Raphael (Ashram Vidya Order.) 2001. Aurea Vidya Foundation Inc. New York, N.Y. (148 pages) - www.vidya-ashramvidyaorder.org
In the first half of this book Raphael engages in a dialogue with his students about philosophic issues, including the nature of reality, love, the mind’s role in projecting and creating illusory experience, the role of desire in causing unhappiness, spiritual teachers, art, and the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. The discussion is rich and engaging. The students present Raphael with questions that could easily be our own. Raphael’s answers are surgically precise in identifying and peeling away the fundamental confusions and unexamined assumptions that combine to alienate us from ourselves and prevent us from achieving true peace. The reader will appreciate the dialogic approach (also used in his book “Tat Tvam Asi”) and Raphael’s willingness to explain so as to foster understanding and comprehension. For Raphael, “comprehension” – or deeper understanding – is the true basis of change and is what allows us to transform ourselves. His books are designed to foster such “comprehension” through a combination of dialogue and careful explanation.
Part Two of the book uses a different format to approach these subjects, presenting each topic in the form of short sentences or paragraphs – i.e. “sutras” – that can be used for meditation and contemplation. This more intuitive format provides a nice balance to the more analytic, dialogic style of the first half of the book. Throughout Raphael reminds us that realization is not an academic or intellectual undertaking, rather, it is a “realizative” undertaking that should transform the way we live and our fundamental assumptions about the source of life.
Review by Micha-El (Alan Berkowitz), February, 2009
