World Wisdom – serie

This anthology of Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy promotes a new and fresh view of what Hellenic philosophy is and what kind of wisdom it offers us. The book demonstrates through excerpts from the great Pythagorean and Platonic writers that to these thinkers philosophy is a way of life and a means of spiritual realisation-not the dry rationalistic mental exercise philosophy has become in the modern world. The Golden Chain of the title refers to the ancient belief that such philosophy transmits a heritage of unitive knowledge through a succession of enlightened teachers and students. The editor Algis Uzdavinys is an author translator and scholar of remarkable scope who uses his scholarship and his own deep knowledge of the philosophia perennis to illustrate for us the timeless wisdom of these writings. The foreword is by John Finamore.

THE UNDERLYING RELIGION is an anthology of 25 essays by 14 of the leading exponents of the "Perennialist" or "Traditionalist" school of comparative religious thought, associated with René Guénon, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon. This school is well known for its espousal of the "transcendent unity of religions" the idea that religions are different paths leading to the same summit. Focusing its selection on the most accessible of the Perennialist writings and structured in such a way as to allow for the easiest possible comprehension, Martin Lings was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books at the British Museum. He is the author of the widely known and admired book Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources and was himself one of the most prominent and active Perennialist authors of the 20th century. Dr. Lings died in May, 2005. Clinton Minnaar is a professional editor in the field of religious studies. Originally from South Africa, he currently lives with his wife in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The conference, convened by the traditionalist journal , Sacred Web featured presentations from many of the world's leading traditionalists/perennialists such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Huston Smith, Jean-Louis Michon, James S. Cutsinger, Reza Shah-Kazemi, as well as another generation of thinkers and writers.Each topic during the two days demonstrated the need to preserve traditional spiritual thought and values and their critical relevance to numerous areas of modern human thought and activity. The topics ranged from the most interior issues of one's spiritual life, to the educating of children, to the pernicious effects of central modernist theories, to reconciling how different faiths view scriptural stories, to the traditional view of art as opposed to the modern and much, much more. The five hour, forty-five minutes of video highlights gives some presentations almost in their entirety, while others are more abbreviated. Even so, the two-disc set gives an excellent introduction to the central ideas of the Perennialist/Traditionalist school of thought, its most important figures, and what it can offer to a world lost in its own intellectual and material refuse. The set would be a very good learning tool for university classrooms and in libraries, which want to include the full history of contemporary even if not "modern" thought.

René Guénon (1886-1951) was the founder of the Perennialist/Traditionalist school of comparative religious thought well-known for its espousal of the "transcendent unity of religions". In a time of unquestioning belief in the dogmas of progress and evolution, Guénon issued a devastating critique of the modern world. A pioneering philosopher, he, also, provided the intellectual keys for a reclamation of the West's spiritual riches through an exposition of the Eastern metaphysical doctrines. His writings range over a vast terrain - Vedanta, the Chinese tradition, Christianity, Sufism, the Kabbalah, world mythology, symbolism and alchemy.

Drawing parallels with other traditions, Uzdavinys emphasizes that Plotinus' philosophy was not a purely mental or rational exercise, but a complete way of life incorporating the spiritual virtues. Plotinus is widely regarded as the founder of the school of Neo-Platonism and this book provides an introduction to his teachings and an informative commentary on the Enneads. Also included is a commentary by Plotinus' leading disciple, Porphyry (c. 233-305 A.D.), on an enigmatic passage from Homer's epic, the Odyssey.Plotinus was born at Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt in 204 CE, and died at Campania in 270 CE. In the twenty-eighth year of his life he applied himself to philosophy, and attended the lectures of the most celebrated men of that time in Alexandria. In 244 he went to Rome and won numerous adherents to his teaching, among them the Emperor Gallienus and his wife Salonina. He taught in Rome until about 268, retiring then to the country estate of a disciple in Campania. Plotinus did not reduce his doctrine to writing until toward the close of his life, and then did not publish it. His pupil Porphyry, arranged the fifty-four treatises of Plotinus in six Enneades, placing them in logical order from the simplest to the most abstruse, as well as chronological sequence.

LIVING IN TWO WORLDS is Charles Eastman's (Ohiyesa) compelling story of embracing a life of traditional cultural ideals of his nomadic ancestors while living in the modern industrialised world. Eastman (1858-1939) was the first and greatest of the Native American authors and the most widely celebrated spokesman of all Native Americans during the first decades of the twentieth century. His life's story gained prominence when the 2007 HBO film entitled "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" used Eastman, played by Adam Beach, as its leading hero. Born in a buffalo-hide tipi in 1858, Eastman was raised as a traditional Sioux Indian as a youth, but was catapulted into the dominant white society of his time, becoming a medical doctor who cared for wounded Indians after the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. He personally knew paragons of his race that included Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph and, also, became a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for the Sioux tribe. This book includes selections from five of Eastman's most important books edited by award-winning author, Michael Fitzgerald. Nine interviews with contemporary Native leaders from diverse tribes bring Eastman's narrative up to our current day. Filled with first-hand accounts, personal stories, interviews, timelines, maps and over 275 stunning vintage photographs and paintings, this beautifully illustrated book presents a vivid account of the American Indian experience during the last four centuries.