Shimmering Mirrors : Reality and Appearance in Contemplative Metaphysics East and West

A study of comparative metaphysics that explores the concepts of Reality and Appearance and their relevance to contemporary religious consciousness. In this pioneering work of comparative metaphysics, Patrick Laude delves into Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish concepts of Reality and Appearance to offer a uniquely lucid exploration of metaphysical representations of reality, relativity, appearance, and illusion. Laude includes discussions of the Absolute and the Relative in Hindu Advaita Vedānta, Kashmiri Śaivism, Sufi wahdat al-wujūd, and Madhyamaka Buddhism; the metaphysics of salvation in Buddhist and Christian traditions; and the metaphysics of evil and the distinction between Reality and Appearance in the Jewish Kabbalah, Śaivism, Christian mysticism, and the Sufi school of Ibn al-‘Arabī. The book explores how a discerning and subtle apprehension of the relationship between Reality and Appearance may help contemporary readers and seekers respond to the acute predicaments of contemporary religious and spiritual consciousness. Patrick Laude is Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is the author of several books, including Pathways to an Inner Islam: Massignon, Corbin, Guénon, and Schuon and (with Jean-Baptiste Aymard) Frithjof Schuon: Life and Teachings, both published by SUNY Press.