The damnation of this earth as a realm where nothing is possible to man but
pain, disaster and defeat, a realm inferior to another, “higher,” reality; the
damnation of all values, enjoyment, achievement and success on earth as a proof
of depravity; the damnation of man’s mind as a source of pride, and the
damnation of reason as a “limited,” deceptive, unreliable, impotent faculty,
incapable of perceiving the “real” reality and the “true” truth; the split of
man in two, setting his consciousness (his soul) against his body, and his
moral values against his own interest; the damnation of man’s nature, body and
self as evil; the commandment of self-sacrifice, renunciation, suffering,
obedience, humility and faith, as the good; the damnation of life and the
worship of death, with the promise of rewards beyond the grave—these are the
necessary tenets of the [mystic’s] view of existence, as they have been in
every variant of [mystical] philosophy throughout the course of mankind’s
history.