Studies in Hinduism - Couverture rigide

Guenon, Rene

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0900588705 ISBN 13 : 9780900588709

Editeur : Sophia Perennis et Universalis, 2004

Synopsis

René Guénon (1886-1951) was one of the great luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of intellectual fashion. His extensive writings, now finally available in English, are a providential treasure-trove for the modern seeker: while pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, they direct the reader also to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization.

Studies in Hinduism consists of articles published posthumously in 1966, to which has been added Guénon's separate study La Métaphysique orientale, the text of a lecture delivered at the Sorbonne. Here Guénon completes his presentation of Hindu metaphysics, which he considered the most primordial and comprehensive body of spiritual teaching possessed by the human race, one capable of illuminating the essence of every other Tradition. Of special interest are three chapters on various aspects of tantra (a doctrine profoundly misunderstood in the contemporary West), which Hindu authorities consider the spirituality most appropriate to the Kali Yuga, as well as a chapter on the sanatana dharma, the Hindu concept closest to the ancient and medieval Christian idea of the philosophia perennis, which led St Augustine to declare that Christianity has always existed, but only came to be so called after the coming of Christ. Included are extensive reviews of books on or by Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore, Mircea Eliade, Paul Brunton, and others, as well as forty pages of reviews of books and articles by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Leading Indian thinkers have called René Guénon the most authentic expositor of Hindu metaphysics in any Western language.

A propos du livre

Biographie de l'auteur

René Guénon (1886–1951) was one of the great luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of intellectual fashion. His extensive writings, now finally available in English, are a providential treasure-trove for the modern seeker: while pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, they direct the reader also to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization. René Guénon, of whom Jacob Needleman wrote in The Sword of Gnosis that ‘no other modern writer has so effectively communicated the absoluteness of truth,’ is gradually being recognized by deeper thinkers as one of the few who have truly penetrated the seductive veil of the modern age. As an expositor of pure metaphysics and its application to the science of symbols, Guénon is without peer; and his extraordinarily prescient critique of the modern world is attracting more and more attention among cultural commentators. Little known in the English-speaking world till the recent appearance of his Collected Works in translation, Guénon has nevertheless long been recognized as a veritable criterion of truth by a vanguard of remarkable writers who evince that rare combination: intellectuality and spirituality. After a lonely childhood, often interrupted by ill health, Guénon navigated the seductive half-truths of occultism toward a deeper, unified vision offering a way out from the confusion and fragmentation of our time. Regarded by leading scholars as the first truly authentic interpreter of many Eastern doctrines in the West, Guénon never tired, in face of the seemingly inexorable process of dissolution in the twentieth century, of pointing to the transcendent unity of all religious faiths and the abiding Truth that contains them all.

Présentation de l'éditeur

Translated here for the first time in its entirety, Guénon's Studies in Hinduism, together with his Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta and Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines, provides what leading Indian thinkers have called the most authentic expression of Hindu metaphysics in any Western language. Chapters include: Atma-Gita; The Spirit of India; Kundalini Yoga; The Hindu Theory of the Five Elements; Dharma; Varna; Tantrism and Magic; The Fifth Veda; Nama-Rupa; Maya; and Sanatana Dharma. Guénon's crucial lecture 'Eastern Metaphysics' has also been added-the closest thing to a 'thumbnail sketch' of metaphysics he ever produced-as well as special indexes of Buddhist and Sanskrit terms. Also known as the Primordial Tradition, the sanatana dharma, which constitues the central theme of this text, is the guarantee of both the universality and the indestructibility of essential metaphysical truth.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Sophia Perennis et Universalis
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0900588705
• ISBN 13: 9780900588709
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 2
• Nombre de pages: 272
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible