Authors of old Asiatic books claimed that ultimate truth was certainly discoverable

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>

> " Inner Religion

>

> One of the great ironies of religious history is that, although the

> religions that came out of the Near East--Judaism, Islam,

> Christianity--adamantly reject most of Hinduism's fundamental

> teachings, their mystical traditions--the Kaballah, Sufism, and

> Christian Gnosticism--reflect Hindu insights in almost every detail.

> Numerous students of comparative religion, from Muslim scholar Al

> Buruni in 1000 C.E. to the world famous writer Aldous Huxley nearer

> our own time, have expressed their amazement at the parallels

> between the major mystical traditions of the world and Hinduism...

>

> Hinduism is by far the most complex religion in the world, shading

> under its enormous umbrella an incredibly diverse array of

> contrasting beliefs, practices, and denominations. Hinduism is by

> far the oldest major religion. It has had more than enough time to

> develop a diversity of opinions and approaches to spirituality

> unmatched in any other tradition. "

>

> Linda Johnsen, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism, pages 76-77

> Paperback: 432 pages

> Publisher: Alpha; 1st edition (October 11, 2001)

> Language: English

> ISBN-10: 0028642279

> ISBN-13: 978-0028642277

>

>

 

 

" This need of wider intellectual enlightenment concerning both the

nature of the world and its correct relation to the mystical view of

man, in short, Truth in all its fullness, caused me to look around

and consider where else it might be satisfied. I knew several of the

answers of the West, knew too that they were often excellent as far

as they went, but they did not go far enough... I knew something

of the Western philosophies, admirably reasoned and laboriously

worked out as they were, but their tremendous conflict of opinion

largely cancelled out each other's value and left the student

bewildered. I knew however that the forest thinkers of Asiaitic

countries had leisurely pondered this problem long before the first

city Greeks had begun to ponder it in Europe. Moreover there was this

vital difference that whereas the Western thinkers usually claimed

that nobody had discovered ultimate truth and that human limitations

were so narrow that nobody was likely to discover it, the authors of

old Asiatic books claimed that ultimate truth was certainly

discoverable and that a few sages had definitely known it...

 

I felt therefore that if hope lay anywhere it lay in Asia, the

continent where the world's most renowned religious, mystic and

philosophical teachers from Jesus to Confucius had been born. It

needed but slightly more consideration to narrow the search to India

because I knew from wide study and personal travel that all the

Asiatic lands, like Tibet, China, and Japan had directly or

indirectly derived their philosophic knowledge, yoga systems and

religious speculations from this single fountain-head. "

 

Paul Brunton, Ph.D., The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga,

E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1966, p. 39-40.

 

 

Paul Brunton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Paul Brunton (October 21, 1898 - July 27, 1981) was born Raphael

Hurst, and later changed his name to Brunton Paul and then Paul

Brunton. He was a British philosopher, mystic, traveler, and guru. He

left a journalistic career to live among yogis, mystics, and holy

men, and studied a wide variety of Eastern and Western esoteric

teachings. With his entire life dedicated to an inward and spiritual

quest, Brunton felt charged with the task of communicating his

experiences to others and, as the first person to write accounts of

what he learned in the East from a Western perspective, his works had

a major influence on the spread of Eastern mysticism to the West.

Taking pains to express his thoughts in layperson's terms, Brunton

was able to present what he learned from the Orient and from ancient

tradition as a living wisdom. His writings sum up his view that

meditation and the inward quest are not exclusively for monks and

hermits, but will also support those living normal, active lives in

the Western world. " (from Paul Brunton: Essential Readings by Godwin,

Cash and Smith)

 

Biography

Paul Brunton was born in London in 1898 and after having served in

the First World War, started to devote himself to mysticism. He came

into contact with Theosophists. In the early 1930s, Brunton embarked

on a voyage to India, which would bring him into contact with such

luminaries as Meher Baba, Sri Shankaracharya of Kancheepuram and Sri

Ramana Maharshi. Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana

Maharshi to the West through his books " A Search in Secret India "

and " The Secret Path " .

 

One day -sitting with Ramana Maharishi- Brunton had an experience

which Steve Taylor names " an experience of genuine enlightenment

which changed him forever " . Brunton describes it in the following way:

 

" I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness. The planet

which has so far harboured me disappears. I am in the midst of an

ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel rather than think, is the

primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the first state of

matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space, incredibly

alive. " [1]

 

After two decades of successful writing, Brunton retired from

publishing books and devoted himself to writing essays and notes.

Upon his death in 1981 in Vevey, Switzerland, it was revealed that in

the period since the last published book in 1952, he had rendered

about 20,000 pages of philosophical writing.

 

A longtime friend of Paul Brunton, philosopher Anthony Damiani,

coordinated the publishing effort together with a team of people

including Paul Cash and Timothy Smith. The Swedish-American publisher

Robert Larson started publishing the 16-volume set in 1984.

 

" Bring again and again into remembrance the fact that you are a

pilgrim, that this world is but a camp, and that the situations in

which you find yourself, or create for yourself, should be regarded

not from the worldly point of view only, but still more from that of

this quest of the Overself. " Paul Brunton

 

wwww.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Brunton

 

[1] Jackson, Kevin: A Short History of Pyramidology