To become enlightened you need to experience mystical union?

[Marinador]

To become enlightened you need to experience mystical union? Or you can become enlightened without experiencing mystical union?

I am reading Jed Mckeena's book and I am confused with this topic of mysticism vs enlightenment

Thanks

[aurum]

@Marinador

From what I understand, they are conceptually different. Mystical union is a temporary event where the ego boundaries dissolve. Enlightenment seems to be more of a permanent awareness.

[Enlightenment]

@Marinador No you don't have to, in fact many enlightened people have never had that ultimate experience of Absolute Infinity.

[Preetom]

@Marinador Enlightenment is not any kind of experience.

[pluto]

@Enlightenment

How can you be Enlightened without Experiencing/Knowing Oneness Directly? It does not make sense. You can only be free by knowing absolute truth.

[Shanmugam]

20 hours ago, Marinador said:

To become enlightened you need to experience mystical union? Or you can become enlightened without experiencing mystical union?

I am reading Jed Mckeena's book and I am confused with this topic of mysticism vs enlightenment

Thanks

Mystical union is a term used in Christian mysticism and it is synonymous with spiritual enlightenment. In fact, the literal meaning of mystical union is the same as the word 'yoga'. Mystical union, to be more precise, is realizing the already existing unity. 

But people may choose to use these terms to mean different things. If you came across 'mystical union' in Jed Mckenna's book, then try to find out what he means by that word or how he defines that word. It is very common for many people to use the same word to mean different things.

[Nahm]

@pluto All the words like one,  nondual, awakening, are so interchangeable, communucation falls apart. People have a realization of the oneness of all that is, and say “I am enlightened”, but “I” is still the ‘realizer’, an ego, so what was realized is the oneness of “an outside world”.

When that “I” facade is realized, so is that there is no enlightenment.  

No?

[Haumea2018]

I haven't read McKenna's book, but "mystical union" usually refers to a stage of enlightenment after Cosmic Consciousness.

It's an intermediate stage of non-dual awakening, marked by devotion to a sacred object (e.g. Jesus, God, Buddha, etc.) and the experience of all as bliss.

It is not the Absolute.  Mystical union is union, i.e. 2 ("you" and "God.")  There is still a subtle duality due to the I-thought arising.

The Absolute is identity, i.e. 1.  There is only The Self.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Haumea2018

[Toby]

People use words differently. For some it is just an experience. For some it would be the same as "enlightenment", for some it is just "mystical union" that can appear as a state of consciousness which can be easily mistaken for nonduality. Nisargadatta Maharaj, Adyashanti and Bernadette Roberts write and speak on the latter all the time that "unity consciousness" or "universal consciousness" is not the final state although it is in itself relatively deep.