John Levy (philosopher)
John Levy (died 1976) was a British mystic, artist, and musician, best known for translating the works of his guru Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon, Atma Darshan and Atma Niviriti into English.
Personal life
Born into a wealthy aristocratic family, Levy was an expert in Asian folk music, especially that of India. At one point in his life, he gave up his entire fortune and went to live in India with only a loincloth.[1]
He died in London in 1976.[2]
Philosophy
In India, Levy was a student of Krishna Menon,[3][4] from whom he learned the Advaita Vedanta. In The Nature of Man According to the Vedanta, Levy expounds a classic nondualist argument about breaking down subject-object duality and the implications of this on the notion of the self. The Self, he says, can never be fully known, as to know it is to objectify it. Freed from the notion of a Self, we can stop trying to alter ourselves and enter into the stream of experience without hesitation.
Publications
- The Nature of Man According to the Vedanta (1956), Sentient Publications, 2004, ISBN 1-59181-024-8
- "Immediate Knowledge and Happiness (Sadhyomukti): The Vedantic Doctrine of Non-Duality (1970), Thorsons, London. ISBN 9780722501597