by Suresh Hariramsait ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 2016
A dense, multifaceted book about the unseen forces in the universe.
Hariramsait reveals the yogic structures of the cosmos in this debut spiritual work.
Like many thinkers before him, the author argues that man need not wallow in ignorance: “Perfection or enlightenment is within the reach of all of humanity and only ignorance” is what “veils or clouds our mind...the Yogi in deep contemplation is able to remove and transcend all veils and thus transcends all planes and dimensions and therefore is beyond dream and reality, life and death.” Hariramsait takes the reader through a spiritual history of the world, one plumbed from the ancient texts of India as well as from the Bible, the writings of Carl Sagan, ancient astronaut theories, and many other varied sources. It is a story of men that stood 100 feet tall and lived for 100,000 years; of cloning performed by Sage Vyasa 5,500 years ago; of ancient spaceships and floating cities; of a future where teleportation will become the dominant form of travel (“Utilising one’s own body to perform teleportation is the safest manner possible for the Lord Himself says in the ‘Sri Shiva Gita’ that among all of creation, the human body is the most perfect, complex and wonderful of them all”). The book begins with a lengthy synopsis that introduces the author’s worldview, followed by a list of 205 concepts that are then discussed in detail, building to a brief conclusion. This syncretic work is exceedingly dense: while Hariramsait makes an effort to cite in text (or at least reference) the many sources from which his material is gleaned, the ideas pile up on each other in a way that makes it difficult to follow his train of thought for more than a few lines. He includes neither footnotes nor a bibliography, so the reader is left without any means of verifying his claims. Because this is a spiritual book, the burden of proof is essentially nonexistent; even so, it’s hard to imagine any but the most open-minded reader being persuaded by Hariramsait’s arguments. While great emphasis is placed on meditation and the rejection of worldly distractions, there is little practical instruction for those interested in pursuing such activities. There is much here to stimulate the spiritually curious mind, but the soupy prose and unintuitive structure will likely turn away many readers.
A dense, multifaceted book about the unseen forces in the universe.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4828-6946-0
Page Count: 310
Publisher: PartridgeIndia
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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