Path Of Love Research Articles

“Concept, form and philosophical background of devotion”

Bhakti, a sentiment rooted in the worship of God, has been prevalent since the Vedic period and has evolved over time. The word Bhakti, derived from the root Bhaj which means to serve, includes worship, love and offering to God. There are two paths of devotion: Saguna and Nirguna, the second is the path of knowledge and the second is the path of love. Hinduism accepts both forms of God, with saints and devotees adopting their preferred forms. Philosophical discussion on Bhakti began in the Middle Ages, with scholars such as Shankaracharya attempting to consolidate Hinduism through the Vedas and Upanishads. Shankaracharya introduced monism, arguing that the soul and the world have no real significance apart from Brahman, and knowledge is the only means of purifying the mind. Ramanujacharya opposed Shankaracharya's theory and said that Brahma is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Nimbarkacharya also established dualism, saying that soul and nature are objectively real but dependent on God.

Self-Purification and Social Dramatization; from Simone Weil to Martin Luther King Jr.

This article begins with an analysis of Simone Weil’s notion of “impersonality”, which implies disengagement from earthly attachments, deep introspection, and connection with an “anonymous” God, that is, with an imagined spiritual force of purity, located beyond the observable secular world. “Impersonality” encourages purification (or catharsis) from frantic passions (excited by such attachments); it inspires love, which Weil associates with respect and selfless devotion to social justice. My goal is to identify a shared set of similarities between Weil and Martin Luther King Jr. on the issue of individual catharsis, acknowledging also important divergences. King—contra Weil—claimed that rejection of frantic passions is incited through connection with a “personal” (rather than “anonymous”) God, with a high moral power, which responds to individual prayers and leads men and women into the path of love. Like Weil, King associated love with mutual respect and social justice. Both Weil and King believed that individual catharsis should lead to civil disobedience, whose ultimate objective is collective catharsis, that is, the abandonment of deeply rooted attitudes and beliefs (on behalf of a collectivity) that (sometimes unknowingly) perpetuate injustices, causing great suffering. By reflecting on the viewpoints offered by these thinkers, the present study will attempt to shed light on the process by which collective catharsis shifts public attitudes. The aim of civil disobedience, I will explain, is to dramatize social evils (such as racism and social exclusion), making large portions of a society aware of their passive reproduction of attitudes that contribute to the perpetuation of such unjust practices.

Konsep Cinta Sebagai Upaya Harmonisasi dalam Konflik Antar Agama-agama Besar Dunia

This article discusses the concept of love as a rare harmonization in conflicts between major world religions. The emergence of conflict is sometimes indicated by a certain ideology, power, and social-religious. The purpose of this research is to understand, respond to, and provide solutions to any conflicts that have occurred in the world’s major religions. In this study, using a qualitative research method with a descriptive analysis style using literature review techniques and using a historical review approach to explain descriptive analysis in discussing conflicts between the world’s major religions. What’s interesting about this article is that it offers the concept of love as taught in every religion. If without being based on love in realizing peace, it will be difficult to meet in deliberations, and greet one another. By taking the path of love, humans can create a harmonious life, a peaceful life without any disputes between other religious communities. So that with the diversity of people’s colors, religions, races, ethnicities, and cultures, we should be able to react wisely. Tolerance and mutual respect between fellow citizens must be upheld.

The Contribution of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya to Salafi Sufism

This article aims to explore the Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s original views on Sufism. Ibn Qayyim is regarded as an authority in Salafi circles who reject Sufism as a legitimate representation of Islam, especially its philosophical orientation. This article uses a literature research model to reach the finding that Ibn Qayyim understood Sufism as a moral system and part of the science of Islamic morality. Sufism aims to purify the soul to prepare it for its return to God along the path of love. The basis of Sufism as revised by Ibn Qayyim was the Qur’ān, the Sunnah, the traditions of the companions, the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya, and the teachings words of the early Sufi masters. Ibn Qayyim strongly adhered to the orthodox principles of Islamic scholarship later dubbed as Salafism, especially in terms of prioritizing the shari‘a over reason and rejecting esoteric interpretation (ta’wīl). For Ibn Qayyim, the Sufi philosophers were misled in overly relying on ta’wīl and disregarding the role of reason. His approach to Sufism was to perform an objective evaluation of the Sufi teachings circulating at his time. Instead of joining either side, the side of those who condemned it as unlawful innovation (bid‘a) or the side of those who accepted it uncritically, Ibn Qayyim chose to conduct an extensive review of its ideas and practices, rejecting those elements that he found objectionable and accepting others that he found commendable.

«Созидательное устройство совместной жизни»: путь семьи ученых-геологов

The autobiographical tale of geologists, the Negrutsa spouses, “The Path of Love” (2002) is an informative source on the history of Russian geology, the everyday life of field researchers, and the social history of the family. The main significance of the book is that it is a socio-anthropologically valuable autodescription of a married family belonging to the scientific intelligentsia and to a certain professional group. The work contributes to the study and understanding of the processes of the formation of Soviet urban families in the second half of the twentieth century. The content of the book is considere in the context of the problems of marriage choice, matrimonial relations, the organization of extended kinship communities, family crises and conflicts, the relationship between professional and family aspects of life. The Negrutsa family belonged to the type of married families, whose unity is based on the personal interaction of husband and wife and is supported by immanent values. At the same time, the married family is influenced by the traditions of parental families, which in this case differed significantly in socio-cultural properties.

Is not being in love, is to love! Going through the psychology of the masses

The paradox that Freud borrows from Schopenhauer's hedgehog dilemma describes how to deal with human relationships and bonds, and how to approach others without injuring ourselves. However, if we move away from that other, we suffer. This paradox describes in a similar manner, the relationship of the hypnotising leader to the masses. We cannot live without them, but being with them causes us suffering. When others approach us, it makes us uncomfortable; we cannot cope with the hedgehog's spikes, and we do not know what to do with them. It seems that the only thing we can do is hurt ourselves. This paper proposes that the way out of the hedgehog's dilemma is not the optimal distance, but instead a brave proximity, through the path of love.

“Theurgic creativity” in philosophical conceptions of F. Nietzsche, Vl. Solovyov, and N. Berdyaev

The article presents a comparative analysis of theurgic activity in the works of three thinkers from the point of the generic understanding of theurgy as a “complete transformation of reality”. Despite the literal meaning of the term “theurgy”, according to all three thinkers, the indicated transforming influence is carried out by man and not by God. Although F. Nietzsche himself does not utilize the concept of theurgy, his theory of the Übermensch does fit into the framework of radical theurgic creativity since it presupposes a complete transformation of man carried out by himself, a change in his ontological nature. What is noted as a substantial similarity of the understanding of the transforming human activity by V. Solovyov and F. Nietzsche is that both thinkers view man as a product and the highest link of nature from which it follows that the highest calling of man is the transformation of not only himself but also nature. The difference lies in the fact that in Nietzsche’s view, the theurgic transformation is carried out by a person alone, through heroic effort. According to Solovyov, the main path of transformation of man and the world – the path of love – begins with a combination of two individuals and leads to conciliarity. In contrast, N. Berdyaev’s conception of theurgic creativity is distinguished by its radical transcendence, opposition to nature.

TEOLOGI SUFI KAJIAN ATAS MISTISISME CINTA JALALUDDIN RUMI

This paper will examine the idea of mycticisme love carried by Jalaluddin Rumi. In his journey as a Sufi, Rumi managed to take his own Sufism form and give a new nuance that was considered different from most Sufis of his time. Sufism thinking contained in the form of poetry and poetry known as the path of love (mystic love). This paper is a reseach library using descriptive analysis method to study the thoughts of Divine love Jalaluddin Rumi. The love carried by Rumi signals to live in harmony with the principles of peace and tolerance. Poetry becomes one of the most appropriate means to express the inner state he feels. With the idea of divine love he introduced, Rumi was able to pour all kinds of feelings and expressions of his personal religious experience into deeply poetic verses. Poems born of a heart yearning for union with the Beloved, until when the Beloved Being is the only being that exists. Love, which is the light of life and human values, is actually eternal. So it must be for the eternal. He does not deserve to be given to those who are destined to be mortal and perish.

“The Path of Love” and “The Path of the Cave” in Selected Works of Hans Christian Andersen

In the article, the author discusses the “path of love” and “the path of the cave,” using selected works by Hans Christian Andersen. The Danish fairy tale writer masterfully shows how heroes anchored in a sensual world go a long way to find a world that escapes rational cognition. Most of his charac­ters can easily be described as dynamic, because they change under the influ­ence of powerful experiences. Those who attach more importance to beauty closed in a form devoid of deeper content are condemned. Andersen’s fairy tales have two audiences, children and adults. The former will understand the anecdote and the latter will see the metaphor. The works of the fairy tale writer show autobiographical threads, including his attitude to the Christian religion, in which the triad of truth, good, and beauty turns out to be extremely important.

The Seven Avatars of Love: Deliberations on Rūmī’s Mathnawī

AbstractAn ‘avatar’ is a technical Sanskrit term used in Indian mythology, referring to a divine manifestation on earth. The ultimate goal of an avatar is to save the earth and guide its occupants to salvation. Similarly, Rūmī equates true love with God and introduces seven different personifications of love on earth as divine agents who are there to lead mankind to the ultimate joy of liberation – liberation from their own egos and from their surroundings. The typical stories of love revolve around the lovers’ fears, pains, joys, and other emotional states, and the path they follow in order to experience the ultimate ecstasy of union with the beloved. In the Mathnawī the issue of love has been discussed in various passages and stages. A detailed analytical study of the magnum opus shows an effort by Rūmī to represent various stages of love in bodily forms. That is to say the lover, in his mystical journey, faces individuals who are in fact personifications of love. In his journey of self-discovery, the lover encounters seven mysterious individuals, whom we have termed the Seven Avatars of Love. These seven avatars appear at various stages of the journey in order to test, help, and provide guidance to the lover. They are in fact manifestations of a single reality disguised in seven forms: the Blood-shedder, the Spiritual Guide (Pīr), the Constable, the King, the Caliph, the Angel Gabriel, and finally, the Musician. Together they display various intellectual, mental, and emotional challenges that are experienced by true lovers on the path of love.

Концепция теургического творчества у Вл. Соловьева и Вяч. Иванова

The philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov is considered from the perspective of its existential value. He understood his philosophy as a philosophy of life intended to give a man the highest meaning of his existence rather than as a philosophy of the school of thought. For Solovyov, the highest meaning of human existence consists in pursuing the matter of nature that is to overcome the disunified empirical state and ascend to the world of positive all-unity. The paper introduces and explains the concept of individual theurgy by Solovyov manifested in two fundamental varieties, i.e. the path of love and the path of art both available to everyone. Solovyov’s theory of art is analyzed as the basic theurgic principle that implies the creation of beauty as the spiritualization and idealization of the empirical world. Then Solovyov’s theurgic art is revised in the theory of artistic creativity developed by the Russian poet Vyacheslav Ivanov. This theory is closely related to the anthropological teaching of Ivanov where the theurgic artist is an anthropological ideal. The study notes that the basic aspects of Ivanov’s theory of art are semantically interconnected and divide art into two types: violent and transformative or non-violent and transfigurative. Genuinely theurgic art is characterized by a non-violent transfiguration of reality. The study also examines the distinction between symbolic and theurgic arts by Ivanov. The research shows that the achievement of the stage of theurgic art requires the spiritual transformation of the artist that raises him to the level of the spiritual beings of the noumenal world. A person who has reached the stage of theurgic art is defined by Ivanov as a superhuman being in the specific spiritual sense that is a part of this concept from the standpoint of the Russian philosophy of all-unity.

The Path of Love: Sufism in the Poetry of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

Abstract This paper explores the concept of “Sufism” or “mysticism” (the two terms are used interchangeably herein) in the works of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (1940 - 2016), an Sufi poet, essayist, artist and playwright, who is referred to as American Islam's Poet Laureate. The first part of the paper sheds light on the concept of “Sufism” or “Islamic mysticism” and highlights its central tenets. Using a theoretical framework informed by the Sufi theosophy of Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) and the writings of two important modern western scholars of Sufism, Annemarie Schimmel and William Chittick, the second part of the paper will study a selection of Moore’s poems from his collections The Soul’s Home (2014) and The Blind Beekeeper (2001). The aim of the paper is to show how Moore’s poetry reveals the major concepts of Sufism. In this regard, Ibn Arabi’s Sufi concepts act as a point of reference that helps clarify the interplay between the poems under study and Sufism.

Sri Chinmoy on the nature and goals of contemplative practice

Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) has written extensively on the concrete details of contemplative practice as well as its purpose in the wider context of yoga as a system of spiritual disciplines leading to God-realization. The paper summarizes his teachings with an emphasis on how contemplative practice is done and how it works in attaining its goals. Sri Chinmoy distinguishes between concentration, meditation and contemplation (the last a term he reserves for highly advanced practice). While not offering a single “technique” but rather a toolbox of many techniques from which the practitioner can choose, he commends a particular basic approach or method while always recognizing the validity of other approaches. On the path of love, devotion and surrender, Sri Chinmoy emphasizes a focus on the heart and cultivation of aspiration, an inner cry for self-transcendence. In actual practice, this approach attenuates the ego and eventually brings illumination into a person’s entire consciousness. The paper explains how this process relates to samādhi, which is described, and the difference between samādhi and realization. The paper also touches on the relation between meditation and action and the further goal, beyond God-realization, of “God-manifestation” or integral transformation of the individual, human society and the evolving cosmos.

The Necklace of Numbers

The necklace of numbers is a symbol that came in one of my dreams at the end of 2006, at the time when I was about to leave France, my native country, and come to the United States. As I was going through the process of becoming an American citizen, I felt compelled to reconnect to my French roots. The result was this personal account which tells the most important dreams that led me to this country. It is also a tale of a mid-life transformation, a tale of an immigrant viewed from inside, and a tale of individuation by following the path of love.

Return to the Soul’s Garden of Eden by the Path of Love: Shi Tiesheng’s Writing and Christian Culture

Return to the Soul’s Garden of Eden by the Path of Love: Shi Tiesheng’s Writing and Christian Culture

Blood on the Path of Love: The Striking Workers of Faisalabad, Pakistan

The government and the bosses go hand-in-hand; more often than not, the bosses are the government.…today's Pakistani elite are incestuously interconnected via family relations and marriages with a large patronage network of squabbling, but self-serving, interest groups. Their rationale is to keep the country and its resources for themselves: they negotiate among themselves and take the spoils from any sales to the international elite.… Against these latter-day pharaohs stand the conscious and spirited workers.… Mian Qayyum, Bawa Lalif Ansari, and Muhammad Rana [are contemporary narrators of their struggle].This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Seven Paths of the Hero in Lord of the Rings: The Path of Love

Sam's is the simplest yet the most touching of all paths: His simple loyalty and love for Frodo make him the single person who never wavers in his task throughout the book. Though all members of the Fellowship are engaged in momentous events, Sam always remembers that the sun coming up in the morning is a glorious sight, and that hobbits have to eat. When Frodo can no longer even walk, and will not let Sam carry the Ring, Sam carries Frodo. Then, when Gollum joins them, Frodo's kindness has to be balanced by Sam's stern limits. Ultimately Sam's outcome is the happiest of all those on the Quest: He has been able to see the Elves who so fascinate him, able to serve as Frodo's companion on the greatest of all Quests, and now able to return to his blessed Shire, to marry his loving Rosie, have many children and live happily ever after.

Seven Paths of the Hero in Lord of the Rings Introduction

This article is the first installment of the serialization of Frodo's Quest, a book that describes seven paths of the hero in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings as models of the path of individuation. In this introductory chapter, the history and significance of The Lord of the Rings are summarized, and the seven paths are briefly introduced: (1) the Path of Curiosity (Merry and Pippin); (2) the Path of Opposites (Gimli and Legolas); (3) the Path of the Wizard (Gandalf); (4) the Path of the King (Aragorn); (5) the Path of Failed Individuation (Gollum); (6) the Path of Love (Sam); and (7) the Path of Transcendence (Frodo). The second installment of this book follows in this issue.

A Sufi Itinerary of Tenth Century Nishapur Based on a Treatise by Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī

Among the extant works of the well-known Sufi biographer Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) is Masalat darajāt al-ṣādiqīn fi l-taṣawwuf (the Stations of the Righteous). This treatise begins with a question about the three paths of Islamic mysticism: the Malāmatiyya, the Sufis and the Path of Love. Al-Sulamī's response presents the three as facets of an integral whole, each reflecting stages on a quest for knowledge. The treatise is set out as an itinerary through increasingly subtle stations of experiential knowledge of divine reality; as such it represents a prototype of this genre of Islamic literature. Central to the itinerary are the origins and epistemological foundations of Islamic sainthood (walāya). In this paper I rely upon a new critical edition of the text updated from an hitherto unused manuscript that supplies a serious lacuna in the earlier edition. I focus on al-Sulamī's exposition of the stations of maʿrifa, his multiple references to walāya, the concealed and revealed saints, and the Pole (Quṭb), in order to establish a framework for a Sufi epistemology founded upon a hierarchy of subtle degrees of maʿrifa. I present translations from the text that emphasize the central role in al-Sulamī's teachings of the principles of the Malāmatiyya of Nishapur. Masalat darajāt al-ṣadiqīn affords us the opportunity to encounter al-Sulamī in a rarely perceived theoretical context—as the mystic, mentor, teacher and transmitter of the spiritual tradition of his home city of Nishapur, the Malāmatiyya. Moreover, al-Sulamī's detailed exposition of the stations of maʿrifa elevates that tradition from one seen as a spiritual tendency based upon a pessimistic view of human nature to a school of mystical theology.

Aṇṭāḷ and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India

Aṇṭāḷ and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India