The Rhythm
of Being : The Gifford Lectures. by Raimon Panikkar. Maryknoll,
NY, 2010. $50.00
It would be absurdly arrogant of me to pretend
to review a book by Raimon Panikkar. I am, however, so excited by The
Rhythm of Being, that I would like to offer an appreciation. As a
non-theologian, I thought that the book would be far beyond my range of
understanding. I was wrong. While I stumbled through the deeper
philosophical sections, and skipped over the phrases in Sanskrit, Hindu,
Arabic, Greek, German, and French, I understood enough of the argument to
feel new insights bursting into my consciousness.
An early and lasting insight came in the
Introduction, when Panikkar confesses, "My subtlest temptation was to
prepare these [Gifford] lectures instead of preparing myself. To search for
something to say, instead of aspiring for something to be." How deep a
lesson for a preacher, writer, teacher: May the words that I speak, the
words that I write; the tone of my voice; the stance I take to my reader or
audience—may these rise from the purity of my heart. Throughout the book,
embedded within tightly argued positions, and restated in concluding
paragraphs, are reminders that Panikkar writes not only from incredibly
broad and deep scholarship, but just as broadly and deeply from what he
calls "the third eye" and beyond.
Among several pages in which Panikker refers to
the third eye, are those in which he addresses the topic of Divine
Immanence, "Immanence entails that the immediate awareness of the Divine be
given not to the senses or reason, but to that third eye, which may also be
called intellectus in distinction to ratio." The third eye,
nevertheless, needs the "complement and interpretation of the other two
organs of knowledge." Elsewhere he relates the third eye to advaitic
knowing; that is, knowing that, while dependent on sense and reason,
functions non-dialectically, non-dualistically. It is immediate, a spiritual
experience, as in the presence of beauty. In Chapter V, "The Triadic Myth,
Panikkar broaches the topic of mysticism, in the context of the three eyes:
". . .while we can speak of the three doors of ‘understanding’ (the three
eyes), we cannot properly speak of the mystical. . . ." It lies "beyond the
field of consciousness," and "there is no proper eye to see it."
Another exciting feature I found in this book
is Panikkar’s ease of movement among languages and cultures. He points out
similarities of sensibilities, for example, when introducing the universal
belief that "God cannot be experienced in words, or even in thinking or
doing, but just by silence; that is, by being is silent." He quotes from an
Egyptian prayer, a Sanskrit Upanishad, and a Hebrew psalm, and he names
specifically twelve other disparate sources, including Pythagoras, Mithra,
Kung-Fu-ze, Augustine, and Wittgenstein , as well as "the mystics and
philosophers of all times." In addition to citing multiple sources for a
universal principle, he cautions against oversimplifying seeming
similarities by distinguishing nuances among words, and therefore among
concepts: "’Mind’ is not the same as Geist, nor the same as esprit,
let alone as budhi or manas, cit or
kokoro.
Clearly, this is a book for the study, not the
beach. As such, it calls for Dominican readers.
Patricia Chaffee, OP
Racine, Wisconsin
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