Our first new library addition is a rare audio lecture “On Silence” by Swami Prabhavananda, of the Ramakrishna Order, giving a powerful insight into the Vedantine way.

None of us has ever been satisfied with finite knowledge of the finite… But why is it that we do not find God? Of course it is ignorance, but what is this ignorance? That we are not interested in knowing the Creator; we are so interested in His creation. We are seeing the magic, and absorbed in this magic we don’t see the Magician.

• Complementing the talk on silence, an autobiographic and brief article by Rosalyn Tureck, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century and a renowned expert in the work of J.S. Bach, gives a very personal answer to her life question “Why Bach?”.

My performances are the sum total of my work, thought and spirit… If my work has proved to to have been of aesthetic enlightenment and spiritual benefit to others, perhaps, then, I shall not have labored in vain.

• Finally, one of the articles in René Guénon’s posthumous collection Initiation and Spiritual Realisation, considering various aspects of the relation between “Collective Initiatic Work and Spiritual Presence”.

In the Hebrew Kabbalah it is said that when the sages converse about the divine mysteries, the Shekinah is present among them; thus, even in an initiatic form where the collective work does not in general seem to be an essential element, a spiritual “presence” is no less clearly averred when such a work takes place.

• There are still two places available for this year’s Sacred Gardens course, a practical and philosophical workshop led by Emma Clark, taking place from 4th to 5th June in Wells, Somerset. Follow this link for details and to register.