The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts

by Julius Evola

Overview

In a probing analysis of the oldest Buddhist texts, Julius Evola places the doctrine of liberation in its original context. The early teachings, he suggests, offer the foremost example of an active spirituality that is opposed to the more passive, modern forms of theistic religions. This sophisticated, highly readable analysis of the theory and practice of Buddhist asceticism, first published in Italian in 1943 , elucidates the central truths of the eightfold path and clears away the later accretions of Buddhist doctrine. Evola describes the techniques for conscious liberation from the world of maya and for achieving the state of transcendence beyond dualistic thinking. Most surprisingly, he argues that the widespread belief in reincarnation is not an original Buddhist tenet. Evola presents actual practices of concentration and visualization, and places them in the larger metaphysical context of the Buddhist model of mind and universe.
The Doctrine of the Awakening is a provocative study of the teachings of the Buddha by one of Europe's most stimulating thinkers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892815531
Publisher:	Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	204,924
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

A controversial philosopher and critic of modern Western civilization, Julius Evola (1898-1974) wrote widely on Eastern religions, alchemy, sexuality, politics, and mythology. Inner Traditions has published his Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex, The Yoga of Power, The Hermetic Tradition, Revolt Against the Modern World, The Mystery of the Grail and Ride The Tiger.

Table of Contents

The Doctrine of Awakening
The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts
Translator's Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Principles
1. Varieties of Ascesis
2. The Aryan-ness of the Doctrine of Awakening
3. The Historical Context of the Doctrine of Awakening
4. Destruction of the Demon of Dialectics
5. The Flame and Samsaric Consciousness
6. Conditioned Genesis
7. Determination of the Vocations
Part II: Practice
8. The Qualities of the Combatant and the "Departure"
9. Defense and Consolidation
10. Rightness
11. Sidereal Awareness: The Wounds Close
12. The Four Jhana: The "Irradiant Contemplations"
13. The States Free from Form and the Extinction
14. Discrimination Between the "Powers"
15. Phenomenology of the Great Liberation
16. Signs of the Nonpareil
17. The Void: "If the Mind Does Not Break"
18. Up to Zen
19. The Ariya Are Still Gathered on the Vulture's Peak
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Evola ... had a clarity of mind and a gift for explaining tremendously difficult concepts in nonacademic language. His account of the niddana-chain (the twelve stages of conditioned genesis) is a masterpiece. It equips the reader for a whole new understanding, not only of Buddhism, but of the human state in general."

"In essence, the Buddhist 'Doctrine of Awakening' is, for Evola, the cultivation of a pure, naked, transcendent consciousness, and his book shines in describing the stages leading to this consciousness."

"Evola engages in a well-graduated exposition of Buddhist techniques as seen in this ascetic light, with discussion of the mental/spiritual states encountered. Evola's is the most original book I've ever read on Buddhism."

" . . . a provocative study of the teachings of the Buddha by one of Europe's most stimulating thinkers."

Editorial Reviews

"Evola ... had a clarity of mind and a gift for explaining tremendously difficult concepts in nonacademic language. His account of the niddana-chain (the twelve stages of conditioned genesis) is a masterpiece. It equips the reader for a whole new understanding, not only of Buddhism, but of the human state in general."

Gnosis Magazine

"In essence, the Buddhist 'Doctrine of Awakening' is, for Evola, the cultivation of a pure, naked, transcendent consciousness, and his book shines in describing the stages leading to this consciousness."

Parabola Richard Smoley

" . . . a provocative study of the teachings of the Buddha by one of Europe's most stimulating thinkers."

Oct 2008 Buddha Torrents

"Evola engages in a well-graduated exposition of Buddhist techniques as seen in this ascetic light, with discussion of the mental/spiritual states encountered. Evola's is the most original book I've ever read on Buddhism."

Dan Byrnes

" . . . a provocative study of the teachings of the Buddha by one of Europe's most stimulating thinkers."

"Evola ... had a clarity of mind and a gift for explaining tremendously difficult concepts in nonacademic language. His account of the niddana-chain (the twelve stages of conditioned genesis) is a masterpiece. It equips the reader for a whole new understanding, not only of Buddhism, but of the human state in general."

"Evola engages in a well-graduated exposition of Buddhist techniques as seen in this ascetic light, with discussion of the mental/spiritual states encountered. Evola's is the most original book I've ever read on Buddhism."

"In essence, the Buddhist 'Doctrine of Awakening' is, for Evola, the cultivation of a pure, naked, transcendent consciousness, and his book shines in describing the stages leading to this consciousness."

From the Publisher

" . . . a provocative study of the teachings of the Buddha by one of Europe's most stimulating thinkers."

Buddha Torrents

"In essence, the Buddhist 'Doctrine of Awakening' is, for Evola, the cultivation of a pure, naked, transcendent consciousness, and his book shines in describing the stages leading to this consciousness."

Richard Smoley

Evola engages in a well-graduated exposition of Buddhist techniques as seen in this ascetic light, with discussion of the mental/spiritual states encountered. Evola's is the most original book I've ever read on Buddhism.

New Dawn