Videos of the conference will soon be available from this official page at Georgetown University.

We have started collecting in a single page several appraisals of our work coming from religious and scholarly authorities as well as from occasional researchers and visitors. This new Testimonials page is a good way to understand and appreciate our work from different perspectives. You can visit following this link.

We also have this week an addition to our Far Eastern and Buddhist collections: the autobiography of Yamada Mumon Roshi, an influential 20th century master of the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition. This short and valuable document gives, in addition to spiritual instruction, a remarkable insight into the spiritual effervescence of urban Japan by the beginning of the 20th century.

We hope you will enjoy browsing our careful selection of Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist, Shinto, Jewish, Christian and Islamic MP3 recordings from temples, monasteries and oratories all over the world. Feel free to download the collection, which is certainly worth attentive and, as it were, “active” listening.

Look out for updates to this collection over the coming months, as we add to the initial selection and expand into other traditions and other branches and denominations within the major religions.

We shall be grateful for donations, suggestions, comments and contributions that help us improve this and other areas of our online library. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch through our contact page.

In addition to this we have a new article by Patrick Laude: “Shimmering Reality: The Metaphysics of Relativity in Mystical Traditions,” where the author, using as a starting point the foundational texts of Advaita Vedanta, elaborates on “the mystery of universal metaphysical relativity, or universal existence,” trying to ascertain what is the latter’s ontological status according to wisdom and mystical traditions, across religious boundaries. We are grateful to the author and to Philosophy East and West for permission to publish this article.

“It is not a question of projecting a supersaturated and disillusioned individualism into a desecrated Nature but, on the contrary, of rediscovering in Nature, on the basis of the traditional outlook, the divine substance which is inherent in it; in other words, to “see God everywhere,” and to see nothing apart from His mysterious presence.”

We also bring this week a new Shakespeare lecture by Martin Lings: Cymbeline, of which Dr Lings has the following to say:

“That happiness of the recovery of something thought irretrievably lost, is probably more intense in Cymbeline… it is in Cymbeline that Shakespeare expresses more than in any other play something of the truth that, as was said by Christ to St. Julian of Norwich: ‘All shall be well; all manner of thing shall be well’, referring to the Reality that will prevail ultimately.”

In addition to these, we have a new article by Reza Shah-Kazemi on our Islam section: “The Prophetic Paradigm,” from the book The Spirit of Tolerance in Islam (London: IB Tauris/IIS, 2012):

“The quality of hilm entails avoiding conflict, and seeking instead peace, reconciliation and justice. It calls for wisdom, an objective view of what is required in each situation, an ability to be detached from self-interest, as well from one’s own anger, sentiment or desire. It… enables one to resist the pressures of tribalism, nationalism, or any other prejudice which might distort one’s perception of justice and propriety… A correct understanding of hilm takes us to the very heart of Islamic virtue, and one cannot fully appreciate the roots of tolerance in Islam without understanding the meaning, the influence, and the radiance of this key prophetic virtue.”

In our second talk, following with our Martin Lings Shakespeare lectures series, we have Measure for Measure, of which Dr Lings has this to say: “In no play does Shakespeare represent more clearly than in Measure for Measure the dangers of the spiritual path. At the outset of the path the perverted psychic elements are more or less dormant and remote from the centre of consciousness. They must first of all be woken and then redeemed, for they cannot be purified in their sleep; and it is when they wake in a state of raging perversion that there is always the risk that they will overpower the whole soul…”

“Seeing God Everywhere: Traversing the Spiritual Journey”: Thanks to our friends at the  Australian Centre for Sufism and Irfanic Studies we have a brand new video in which Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi elaborates on the expression “Seeing God Everywhere”, explaining what is the deepest way of understanding this from within the Qur’anic, hence Islamic and Sufi perspective.

After a brief welcome and introduction by Josef Meri and Juan Acevedo, the different presenters gave voice to the Vedas, the Buddhist scriptures, the Torah, Christian hymns and the Qur’an for a truly exceptional and inspiring afternoon.

This is an excerpt from the opening words:

“The pitfalls of expression are always lurking in interfaith exchanges, and those engaged feel as if treading on thin ice lest they are misinterpreted and then misquoted and misjudged… how could it be otherwise, if what is involved is trying to express what is beyond words and even beyond language?

“…music easily presents itself as a sufficient vehicle, or in any case as a subtler vehicle… reaching inwards, or upwards, or at least, through its rhythm, closer in language to our beating hearts, and even closer when use is made of the human voice as an instrument. True and timeless bridges between the corporeal and the subtle realms, we don’t seem to be able to determine exactly where is it that our intonations and invocations spring from, and how far they reach in their subtle repercussions.”

Please follow this link to our Library for full details and to listen to the audio recordings.

Representatives of five major religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, will be performing for each other and the general public some of the most important recitations and chants of their respective traditions. With a brief introduction giving the context and particular importance of each piece, we will listen to traditional recitations of the Vedas, Buddhist sutras, Jewish Torah recitation and chants, Christian chants and Islamic Qur’an recitation and Sufi chants.

For more information, please follow this link to our announcement, or click here to see the Woolf Institute announcement.

Keats & Shakespeare: the brief life of Keats and his works are considered in detail and on their deepest dimensions, having as a constant reference Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and drawing on Dr Lings’ own experience as a musician and poet.

Hamlet: this is the first of a series of lectures dedicated to the major plays of Shakespeare. Here Martin Lings draws not only on his studies of symbolism and his spiritual knowledge, but also on his stage experience. During the 1940s, for more than a decade, his work at the Cairo University gave him the opportunity to produce Shakespeare plays every year. This experience culminated years later in the publication of his The Secret of Shakespeare (click here for US distributor).