Ecstatic Confessions: The Heart of MysticismCommotion and Unity
This is one of those rare anthologies that is worth its price more for the editor's introductory remarks than for the anthologized essays. Don't misunderstand me. Buber does a wonderful job of selecting mystical "ecstatic confessions" from the world's religious traditions. He includes passages from writers such as Rumi, Rabia, Symeon the New Theologian, Hildegard of Bingen, the Beguines, Julian of Norwich, and Catherine of Siena, as well as representative selections from works such as the Mahabharata. For the most part the selections are judicious--although, because the book was published in 1909, twentieth century mystics such as Simone Weil and Thomas Kelley naturally aren't included. Curiously, too, only a tiny snippet from Meister Eckhart makes it into Buber's book.
But what really makes the book invaluable is Buber's Introduction, in which he spells out his distinction between the "commotion" that distracts us from a unitive experience of God and the nature of the "unity" sought by the mystics. The distinction is one that, under the guise of other terms (such as "many" and "one") is well-known in mystical literature. But Buber's beautiful prose, and especially his sensitivity to the importance of silence, are unmatchable. Here's an example (p. 7): "Silence is our symbolon which protects us from the gods and angels of the commotion, our guard against its aberrations, our purification against its purity. We ensilence our experience, and it is a star that travels along its path. We speak it, and it is thrown down under the thread of the market."
A book that deserves to be better known. --Reviewer: Kerry Walters from Lewisburg, PA USA
