Manifesto
http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/
WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them. We think that they are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them. We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.
We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of a person’s countenance. Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.
They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save on psychoanalysis bills. And so we say to all who’ll listen: Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!
“I love the clouds… the clouds that pass…up there… up there… the wonderful clouds!”[The Stranger, Charles Baudelaire]
Monday, 26 March 2007
Leonard Cohen
LEONARD COHEN LYRICS"Hallelujah"
Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift, The baffled king composing Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujahHallelujahHallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you To a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair, And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah, Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain, I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light In every word. It doesn't matter which you heard, The holy or the broken Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch. I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though It all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah, Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah
Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift, The baffled king composing Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujahHallelujahHallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you To a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair, And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah, Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain, I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light In every word. It doesn't matter which you heard, The holy or the broken Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch. I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though It all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah, Hallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah, HallelujahHallelujah
Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul-Marie Verlaine (French IPA: [vɛʀˈlɛn]) (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896) is considered one of the greatest French poets of the "fin de siècle".
Born in Metz, he was educated at a lycée in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Charles Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published collection, Poèmes saturniens (1867), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.
Verlaine's private life spills over into his work, beginning with his love for Mathilde Mauté, a disciple of Louise Michel. Mauté became Verlaine's wife. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale, turning Communard on March 18, 1871. He became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. He escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, and went into hiding at Pas-de-Calais.
Verlaine returned to Paris in August 1871. In September he received the first letter from the poet Arthur Rimbaud. By 1872 he had lost interest in Mathilde and effectively abandoned her and their son, preferring the company of his new lover. Rimbaud's and Verlaine's stormy love affair took them to London in 1872, and in July 1873 he shot Rimbaud in a drunken, jealous rage, wounding him, but not mortally. As an indirect result of this incident, he was arrested and imprisoned at Mons, where he underwent a conversion to Catholicism, which again influenced his work (and earned him the vicious mockery of the inconstant Rimbaud.)
Romances sans paroles was the poetic outcome of this period.
Following his release from prison, Verlaine travelled to England, where he worked for some years as a teacher and produced another successful collection, Sagesse. He returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English at a school in Rethel, became infatuated with one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois, who inspired Verlaine to write further poems. Verlaine was devastated when the boy died of typhus.
Verlaine's last years witnessed a descent into drug-addiction, alcoholism, and poverty. Yet his poetry was admired and recognized as ground-breaking, and served as a source of inspiration to famous composers, such as Gabriel Fauré, who set many of his poems to music, including La bonne chanson, and Claude Debussy, who turned the entire Fêtes galantes into a classic mélodie album.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul-Marie Verlaine (French IPA: [vɛʀˈlɛn]) (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896) is considered one of the greatest French poets of the "fin de siècle".
Born in Metz, he was educated at a lycée in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an early age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader, Charles Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine's first published collection, Poèmes saturniens (1867), though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality.
Verlaine's private life spills over into his work, beginning with his love for Mathilde Mauté, a disciple of Louise Michel. Mauté became Verlaine's wife. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale, turning Communard on March 18, 1871. He became head of the press bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. He escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, and went into hiding at Pas-de-Calais.
Verlaine returned to Paris in August 1871. In September he received the first letter from the poet Arthur Rimbaud. By 1872 he had lost interest in Mathilde and effectively abandoned her and their son, preferring the company of his new lover. Rimbaud's and Verlaine's stormy love affair took them to London in 1872, and in July 1873 he shot Rimbaud in a drunken, jealous rage, wounding him, but not mortally. As an indirect result of this incident, he was arrested and imprisoned at Mons, where he underwent a conversion to Catholicism, which again influenced his work (and earned him the vicious mockery of the inconstant Rimbaud.)
Romances sans paroles was the poetic outcome of this period.
Following his release from prison, Verlaine travelled to England, where he worked for some years as a teacher and produced another successful collection, Sagesse. He returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English at a school in Rethel, became infatuated with one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois, who inspired Verlaine to write further poems. Verlaine was devastated when the boy died of typhus.
Verlaine's last years witnessed a descent into drug-addiction, alcoholism, and poverty. Yet his poetry was admired and recognized as ground-breaking, and served as a source of inspiration to famous composers, such as Gabriel Fauré, who set many of his poems to music, including La bonne chanson, and Claude Debussy, who turned the entire Fêtes galantes into a classic mélodie album.
But Not Tonight
http://www.myspace.com/spleencompilation A compilation inspired by unfulfilled love, death and the emotional hardships of the human condition.
Includes previously unreleased track by Nikos Veliotis "But Not Tonight" (a Depeche Mode cover) http://myspace.com/nikosveliotis
The roses were so very red, and the ivy so intensely black. My love, you have only to turn your head and all my hopelessness floods back! The vault of the sky was so deeply blue, the sea so green and the air so mild. I fear and hope to win from you a curse that I might be defiled. Of the gloss upon the holly leaf, and the sunlit bush I can make no more, through all my far-flung fields of grief, your memory has passed before.
Paul Verlaine, “Spleen” from Romances sans paroles (1874)
Includes previously unreleased track by Nikos Veliotis "But Not Tonight" (a Depeche Mode cover) http://myspace.com/nikosveliotis
The roses were so very red, and the ivy so intensely black. My love, you have only to turn your head and all my hopelessness floods back! The vault of the sky was so deeply blue, the sea so green and the air so mild. I fear and hope to win from you a curse that I might be defiled. Of the gloss upon the holly leaf, and the sunlit bush I can make no more, through all my far-flung fields of grief, your memory has passed before.
Paul Verlaine, “Spleen” from Romances sans paroles (1874)
The Traditionalist School
Wikipedia
The Traditionalist School of thought (not to be confused with Traditionalist Catholicism, and also known as perennialism, the perennial philosophy, or Sophia Perennis), attained its current form with the French metaphysician René Guénon, although its precepts are considered by adherents to be timeless and to be found in all authentic traditions. The term Philosophia Perennis goes back to the Renaissance, while the ancient Hindu expression Sanatana Dharma - Eternal Truth - has much the same signification.
The other founding figures of the Traditionalist School were the German-Swiss philosopher Frithjof Schuon and the Ceylonese scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy. To these were added over time such figures as Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
[edit] Tradition and religious pluralism
Rejecting the idea of progress and the enlightenment paradigm, Perennialist authors describe modern civilization as a pseudo and decadent civilization, which manifests the lowest possibilities of the Kali Yuga (the Dark Age of the Hindu cosmology). To the “modern error,” the Perennialists oppose an everlasting wisdom of divine origin, “a Primordial Tradition”, transmitted from the very origin of humanity and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion. Perennialists have a very specific definition of “Tradition.” Tradition implies the idea of a transmission (tradere), but for Guénon and his followers, tradition does not have a human origin and may be considered as principles revealed from Heaven and binding man to his divine origin. Beyond the diversity of religious forms, they discern a single Tradition (with a capital letter), what Schuon called a “transcendent unity”. They claim that the historically separated traditions share not only the same divine origin but are based on the same metaphysical principles, sometimes called philosophia perennis.
So far as can be discovered, the term “philosophia perennis” is modern, first appearing in the Renaissance. Though the term “philosophia perennis” is widely associated with the philosopher Leibniz who himself owes it to the sixteenth century theologian Augustinus Steuchius. But the ideal of such a philosophy is much older and one could easily recognize it in the Golden Chain (seira) of Neoplatonism, in the Patristic Lex primordialis, in the Islamic Din al- Fitra or even in the Hindu Sanathana Dharma.
[edit] The rediscovery of the Sophia Perennis
The French author, René Guénon (1886-1951) was in a certain sense a pioneer in the rediscovery of this Philosophia Perennis or better Sophia Perennis in the 20th century. His view largely shared with later Perennialist authorities, is that Semitic religions have an exoteric/esoteric structure. Exoterism, the outward dimension of religion, is constituted by religious rites and a moral but also a dogmatic theology. The exoteric point of view is characterized by its “sentimentalist”, rather than purely intellectual nature and remains fairly limited. Based on the doctrine of creation and the subsequent duality between God and creation, exoterism does not offer means to transcend the limitations of the human state. The goal is only religious salvation that Guénon defines as a perpetual state of beatitude in a celestial paradise. In the Traditionalist view, esoterism is more than the complement of exoterism, the spirit as opposed to the letter, the kernel with respect to the shell. Esoterism has at least de jure, a total autonomy with respect to religion for its innermost substance is the Primordial Tradition itself. Based on pure metaphysics -by which Guénon means a supra-rational knowledge of the Divine, a gnosis, and not a rationalist system or theological dogma- its goal is the realization of the superior states of being and finally the union between the individual self and the Principle. Guénon calls this union “the Supreme Identity”.
By Principle, Guénon and Schuon means more than the personal God of exoteric theology: the suprapersonal Essence, the Beyond-Being, the Absolute both totally transcendent and immanent to the manifestation. In their view the innermost essence of the individual being is non-different from the Absolute itself. Guénon refers here to the Vedantic concepts of Brahman (Principle), Atma (Self) and Moksa (Deliverance). This reference is not accidental or circumstantial. For Guénon, the Hindu Sanathana Dharma represents in fact “the more direct heritage of the Primordial Tradition”. More generally, the great traditions of Asia (Advaita Vedanta, Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism) play a paradigmatic function in his writings. He considers them as the more rigorous expression of pure metaphysics, this supra-formal and universal wisdom being nevertheless in itself neither eastern nor western.
Contrary to the Semitic religions, those Asian religions don’t have an esoterism/exoterism structure which has emerged only later in the historical cycle, at a time of growing spiritual decadence, where the vast majority of the people were no longer “qualified” to understand metaphysical truths and transcendent possibilities of the human state.
[edit] The criticism of modernity
For Guénon, the author of the Crisis of the Modern World, the end of this descending process is modernity itself, which manifests the lowest possibilities of the Kali Yuga. Guénon also called our age the Reign of the Quantity, because man and the cosmos are more and more determined, ontologically speaking, by matter. The tragedy of the Western world since the Renaissance is, in his view, that it has lost almost any contact with the Sophia Perennis and the Sacred. Consequently, in the Western context, it is virtually impossible for a spiritual seeker to receive a valid initiation and to follow an esoteric path.
It is important to mention here that although Guénon has influenced a figure such as Julius Evola, none of the main traditionalist authors have shared Evola's political views. As a matter of fact, his writings are commonly seen in most traditionalist circles as an anti-traditional deviation, based on an inversion of the hierarchy between contemplation and action. Traditionalists authors were rather apolitical, although conservatively-inclined, avoiding any political activity.
[edit] The initiatory path
Although, he has pleaded in his first books for a restoration of traditional “intellectualité” in the West on the basis of Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, it is clear that Guénon, very early on, gave up the idea of a spiritual resurrection of the West on a purely Christian basis. Having denounced the lure of Theosophism and neo-occultism, two influential movements that were flourishing in his lifetime, Guénon was initiated in 1912 in the Shadhili order and moved to Cairo in 1930 where he spent the rest of his life as a Sufi Muslim. To his many corresponds, he clearly designated Sufism as the more accessible form of traditional initiation for Westerns eager to find what does not exist any more in the West: an initiatory path of knowledge (Jnana or Gnosis), comparable to Advaita.
As a matter of fact, although Ananda Coomaraswamy was an Hindu, many followers of Guénon such as Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings, Titus Burckhardt have been initiated into Sufism. Others remain Christians such as the religious philosopher Jean Borella. Marco Pallis was a Buddhist. The most influential representatives of this school in Northern Europe are all Muslim converts: Kurt Almqvist, Tage Lindbom and Ashk Dahlén.
[edit] Academic influence
It could be argued that Traditionalism has a strong, although discrete impact in the field of Comparative Religion and particularly on the young Mircea Eliade, although he was not himself a member of this school. Contemporary scholars such as Huston Smith, William Chittick, Harry Oldmeadow, James Cutsinger and Seyyed Hossein Nasr have advocated Perennialism as an alternative to secularist approach to religious phenomena.
The Traditionalist School of thought (not to be confused with Traditionalist Catholicism, and also known as perennialism, the perennial philosophy, or Sophia Perennis), attained its current form with the French metaphysician René Guénon, although its precepts are considered by adherents to be timeless and to be found in all authentic traditions. The term Philosophia Perennis goes back to the Renaissance, while the ancient Hindu expression Sanatana Dharma - Eternal Truth - has much the same signification.
The other founding figures of the Traditionalist School were the German-Swiss philosopher Frithjof Schuon and the Ceylonese scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy. To these were added over time such figures as Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
[edit] Tradition and religious pluralism
Rejecting the idea of progress and the enlightenment paradigm, Perennialist authors describe modern civilization as a pseudo and decadent civilization, which manifests the lowest possibilities of the Kali Yuga (the Dark Age of the Hindu cosmology). To the “modern error,” the Perennialists oppose an everlasting wisdom of divine origin, “a Primordial Tradition”, transmitted from the very origin of humanity and partially restored by each genuine founder of a new religion. Perennialists have a very specific definition of “Tradition.” Tradition implies the idea of a transmission (tradere), but for Guénon and his followers, tradition does not have a human origin and may be considered as principles revealed from Heaven and binding man to his divine origin. Beyond the diversity of religious forms, they discern a single Tradition (with a capital letter), what Schuon called a “transcendent unity”. They claim that the historically separated traditions share not only the same divine origin but are based on the same metaphysical principles, sometimes called philosophia perennis.
So far as can be discovered, the term “philosophia perennis” is modern, first appearing in the Renaissance. Though the term “philosophia perennis” is widely associated with the philosopher Leibniz who himself owes it to the sixteenth century theologian Augustinus Steuchius. But the ideal of such a philosophy is much older and one could easily recognize it in the Golden Chain (seira) of Neoplatonism, in the Patristic Lex primordialis, in the Islamic Din al- Fitra or even in the Hindu Sanathana Dharma.
[edit] The rediscovery of the Sophia Perennis
The French author, René Guénon (1886-1951) was in a certain sense a pioneer in the rediscovery of this Philosophia Perennis or better Sophia Perennis in the 20th century. His view largely shared with later Perennialist authorities, is that Semitic religions have an exoteric/esoteric structure. Exoterism, the outward dimension of religion, is constituted by religious rites and a moral but also a dogmatic theology. The exoteric point of view is characterized by its “sentimentalist”, rather than purely intellectual nature and remains fairly limited. Based on the doctrine of creation and the subsequent duality between God and creation, exoterism does not offer means to transcend the limitations of the human state. The goal is only religious salvation that Guénon defines as a perpetual state of beatitude in a celestial paradise. In the Traditionalist view, esoterism is more than the complement of exoterism, the spirit as opposed to the letter, the kernel with respect to the shell. Esoterism has at least de jure, a total autonomy with respect to religion for its innermost substance is the Primordial Tradition itself. Based on pure metaphysics -by which Guénon means a supra-rational knowledge of the Divine, a gnosis, and not a rationalist system or theological dogma- its goal is the realization of the superior states of being and finally the union between the individual self and the Principle. Guénon calls this union “the Supreme Identity”.
By Principle, Guénon and Schuon means more than the personal God of exoteric theology: the suprapersonal Essence, the Beyond-Being, the Absolute both totally transcendent and immanent to the manifestation. In their view the innermost essence of the individual being is non-different from the Absolute itself. Guénon refers here to the Vedantic concepts of Brahman (Principle), Atma (Self) and Moksa (Deliverance). This reference is not accidental or circumstantial. For Guénon, the Hindu Sanathana Dharma represents in fact “the more direct heritage of the Primordial Tradition”. More generally, the great traditions of Asia (Advaita Vedanta, Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism) play a paradigmatic function in his writings. He considers them as the more rigorous expression of pure metaphysics, this supra-formal and universal wisdom being nevertheless in itself neither eastern nor western.
Contrary to the Semitic religions, those Asian religions don’t have an esoterism/exoterism structure which has emerged only later in the historical cycle, at a time of growing spiritual decadence, where the vast majority of the people were no longer “qualified” to understand metaphysical truths and transcendent possibilities of the human state.
[edit] The criticism of modernity
For Guénon, the author of the Crisis of the Modern World, the end of this descending process is modernity itself, which manifests the lowest possibilities of the Kali Yuga. Guénon also called our age the Reign of the Quantity, because man and the cosmos are more and more determined, ontologically speaking, by matter. The tragedy of the Western world since the Renaissance is, in his view, that it has lost almost any contact with the Sophia Perennis and the Sacred. Consequently, in the Western context, it is virtually impossible for a spiritual seeker to receive a valid initiation and to follow an esoteric path.
It is important to mention here that although Guénon has influenced a figure such as Julius Evola, none of the main traditionalist authors have shared Evola's political views. As a matter of fact, his writings are commonly seen in most traditionalist circles as an anti-traditional deviation, based on an inversion of the hierarchy between contemplation and action. Traditionalists authors were rather apolitical, although conservatively-inclined, avoiding any political activity.
[edit] The initiatory path
Although, he has pleaded in his first books for a restoration of traditional “intellectualité” in the West on the basis of Roman Catholicism and Freemasonry, it is clear that Guénon, very early on, gave up the idea of a spiritual resurrection of the West on a purely Christian basis. Having denounced the lure of Theosophism and neo-occultism, two influential movements that were flourishing in his lifetime, Guénon was initiated in 1912 in the Shadhili order and moved to Cairo in 1930 where he spent the rest of his life as a Sufi Muslim. To his many corresponds, he clearly designated Sufism as the more accessible form of traditional initiation for Westerns eager to find what does not exist any more in the West: an initiatory path of knowledge (Jnana or Gnosis), comparable to Advaita.
As a matter of fact, although Ananda Coomaraswamy was an Hindu, many followers of Guénon such as Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings, Titus Burckhardt have been initiated into Sufism. Others remain Christians such as the religious philosopher Jean Borella. Marco Pallis was a Buddhist. The most influential representatives of this school in Northern Europe are all Muslim converts: Kurt Almqvist, Tage Lindbom and Ashk Dahlén.
[edit] Academic influence
It could be argued that Traditionalism has a strong, although discrete impact in the field of Comparative Religion and particularly on the young Mircea Eliade, although he was not himself a member of this school. Contemporary scholars such as Huston Smith, William Chittick, Harry Oldmeadow, James Cutsinger and Seyyed Hossein Nasr have advocated Perennialism as an alternative to secularist approach to religious phenomena.
The Perennial Philosophy
Perennial philosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The notion of perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis) suggests the existence of a universal set of truths and values common to all peoples and cultures. The term was first used in the 16th century by Augostino Steuco in his book entitled: De perenni philosophia libri X (1540), in which scholastic philosophy is seen as the Christian pinnacle of wisdom to which all other philosophical currents in one way or another point. The idea was later, and more famously, taken up by the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, who used it to designate the common, eternal philosophy that underlies all religions, and in particular the mystical streams within them. The term was popularized in more recent times by Aldous Huxley in his 1945 book: The Perennial Philosophy. The term "perennial philosophy" has also been used as a translation of the Hindu concept of Sanatana Dharma, the "everlasting or perennial truth, or norm".
The existence of a perennial philosophy is the fundamental tenet of the Traditionalist School, formalized in the writings of 20th century thinkers René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. The Indian scholar and writer Ananda Coomaraswamy, associated with the Traditionalists, also wrote extensively about perennial philosophy.
//
[edit] Main principles
According to the tenets of the perennial philosophy, people in many cultures and eras have experienced and recorded comparable perceptions about the nature of reality, the self, the world, and the meaning and purpose of existence. These similarities point to underlying universal principles, forming the common ground of most religions. Differences among these fundamental perceptions arise from differences in human cultures and can be explained in light of such cultural conditioning.
Among these perceptions are the following assertions:
The physical or phenomenal world is not the only reality; another non-physical reality exists. The material world is the shadow of a higher reality which cannot be grasped by the senses, but the human spirit and intellect bear testimony to it in their essence.
Humans mirror the nature of this two-sided reality: while the material body is subject to the physical laws of birth and death, the other aspect of human existence is not subject to decay or loss, and is identical to the intellect or spirit, which is the sine qua non of the human soul. In the modern West, this second or other reality has been frequently discounted or ignored.
All humans possess a capacity, however unused and thus atrophied, for intuitive perceptions of ultimate or absolute truth, and the nature of reality. This perception is the final goal of human beings, and its pursuit and flourishing are the purpose of their existence. The major religions try to (re)establish the link between the human soul and this higher and ultimate reality. This ultimate reality, in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), is called God; God is the Absolute principle from which all existence originated and to which all existence will return. Non-theistic religions, such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism, may characterize the ultimate or absolute somewhat differently than the Abrahamic religions, but the fundamental concept is the same.
These worldwide perceptions are thought to be amendable with one another and reliable in themselves because of their internal consistency and due to the similarities among them, in spite of their often independent origins.
The life's work of Yahya Suhravardi was to link Hinduism, what he called the 'original oriental religion' with Islam. He claimed that all the sages of the ancient era had preached a single doctrine. This perennial philosophy was mystical and imaginative. Unlike dogmatic religion, which lends itself to sectarian disputes, mysticism often claims that there are as many roads to God as people. This was the finding of Karen Armstrong in her study on Sufi gurus, [A History of God P. 265]
According to Huxley, the perennial philosophy is: "the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being; the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions" (The Perennial Philosophy, p. vii).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The notion of perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis) suggests the existence of a universal set of truths and values common to all peoples and cultures. The term was first used in the 16th century by Augostino Steuco in his book entitled: De perenni philosophia libri X (1540), in which scholastic philosophy is seen as the Christian pinnacle of wisdom to which all other philosophical currents in one way or another point. The idea was later, and more famously, taken up by the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, who used it to designate the common, eternal philosophy that underlies all religions, and in particular the mystical streams within them. The term was popularized in more recent times by Aldous Huxley in his 1945 book: The Perennial Philosophy. The term "perennial philosophy" has also been used as a translation of the Hindu concept of Sanatana Dharma, the "everlasting or perennial truth, or norm".
The existence of a perennial philosophy is the fundamental tenet of the Traditionalist School, formalized in the writings of 20th century thinkers René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. The Indian scholar and writer Ananda Coomaraswamy, associated with the Traditionalists, also wrote extensively about perennial philosophy.
//
[edit] Main principles
According to the tenets of the perennial philosophy, people in many cultures and eras have experienced and recorded comparable perceptions about the nature of reality, the self, the world, and the meaning and purpose of existence. These similarities point to underlying universal principles, forming the common ground of most religions. Differences among these fundamental perceptions arise from differences in human cultures and can be explained in light of such cultural conditioning.
Among these perceptions are the following assertions:
The physical or phenomenal world is not the only reality; another non-physical reality exists. The material world is the shadow of a higher reality which cannot be grasped by the senses, but the human spirit and intellect bear testimony to it in their essence.
Humans mirror the nature of this two-sided reality: while the material body is subject to the physical laws of birth and death, the other aspect of human existence is not subject to decay or loss, and is identical to the intellect or spirit, which is the sine qua non of the human soul. In the modern West, this second or other reality has been frequently discounted or ignored.
All humans possess a capacity, however unused and thus atrophied, for intuitive perceptions of ultimate or absolute truth, and the nature of reality. This perception is the final goal of human beings, and its pursuit and flourishing are the purpose of their existence. The major religions try to (re)establish the link between the human soul and this higher and ultimate reality. This ultimate reality, in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), is called God; God is the Absolute principle from which all existence originated and to which all existence will return. Non-theistic religions, such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Taoism, may characterize the ultimate or absolute somewhat differently than the Abrahamic religions, but the fundamental concept is the same.
These worldwide perceptions are thought to be amendable with one another and reliable in themselves because of their internal consistency and due to the similarities among them, in spite of their often independent origins.
The life's work of Yahya Suhravardi was to link Hinduism, what he called the 'original oriental religion' with Islam. He claimed that all the sages of the ancient era had preached a single doctrine. This perennial philosophy was mystical and imaginative. Unlike dogmatic religion, which lends itself to sectarian disputes, mysticism often claims that there are as many roads to God as people. This was the finding of Karen Armstrong in her study on Sufi gurus, [A History of God P. 265]
According to Huxley, the perennial philosophy is: "the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being; the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions" (The Perennial Philosophy, p. vii).
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
New Weird America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Weird America describes a psychedelic folk musical movement of the 2000s. The term is generally believed to have been coined by David Keenan in the August 2003 issue of The Wire, following the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival organized by Matt Valentine. It is a play on Greil Marcus's phrase "Old Weird America" as used in his book Invisible Republic, which deals with the lineage connecting the pre-war folk performers on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Bob Dylan and his milieu. The musical style described as New Weird America (NWA) is mainly derived from folk and psychedelic groups of the 1960s and 1970s, including American performers Holy Modal Rounders and English group Pentangle, but it also finds inspiration in such disparate sources as heavy metal, free jazz, electronic music, noise music, tropicália, and early- and mid-20th century American folk music. Another primary inspiration is outsider music, often played by technically naïve (and often socially estranged) musicians, such as The Shaggs, Roky Erickson, and Jandek. Some NWA artists have even garnered criticism for projecting an image of mental instability, exploiting the purity and naïveté of outsider status.
Other genre classifications of similar period and aesthetics are psych folk, acid folk, Naturalismo and freak folk.
Many works of the genre are issued in small editions and distributed independently. The music has been covered extensively by L.A.-based Arthur Magazine, which ran in-depth pieces on Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and Six Organs of Admittance, released the definitive New Weird America compilation The Golden Apples of the Sun, and curated the ArthurFest (2005) and ArthurBall (2006) and events, featuring a variety of artists from the movement.
New Weird America is not a unified movement; it is a term of convenience used by journalists. Many bands labeled as NWA do not identify with the movement but have been associated with it by the press.
Some bands and musicians classified with this movement include:
Akron Family
Alec K Redfearn
Alela Diane
Animal Collective
Andrew Phillip Tipton
Antony and the Johnsons
Ariel PinkAsa Irons
The Badgers
Baptist Generals
The Bastard Fairies
Bird by Snow
The Blue Humours
Books on the Hoof
Brightblack Morning Light
The Castanets
Cerberus Shoal
Charalambides
Circulatory System
CocoRosieComets on Fire
Crix Crax Crux
Dame Darcy
Danielson Family
David Dondero
Davenport
Deek hoi
Devendra Banhart
Diane Cluck
Diana Darby
Dirty Art Project
Dredd Foole
Entrance
Espers
Eyes and Arms of Smoke
Eric Chenaux
Faun Fables
Feathers
Fern Knight
Flaming Fire
Frog Eyes
Fursaxa
Grant Olney
Gabby La La
The Gossip Queens
Gregory Paul
Hubert Matezl Jr.
The Hypermodernity Club
Iron & Wine
Jack Rose
Jackie-O Motherfucker
Jana Hunter
Jolie Holland
Jonathan Wilson
Josephine Foster
Joanna Newsom
Joshua Burkett
June Madrona
Lavender Diamond
Live Your Dreams Stay off Drugs
Major Stars
Marissa Nadler
Michael Holland
The Microphones / Mount Eerie
Mirah
The Mountain Goats
The MV & EE Medicine Show
Nehl Cloete
No-Neck Blues Band
Old Time Relijun
Portable Folk Band
Pothole Skinny
Raven Mayhem
Red Favorite
Rivers & Mountains
Scorces
Six Organs of Admittance
Sore Eros
Subtonic Monks
Sunburned Hand of the Man
TarpTin
Tree Factory
Tony Ortega/Orem(the sink)
Tower Recordings
Town & Country
Vashti Bunyan
Vetiver
Vortex Rex
Wayne Rogers
Will Oldham
We the Royal
Winter Flowers
Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice
New Weird America describes a psychedelic folk musical movement of the 2000s. The term is generally believed to have been coined by David Keenan in the August 2003 issue of The Wire, following the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival organized by Matt Valentine. It is a play on Greil Marcus's phrase "Old Weird America" as used in his book Invisible Republic, which deals with the lineage connecting the pre-war folk performers on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Bob Dylan and his milieu. The musical style described as New Weird America (NWA) is mainly derived from folk and psychedelic groups of the 1960s and 1970s, including American performers Holy Modal Rounders and English group Pentangle, but it also finds inspiration in such disparate sources as heavy metal, free jazz, electronic music, noise music, tropicália, and early- and mid-20th century American folk music. Another primary inspiration is outsider music, often played by technically naïve (and often socially estranged) musicians, such as The Shaggs, Roky Erickson, and Jandek. Some NWA artists have even garnered criticism for projecting an image of mental instability, exploiting the purity and naïveté of outsider status.
Other genre classifications of similar period and aesthetics are psych folk, acid folk, Naturalismo and freak folk.
Many works of the genre are issued in small editions and distributed independently. The music has been covered extensively by L.A.-based Arthur Magazine, which ran in-depth pieces on Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and Six Organs of Admittance, released the definitive New Weird America compilation The Golden Apples of the Sun, and curated the ArthurFest (2005) and ArthurBall (2006) and events, featuring a variety of artists from the movement.
New Weird America is not a unified movement; it is a term of convenience used by journalists. Many bands labeled as NWA do not identify with the movement but have been associated with it by the press.
Some bands and musicians classified with this movement include:
Akron Family
Alec K Redfearn
Alela Diane
Animal Collective
Andrew Phillip Tipton
Antony and the Johnsons
Ariel PinkAsa Irons
The Badgers
Baptist Generals
The Bastard Fairies
Bird by Snow
The Blue Humours
Books on the Hoof
Brightblack Morning Light
The Castanets
Cerberus Shoal
Charalambides
Circulatory System
CocoRosieComets on Fire
Crix Crax Crux
Dame Darcy
Danielson Family
David Dondero
Davenport
Deek hoi
Devendra Banhart
Diane Cluck
Diana Darby
Dirty Art Project
Dredd Foole
Entrance
Espers
Eyes and Arms of Smoke
Eric Chenaux
Faun Fables
Feathers
Fern Knight
Flaming Fire
Frog Eyes
Fursaxa
Grant Olney
Gabby La La
The Gossip Queens
Gregory Paul
Hubert Matezl Jr.
The Hypermodernity Club
Iron & Wine
Jack Rose
Jackie-O Motherfucker
Jana Hunter
Jolie Holland
Jonathan Wilson
Josephine Foster
Joanna Newsom
Joshua Burkett
June Madrona
Lavender Diamond
Live Your Dreams Stay off Drugs
Major Stars
Marissa Nadler
Michael Holland
The Microphones / Mount Eerie
Mirah
The Mountain Goats
The MV & EE Medicine Show
Nehl Cloete
No-Neck Blues Band
Old Time Relijun
Portable Folk Band
Pothole Skinny
Raven Mayhem
Red Favorite
Rivers & Mountains
Scorces
Six Organs of Admittance
Sore Eros
Subtonic Monks
Sunburned Hand of the Man
TarpTin
Tree Factory
Tony Ortega/Orem(the sink)
Tower Recordings
Town & Country
Vashti Bunyan
Vetiver
Vortex Rex
Wayne Rogers
Will Oldham
We the Royal
Winter Flowers
Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice
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