Rene Daumal Centennial 3/16/ 1908-2008

[integralvision]

If Rene Daumal were alive, he would be 100 years old on March 16th.
He brought a fierce and lovely light to the world and his candle burned out long ago. It would be apt to say that he burned it at both ends, such was the intensity of his quest.

It was not until 1968, 24 years after his passing, that popular consciousness in Europe and America began to catch up to the pioneering efforts he led. (One could argue that the Beats picked up Daumal's threads a decade earlier, but they were not a mass movement.)

Rene Daumal was a youthful firebrand, spiritual seeker, and mystical poet in Paris during the Surrealist heyday. He spoke out boldly and iconoclastically for revolution; outside in society and inside, in the mind, heart, and spirit.

In a few short years, he and his circle delved into mind-altering substances, social and political polemics, and experimental metaphysics. He published his own and others' poetry, studied and translated sacred Sanskrit texts, practiced meditation, and other spiritual disciplines gathered from Asia and the Near East. Toward the end of his short life he joined forces with a group led by the legendary (or notorious, depending on who is speaking)
teacher, G.I. Gurdjieff.

I suspect that Daumal has not become as widely known in the United States as he deserves, in part because his non-conformist message runs counter to the conservative bias of US media, in part because US Americans are less likely than others to read French, and perhaps because his conjoining of politics and spirituality offended people who could only deal with one or the other. While his novel, Mount Analogue, is arguably a world-classic spiritual quest story . . . it is still an UNDERGROUND classic in the US.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's film LA MONTANA SAGRADA (The Holy Mountain) was partly based on Mount Analogue.

In the time since Daumal’s death, there have been 10 academic dissertations written about his work by scholars here in North America.

I'm pleased to say that he has made it into Wikipedia. Their pages on Daumal are worth reading.
English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Daumal
French: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Daumal

The French specialists and enthusiasts of Daumal are putting on a 10 day Centennial Celebration in Paris at the museum of the Halle Saint Pierre with readings, lectures, and learned symposia on all the topics dear to Daumal's heart as well as some theatrical performances inspired by his works.

You can find more information about the French Centenaire Daumal at
French: http://fr.hallesaintpierre.org/?id=evenements/index.tpl
English: http://preview.tinyurl.com/35a2b8

We’ve lined up some contributions to this blog from a few North American writers familiar with Daumal.

One of these writers, Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt, will be the only North American and the only woman included in the Centenaire Daumal in Paris. Her comprehensive book, Rene Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide , the result of 30 years of research and writing, is the second most widely held work on Daumal in libraries around the world, according to the World Cat database.

We also have an article written by Dr. Fran Shaw. She is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford and author of several books including Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence and 50 Ways to Help You Write.

Fran writes, "My last book ("Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence") was directly influenced by Daumal and his work with Hindu poetics.
. . . Daumal brings to light writing both as a yoga for the writer and as a means for awakening a finer quality of awareness in the reader."


Others who feel moved are invited to add their own contributions on the occasion of Duamal’s Centennial Celebration.

Please LET US KNOW whether and how YOU’VE been inspired or influenced by the work of Rene Daumal.

Integralvision
Los Angeles, CA

[integralvision]

[QUOTE=integralvision;35505]

"One of these writers, Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt, will be the only North American and the only woman included in the Centenaire Daumal in Paris. Her comprehensive book, Rene Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide , the result of 30 years of research and writing, is the second most widely held work on Daumal in libraries around the world, according to the World Cat database."
Here is an essay I wrote about 7 years ago for the Gurdjieff International Review.
--Kathleen

The Holy War
by René Daumal

Commentary by
Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt

R
ené Daumal was born a warrior poet. As one of the early revolutionary metaphysicians of our century, the teenage Daumal wanted to pillage and burn all the scaffoldings of our rigid, outmoded western thought patterns. In the 1920s, he was one of the first nineteen year-old iconoclasts to shout: Down with political imperialism and capitalist greed!

But even more passionately, he channeled this firebrand energy into the subtler battlefields of the human psyche. He and his youthful band of poet mystics actively explored every parapsychic avenue in order to experience superordinary dimensions of reality. Early on, Daumal realized that this higher state of illumination could only be experienced through a perpetual "metaphysical suicide" a voluntary destruction of the outer covering that surrounds the inner man. Because our soul becomes so mired in the material dimensions of ordinary existence, it loses its connection to the larger cosmic dimension. This comrade-in-arms fought the external battles for authenticity and truth in society amidst the avant garde of Paris, and the interior battles within himself against ego, laziness, and self-imposed emotional turmoil.

His early intuitive perception of this need for battle was substantiated by his long study of Sanskrit and Hindu metaphysics. Yet the most convincing affirmation of it came through the gift brought to him by Alexandre and Jeanne de Salzmann: the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. From 1931 onward, these teachings provided Daumal with a real battle plan and a unit of committed soldiers that he could join. During this decade, he ceased to write poetry altogether, even as he received some prominence from his publications and was awarded a prestigious literary prize. Now with the guidance of Gurdjieff's teaching, he knew he had to "unlearn daydreaming and learn to think, to unlearn philosophizing and learn to speak" that is not accomplished in a day."

"The Holy War" is the work of an old soldier, the thirty-two year-old Daumal. Although the two world wars and his own burning fuse were compressing his lifetime into a few intense years, he was still a warrior and the fire of his youth was now burning with a steady flame. A poem in prose, it is a fiery call to arms to join the Moujahada, the war against the complacent traitors of dream and convenient illusion. He shares with us an intimate record of his own struggle to find a truer, more authentic voice. With a direct conversational tone, his "I" speaks to "you" the reader. He attempts to discuss the issues of life's meaningless agitation in a detached objective manner, but his desperation comes through in the plaintive plea to us, the readers, to push our consciousness to the limit: to feel ourselves alive, to watch ourselves breathe.

This poem only makes sense to a reader who is doing just that while reading it: feeling the friction inside, as the mind reads the words and attends to the sensation of the breath flowing through the body. This is the battle of which he speaks. Read passively, the text is an allegory of an inner quest; read "consciously," the reader can feel the actual inner war as he experiences the words on the page. This is the way to break through the barriers of our narrow discrete perception of time and space, and achieve freedom from the wheel of suffering: we must wield a double-edged sword and exercise a double attention as we read. This is a concurrence of focus: one eye of attention that attends to the nuances of Daumal's thought processes, the cross currents and eddies that swirl out from the main stream; the other which follows the main river current of the poem as it overflows and floods our heart, mind, and body. We feel the overall impact of Daumal's heartfelt message: Wake up!

The poem is loosely divided into five sections, each beginning with a single short sentence as a statement of intent. He first presents the mythical " true poet." This is the Hindu kavi-the poet/priest described in Daumal's essays, who faces his baser instincts before he can alchemically transform lead into gold to share with others. Later in the poem, he describes the enemy-"phantoms . . . carved out of the void," all the self absorption and self deceptions. He speaks to them and gives them voice. The war strategy to fight them is simple: "I turn on the lamp," "I open an eye." His irony comes through as he describes the terms of the enemy's proposed armistice: close your eyes to the crimes of vanity and irritation, continually agitate yourself, add a bit of laziness and daydreaming and always blame others for your weakness.

Finally, in the last section, he explains most precisely the nature of the war and presents the valiant warrior, whose interior peace extends to his fellows, even while he carries on the holy war. He also calls upon Arjuna, the warrior of the Baghavad Gita, who submits to his duty and takes part in battle without any thought of gain.

At the end of the poem, Daumal alludes to the timeliness of the theme of war. In fact, "The Holy War" is dated Spring 1940, precisely at the moment when the inevitability of France's defeat was becoming painfully clear. Gurdjieff and the de Salzmann family were evacuating Paris. René was arranging to leave as well, greatly concerned about his Jewish wife's safety. The Germans invaded Paris in June. (Gurdjieff and the de Salzmanns returned to Paris in the autumn. Gurdjieff appreciated how war creates special conditions conducive to self-awareness, just as he had experienced in the Russian Revolution and earlier wars.) In 1917, when P. D. Ouspensky complained to Gurdjieff that nothing could be accomplished amidst "the mass madness" of war, Gurdjieff replied, "It is only now that it is possible, and events are not against us at all." While Daumal spoke elsewhere of our "convulsing planet," he felt that one lives in the era that one chooses: "Whether one lives in the time of Hitler or Attila or Napoleon, there always exist concurrently a Golden Age that is maintained by certain rare individuals. The challenge is to acquire the power and ability to find them."

After reading this poem's graphic description of the human plight, we see how truly personal the poem is, not only as it reflects René Daumal but as it reflects us all. The poet directs the rallying cry back at himself. "I shall speak to call myself to the holy war." "I shall speak so that my words may shame my actions." Three years later, when his health was seriously declining, he wrote to Jeanne de Salzmann,

Concerning my "concentration of thought," there is also a change in the sense that, if the battle is harder and more frequent, it seems to be a sign that I have a bit more force myself. A taste and a need for battle is developing. An answer from M. G. [Monsieur Gurdjieff] on the necessity of thwarting one's body in all that it likes or dislikes has recently made this clearer to me. In my case, I can no longer follow this rule to the letter (regrettably indeed, for when I did in the past, it gave me so much).

Three times throughout the poem, Daumal states, "the war has hardly begun . . . the war has hardly begun," reminding us that it is a ceaseless war and we are always only foot soldiers. Until the end, René Daumal, this warrior poet, continued his unrelenting quest to find awareness in the flow of time and illumination in the very immediacy of life. On with the war.
~ • ~

Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt is the author of René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, (1999) New York: State University of New York (SUNY) Press.

[integralvision]

Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt is the author of René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, (1999) New York: State University of New York (SUNY) Press.[/QUOTE]

Here's more on Rosenblatt and Daumal from:
http://www.techgnosis.com/daumal.html

Mount Daumal
A review of Rene Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, by Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt

by Erik Davis

A version of this piece appeared in the VLS, September, 1999

When 36-year-old Rene Daumal died in Paris near the close of World War II, he left behind one blistering book of poetry, numerous essays on Hindu aesthetics and various Surrealist obsessions, and two weird and amazing allegories: the absurdist satire A Night of Serious Drinking, and the unfinished Mount Analogue, a masterwork of 20th-century spiritual literature. At their best, these writings crackle with an intense and empyrean glow, a hard glint of the Absolute that, coupled with their Pataphysical humor, has made Daumal something of a cult figure among Surrealist aficionados, literate seekers, and other post-Beat types. Nonetheless, he remains an undeservedly obscure figure, and Rosenblatt's is the first major Daumal study to appear in English.

One reason for Daumal's marginal status is that, despite his intensely modernist deployment of inversion and revolt, he was at heart a profoundly spiritual man — a self-transcending ascetic who renounced even the trappings of renunciation. Though many avant-garde figures got into the mystic, from Kandinksy and Theosophy to Cage and Zen, Daumal took this trend to the limit. In his life and mind, we can trace the prophetic outlines of a genuine "mystical modernism," a mode of spiritual practice that is experiential, anti-religious, and counter-cultural -- even to the point of being counter-modern.

In any case, Daumal's writing must be seen in the context of esoteric trends in early twentieth century France, which is exactly what Rosenblatt's intellectual/spiritual biography attempts and largely succeeds at doing. Rosenblatt does not read like a literary critic -- in fact, she earns her keep as a doctor of homeopathy and Oriental medicine. Though her scholarship is not razor-sharp -- she flubs some Buddhist terms, for example -- she has a great feel for her subject and has unearthed all sorts of yummy nuggets of poetry and prose to boot.

Daumal's first claim to fame was the precociously weird group he formed with three teenage pals known as Le Grand Jeu. They wanted political, psychological, and metaphysical revolution, with pretentious rants and all ("No more free will! No more whim or fantasy! No more pretty things!"). Anticipating the 1960s, they dived into automatic handwriting, astral travel, sensory deprivation and drugs. Daumal's most notable experiments involved carbon tetrachloride, an impressively toxic dry-cleaning solvent that launched him into a near-death experience that eventually crystallized into his essay "Determining Memory," a play-by-play of druggy gnosis worthy of William James. The chemical also probably contributed to the TB that killed Daumal in 1944, though a lifetime of Gaulois probably didn't help things much.

As you might expect, the Grand Jeu carried on a lively dialogue with the older Surrealists. But Daumal's rigorous investigation of mysticism drew him beyond Breton's occult juvenilia. As Rosenblatt explains, Le Grand Jeu attempted to uncover the core of spiritual tradition without falling into a reactionary trap. Still, Daumal had no problem imbibing his deep and scholarly appreciation for classic Sanskrit texts from the profoundly conservative Traditionalist Rene Guenon. But Daumal did not really find his spiritual home until he joined the circle that surrounded the notorious master G.I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff's insistence that awakening arose only after merciless self-observation and intense psychological friction went over great with Daumal, who had already cultivated an almost frightening spirit of visionary de-personalization.

As Rosenblatt explains in the literary round-up that closes her book, the Gurdjieff work looms large over both A Night of Serious Drinking -- a Swiftian parody about "The bric-a-brac and eternal fidgeting of the world of sleep" -- and Mount Analogue, which reads like a magical blend of Gulliver's Travels, Ouspensky, and Breton's Nadja. The fact that Mount Analogue breaks off in mid-sentence is not a flaw, but emblematic, because the project that the book allegorizes -- the discovery of a modern way of Being -- hangs without resolution. But what really makes these works breathe is not their considerable insight and wisdom but their playful and unpretentious conviction that waking up is the only true revolt.

[integralvision]

"Gurdjieff's insistence that awakening arose only after merciless self-observation and intense psychological friction went over great with Daumal, who had already cultivated an almost frightening spirit of visionary de-personalization"


I am reading right now Jeremy Naydler's "Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts".

Although this is a heavy, scholarly tome, it's basic premise,
like Daumal's, is to shatter the upside-down viewpoint of our current world and replace it with a perspective that is in touch with the world of the spirit instead of being clinically separated from it - a modality which our age is so brainwashed to do.

Daumal, llke Gurdjieff, was so ahead of his time. Now, the movement toward light is able to be felt, a strong general movement, in spite of media propaganda to the contrary. Daumal's place as an important initiator of that movement truly needs to be honored.

A minor point - his correspondence - two volumes from Gallimard are very hard to find - at any price. Cannot someone reprint them?

Jack Cain

[integralvision]

[QUOTE=integralvision;35505]
In the time since Daumal’s death, there have been 10 academic dissertations written about his work by scholars here in North America.

North American Dissertations on Daumal
ProQuest (Dissertation Abstracts)

10 documents found for: (Rene Daumal)

1. Beyond surrealism: The Grand Jeu, Josef Sima and the quest for unityby Roberts, Donna, Ph.D., University of Essex (United Kingdom), 2003; AAT C814818

2. Rene Daumal: From surrealist states of the unconscious to conscious states of being by Rosenblatt, Kathleen Ferrick, Ph.D., The University of Connecticut, 2003, 170 pages; AAT 3104094

3. La technocratie et le phenomene de la machine dans les annees trente by Sebastien, Jean, Ph.D., Universite de Montreal (Canada), 2000, 362 pages; AAT NQ51972

4. La notion de l'espace dans "Le Mont Analogue" de Rene Daumal by Konok, Hildegard Mary, M.A., Dalhousie University (Canada), 1996, 115 pages; AAT MM15983

5. Rene Daumal ou les visages de l'Un multiple by Marcaurelle, Roger, Ph.D., Universite de Montreal (Canada), 1996, 280 pages; AAT NQ21487

6. Aux confins du langage et du mythe: Rene Daumal by Raquidel, Danielle Colette, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 1992, 327 pages; AAT 9223988

7. An introduction to Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub": A modern Sufi teaching tale by Challenger, Anna Terri, Ph.D., Kent State University, 1990, 177 pages; AAT 9103360

8. Approaching Rene Daumal via the sacred, the fantastic, and laughter by Vosteen, Thomas Raymond, Ph.D., The University of Iowa, 1990, 400 pages; AAT 9126358

9. DEATH AS A METAPHOR OF BEING IN THE WORKS OF RENE DAUMAL by KNIGHT, KELTON WALLACE, Ph.D., The University of Utah, 1975, 172 pages; AAT 7520280

10. THE SPIRITUAL QUEST OF RENE DAUMAL by GUIDONE, CHRISTINE LEEFELT, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1971; AAT 0236649

[sidecross]

Thank you for the wonderful information on Rene Daumal. I have read three of his books and a little of his poetry. His work A Night of Serious Drinking is one of my favorite books; below is the beginning of that book that I have posted before on BOTH.


TO BE READ BEFORE USE


“I refuse to accept that a clear thought can ever be inexpressible. Appearances, however, are against me. For just as there is a level of pain at which the body ceases to feel because, because should it become involved in its pain, should it groan but once, it would seemingly crumble and return to dust; and just as there is a peak at which pain takes to the air on its own wings – so there is a level of thought where words have no part to play. Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct can not be named: what is clearest is unutterable. And yet things merely appear so. If human discourse is capable of expressing perfectly no more than a level of thought, it is because the mean of humankind thinks with this degree of intensity; it is to this level it assents, it is to this measure of exactness that it agrees. If we fail to make ourselves clear, we should not blame the tool we use.

Clear discourse presupposes three conditions; a speaker who knows what he wishes to say, a listener in a state of wakefulness, and a language common to both. But it is not enough for a language to be clear in the way that an algebraic proposition is clear. It must also have a real, not simply a possible content. Before this happens, the participants must have, as a fourth element, a common experience of the thing which is spoken of. The common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds; algebra in fact is no more than a vast intellectual credit exercise, a counterfeiting operation which is legitimate because it is acknowledged: each individual knows that it has its object and meaning in something other than itself, namely arithmetic. But it is still not enough for language to have clarity and content, as when I say “that day, it was raining” or “3 + 2 makes 5”; it must also have a goal and an imperative.

Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble, and from babble to confusion. In this confused state of languages, men even though they have a common experience, have no language with which to exchange its fruits. Then, when this confusion grows intolerable, universal languages are invented, clear and hollow, where words are but counterfeit coins no longer backed by the gold of authentic experiences, languages which allow us from childhood to swell our heads with false knowledge. Between the confusion of Babble and the sterile esperantos, no choice is possible. It is these two forms of non-understanding, but more particularly the second, which I shall describe.”

[integralvision]

[QUOTE=integralvision;35505]

We also have an article written by Dr. Fran Shaw. She is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford and author of several books including Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence and 50 Ways to Help You Write.

Fran writes, "My last book ("Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence") was directly influenced by Daumal and his work with Hindu poetics.
. . . Daumal brings to light writing both as a yoga for the writer and as a means for awakening a finer quality of awareness in the reader."

=-=-=-=
About Daumal and His Insights into the Nature of Poetry

By Fran Shaw, Ph.D.



As a poet and teacher of writing, I love Daumal's sense of humor about authors-we writers take ourselves so seriously-for example, the pen in Mt. Analogue that spatters every five minutes and the phonograph that randomly cries out "Who do you think you are? I love the word he coined: "pwatts" (for us aspiring poets).

He understood that poetry can be (and historically has been) much more than the "broken-prose confessional" published widely in modern times. Daumal's
work influences me greatly, especially what he brings about the nature of poetryin light of his study of Hindu poetics. His predilection for poems that capture the savor of the moment (rasa), a quality of "vibration" that lifts us
up, that brings us to what we are... ah! Here is precisely what Whitman and Blake and other poets of the spirit bring to life in their writing.

In a recent book Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence, I explore this notion of poetry, clearly following indications from Daumal's translations of Bharata
and Visvanatha which discuss rasa. Poetry in its ideal form, as Daumal says, can be potent, embodying and emanating three spiritual qualities of rasa: flow, ardor, and clarity. Indeed, as his biographer Kathleen Rosenblatt points out, Daumal saw the role of poetic imagery as a way to "describe the unknown" and "open the doors of perception" for both writer and reader. I mention this aspect in the introduction to Writing My Yoga and include, in the Afterword, writing "experiments" for the reader to try, not unlike those of the surrealists whom Daumal admired in his youth. All these writing springboards are based on the idea that composing a poem can help the writer "join" for a moment his true nature, beyond ego and form.

I've been teaching writing and making poems most of my life but my understanding about composing them is different now. The act of listening for a poem changes me internally. It is a yoga. There are poems--as haiku and Hindu poetics suggest--that give the savor of the moment in a way that rouses me and attracts me to an experience of another quality. But how to create such poems? What is the process? Who creates?

When composing a poem, for me the sole aim is to be alert in this place each instant, to come awake to the life force palpably here flowing through everything, always.
There's a moment when one belongs to that, when watching and listening is felt to be more important than whether or not a poem comes. That's when I pick up the pen.

One final note: Regarding Daumal and the Gurdjieff Work, Daumal himself as a writer, especially in Mt. Analogue, does what Michel de Salzmann calls for and praises in his "Footnote to the Gurdjieff Literature":

As for books, it seems clear that it is true creativity, rather than the recital
of a doctrine, which really bears witness to the life of a teaching. So I have
saved till the end the incomparably more living testimonies of those who were particularly involved with the art of writing and who tried to pass on what they understood in an original form corresponding to their talents. Among these, it is enough now to mention [3 names] and René Daumal.


May we all, like Daumal, fill the world with works that carry the finer energy and bring us home to ourselves.

CONTACT
Fran Shaw
Weston, CT
February 14, 2008

Fran Shaw, Ph.D. is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford and author of several books including Writing My Yoga: Poems for Presence and 50 Ways to Help You Write. A Danforth Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, winner of three U.S. writing awards, she conducts writing workshops around the globe. She is at work on a book about people's experiences at spiritual retreats.

[KFR]

One of these writers, Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt, will be the only North American and the only woman included in the Centenaire Daumal in Paris. Her comprehensive book, Rene Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide , the result of 30 years of research and writing, is the second most widely held work on Daumal in libraries around the world, according to the World Cat database.


The poet René Daumal engaged in a unique form of experiential metaphysiques, revealed both in his writings and the events of his life. He and his youthful band of poet mystics known as Le Grand Jeu actively explored every para-psychic avenue in order to experience super-ordinary dimensions of reality. They shared an obsessive aim with the Surrealists: to transform their bourgeois existence into an enhanced reality through the pursuit of the radically unconventional; to meld life and art, the dream world and the quotidian; to impact society socially and politically, and to seek out super-sensory states, a Sur-real. These initial surrealist impulses continued to inspire Daumal throughout most of his life.

Through his own psychic experiences, Daumal soon realized that it was not automatic writing and the probing of the unconscious but rather a deliberate disciplined focus and conscious effort that was needed. More than anything, non-attachment and self-abnegation were necessary to attain a state more intensely spiritual in character than that described in the Surrealist manifestos.

Early on, while exploring typical surrealistic avenues, he began a parallel track of studying Sanskrit. Hindu metaphysics and the writings of the Hinduist René Guénon inspired him to differentiate between true and superficial metaphysical states. Daumal then probed the essence of Hindu philosophy and poetics himself, and applied these concepts to his own essays, poems, novels, translations and to his own self evolution.

Finally Daumal became an active participant in the rigorous life teaching of the modern teacher, G.I. Gurdjieff. As a result of these influences and his own personal exploration of depersonalization and non-attachment, he no longer sought an "other-worldly state" but a more intensely conscious state of being in the here-and-now. The sense of wellbeing that accompanies this heightened awareness of the present moment was described in the Vedas three thousand years before and was translated by Daumal:

“Who would inhale, who would exhale if this ether were not joy;
Joy here is the Diety himself, the Essential Excitant of the Universe.”

His writing reflects the surrealistic humor with which he celebrated the lightness of being that presence and loss of ego facilitate. His poetry also chronicled the dark nights of the seeker’s soul.

The biographical profile in my book details his surrealist exploits and reveals the subtle contrasts with André Breton and his followers. It highlights the salient points of his Hindu studies and his affiliation with the Gurdjieff Teaching. Finally, it examines Daumal's collected poetry, Le Contre-Ciel and his two novels, La Grande beuverie and Le Mont analogue, in light of these influences and his own innate aim of seeking consciousness in the moment.

[craazyman]

Nothing like eating a plate of buckwheat pancakes with real Vermont maple syrup to make you intensely conscious. I will pass on the dry cleaning solution, and other harsh solvents, as I marvel at the ever-present dream. LOL.

[sidecross]

Nothing like eating a plate of buckwheat pancakes with real Vermont maple syrup to make you intensely conscious. I will pass on the dry cleaning solution, and other harsh solvents, as I marvel at the ever-present dream. LOL.



If you had read my quote from Rene Daumal’s A Night of Serious Drinking, you would realize the ‘currency’ you wrote above was written in the currency of ‘play money’.:p

[suebee]

rene daumal, another lion heart. great postings, thanks!

[integralvision]

“In order to awaken you have to think: ‘all this agitation is external to me.’ You need an act of reflection. But if this act sets off in you new automatisms, in one’s memory and one’s reasoning process, your voice could continue to maintain that you were still reflecting: but instead you would have again fallen asleep. Thus you can spend entire days without awakening for a single instant. Waking is not a state but an act.”

René Daumal

[integralvision]

http://www.gurdjieff.org/cover.2-4.htm

The Strait Gate
by Basarab Nicolescu
http://www.gurdjieff.org/nicolescu2.htm

Just a paragraph's taste of this fine essay:

=-=-= snip =-=-=
René Daumal was a born Seeker of the Truth. His whole life and all his works give ample proof of that. He devoted himself totally, with all his being, to his search. Le Grand Jeu was only one stop on his journey. Daumal was a rebel from the start. One has only to read Poème à Dieu et à l’Homme, Les clavicules d’un grand jeu poétique, or L’asphyxie et l’évidence absurde, to understand what he was rebelling against—to see his experience of the absurd and his perception of the ego (le “moi”) as a vicious circle. Later, in L’envers de la tête, Daumal writes:

… the most serious thing, and the strangest, is that we are afraid to the point of panic, not so much of seeing ourselves as of being seen by ourselves. This is our root absurdity. What is behind this great fear? … We are afraid that if we see ourselves we will not see anything very great. Our humbug self is afraid of being seen for what it is. It is fear of this awful exposure that makes us cover ourselves with makeup and put on phony facial expressions.

=-=-= snip =-=-=
First published in Poésie 99 (78) Paris, June 1999, this essay is translated from the French “La Porte Étroite” by Martha Heyneman for its first English publication here. Nicolescu points out that “It is high time to undertake a serious inquiry into the relation between Daumal’s own work and the influence Gurdjieff’s teaching had upon him,” and calls for the undertaking of such “a detailed study conducted in conformity with all the rules of scholarship.”
We propose Kathleen Rosenblatt’s recent René Daumal: The Life of a Mystic Guide as a candidate for this position.


Daumal with Gurdjieff and the de Salzmanns
by Kathleen F. Rosenblatt
http://www.gurdjieff.org/rosenblatt1.htm
[Excerpt Only]

The first part of Chapter 9 from Kathleen Rosenblatt’s recent book René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, (1999) New York: SUNY Press, is reproduced by permission of the State University of New York Press and the author.



“A Man will renounce any pleasure you like but he will not give up his suffering.”

G. I. Gurdjieff

In October of 1930, René Daumal and his friends began to notice a tall, solitary man who had recently begun to frequent their haunt, the Café Figon on the Boulevard St. Germain, where they convened every Thursday following their meeting at the artist Joseph Sima’s studio. This gentleman would always sit in a corner of the terrace, drinking many glasses of calvados and endlessly drawing curious Arab and Chinese characters. Finally, in early November, Joseph Sima recognized Alexandre de Salzmann from an earlier collaboration at the publishers Pégase in 1923. He presented the legendary artist to his young friends. According to Georgette Camille, a contributor to Le Grand Jeu, de Salzmann approached them on another occasion. After conversing a while, he asked those at the table to try something: to hold their arms straight out to the side for as long as they could. Minutes later, Daumal was the only one with arms still outstretched, and de Salzmann said, “You interest me!”1 As it turned out de Salzmann was a pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff, and these encounters were one of those fated “coincidences” dear to the Surrealists. It was a major turning point in the twenty-one-year-old Daumal’s life. Jacques Masui writes in his article “René Daumal et l’expérience Gurdjieff” that “Daumal was not content merely to accept the Gurdjieff teaching; he gave himself over to it.”2

Who was Gurdjieff the man and what was the teaching that so intrigued Daumal? According to those who knew him, he was a powerfully spiritual, enigmatic, unpredictable scientist of the soul. The late P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, described the effect Gurdjieff had on his followers:

His mere presence gave out energy. To receive his glance was to receive a moment of truth that was often very hard to bear. A master like Gurdjieff is not someone who teaches this or that idea. He embodies it himself.… I think I saw in him what every true master has: a certain sacrificial quality as though he clearly had come for others.3

In this chapter, we will give a brief overview of the history and teaching of Gurdjieff directly, and then examine the same concepts through the public and private writings of Daumal. In addition, we will open the door a second time to Daumal’s last fourteen years of life, viewing them through this new lens—his association with the Gurdjieff phenomenon.…

[The complete text is available in the printed copy of this issue.]

Copyright © 1999 State University of New York

http://www.gurdjieff.org/cover.2-4.htm
This webpage © 1999 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing
Featured: Summer 1999 Issue, Vol. II (4)
Revision: January 1, 2000

[craazyman]

the history of human consciousness is a dialectic of affirmation and negation, real and ideal, concreteness or illusion, immnance or transcendence, one and zero, yin and yang, bit and byte . . . and so it goes.

Each side has their apostles and their prophets, or at worst, their seductive pied piepers that lead a line of empty and searching minds on a winding path to nowhere.

And some of these apostles and prophets have been history's most celebrated poets, philosophers and writers.

But more and more I do have sympathy for Plato's point of view in the Republic, to keep the poets outside the city walls. The visions they inspire can be electrifying to the point of a minor rapture, but the individual self seems metaphysically compelled to mediate these visions of reality, away from a mimetic path of destruction and to some higher form of awareness and individual autonomy. Many are called, but few are chosen, as the Good Book says.

[sidecross]

"… the most serious thing, and the strangest, is that we are afraid to the point of panic, not so much of seeing ourselves as of being seen by ourselves. This is our root absurdity. What is behind this great fear? … We are afraid that if we see ourselves we will not see anything very great. Our humbug self is afraid of being seen for what it is. It is fear of this awful exposure that makes us cover ourselves with makeup and put on phony facial expressions."


What an on point comment by Rene Daumal.

The more I read and more importantly the more I understand and learn the more I come to a conclusion that as a species we are defective. Just like a body dieing from the rampaging spread of a cancer a few remaining cells and possibly even the mind it self can awaken to its condition. And with a sigh accept what awaits us.

[willoweyes]

Dear Sidecross, i have studied the problem of humanity i dare say as long and as hard as u, and i suspect that either we have had a terrible curse laid upon us, or else we have been cut off from some essential source of nourishment, such as that which the daemon or the polar bear's armor represents in "The Golden Compass." Whatever the cause, i truly believe itand us is redeemable.

my pearl of wisdom for the day is, "Even if you make life boring, you won't make it safe."

love from lalaland.

[suebee]

"who would inhale, who would exhale if this ether were not joy"

yes yes yes!

spring has sprung early here, blossoms inhaling and exhaling themselves into existence -
magic fireworks that stay lit
then turn to green.

[craazyman]

It's probably global warming.:(





Just kidding Suebee, enjoy the outdoors. The buds and flowers are popping up in the Virginia woods too. Nice fluffy white clouds and dark blue skies.:cool:

[integralvision]

From: Jean Houston's Office
Sent: Mar 24, 2008 10:21 AM

Dear Fred,

Sorry for the delay in answering this.
Jean's schedule has been crazy, but I finally had the chance to ask her about your questions.

She has read Daumal and found his writing to be brilliant, evocative, and inspiring of new ways of thinking and being.

She sends her best wishes for an amazing Centennial Celebration.

Thanks
Sue

http://www.jeanhouston.org/
(link added by editor)

[integralvision]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DaumalCentenaire/
image can be viewed at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DaumalCentenaire/

Watch this blog for notes on the high points of the Rene Duamal Centennial Celebration in Paris.

[KFR]

Le Rayonnement de Daumal en Amérique
par Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt
(copyleft)
March, 2008
Paris, France

Quand j’ai fait des recherches sur le rayonnement de Daumal, j’ai constaté qu’il était peu connu, et que ma vraie tâche était de faire rayonner l’histoire de cet écrivain unique. Les paroles et les traductions de René Daumal, présentées à l’occasion du centenaire de sa naissance, m’ont beaucoup émue, moi qui ai passé tant de décennies à vivre avec, isolée, comme dans un placard.
Merci de les partager avec moi.


Pour parler de l’influence de Daumal en Amérique, je dois raconter au moins l’histoire de notre ‘rencontre.’ Après un an d’études à la Sorbonne, je suis revenue en France en juin 1968, quand il y avait encore du gaz lacrymogène dans l’air. J’ai vu toutes sortes de citations sur les murs, dont certaines étaient de Rene Daumal. Je me souviens de « A bas les jolies choses! » mais je ne connaissais pas encore le nom de Daumal. Puis, par hasard, j’ai visité l’exposition de Joseph Sima où étaient exposés les portraits des membres du Grand Jeu. Je fus très impressionnée par son art.
En 1972, j’ai commencé à écrire une thèse de doctorat à l’université du Connecticut après avoir lu Le Mont Analogue, à la mode dans les cercles littéraires, pas encore nommés Nouvel Âge. Presque en même temps, j’ai commencé à suivre l’Enseignement de Gurdjieff, d’abord à New York avec Lord John Pentland, un homme vraiment extraordinaire, qui dirigeait la Fondation Gurdjieff aux États-Unis.
Ensuite, j’ai commencé des études d’acupuncture à Los Angeles et à Hong Kong. Le professeur Jacob Needlemann, écrivain, philosophe et directeur de recherches sur Gurdjieff à San Francisco, s’est beaucoup intéressé à la publication de mon livre et m’a dirigée vers des éditeurs.

En 1983, j’ai présenté ma thèse à Jack Daumal, frère de René. Il l’a beaucoup appréciée et nous avons entamé une correspondance riche et longue jusqu'à ce qu’il m’offre de traduire ma thèse en français. Les Éditions Gallimard l’avaient refusée, l’ayant jugée « trop académique ». Les Éditions José Corti, qui avaient publié le Grand Jeu dans les années trente, l’ont publiée en 1992, l’époque où je vécu à Bath U.K. pendant deux ans. Puis j’ai révisé et augmenté cette thèse, notamment avec les lettres de Daumal, que j’ai traduites pour l’édition anglaise de l’Université de New York, en 1999. De la dizaine de revues publiées en cette période, la plus intéressante par le Village Voice, à New York, qui a bien compris le génie à fusées de René.
Ma thèse avait été refusée à l’Université du Connecticut sous prétexte que je ne prouvais rien : j’ai montré l’influence de l’Inde, de Gurdjieff, et du surréalisme sur Daumal et son originalité innée mais, en tant que du pointe de vue journalistique, je ne voulais qu’explorer les aspects et les paradoxes de l’écrivain, sans prendre parti.

À travers toutes ces années, j’ai constaté que le cas Daumal est toujours noir et blanc. Ou on l’ignore totalement, ou on le divinise, on l’adore. Rien entre les deux poles. On ne connaissait que Le mont analogue, traduit par Roger Shattuck, grand admirateur de Daumal, qui a écrit le livre exceptionnel sur Paris Les années des banquets. Après notre rencontre à Boston, il a encouragé mon travail et écrit une critique élogieuse sur la couverture du livre.

Pour découvrir l’étendue de son rayonnement en Amérique du Nord, j’ai contacté des écrivains connus (qui l’ignorent pour la plupart), et aussi des membres de l’Enseignement de Gurdjieff, qui constituent les plus ardents suiveurs de Daumal. Beaucoup ont parlé de Daumal — avec des éloges toujours édifiants — évoquant son influence sur leur propre vie.
Notre poète lauréat officiel actuel, Charles Simic, est un amateur de Daumal. Il faisait partie de l’Enseignement dans les années soixante et le lisait beaucoup à cette époque. Nous avons eu une conversation téléphonique au cours de laquelle il m’a avoué son plaisir de parler de Daumal et son appréciation pour mon livre.
Le poète/éditeur George Quasha a publié des poèmes de Daumal dans les années soixante, et des poèmes de Roger Gilbert Lecomte dans les années quatre-vingt dix. J’ai découvert dix thèses universitaires sur Daumal, y compris au Canada, dont voici les titres :

1. “Beyond surrealism: The Grand Jeu, Josef Sima and the quest for unity” Roberts, Donna, Ph.D., University of Essex (United Kingdom), 2003;
AAT C814818
2. “Rene Daumal: From surrealist states of the unconscious to conscious states of being” by Rosenblatt, Kathleen Ferrick, Ph.D., The University of Connecticut, 2003, 170 pages; AAT 3104094
3. « La technocratie et le phenomène de la machine dans les années trente » de Sébastien, Jean, Ph.D., Université de Montré al (Canada), 2000,362 pages; AAT NQ51972
4. « La notion de l'espace dans "Le Mont Analogue" » de René Daumal » de Konok, Hildegard Mary, M.A., Dalhousie University (Canada), 1996, 115pages; AAT MM15983
5. « René Daumal ou les visages de l'Un multiple » de Marcaurelle,
Roger, Ph.D., Université » de Montreal (Canada), 1996, 280 pages; AAT NQ21487
6. « Aux confins du langage et du mythe »: René Daumal by Raquidel,
Danielle Colette, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 1992, 327 pages; AAT 9223988
7. “An introduction to Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub": A modern Sufi Teaching tale” by Challenger, Anna Terri, Ph.D., Kent State University, 1990,177 pages; AAT 9103360
8. “Approaching Rene Daumal via the sacred, the fantastic, and laughter” by Vosteen, Thomas Raymond, Ph.D., The University of Iowa, 1990, 400 pages; AAT 9126358
9. “Death as a Metaphor of Being in the Works of Rene Daumal” by Knight, Kelton Wallace, Ph.D., The University of Utah, 1975, 172 pages; AAT7520280
10. The Spirituel Quest of Rene Daumal by Guidone, Christine Lefelt, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1971; AAT 0236649

Il y avait plusieurs présentations théâtrales basées sur le recit, Le Mont Analogue, mis en scène par des groupes Gurdjieffiens àSan Francisco 1986, a Los Angeles 1991, et en Alabama 2006. Laurence Saccarow, le chef du départment de théâtre à Columbia University a New York me parlait souvent de son désir de monter une production professionnelle de Mont Analogue. Finalement il allait avoir lieu à New York avec la participation d’acteurs comme David Strathern. Susan Brindmarrow a écrit le scénario script. Des montagnes holographiques étaient prépareées pour la scène. En 2005, on a monté une présentation préliminaire au Rubin Museum, une musée d’art asiatique. Le cinéaste Al Maysles, connu comme le père du documentaire (Give Me Shelter, Gray Gardens) l’a filmé. Edward Albee y a assisté. Malheureusement, bientôt après, Laurence Saccarow est mort de leukémie.
Le Gurdjieff Society of Massachusetts, GurdjieffsocietyofMass.org va faire une presentation theatrale avec music base sur le poeme en prose « La Guerre Sainte » que Daumal a ecrit en 1940, au moment que les Allemands envahissaient la France. Il va avoir lieu le 14 juin a Harvard Square a Cambridge.

Après l’apparition de mon livre, j’ai fait un tour des librairies dans certaines villes, comme le fameux City Lights Bookstore à San Francisco, et aussi des centres de Gurdjieff — à New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Montréal, Québec, Vancouver, et aussi à Londres et a Paris à la Paris American Academy. Dans tous les cas, le public a été touché par l’étendue de sa sagesse et l’ampleur de ses études : il a reconnu les vérités primordiales les plus ésotériques dès l’adolescence.
Il semble que les ingrédients qui ont construit cet homme remarquable — la formule daumalienne —constituent précisément ce à quoi aspirent les jeunes gens d’aujourd’hui — un mélange éclectique de spirituel, mystique, intellectuel, philosophique, psychique, aussi d’activisme politique,et de musique, d’art et de religion, surtout orientale. Beaucoup d’iconoclasme, d’ironie, et d’attitude anti-bourgeois.
é
Pendant les années 1986-87, j’appartenais à un groupe qui étudiait avec l’écrivain chamaniste, Carlos Castaneda. Son enseignement s’accompagnait alors, trois fois par semaine, d’un cours de kung-fu. L’idée était qu’il fallait fortifier l’énergie dans le corps avant de digérer des informations et des énergies plus fines. Il est venu dîner chez moi et a montré un grand intérêt pour mon étude sur Daumal. Il avait passé du temps avec Lord John Pentland. Carlos m’a posé maintes questions sur Daumal et Gurdjieff. Comme pour beaucoup de chercheurs, l’influence de Gurdjieff a été clair. Quelques années après, il me semblait que son propre message suivait le même chemin que Daumal et Gurdjieff. Il nous demandait, comme exercice pour être guerier spirituel, de nous regarder dans un miroir et de crier le verbe qui n’existe pas en français : « Intend! Intend! » c’est-à-dire : « Ayez l’intention! » Cela rappelle aussi les paroles de Gurdjieff à Daumal, quand ils se réunissaient une fois par semaine, selon le compte rendu de Philippe Lavastine également présent : « Pas de philosophie! Pas de philosophie. Faire! Faire! »
Tous les trois métaphysiciens, Gurdjieff, Daumal et Castaneda cherchaient une voie pratique, un régime d’exercices pour discipliner la volonté et l’esprit. Cette rigueur est peu entendue par les braves gens modernes qui ne savent se discipliner que pour un avantage matériel. La plupart des suivants du Nouvel Âge croient que la méditation sert uniquement a se calmer, à se consoler. La rigueur est tellement déficiente dans notre culture que les derniers vestiges de discipline n’existent encore que dans le domaine militaire — parce qu’il faut un programme rigoureux pour bien apprendre à tuer. Dommage que personne ne nous apprenne à exercer notre muscle mental et émotionnel dans un but plus noble.

Daumal a découvert des concepts d’évolution tout seul, très tôt dans sa jeunesse, même avant ses études sur l’Inde, sinon sur Gurdjieff. Il a conçu un trajet à travers le renoncement et la négation de l’ego. Très tôt, il a eu des visions de l’au-delà — expérience difficile pour l’homme moyen de sentir son être essentiellement énergie pure –holographique-- esprit. Dans sa jeunesse, en dépit de ses prouesses en gymnastique, et même de son intérêt pour le monde de la Nature avec sa collection d’insectes, il a attaché beaucoup d’importance à ses visions et au côté intellectuel et n’a pas su unir les trois centres: intellectuel, émotionnel et corporel.
Il a suivi très loin son propre chemin spirituel et, tout seul, il a trouvé de grandes vérités, surtout l’importance de s’éveiller dans le moment présent. Mais il ne savait pas encore intégrer son corps dans le procès. En 1977, quand j’ai fait un serie d’entrevues avec les collegues de Rene comme Liselle Reymond, et ses editeurs Madame Maxwell et Claudio Rugafiori, son ami Philippe Lavastine m’a raconté une anecdote en redessinant sur un papier ce que René avait dessiné pour lui: René, pleurant, se plaignait qu’il n’était qu’une tête sans corps. Il a dessiné un ballon sur une ficelle en criant : « Regarde! C’est tout que je suis ! » Il a reconnu qu’il lui manquait quelque chose.
Avec l’exemple du danseur, Uday Shankar, et avec l’Enseignement, il était encouragé à habiter vraiment son corps sans bien sur d’y attacher de l’extérieur. Il travaillait en s’y intégrant. Dans les mouvements de danse créés par Gurdjieff et développés aussi par Jeanne de Salzmann, qui a été peut-être le Maître de Daumal le plus constant dans sa vie, il commençait à se rendre compte que le corps EST un temple sacré, comme dit la chrétienté, que c’est là notre batterie, notre fusé le plus fort si on sait comment mettre en marche le mécanisme.
Au cours d’entretiens avec Mme de Salzmann, elle m’a rapporté que Daumal devenait plus physique, plus musculaire, plus masculin même, après ces années d’Enseignement, en dépit des privations et de sa tuberculose qui s’aggravait. Elle a souligné que, excepté M. Gurdjieff, Daumal a été l’homme le plus remarquable qu’elle a jamais rencontré dans sa vie.

Si on dissèque tous les aspects paradoxaux de Daumal pour couper les cheveux en quatre, on détourne de son essence, et la fréquence personnelle et unique que Daumal transmettait, son champ d’énergie qui a été sa source créative.
Par exemple, ce qui semble surtout éloigner quelques lecteurs de la poésie de René, c’est sa souffrance face à l’abîme du néant. Si on regarde la surface, il semblait s’enfoncer dans la boue de la négativité et s’asphyxie par la mort. Mais ses images extraordinaires refletent l’état Bachelardien ou il vivait: le sol, la nausée, et son soif de l’Infini—représenté par son épouse, la Mère-Mort nourissante : les images poétiques les plus terrestres et les plus cosmiques à la fois.
Beaucoup préfèrent son rire devant le Ridicule. Ah ooui ! L’humour daumalien est bien spécial ! Pour Daumal, tant que pour Michel-Ange, c’était toujours l’extase ou l’agonie : ou il était dans la béatitude, source d’inspiration de son art, ou il rentrait dans la partie ordinaire de l’axe intellect/émotion, le laissant insatisfait et divisé, par sa perception trop exigente de lui-même ou il ne se voyait pas digne.
Néanmoins, dans l’Enseignement, il a appris un équilibre plutôt zen entre les états extrêmes. Il a appris à dépasser cette angoisse pour la transformer en une combustion de débris négatifs — l’effet de l’effort de rester présent dans le moment, ce qui peut créer une énergie positive. Il a pu fouiller dans le fond de son corps pour trouver l’énergie énorme et explosive de chaque atome.
La transformation de la négativité est « le truc », le leçon le plus valable de Daumal et de Gurdjieff; elle est toujours notre source inépuisable d’énergie. Leur message de « sacrifier la souffrance » par le moyen, selon Gurdjieff, d’ « efforts constants et la souffrance intentionelle » apparaît très moderne, bien en avance sur nous—même si sa version parait quelquefois trop stricte.

Daumal a été élevé sans religion; ses parents ne lui pourvoyaient pas de référence aux personnages sacrés pour représenter les forces bizarres qu’il ressentait dès l’enfance. A l’adolescence, il a rejété lui-même la religion institutionnelle, pour rechercher les grandes voies originelles. Mais il a reconnu au moins l’importance d’avoir un équipe spirituelle de co-disciples: la nécessité d’avoir un maître et des confrères autour de soi, ainsi de ne pas rester toujours le yogi isolé. Quand il a pu suivre un chemin pratique et diriger ses talents, ses visions étaient ancrées par la gravité d’un corps bien connecté à la Terre.

Comment cet enseignement de Daumal et de Gurdjieff nous influence t-il, m’influence dans ce siècle ?

Récemment, en 2003, j’ai refait ma thèse, et trouvé de nouvelles perceptions et de nouvelles paroles pour dire l’essentiel de René, et j’ai obtenu finalement mon doctorat, juste au moment où j’ai viré vers la tradition daumalienne de l’activisme politique et où je me suis jointe à l’investigation souterraine de l’évidence scientifique, qui prouve que mon gouvernement a provoqué les attentats du onze septembre.
Mais je continue à étudier la résonance de la conscience dans le corps, par la respiration et l’attention à la sensation intérieure corporelle. Je commence à accéder au générateur nucléaire qu’est le corps. Basé sur l’étude des énergies corporelles fines d’acupuncture, mon CD sur la méditation cellulaire aide à capturer cet état de résonance.
Parce que Mme de Salzmann et René se soignaient au moyen de l’acupuncture, je crois qu’ils approuveraient cette recherche. Je reste dans l’Enseignement et dans la voie essentielle de Daumal. Après tout, c’est lui qui a partage les lignes de l’Upanishad Taittyria qui m’ont le plus impressionnée :

la Saveur [le goût conscient de la Vie dans le moment]
peut être trouvée en chaque souffle —
si on la cherche.
Qui inhalerait qui exhalerait si cet éther n’était pas la Joie ;
C’est la Joie qui est la déité elle-même (ou lui-même),
l’Essentiel Excitant de la Saveur. »

C’est ça le message ancien de l’Inde et, je crois, de Daumal.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt L.Ac., PhD., is the author of René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide (SUNY Press) and René Daumal: au delà de l'horizon (José Corti, Paris). Available for lecturing in English or French on this subject as well as how it relates to healing and spiritual growth.
Ferrickrosenblatt@yahoo.com
www.AcupunctureBelAir.net

[KFR]

http://www.baglis.tv/index.php?/content/view/220/1/

Le rayonnement de l'œuvre de René Daumal aux USA
19-04-2008
Par : Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt

Exposé de 25 minutes enregistré lors du "Colloque René Daumal" organisé par le CIRET (Centre International d'Etudes et de Recherches Transdisciplinaires) , à l'occasion du centenaire de la naissance du poète René Daumal. Madame Ferrick Rosenblatt évoque ici le rayonnement de l'oeuvre de René Daumal aux Etats-Unis.

http://www.baglis.tv/index.php?/content/view/220/1/

[KFR]

http://www.baglis.tv/index.php?/content/view/220/1/

Le rayonnement de l'œuvre de René Daumal aux USA
19-04-2008
Par : Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt

Exposé de 25 minutes enregistré lors du "Colloque René Daumal" organisé par le CIRET (Centre International d'Etudes et de Recherches Transdisciplinaires) , à l'occasion du centenaire de la naissance du poète René Daumal. Madame Ferrick Rosenblatt évoque ici le rayonnement de l'oeuvre de René Daumal aux Etats-Unis.

http://www.baglis.tv/index.php?/content/view/220/1/