Experience and Philosophy by Franklin Merrell Wolff

[Cosmic-Resplendence]

I seem to find obscure actualized, consciousness and enlightenment books like my last review, “Thinking and Destiny” by Harold Percival. So here’s another one probably not many have heard of, and that’s “Experience and Philosophy” By Franklin Merrell Wolff. 

I’ve had this book for fifteen years or something, Its very interesting but once again its very dense reading material. It seems that people who reach enlightenment and true realization can’t explain what happened to them simply, but Franklin Merrell Wolff does a fairly decent job, trying to explain the ineffable, still its a complex book to fully understand. I know how they (gurus) often say that you won’t understand what they write about unless you’re ready, and perhaps have had a few realizations along the way, Merrell Wolff is no exception here. Regardless, there’s a lot of gems in this book if you’re willing to give it some time and effort. In writing about it here I realize I really need to read it again myself, its been a while. There’s an interesting and large section in the back of the book with 56 aphorisms, universal truths he came to the realization of through his personal experiences, and then another commentary section there after to explain these fundamental truths as he understood them. 

I believe Franklin Merrell Wolff is legit. He was a scholar mathematician, he went to Harvard, and briefly started teaching as professor of Mathematics at Stanford University with a promising future career, but turned it all down to follow a spiritual path instead as an ascetic. I couldn’t see someone dropping a promising career like that unless they really tapped into something worth while, and Wolff definitely seemed to feel this way. 

I’m not going to say this is the best spiritual book coming from a person who claimed to reach enlightenment ever written, but its worth it to grab a copy if you can find one. I think this book is somewhat rare, and might be difficult to obtain.  -Actually I just checked on Amazon, looks like its been reprinted so its available, but the version in the photo is quite rare. There’s a few rave reviews on Amazon, with worst critics saying its too difficult to understand. 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Merrell-Wolff

Here’s a page from the website dedicated to him with a lot more information about Franklin Merrell Wolff, and portions from the book  to get a better idea about Wolff and his teachings.

https://www.merrell-wolff.org/fmw/philosophy

 

Edited August 12 by Cosmic-Resplendence