When it comes to spirituality, each religion and culture have a
uniqueness to offer. Some believe in reaching up to their spirit by
dancing along with trance music, like in Islamic Sufism or by acts of
self nullification like in strict catholic beliefs. No one is born to
believe in a particular religion. It is the way a child is brought up and
then what he or she chooses to believe in that determines the religion he
or she will follow. A very strong link of this determination is with the
faith that a person has in him or her. One aspect of this faith then is
Mysticism. Mysticism or sometimes known as mystery religion is a
conscious awareness of a superior and a definitive reality. This reality
for many is closeness achieved through various means with God. The
concept of God is difficult for the human brain to accept given the
scientific explanations that are present for each and every transaction
that occurs in this world. It is strangely difficult to comprehend the
power and existence of a being, stronger and more self sufficient than
all other beings, which controls the processes occurring in this world.
This being, which cannot be heard, seen or touched, can only be
experienced through the sense of feeling, which too is not physically
explainable. What explains this feeling then is the concept of Mysticism.
In Mahayana Buddhism, Mysticism refers to the union of a human being, in
a unique and deeply intrinsic connection, with a definitive reality.
Followers of Buddhism, who are also the practitioners of Mysticism work
towards the nurture and further establishment of these connection through
various means. These means can include meditation, dancing, performing
standard rituals, singing, chanting along with various others. What is
interesting about this concept is that it does not bound people to a
certain religion. Meaning to say that if a person is practicing Sufism
for develop a connection with Allah, then, it in no way means that such a
connection cannot be formed in Hinduism of Christianity. The fact of the
matter is that not only are the roads towards attaining this connection
very similar to each other, the destination of these roads in similar too
and that is the development of a union with the ultimate truth, as has
already been mentioned earlier. According to the history of Mysticism,
its roots are found in the sub continent, especially with Buddhism,
Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. However, researchers who work on this topic
are of the view that mysticism is significantly different from any of the
many stream religious practices and that the most important requirement
of practicing this out of all is faith, determination and concentration.
These are elements then, that have nothing or very little to do with the
type of religion that a person is following. The only part that the
respective religion of a person who chooses to practice mysticism play is
determination of the type of practice that he or she does. There is a
part of today’s existence that not everybody is aware of. It is usual to
see today, people fighting over religion, trying to prove that they are
the ones on the right track of religion but it is unusual to find people
who readily accept others of different religions into a movement, which
helps survive the chaos that has now been created by the advent of the
Age of Aquarius. For those who believe and for those who look beyond the
restrictive dogmas of this society, the New Age movement is a spiritual
movement that incorporates the metaphysical and spiritual teachings in a
combination from both the eastern and western traditions and religions.
As mentioned above, the new age movement does not differentiate people on
the basis of their traditions or their religions and therefore, the view
it presents to this world today is a holistic one incorporating again,
both science and spirit. The idea of this is to combine and utilize the
knowledge and the traditions that are already helping a certain sect of
people to provide peaceful help to the others too.