Category: Spirituality

Den engelska suffragetten, feministen och socialisten som, ung vorden ateist, vid förra sekelskiftet genom ett föredrag av Henry Steel Olcott i Genève kom att upptäcka något av den större och högre esoverklighet och sanning som låg bortom den kristabrahamitiska ortoexoterism hon inte kunnat tro på. Inom kort kom hon att överflytta allt sitt engagemang till teosofin, och undervisade om den under hela sitt återstående liv, som ändade 1971.

Codd skrev Theosophy as the Masters See It, Letters to Aspirants, Thought: The Creator, Introduction to Patanjali’s Yoga, The Technique of the Spiritual Life, Theosophy for Little Children, The Creative Power, So Rich a Life, There Is No Death, Meditation: Its Practice and Results, The Way of the Disciple, The Consecrated Life, Trust your Self to Life, The Mystery of Life and How Theosophy Unveils It, Masters and Disciples, och The Ageless Wisdom of Life.

Sionisternas agerande idag, framför allt men långtifrån enbart i Gaza, och inte minst vissa karaktäristiska, explicita argument i deras försvar av det, borde för religionskritiken med stor skärpa och åskådlighet väcka frågan om abrahamismen, trots kristendomens och islams tolkningar, ursprungligen egentligen endast är ett slags landnamaideologi, och en oöverträffbart extrem och religiöst och historiskt anspråksfull sådan.

Om det inte vore för alla ständiga artiklar och videoklipp med omisstydbara bibliska åberopanden och hänvisningar av israeliska rabbiner, politiker, bosättare och vanliga människor, skulle förklaringen av den exempellösa aggressionen endast i termer av modern 1800-talsnationalism eller atlantimperialismens geopolitiska intressen och behov i regionen vara mer plausibel.

Talks with Bubba Free John on the Spiritual Technique of the Saviors of Mankind

The Dawn Horse Press, 1973; revised edition, 1978

Publisher’s description on the back cover:

The Method of the Siddhas documents an unprecedented historical event – the first meetings between the Western-born Divine Teacher, Bubba Free John, and the ordinary men and women who first responded to his announcement of his Presence as Spiritual Master. Here Bubba offers humorous and uncompromising responses to our most basic questions about spiritual life, especially in relation to money, food, sex, meditation, relationships, and the great traditions of esoteric spirituality. But the principal subject of his conversations is Satsang, or Divine Communion, the transforming relationship to the Spiritual Master in God. Those who respond to that offering enjoy the Advantage offered by all Great Teachers throughout human time: the living Communication of Truth, Light, and Eternal Life.

Endorsements on the back cover:

The event of Bubba Free John is an occasion for rejoicing, for without any doubt whatsoever, he is destined to become the first Western Avatar to appear in the history of the world… For the other great Teachers – Christ, Gautama, Krishna, and to a lesser degree, Hui-Neng, Milarepa, Sri Ramana Maharshi – all have been Asian. But here, for the first time, is a Western Spiritual Master of the ultimate degree. He serves now as simple Presence for the awakening of all those who would turn to him in sacrificial relationship.

Ken Wilber, author, The Spectrum of Consciousness, editor, Re-Vision magazine

It is obvious, from all sorts of subtle details, that he knows what IT’s all about…a rare being. The West finally has a genuine Spiritual Master. I can’t believe it. He is really here. I have waited for such a One all my life.

Alan Watts, September 14, 1973

JOB’s Comment:

Amazon has a page for the first edition, with an image of its cover and with the following description:

“This book is composed entirely of talks initiated between Bubba free John and groups of his disciples during the first year of his ‘public’ life, from April, 1972, to March, 1973. In The Method of the Siddhas, Bubba discourses on this great spiritual practice of Satsang, which he says is the ancient method of teaching, the great and radical tradition of all the ‘heaven-born’ Siddhas. Satsang, or the condition of conscious relationship to such a Siddha-Guru, is the ancient and timeless means adopted by these great ones for the sake of the transmission of living Truth. In The Method of the Siddhas we find an acknowledged Spiritual Master formulating a progressive communication of the nature and method of all the Siddhas. Here he is concerned to make known the responsibilities and conditions of discipleship, and all that is essential in life and understanding before the individual will be prepared for the graces and responsibilities of the highest form of sadhana, or spiritual practice.”

But since the name Bubba Free John is used instead of Franklin Jones, this text cannot be from the first edition.

This is Jones’s second book. In the first two editions, the names Franklin Jones and Bubba Free John, respectively, appear only in the subtitles.

The Significance of Franklin Jones

Att förstå hur Teosofiska Samfundet representerade på många sätt ett intellektuellt omoget, urskillningslöst och kaotiskt stadium av den historiska receptionen av de väsentliga österländska andliga traditionerna och deras integration i väst, fyllt av oerhörda utsvävande och spekulativa inslag, otroliga, kuriösa mystifikationer, och egna märkliga påhitt. Men hur det också förmedlade väsentliga sanningar, och representerade och befrämjade ett verkligt och enormt ökat intresse för dessa traditioner, som ju idag, inte minst med hjälp av den omfattande forskningen, är vidare utvecklingsbart på nytt, disciplinerat sätt.

Judge (1851-96) skrev bl.a. The Ocean of Theosophy och Echoes of the Orient, och utgav tolkningar av Bhagavad-gita och Patanjalis Yoga sutra.

A Posthumous Anthology of Original Unpublished Writings by the Late Dr Brunton

Rider, 1984

Amazon.com

From the back cover of the second printing, 1985:

Dr. Paul Brunton has written many books about the quest for spiritual consciousness, and his personal search for peace proved so valuable for readers that his works were translated into many languages. Because this search helped so many, Essays on the Quest has been published after his death, gleaned from material in Dr. Brunton’s files. In this book, the reader is given a chance to look at the man who was Paul Brunton, for he shares his ideas with us in a conversational manner – ideas ranging from a discussion of karma as the law of consequences to how we can develop insight. He shows us how to cleanse ourselves of petty emotions so that we can rise above the ego. An important discussion for seekers is the chapter on self-reliance, for Dr. Brunton looks at the problems that may develop when students place themselves totally in the hands of a teacher (or guru, or master). Limited growth, lack of responsibility, and other pitfalls of the spiritual aspirant – such as becoming involved in the “glamour” of the occult, and the danger of obsession – are mentioned. This is necessary information for serious students on the path for it provides us all with a chance to re-evaluate where we are.

Front flap of the first printing:

These hitherto unpublished essays, culled from the files of the late Dr Paul Brunton, represent his first work to see print since The Spiritual Crisis of Man was published in 1952. As such they will be eagerly welcomed by his many readers worldwide.

Paul Brunton’s writings are as immediate and relevant today as when first he put pen to paper. They teach us much about the divine source of his inspiration. In Essays on the Quest he explains why God allows so-called ‘evil’ to exist in the world. He provides a new technique which facilitates meditation. He gives a full and detailed account of the law of Karma and how it operates in our lives. And he poses the question of whether one needs a spiritual guide or not.

Written with the profound simplicity which is his hallmark, Essays on the Quest is an original and illuminating contribution to philosophical literature. It is an important book for our time.

Back flap of the first printing:

“There is something in us of which we are not normally conscious. It is only at rare moments that we become aware – and that dimly – of a second self, as it were, of a nobler and serener self. We may have experienced such an uplift for only a few minutes but we will be haunted for ever afterwards by a sense of its tremendous importance. For we sense that we have then been in contact with something other than our ordinary self, sublimer than our ordinary self yet despite that somehow related to it.

“Those of us who have passed through such an inspired mood, who have felt its serenity, tasted its power and obeyed its monitions, know well enough that only then have we been fully alive.”

From ‘The Adventure of Meditation’

Back cover of the first printing:

CONTENTS

The Mystery of Evil

The Adventure of Meditation

Karma: The Law of Consciousness

Is the Soul in the Heart?

The Interior Word

Is the World an Illusion?

Ascetic Mysticism Reconsidered

Insight

Self-Reliance or Discipleship?

Cleansing the Emotions

Ethical Qualifications of the Seeker

Surrender of the Ego

The Probations and Tests of the Aspirant

What Can we Do for Philosophy?

JOB’s Comment:

The image is of the second printing, but only the colours differ.

Bruntons första och mest kända bok (1934), som introducerade Ramana Maharshi i väst. På amerikanska förlaget Weiser, ett av dem som fortsatte publicera nya upplagor av hans böcker, under 70-talet parallellt med engelska Rider.

Guénon skrev en kort, övervägande positiv anmälan, som inkluderats i Études sur l’hindouisme (1968). Så här ser den ut i den engelska översättning som kom 2001:

“This account of a journey in India and of meetings with individiuals of very varied character is interesting and agreeable to read, although the tone, especially at the beginning, recalls rather too much the author’s journalistic profession. Contrary to what is too often found in Western works of this kind, accounts of ‘phenomena’ do not take up excessive space. The author assures us, moreover, that this subject does not especially interest him, which is doubtless why he was able to establish contact with certain things of another order despite a ‘critical spirit’ which, carried to such an extent, seems rather incompatible with deep spiritual aspirations. We have here a curious exemple of specifically Western (more exactly, Anglo-Saxon) reactions in the presence of the East, the difficulty of admitting the existence and the value of a ‘non-acting activity’ being especially characteristic in this respect. The author’s resistance, with the resultant struggles and hesitations, last until the day they are finally conquered by the mysterious personage called the ‘Maharishi’. The pages devoted to him are certainly the most remarkable in the book and we cannot dream of summing them up here, but taken in its entirety this work is surely of more value than many more pretentious ones, and it can only contribute to awaking in some readers a sympathy for Eastern spirituality and perhaps among some of them a more profound interest.”

Kritiken rörande den journalistiska tonen är träffande ifråga om Bruntons tidigaste böcker, och skulle av Guénon utvecklas i recensionen av ytterligare en av dessa. Brunton hade förvisso en journalistisk bakgrund. Men han övergick snabbt till en helt annan typ av framställning av de österländska läror han tillägnade sig, en annanhet som med tiden fortsatte accentueras och kulminerade i hans sista böcker och inte minst i de postumt publicerade anteckningsböckerna.

Trots detta kvarstod däremot på visst sätt skillnaden gentemot Guénon i det att han även efter att ha övertygats av Ramana Maharshi faktiskt kvarhöll ett mått av den västerländska “kritiska andan” i åtminstone vissa aspekter. Det är en skillnad som är nära relaterad till distinktionen mellan den “hårda” och den “mjuka” traditionalismen i den mening jag givit den. Därför är den av stor betydelse, och jag ska återkomma till den.

Den traditionalistiska skolans svenska grundbok, 1959.

Swami Turiyananda var lärjunge till Ramakrishna och sändes av Vivekananda till väst, där han bl.a. var verksam vid Vedanta Society of New York kring förra sekelskiftet.

Foto: Vedanta Society of St. Louis