06/02/2026
HEALTHY MYSTICISM
""Such a man remains seated within himself, useless and inert. This repose is simply laziness, and this tranquillity is forgetfulness of God, one's self and one's neighbour. It is the exact opposite of the peace of divine, the opposite of the peace of abyss; of that marvellous peace which is full of activity, full of affection, full of desire, full of seeking, that burning and insatiable peace which we pursue more and more after we have found it . . . men seek it themselves, and no longer seek God even by their desires. Yet it is not He whom they possess in their deceitful repose. The possession of God demands and supposes perpetual activity. He who thinks otherwise deceives himself and others. All our life as it is in God is immersed in blessedness: all our life as it is in ourselves is immersed in activity. And these two lives form one." These words of John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381), a European mystic who had refused to be content with a merely self-loving mysticism, were uttered in a denunciation of those mystics, whom he called "Quietists," whose goal is simply to enjoy the repose which comes when, as he said, "they abstain from every interior and exterior act."
More: https://paulbrunton.org/notebooks/16/2 #115
