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Neil Ruggles's avatar

This material is certainly important for people to know. Much of it seems to be taken almost verbatim from Idries Shah's book "Special Illumination: Examining the role and place of humour in Sufi thought," and interested readers may want to investigate Mr. Shah's other writings. They are all available online for free from the Idries Shah Foundation.

The notion that humans are "evolving" metaphysically is common to a great deal of "perennial" literature today. Readers may wish to consult writings from the "Traditionalist" school, such as Rene Guenon's "Crisis of the Modern World" from 1927, or "The Reign of Quantity & the Signs of the Times" from 1945, for a quite different perspective. Such writings discuss mankind's cyclical devolution from spiritual to materialist states and the implications and consequences of this devolution. Many cultural traditions speak of their own devolution from a former Golden age. It is modern hubris that imagines such tales are mere fables. English translations of Guenon's writings are available free on the Internet.

The now frequent claims of "conscious evolution" attribute to Man what is God's to decide. Such claims invert metaphysical truth, and are inevitable as this cycle collapses into total materialism.

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Philippa Rees's avatar

I enjoyed this-these- for many reasons! The truth of them certainly, but more, the irreverence! And the sly digs at sanctimony, of which we have a superfluidity right now!

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