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Sufism
The Mysterion : Rumi and the Secret of Becoming Fully Human by Kabir Helminski
£19.99
A contemporary exploration into the meaning and possibility of our human existence, through the universal insights of the 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi--by pre-eminent Rumi translator, Kabir Helminski.
The 13th-century poet and mystic Rumi has become one of the most popular spiritual voices of our time--known and loved by people of many faiths and worldviews for his rich metaphors, images, poems, and stories. The Mysterion deepens our appreciation of his teachings by illuminating both the practical psychological dimension behind them, as well as the universal spiritual truths they offer about what it means to be human.
In this philosophical survey, Kabir Helminski, one of the foremost translators and writers of Sufi texts, gives us a contemporary lens through which to view and understand the "Mysterion," the unifying concept that bridges the human and the divine--and that connects the individual soul with spiritual Reality. This book is centered on that core, unifying concept of the Mysterion: the essence and intrinsic meaning of being human.
Rumi, says Helminski, would suggest that in our human existence we might accomplish many marvels, but they will amount to little if we neglect cultivating the divine potential within us. Like a mirror, he says, we can reflect a spectrum of divine qualities depending on how polished and clean our mirror is. Likewise, our mirrors can become distorted and corroded by egoism and negativity. Our practical work, says Helminski (and Rumi), is to remove distortions from our souls and align ourselves with this higher order reality and divine agency, through humility, reverence, surrender, and love.
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The Bijak of Kabir by Linda Hess & Sukhdev Singh
£7.99
Kabir was an extraordinary poet whose works have been sung and recited by millions throughout North India for half a millennium. He was perhaps illiterate (I don`t touch ink or paper, this hand never grasped a pen), and he preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncompromising message exhorting his audience to shed their delusions, pretensions and empty orthodoxies in favor of an intense, direct personal confrontation with truth.
The Bijak is one of the most important anthologies, being the sacred book of the Kabir Panth and the main representative of the Eastern tradition of Kabir`s verses. Shukdev Singh and Linda Hess have accomplished a translation of real grace and remarkable accuracy. The introduction and notes explore Kabir`s work, place it in its initial context, and explore its meaning for modern time.
De Radiis by Al-Kindi
out of stock - £38.99
2nd hardback edition.
Abū Yaʿqūb ibn Ishāq al-Kindī (c.800-870CE) De Radiis (On The Stellar Rays) proposes that all things emit rays that operate on all other things, producing an interplay of causes and effects from the stars down to material objects. The rays pouring down from the celestial harmony of the stars, constellations, and planets, he thought, accounted for the efficacy of astrology. Living beings, likewise, were the source and destination of rays, and humans out of all creatures were a “small world” or microcosm unto themselves, and therefore humans are able to cause things (whether themselves or others) to move and change. Sound “rays”, emitted through speech, song, and music could effect magical change by the same principle.
De Radiis provides a concise, comprehensive physical and magical theory using the philosophy of the Greeks, which Al-Kindi had a hand in translating into Arabic at the start of the Islamic Golden Age. This edition of De Radiis comes from a back translation into Latin from a lost Arabic original. Together with practical manuals of Arab magic, such as Picatrix, the theoretical treatise De Radiis had a profound impact on the Western esoteric tradition during the ensuing thousand years.
This new translation, by Scott Gosnell, translator of The Collected Works of Giordano Bruno and writer on the history and future of science and magic, rendered into clear, fresh language; it is an essential part of any complete esoteric library.
The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn Al-'Arabi's Cosmology by William C. Chittick
out of stock - £35.00
The Self-Disclosure of God continues the author's investigations of the world view of Ibn al-'Arabi, the greatest theoretician of Sufism and the "seal of the Muhammadan saints. The book is divided into three parts, dealing with the relation between God and the cosmos, the structure of the cosmos, and the nature of the human soul. A long introduction orients the reader and discusses a few of the difficulties faced by Ibn al-'Arabi's interpreters. Like Chittick's earlier work, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, this book is based primarily on Ibn al-'Arabi's monumental work, al-Futuhat al-makkiyya "The Meccan Openings. More than one hundred chapters and subsections are translated, not to mention shorter passages that help put the longer discussions in context. There are detailed indexes of sources, Koranic verses, and hadiths. The book's index of technical terminology will be an indispensable reference for all those wishing to delve more deeply into the use of language in Islamic thought in general and Sufism in particular.
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