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HPB

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND INFLUENCE OF HELENA BLAVATSKY

One of the towering—and most controversial—figures in occult history, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-91) cofounded the Theosophical Society and profoundly influenced the spread of Eastern and (many would say) pseudo-Eastern spiritual doctrines in the West. Here, Cranston (coauthor, Reincarnation, 1984—not reviewed) offers an energetic but nearly hagiographic biography of this remarkable woman. Born to well-off Russian parents, HPB exhibited a willful personality early on—as evidenced by her marriage at age 17, to spite a governess who said she'd never attract a husband, to 40- year-old Nikofor Blavatsky: The marriage was never consummated, and HPB soon ran away to begin her world travels. These took her to the US (where she became the first Russian woman to gain citizenship), India, Tibet, and England. In London, HPB met her Hindu ``Master,'' whose guidance helped her to elaborate Theosophy, which teaches that all religions derive from a universal wisdom embodied throughout history by ``adepts'' such as Jesus. With her forceful character and alleged psychic powers, HPB won many followers, including Thomas Edison, and increased the number through books (The Secret Doctrine, etc.)—despite frequent charges of charlatanism—until her death. Cranston, apparently a true believer who attended ``Theosophy School'' in the 30's, draws on prodigious research—but it's all aimed at defending HPB and includes numerous reports of HPB teleporting objects, etc. Moreover, in her urge to tie HPB to traditional religion, Cranston displays a woeful ignorance of basic Buddhist doctrine, and, in trying to enhance HPB's stature, she argues unconvincingly that HPB prophesied future scientific advances. Cranston even expends about 500 words explaining HPB's influence on...Elvis. Well detailed—but the astonishing adventure of HPB's life too often gets lost beneath Cranston's piousness. (Photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: Jan. 6, 1993

ISBN: 0-87477-688-0

Page Count: 656

Publisher: TarcherPerigee

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

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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THE ART OF SOLITUDE

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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