense of connection to everything, recognizing that there never was a true separation at all.
One Franciscan nun described her moments of ecstasy:
I felt communion, peace, openness to experience … [There was] an awareness and responsiveness to God’s presence around me, and a feeling of centering, quieting, nothingness, [as well as] moments of fullness of the presence of God. [God was] permeating my being.
Although the article suggests that the experiences are not really spiritual but merely a brain function brought about by a repetitive meditative process, they do conclude like Benson that the experiences are similar.
They describe the nun’s experience this way:
During her most intensely religious moments, when she felt a palpable sense of God’s presence and an absorption of her self into his being, her brain displayed changes like those in the Tibetan Buddhist meditator.… The fact that spiritual contemplation affects brain activity gives the experience a reality that psychologists and neuroscientists had long denied it, and explains why people experience ineffable, transcendent events as equally real as seeing a wondrous sunset or stubbing their toes.
Their conclusion of a similarity of experiences is correct, but their summation is wrong. The feelings that the Buddhists and the contemplatives share is the immersion into the same spiritual realm. They think this realm is God, but I propose that this is not the realm of God but rather a demonic one, thus a realm that no Christian should ever enter.
Interspirituality
Wayne Teasdale was a lay monk who coined the term interspirituality, a uniting of the world’s religions through common ground. In an article titled, “Mysticism as the Crossing of Ultimate Boundaries,” he describes interspirituality as:
• A crossing-over boundaries that mysticism makes possible and concrete.
• The spiritual common ground which exists among the world’s religions.
The term means to break down the barriers that separate religions. Through what means does Teasdale believe this breaking down and merging of religions occurs? None other than mysticism ( i.e., contemplative prayer):
All these religious traditions [Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, etc.] emerge out of mystical experience, and mystical experience means a direct knowledge of and relationship with the Divine, God, or boundless consciousness. One can almost say that the real religion of humankind isn’t religion at all, but rather it is mystical spirituality.
All traditions emphasize the deep interiority of the contemplative vision.
Is contemplative prayer more than just an individual experience for unity or communication with God? When Keating spoke about contemplative prayer he stated that we could achieve unity of knowledge, Oneness with God and Oneness of all man. He believes that if we are all practicing contemplative prayer we will create a unity of the cosmic consciousness of all people. According to Keating, it is through this process we can create world peace.
This is the same theory that is espoused by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation. He calls it the “Unified Field.” The theory is that when all are meditating, a feeling of calmness or peace is transmitted to those around them. TM websites are filled with statistics showing that when a TMer group enters a city and meditates non-stop for 24-48 hours the crime rate drops during that same period.
Supporters of TM state:
Regular experience of the unified field through Transcendental Meditation has been shown to dissolve deep-seated stress in the individual, bringing marked reductions in hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and other stress-related illness. When practiced collectively in groups, this same program has been shown to effectively reduce societal stress and tensions, causing associated reductions in crime and social violence, and an upsurge of peace and positivity throughout the population.
Whether the crime rate falling is attributed to the Unified Field is open to interpretation, but the theory is the same—unity of man and world peace can be achieved through a shared meditative practice. According to the Maharishi world peace can be obtained through meditation:
Now every government can achieve national invincibility and secure the safety and well-being of its citizens. Such a government will naturally gain the permanent support of its people—and thereby secure its own longevity and dignity as a stable, sovereign government.—Maharishi
What exactly are the Mararishi’s plans for global peace:
1. Immediately establish a group of at least 1,000 to 2,000 peace-creating experts (depending upon the size of the national population) trained in Maharishi’s Unified Field-Based Approach to Defense to secure domestic tranquility, stability, and harmony within the nation.
2. Quickly expand this group to 8,000 peace-creating experts—the number required to create a powerful influence of peace and harmony on a global scale.
Thomas Keating believes some great days may be coming to the Earth:
God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if God can find enough people to cooperate in this mysterious plan.
What is this plan he speaks of?
In the writings of the major contemplative leaders, there is a common thread—the belief that through the shared experience of meditation and entering the transcendent silence, the boundaries that separate the world’s religions can be erased, which will in turn bring world peace. Wayne Teasdale states:
Meditation itself is also fast becoming an immensely significant force for understanding in the dialogue between East and West. We have only to consider the fact that every year there is an important meeting, a practical relating of Christian and Buddhist techniques and insights on meditation, a conference that takes place in an atmosphere of mutual respect, openness, trust and profound sharing in depth at the Naropa Institute, [a Tibetan Buddhist center in Boulder, Colorado] in order to grasp the importance meditation has acquired in relations between the Asian and Western religions.
Mystical Union
The goal to unify man through a shared mystical religious experience is becoming more crystal clear with every passing day. The Sufis of Islam have “Fana,” the Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) have “Amidah,” and the Buddhists and Hindus have TM. And now last but not least, the Christians have contemplative prayer. Through contemplative prayer, many evangelicals and post-modernists say we can join the shared universal experience.
Listen to a few comments by dedicated New Agers and mystics who affirm their belief that the mystical element unites all humanity:
A highest common factor [is] … the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality … [linking] every religious tradition.—Aldous Huxley
I would like to explore what I call interspirituality: a crossing-over boundaries that mysticism makes possible and concrete.—Wayne Teasdale
This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality.—Tilden Edwards
It is with great sadness and dismay I tell you now that this New Age mindset has spilled over and is now invading Christendom. Evangelical author and speaker Tony Campolo, in his book Speaking My Mind, affirms this union:
[M]ysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God, which seem at odds with their own spiritual traditions but have much in common with each other.
Later he asks the question, “Could they [Islamic Sufis] have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism?” With various examples, Campolo paints a picture of interspirituality through mysticism. Referring to Muslim and Christian mystics, he even tells us that the Christian mystics, such as St. John of the Cross, were enriched by the teachings of Sufi philosophers. In comparing St. Francis of Assisi with the founder of the Sufi movement, Campolo says:
Both men sensed a sacred presence in everything and claimed to have experienced a mystical union with God.
The obvious implication of Campolo’s statement is that God can be reached through mystical experiences, regardless of one’s religion and beliefs. This is common thinking among contemplatives who often state that contemplative prayer does indeed provide a bridge to Divinity. The Bible makes it clear there can be no access to God except through Jesus Christ, but these writers negate this central claim in Jesus’ proclamation by their promotion of mystical union with God for all religions.
Alan Jones, an Episcopal priest and a member of The Living Spiritual Teachers Project states is his book, Reimagining Christianity:
Christ and Buddha are not antithetical. They are not at cross-purposes. Neither are they identical. The man on the cross and the princely contemplative are different images telling difference stories. But they are not at war. They can be in conversation. There is grace in both.
He later states:
Jesus is the Way to a new kind of life. Jesus and Buddha have this in common with all great spiritual teachers—to make human beings more conscious of themselves, to get more real.
Embarrassed by the Cross
New Agers and postmodernist Christians are attempting to deny or obscure the unique person and work of Jesus so He can be considered the equivalent of Buddha and other spiritual teachers. Jesus Christ is God. Buddha was a man. Jesus is alive. Buddha is dead. Can they not tell the difference?
Emerging church leader Brian McLaren further develops this attempt in his book, A Generous Orthodoxy:
This is how I feel when I’m offered a choice between the roads of exclusivism (only confessing Christians go to heaven), universalism (everyone goes to heaven) and inclusivism (Christians go to heaven, plus at least some others). Each road takes you somewhere, to a place with some advantages and disadvantages, but none of them is the road of my missional calling: blessed in this life to be a blessing to everyone on earth.
McLaren wishes to be a “blessing to everyone on earth,” but I wonder how many of those, who are being blessed by him, will be deprived of hearing the true gospel of Jesus Christ and believing in Him.
Contemplatives, such as Brennan Manning, believe we cannot even have a close relationship with God without the mystical, contemplative element. Manning states, “Intimate knowledge of God only comes through centering prayer.” That would mean that without a mystical experience of going into an altered state of consciousness there is no chance at all of knowing God intimately. Apparently, for Manning these experiences are more trustworthy and effective than the Word of God.
Combine McLaren’s and Campolo’s teachings that God can be found in mystical experiences regardless of a person’s actual beliefs, with Brennan Manning’s idea that we cannot even know God closely without contemplative, and what do you get?—a new Christianity that excludes Jesus Christ as being the only way of salvation.
Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). I view that statement as good news. It is the end of confusion. It is the end of ambiguity. It is the end of wishy-washy postmodernist ideas. It is simply good news! When I became a Christian it was a relief and a joy to finally know the truth about God, to know who He is, to understand His nature, and to know His will.
However, for these contemplatives, Jesus’ claim seems to be a source of embarrassment. They believe that the exclusivity drives people away from Christianity. Are they ashamed of Jesus’ exclusive claim for salvation? That appears to be the case. And yet, shouldn’t Christians follow the example of Paul, who in the end lost his life because of his stand for Christ?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
Through their shame of the gospel, the contemplatives wish to erase what they see as Christianity’s exclusive claim. If only we could rid ourselves of doctrine, disagreement, and certainty then we can join with our brothers of the East and share our knowledge of God obtained through meditation. Alan Jones states: “A ‘doctrine’ is not like a fact to be believed but rather a way of being in the world that is validated by experience.”
The New Age offers empty feel-good platitudes and subjective meditative experiences. Sadly the contemplatives offer much of the same. That is what they should be ashamed of.
Global Peace Through Meditation
In Warren Smith’s excellent and stunning book, Reinventing Jesus Christ, Smith describes the plan of several influential and popular New Age leaders. One of those, Barbara Marx Hubbard, believes that a time is coming soon in which the world will experience world peace and unity. She believes this will come about through a Christ figure, one who incidentally has spoken to her. In her book, The Revelation, her Christ tells her that the Bible end time scenario of a disastrous Armageddon can be avoided but only on one condition—the majority of people must come together in unity and realize their oneness with each other and with God:
The alternative to Armageddon is the Planetary Pentecost. When a critical mass is in the upper room of consciousness on a planetary scale, each will hear from within, in their own language, the mighty words of God. All who are attuned will be radically empowered to be and do as Jesus did.30
New Age leader Benjamin Crème also agrees with this premise. In his book, Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom he states:
One day soon, men and women all over the world will gather around their radio and television sets to hear and see the Christ: to see His face, and to hear His words dropping silently into their minds–in their own language.
Benjamin Crème and Barbara Marx Hubbard are not referring to the Christ in the gospel. Listen to some of the statements that Hubbard’s Christ tells her:
The second purpose of these writings is to call for the completion of the good news concerning the transformation of the world.
The church is the body of believers who are conscious of being me.
I did not intend for you to deify me, but to deify yourselves.
How do Hubbard, Crème, and others mentioned in Warren Smith’s book think such unity will come about? Simply this—through meditation (i.e., contemplative prayer). When Wayne Teasdale said that mysticism provided the “cross-over” to unite all people, he couldn’t have been more right.
As New Agers such as Barbara Marx Hubbard, Benjamin Crème, and Marianne Williamson race to accomplish their world peace through mass meditation and unity, how are Christian leader and spokespersons responding? And in such responses are these influential Christians aligning themselves with this New Age peace plan, one that calls for people to unite through the common ground of meditation, visualization, and other mystical practices.
Alan Jones, in his book Reimagining Christianity says this of such an occurrence:
The great religions are beginning to listen to one another. Is there a great planetary story emerging that truly has room for “the others” and that treats the earth as sacred? Is the human race in labor with the new version of its purpose and destiny? Or is it the same old story of fear and conflict?
In contrast to Jones’ vision for world-wide unity, the Bible predicts chaos in the days before Christ’s return:
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:6-7)
All these things must come to pass! And yet it does tell us there will be a time when everyone is crying out for peace, believing that it is right at the threshold:
For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (I Thessalonians 5:3)
Christian Leaders, Contemplative Prayer and World Peace
It is imperative to see the connections between contemplative prayer and this expectation of world peace by New Age leaders. It is equally important to understand that a growing movement among evangelical leaders is heading in the same direction. I find it extraordinary that those Christian leaders who are involved in this global peace process are also advocates of contemplative prayer. Below is just a sampling of quotations to show these connections:
Rick Warren
Meditation: Many Christians use “Breath Prayers” throughout their day. You choose a brief sentence, or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath.
Global Peace: My hope is for a new reformation in the Church and a new spiritual awakening throughout the world.—Rick Warren in reference to his global P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Ken Blanchard
Meditation: Buddha points to the path and invites us to begin our journey to enlightenment. I ... invite you to begin your journey to enlightened work.
Global Peace: Ken [Blanchard] has signed on to help with the P.E.A.C.E. Plan. And he’s going to be helping train us.—Rick Warren
Tony Campolo
Meditation: Beyond these models of reconciliation, a theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam.
Global Peace: [W]e are to work with Christ to … bring about global peace.41
Please understand, that it’s not the efforts to relieve world poverty and suffering that should alarm us. And of course, we should have an attitude of love and peace towards our fellow man. But rather, it is the concerted effort for global peace by those who see mysticism as an important and essential element to this peace, as actually the bridge to this world peace.
Do the contemplatives believe their ideas supersede the gospel? If any peace comes, it will be a false one, and it will be short lived. It will be Jesus Christ who establishes a lasting peace on earth when He returns. In Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, he tells us the details of Jesus Christ’s return “are none of your business,” and we shouldn’t try to figure out [biblical] prophecy. Perhaps this mindset is keeping the millions of Christians who have read his book from understanding what the Bible does say about world peace.
Barbara Marx Hubbard describes a time when a communication method shared by many different faiths will allow all people to experience a “Planetary Pentecost.” Hubbard says this “Pentecost” will unite humanity through the realization that all have Divinity within. Will mantra meditation be that method to bring about this supposed world unity? And if so, will certain Christian leaders who are going full steam ahead with their own global peace plans fall prey to Hubbard’s global plan? Thomas Keating seems to believe we could be on the threshold of that day:
God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if he can find enough people to cooperate in his mysterious plan.
In light of Keating’s steady promotion of interspirituality via contemplative prayer, discerning believers must wake up and take notice. If Satan could create a communication method shared by many different faiths and make all of them believe that the voices they hear are of God, think of the opportunities for deception that could result. I fear that he has already created it through contemplative prayer, and he merely needs more participants.
While Thomas Keating’s unwitting goal of a “great awakening” could bring in the needed numbers, if there is going to be such a great awakening based on mysticism rather than the gospel, it is going to be one of great deception.
For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand. (Mark 13: 21-23)
From Running Against the Wind, Chapter 11.
Email: info@onetruthministries.com