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Dutton
Description
The late Paul Brunton was one of the 20th century's explorers and writers on the spiritual traditions of the East. This book presents his teaching and offers a detailed description and simple and safe meditation techniques. The author describes the experience and insights he gained from practising meditation, and provides guidelines that can safely be followed without the supervision of a teacher. He concludes by showing how to use the spiritual understanding that arises from meditation to orientate ourselves in daily life.
User reviews
LibraryThing member kukulaj
This is the first of Brunton's books that I have read... hmm, I guess I read some of the notebooks that were published in the 1990s, so the first book of those he published. Anyway I can't compare this to his other published books.
The core of the book is a meditation technique of three or four
Perhaps it was Vivekandanda who was the real pioneer of perennialism, the idea that all religions teach the same esoteric essence. Brunton certainly follows that line of thinking here. I didn't pick up any flavor of Guenon here... I suspect Brunton wasn't tapped into that scene, but maybe I am wrong. Brunton gets quite concrete in his metaphysical claims, which makes the perennialist line a little difficult! He makes some specific claims about spiritual healing. I've been reading Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas very slowly over the last year or so & Thomas has some nice outlining of debates about religion and healing. To what extent can/should one coax God to help one improve one's physical lot?
Brunton's language is quite flowery. It really sounds funny today. Probably in the 1930s it was a lot more common. It's definitely a layer one needs to peel back to use the book today. Or a layer to enjoy, if you miss that in today's writing!
This book was written in 1935. Brunton refers to the coming war, and more to the devastation of WW1. Things were falling apart pretty seriously in 1935 - the depths of the Great Depression. Have we just continued to collapse, or are we in a new collapse, or do things just always seem to be in collapse and it is actually some kind of optical illusion?
The core of the book is a meditation technique of three or four
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steps, a quite simple method. The whole thing feels like neo-Vedanta, like Vivekananda. There was one quote from Ramakrishna in this book. He also quotes a Tibetan proverb on the relationship between mind and breath. Brunton presents the ideas here as his own distillation from the wisdom around the world and throughout history. It's a pretty reasonable claim. He references mystics across that range, from Milarepa to Eckhardt etc. No bibliography here but the names dropped could provide a person with sufficient seeds for further research.Perhaps it was Vivekandanda who was the real pioneer of perennialism, the idea that all religions teach the same esoteric essence. Brunton certainly follows that line of thinking here. I didn't pick up any flavor of Guenon here... I suspect Brunton wasn't tapped into that scene, but maybe I am wrong. Brunton gets quite concrete in his metaphysical claims, which makes the perennialist line a little difficult! He makes some specific claims about spiritual healing. I've been reading Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas very slowly over the last year or so & Thomas has some nice outlining of debates about religion and healing. To what extent can/should one coax God to help one improve one's physical lot?
Brunton's language is quite flowery. It really sounds funny today. Probably in the 1930s it was a lot more common. It's definitely a layer one needs to peel back to use the book today. Or a layer to enjoy, if you miss that in today's writing!
This book was written in 1935. Brunton refers to the coming war, and more to the devastation of WW1. Things were falling apart pretty seriously in 1935 - the depths of the Great Depression. Have we just continued to collapse, or are we in a new collapse, or do things just always seem to be in collapse and it is actually some kind of optical illusion?
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