This page groups practices by whether they are carried out alone or with others. Wikipedia distinguishes "communal rites, whether of worship, where a community comes together to worship" from "rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and pilgrimages." Browsing this way lets a visitor separate a group ceremony from a practice one person performs alone.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingPractices aimed at a direct, unmediated apprehension of the divine or of ultimate reality. Whether such experiences form a single cross-cultural class is the central dispute in the study of mysticism: the perennialist claim of a common core has been answered by the argument that the tradition a practitioner is formed in shapes the experience itself, and neither position has carried the field. 2 Origins
Whose Classification This IsMysticism as a single comparative category took its modern shape in the early twentieth century with William James in 1902 and Evelyn Underhill in 1911, and was reopened by Steven Katz's constructivist critique in 1978. It is a scholars' frame, not a term most of the traditions collected under it use of themselves. 3 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryUsed, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 2 Learn More
The mystical practices
This small group holds a mystical practice, a discipline directed at direct, immediate experience of the divine or ultimate reality, the inner heart of the contemplative traditions.
The browser will find the practice the atlas classes here. The entry describes its technique and aim, noting the tradition in which it is transmitted.
Solitary or Communal
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis
Steven T. Katz (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1978
3. The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century
Bernard McGinn, Crossroad, 1991
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.