/lit/ - Literature

>>23492906
“In a world increasingly rife with heresy and pseudo-religion, Guénon had to remind twentieth century man of the need for orthodoxy, which presupposes firstly a Divine Revelation and secondly a Tradition that has handed down with fidelity what Heaven has revealed. He thus restores to orthodoxy its true meaning, rectitude of opinion which compels the intelligent man not only to reject heresy but also to recognize the validity of faiths other than his own if they also are based on the same two principles, Revelation and Tradition.”
—Martin Lings, author of Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions

“If during the last century or so there has been even some slight revival of awareness in the Western world of what is meant by metaphysics and metaphysical tradition, the credit for it must go above all to Guénon. At a time when the confusion into which modern Western thought had fallen was such that it threatened to obliterate the few remaining traces of genuine spiritual knowledge from the minds and hearts of his contemporaries, Guénon, virtually single-handed, took it upon himself to reaffirm the values and principles which, he recognized, constitute the only sound basis for the living of a human life with dignity and purpose or for the formation of a civilization worthy of the name.”
—Philip Sherrard, author of Christianity: Lineaments of a Sacred Tradition

“Apart from his amazing flair for expounding pure metaphysical doctrine and his critical acuteness when dealing with the errors of the modern world, Guénon displayed a remarkable insight into things of a cosmological order. . . . He all along stressed the need, side by side with a theoretical grasp of any given doctrine, for its concrete—one can also say its ontological—realization failing which one cannot properly speak of knowledge.”
—Marco Pallis, author of A Buddhist Spectrum

“Guénon’s mission was two-fold: to reveal the metaphysical roots of the ‘crisis of the modern world’ and to explain the ideas behind the authentic and esoteric teachings that still [remain] alive.”
—Harry Oldmeadow, author of Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy

"René Guénon should certainly be considered a Master of our times. His contributions to the "world of Tradition", of symbols and of metaphysical teachings, are truly invaluable."
—Julius Evola, author of Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex.

Who is the author that is most like Guénon but who isn't a member of the Traditionalist school or even a writer on religion?

...

>*retroactively refutes all profane philosophy, psychoanalysis, atomism, orientalism and theosophy for all eternity and reveals the timeless suprahuman metaphysical truth as passed down by the primordial Tradition while providing more insightful cultural commentary than any 20th century author and influencing generations of metaphysicians and spiritual seekers all over the world*

HOOLLYYYY BAAAASSSSSEEEEEDDD!!!!!!!!

>>19304749
> What is the next step after reading Guenon and Evola?
reading Adi Shankara (pbuh)

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shankara/

start with his Upaniṣad commentaries

https://estudantedavedanta.net/Eight-Upanisads-Vol-1.pdf
https://estudantedavedanta.net/Eight-Upanisads-vol2.pdf

>>19137735
My favorite author is also René Guénon, thanks to /lit/ I read him and it woke me up from my former depressing physicalist worldview, when I couldn’t ignore all the contradictions in it any more.

>>14986820
He's a role model for me.... Pbuh.....
I look up to him for guidance in this reign of quantity..... I even destroyed my computer and switched to more ascetic practices and established a Guénon (pbuh)-like study in my house.....

>>14970015
being familiar with the works of the great master (pbuh)

>>14967018
>cyber
>buddhism
uggghhh, two things I hate!

>>14964573
>Where to start with Bergson?

Don't

>"We have said that pragmatism represents the final outcome of all the modern philosophy and marks the lowest stage in its decline; but outside the philosophical field there also exists, and has already existed for a long time, a diffused and unsystematized pragmatism which is to philosophical pragmatism what practical materialism is to philosophical materialism, and which merges into what people generally call “common sense.” This almost instinctive utilitarianism is inseparable, moreover, from the materialistic tendency: common sense consists in not venturing beyond the terrestrial horizon, as well as in not paying attention to anything devoid of an immediate practical interest; it is “common sense,” above all, that regards the world of the senses as alone being real and admits of no knowledge beyond what proceeds from the senses; and even this limited degree of knowledge is of value in its eyes only in so far as it allows of satisfying material needs and also sometimes because it feeds a certain kind of sentimentalism, since sentiment, as must be frankly admitted at the risk of shocking contemporary “moralism,” really is very closely related to matter. No room is left in all this for intelligence, except in so far as it may consent to be put to the service of practical ends, acting as a mere instrument subordinated to the requirements of the lowest or corporeal portion of the human individual, “a tool for making tools,” to quote a significant expression of Bergson’s: “pragmatism” in all its forms amounts to a complete indifference to truth."

>Destroyed philosophy
>Destroyed science
>Destroyed libtards
>Destroyed atheists
>Destroyed commies
>Destroyed secularism
>Destroyed psychology
>Destroyed marxism
>Destroyed psychoanalysis
>Destroyed materialism
>Destroyed buddhism
>Destroyed processism
Is he /ourguy/? Why isn't this genius more widely read?

>>14695699

It was narrated that Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out to the musalla (prayer place) on the day of Eid al-Adha or Eid al-Fitr. He passed by the women and said, ‘O women! Give charity, for I have seen that you form the majority of the people of Hell.’ They asked, ‘Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religious commitment than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.’ The women asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is deficient in our intelligence and religious commitment?’ He said, ‘Is not the testimony of two women equal to the testimony of one man?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Is it not true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her religious commitment.’”

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 304)

>>14632039
>Guénon was a brainle-
He was proficient at Greek, Latin, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Sanskrit, Hebraic, Arabic and Chinese, was trained in mathematics and was extremely well-read in both eastern and western philosophy
>Guénon was a stupid posing larpe-
He was initiated into both a Vietnamese Taoist Triad as well as the al-'Arabiyya Shadhiliyya Sufi order, furthermore in all his writings he stressed the need for personal and genuine participation in whatever Traditions one aspired to follow. His acquaintances both Egyptian and western observed that he scrupulously followed Islamic observances during his life in Egypt
>Guénon was a literal nobody, he was not influenti-
Among the many western philosophers, artists and authors who were influenced by him or who heaped praise on him include Carl Schmitt, Georges Bataille, Aleksander Dugin, Antonin Artaud, Olavo de Carvalho, André Breton, Mircea Eliade, Alain Danielou, Julius Evola, André Malraux, Albert Gleizes, René Daumal, Raymond Queneau, Paul Ackerman, Huston Smith, William Chittick, Steve Bannon, Harry Oldmeadow, James Cutsinger and Hossein Nasr. Furthermore as Nasr notes in his article 'The Influence of Rene Guenon in the Islamic World', Guénon is well-known and influential among the intelligentsia including traditional Islamic scholars in certain Islamic countries such in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia.
>Guénon just made a bunch of stupid and unjustified comparisons between religio-
To the contrary over the course of some twenty odd books he painstakingly and patiently elucidated the fundamental agreement between the metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Sufism, Hermeticism and Christian esoterism, work that Coomaraswamy built on and further confirmed

>>14560184

>We have said that pragmatism represents the final outcome of all the modern philosophy and marks the lowest stage in its decline; but outside the philosophical field there also exists, and has already existed for a long time, a diffused and unsystematized pragmatism which is to philosophical pragmatism what practical materialism is to philosophical materialism, and which merges into what people generally call “common sense.” This almost instinctive utilitarianism is inseparable, moreover, from the materialistic tendency: common sense consists in not venturing beyond the terrestrial horizon, as well as in not paying attention to anything devoid of an immediate practical interest; it is “common sense,” above all, that regards the world of the senses as alone being real and admits of no knowledge beyond what proceeds from the senses; and even this limited degree of knowledge is of value in its eyes only in so far as it allows of satisfying material needs and also sometimes because it feeds a certain kind of sentimentalism, since sentiment, as must be frankly admitted at the risk of shocking contemporary “moralism,” really is very closely related to matter. No room is left in all this for intelligence, except in so far as it may consent to be put to the service of practical ends, acting as a mere instrument subordinated to the requirements of the lowest or corporeal portion of the human individual, “a tool for making tools,” to quote a significant expression of Bergson’s: “pragmatism” in all its forms amounts to a complete indifference to truth.

I'm officially a NEET again, I'm thinking of starting with Rene Guenon. Suggestions?

>and a still greater change came with the spread of the Anglo-Saxon empiricism; moreover, the prestige of science in the eyes of the general public rests almost solely upon the practical results it makes attainable because, here again, it is a question of things that can be seen and touched. We have said that pragmatism represents the final outcome of all the modern philosophy and marks the lowest stage in its decline; but outside the philosophical field there also exists, and has already existed for a long time, a diffused and unsystematized pragmatism which is to philosophical pragmatism what practical materialism is to philosophical materialism, and which merges into what people generally call “common sense.”

>This almost instinctive utilitarianism is inseparable, moreover, from the materialistic tendency: common sense consists in not venturing beyond the terrestrial horizon, as well as in not paying attention to anything devoid of an immediate practical interest; it is “common sense,” above all, that regards the world of the senses as alone being real and admits of no knowledge beyond what proceeds from the senses; and even this limited degree of knowledge is of value in its eyes only in so far as it allows of satisfying material needs and also sometimes because it feeds a certain kind of sentimentalism, since sentiment, as must be frankly admitted at the risk of shocking contemporary “moralism,” really is very closely related to matter. No room is left in all this for intelligence, except in so far as it may consent to be put to the service of practical ends, acting as a mere instrument subordinated to the requirements of the lowest or corporeal portion of the human individual, “a tool for making tools,” to quote a significant expression of Bergson’s: “pragmatism” in all its forms amounts to a complete indifference to truth

“In a world increasingly rife with heresy and pseudo-religion, Guénon had to remind twentieth century man of the need for orthodoxy, which presupposes firstly a Divine Revelation and secondly a Tradition that has handed down with fidelity what Heaven has revealed. He thus restores to orthodoxy its true meaning, rectitude of opinion which compels the intelligent man not only to reject heresy but also to recognize the validity of faiths other than his own if they also are based on the same two principles, Revelation and Tradition.”
—Martin Lings, author of Ancient Beliefs and Modern
Superstitions

“If during the last century or so there has been even some slight revival of awareness in the Western world of what is meant by metaphysics and metaphysical tradition, the credit for it must go above all to Guénon. At a time when the confusion into which modern Western thought had fallen was such that it threatened to obliterate the few remaining traces of genuine spiritual knowledge from the minds and hearts of his contemporaries, Guénon, virtually single-handed, took it upon himself to reaffirm the values and principles which, he recognized, constitute the only sound basis for the living of a human life with dignity and purpose or for the formation of a civilization worthy of the name.”
—Philip Sherrard, author of Christianity: Lineaments of a
Sacred Tradition

“Apart from his amazing flair for expounding pure metaphysical doctrine and his critical acuteness when dealing with the errors of the modern world, Guénon displayed a remarkable insight into things of a cosmological order. . . . He all along stressed the need, side by side with a theoretical grasp of any given doctrine, for its concrete—one can also say its ontological—realization failing which one cannot properly speak of knowledge.”
—Marco Pallis, author of A Buddhist Spectrum

“Guénon’s mission was two-fold: to reveal the metaphysical roots of the ‘crisis of the modern world’ and to explain the ideas behind the authentic and esoteric teachings that still [remain] alive.”
—Harry Oldmeadow, author of Traditionalism: Religion in the Light of the Perennial Philosophy

>>13795388
>mfw taking acid and analyzing the traditional metaphysics encoded in the Star Wars original trilogy

Whitehead was retroactively refuted by Parmenides and Guenon I'm afraid

Why did Guenon pick Advaita Vedanta as the school that best expressed the perennial truth? Why didn't he for example say that the perennial tradition and religious esoterism really lead to Christianity, Taoism or Buddhism for instance?

>>13434643
>The shadows grew deep as the sun set over the warm Cairo market, the smell of hookah smoke, spices and camel dung wafting through the palm trees and fires roasting animals over the ponds and fields into the windows of incense-scented humble dwellings furnished with luxurious carpets and plants. Contortionists, soldiers, catamites, madmen, beggars, saints, students, slaves, dancers, assassins and bureaucrats teemed throughout the evening tinged with electric air that hummed with cicadas. Rene Guénon exhaled a cloud of opium smoke and gazed across the room at his ever-expanding collection of Sanskrit literature. His young wife entered into the room through the bead doorway.

>She dropped her robe to reveal intricate henna tattoos covering her lithe nude body. She walked over to the low couch he was laying on and straddled him. Rene gradually emerged out of nididhyāsana back down to the baseline state of constant samadhi that he had been in for the past 8 years. It was time for the non-volitional and divine līlā of the Supreme Being to dance forth in ecstatic bliss. Sakti sought union with her dear Shiva. She masterbated him as he sucked on her perky tits. Guenon lay back and Sakti mounted her Lord. Bliss shined like sunlight from the One illuminating them both. Adam and Even were one in Paradise again, the mutual embodiment of al-Insān al-Kāmil and all his wives. The primordial state revealed itself as having existed all along. Rene become the All. Being and becoming simultaneously disappeared and the perfect bliss entered into itself. God shone forth in eternal plenitude, hypererotic sexual union experienced as tranquil observer. Brass windchimes singing an enchanting harmony in the breeze.

>Rene began to feel energy rising through his chakras, he immediately concentrated his third eye and clenched the subtle nerve running from the tip of the penis to the bottom of the spine. His time spent training in the Parisian suberbs with master Ho Shi-Quan had paid off. He reversed ejaculated into his chakras, Qi energy poured fourth into his body. Rene and his wife both went into a ten minute long trance accompanied by a perpetual dry orgasm. Purusha melded into Prakriti, both giving way to the Tao. Rene entered into a state of fanāʾ; the la petite mort a ritual reenactment of Prajapati's atmayajñá. The evening call to prayer was calmly sounded from by a muezzin from the minaret of a nearby mosque. The stars twinkled over the cold night as cheetahs chased hares over grassy dunes overlooking the nile, men pissing on fires, reading texts by candlelight. Cotton and silk, anise, heavy eyeliner, garlic breath hidden with rose water, tall tales, secret meetings of initiations and schemes.

>>13280554
>For a person who hears the call to Tradition and perceives the corrupting influences of the modern world assaulting him from every conceivable angle, while being cut off from every possibility of being initiated into an authentic
Not him, but all this stuff is pointless bullshitting about hypotheticals though. There are literally tens of thousands of pages of the highest level metaphysics from Vedanta, Tantra and Sufism all translated in English. If you are just not a brainlet you can like an auto-didact read through all their shit (which they wrote so people like you could understand their teachings) and still reach an incredibly high level of understanding and spiritual attainment. Despite never being initiated as a Hindu, studying Vedanta fundamentally changed Guenon and forever shaped all the rest of his thought. And that's not even going if you learned the language and could read all the primary shit plus the more obscure stuff that's not translated.

It's been funny to watch so many people argue about Guénon and let yourselves get into so many arguments about him without really understanding him. Guénon's works are largely just an indirect commentary on the works of Ibn Arabi and Adi Shankara, in a similar way to how Evola is largely just an indirect commentary on and a response to Guénon. You'll never fully understand what exactly Guénon means and why he writes all the stuff that he does unless you read at least few thousand pages of writing from both of these thinkers. It seems like the the vast majority of people who read Guénon don't so this which IMO is why so many people seem to become befuddled or angry after reading Guénon's writings and why there are so many ad hominem arguments thrown at him.

I laugh every time I see people write stuff like "w-well uh he never fully explained intellectual intuition" or "he never solidly proved his ideas using logic according to my degenerated and emasculated empiricism"; that's besides the point!, Guénon was not writing to convince people who didn't agree with him, he couldn't care less about those people. His writing is aimed at fellow autodidacts who already read a huge amount of esoteric/metaphysics and who will actually read much the eastern thinkers he references. When you read Ibn Arabi and Shankara they literally take you by the hand and walk you through all the stages of understanding of all the stuff that Guénon explains and mentions in passing; it immediately becomes apparent once you read enough of them why exactly Guénon wrote what he did, many of the ideas that people consider to be his unique idea actually already appear in the works of these two thinkers where they are explained in even more depth than Guénon's treatment of them. I see many people complain or have criticisms of Guénon that he never demonstrates this eastern 'divine intellect' etc or 'metaphysical realization', that's because it's only something that very bright and motivated people can understand if they have the willpower and power of comprehension required to read through large amounts of both Ibn Arabi and Shankara; two sages who evade comprehension by the intellectually-dogmatic and dull-minded!

Can /lit/ recommend me any authors who are also able to masterfully skewer and lampoon the Anglos like Guénon does? I greatly enjoyed encountering that in his works, it was very refreshing and aligned with stuff that I've thought about all my life but never really expressed. It made me realize that he probably was just one in a long line of French writers who have done so, but being educated in an Anglo country naturally I'd never have been told about them in school. Does anyone have any authors they know of who also do this well? Also which books by them