“The Arabic word for ‘to be’ is wujud, whose root comes from the word meaning ‘to find’ which connects the idea of existence or being directly to awareness and consciousness.”
–Filip Holm
Seekers of Unity • Feb 20, 2021 What best accounts for the commonality among the world’s mystical traditions? & Is there a shared basic metaphysics of mysticism among the world’s mystical traditions? Filip Holm of @LetsTalkReligion talks religion with @SeekersofUnity We get to chatting about perennialism, essentializing, ineffability and language, language and experience, and the quandary of translations. We talk about: Defining Mysticism, Mystical Experience, Unity as key feature, Dualistic Mysticisms, Duality vs Polarity, Objectivity and Subjectivity, The Real and the Unreal, Ego Death, The Metaphysical Imperative, Unity that unites and transcends religions, Context vs trans-contextual mysticism, The problem of translating mysticism and Filip’s Channel explosion. Filip started the youtube channel Let’s Talk Religion with the aim of increasing religious literacy in the world, by exploring subjects within the field of religion and religious studies from an academic, fair and unbiased perspective, with the firm belief that if religious education is improved and religious literacy in the world increases, there will be more room for discussion, tolerance and understanding. 00:00 Excerpt 01:31 About Filip 04:56 Overview of Convo 06:43 Filip’s story 09:39 a tip for finding one’s passion in life 10:50 Top Misconceptions about Islam 15:00 What is Mysticism? 17:40 Emphasizing Experience? 20:59 Unity as the key feature of Mysticism? 24:05 Any examples of non-unitive Mysticism? Judaism? 29:05 Dualistic Mysticisms? Duality or Polarity? 31:52 Distinguishing between God and creation? 38:24 Do you find truth or beauty in Mysticism? 41:59 What best accounts for the commonality of Mysticism? 44:20 Just chemicals in the brain? 47:50 Breaking down the objective-subjective dichotomy 50:15 Is Plato to blame? 53:00 Is there a shared basic metaphysics of mysticism? 53:13 The Absolute, The Real and the Unreal 1:01:53 Coming back to the real 1:06:05 Therapeutic value of ego death 1:07:07 The necessity of separation/death | God coming to know Godself 1:11:06 The Metaphysical Ethical Imperative 1:13:55 Experiential Ethics 1:17:00 Three Part Structure of Mysticism I-i-I 1:18:57 Filip’s Two Critical Questions: 1. Are we cherry-picking? 1:21:55 Unity that unites and transcends religions 1:29:21 2. Experience and Langue 1:31:05 Context vs Trans-Contextual 1:36:03 Unity not uniformity, One yet Unique, Echad and Yachid 1:38:04 The problem of translating mysticism 1:48:56 Filip’s Channel, Let’s Talk Religion’s Explosive Growth
