The Only Tradition (Western Esoteric Traditions)

Rating:
Summary: Introduction to the Eternal
Review: I am truly glad that I was introduced this marvelous book. This is because my soul has long resonated to its subject- the Philosophia Perennis, or the Perennial Philosophy. Some would say the primary subject of the book is really the lives of the two great metaphysicians and promulgators of the Tradition in the first half of the twentieth century, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Rene Guenon. While it does deal with the lives and work of these giants, really, they were "merely" two of the modern vessels for this eternal Tradition. They themselves assigned the real importance of their work to the Tradition and downplayed any original contributions on their own part. Like all of us whose souls resonate to the vertical path of the Cross, of the World Tree or Axis Mundi, they primarily "recollected" these teachings in the Platonic or Gnostic sense. Coomaraswamy and Guenon were supremely aware of the true source of their inspiration.

I'm sure there are many modern scholars and materialists that will try to read to this book only to come away with absolutely no understanding of it. That is because all such teachings are presented for those with the "ears to hear." If you are ready, then you will intuitively understand what is meant by such terms as quantity and quality, indeed, you've probably known it for many years. Indeed, if you understand what is being discussed here you will no doubt understand the source works with minimal interpretation (the Gitas, Upanishads, the Tao te Ching, the Hermetica, the Gnostic Scriptures, etc.) You will also recognize false and dead academic interpretations of no real understanding.... To the quantitative, empirical, analytical, statistical-minded academics out there this will all be dismissed as self-referencing, hermeneutical, irrationality. However, you will know better in your heart of hearts, for you understand mystical insight and direct intuitive recognition of the underlying values, meanings, and perceptions of things. You know the difference between rational and suprarational understanding. You are steadily ascending the vertical axis of the Cross. You are becoming, through "recollection", the sage and teacher that you could never find among the sterile, dead ashes of the modern world of scientism.

I personally found it enlightening that both Coomaraswamy and Guenon were initially highly accomplished in the sciences and mathematics. You see, they didn't reject the material world (the horizontal arm of the Cross), they just recognized that it was the lowest and most trivial part of Creation and instead chose to ascend the vertical arm of the Cross, towards man's last end, s'eternar....

Rating:
Summary: Unity of Tradition
Review: is founded on the first principle of truth as espoused by the various religious and spiritual and cultural practices prior to their disintegration with the advent of modernity and the reign of quantity.

And what is the first principle of truth?
In a nutshell it is this: unity of duality and duality of unity.
Sounds simple, and it is. But all truths are simple, and the simplest things are often the hardest to understand and put into practice.

I shall skip the synopsis since it has been so well written by other reviewers (except for one illiterate cynic in France).
I shall only add that this book was originally written as the author's phd thesis under the late Mircea Eliade's tutelage at the University of Chicago, and submitted in 1981. This book is an updated and modified version of the same.

Written with clarity and balance, this is an excellent introduction to the subject of Tradition and Traditional thought as defined largely by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy -- each laying emphasis on different aspects of the commonly shared vision.
Both Guenon and Coomaraswamy saw unity in all the civilizations of the world prior to the phenomenon of the modern West. They see no split between so-called East and West but between modern and pre-modern West. And the 'Modern West' must be understood to mean all nations, wherever they are, that now operate according to the ideology of material positivism as shaped by the economy, politics, and value systems inherent within scientism (strictly knobs and dials) and industrialization.

The purpose of this book, as the author states, is to guide the reader to do further research by reading the original texts by Guenon and Coomaraswamy and others, including, Fritjof Schuon, Mme. Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, et al: Those who spoke out against modernity's narrow identification of Reason with calculational rationality only; and its misguided use against Reason, the seat of intellectual intuition and the creative engine of spiritual and artistic propulsion.

This book gives one the impression that the author thinks dimly of modernity as a whole. But he exaggerates no facts of our time in order to paint an unduly pessimistic picture: it is what we read about every day.

Acting as a messenger for Guenon, Coomaraswamy and the Tradition as a whole, the author's message is that we must re-examine Tradition within the emerging global perspective.

His message is one that the Dalai Lama has also expressed: that we move beyond the program of life as defined by "religion" and find a way to live more spiritually as truly 'human' beings.

As much as I would agree with the author, poor sales of this book seems to suggest that he is hoping against the tide.
But then, is that not the essence of hope: lighting a candle in the wind?

Rating:
Summary: The Only Tradition: Against the Modern World.
Review: _The Only Tradition_ provides an answer to the crisis of modernity through the <>, the Tradition as expressed in the writings of Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy. Against a modern world lacking in values, meaning, and a traditional framework and presenting immanent problems of overpopulation, relativism, nuclear disaster, pollution, and the destruction of traditional cultures, is presented the perspective of the primordial tradition. The author explains that there is only a single Tradition that underlies the traditional cultures which have existed throughout history. As such, the work provides a basic outline and history of the ideas of Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy (as well as those of other expositors of the tradition such as Frithjof Schuon and Seyyed Hossein Nasr). The author traces these ideas from the personal biographies of both Guenon and Coomaraswamy to the various organizations which grew up in France, England, North America, and Iran based upon the writings of these individuals. (The author notes however that tradition is universal in application and therefore not localized to a particular point in time and space.) The book then outlines the "first principles" upon which the Tradition is founded, distinguishing the various aspects of the <>. A brief synopsis of theosophy (<>) and it's modern manifestation in the Theosophical Society of H. P. Blavatsky is given. An examination distinguishing between the two distinct forms of traditional culture (primitive and developed) is set forth. In particular, the traditional culture of medieval Christendom is chosen as an example, and the idea of "fusion" - the totalization of traditional principles throughout the culture - is explained. For the expositor of Tradition, the traditional culture may appear to be utopian in nature. However, the author explains that various aberrations within such cultures demolish this utopian quality. The author next turns to modernity and it's vicissitudes. The "reign of quantity" and the denegration of "quality" as explained by Guenon is shown to be the persistant condition of a modernity based on a crude scientism and positivism. As an answer to this emptiness of meaning, the author proposes a global planetary return to tradition, along with the arrival of a new planetary consciousness.