The Main Premises of Mysticism

While the opinions of the most prominent mystic schools (Vedanta, Sufism, Taoism, Greek, Christian, Kabbalah etc) vary greatly, there are as Bertrand Russell so aptly summarized in his critical piece “Mysticism and Logic”, three main theories in which they do agree;

“(1) that all division and separateness is unreal, and that the universe is a single indivisible unity; 

(2) that evil is illusory, and that the illusion arises through falsely regarding a part as self-subsistent; 

(3) that time is unreal, and that reality is eternal, not in the sense of being everlasting, but in the sense of being wholly outside time. 

I do not pretend that this is a complete account of the matters on which all mystics concur, but the three propositions that I have mentioned may serve as representatives of the whole...”