• This week our library news include an introduction and audio recording of one of the most revered works in Japanese contemplative literature, Basho’s Narrow Road to the Interior (Oku no Hosomichi), called by some “a study in Eternity”, under the guise of a poet’s travel diary.

• A rare gem, one of the only two articles penned by Adrian Paterson, in the original French, as published in Études Traditionelles in 1939: “L’Ésotérisme de Béowulf” gives an original exegesis of the famous Old English epic, asserting that one of the main themes of the poem is “la réalisation de «l’Identité Suprême» par le héros”. Click here to access the PDF.

• An article by Arthur Green on the cosmic role of the “Just” or Zaddiq in Jewish tradition.

The zaddiq is no longer the dreaming observer of the angels who go up and down the ladder’s rungs, as was the biblical Jacob. Nor is he a participant in the constant movement along the ladder… Here the zaddiq himself is the ladder; it is through him that others may ascend to God.

• Finally, our readers’ attention is drawn to the recent addition of a new Arabic original recording of the famous Wine-Song of Umar Ibn al-Farid (Sharibna ala dhikri al-habib). Click here to go to the post.