The Real Is Unknowable, The Knowable Is Unreal

by Robert Powell

Wisdom is to reject conventional wisdom about almost everything. Thus begins Robert Powell's inquiry into the nature of Totality and the unreality of all else. This small but profound book is divided into three parts. In the first, Reflections, Robert Powell comments on some of humankind's most timeless puzzles and Does the body actually exist? What is man, if not that bundle of concepts and images that comes upon him at birth? The second, Interchanges, uses a dialogue format that recalls Plato's Allegory of the Cave , in which a teacher and student questioner in a modern setting discuss non-duality, consciousness, and reality. The third part, Essays, is comprised of eight essays, each only a few pages long but addressing overarching themes including consciousness, fear of death, the end of the search, and the notion of the real as unknowable. Readers will leave the book with a satisfying conclusion to a brief, luminous work that can be read again and again.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mindless new-age gobbledygook. Almost every paragraph directly contradicts the paragraph that came before it. It reads like the notebook of a teenager who smoked pot for the first time and thought they were being like really deep, man....

[Phil Calandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Real is Unknowable, The Knowable is Unreal" is the author's inquiry into the nature of reality. The book is divided into three parts including interchanges between the author and his students. This book is rather perplexing which does not give Advaita philosophy do justice. The book does not resonate and the overall discussion is often contradictory and confusing. I would recommend "The Nisagardatta Gita" by Pradeep Apte and the "Nature of Consciousness", and "Being Aware of Being Aware by Rupert Spira as better choices.

[Huw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, I am grateful for finding it quite spontaneously in a sale box outside Watkins bookstore in London.