The Multiple States of the Being is the companion to, and the completion of, The Symbolism of the Cross, which, together with Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, constitute René Guénon’s great trilogy of pure metaphysics. In this work, Guénon offers a masterful explication of the metaphysical order and its multiple manifestations-of the divine hierarchies and what has been called the Great Chain of Being-and in so doing demonstrates how jñana, intellective or intrinsic knowledge of what is, and of That which is Beyond what is, is a Way of Liberation. Guénon the metaphysical social critic, master of arcane symbolism, comparative religionist, researcher of ancient mysteries and secret histories, summoner to spiritual renewal, herald of the end days, disappears here. Reality remains.

Table of Contents

Editorial Note
Preface
Chapter 1 Infinity and Possibility
Chapter 2 Possibles and Compossibles
Chapter 3 Being and Non-Being
Chapter 4 Foundation of the Theory of the Multiple States
Chapter 5 Relationships of Unity and Multiplicity
Chapter 6 Analogous Considerations drawn from the Study of the Dream State
Chapter 7 The Possibilities of Individual Consciousness
Chapter 8 Mentality as the Characteristic Element of Human Individuality
Chapter 9 The Hierarchy of Individual Faculties
Chapter 10 The Limits of the Indefinite
Chapter 11 Principles of Distinction between the States of Being
Chapter 12 The Two Chaoses
Chapter 13 The Spiritual Hierarchies
Chapter 14 Reply to Objections drawn from the Plurality of Beings
Chapter 15 The Realization of the Being through Knowledge
Chapter 16 Knowledge and Consciousness
Chapter 17 Necessity and Contingency
Chapter 18 The Metaphysical Notion of Freedom
Index

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