"Analytical philosophers have criticized some phenomenological texts from buddhism, existentialism and mysticism, because of the presence of logical contradictions. Being interested in those phenomenological texts, people with a different philosophical inclination sometimes make the following claims. ``There are two ways of viewing the world: the rational and the irrational. The first view gives rise to science (with all of its drawbacks), the second one to the `higher' truths of mysticism."
In his book Exploring mysticism (Penguin, 1975), F. Staal disagrees with such claims. He put forward the following views.
1. Mysticism consists of experience and is as such neither rational nor irrational.
2. As phenomenon mysticism can be studied in a rational way.
3. In order to do this, it is advisable to practice meditation in order to have first hand experience."
http://www.cs.ru.nl/~henk/BP/bp1.html
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