This title was originally chosen by the Lama Trungpa for a talk he was to have given at a conference of Catholic religious headmistresses just after New Year 1968 at "Spode House" near Rugeley, Staffs. Being unexpectedly prevented from keeping this date, the Lama asked me to act in his stead; this new version of […]
Category: Articles
No Activity Without Truth
This paper was originally composed, by request, to be read at a congress convened for the purpose of considering the deeper causes of the crisis through which the world is passing with a view to positive remedial action in the light of religion. The congress was held in Japan in 1961, hence the number of […]
Signs of the Times
IN the Uncreated Principial Substance, which Hinduism terms Prakriti, there is perfect equilibrium between the upward, the expansive and the downward tendencies, sattva, rajas and tamas. The creation itself breaks this equilibrium, being in a sense a "victory" of tamas over sattva.
The Heavenly Jerusalem
and the Paradise of Vaikuntha WE reproduce a miniature of the Heavenly Jerusalem taken from a manuscript of the eleventh century, the so-called "Apocalypse of Saint-Sever",[1] which belongs to a certain group of medieval manuscripts, mostly of Spanish origin and all stemming from a single prototype, a commentary on the Apocalypse written by the Asturian […]
THE TEACHINGS OF SHÂH NE`MATULLÂH WALI (Professor Ravan Farhadi)
Nouraddin Shâh Ne`matullâh Wali, who chose to stay and live in the city of Kermân, was a teacher of the Sûfi path. He was born on 14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 731 Hejra (26 December 1330) in Aleppo. His father belonged to an Arab Sayyed clan and his mother was born in Persia, and was probably Persian-speaking.
Comparison in poetry of Shah Nematollah Vali and of Hafiz (Dr. Hanna Stemerding)
Shah Nematollah composed mystic poetry and Hafìz composed mystic poetry; still one cannot say that both were poets; Yes Hafiz was above all a poet, he depicted his images in poetry like miniatures, rich in colors, states of mood, he crosses all dimensions in space and time. His literary talent is above all doubt.
The Seven Liberal Arts and the West Door of Chartres Cathedral
ACCORDING to the medieval theologians the Virgin Mary, by virtue of the innate perfection of her soul, possessed all the wisdom of which man is capable. A direct reference to this wisdom is to be found in the allegories of the seven liberal arts which, just outside an inner circle of adoring angels, decorate the […]
Understanding and Believing
It is generally recognized that man is capable of believing without understanding; one is much less aware of the inverse possibility, that of understanding without believing, and it even appears as a contradiction, since faith does not seem to be incumbent except on those who do not understand. Yet hypocrisy is not only the dissimulation […]
Old Lithuanian Songs
LITHUANIAN is the oldest, that is, the most archaic in form, of all living Indo-European languages[1]. It still retains a complexity comparable to that of Sanskrit1 and classical Greek. Various historical and geographical reasons are given by scholars for this "lack of development" so called out of deference to progressism and evolutionism; but there can […]
The Qoranic Symbolism of Water
IN the Qoran the ideas of Mercy and water in particular rain are in a sense inseparable. With them must be included the idea of Revelation, tanzÄ«l, which means literally "a sending down." The Revelation and the rain are both "sent down" by the All-Merciful, and both are described throughout the Qoran as "mercy," and […]