Mystical Experiences through the Lens of Heidegger and Mamardashvili: Overcoming the Metaphysical Model of Human Existence

Abstract

This essay relates a Heideggerian interpretation of metaphysics, as determined by an interpretation of Being in terms of a priori laws/essences, to a traditionally passive model of experience. The spiritual principles of the Christian and the Buddhist experience of the Nothing are shown as an overcoming of this model and an overcoming of metaphysics. The essay displays the ways in which Heidegger and Mamardashvili stress the illusionary nature of a metaphysical understanding of human existence and the central role of personal transformation beyond one’s psychological subjectivity. This transformation is tied to the possibility of active engagement with the Nothing, requiring efforts of attentive self-detachment from the constant pressure of one’s representational faculties motivated by a hidden flight from anxiety. Buddhist and Christian notions of detachment and letting-be are then interpreted in light of Heidegger’s and Mamardashvili’s ideas, allowing for a phenomenological interpretation of certain passages from the New Testament and the Bodhidharma’s teaching.