The Pathway of Non-Duality (Advaitavada : An Approach to Some Key-Points of Gaudapada's Asparsavada&Samkara's Advaita Vedanta By Means of Series) [Hardcover]

Raphael (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Nataraj Books (December 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881338193
• ISBN-13: 978-1881338192
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,005,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simple and profound, December 13, 2005

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Marc A. Stettler (Rio de Janeiro / Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pathway of Non-Duality (Advaitavada : An Approach to Some Key-Points of Gaudapada's Asparsavada&Samkara's Advaita Vedanta By Means of Series) (Hardcover)

An exellent book. Unfortunately to short. He discusses Vedanta also in relationship to classic Western Philosophy (Plotinus). I ordered all his other books and also the related books from René Guénon to whom he refers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an abundance of profound information, an aggregation of facts about Advaita Vedanta: in this way unique, August 11, 2008

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dk - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pathway of Non-Duality (Advaitavada : An Approach to Some Key-Points of Gaudapada's Asparsavada&Samkara's Advaita Vedanta By Means of Series) (Hardcover)

quite a number of people have (at least in the beginning) difficulties reading Raphael's books. During his last seminar in Germany he explained the reason for this. The analytical mind is only interested in "individual topics", not in universal truths. Therefore Raphael's books are (seemingly at first) so hard to read. They can only be comprehended by the Buddhi (the higher intuitive intellect, reflection of pure consciousness). These books even bear the power to activate the buddhi for "the profound recognition of what we really are" (p. 50). This book definitely belongs to this class, and therefore is (seemingly at first) no easily accessible book. I know no other master who builds the bridge between Indian Advaita Vedanta and European mystics like Raphael. Who arrestingly proves the unity(!) of the eastern and western tradition: see his quotes of Plotin (p. 6, p. 61 f.), Parmenides (in chap. 4), Platon (p. 23.): "he who truly loves [will] walk straight ahead without losing courage or betraying his love before having grasped the nature of each thing in itself with that part of his Soul whose activity is indeed to grasp the essence of things - it having the same nature -, and with this part of his Soul approaching and uniting himself with Being in Itself, ... and thus finish to suffer, but not before" (Platon in 'Politeia', see p. 23).
Very interesting (in my humble opinion) is the chapter "Advaita Vedanta": a clear differentiation from Hinduism and Christian, Hebrew or Islamic religious communities. "To speak of Hindu religion may seem improper, because Hinduism, on the whole, and over ages, more than an organized, hierarchical and dogmatic religion in the Western sense, is a `way of being', of living" (p. 29).
As well as the chapter "Transmigration" which explains about reincarnation in the light/perception of Advaita Vedanta. As: "If the atman-constant, the pure spirit, the Absolute in us or the pure Being cannot be born because it simply IS, nor can it transmigrate because it is not subject to change, then what is it in us that transmigrates? And why does it transmigrate, why is it reborn?" (p. 65)

5.0 out of 5 stars Master of the Primordial Metaphysical Tradition, April 3, 2010

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tepi "tepi" - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Pathway of Non-Duality (Advaitavada : An Approach to Some Key-Points of Gaudapada's Asparsavada&Samkara's Advaita Vedanta By Means of Series) (Hardcover)

The Pathway of Non-Duality: Advaita-vada. By Raphael. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992. Hardback, xi + 88 pages. ISBN. 81-208-09297

This book takes the form of a series of questions and answers regarding some aspects of Non-duality (Advaita). Raphael is a Philosopher-Mystic, a master of traditional metaphysics, who has achieved Asparsa-vada (i.e., the pathway of no support) and who is keeping alive the Advaita Tradition whose most important representatives, both from the point of view of Realization and Doctrine, have been Gaudapada and Shankara.

The best source of information about Raphael will be found at his Non-duality website, the Asram Vidya Order (www.vidya-ashramvidyaorder.org), which was founded by him as a channel for the Primordial Metaphysical Tradition.

There, we learn that: "Raphael is a Practising Asparsin and at present, after over 40 years of oral and written teaching, he lives at the Hermitage in retirement and silence." Asparsa-yoga is the yoga of Non-Duality.

To an interviewer, who once asked who he was, he replied disconcertingly: "I am you."

For Raphael, it would seem that biographical details, since they can refer only to wholly fictive entities, are quite without meaning.

See my Listmania list on Raphael for information about 'The Path of Non-Duality' and his other works.