We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,582,351.68 | Books Available: 793,518 | Members Online: 52

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Returning to the Source: The Way to the Experience of God

Returning to the Source The Way to the Experience of God
Author: Wilson Van Dusen

(From the Introduction) This book revolves around a simple observation. Some people find their way into the joys of mystical or transcendent experiences--the direct experience of God. The elements in human experience that can lead into this direct experience of God are relatively common, and are easily available to the agnostic and atheist as ... more »well as the believer. I hope to describe the mystical experience until you begin to understand so many aspects of it that you will be able to recognize it and discover it in your own experience. The experience of God is not rare and difficult to obtain. It is our understanding of it that needs great improvement. I am a lifelong and natural mystic. I have known the direct experience of God countless times. What is it like to be a mystic in this world? In part, it is sad. Mystics can go through a long period in which they have experiences of God, but they remain unsure. Once after I gave a talk in a church an old woman waited until the crowd of people who came up to me afterward cleared. I saw that she was not long for this world. Acting very circumspectly, she recited a short dream in which a golden sun came to her, and asked if it was God. I first thought of my standard reply, "We need to get into the dream, and to see what is in it." But then I was struck by the total emotional impact of the larger situation. This old woman is dying, and it matters very much to her if she met God even once in this life. I said, "Yes, it was God," and we both broke into tears. But how sad. She had the marks of a very spiritual person, whose life was embedded in God. And yet she asks desperately if once she met Him. To me she represents most of mankind. She is already well on her way, but she does not recognize the signs. Some people want some thunderbolt out of heaven to knock them down. In my experience such thunderbolts occur, but are rare. Most mystical experience is very direct and simple, like the soft glance of a lover that says it all. U.S. television reflects a culture that craves the big sensation--great explosions and car smash-ups, and death. If you translate this attitude into the mystical realm we would expect God to do it big, and put on a grand show for us. I once approached God in somewhat this attitude, wanting a Big Sign. By direct knowing, without words, I was led to reflect on the scope of the known universe in all its complexity and immensity, and was asked, "Is this not enough sign?" I felt taken aback. If one is not satisfied with the entire created universe as a sign, then nothing much else will do either! To a mystic, the opening of a flower is quite enough sign. One thing that will surprise some readers is that I concentrate on the smallest signs. They can't get too small to notice. The finest way into the direct experience of God is to learn to recognize the little signs you already have, here and now, in the commonplace. God is in all the little, ever-present signs we are missing. All have known this kind of experience, countless times, and yet it is rarely recognized for what it is. There is a fairly classical mystical experience which I believe every human being on earth has enjoyed at some time: the beauty of nature. You are in a beautiful setting, perhaps with a sunset. You are relaxed and simply taking in all the natural beauty. The mood is one of patience and a relaxed perception of what is there. You suddenly and unaccountably feel as though you are a part of the immense, living, creative life before you. There is just awesome wonder in which you are immersed and a part of it all. There is peace and harmony, and the experience feels therapeutic, as though balance is restored. You may have little sense of time passing, or how long you were in awe. There are even small experiences which are like the rapture of nature, but they are so little they are often not recognized. Often they seem like a brief pleasantness, in which we just feel in harmony with our situation, feeling like a temple of respite in the midst of our day-to-day experience. It is a mild joy, another element that runs through all mystical experience. It is for me the greatest pleasure. In no way does the experience divide--either person against person, or even person against creation. It always unites into a harmonious whole. These experiences restore sanity and balance. I had so many, and was so intrigued by them, that by adolescence I had worked out the way back to them. We will begin with a first look at the mystical to orient you to the realm. Then I will deal with different aspects of the mystical, beginning with mystery and awe. In describing each aspect I will be attempting to point out the little shift in viewpoint that leads into the experience of God. I stress little shift for none of these shifts are difficult or abstruse. It is as though we are walking around a gem and I am attempting to describe each facet. Of course the gem is all the facets combined, but taking them one at a time we break the "all at once" into simpler components for the sake of understanding. People differ, so a given person may be reached better by one facet than another. Each facet is, in effect, a way into the mystical experience, and practiced mystics use several of these facets. The direct experience of God is everyone's potential. My method is the direct description of human experience without theory. This is essentially a project lying in both human psychology and religion. Fortunately all the paths to this transcendent experience are handy, in ourselves, not in some remote and arcane mystery to be solved. We are working in the very human foundations of religious experience, quite below the level of cultural and religious doctrinal differences and disputes. The One sought is fortunately common to us all, and seeks us all. In this I cannot promise the direct experience of God. That can only be given by God. But there is work we can do to clear away the rubbish of our misunderstandings to prepare to meet the One common to us all.

ISBN-13: 9780911226362
ISBN-10: 0911226362
Publication Date: 6/1996
Pages: 280
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Real People Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Returning to the Source: The Way to the Experience of God

Loading...