/lit/ - Literature

>>11028345
>Of the works you've listed, where does one begin?

Read the Ashtavakra Gita for a quick TLDR. After that either read the Yoga Vasistha or read through the core texts of Advaita (Shankara's Prasthanatrayi commentaries, roughly 2,000 pages). After you read one of those read the other. The prasthanatrayi texts that Shankara comments on are earlier than the Yoga Vasistha but the Yoga Vasistha may slightly pre-date Adi Shankara. Reading both Vasistha and his commentaries would round out your understanding exceptionally well. After that really any order.

There are two high quality abbreviations translation of Vasistha, both by the same guy, my other link has the longer one. The original Sanskrit has roughly the same # of verses as the bible and the only full English translation was awful so I'd not recommend it.


>How would you contrast traditional metaphysics in the West with Advaita Vedanta? As for initiation

A. Coomaraswamy wrote an excellent article on that subject titled 'Vedanta and Western Tradition'. I couldn't do it more justice than him.

http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/viewpdf/default.aspx?article-title=The_Vedanta_and_Western_Tradition_by_Ananda_Coomaraswamy.pdf


>Rene Guenon says that initiation is impossible without being part of a living tradition and organization. What do you make of this?

A true initiation in the sense of receiving a generally complete understanding of the doctrine to the extent that you are a 'carrier' of it so to speak and capable of passing it down accurately to others, that would most certainly require initiation by a living and real group. However first off it's important to understand that a key element of the Guenon's Tradition/the Hindu Santatana Dharma is that it exists on it's own in perpetuity and with the right concentration people are capable of picking up on it and tuning into it like a ration station. This is how it's regarded as having been started the first place when the first people did this when the sruti was revealed. I'm not claiming that that I myself specifically am doing this but it's not like the Truth exists only insofar as it's continues being taught by people.

More importantly, studying the primary texts yourself carefully, especially with the advice of people like Guenon or Coomaraswamy will still help you get a lot out of it, even if it's not the same as initiation and guidance by a teacher. Adi Shankara referred to Gaudapada as 'the highest teacher' despite probably never having met him. To a large degree the texts themselves especially with the commentaries are the teacher. I accept that I may not get it as I would with initiation, but I'm open to doing that in the future and I'm learning and benefiting massively from studying the texts now so I'm not too worried.