Christian Mysticism of the East:
Hesychasm: It spreads throughout the Orthodox world (according to Catholic doctrine), especially in Russia, through the writings collected in the late 18th century under the title of Philokalia:
- The Prayer of Jesus or Prayer of the Heart (of a technical nature, based on exercises of concentration, breathing, and meditation, resembling yoga and certain methods of Sufism).
Christian Mysticism of the West:
- Mysticism of the Void or Negative Theology (similar to the mysticism of emptiness found in Buddhism).
- Mysticism of Love (similar to devotional yoga (bhakti-yoga) in the Hindu tradition).
- Speculative Mysticism, which lists the stages of mystical experience (similar to the path of the samnyasin in the Hindu tradition, culminating in the state of jivan-mukta or liberated in life; also similar to the arya-marga or noble path of the Hinayana Buddhist tradition, and to the ten stages of the bull in Japanese Zen).
- Mysticism of the Eucharist (primarily associated with the feminine. Some scholars associate it with symptoms of anorexia nervosa, while others consider that for these mystics, “the Eucharist, in which Christ becomes food, becomes a symbol of their own transformation: by renouncing food, these mystics ‘transform themselves into food'”).
Source: Shiva Shambho
Books on Christian Mysticism of the East
Books on Christian Mysticism of the West
External Links:
Hesychasm / The Prayer of Jesus or Prayer of the Heart / What is Mysticism? / Christian Mystical Theology / Mysticism of the Void or Negative Theology / Contemplation