Ran Wei '09
Searching for Mystics
Ran Wei was intrigued when, as a sophomore, she took the Religious Experience course taught by Jordan Elliott ’97. The class studied the practices of different faiths, and Ran was fascinated by the interplay between religious experience and a person’s worldview.
“Whether I believe in God or not, religion exists; there are people who believe in God,” she said. “Part of my brain is cultivated by taking religion classes and thinking from that perspective. It helps me see a lot of things that I didn’t see before.”
The semester-long course ended before Ran had learned everything she wanted to know. She was especially interested in what she learned about people who have mystical experiences. Who are these mystics and what is it they experience, she wanted to know. Is the goal of their lives to have mystical experiences?
Ran created a plan with chaplain Liz Harlan-Ferlo to do an independent project.
From her readings, Ran created a metaphor of mystical experience as the reflection of the moon in a river, and of mystics as drops of water in that river. She wrote in her paper: “This is a river of my imagination. I have not seen it, nor do I know where it is. My task … is to find it, feel its mysterious water running through my fingers, and confirm its existence.”
Ran’s studies led her to the philosophies of Kabbalists, Hasidics, Sufis, Buddhists, Taoists, and Christians. But to confirm the existence of mystical experience, Ran needed more than words on a page. She needed to talk with mystics. Liz connected her with Alla Renee Bozarth, an Episcopal priest residing in Sandy, and Jordan Elliott introduced her to Kyogen Carlson, a Buddhist teacher at Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland.
From the moment Ran met Alla, she sensed that she was different from other people.
“She is very easygoing, very funny, but I think she is wiser than most people you encounter,” Ran said. Alla told stories about her life, they drank tea, they ate pie. Ran was reluctant to leave.
The next day she interviewed Kyogen, the Buddhist teacher. The words he spoke were different from those spoken by Alla, but the underlying ideas were very similar. In her paper, she wrote: “Both Alla and Kyogen minimized the importance of mysticism, thinking it is significant but not necessary, and definitely not their ‘goal.’ The most important thing for them, on the other hand, is to bring love and compassion to others, and to live a fulfilled life.”
Ran will continue her intellectual journey at Wellesley in the fall, but she has found the answer she was looking for in her independent study: It is the moon that matters, not the river.
