Jean Klein is part of what people sometimes refer to as the neo-Advaita movement, a modern day update of traditional Hindu Advaita Vedanta. Having not read Ramana Maharshi, or any other gurus who would be similarly classified, I can't say how representative Klein was. But this book of question and answer sessions with students definitely illustrates a critique often leveled at this philosophy. Klein basically just repeats the same idea again and again in answer to every question -- you are already awake, you are already everything, all you have to do is realize it in a sudden moment of grace and clarity. While I think there's something to be said for this emphasis on not striving for awakening and not employing any concepts to describe it, it makes for a boring book and confirms that this "path" offers no concrete practices and no idea of gradual development. Basically, it seems you are just supposed to hang out with the guru until you realize you are no different than him, and then you can put out your own guru shingle. How's that for 3,000 years of beautiful tradition? The book has some lovely bits of non-dual poetry that might serve as reminders if you've already experienced something of the basic insight, but I'm at a loss to imagine how anyone could get anywhere if they began with such amorphous instruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment