Is mysticism the antidote to fundamentalism?

A Facebook friend asked me whether mysticism is the antidote for religious fundamentalism. My answer is “No.” The real antidote to fundamentalism is critical thinking and functional literacy. Sadly, these are rare commodities. The comprehension of any literature requires a certain level of cultural and historical literacy. In order to decipher religious texts, one has to be well-educated. One has to understand the text within its historical and social context. In addition, much of religious fundamentalism has to do with a refusal to accept the modern mindset, which is based on openmindedness, empiricism, skepticism, and the scientific spirit. Mysticism, based on highly personal experiences, will not solve the problem of blind faith in a belief system, including beliefs in various conspiracy theories and QAnon.

In Buddhist literature, there are several very important sutras — the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra — which are generally considered difficult to understand. “Experts” such as D.T. Suzuki have been telling the West that the understanding of Zen and the comprehension of Buddhist sutras requires “dropping the mind,” because Zen is irrational. This is utter nonsense. What is “mysticism”? The Macmillan Dictionary defines the term as “the belief that you can understand God (or Ultimate Reality) directly by praying and meditating, or the practice of doing this.”…