Maria Popova, creator of the fascinating The Marginalian website (formerly Brain Pickings), recently wrote an interesting reflection on the thought of Evelyn Underhill (author of the works in our inaugural series of free books). Popova coincidentally focuses specifically on Practical Mysticism, the first book created for our series. While I might quibble with Popova’s assertion that the mystical experience described by Underhill “is secular rather than religious”—Underhill’s work was explicitly Christian—she is correct that Underhill somewhat downplays her Christian perspective in this book in order, Underhill explains, “to put the view of the universe and man’s place in it which is common to all mystics in plain and untechnical language: and to suggest the practical conditions under which ordinary persons may participate in their experience.”
Popova includes a clear statement from Underhill on how a person (Underhill uses the now-antiquated “man” for a generic person) becomes a mystic:
The visionary is a mystic when his vision mediates to him an actuality beyond the reach of the senses. The philosopher is a mystic when he passes beyond thought to the pure apprehension of truth. The active man is a mystic when he knows his actions to be a part of a greater activity.
Such experiences are not the result of minimal effort or semi-interest, but instead are “developed by a suitable training.” Practical Mysticism is a guide to this training: meditation and recollection, self-adjustment and three forms of contemplation. “When you look thus,” Underhill says and Popova quotes,
You surrender your I-hood; see things at last as the artist does, for their sake, not for your own. The fundamental unity that is in you reaches out to the unity that is in them: and you achieve the “Simple Vision” of the poet and the mystic — that synthetic and undistorted apprehension of things which is the antithesis of the single vision of practical men. The doors of perception are cleansed, and everything appears as it is.
You can learn more, not only about the points noted by Popova but also the regimen for “growing and stretching into more perfect harmony with the Eternal Order,” by downloading a free copy of Practical Mysticism in Kindle, epub and pdf formats.
Image: Evelyn Underhill 50 Campden Hill Square blue plaque (Source).
