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Paul Brunton

 
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Paul Brunton
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(1898-1981)

British-born journalist who wrote important books on philosophy and comparative religion. He was educated at Central Foundation School, London, and McKinley-Roosevelt College, Chicago, Illinois. Early in life he became interested in Spiritualism. He developed mediumistic powers himself, notably clairvoyance and clairaudience, and thus verified the existence of psychic faculties from first-hand personal experience. Later he joined the Theosophical Society, but left after two years. He contacted various occult groups, comparing their teachings, and became a close friend of Ananda Metteya (Allan Bennett), who initiated Brunton into Buddhist meditation.

Brunton assisted Bennett to publish his journal the Buddhist Review. According to Brunton, Bennett developed a breath control that enabled him at times to alter the specific gravity of his body, so that while sitting in a yoga posture he could rise a foot or two into the air, and then float gently down to the floor again a short distance from the spot where he first sat. Brunton also stated that around the time of Bennett's death, Bennett had "sacrificed his body in an effort to extricate me from a dangerous position."

Brunton traveled in India and Egypt, and attracted tremendous interest with his famous book, A Search in Secret India(1934). This was followed by A Search in Secret Egypt, (1935), A Hermit in the Himalayas (1937), and The Quest of the Overself(1937). Although Brunton was at first concerned primarily with miracle-working holy men, he soon became attracted to the deepest metaphysical aspects of yoga and mysticism and was one of the first Europeans to draw attention to Sri Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai, South India, one of the greatest modern Hindu mystics.

Brunton's books greatly influenced the occult revival and growth of Eastern religion from the 1930s onward, stimulating popular interest in yoga, meditation, and the teachings of gurus. In 1956 he retired to Switzerland and devoted himself to meditation. During these years he wrote The Inner Reality(1959), The Hidden Teaching beyond Yoga (1959), and The Secret Path (1959). His thoughts and insights on the spiritual life, which he recorded in a series of notebooks numbering some 7,000 pages, were an exposition of the synthesis of Eastern mysticism and Western rational thought. They were published posthumously as The Notebooks of Paul Brunton: Perspectives(1984). Brunton died July 27, 1981, in Vevey, Switzerland.

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A portrait of Paul Brunton

Paul Brunton (October 21, 1898 - July 2, 1981) was born Raphael Hurst, and later changed his name to Brunton Paul and then Paul Brunton. He was a British philosopher, mystic, traveler, and guru. He left a journalistic career to live among yogis, mystics, and holy men, and studied Eastern and Western esoteric teachings. Dedicating his life to an inward and spiritual quest, Brunton felt charged to communicate his experiences about what he learned in the east to others. His works had a major influence on the spread of Eastern mysticism to the West. Taking pains to express his thoughts in layperson's terms, Brunton was able to present what he learned from the Orient and from ancient tradition as a living wisdom. His writings express his view that meditation and the inward quest are not exclusively for monks and hermits, but will also support those living normal, active lives in the Western world. (from Paul Brunton: Essential Readings by Godwin, Cash and Smith)

Contents

Biography

Paul Brunton was born in London in 1898. He served in First World War, and later devoted himself to mysticism and came into contact with Theosophists. In the early 1930s, Brunton embarked on a voyage to India, which brought him into contact with such luminaries as Meher Baba, Sri Shankaracharya of Kancheepuram and Sri Ramana Maharshi. Brunton's first visit to Sri Ramanasramam R. took place in 1931. During this visit, Brunton was accompanied by a Buddhist Bhikshu, formerly a military officer but meanwhile known as Swami Prajnananda, the founder of the English Ashram in Rangoon. Brunton asked several questions, including "What is the way to God-realization?" and Maharshi said: "Vichara, asking yourself the 'Who am I?' enquiry into the nature of your Self."[1]

Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" and "The Secret Path".[2]

One day—sitting with Ramana Maharshi—Brunton had an experience which Steve Taylor names "an experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever". Brunton describes it in the following way:

I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness. The planet which has so far harboured me disappears. I am in the midst of an ocean of blazing light. The latter, I feel rather than think, is the primeval stuff out of which worlds are created, the first state of matter. It stretches away into untellable infinite space, incredibly alive.[3]

The times of World War II Brunton spent in India, being hosted a guest by the Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Sri.Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.[4][5] He dedicated his book "The Quest of the Overself" to the Maharaja and when the Maharaja died in 1940, he was present at his funeral.

Paul Brunton also made a notable comment on Mahatma Gandhi and the struggle for Indian independence in general while speaking of his conversation with an Indian college student in his work "A Search in Secret India," which reveals quite another facet of his personality:

"I discover, too, that he has not yet succumbed to the hysteria for politics which has attacked most of the young students in the towns, though India is now in the throes of the long turmoil which Gandhi has aroused into being in his effort to disturb the relations between white rulers and brown ruled."[6]

After two decades of successful writing, Brunton retired from publishing books and devoted himself to writing essays and notes. Upon his death in 1981 in Vevey, Switzerland, it was revealed that in the period since the last published book in 1952, he had rendered about 20,000 pages of philosophical writing.

A longtime friend of Paul Brunton, philosopher Anthony Damiani, Founder of Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies in 1972[7], coordinated the publishing effort together with a team of people including Paul Cash and Timothy Smith. The Swedish-American publisher Robert Larson started publishing the 16-volume set in 1984.

Reception

American author and former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, the son of a Jewish American friend of Brunton[8] published a memoir of his childhood under the title My Father's Guru. In the 1940s and 1950s, Brunton lived with Jeffrey Masson's family. Masson's parents were among his handful of close disciples. Initially influenced by Brunton, Masson gradually became disillusioned with him. According to Masson, Brunton singled him out as a potential heir to his spiritual kingdom. In 1956, Brunton decided that a third world war was imminent and the Massons moved to Montevideo, since this location was considered safe. From Uruguay, Masson went at Brunton's bidding to study Sanskrit at Harvard. Brunton himself did not move to South America, instead spending some time living in New Zealand.[9] Masson subsequently became proficient at Sanskrit, and realized that Brunton did not have the facility with the language that he claimed.[10]

The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga

If Brunton could not be credited with introducing Yoga to the West because of the existence of other previous luminaries such as Blavatsky, Vivekananda and Yogananda, at least he holds a preeminent position in bringing to the West the best the Orient has to offer: the doctrine of Mentalism. No other writer but Brunton has declared Mentalism to be the esoteric doctrine of the Orient. Brunton is also the only writer to differentiate Oriental Mentalism from Berkeley's.[11]

As the theory of relativity, according to Einstein, brings space and time together so does mentalism unites spirit and matter; this phenomenon is explained by Brunton as being inherent in imagination.[12]

Paul Brunton expounds the doctrine of mentalism in his magnum opus, first in part one which is introductory and preparatory titled The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga and last but not least in a revelatory work named The Wisdom of the Overself. According to Joscelyn Godwin, "...Since discovering Brunton's work in the 1960's I have found no reason to discard their philosophical principles."[13]

See also

References

  1. ^  Jackson, Kevin A Short History of Pyramidology (28th Sept. 2002) on the website of the BBC "the largely innocuous self-appointed guru 'Dr' Paul Brunton, who wrote a bestselling book, A Search in Secret Egypt (1935), where he recalled his conference with weird spirits inside the Pyramid;" (retrieved 28 Jan. 2006)

Bibliography

Books

  • Are You Upward Bound with William G. Fern (1931)
  • A Search in Secret India (1934)
  • The Secret Path (1935)
  • A Search in Secret Egypt (1936)
  • A Message from Arunachala (1936)
  • A Hermit in the Himalayas (1936)
  • The Quest of the Overself (1937)
  • Indian Philosophy and Modern Culture (1939)
  • The Inner Reality (1939) [published in the U.S. as Discover Yourself, same year]
  • Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (1941) [14]
  • Wisdom of the Overself (1943)
  • Spiritual Crisis of Man (1952)

Miscellaneous

  • Brunton, Paul. 1975. "A Living Sage of South India" in The Sage of Kanchi New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, New Delhi. ed by T.M.P. Mahadevan, chapter 2
  • Brunton, Paul. 1959, 1987. Introduction to Fundamentals of Yoga by Rammurti S. Mishra, M.D. New York; Harmony Books
  • Brunton, Paul. 1937. "Western Thought and Eastern Culture" The Cornhill Magazine
  • Brunton, Paul. 1951. Introduction to Wood, Ernest Practical Yoga London: Rider
  • Plus articles in "Success Magazine", "Occult Review", "The Aryan Path", &c.

Posthumously Published Texts

  • Essays on the Quest (1984)
  • Essential Readings
  • Conscious Immortality [15]
  • Notebooks of Paul Brunton (1984-88)

Further reading

Footnotes

  1. ^ Description of the visit and reproduction of one of the dialogues with the Maharshi, done from rough notes
  2. ^ Kamath, M.V.; Kher, V.B. (2003). Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Unique Saint. Jaico Publishing House. p. 298. ISBN 8172240301. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZcEJn3MLjcIC&pg=PA298&dq=Paul+Brunton+biography&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20biography&f=false. "Ramana Maharshi...was revealed to the wider world outside India by Paul Brunton..." 
  3. ^ Paul Brunton in his book A Search in Secret India, p.305, cited by Steve Taylor in his article Satsang The Power of Spiritual Presence /in New Dawn Magazine No. 101 (Mar-Apr 2007)
  4. ^ Jeffrey M. Masson (1999), Der Guru meines Vaters, Eine Kindheit mit Paul Brunton, Berlin, Theseus, ISBN 3-89620-144-1, p. 25
  5. ^ Annie Cahn Fung, Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West, Part I: Genesis of a Quest, Chapter 3: In Mysore
  6. ^ Paul Brunton in his book A Search in Secret India, p. 165
  7. ^ Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies
  8. ^ Storr, Anthony (1997). Feet of clay. Simon & Schuster. p. 162. ISBN 0684834955. http://books.google.com/books?id=XxUay6uxp3EC&pg=PA162&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=fasle. "He was so ashamed of being half-Jewish that he had a cosmetic operation on his nose." 
  9. ^ "In 1963, after several years of travelling and living in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Brunton withdrew to the serenity of the Swiss Alps." Adyar online
  10. ^ Yoga Journal. 112. Active Interest Media Inc.. Sep-Oct 1993. p. 116. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZukDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA116&dq=Paul+Brunton+Jeffrey+Masson#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20Jeffrey%20Masson&f=false. "This is a scathing account of growing up with a guru in the house." 
  11. ^ Mansfield, Victor (1995). Synchronicity, science, and soul-making. p. 195. ISBN 0812693041. http://books.google.com/books?id=jSf_jIN4Yt8C&pg=PA195&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "The world is the invention of Universal Mind." 
  12. ^ Feuerstein, Georg (1997). Lucid Waking. Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.. pp. 157-158. ISBN 0892816132. http://books.google.com/books?id=jMepDq0yiioC&pg=PA157&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "We like to reiterate that 'everything is relative'..." 
  13. ^ Godwin, Joscelyn (2007). The Golden Thread. Quest Books. p. 186. ISBN 0835608602. http://books.google.com/books?id=bt7YY7dQRCMC&pg=PA186&dq=Paul+Brunton+mentalism&lr=#v=onepage&q=Paul%20Brunton%20mentalism&f=false. "My mentalistic position is not based on any academic training in philosophy..." 
  14. ^ Some information
  15. ^ Excerpts
  16. ^ Here, in his son's account, is Brunton's description of an illumination that came upon him after years of study. Excerpt

External links


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