Atheistic Mysticism Not God, Not Self, Not Knowing, Not Doing

by Todd F. Eklof April 15, 2007 Erich Fromm, the early 20th century social psychologist and humanistic philosopher, came to refer to himself as an atheistic mystic, a term many might consider an oxymoron. How can an atheist, who doesnt believe in God, also be a mystic, who, by definition, claims to be one with God? Obviously this was an intentional play on words from a man who appreciated the importance of what he called, paradoxical logic, explaining, Opposition is a category of [the human] mind, not in itself an element of reality.1 As in Taoist philosophy, the human mind perceives the world through duality, yin and yang, which is, in reality, one, Tai Chi, which is usually translated the Great Ultimate. The Yin and Yang mandala represents a union of opposites, each of which contains a spot of the other in it. Tai Chi was first used in the I Ching, or Book of Changes, implying that all things have the power to change into their opposites. This is not unlike the Greek notion of enantiodromia which Heraclitus used to convey the idea that everything changes into its opposite in the course of time.2 Carl Jung explained its meaning by saying, Where there is a church, the devil is not far away,3 and, One must be a saint to have infernal thoughts. It is the pair of opposites, the law of enantiodromia.4 Those who understand and appreciate this fundamental law of harmony are not uncomfortable with contradiction and paradox. They understand that life is the proverbial pendulum that always swings back and forth. Those who cant deal with lifes contradictions, however, become unyielding extremists who have a hard time coping with differences and change. For these, changing into their opposite, can come suddenly and by force, just as many now, after nearly fifty years of denial, are finally forced to admit that global warming is real. Those who are more open to change, to other possibilities, can move with the pendulum, and prepare themselves for whats coming. But even those who remain at only one side of the pendulum, those who are rigid and inflexible, cannot escape the law of enantiodromia. As the prophet Isaiah exclaimed, Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain shall be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places made smooth.5 Thus, Jung went on to explain, The enantiodromia of Heraclitus ensures that the time will come when this dues absconditus [this hidden god] shall rise to the surface and press the God of our ideals to the wall.6 In other words, our Shadow, our unconscious opposite, will eventually reveal itself whether we want it to our not. But this does not mean the law of enantiadromia should loom over us like a foreboding omen. Rather, to be aware the every action has an equal and opposite reaction, that everything holds its opposite and becomes its opposite, enables us to get into the swing

of things, into the dance of opposites, making life fun, and fluid, and exciting when were prepared for it. It is the opposite which is good for us, Heraclitus exclaimed, The way up and the way down are the same.7 Every saint is a sinner, and every hero has an Achilles heal. This fundamental truth should not shock us and catch us off guard. We should expect it and celebrate it, just as we expect night to follow day, and spring to follow winter. For in the end, there is no day without night, or spring without winter. That they seem different is only an illusion of a perceived duality that doesnt really exist. All opposites contain and create each other, which means, in realty, there are no opposites because all things emanate from one source, Tai Chi, the Great Ultimate. If we accept this, then it is not so hard for us to understand that our biggest idea of all, our notion of God, must also contain its opposite, the idea that there is no God at all. Atheism and Theism are two sides of one coin. One leads to the other. The road to atheism leads to theism, and theism to atheism. Belief leads to disbelief, and disbelief to belief. Thus, as Fromm pointed out, atheism and mysticism are not incompatible, but are, in truth, one path. Mysticism is the beginning of atheism, just as atheism is the beginning of mysticism. The way this works is quite simple; a believer tries to get closer to God, but, as San Juan de la Cruz wrote, the higher one climbs, the less one understands.8 That is to say, the more we try to comprehend the nature and being of God, the more overwhelming the task becomes, until we eventually realize it is impossible, that God cannot be known, that, as the Kabbalah states, Every definition of God leads to heresy; definition is spiritual idolatry,9 and All the divine names, whether in Hebrew or any other language, provide merely a tiny, dim spark of the hidden light for which the soul yearns when it says, God.10 This is what Erich Fromm was getting at when he explained, the most I can do is to say what God is not, to state negative attributes, to postulate that [God] is not limited, not unkind, not unjust. The more I know what God is not, the more knowledge I have of God. 11 And so, knowing God becomes a form of not-knowing; what San Juan called not to know knowing. This is the dark cloud, he said, that brings light to the night.12 This paradox of darkness bringing light is the same as saying atheism, the belief in no God, is the surest path to God. The unknown author of the mystical Cloud of Unknowing said, When I speak of darkness, I mean the absence of knowledge.13 And so, the Cloud of Unknowing, the author explains, is about the cloud within which is united to God.14 In the Hebrew Scriptures, it is a cloud that leads the children of Israel through the wilderness. And so, if we are to follow God, this story suggest we have to let go our all our clear notions about God, and look, instead, to our questions, to the uncertainty, to what we dont know. As Lao Tzu explained in the Tao te Ching; The Way objectified is blurred and nebulous.

How nebulous and blurred! Yet within it there are images. How blurred and nebulous! Yet within it there are objects. How cavernous and dark! Yet within it there is an essence. Its essence is quite real15 Another unknown 5th century Christian mystic said similarly that the soul must, lose herself in That which can be neither seen nor touched; giving herself entirely to this sovereign Object without belonging either to herself or to others; united in the Unknown by the most noble part of herself and because of her renouncement of knowledge; finally drawing from this absolute ignorance a knowledge which the understanding knows not how to attain.16 Or, again, as San Juan more succinctly explained, The soul travels to God not knowing, rather than knowing17 But even this idea of traveling can be misunderstood to imply that there is something we must do to obtain this not to know knowing. Yet, just as the mystical side of each religion explains that we cant know God, it also instructs that there is nothing we can do to acquire oneness with God, that is, the mystical experience of God that is toda ciencia trascendiendo, beyond all knowing.18 And so, in addition to not knowing, mysticism teaches not doing, what, in Eastern thought is called wu wei, which can be translated as non-action, non-striving, and non-busyness. Today our lives are in a terrible state because our schedules are overstuffed with too many responsibilities and tasks to get done. We dont feel good about just sitting, and being, and emptying our minds of all our worries and woes. Instead, our lives are filled with activity, distraction, and play. We have no time for wu wei, for not doing, for what in Judaism is called the Sabbath. Yet to rest, to do nothing, is one of the divine commandments. Notice there is not a command that says, Thy Shall work, or, Thy Shall stay busy all the time. But there is one that says, Thy shall remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy. In Christianity, wu wei and the Sabbath, is simply called Grace, the idea that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, that salvation comes by not-doing. As Paul is reported to have written, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God.19 Again, as the author of The Cloud explained, The active life is troubled and busy about many things but the contemplative life sits in peace with the one thing necessary.20 But not-knowing, and not-doing isnt the end of mystical atheism. It also requires us to let go of our notions of self, the one thing, according to Descartes is indubitable, I think, therefore I am, cogito ero sum. Through science, however, we now know that what we take as our body is merely the identification of a pattern that is being created and destroyed so fast it appears to be solid. As physicist Frank Tipler explains, At the subnuclear level, the quarks and gluons which make up the neutrons and protons of the atoms in our bodies are being annihilated and recreated on a timescale of less than 10-23

seconds; thus we are actually being annihilated and replicatedresurrected10-23 times a second in the normal course of our lives.21 Quantum science also tells us that all the matter in the known universe could fit into the palm of our hand, and that even that meager amount is really energy particles moving so fast around a mini black hole, emptiness, that it creates the illusion of solid things. Were not really here. At best, were a pattern that keeps repeating itself to some degree, but with many subtle or dramatic changes along the way, so that we never step into the same river, or the same body twice. As cosmologist Brian Swimme puts it, Your self is an organizing activity. Your self is not that which is organized and given form.22 The Upanishads put it thusly, About this self [atman], one can only say, not not [neti neti]. [It] is ungraspable, for [it] cannot be grasped.23 Athesitic mysticism takes this notion of no-self to the next level, by emphasizing selflessness. This is expressed in Hinduism by those who are called renouncers, referring to those who give up all possessions, and property, even society and shelter, in their spiritual quest. Jesus, though not a Hindu as far as we know, was a renouncer who, in his words, had nowhere to lay his head, and instructed his disciples not to carry money, or food, or extra clothes, or worry about where theyll live. People like Mother Teresa, who spent her entire life living in poverty with the poor people of Calcutta was a renouncer, as were men like Gandhi and King who ultimately gave up their lives for the good of all. The not-self of atheistic mysticism is about letting go, and letting be. Just as we attach ourselves to our ideas, and our activities, we attach ourselves to our own sense of self by identifying too closely with what we do and think. In Buddhism this is called trishna, or clinging to life, which is the cause of suffering and keeps us caught up in the spell of maya, illusion, and the samsara, the endless round of birth and death. In physics, samsara, is the pattern that keeps repeating itself to create the illusion of our bodies, the endless cycle of birth and death, resurrection at the rate of 10-23 seconds. Atheistic mysticism is about letting go of our illusionary self, of our egotistical associations with our bodies, our thoughts and our activities. So, in the end, atheism is not merely the lack of belief in God, it is the beginning of the path toward God. It is a mystical path of notGod, not-knowing, not-doing, and not-being. __________________________________________ 1 Fromm, Erich, The Art of Love, A Bantam Book, Harper & Row, New York, NY 1956, 1953, p. 64. 2 Jung, C.G., Dream Analysis, Bollingen Series XCIX, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1958, 1984, p. 224n. 3 Ibid. p. 334. 4 Ibid. 5 Isaiah 40:4 [NRSV] 6 Jung, Carl, Psychological Types, CW vol. 6, Bollingen Series XCIX, Princeton

University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1971, 1990, p. 96. 7 Ibid. p. 426. 8 De Nicolas, Antonio T., St. John of the Cross: Alchemist of the Soul, Paragon House, New York, NY, 1989, p. 137. 9 Matt, Daniel C., The Essential Kabbalah, Quality Paper Back Book Club, New York, NY, 1995, p. 32. 10 Ibid. 11 Fromm, Erich, The Art of Loving, A Bantam Book, Harper & Row, New York, NY, 1956, p. 58. 12 Ibid. 13 Johnston, William, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing & The Book of Privy Counseling, Image Books, Doubleday, New York, NY, 1973, 1996, p. 44. 14 Ibid. p. 33. 15 Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Mair, Victor H., trans., Quality Paperback Book Club, New York, NY, 1990, 1998, #21, p.85. 16 From Dionysius the Areopagite, see Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, Dover Publications, New York, NY, 1930, 12th edition, 2002, p.93. 17 De Nicolas, ibid. p. 232. 18 Ibid. p. 137. 19 Ephesians 2:8 20 Johnston, ibid. p. 50. 21 Tipler, Frank J., The Physics of Immortality, Anchor Books, Doubleday, New York, NY, 1994, p. 236. 22 Swimme, Brian, The Universe is a Green Dragon, Bear & Company Publishing, Santa Fe, NM, 1984, p. 128. 23 Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 4.5.15.