> I agree. There are probably mystical practices out there that seek to
> destroy/suppress the Self through sex, drugs and rock-n-roll (or pain, or
> whatever) in order to gain mystical insights. You could probably invent
> mystical traditions within the Bentus or Ikadz cults, for instance. I doubt
> these would be mainstream in most places, though.
>
Well, yes, but there are ven more mystic practices (as I see it) that just have people go about their daily lives. For example, my example of a carpenter whose mystic practice concentrates on "being in this place, at this time." She goes to the temples, like everyone else. She cooks and cleans and works wood. Perhaps she meditates once or twice a day, or follows some restriction (maybe she is a vegetarian, maybe she bathes in a particular way, maybe she wakes early to say prayers, maybe she feeds beggers, whatever) which might be unusual, but mostly she just lives like everyone else. All the time, though, she is seeking to experience the All by focusing on being in the place she is in at this very moment. When she carves wood, she just carves wood; when she sits in the temple, she just sits in the temple. She slowly builds up an ability "In This Place, In This Time." It's not "useful" for much beyond struggling with the All, which is the *whole point of the way she lives her life.* Maybe she can use it to stay calm when a neighbor is being a jerk. An aweful lt of mystics should be like this -- not flashy or really suitable for adventuring, just people going about their lives.
Of course, most theists and venerators and animists should be like this, too, but the cults we get are the "I whack 'em" variety, because players generally don't want to play a carpenter who wants to make really nice bowls and transcend the limits of the transient world that entrap even Orlanth and Yelm.
Of that's my take.
Peter Larsen
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