Abstract

This chapter addresses mystical experience, appraising the contemporary debate between “constructivists” and “essentialists” over the issue of unmediated mystical experience and discussing benefits of and problems involved in using categories like “mystical experience” when addressing experiences and realizations dealt with by Tibetan Buddhist thinkers. Treating the direct realization of ultimate reality as one of the highest expressions of mystical experience, it argues that it is one of the most challenging topics of Tibetan theories and practices, and the issues of accessing that realization, maintaining it, and providing an adequate description remain a focus of heated polemics. It shows that although many elements involved in this polemical issue are unique to the Tibetan Buddhist world, their analysis can help us achieve a better understanding of mystical experiences in general and the issue of mediated mystical experience in particular. Overall, it provides a background for analysis of “mystical experiences” in Tibetan Buddhism.