It is good to receive your comments, aglorincz, rougeleader115 and Jhanon. Finding dynamic dialog on the topic of mysticism I find inspiring; whereas, the insipid, and banal dialog on other contemplative forums bores me to tears.
I tried reading The Inner Castle by bringing Jeffrey's thesis about the 8 stages of samadhi to it. I had trouble making a 1:1 ratio. But I assume that the book must be the work of a fully perfected arahant, who is recounting all the different states of introversion.
I do not know if Teresa of Avila was a "fully perfected arahant;" however, she certainly got that there are 8 stages of the religious experience, she just rejected the lowest level, because it is represented by simple devotion. The way to understand Teresa of Avila's writing is to understand that she was a Jewish convert (converso) to Christianity, and her grand father had been burned at the stake for not being Christian enough. She was also under house arrest by the Inquisition, and they burned her books as fast as she could write them; so she wrote code.
The code that Teresa of Avila used was: I am a Jewish convert (converso) to Christianity; and my grand father was burned at the stake for not being Christian enough; and I am under house arrest by the Inquisition; and they are burning my books as fast as I can write them; so I am going to pretend I am a ditzy, female devotee of Jesus; so 90% of what I write will be nonsense, but a tinny percentage will be wisdom; you, the future mystics, will have to read between the lines and figure it out on your own. That means only about 1 paragraph in every chapter of Teresa of Avila's writing is worth paying attention to. Here is one:
“As I write this, by the way, I can’t help but wonder what’s going on inside my own head. Those noises I told you about in the beginning are getting so loud that it’s almost impossible for me to obey the order to write this. It sounds like there are a multitude of rushing rivers inside my head, their waters cascading downward, surrounded by many little birds and other whistling sounds. This is all unfolding not in the ears but the upper part of the head, where they say the higher part of the soul resides. I have spent long periods in these regions. The spirit seems to push its way upward with great power and speed…all of this turmoil doe not hinder my prayer or interfere with what I am trying to say. Instead, my soul is whole within its quietude, its love, its longing, and its clarity of consciousness.”
translation and introduction by Mirabai Star. Riverhead Books, Published by the Berkley Publishing Group a division of Penguin Group USA Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York NY 10014, 2003
The Dark Night of the Soul explains the two spiritual crises, the Night of Sense and the Night of Spirit, and it's been my preference to use those two concepts of John of the Cross to judge the legitimacy of anyone claiming to be a mystic or yogi.
The other thing to get about Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, is Teresa of Ávila lived 28 March 1515 – 4 October 1582, which means she was born only 23 years after the reconquest of Spain. After the reconquest of Spain all Jews and Muslim were allowed to leave Spain safely. If they wanted to stay, then they had to convert to Christianity, or be burned at the stake.
John of the Cross, lived 1542 to – 14 December 1591, so he was 27 years younger than Teresa of Ávila. He was a Moreno, which means he was a Muslim of African decent, and he had been raised in an orphanage, which means his family either abandoned him, or were all burned at the stake. He was sent to the Christian seminary to become a priest by an anonymous supporter; who was most probably Teresa of Ávila, who needed a priest to officiate, and validate, her chain of convents, which were essentially havens for Jewish converts to Christianity under the Inquisition. Essentially families with some wealth protected themselves by funding Teresa of Ávila's convents, and they sent one daughter into the convents to protect the whole family. After all, a good Christian family has at least one daughter in a convent.
Rumi's poems I assume are the works of someone in the unitive life. You can see, for example, references in his works to the paradox of annihilation and resurrection for the mystic. That implies he's been through the advanced crises of the mystic life, and has carried the mystic quest through to the end.
Another person I've been reading is Evelyn Underhill, who wrote the book Mysticism, and who has a very unique breakdown of the stages of the mystic life. In her model she divides it into these steps: Awakening, Purgation, Illumination, the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Unitive Life.
So to get very advanced knowledge about these subjects, I find it's useful to conflate the different authors' concepts. So to conflate Underhill with Jeffrey or John of the Cross we could say: Purgation = Night of Sense, Illumination = Jhanas 1 + 2, Dark Night of the Soul = Night of Spirit, Unitive Life = Jhanas 3+, etc.
While working on my degree in Anthropology at the University of Arizona, I took as many classes in mysticism as they offered, and they offered a wide selection. So, I deeply read
Evelyn Underhill and
Gershom Scholem in spades. I found neither had any idea what so ever regarding mysticism. They were just scholars, so they were more wrong about it than they were right; however, I found a small percentage of the mystics they wrote about were the real deal.
Ibn ʿArabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (July 28, 1165 – November 10, 1240) was an Arab Andalusian Sufi mystic and philosopher.[1][original research?] He is renowned by some practitioners of Sufism as "the greatest master"[2] and also as a genuine saint, was one of the Sufi mystics that Underhill wrote about. He happened to write about 8 stages of annihilation (fhana). It sounded like the 8 stages of samadhi to me.
Under
Gershom Scholem I was exposed to another Andalusian mystic, a Jew,
Moses de León, the author of the
Zohar. I did not find him of interest. However, both Teresa of Avila and John of he Cross were Spaniards; therefore, it is reasonable to consider that they were influenced by both
Ibn ʿArabī and
Moses de León. Under Islam, which ruled over Spain, North Africa, the middle east and India at the time, it is reasonable to consider that both
Ibn ʿArabī and
Moses de León were exposed to the Pali Canon.
