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MYSTERY #10

Mystical Sympathy

How to move from natural sympathy into mystical sympathy

Peak Experiences

The expanding heart reveals its wonders.

I realize what moves through me in my attunement with others.

Transformed in this amazing sympathy, I emerge from my cocoon like the butterfly.

Again, welcome.

My soul bows to your soul. We’ve come together for another session in cyberspace.

Has your cultivation of natural sympathy gone well? Do you enjoy sameness of feeling more frequently? Doesn’t increased sympathy make life much richer?

Are you ready to proceed farther in the Mysteries?

Initial Mysteries
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Your natural sympathy can develop into several marvelous spiritual realizations. Your natural capacity for sameness of feeling with friend or stranger next develops into a magnificent experience called mystical sympathy. Once you begin to experience mystical sympathy, your heart expansions will delight you.

In an experience of natural sympathy you are so keenly aware of another person that your heart (your sense of self) transcends its habitual barriers. As you know, mystics call this act of sympathy an expansion, a freeing extension of the heart.

But as you go through your daily life more sympathetically, you will, in time, discover a new expansion of the heart, a state of profound connection with others: mystical sympathy.

Supporting Atmosphere

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, JOURNALS (1836)

Mystical Sympathy Defined and Described
Mystical sympathy occurs when your awareness of other people becomes so developed you discover that the Infinite Spirit is moving through you — and through the sympathy you feel for your fellow beings. Your attitude of sympathy becomes infused with Spirit. This is mystical sympathy. You will feel so privileged and grateful to sense the infinite love and compassion moving through your body. You will realize a boundless, caring consciousness abides everywhere and that it moves through you to others in your moments of heartfelt sympathy. What a life-changing discovery! What a splendid mystery!

Accidentally, unintentionally, you find the reality and presence of an Infinite Spirit which loves and cares through you. It’s shocking! It’s dumbfounding! It’s beautiful.

Basis

At First It Comes and Goes
Unfortunately, the experience of mystical sympathy comes and goes. Having been so moved and astonished once, you’d like to be astonished again. Typically, you become astute in practicing sympathy every day but most often fail to break through into mystical sympathy once again. And, even your applications of natural sympathy may begin to fall a little flat and become under-energized.

This is the way of the mystic aspirant. When the Infinite Spirit reveals Itself in some lovely way, the heart deduces that it has done something fabulous. Then the heart tries to control the process and make grand things happen again and again. The bound heart persists in its attempts until fatigue and discouragement set in.

The Way of Mystical Sympathy
Gradually we, in our limited hearts, discover how mystical sympathy occurs: in sympathy, in sameness of feeling with others, we lose our self-preoccupation for awhile. Our heart expands to the degree we are aware of, and concerned for, others. The heart is expanding, not contracting. Then natural sympathy occurs. We find that as we abide in natural sympathy — more and more conscious of another person — then a spiritual infusion can happen.

Technique

Initial Mystical Sympathy
Your first experiences of mystical sympathy, then, will certainly be peak moments in your life and ever remembered. When Spirit unexpectedly enters into your feelings of natural sympathy with another person, you will suddenly see that particular person in a different way. You will sense how the Infinite Spirit loves and cares about this person; you will see his or her inner beauty. You will feel how deeply the Infinite cherishes and adores this person in front of you!

You will also realize that you are related both to Spirit, and to that person, in wondrous ways. You may sense that you are a hollow instrument being used by Spirit to help or encourage this dear soul before you. You may intuit that you are a true friend, or servant, of this person and are so grateful to be of assistance. (You feel such assistance to be a spiritual privilege for you.)

You may also come to understand that this exchange between you and your fellow being is what life is all about, that such closeness has great meaning. Your sympathy has spiritual purpose and power.

Your sympathy is infused with Spirit and everything is changed, especially you. You see the other person with spiritual sight. You understand him and care about him with a spiritually-aware heart. As a consequence, your thoughts become spiritually loving and motivated. Kindness, compassion, and utter concern for your friend will fill you as you look at him, or her, with wonder.

Summing up, please bear in mind, you will never forget these great minutes and hours of initial mystical sympathy; but they will likely go away. You will find you can’t make them return either. But you can practice natural sympathy and enthusiastically continue your mystical development. Just do your part and Spirit will do Its part. Be assured.

Ongoing Mystical Sympathy
How can you experience ongoing, ever-new, continuous mystical sympathy?

You will have it when your heart expands and stays expanded. Fortunately, there are many techniques to help you expand the heart. We will turn to several of them in the following Mysteries. However, it is mystical sympathy which most directly reveals what mystics call universal awareness and then universal awareness reveals spiritual awareness.

So, in all your study and love of Truth, cultivate mystical sympathy. Make natural sympathy a state of your mind and heart. When you respond to the world and daily life with a ready, automatic sympathy you are on your way.

Advanced mystics truly feel themselves to be friends of humanity. Even more, they know themselves to be brothers and sisters of all people everywhere. With expanded hearts they stand with people of all colors and creeds against tyranny, disease, ignorance and poverty. They seek to live as instruments of spiritual love and light. They live in the consciousness of mystical sympathy.

Looking Ahead
In the next several Mysteries we will turn to a consideration of the mystical power of the mind. These periods of inquiry and explanation will give you an opportunity to continue your practices of heart expansion and the development of your natural sympathy into mystical sympathy. While we are moving forward to the profound mental principles of higher consciousness, please remember: none of the Mysteries of Mind and Creative Imaging can be known without expansions of the heart. While the mind is greatly important in mysticism, the heart is even more crucial. But the awakening of both mind and heart are necessary in mystical realization. You can’t become enlightened in the Mysteries without the mystic marriage of Heart and Mind.

Live mystically. Live in sympathy as you visit each of these next beloved Mysteries of the Mind, and you will surely discover the Great Mind.

Reflection

All these years
I’ve tried to realize
The highest wisdom
With my mind.

Now, here it is—
That which I sought—
Within my
Open heart.

Key Points

No One

No one is a light unto himself, not even the sun.

—Antonio Porchia, VOCES (1968), Tr. W.S. Merwin

Hello, again.

I greet you with joy. How good it is to be with you and resume our journey.

O, what a mystery we are in the middle of! With the right development, natural sympathy grows into mystical sympathy — one of life’s most precious gifts.

Your heart expansions become beautiful beyond description. Even if you were not before, you now become a boon to all humanity.

Let’s review this great Mystery.

  • Your heart expands from natural sympathy into mystical sympathy.
  • Mystical sympathy occurs when your awareness of other people becomes so developed you discover the Infinite Spirit is moving through you — and through the sympathy you feel for your fellow beings.
  • Your attitude of sympathy becomes infused with Spirit. This is mystical sympathy.
  • You will feel privileged and grateful to sense the infinite love and compassion moving through your body.
  • You will realize a boundless, caring consciousness abides everywhere and that it moves through you to others in your moments of heartfelt sympathy.
  • The Infinite Spirit loves and cares through you!
  • Initial mystical sympathy comes and goes. It can’t be experienced at will.
  • Mystical sympathy reveals a new relationship with the Infinite and with other people.
  • We need time to grow from natural sympathy into mystical sympathy.
  • During this maturing period, we will journey to several great mysteries of the Mind.
  • You can’t become enlightened in the Mysteries without the mystic marriage of Heart and Mind.

Ponder these important points. Make them a part of your understanding.

Contemplation

In moments of sympathy, open your heart to the Infinite. Allow the Infinite love, compassion, strength and tenderness to flow through you to a suffering person.

Reflection

I remember suffering
And coming before a mystic
With my woes.

I felt such love
And understanding
Come through him,
I thought he was an angel.

So, I ask you, my friend,
Have your ever experienced
The angelic
In your life?

See Q and A
Discoveries of the Heart
Overcome many personal limitations and dismiss numerous sorrows
See other people with much greater clarity and understanding
Unleash your higher power and influence others positively
Enjoy heart expansions that connect you to others
Receive valuable information through your mystic centers
How to move from natural sympathy into mystical sympathy
  • What does it feel like when Spirit moves through you?

    Usually Spirit feels like blissful energy, ecstasy — often accompanied by a profoundly comforting sense of warmth. But the experience of Spirit has countless variations.

  • Can Spirit move through me without my awareness of it?

    Yes, it is doing so right now in all of us, whether we are aware of it or not.

  • I feel Spirit sometimes when I'm absorbed in the beauty of nature. Is this what you mean by "mystical sympathy?"

    Not exactly. You’re having heart expansions through your sense of beauty, though, which is closely related to your sense of sympathy.

  • Is this mystical sympathy what Christians call "the Holy Spirit?"

    Yes, in the view of Christian mystics, who often feel the Holy Spirit flowing into and through them.

  • Do saints like Mother Teresa have alot of this kind of experience of Spirit moving through them?

    I’m confident they do. By the way, I sat near Mother Teresa on a plane flying from Calcutta to Puri, India. She was serene and blissful, filled with Spirit.

  • How is the receiver of mystical sympathy helped?

    The person you are sympathizing with is richly blessed, comforted and helped in profoundly meaningful ways. You, the instrument of Mystical Sympathy, live awake in Spirit, not asleep. You live in love, not yearning or sorrow. You see spiritual light.

  • I'm enjoying this wonderful material very much. But there is no one in my life to share this with. How can I find spiritual companions?

    Perhaps you will meet someone as you make this journey. Maybe, too, this is a perfect time in your life for you to develop in the Mysteries free of social demands.

    Many spiritual people are looking for mystical companions. It’s likely you will meet several as you continue in your awakening.

    When you meet someone, a word of caution: Just because you both like the Mysteries does not mean you are automatically compatible and right for one another. Most people like Beethoven and the Beatles but this musical appreciation doesn’t mean they are soul mates.

  • Is it alright to share these teachings with my friends?

    Your readiness for the Mysteries doesn’t necessarily mean your friends or family are ready to receive these teachings at this time.

    I suggest you tell them you’re enjoying the Mysteries and explain how they can look into the Mysteries for themselves, if they’re interested.

    In time, when they see how the Mysteries help you and transform your life, they may become interested and highly motivated. They’ll be asking you about what you’re doing.

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#2 THE MYSTIC GAZE
A Classic Technique

This classic technique is one of the mystic’s greatest treasures.

It is designed to stimulate your mystical faculties and begin the process of spiritual awakening.

With the Mystic Gaze enjoy the developing sense of clarity, coordination and attunement with life in all you do.

  1. Sit calmly and relax your eyes
  2. Gaze slightly upwards 20-30 degrees
  3. Look into space 20 feet or more
  4. Gaze, don’t stare or strain your eyes
  5. Simply observe and appreciate your awareness of space
  6. Enjoy the dawning wholeness for several minutes
  7. Gear down and go about your day

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#7 EXPANSION THROUGH ATTITUDE AND GOOD WILL
Change Your Heart

Your practice of good will cultivates the heart’s truest, deepest feeling:  love.

These good will practices are a boon to mystical study.

The goal of good will practice is the change of the heart.

When your heart naturally and spontaneously radiates forth a palpable good will, then you are a changed person.

  1. Consciously direct your thoughts and feelings toward an attitude of good will
  2. Bring a person to mind
  3. Or place your awareness on a person closest to you
  4. Direct good will toward this person
  5. Feel free to add specific well-wishes like health, love, courage, etc.
  6. Allow your heart to expand, to change

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#6 EXPANSION LEVEL ONE
Quality of Life

Mystics break out of body bondage through numerous expansions of the heart — of the sense of self.

Your feeling of self-awareness imprisons or frees you.

Happily, you can do something powerfully liberating about the state of your heart and the quality of your life.

  1. Sit comfortably for 15 minutes
  2. Choose a person you know
  3. Imagine you’re walking in his/her shoes
  4. Feel you’re inside this person
  5. Say “If I were (name), I’d feel and think…”
  6. Have fun with it and let your heart expand

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#5 THE HEART AND ITS LIBERATION
Your Sense of Self

Mystics break out of mind and body bondage through expansions, expansions of consciousness.

Your “Heart” is your sense of self, your feeling about who you are.

Who are you as a distinct person from everyone else? This is your core individuality, your mystical heart.

  1. Focus on your mystic heart
  2. It is located in the right-central chest or inside the spine behind the heart
  3. Practice The Radiance or The Mist:
  4. Feel that your mystic heart…
  5. Radiates love, light and energy, or
  6. Generates a white mist flowing outward

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#4 THE MYSTIC BREATH
Your Window

Your breath is the key to the mystery of your life. The Mystic Breath is conscious use of this key.

Our individual natures will require different windows — different energy centers — from which to view the life force.

Allow the mystic breath to reveal your personal window.

  1. Stretch and then sit comfortably
  2. Take 5 to 7 deep breaths
  3. Focus on the center of your upper lip
  4. Witness the breath come and go
  5. Let your mind move to a natural center
  6. Watch your breath and the life force from this “window”

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#3 THE ASCENT
The Essence of Your Life

We begin meditation on the Infinite by focusing our awareness on Spirit, the life essence within us.

How can we do something so seemingly abstract? It’s easy. Spirit empowers your breath night and day.

Let the life force reveal itself to you. Sense the higher power which flows through you.

You’ll feel more alive.

  1. Stretch and relax your body
  2. Sit comfortably
  3. Take 5 to 7 deep breaths
  4. Focus on your nostril rims
  5. Witness the breath come and go
  6. Enjoy for 10 to 12 minutes
  7. Inhale deeply and stretch

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#0 THE MYSTIC SELF
Our True Nature

In the view of mystics, the major problem in life for most of us is ignorance of our true natures.

The Mysteries reveal many ways that you can actually contact your mystic self — and the Infinite Consciousness.

Do you, can you, contact your Mystic Self? Yes, indeed!

  1. Practice this anytime you like
  2. Probably your mind wanders quite often
  3. At times during the day, look at your mind and notice when it’s wandering
  4. Then, turn your attention to that part of your consciousness which observes that your mind is wandering
  5. That special overseeing awareness is part of your marvelous mystic self

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#1 MYSTIC AWAKENING
Benefits

Stimulate your mystical awakening.

When you wake up from a dream you realize you were only dreaming.

Consider too that this normal state of awareness in which you live may be a kind of sleep also.

As you do this technique you’ll find the world becomes more beautiful and enjoyable.

  1. Try this many times a day
  2. Whisper to yourself, “Wake up!”
  3. Mentally say, “Wake up!”
  4. Increase your attention, appreciation and feeling of love
  5. Just cheerfully exhort yourself
  6. Wake up!

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