/lit/ - Literature

>>22347219
>Kashmir shaivism appears to be basically dead or inaccessible outside of new-age huckters
I'm not specifically a Kashmir Shaivist, I just think the tantric elements are extremely sovlfvl.
>most/many south-Indian Shaivists from the later medieval era adopted most of the principles of Advaita into their system
Their non-dualism is not the same as that of Advaita, and it was Sri Vasugupta who introduced monistic influence into the school.
>Advaita is traditionally only meant for ascetic monks
There are also Shaivist ascetics, and Shaivism is far more relevant than Advaita today outside the narrow field of traditionalists.
>your arguments for that being true are still more unserious and on less strong ground all the same.
You keep repeating this dogmatic assertion despite me having already challenged it. So this is what a seething Advaitin is like...
>stupid/uninformed opinions
COPE

>>12103457
If by 'books' you mean actual Hindu texts/scriptures, then yes. The Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita are two major texts definitely worth reading and I would say are essential to understanding Hinduism. Radnakrishnan's and Nikhilanda's translations are good. If you want something with more of a Homer-like feel (with occasionally mysticism/philosophy contained within it) than read one of the better translations of the Mahabharata. If you want something that mostly mysticism/philosophy then read Vedantic and Tantric texts. Here are some good ones you can read online, a Vedantic text called the Ashtavakra Gita and the Tantric Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta.

https://realization.org/p/ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita/richards.ashtavakra-gita.html

https://archive.org/details/AphorismsOfSivaTheSivaSutrasWithBhaskaraSCommentary

>>11278298
>What is your opinion on the total Absolute to be Knowledge and man's relationship to that knowledge via intellectual intuition in Guenon's work?

I'm assuming that there was a typo where you wrote 'the total absolute to be knowledge' and that you meant to ask about the relationship between the Absolute, the knowledge thereof and how this relates to intellectual intuition as written about in Guenon's works?

A helpful tip for understanding Guenon is that almost all of his ideas can be understood of in the frame of Advaita. That was one of the very first in-depth encounters with eastern thought he had and it greatly influenced all of his later thought. His is unequivocal in his works that Advaita is one of the purest expressions of metaphysics that there is and that the various traditions teach the same truth through different forms of expression either more or less esoterically. This doesn't mean that every tiny little aspect of Advaita is the absolute 100% truth but that generally Advaita is the center which is reflected in all doctrines (as an example he says the creator-architect aspect of the Abrahamic gods is just those religions way of expressing universal manifestation which is but one aspect of Brahman).

He often substitutes his own terms in his books for specific terms found in various traditions (like metaphysics, intellectual intuition and so on). This allows him to speak at the same time about the same concept as it's considered in Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism etc. without limiting himself to any one doctrine.

To get back to your question, knowledge of the Absolute is complete knowledge of the absolute truth of non-duality, which is the highest metaphysical reality where (as Guenon loves to note in his books) there is no distinction between subject and object, between knowing and being, where knowledge of Brahman means one instantly sees oneself and everything as Brahman, where illusionary and ignorant perceptions such as the individual self are obliterated. This is noted in the text posted here in this thread in this passage here >>11277908

>When one knows that duality is illusory appearance, there is realisation of Brahman the absolute. When one knows 'This is not I', the unreality of the egosense is realised. From this arises true dispassion. 'I am verily Brahman'— when this truth is realised the awareness of the truth arises in one, and all things are then merged in that awareness.

The same point is made throughout the Upanishads as well as countless other Hindu texts, not to mention its made in more or less words in the texts of various other traditions. With regards to intellectual intuition this is roughly an approximation what is called Nous by the Greeks and Jnana by the Hindus, the highest and most direct form of understanding and intelligence; equivalent to seeing something and immediately knowing it to be true. Logic is only a secondary application of this as it involves discursive thoughts about a subject.

>>11081349
What a brainlet post. First off Traditionalism is not modern at all, but repeats and is predicated upon virtually all of the same points made by Adi Shankara in the 8th century in addition to various early Chinese and Islamic thinkers.

>divine duty to erase himself and return to god or Oneness
It's actually more like ignorance disappearing and what always was revealing itself for what it always was and is.

>Knowledge, what is to be known, and the knower — these three do not exist in reality. I am the spotless reality in which they appear because of ignorance. 2.15
>Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realisation that all this that we see is unreal, and that I am the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness. 2.16
>I am pure awareness though through ignorance I have imagined myself to have additional attributes. By continually reflecting like this, my dwelling place is in the Unimagined. 2.17

>can never truly know with the faculties given to him as a human being
spoken like a truly ignorant person

>at heart it is veiled nihilism
A key sign of people who fundamentally misunderstand eastern doctrines is that they try to paint Buddhism and sometimes Vedanta as nihilistic when it is anything but; this indicates that they are bound by attachment to the illusionary and contingent and that they experience fear at the thought of losing it and death. True knowledge is boundless, limitless bliss, free from any conditions or bondage.

>fail to see the importance of this world and our duty to our people and nations
The traditional cultures all take this much more importantly than the west, which can be proved among other methods simply by looking at the state of the modern west. The various traditions all contain extensive treatises on how to properly govern, guide and protect a people, nation, kingdom etc. See the works of Confucius, the Laws of Manu, the many dozens of other ancient Sanskrit works on governing, jurisprudence etc. All things are considered in their proper place and according to their Dharma.

Lastly Corbin took a huge interest in Sufism which largely teaches the same metaphysics as Vedanta, Daoism and other traditions so it's silly for that guy to mention him as a foil to Guenon (who became a Sufi btw).

>>11021981

Yes, he did, most of his work involved attempting to figure out whether alchemy/mysticism/eastern thought/dreams etc had something to do with or were caused by inner psychological phenomena like the ego or unconsciousness.

Even when he verged into the territory of accepting in principal the possibility that there could be some exterior principal at work like when he discusses synchronicity it's in an attitude of disinterested scientific speculation.

He never got closer to understanding that there are (or is a) transcendent metaphysical truths that are taught in some traditions, let alone commenting on or elucidating them for his readers.