The Mystic Christ (Ethan Walker 111)
[My 4-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Light of Non-Duality and the Path of Love according to the Life and Teaching of Jesus by Ethan Walker 111.]
I devote my life to practicing and writing about mysticism, so I think I’m a pretty good judge of mystical literature. I’ve read well over a thousand mystical texts, and in my opinion, The Mystic Christ ranks as a very good Christian mysticism text. It’s good for a number of reasons. First, it’s the ideal book to give to a parochial Christian who believes that Jesus is the only way to spiritual salvation. By comparing passages in the Bible with Hindu yoga teachings, Walker makes the case that Jesus was simply a great, but not a unique, spiritual master, and that the true, or mystical, core of Christianity is the same as the true, or mystical, core of the other great religions. Second, the book provides insightful exegetical commentary on various Biblical passages. And third, the book is very inspirational, emphasizing bhakti yoga (love and devotion) as the means to God Union. I believe that if an individual interested in Christian mysticism reads this book in conjunction with, say, Inner Christianity by Richard Smoley, which is a gnostic guide to esoteric Christianity, then he or she will have a well-rounded (bhakti + gnostic) general understanding of mystical Christianity.
The one problem I have with Walker’s book is its failure to point out that love, the practice he extols, is not a primary, that it is what one receives when one connects to the Divine. No human being can willfully love from moment-to moment; therefore the core spiritual practice, even for a devotional yogi, is not love, but rather Holy Communion (which I refer to as Plugged-in Presence, or Presence + Oneness), which establishes the Divine connection and allows the yogi to receive and channel Love, God’s Bliss-full Light-energy, the poured-down Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, Walker does not describe the true Eucharist, the ultimate Christian spiritual practice; hence I give his book four stars rather than five.
I devote my life to practicing and writing about mysticism, so I think I’m a pretty good judge of mystical literature. I’ve read well over a thousand mystical texts, and in my opinion, The Mystic Christ ranks as a very good Christian mysticism text. It’s good for a number of reasons. First, it’s the ideal book to give to a parochial Christian who believes that Jesus is the only way to spiritual salvation. By comparing passages in the Bible with Hindu yoga teachings, Walker makes the case that Jesus was simply a great, but not a unique, spiritual master, and that the true, or mystical, core of Christianity is the same as the true, or mystical, core of the other great religions. Second, the book provides insightful exegetical commentary on various Biblical passages. And third, the book is very inspirational, emphasizing bhakti yoga (love and devotion) as the means to God Union. I believe that if an individual interested in Christian mysticism reads this book in conjunction with, say, Inner Christianity by Richard Smoley, which is a gnostic guide to esoteric Christianity, then he or she will have a well-rounded (bhakti + gnostic) general understanding of mystical Christianity.
The one problem I have with Walker’s book is its failure to point out that love, the practice he extols, is not a primary, that it is what one receives when one connects to the Divine. No human being can willfully love from moment-to moment; therefore the core spiritual practice, even for a devotional yogi, is not love, but rather Holy Communion (which I refer to as Plugged-in Presence, or Presence + Oneness), which establishes the Divine connection and allows the yogi to receive and channel Love, God’s Bliss-full Light-energy, the poured-down Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, Walker does not describe the true Eucharist, the ultimate Christian spiritual practice; hence I give his book four stars rather than five.
