Stellar Comprehensive Compendium of all Things Advaita

books:


	• Back to the Truth: 5000 years of Advaita Dennis Waite O Books, 2007 - 600 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A Landmark Achievement

What can I possibly say, that hasn't already been said, and said with better style, by all the wonderful reviews of this Landmark book?
It's an incredible, awe inspiring work. Dennis Waite is truly a gift to the World. His web-site, Advaita.org.uk, has been my lifeline since I discovered it.
It is an bottomless source of Wisdom, knowledge and resources, and a truly enormous amount of work goes into maintaining it--to do this, write books, especially a Masterwork like "Back To the Truth", while still responding to emails with hapless questions from, I'm sure, many `miserable seekers' like myself, in his quiet, totally accessible way, in incomprehensible to me.

The style of Back To The Truth--his ability to draw from so many varied sources, from the most traditional of ancient Vedic Scriptures, to the most current (so called) `neo' Advaitin writings, What a skill! Then factor in his knowledge of Sanskrit.
The appendixes are nearly overwhelming--offering more resources and reviews, plus a glossary of Sanskrit terms. OK. I'm done; this review could go on and on...but I must end it.
I have to say this, however, before I do. To me, it is not the many quotes, and words of wisdom, past and current, that make this book so powerful, but Dennis's own words...his writing has a simplicity and clarity that is deceptive; like the gentle surface of a lake, there is great depth there.
Don't be put off by the size or the scholarship of this book. The best thing about Dennis, his web-site, and his writing, is his generosity and his Integrity. It shines through everything he touches.

for more information click here

A Comprehensive Overview of Advaita

This is my first book review, but when I received my copy of Back to the Truth I felt a sense of wonderment at how much had been covered and the extensive quotes which enrich the content. I rarely recommend books to others, but I have recommended this one often and given it as a gift to my very first teacher. It is an invaluable resource which you would want own if you are interested in Advaita and nonduality.

for more information click here

A Masterful Guide to Advaita

A profoundly astute and masterful guide to the field of Self-discovery. An authoritative scholar, Dennis writes with supreme clarity as he skillfully expounds, logically analyzes and insightfully integrates the wisdom of classical and contemporary teachers with the principles of Advaita.
- Katie Davis, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment

for more information click here

Stellar Comprehensive Compendium of all Things Advaita

Being a student of Advaita (non-duality) Vedante (the culmination of The Vedas),can be a daunting task for the western student. There are a myriad of resources, many in apparent contradiction to each other: traditional Indian texts, promoted by many different splinters of religious thought within and without the Hindu community, a highly self published group of western contemporary teachers espousing hybrid interpretations of "The Direct Path" as well as interdisciplinary sects laying claim to teachings which result in "enlightenment".
"
Additionally,traditional Advaita teachings are encumbered with prolific use of Hindu and Sankrit terms which make the task of comprehending them even more daunting.

Emerging from this choatic assemblage of information comes Dennis Waite, a highly educated and prolific author, who has spent a career inventorying and attempting to survey the entire arena. "Back to The Truth" is a continuation of the effort he began with the publication of "The Book of One", considered by many to be an essential reading on Advaita.

The effort required to traverse Waite's new book is well worth the effort. In addition to explaining the many paths available to the student, Waite has painstakingly referenced hundreds of resources available for further study. The book assembles an abundance of quotes of both contemporary teachers and the original texts, complete with appendices which detail how to locate the source material. Waite has compiled website links, bibliographies,a glossary of common Sanskrit terms, even teaching lineages to assist in the readers search.

The great irony is that Waite offers this road map to enlightenment while repeatedly noting the obvious:"enlightenment" can not be achieved by the conceptual mind. As Jim Swartz [...] so aptly put it: "In spiritual circles it has become an article of faith that a the quest for spiritual knowledge is an 'intellectual' and therefore misguided pursuit."

Thus, as some neo-advaitins love to point out, some may decide that the effort of study is unnecessary.

Ultimately, this conclusion is a fallacy. More by Swartz: "...it should be noted that anyone seeking enlightenment through the 'heart' or other paths would necessarily be motivated by the intellectual belief that he or she was limited, inadequate and incomplete i.e. unelightened. To pursue experience is natural but to pursue it at the expense of understanding is foolish because it is only misunderstandings about our true nature that make us think we are unenlightened in the first place. The Self realized beings who went before left a vast body of information to help us purge erroneous concepts that stand in the way of appreciating who we really are."

Dennis Waite has provided the penultimate resource to assist readers in this pursuit. It is first and foremost a service to humanity. If you have a serious interest in discovering your true self and uncovering the nature of reality, this is as close to an road map and instruction guide to the apparently confusing world of Advaita as you will find. I strongly recommend it.

for more information click here

A Balanced Approach

This book, while almost encyclopedic in its coverage, is still very readable, especially for the person who has at least some background in non-dual thought. As I read it, I bit off a good chunk at a sitting and found I could chew it for a long time.

I especially appreciated the author's fair approach to the various ways of understanding Advaita, which like so many other spiritual viewpoints is like the proverbial blind men trying to describe an elephant by touching it's various body parts.

There are many references in the comprehensive appendices that are truly useful for the person who wants to do more study.

At first I was a bit turned off by the author's use of the Sanskrit transliteration method known as ITRANS, designed to help properly pronounce Sanskrit words, which usually come into play whenever the historical aspects of non-dualism are discussed. However, he includes a helpful explanation of how to use this technique in an appendix, if you're interested.

Most of the historical references are from Indian sources with very little acknowledgment of the Chinese (Ch'an) and Japanese (Zen) contributions to non-dual expressions. However, if these had been included it would have required multiple volumes.

This is the best and most readable book I've seen covering the full range of thought on this topic from many different perspectives, filled with quotations from a wide variety of writers, both ancient and contemporary.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Advaita is a spiritual philosophy based on the Upanishads, older than most other religious systems we know about but also the most logical and scientific in its approach. This book is a systematic treatment of Advaita which demystifies it, differentiating between approaches and teachers, enabling you to decide which approach is most suitable for you. It compares the scriptures of traditional Advaita with the words of contemporary sages and neo-Advaita. Should we ignore the mind? Is the world real? Is there anything we can do to become enlightened? These questions and many more are addressed, with explanations given in their own words from those who discovered the truth. A massively comprehensive, definitive work.

for more information click here

hot