You're Walking Around Shining Like The Sun

A mystical experience at the corner  of Fourth and Walnut

 'There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.' Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and mystic, said after he had a mystical experience which marked a pivotal moment in his life. It happened at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, a busy junction in Louisville, USA. The city has since renamed the four-way intersection he was standing at when he had his revelation, 'Thomas Merton Square'.

Mystical experiences are difficult to capture and describe with words, but Merton made a good attempt in his book, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, a series of notes, experiences, and reflections:

‘In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God . . . became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. . . . Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.’

An Upside-Down Perspective

Thomas Merton experienced what other mystics have been saying for thousands of years: that the invisible world is not only real but is more real than this world and that our earthly reality is just a limited expression of greater unseen realities. Not only that, but it turns out that we live in a world full of illusions, and because we’re spiritually blinkered, we can’t see this. In God’s world, everything is turned upside down: much of what our materialistic and secular culture values, including worldly success, is rubbish and will fade away. Only love is eternal. ‘This world will pass away, and only love will remain,’ Pope Francis reminds us.

It’s tragic in the sense that we can’t see this higher reality: many die by suicide because they think they don’t fit in and are worthless. In God’s Kingdom, everyone is worthwhile, and if we look at each other with new eyes, we, too, can see that we are all extraordinary. Speaking of his mystical experience, Merton describes the centre of our being: ‘It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.’

Seeing life from this ‘upside-down’ perspective, we can appreciate even more Jesus’s teaching from The Sermon On The Mount. including these Beatitudes:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’

  A Mystical experience can completely transform your life.

Mystical experiences are beyond knowing—a bit like a miracle—hard to explain, but you know it when you have had one. It could happen to anybody. I had a few. I hadn’t earned the right to have these experiences. In truth, they were graces from God and only began in earnest after I met my late wife, Cushla.

Before I met Cushla, nothing in my world had ever come close to some of my ineffable spiritual encounters. But then, Cushla was never of this world. Knowing her for twenty-seven years, I can say she was a mystic. She was an extraordinary human being: selfless and fearless, with a profound faith in God, who graced her with supernatural gifts and profound spiritual experiences.

I believe that because we had become ‘one flesh, ’ God used Cushla as a channel for me to share, to some extent, some of her mystical experiences. Through no effort on my part, I was enlightened enough to understand a different reality, albeit for a few seconds. There was a complete shift in my consciousness and an accompanying softening of my heart. My perception of what mattered in life was altered and illuminated to an extraordinary degree. It’s as if, in an instant, I was allowed to experience, to some degree, what it’s like to see beyond the veil and was awakened to the ‘upside-downness’ of God’s Kingdom. What  I thought was important, including business and prosperity, was almost laughable, and what I  took for granted were my greatest blessings, especially the love of God and the love Cushla and I had for each other. But now, after my spiritual awakenings, I understood more than ever what Cushla meant when I asked her, only a  few weeks after we met, what life was all about. ‘Love’, she answered me, without hesitation. 

Discernment regarding mystical experiences

Seeking a mystical experience may be tempting for those of us enticed by the supernatural phenomena often associated with it. However, anyone seeking instant esoteric supernatural experiences for their own solace and satisfaction will think twice if they study the Christian mystics:  one of the best-known  Saint Teresa of Ávila, tells us that much of the mystic experience revolves around embracing the reality of pain as a necessary step on the path to spiritual knowledge.

The Church also teaches that we shouldn’t seek after private revelation or extraordinary signs and wonders—they are a gift from God. And, anyway, we don’t have to have a mystical experience to have faith and lead a good life. Having said that, I believe, having known Cushla for 27 years, that if we practice spiritual discipline,  keep our thoughts elevated, and practice selfless, sacrificial loving, we are more likely to have a mystical encounter with God. Indeed, for Christians, the word mystical means, firstly and above all else, selfless, sacrificial loving.

In his book Wisdom from the Christian Mystics, David Torkington, whose knowledge and experience in Mystical Theology is, in my opinion, second to none, speaks profoundly on this type of authentic love. Here is an excerpt:

'It has always been believed that happiness depends on love more than on anything else. The greater the love, the greater the happiness. Yet, for some unaccountable reason it does not always occur to people that, like everything else that is worth achieving, loving must be learnt. Far from being an exception to the rule, learning to love is more difficult than anything else because human beings are insatiably selfish and learning to love means learning to be selfless.