Induced EEs/EHEs,Techniques Record Type: Review   ID: 857
Song of the Skylark II: Meditation—Teachings and Practices Gomes, Gabriel
This is the comparison volume to Part I, also reviewed under Experiential Paradigm. Gomes says that a reading of the earlier volume is essential to the full understanding of the present one, even though they are self-contained. He even reprints two of the general chapters from the first volume here. He writes: "The aim of Song of the Skylark II is to provide the reader/practitioner a way beyond the oblivion of time, beyond conditioned existence and the problems inherent in it, beyond the present constructions of reality, consciousness, and self; and a realization of that Reality and Awareness that alone brings a full blossoming of humanity by fully incarnating the eternal and the unconditioned in the particularity of time and conditioned existence" (p. xii). Gomes devotes a chapter each to all the forms of meditation taught by the major religions: the yoga of Vedanta and Hinduism (Jhana, Bhakti, and Mantra Yoga), Tantra, Theraveda Buddhism, Zen, Vajrayana Buddhism, Taoist meditation on the Kabbalah, Eastern Christian meditation, Western (Catholic) meditation, and the Sufi way. In a concluding chapter he writes: "It is clear that each of these paths, if followed to the very end, can open the mind to the Unconditioned and bring liberation. Although at their summit these paths converge (of course, there are many paths that do not converge as they seek different summits) as pathways, they evince differences as well as similarities" (p. 269). He then elaborates on this thesis. There is an extensive bibliography for anyone wishing to delve further.
Publisher Information:	Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991. 295p. Bibl: 271-281; Index: 283-295

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