tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post2261122630306779840..comments2024-01-12T10:42:23.401-05:00Comments on The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Notes on Corbin's Shadow - Part 2Tom Cheethamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12985087642903754121noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-22806493209038455332009-03-25T06:17:00.000-04:002009-03-25T06:17:00.000-04:00Thank you for your kind comments and your support ...Thank you for your kind comments and your support - it is much appreciated. - TCTom Cheethamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12985087642903754121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7383427572957027459.post-85984053969137728272009-03-24T19:56:00.000-04:002009-03-24T19:56:00.000-04:00I’d like to express my appreciation for you site—a...I’d like to express my appreciation for you site—and for this series of postings (Corbin’s Shadow) particularly. I would have expected multiple comments, but realize that many of your amateur followers may be shy while the academics may feel constrained and probably communicate in other ways. I’m myself not of the latter tribe but, indeed, one of those who’ve lived my life long “on the margins of the Church, on the margins of the traditions.” I chanced across Henry Corbin by the helping hand of Leonard Fox who, at that time editor of >Arcana,< suggested to me by e-mail (I didn’t know him personally) that I read his own translation of two of Corbin’s essays published as >Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam<. I’d sent him e-mail suggesting that many of Swedenborg’s experiences reminded me strangely of Ibn El-Arabi’s—and since Arcana concerned itself with Swedenborg, I’d suggested that this seeming convergence be the subject of an article. I read the recommended book and became an admirer of Corbin’s (to put it mildly). Earlier this year I’ve also read with considerable admiration your own >The World Turned Inside Out<—which I’d finally bought, alas almost in desperation. I’d already obtained and read all of Corbin’s works published in English (most of them multiple times)—and struggled through >Suhrawardî d’Alep< in French (virtually translating the work before I could trust the meaning). So now I turned to the seemingly leading commentator and guide on the French sage. I was rewarded—and thank you for that too.<BR/><BR/>Your postings on Corbin’s Shadow deal with a subject almost never discussed in the clear. It is the strange twilight world some of us inhabit on the margins, benevolently inclined toward but not enlisted in the various orthodoxies, be they of the East or of the West. This, of course is the realm Corwin himself explored with such soulful and fervent persistence. Reading your postings, fragments of Idris Shah’s writings about Sufi experience echoed in my head. Shah occasionally addressed the problem of would-be gurus high-jacking a genuine tradition—and felt that the process could not really be stopped. The secret protects itself—meaning that many people can and indeed many shall abuse the concept of the >mundus imaginalis,< this despite Corbin’s oft-repeated warnings, cautions, and pleas. But the inner perceptions of those with open ears will act effectively to screen out the imitators. It is odd indeed how a genuine message works its way through the flux and chaos especially of a decaying culture like our own. “For some people in the modern world,” as you put it, “it is I think necessary to live in this perpetual tension.” And I might add that the statement would apply with equal force to a world dominated by a dogmatic religiousness too. >Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.< One of my growing convictions is that the genuinely transcending aspects of reality can never really be socialized, institutionalized—any more than the genuine poetic spirit can be “churched.” United Church of Shakespeare? At the same time I do agree with you that all esoteric knowledge “does have…a publicly effective measure”—working through individuals touched by its graces.<BR/><BR/>I’m very glad that the mysterious tradition to which Corbin opened our vision, to which he added such impetus—and original insights of his own—is visibly maintained now through such efforts as your own writing, web work, and the French site. I’m pleased to be a follower. If you are curious about me, you can glance at two blogs of mine reachable through arsendarnay.blogspot.com (Ghulf Genes) and qafzone.blogspot.com (BorderZone). In the latter you’ll find a brief posting on Corbin with a link to your site.ADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06408980212433714362noreply@blogger.com