The innate capacity : mysticism, psychology, and philosophy / edited by Robert K.C. Forman.

Includes bibliographical references.

This book is the sequel to Robert Forman's collection, The Problem of Pure Consciousness (Oxford, 1990). The essays in the earlier volume argued that some mystical experiences do not seem to be formed or shaped by the language system - a thesis that stands in sharp contradistinction to deconstruction in general and to the "constructivist" school of mysticism in particular, which holds that all mysticism is the product of a cultural and linguistic process. In The Innate Capacity, Forman and his colleagues put forward a hypothesis about the formative causes of these "pure consciousness" experiences. All of the contributors agree that mysticism is the result of an innate human capacity, rather than a learned, socially conditioned and constructive process. The contributors look at mystical experience as it is manifested in a variety of religious and cultural settings, including Hindu Yoga, Buddhism, Sufism, and medieval Christianity. Taken together, the essays constitute an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the nature of human consciousness and mystical experience and its relation to the social and cultural contexts in which it appears.

Introduction : Mystical consciousness, the innate capacity, and the perennial philosophy / Robert K.C. Forman -- Discriminating the innate capacity : salvation mysticism of classical Sāṃkya-Yoga / Lloyd W. Pflueger -- Parables of deconstruction in the Lotus Sūtra / Roger Corless -- Between the yes and the no : Ibn al-ʻArabī on Wujūd and the innate capacity / William Chittick -- Mysticism, mediation, and consciousness : the innate capacity in John Ruusbroec / James Robertson Price III -- The innate capacity : Jung and the mystical imperative / John Dourley -- The Swami and the Rorschach : spiritual practice, religious experience, and perception / Diane Jonte-Pace -- William James and the origins of mystical experience / G. William Barnard -- Innate mystical capacities and the nature of the self / Anthony N. Perovich Jr. -- Postconstructivist approaches to mysticism / R.L. Franklin.

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