Dolphin's Leap, Hind's Feet

The continuing popularity of writers such as Thomas Merton reminds us that many people in the churches and beyond long to share his insights and to experience the mysticism described in his writings.

But what exactly is a mystical experience? What does it feel like? What afterglow (or even aftershocks) does it leave you with? In Dolphin's Leap, Hind's Feet, a contemporary Australian mystic tries to explain himself, to clarify what it is like to be a mystic, to describe the mystical tradition in the church and, significantly, how to become one.

He shows us that if we seek to develop authentic spiritual awareness, this will almost always entail a journey, an inner pilgrimage to identify the techniques that work for you and how to use them with regularity.

Dolphin's Leap, Hind's Feet explores the approaches and disciplines used by teachers of spirituality over the centuries and tries to give an insight into the lived reality of the saints, seers and mystics, including their range and depth. The book is intentionally practical, a empting to take the reader inside the mystic's mind. Most of the chapters contain exercises or practical applications of the ideas discussed in the chapter.

These images suggested by the book's title Dolphin's Leap, Hind's Feets symbolise for the author the nature of the mystical life. They reflect the wondrous way dolphins leap out of water, and recall the Old Testament verse 'He makes my feet like hind's feet and sets me upon my high places' (Habakkuk 3.19). For the author, the dolphin's leap symbolises the mystical experience - tangible, real, transcendent, ethereal. Once experienced, we long for it to happen again yet we cannot command it - we simply wait and receive it; while the hind's feet are simply about the prefect coordination of one's abilities, a working-in-harmony with who and what we naturally are and what we can become.

Headley Beare believed that mystical awareness, insight and experience are available to all people, in all cultures and traditions, regardless of whether they regard themselves as religious or theologically educated or not. The book is a gift to those who are prepared to open their minds and hearts to the possibility of mystical experience and pursue a disciplined practice to achieve that experience. Hedley Beare died in 2010 after a long illness. He was a remarkable man - polymath, gifted teacher, educationalist, writer and communicator. He was also a modern mystic, and this book is the fruit of many years of reflecting on his mystical experiences and insights, and those of others.