The Marriage of East and West

View other editions of The Marriage of East and West.
View books by Bede Griffiths, Dalai Lama XIV Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho.

Myth and Consciousness - Rated
If you are looking for something to help you find the common ground in all religions, this will help. If you have a hard time accepting the validity of religions other than your own, this will be challenging. He speaks a great deal about myth. Myth, not as a falsehood but as a powerful transforming force in our lives. He pretty much interprets the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, in terms of the evolution of consciousness. From this perspective he compares Vedic revelation, Judaic revelation and Christian revelation.

If the reader struggles with a personal reconciliation of Eastern and Western spirituality, thinking, and images of God, struggles with the unity and plurality of our existence this book will bring light. His writing style is easy to follow.

A gem for those interested in true spirituality - Rated
I was given this book, and otherwise would have missed it. It is not a light read, but it is a very rich and lucid one emanating from a clearly special human being.

If you are interested in the real nature of spirituality, and in the true and deep commonality that underlies the worlds great religions (as distinct from the rules and dogma of their priesthoods) then you will love this book. If you follow an orthodox religious line, but are willing to challenge yourself to think deeply then you will find plenty of stimulation. It draws on the deepest study of vedic, christian, sufi and judaic texts in order to highlight the limitations in modern and western presentation of the spiritual world. Fr. Bede higlights the need to blend rational with intuitive experience, to find a masculine - feminine balance in both our way of life and our spirituality, and to recognise the true values of inner experience and contemplation alongside our external analysis and scientific materialism.

Bede Griffiths speaks with the honesty that is embedded in someone who has lived by what he writes, and with the clarity that comes from a person who has a strong intellect but has also gone to the deepest places with his own soul. This world would be a very different place if the priesthoods were filled with more like him. Highly commended.