The mystic cannot wholly do without symbol and image, inadequate to his vision though they must always be: for his experience must be expressed if it is to be communicated, and its actuality is inexpressible except in some hint or parallel which will stimulate the dormant intuition of the reader.
Interpretation
Mystics rely on symbols to convey profound experiences that are often beyond words.
Evelyn Underhill emphasizes that while mystics have profound experiences that transcend ordinary understanding, they must resort to symbols and images to communicate these insights. The challenge lies in the inadequacy of these representations, yet they serve as necessary tools to evoke a deeper intuition in others, providing hints that can stimulate personal understanding.
In practice
In a lecture on spirituality, one could use this quote to explain the challenges of communicating mystical experiences.
Nothing in all nature is so lovely and so vigorous, so perfectly at home in its environment, as a fish in the sea. Its surroundings give to it a beauty, quality, and power which are not its own. We take it out, and at once a poor, limp dull thing, fit for nothing, is gasping away its life. So the soul, sunk in God, living the life of prayer, is supported, filled, transformed in beauty, by a vitality and a power which are not its own.
As the beautiful does not exist for the artist and poet alone—though these can find in it more poignant depths of meaning than other men—so the world of Reality exists for all; and all may participate in it, unite with it, according to their measure and to the strength and purity of their desire.
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.
Spiritual reading is a regular, essential part of the life of prayer, and particularly is it the support of adoring prayer.
As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. 'I come to seek God because I need Him', may be an adequate formula for prayer. 'I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet', is the only possible formula for worship.
I have an idea heaven will be both absolutely happy and absolutely dark, to protect us from the blaze of God.
Some men are like musical glasses; to produce their finest tones you must keep them wet.
We live in an almost perfect stillness and work with incredible urgency.
I hate to take compromises with a racing car. The more standard a car is, the more compromises you have to take.
If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.
He had the air of a spy in a melodrama, missing nothing, liking nothing, looking forward to the great day when everything would be turned upside down.
The difference between a crime of evil and a crime of illness is the difference between a sin and a symptom.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.