Paul Brunton

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Paul Brunton (October 21, 1898 - July 27, 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 a wide variety of Eastern and Western esoteric teachings. With his entire life dedicated to an inward and spiritual quest, Brunton felt charged with the task of communicating his experiences to others and, as the first person to write accounts of what he learned in the East from a Western perspective, 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 sum up 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)

Paul Brunton was born in London in 1898 and after having served in the First World War, started to devote himself to mysticism. He came into contact with Theosophists. In the early 1930s, Brunton embarked on a voyage to India, which would bring him into contact with such luminaries as Meher Baba, Sri Shankaracharya of Kancheepuram and Sri Ramana Maharshi. Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books "A Search in Secret India" and "The Secret Path". Brunton married four times. His first marriage took place in 1921 with Karen Augusta Tuttrup. Two years later she gave birth to their son Kenneth Thurston. The couple divorced in 1926 and remained friends. Brunton's third and fourth wife was the same person, Evangeline Young.

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, 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.

"Bring again and again into remembrance the fact that you are a pilgrim, that this world is but a camp, and that the situations in which you find yourself, or create for yourself, should be regarded not from the worldly point of view only, but still more from that of this quest of the Overself." Paul Brunton

Contents

[edit] Criticism

The American author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, who was the son of a wealthy Jewish American patron of Brunton (who was Jewish, too) and of his wife, wrote a book My Father's Guru in which he details how he got disillusioned with Brunton. He also describes that -while being a boy- Paul Brunton has been a friend to him. Masson grew up in the 1940s and 1950s with this guru in his house-the celebrated mystic Paul Brunton ("P.B." to those who knew him), who numbered Masson's parents among his handful of close disciples and singled out young Jeff as a potential heir to his spiritual kingdom. In 1956, P.B. convinced the Massons that a third world war was imminent and recommended they move to Montevideo, a "safe" location. From Uruguay, Masson went off at P.B.'s bidding to study Sanskrit at Harvard, where he came to understand the man was not what he presented himself to be. Brunton called himself a Dr.[1]but, according to Masson had no such degree from a university.

[edit] Trivia

P.B. has been of jewish origin and according to Masson he tried to hide this fact. He underwent a chirugical operation on his nose, encouraging some of his jewish followers to do so equally (which Masson's parents did).

[edit] 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)

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Published Texts

[edit] 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)
  • Wisdom of the Overself (1943)
  • Spiritual Crisis of Man (1952)

[edit] 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.

[edit] Posthumously Published Texts

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

[edit] Biography

  • Paul Brunton: A Personal View by Kenneth Thurston Hurst (his son), 1989, ISBN 0-943914-49-3

[edit] Photography

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

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