Harry Oldmeadow

Timeless Truths & Modern Delusions

The Perennial Philosophy as a guide for contemporary Buddhists

In this curated selection of articles and talks, Harry Oldmeadow explores the Traditionalist perspective and, through this, heunearths many assumptions of the modern mindset. These assumptions, once uncovered, reveal the propaganda and conditioning that we are unwittingly subject to from without and within.The yearning for spiritual knowledge is as old as humankind itself, and so we find an array of spiritual traditions around the world. These traditions exist, by necessity, within cultural landscapes, and yet these landscapes are constantly changing, from ancient to pre-modern, from modern to postmodern and so on.In this book, Oldmeadow adeptly surveys the challenges and opportunities facing Eastern religious traditions in their transmission to the modern West.

He examines the role of key figures in the East-West encounter, and compares the traditional doctrines of time and cosmic cycles to notions of ‘progress’ and ‘evolutionism’ so prevalent in the modern mentality. Bylooking at the Buddhist tradition and confronting some of the greatest issues facing the spread of Buddhism to the West, Oldmeadow offers insight into what it really means to follow a spiritual tradition, not in ‘feel good’ terms but for those wanting to get to the bare bones of the Truth.

Publication Date: 24 April 2021

Pages: 264 | ISBN: 978-0648883029 | Format: Paperback

Buy for $29.95

Praise for Harry Oldmeadow’s previous books

Journeys East is the most comprehensive, engaging, and responsible treatment of the advent of Asian thought to the West that has ever been written.
– Huston Smith

No other available study can compare in either breadth or depth with Oldmeadow’s treatment of the very important encounter of the West with the spiritual traditions of the East during the past two centuries.
– Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Journeys East

This is as important a book in the field of the philosophia perennis as I have encountered. Oldmeadow has given us a mountain ledge view of the realm of Traditionalism and Perennialism as expounded by its greatest sage, Frithjof Schuon, and he has done so with impeccable scholarship as well as with a stunning breadth of insight that is as spiritually rich as it is intellectually rigorous…
– Mark Perry, translator of Schuon’s works, on Frithjof Schuon and the Perennial Philosophy

In an age when matters of the spirit seem like mere vapor…it is necessary to find touchstones — tangible points of contact — in order to make the great spiritual heritage of mankind immediate and real to us again. These penetrating essays serve to do just this.
– Rodney Blackhirst, author of Primordial Alchemy, on Touchstones of the Spirit

A wonderful and fascinating book! The definitive introduction to the legacy of Abhishiktananda, the French Benedictine to whom it was given to become a Master of the Vedantic way.
– Wolfgang Smith, author of Cosmos and Transcendence, on A Christian Pilgrim in India

This is an extraordinary book. Oldmeadow’s groundbreaking interpretation takes Black Elk studies to a profound new level.
– Wilhelm K. Meya, Director, Lakota Language Consortium, on Black Elk, Lakota Visionary

About the Author

HARRY OLDMEADOW was, until his retirement, Coordinator of Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University, Bendigo. He has degrees in History, Comparative Religion and Cinema Studies. His principal interests include the spiritual interactions ofEast and West, the perennial philosophy, environmental philosophy, and primordial traditions, especially those of the indigenous people of Australia and the Plains Indians of North America.Disclaimer: this book is directly addressed to Buddhist practitioners but will repay the attention of anyone seeking a spiritual path amidst the confusions of our age.