/lit/ - Literature

>>14565942
Guenon (pbuh) actually cites the Zhuangzi all the times in his books on metaphysics to show how it aligns with other traditions

>>14565942
t. hasnt even read Guenon's first book.

He discusses Taoism and Confucianism extensively and basically says that Taoism is to Confucianism what Sufism is to Islam

>>14565942
>Chinese complete lack of interest in Metaphysics

Confirmed for having never even read any Taoist literature. Why even make a thread about something you know nothing about brainlet?

>>14565965
Very based. Kys OP

>>14565960
What is the equivalent correspondence in Judaism and Christianity? Does Guénon talk about those too?

>>14566017
Of course he does.
Judaism has Kabbalah
Christianity has Gnosticism (Which is basically a Proto form of Kabbalah mixed with Platonism/Pythagoreanism)

>>14565978
Don't do it

búmp

>>14566024
I haven’t read Guenon, but comparative religion has been an interest of mine for a long time and I’m deeply interested in this topic. What I don’t understand is why Guenon and his circle sought out Sufi traditions if they felt that Christianity retained initiatic traditions in Gnosticism and perhaps even Orthodoxy. Christians effectively persecuted all of their mystic traditions so it seems to me that any initiatic link has been lost. Is that why he sought out Sufism?

>>14565965
Confucianism is unmetaphysical and is far more popular in China than Daoism.

>>14566510
As it should be, metaphysics is the domain of the intellectual elite, who will always be a relatively small portion of the population

>>14566722
Do you think one would have to formally study physics in order to understand metaphysics?

>>14566882
No, not at all. Many of the greatest metaphysicians in history knew nothing of modern physics

>>14565942

>>14567033
>Many of the greatest metaphysicians in history knew nothing of modern physics

>>14567033
It just seems like many of the Traditionalists have a deep history of formal study in mathematics or related fields. I’m deeply interested in metaphysics, but I don’t have formal education in physics or philosophy.

>>14567086
That's true, but when I say 'the greatest metaphysicians in history' I'm not talking about the Traditionalists but rather the thinkers whom the Traditionalists cite in their writings who lived from the first millenium BC to the medieval era

>>14567137
Do you have examples? In The Republic, Plato writes that one should proceed to Philosophy only after mastering the 5 mathematical disciplines.

>>14567038
I'd prefer such fruitful threads, however fake they may be, over the shitflinging and wojakposting we usually get.

>>14565948
>>14565960
Guenon is an interesting thinker but be careful about taking him as gospel. He only represents a westernized and neoplatonic version of the advaita vedanta position in Hindu philosophy, which is an offshoot of Buddhism more than an offshoot of the vedas.

>>14565960
Wouldn't he like Confucianism more than Daoism?

>>14566420
>is why Guenon and his circle sought out Sufi traditions if they felt that Christianity retained initiatic traditions in Gnosticism and perhaps even Orthodoxy

Guenon didn't think Christianity still retained initiatic traditions. His followers? Literally child-molester hacks with no discernible talent. Schuon fucking thinks Protestantism is valid initiation lmao

He did believe that a revival of Catholicism was possible and it could happen sooner rather than later and if it did it would immediately end modernity.

Why Sufism? Because it's a lot closer to Advaita Vedanta.

>>14569260
Not even A.K. Coomaraswamy, who was a native born Hindu and early critic of British Colonialism?
>inb4 remarried 3 times

I find the Tao Te Ching incredibly compelling but the rest of Taoism seems to have little to do with it, and is more about folk heroes, fortune telling, and maintaining boners when you are 98 years old.

>>14569635
What are you talking about? A lot of concepts discussed in Taoist literature indirectly refer to the TTC.

>>14569648
>>14569648
>A lot of concepts discussed in Taoist literature

See you loose me even there. One thing I liked about the Tao Te Ching was it was like 'great, now I can just shut the fuck up forever about dick measuring metaphysics and wu wei wu the shit out of my life', but then you have all these, and Allah forgive me for even typing the word, "systematizers" who come along and and suddenly it is all the usual kinds autistic theological power level rankings, gradients of divinity, and ultimate techniques you find everywhere else when TTC of all things seemed to point away from that.

Beyond just this it also seems that because of these attempts to systematize the original work that latter Taoism becomes a kind of half-way house for various Chinese folk practices that Buddhism began obliterating when it entered the country.

>>14569692
I think it's best to filter all posters who say pbuh.

>>14569719
pbuh

>>14569692
>Chinese folk practices that Buddhism began obliterating when it entered the country

Actually Buddhists brought their own techniques with them and Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, Martial Artists, and Confucians have been influencing one another for millennia.

People learn breathing techniques, massage techniques, various postures, etc. to cultivate health. These practices are always secondary to the primary meditation on the Tao. Wu-wei and knowledge of the Tao help you take these techniques into your own life in a way that helps you achieve wellness. Those people you are complaining about are simply trying to share what worked for them. The reason there are so many is because there are so many ways of combining the various ingenious practices people have figured out over the very rich ancient history of South And Eastern Asian.