Simone Weil ~ Attention and Pure Silence ~ Christian Mystics

A selection of some key pointers for meditation from Simone Weil taken from various texts and sources.   Simone Adolphine Weil (1909 -1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist.  Weil received spiritual direction from a Dominican friar and learned much from the Catholic author Gustave Thibon. She was especially rooted in Neoplatonic thinking in her spiritual writings. Yet her spiritual curiosity took her far. She learned Sanskrit to read the Bhagavad Gita. She studied Mahayana Buddhism and the ancient Greek and Egyptian mystery religions. She believed that each religion, when we are within it, is true. But she was opposed to religious syncretism. She saw a blending of religions as diminishing the particularity of each tradition and the truth of that path to God. Though she learned from other faiths, she plunged deeper into her own Catholicism. For Weil, truth was deeply personal and could only be approached through deep introspection. She experienced a powerful and ecstatic experience in the same church where Saint Francis had prayed. Weil wrote intensely about spirituality, mysticism, beauty and social struggle. Her writings sought to develop the intellectual consequences of the religious experiences she was having. 🔆 These podcasts are not monetized. If you benefit from these podcasts and would like to support our nun's hermitage, there are two options to donate - via Paypal using this email address: [email protected] with PayPal or using this direct link: https://paypal.me/VivekaHermitage or become at Patron at: https://www.patreon.com/jayasara 🙏 May whatever goodness arises from these readings/offerings be for the benefit of all sentient beings.