The challenge is to find access to it and to live in its power. In this sense, every generation of believers is challenged anew to make its religion truly religious. This is the point where mysticism clashes with the institution. We need religious institutions. If they weren't there, we would create them.
Life creates structures.
Think of the ingenious constructions life invents to protect its seeds, of all those husks and hulls and pods, the shucks and burrs and capsules found in an autumn hedgerow. Crust, rind, and chaff split open and are discarded. Our social structures, however, have a tendency to perpetuate themselves. Religious institutions are less likely than seed pods to yield to the new life stirring within. Those closest to the mystical core of religion will often be uncomfortable agitators within the system.