Customer Reviews

The Rhythm of Being: The Gifford Lectures

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It is difficult to offer remarks on such writing; I feel obliged because I knew Raimon Panikkar, not only an astonishing mind but a genuinely humble and loving person, a rare individual on so many levels. This last published book from him (worked over for two decades after the original Gifford Lectures!)can be tough going but well worth the effort. It is the best [not only of this kind of ecumenical interreligious theme but from among his fine books] for the truly open-minded and open-hearted seeker, whether you are now committed to a path, a traditional religion, Panikkar has a most excellent way of making the fruits of his contemplation alive and nutritious for anyone, everyone. He does not have an agenda. There will be no weird surprise that suddenly takes you into some eccentric cul de sac or secreted loyalty; he manages to be open without watering everything down to sappy compromises, taking the real nourishment out. You can benefit from exploring his thoughts and feelings and, I think, unparalleled knowledge of world religions and the modern diversity of actual human experience. His views are wholly universal without leaving out the vital distinctions, and this is, in the end, the 'problem;em, for all of us, how to find, to live the Reconciliation of plurality, the many and diverse in the One, without any sacrifice of the genius and purity of the local and immediate, understood and appreciated as immanent and transcendent not as abstract categories of philosophy but Mystery (not 'mystery' like a problem of ignorance or an enigma one day to be solved, but the ongoing necessary mystery of the finite which can itself never be the Infinite but can participate in it) and the fullness of Life. In Panikkar's work there is no denial or obstruction to conservative believers of any world religion, nor anything obstructing the seeking of any lone seeker. Ra rare accomplishemt, for thsi sia chieved nbot by sappy hypocrisies and shallow rendering, but a truly edifying and illuminating sharing of knowledge and experience...always giving room for your own! I have read much (and encountered many teachers)on world religions and old and modern dilemmas and I have not encountered anyone with the breadth and depth of Raimon Panikkar and this final post-mortem book is a fitting tribute, a most wonderful experience if you stick to it! For those willing and ready, may this book be a profound and fertile fuel!

Panikkar's book is a scholarly work on a dimension of reality that we but touch, if we're lucky. These Gifford Lectures are clearly a compilation of the best of his works. It opens the doors to a view of humankind, the cosmos, and our world which is sorely needed, and which offers hope to our lives both now and beyond death. Far from being a strictly religious, or philosophical, compendium, it embraces a spirituality which is both human and divine, grounded in the earth.