BOOKS: “The Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James

Posted on February 3, 2025 by B Gourley

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by Dr. William James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg — Free Online

This book is now more than 120 years old and yet is still widely read and is still provoking thought about the nature of religious experiences and how they should be considered by academia. The book is a write-up of a series of twenty lectures that the famous American Philosopher-Psychologist, William James, delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1901-02.

There are a few things that impressed me about this book. First, James was skilled with language and clever in conveying ideas, resulting in a good bit of quotable material and stimulating ideas.

Second, James’s writings about Eastern practices and philosophies were impressively clear and faithful. In those days, there wasn’t a lot translated from Sanskrit, Pali, etc. and what had been translated was frequently done by outside academicians with no firsthand experience with Eastern systems — e.g. Hinduism or Buddhism. This meant that the writings about Eastern Philosophy and practices from those days were often contorted by a Western / Abrahamic frame in a way that distorted the true nature of those traditions. James seems to have gained at least some of his understanding from someone with enough practical experience to produce accurate descriptions. Furthermore, James avoids spewing myths and misapprehensions by being humble in stating what is merely his understanding. It should be noted that James does write much more about Abrahamic traditions (as one would expect given his direct experience,) but it’s hard to plumb the depths of mysticism without looking to the East where such practices reached such advanced states.

Finally, I was impressed with James’s ability to walk the line of believer and scholar in a way that was fair both to religion and the religious but also to the scientifically-minded rational sceptic. So much of what I read on the subject takes a vitriolic tone of strict opposition and often unfairly depicts the positions of the other side (to be fair, usually this seems to be because the critic doesn’t understand the views of the other side and so produces an interpretation of the opposing ideas conforming to their own worldview, rather than just lying to win.) [As was attributed to James as well as others, “…people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”]

I’d highly recommend this book for readers interested in philosophy of religion and the psychology of religious experience.

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BOOKS: “Original Tao” by Harold D. Roth

Posted on January 28, 2025 by B Gourley

Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations from the Asian Classics)

Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism by Harold D. Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher site – Columbia University Press

This book is built around a translation of an old Taoist manual called “Inward Training” (i.e. 内业,) and the book serves not only to elaborate the meaning of the twenty-six poems that make up the manual, but also to put this work in a context with respect to its place in early Taoist mysticism — which raises further questions as to what constitutes early Taoism and early Taoist mysticism. (Just as the earliest followers of Jesus didn’t think of themselves as “Christians” – at least not as we understand that term – it’s an open question as to when people started to think of themselves as Taoists and how that start relates to when people began holding a set of proto-beliefs that formed the basis of the school(s) of philosophy.)

“Inward Training” presents breathwork and meditational exercises that Roth calls “inner cultivation” — or what some have called “inner alchemy.” The book does contain the entire manual both in Traditional Chinese and an English translation, as well as a much more extensive elaboration of the teachings of the manual. The latter is necessary because, like many old manuals, sparse description, archaic language, and assumptions about common knowledge du jour make it difficult for the layman to get any depth of understanding from the manual, itself.

This is a scholarly work, which means that its readability isn’t the highest and it does dive into matters that will be arcana for non-expert readers. That said, particularly as works of academic philosophy go, its readability isn’t bad. The book is heavily annotated and offers and extensive bibliography.

If you are interested in Taoist practices of breath, meditation, and alignment, this book is well worth investigating.

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BOOKS: “Magic: A Very Short Introduction” by Owen Davies

Posted on January 27, 2025 by B Gourley

Magic: A Very Short Introduction by Owen Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

The first thing that a potential reader should be aware of is that this book isn’t about stage magic or sleight of hand, and that form of magic — in which all parties are aware that techniques are being used to exploit perceptual limitations so as to create the illusion of a supernatural occurrence — doesn’t even really come up as an aside. This book is about magic that (at least some) people believe is a demonstration of actual supernatural happenings in the world.

The book looks at the topic largely from a historical viewpoint; though special emphasis is given to the relationship between religion and magic, in both its congruous and adversarial aspects. That said, for the most part, it’s not arranged historically but rather topically. It does have one chapter on historical perspectives (ch. 3) and one that addresses the ways and degrees to which magical thinking still exists in the modern world (ch. 6.) But it also has chapters on the anthropology of magic (ch.1,) the shifting landscape of thinking about what magic actually is (given that it’s clearly something to many people but isn’t likely the actual exploitation of loopholes in the laws governing the physical world that believers feel it to be — ch. 3,) the role of language in magic (ch. 4,) and the practices of magic (ch. 5.)

The book does focus heavily on the Abrahamic world (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) and its Janus-faced relation to magic over time, but not exclusively so. It brings in African, Chinese, Caribbean, and Native American traditions here and there as well.

I found this book interesting and thought-provoking and would highly recommend it for anyone looking to gain a better insight into how humanity has thought about magic over time and how those beliefs have aligned – or conflicted with – religious beliefs and practices.

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Nine Dragon Wall [Free Verse]

Posted on January 17, 2025 by B Gourley

If you stare at
   stone dragons
      long enough
   their stone-chiseled
      forms will start 
      to glide
         in tracked loops.
 A steady motion of the
   sinuous segments 
      unbroken by cloud.
 They move slowly 
   and steadily --
      never breaking off
         into a new course.
 Some figure-eight,
   Some circle,
      but never do they
         come off the wall.
 Their movements never
   menace.

BOOKS: “Jñāna-Yoga: The Way of Knowledge” by Ramakrishna Puligandla

Posted on January 1, 2025 by B Gourley

Jnana-Yoga–The Way of Knowledge by Ramakrishna Puligandla
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Google Books Page

This is one of the most useful books I’ve read on the topic of Jñāna-yoga — the approach to yogic philosophy employed by the studious / inquisitive (in contrast to Bhakti-Yoga [the yoga of those for whom faith and devotion works] and Karma-Yoga [the yoga for those for whom a course of self-less action appeals.]) There are Jñāna-yogic Hindu sects and Buddhism — in general — can be thought of as a school of Jñāna-yoga. The author draws from the teachings of both, principally Sankara for Hindu thinking and Nagarjuna for the Buddhist approach.

A word of warning, the author is a scholarly philosopher, and so — while not as unreadable as many works of academic philosophy — it will be a slog for those who are not used to reading scholarly writing.

That said, Puligandla does a fine job of laying out what he views as the central tenets of Jñāna-yoga in a concise fashion and reviewing them at the end. This is not to say I would agree with all that he proposes, herein. In particular, his Chapter 3 conclusions about consciousness are insufficiently justified to be considered core principles of Jñāna-yoga (in my view.) Of course, the beauty of Jñāna-yoga is that it not only doesn’t insist upon coming to the same conclusions, it generates explanations as to how it’s perfectly possible / reasonable to come to different conclusions (see “The Principle of Superimposition,” herein.) Furthermore, since the author is reporting the ideas of Sankara and Nagarjuna, I can’t really hold these ideas against him.

If you’re interested in Jñāna-yoga, and can handle scholarly prose, I’d highly recommend this book.

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“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –” (236) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Posted on January 1, 2025 by B Gourley

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
   I keep it, staying at Home --
 With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
   And an Orchard, for a Dome --

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
   I, just wear my Wings --
 And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
   Our little Sexton -- sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
   And the sermon is never long,
 So instead of getting to Heaven, at last -- 
   I'm going, all along.