Maria Jaoudi, author of the book, Christian Mysticism: East and West is a powerful reminder of the Christian mystical tradition. Jaoudi writes the book in which she "attempts to elaborate on the spiritual aspects of a sometimes forgotten Christian tradition that contains within its label of Eastern Christianity a plethora of individual denominations both ancient and unique" (1). She has an amazing and a very obtainable overview of mysticism that crosses the paths of religious and cultural borders. She draws on her broad knowledge of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, and Christianity to explore the language of mysticism, which she calls the Rosetta Stone. In the brief pages that were read, this is a luminous journey with deeply felt insight for the spiritual seeker. Jaoudi brilliantly leads you by example. With the world of mysticisms, she's gained a deeper faith and opened her to the healing presence in her own workings in which she writes this book. With that, "this is what the masters teach us."
             What is sin? You may ask yourself. Someone might answer, "Sin is sexual immorality." Another might say, "Sin is doing wrong to another human being". Yet, another might volunteer, "Sin is violating religious objectives." Each of those things is a sin. An act that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible would be "an offense against religious or moral law" (2005, 30 March). From the Merriam's Webster online dictionary, this is a clear definition of sin that doesn't seem complicated to understand. In contrast of this definition, however, Jaoudi defines sin, interestingly enough as "separation from one's divine Self" (8). Sin is the original nature of humans. The Christian approach, as portrayed in The Cloud of Unknowing, seeks to know whom God is. The sinful nature of humans prevents them from getting closer to God, so the process of accomplishment in this case is to repress a...