Volume One of Lewis Thompson's journals takes us into the everyday world of India's sub-continent in the 1930's and 40's through the prism of a fierce spiritual aspirant and intellect. "The whole in this atmosphere," he writes, "suggests a superhuman discipline and dignity, a passion, a sensuality, for what is prior to Being and Non-being-astringent like the taste of iron." We share his meetings with Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma and Sri Krishna Menon.. We experience his attempts to integrate a Western heritage-Christ, Blake, Yeats, Rimbaud, Pascal-with the exigencies of Indian gnosis. We marvel at his self-invented writing yoga, whose bold vocabulary juxtaposes many levels of consciousness - waking, dreaming, visionary, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, tantra and vedanta. This is a jewel of a book for those interested in "the power which consecrates us beyond ourselves". For the intimate context these journals provide, this book is a must for readers of Thompson's aphorisms (Mirror to the Light) and poetry (Black Sun). Edited with an introduction and commentary by Richard Lannoy. Foreword by Dr. Harry Oldmeadow, LaTrobe University.
Volume One of Lewis Thompson's journals takes us into the everyday world of India's sub-continent in the 1930's and 40's through the prism of a fierce spiritual aspirant and intellect. "The whole in this atmosphere," he writes, "suggests a superhuman discipline and dignity, a passion, a sensuality, for what is prior to Being and Non-being-astringent like the taste of iron." We share his meetings with Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma and Sri Krishna Menon.. We experience his attempts to integrate a Western heritage-Christ, Blake, Yeats, Rimbaud, Pascal-with the exigencies of Indian gnosis. We marvel at his self-invented writing yoga, whose bold vocabulary juxtaposes many levels of consciousness - waking, dreaming, visionary, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, tantra and vedanta. This is a jewel of a book for those interested in "the power which consecrates us beyond ourselves". For the intimate context these journals provide, this book is a must for readers of Thompson's aphorisms (Mirror to the Light) and poetry (Black Sun). Edited with an introduction and commentary by Richard Lannoy. Foreword by Dr. Harry Oldmeadow, LaTrobe University.
