Blurb:

Over the last fifty years the study of mysticism has been shaped by the
debate between ‘perennialists’, who claim that mystical experiences are the
same across different cultures, and ‘constructivists’, who claim that mystical
experiences are shaped by, and hence specific to, particular religious traditions.
The constructivist view is associated with the ‘discursive turn’ that
has dominated the humanities for the last half century, emphasising cultural
relativism. Nonetheless, the constructivist position is not without problems.
Inspired in part by Lance Cousins’ 1989 comparison of Buddhaghosa’s Path
of Purification and Teresa of Ávila’s Interior Castle, the present article seeks to
bring out parallels in the contemplative exercises and the progress of the
‘spiritual life’ found in Buddhist accounts of meditation (such as the Cūḷa-
Suññata-sutta) and Christian apophaticism (as presented in The Cloud of Unknowing).
The article seeks to establish specific parallels in the techniques of
and approaches to contemplative practice in both traditions, as well as in the
phenomenology of the experiences of the meditator (yogāvacara) or contemplative
at different stages in the work of meditation and contemplation.