3 papers in the library · publishing 2023
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2023 John Blofeld
In Buddhist circles in China and Tibet there are many stories current about a marvellous gem that, once located, fulfils its finder’s every wish. There is a religion beyond religions which leads directly to the grasping of the wish-fulfilling gem. For want of a better term, it may be called the mystic’s quest. For, whereas Christian and Moslem mystics have generally been looked upon askance by...
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2023 John Blofeld
It is widely accepted that learning and the cultivation of mystical intuition do not go well together. Pietists who hold that scriptural study is the foundation of all goodness and scholars who maintain that learning is the road to wisdom, like those who expect salvation from good works, are generally not mystically inclined. Nevertheless, in China there have been Buddhist monks and laymen who...
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2023 John Blofeld
Poverty of the tragic kind found, say, in India or Bangladesh demands vast-scale collective action and so does the terrifyingly rapid deterioration of the environment; but boredom and discontent in the midst of plenty are a problem for the individual and it is that the ancient mystical traditions may be looked to for an answer. Well, mysticism offers no broad remedies for modern ills. From the...