Mysticism and Spirituality

Book excerpt: The first volume of this Opera Omnia has been divided into two books, one dedicated to mysticism, intended as the supreme experience of reality, and the second dedicated to spirituality, intended as the path toward such an experience. There are different paths, because they depend not only on tradition and worship but also on the different sensitivities of human beings and historical periods. What kind of spirituality is appropriate to our times? ... The book starts with two booklets in which some lines of argument, developed in the context of Christian religious retreats, were spelled out in the plain language of everyday speech. The second section deals with a spirituality practiced by monks, although not confined to institutional monasticism, but seen rather as a universal archetype to be found in very human being (the search for monos, union with the Divine). There follows a description of the ascetic tradition in India and, as an example of the encounter of western (Christian) spirituality with Indic spirituality, an article dedicated to my friend Henri Le Saux, who is an example of the fertile encounter between the two traditions. The last section is dedicated to wisdom as the goal of a positive spirituality. (from the Introduction).