From forward of the book:-
Orthodox religions follow ‘Transcendental Mysticism’ because it can co-exist effortlessly with hierarchy, inequality and injustice, because in its vision the world is seen and known as either inevitably flawed or as an illusion. ‘ evolutionary mysticism’, which honours the union with the transcendent but which stresses the birth of the divine in matter that can take place as its transforming grace.
The Book of Mirdad is one of the masterpieces of ‘evolutionary mysticism’, inspired as it is by a radical and all-comprehensive vision both of the Divine and of a potentially divinised humanity.
It is in the twentieth century that ‘evolutionary mysticism’ began to find its truest and most potent voice, as if in divinely inspired response to the growing barbarism and destructiveness of human action.
Sri Aurobindo, Teilhard De Chardin and Father Bede Griffiths all proclaimed, in different terms but with one voice, that an unprecedented crisis was opening up an unprecedented opportunity, and that the growing ‘dark night’ of our species – obvious in war, genocide and environmental matricide –heralded potentially not extinction but transfiguration: a transfiguration by divine grace of the very terms of human nature.
Each of these brave and wise pioneers knew that such a transfiguration was not inevitable (it would have to be earned through a concentrated intensity of devotion, passion, faith, discipline and sacredly inspired action) but was possible, because each of them was living its divinising mystery in the core of their hearts, souls, minds and bodies.
An Upanishad by a western mystic for western people and now useful for the world. Osho suggested it for spiritual seekers of younger generation or student of psychology.
Why it is an Upanishad too: However no Upanishad is proprietary of any religion and any country as it is for every human being. Yes, through the journey of this book a willing and experimenting person is sure going to transform. Emotions run very high so crying, amazement etc are normal. You come face to face with your own reality.
Osho successfully established many places around the world where people embarking upon the journey to ‘evolutionary mysticism’ can gather and help each other by their presence.
In forward Andrew Harvey further writes:
“Naimy also knew, however, that to those who risk embodying the divine, tremendous powers both of endurance and of unconditional compassion are given. As he writes, ‘Let not your hearts be faint. But like the sea be broad and deep, and give a blessing unto him that gives you but a curse. And like the earth be generous and calm, and turn impurities of men’s hearts into pure health and beauty. And like the air be supple and free. The sword that will wound you will finally tarnish and rust. The arm that would harm you will finally weary and halt. And Understanding shall carry the day.”
It was asked from Mikhail Naimy :
What is the meaning of the name Mirdad? And do the characters in the book of Mirdad have a name with a meaning that fits their nature? In 1959 mr. C.G. Stratman asked these questions in a letter to Mikhail Naimy, author of the book of Mirdad that was published in English 1948. This Dutchman took care of the publications of the School of the golden rosycross at that time.
In a letter of october 24, Naimy wrote to Stratman: You are right in thinking that the names in the Book are not without meanings characteristic of their bearers. In concocting them I had a threefold purpose in mind:
- to have them sonorous and easily pronounced in any language
- to give them a touch of antiquity without identifying wirth any particular era, or race.
- to make each name characteristic of its bearer.
Thus,
He writes ‘The prideridden and intoxicated world shall heap up injuries upon your heads and shall unleash on you the blood thirsty hounds of its tattered laws, its putrid creeds and moldy honors. It shall proclaim you enemies of order and agents of chaos and doom.’ Naimy also knew, however, that to those who risk embodying the divine, tremendous powers both of endurance and of unconditional compassion are given.
- MIRDAD is taken from an Arabic root that means “to return”/ He is the man that comes back again and again. An avatar.
- SHAMADAM is compounded of two English words: Sham – Adam, the false man.
- MICAYON is constructed after the Jewish name Mi-kha-il, or Mi-cha-el. Mi-meaning He Who Is; cha-meaning Like; il, or el-meaning God – He who is Like God; Ayon, being a Phoenician deity.
- MICASTER – the star-like.
- ZAMORA – from an Arabic root denoting blowing of a musical instrument.
- BENNOON – The sun of the Noon; noon being the letter of the Arabic alphabet written in from a crescent with a dot inside. It fits a judge and a logician.
- HIMBAL – suggestive of BAAL, the ido, and idol worship.
- NARONDA – just a sonorous name suggestive of truth, honesty and devotion
- ABIMAR – also chosen for its melodiousness; MAR being suggestive of “marring” or distrust.
Warmest greetings and sincerest wishes.
Faithfully
Mikhail Naimy
Naimy’s prophetic talent is clear from;
” ‘No fraction of Himself did God endow you with – for He is unfractionable; but with His Godhood entire, indivisible, unspeakable did He endow you all.
What greater heritage can you aspire to have?
And who, or what, can hinder you except your own timidity and blindness?’
It is this ‘timidity and blindness’ that are humanity’s greatest blocks to rising up to meet the challenge of our crisis. Naimy is clear that all those who risk the evolutionary adventure will have to endure sometimes atrocious difficulty.’
Andrew Harvey, in the forward of 2010 edition of the book writes.”It is one of the greatest strengths of Naimy’s vision that he fully understood how terrifying the transition to the new humanity must necessarily be.
As he writes: ‘To tear men free of their nets, their very flesh must needs be torn; their very bone must be crushed. And men themselves shall do the tearing and the crushing. When the lids are lifted – as surely they shall be – and when the pots give out whatever they contain – as surely they shall do – where would men hide their shame and wither would they flee? In that day the living shall have envy of the dead and the dead shall curse the living’.
As we, at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, experience the perfect storm of a series of interlinked crises – environmental, cultural, economic, political – and begin to understand what horrors may be in store for us, these words of Naimy’s have a chilling ring and we ignore their agonized prophetic warning at our peril.”
Start reading it for free: https://amzn.in/3iVzu8y
Our evolutionary crisis is both a necessary death of all our collective fantasies of human uniqueness and our right to dominate and destroy nature, and also, simultaneously, a birth of a wholly new way of being and doing everything, far more humble and also far more powerful than anything we have yet lived or imagined, because it is aligned with divine will. The clue to knowing and understanding this lies in the pioneering testimony of the great evolutionary mystics who refused the consolations of purely transcendental mysticism and dared to plunge into the turbulent unfolding mystery of the divine birth in matter, with History as its wild midwife.
As he writes, ‘Let not your hearts be faint. But like the sea be broad and deep, and give a blessing unto him that gives you but a curse. And like the earth be generous and calm, and turn impurities of men’s hearts into pure health and beauty. And like the air be supple and free. The sword that will wound you will finally tarnish and rust. The arm that would harm you will finally weary and halt. And Understanding shall carry the day’. It is with the hope grounded in this understanding that The Book of Mirdad can guide us and inspire us.” (from “The Book of Mirdad: The strange story of a monastery which was once called The Ark” by Mikhail Naimy)
Awareness meditation is the way worked for me, may be you too find it suitable otherwise Dynamic meditation is for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life.
Osho International Online (OIO) provides facility to learn these from your home,
1. through Osho Meditation Day @€20.00 per person. OIO rotate times through three timezones NY,Berlin and Mumbai. You can prebook according to the convenient time for you.
2. There is OSHO Evening Meeting streaming which can be accessed every day at local time starting 6:40 pm (of which Osho says that he wants his people to view it all over the world and these days it is possible) and 16 of the meditations mostly with video instructions and so much more on iOSHOthrough App.
3. There is a 7 days Free Trial also for people who would like to first try it out.
This is an opportunity for learning and knowing Osho through these sannyasins who lived in his presence and brought to life his words in best possible quality in all formats.
Disciples of Jesus left him alone in last minutes but Osho’s disciples remained with him till he left his body willingly after working, till last day, for all of us to get enlightened. Jesus tried hard till last minute, before being caught, to teach meditation to his disciples. As per Saint John’s Gospel:- Jesus used word ‘Sit’ to transfer his meditative energy to them and went on to pray God, but on returning he found them sleeping. He tried two times again but in vain.
Even today Zen people use word ‘Sit’ for meditation in their saying ‘Sit silently, do nothing, season comes and the grass grows by itself green’.
Hi ….. I write my comments from my personal experiences of my inner journey. This post may include teachings of Mystics around the world that I found worth following even today. For more about me and to connect with me on social media platforms, have a look at my linktree website for connecting with my social media links, or subscribe my YouTube channel and/or listen to the podcasts etc.
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(from “The Book of Mirdad: The strange story of a monastery which was once called The Ark” by Mikhail Naimy)
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