I don't know what you mean when you say that traditional scientists such as the alchemists "identified" themselves with the Divine Principle rather than with the material world. I rather doubt it was very often a case, even theoretically, of Tat tvam asi, but perhaps...

I realize prayer has lately become something of a vicious circle for you, if one may use this rather ill-sounding phrase for so sacred a subject. This is not the first time you've told me of your difficulties in praying to a God you still have trouble believing in and...

I agree, certainly, that we must guard our hearts carefully against presumption, but we needn't suppose in doing so that metaphysics and esoterism are themselves presumptuous. There is of course such a thing as intellectual pride, but there is also such a thing as...

I'm very sorry to learn of your illness. I was asked much the same question you pose a few months ago by another correspondent, who had been told he was suffering from a terminal disease and was writing to request my advice about "spiritual" books. Here, if you're...

Yes, of course: the doctrine of the Resurrection places the emphasis on a continuity—indeed a physical, "flesh and blood" continuity—between what we are (or seem to be) now and what we shall be after death. For Christians, the Gospel accounts of Christ's...

Regarding your question about finding a spiritual master, I would caution you to be careful about placing quite the emphasis you have on "presence". Of course, you certainly have a right to expect that a genuine shaykh or murshid will display all the virtues and that...

You speak of occasionally having the sense that something within you, which is "more than you", is always praying, even in the moments when you are feeling the most distracted and spiritually indolent; and when you have this experience, you say, it's as if you were...

I believe you'd be wise to get some distance on your emotions. We're to have cool heads and warm hearts, not hot heads and cold hearts. Not that you're very close to running the latter risk—your evident compassion seems proof against a low cardiac...

Metaphysically, there is clearly no incompatibility between the divine unicity of God, on the one hand, as this is expressed in the Islamic shahadah, and the divinity of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, as this is expressed in the Nicene Creed. The Christian is not...

The passage you cite from Ignatius of Antioch—"My love has been crucified" (Letter to the Romans)—is profound indeed. The saint seems to be punning on eros. He means (among other things no doubt) that insofar as the object of his love, Jesus Christ, has...