Let me tell you a story. I used to live in New York City, and one day I had a mystical experience on the subway. I know how that sounds, but work with me here.
I was coming home on the F train. It goes from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Rush hour. Crowded. Ordinary day. But as we rolled along in the tunnel, I began to have this strange feeling. It was a feeling of complete, unconditional love for everybody in that car. No exceptions. The mom beside me with her kids, the baby on her lap. The young guys trying to look tough. Business people reading the Times. Construction workers. Even the drunk passed out in the corner. I looked at all those tired New York faces, and I felt an amazing peace. These people were not strangers, they were my family. I knew them, somehow, had always known them, and honestly, I would have given my life for any one of them. There was no division between me and them. And this feeling stayed with me, minute after minute, this steady and overwhelming sense of absolute love, and then the train came up out of the earth in Brooklyn and the whole car filled with sunlight — and the moment faded. It just went away. I was back in the ordinary. The passengers around me were just passengers. I was just me. I got off at my stop and walked home. I was a bit dazed.
For the next few weeks, I kept thinking about what happened. The experience had been so vivid, so undeniable. I was enlightened ― for about ten minutes ― and then I wasn’t. Maybe I never was. Nothing changed in my life. I wasn’t a better person or a worse person. Yes, that was an authentic feeling I had on the subway, but as another wise person has said, “Authentic feeling is not to be confused with the Truth.” My experience was real enough, but I wasn’t a believer at the time. I had no larger understanding to help me change my inner life and certainly not my outward, physical life.
Has anyone else had what might be called a mystical experience? I know that for some folks, the term “mystic” suggests loosey-goosey notions, a lack of rigor in thinking and even a certain silliness. As for me, I’ve always thought it made all the sense in the world to recognize the interconnectedness of reality as a mystical truth. But hey, that’s just me. What do you think of the term? Does it make sense or should it be avoided?
