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Sacred Web 41

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Sacred Web 41

Sacred Web 41

 

Editorial:
Of Time and Knowledge

By M. Ali Lakhani
Contrasting the mundane perception of cursive time with that of ‘metaphysical time’, this essay explores the relationship between time and knowledge and how their integration within the Spirit which is the transcendent Center of ‘Man’ is vital to the human quest for spiritual reintegration.     Read more...

Shin Buddhism in Modernity
By John Paraskevopoulos
This abridgement of a keynote address, given by a Buddhist pastor to the Buddhist Churches of America in August 2017, considers how in an aggressively secular world, Shin Buddhism, the largest school in Japan, is being challenged by its critics (with accusations such as its preoccupations with ‘other-worldliness’, or its alleged unconcern for social justice, or its lack of ‘popularity’; or criticisms based on doctrinal and methodological misunderstandings that misrepresent its true aims and practices) and how it is therefore more important than ever to seek answers from its foundational teachings, particularly those of Shinran. In a broader sense, Reverend Paraskevopoulos’s remarks offer insights into how religion itself, which aims at experiential truths or ‘realization’, is at odds with certain aspects of modernity which focus on outer aspects of reality and aim at utopian or secularist ideals, or on religious sentimentalism, and how understanding this can help to resolve criticisms about religion and to refocus its practitioners on the ‘one thing needful’—tasting the Dharma.     Read more...

The Self and the Other in the Light of the One: The Metaphysics of Human Diversity
By Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
Contemporary approaches to integrating ‘self’ and the ‘other’ — such as multiculturalism, cultural diversity, race relations, inclusiveness strategies, or identity politics — are flawed from the perspective of traditional thought. At their core, modernist ideologies are inimical to and destructive of all human diversity. The new face of antipathy to pluralism is becoming more deceptive as it grows less focused on respecting diversity and more on promoting ideological uniformity and the erection of a global monoculture. This essay argues that it is from a metaphysical perspective that human diversity can be fully understood and can seek to reconcile the dichotomy of ‘self’ and the ‘other’.     Read more...

His Highness the Aga Khan: Reminiscences of over Six Decades
By Seyyed Hossein Nasr
In this essay, written to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the Ismaili spiritual leader, the fourth Aga Khan, the eminent Muslim scholar, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr reflects on their many decades of association, from their friendship that commenced before Prince Karim became the Imam of his community at the age of 20, while still a student in Harvard, through his collaborations with His Highness to further the Aga Khan’s aim to revive the intellectual tradition of Islam within the modern Muslim world and to create a greater awareness of the rich civilizational heritage of Muslim societies within both the Islamic and the Western worlds. Dr. Nasr also includes a personal appreciation of the significance and impact of the Aga Khan’s vision and humanistic work beyond his own community and the Muslim Umma, and, through personal anecdote, he conveys a sense of the Imam’s extraordinary stature.     Read more...

At the Tomb of René Guénon in Old Cairo
By Atif Khalil
Many readers of this journal will have encountered or been influenced by the writings of the Sufi, René Guénon — or Shaikh ‘Abd al-Wāḥid Yaẖyā, as he was known in Egypt, where he lived for much of his life, and where he died in 1951. The author presents a reflective and intimate portrait of the venerable gnostic, on the occasion of his visit to his home and tomb in Old Cairo.     Read more...

Symbolism of the Cover Illustration:
Solomon's Dream and the Ship of the Sancgrail

By Nigel Jackson
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Book Reviews

Exploring Religious Pluralism: Christian and Muslim Responses
By Haslina Ibrahim

Reviewed by Brian Welter
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The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma: Life and Teachings of a 20th Century Indian Saint
Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
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Le Vulneraire du Christ (The Vulnerary of Christ)
By Louis Charbonneau-Lassay

Reviewed by Nigel Jackson
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