This week we have a new Martin Lings lecture: King Lear, recorded in London in 1994 by The Temenos Academy. Dr Lings explains how with King Lear “we are kept conscious throughout of the presence of the allegory, that is, of the play as an image of the history of mankind.”

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.