The Paradoxes of Love [Paperback]

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

The Paradoxes of Love explores the theme of mystical love. The heart's relationship to God is one of the greatest mysteries, for He is both far and near, both awesome and intimate. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee looks at many of the paradoxes of the path, and how these seeming opposites are united within the heart. He combines his own experience with the teaching and wisdom of the Sufi path, showing how love reveals its hidden nature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vaughan-Lee provides an astonishingly clear explication of some of the most profound elements of the Naqshbandi school of Sufism, a Persian order of Islamic mystical spirituality founded by Naqshband (1317-1389). As Vaughan-Lee works through a series of dualities such as separation and union, intimacy and awe, love and violation, he gives Western readers one of the best explanations of Sufism's approach to mystical love. One of the most interesting features of the book is a discussion of divine love and patriarchal repression, in which he seeks to distinguish Sufism from the masculinist excesses of Islam. His chapter on gender differences in the spiritual path of Sufism, for example, is tailor-made for a Jungian feminism. The Paradoxes of Love is clearly one of the best introductions to the mystical depths made so famous by Rumi and Kabir.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a Sufi teacher. In recent years the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition, and the emerging global consciousness of oneness. He has also specialized in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of modern psychology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963457462
• ISBN-13: 978-0963457462
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D., is a Sufi Teacher in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujadidiyya Sufi Order. Born in London in 1953, he has followed the Naqshbandi Sufi path since he was 19. In 1991 he moved to Northern California and became the successor of Irina Tweedie, author of "Chasm of Fire" and "Daughter of Fire." In recent years the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition, and the emerging global consciousness of oneness. He has also specialized in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of modern psychology. Author of several books, Llewellyn lectures in the United States and Europe. For further information, please see: www.goldensufi.org and www.workingwithoneness.org.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Into the Circle of Love, February 2, 2010

By 

Charlotte A. Bruce "cabruce" (california) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Paradoxes of Love (Paperback)

The Paradoxes of Love gives insight into common impasses that seekers bump up against when they step onto the spiritual path. The Western mind is very thoroughly trained to classify every thing, idea, and feeling it meets as being a particular entity that occupies a particular place. "If it's this," the Western mind says, "it can't be that; if it's here it can't be there."
What then can the mind do with the reality that everything is also a unity? The author quotes one of the great Sufis, Ibn `Arabî, whose saying about the nature of the Divine presents the mind with a great challenge:

He is and there is with Him no before or after, nor above nor below, nor far nor near, nor union, nor division, nor how nor where nor place. He is now as He was, He is the One without oneness and the Single without singleness.
He is the very existence of the Outward
and the very existence of the Inward.

This book speaks of the impasses, like how the need for effort on the path is to be reconciled with the fact that everything is given as grace, how it is that mystical love is experienced as a complete violation on the level of the ego, and how surrender is the fulfillment of freedom. These things our minds experience as paradox are dealt with in a helpful way. Through the dreams, teaching stories, and life experiences the author relates, we can see a little deeper, maybe even take a step beyond those barriers where the mind would confine us if left trapped within its own structure.

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncovering the Mysteries of Love, February 25, 2010

By 

Michelle Moore - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Paradoxes of Love (Paperback)

This is the most helpful book I've read in the English language about the mysteries of love. Spiritual poetry can awaken your heart and make you feel the bewilderment, pain and madness of longing for God, but The Paradoxes of Love somehow makes sense of it all. This book didn't put me at ease; it didn't give me warm, fuzzy feelings about divine love; but it did help me find deeper meaning in my own experiences of suffering, which have often been accompanied by doubts, fears, and frustration.

Vaughan-Lee's writing is so refreshing: clear and simple, and able to hold truths too paradoxical for the mind to grasp, while remaining firmly planted in the real world. Some of the paradoxes dealt with in the book include separation and union, intimacy and awe, love and violation, and obedience and freedom. Vaughan-Lee cites numerous Sufi masters, providing a firm foundation for the science of love taught here, while offering examples from his students' dreams and experiences to illustrate how this ancient tradition is taking form in the modern Western world.