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Definitely not a book for beginners. I think reading this without throughly understanding some form of Sanatani monism, ideally Advaita Vedanta, would be incredibly difficult. Not understanding dialectics would make understanding the Spanda school impossible. Kashmir Shaivas view God dialecticlally; He moves from union <> multiplicity, contemplating <> contemplated. Each dialectical movement is called a "Spanda".

Book ends off with Augustine's teachings, at a time when not only the western Roman empire was collapsing, but when the church had been more or less integrated into the fabric of Roman society. In the face of deteriorating empire, Augustine was more concerned with material issues like bandits, slavery, the Donatist heresy. He did write on sexuality extensively, but he was far more forgiving than say, Jerome.

The insights into gender are fascinating as well — as Christianity became more and more commonplace, the radical notion of men and women becoming genderless/sexless in Christ (see Gospel of Thomas and the Gnostic apocrypha) became sidelined for a strict gender division. Any women who were found to "imitate men" (e.g. through asceticism) and vice versa (e.g. through passive homosexuality) were punished severely.

I am actually so engrossed by this book. It's fascinating, disturbing, and highly moving in a way I didn't think it would be. Gonna make more notes.

I always found the history of the early Christian church interesting, as both a Vedantin and a Marxist. One of the observations I always with Christians is their zeal for sexual renunciation (almost exclusively) vs material renunciation, or social equality — which form the bulk of the Sermon on the Mount. This book answers a lot of it, even if not from an explicitly class-oriented perspective.

Lessons from the success of Italian and German fascism — they were a result of the proletarian revolution being defeated from within by revisionist leadership. In the case of Germany, the revolution happened without a vanguard, causing its quick co-opting by social democrats, leading to its subsequent defeat. If a vanguard cannot control the mass orgs, even if the mass orgs win temporarily, it's not permanent.

The dangers of retaining "reformers" and socdems in your vanguard is abundantly clear. Unless the vanguard can purge them with decisive precision, they will destroy the unity of the workers' movement.

Dutt's notes on how revisionists approach the "middle class" (petty-bourgeoisie) is something we MLs need to crit and self-crit on a lot more. Conflating managers/labor aristocrats/small business owners with class enemies inflates the ranks of the enemy camp. However, they are two-faced and vacillating. That being said I think a lot of MLs do wrongly categorize them as "lacking revolutionary potential".

I feel so angry as I continue reading this book. Almost everything Palme Dutt describes about fascism can be observed today in the imperial core but liberals insist on being ostriches. It's very difficult to retain any semblance of respect for liberals and "social democrats" whatsoever.

The tools of bourgeoisie to extend the longevity of capitalism: direct armed conflict (Truman doctrine, domino theory, etc), limited concessions via social democracy (through actors like Mamdani, Sanders, the Canadian NDP, etc), and drawing on the reserves/surplus of American capitalism (which is failing as we speak — Iran War accelerated matters).

I went into flow state and read/annotated this much in one sitting. It is uncanny how the events described in this book parallel what happened post 2008 recession to the incoming 2026 economic crisis with the Iran war almost perfectly. Essentially: in this era of history, there are two choices left to society — fascism (capitalism in terminal decline) and communism. There is no "3rd option".

The format of poem -> exegesis on poem is probably my favorite format in these sorts of texts. That's why this book reminds me of The Ascent of Mount Carmel so much.

Essentially — how to attain moksha through the path of bhakti, or devotion to God. The way it is written is intentionally agnostic, so Narada's teachings can be applied quite universally. The commentary is quite good; I just wish it wasn't so verbose where it didn't need to be, but eh, preferences.

It's kind of melodramatic.

Labriola is so verbose he puts me to sleep :)

Can't bring myself to read ML theory recently so pivoting to sadhana (again). My inner bhakta is very happy. Gyana says "inquire, understand, detatch", bhakti says, "love, go mad, detatch." Both are not mutually exclusive; they are dialectical. You can't sustain gyana or karma yogas without bhakti; and without gyana or karma yogas, bhakti yoga becomes self-indulgent. Swami Vivekananda taught this as well.

Reading the Gaudiya Vedanta Publications translation. I can't help but lament how I don't understand Sanskrit because I feel like so much is being lost in translation. But even so it's a beautiful poem. Would love to hear it sung as it's supposed to be.

Genuinely such an amazing book. I need to re-read. I feel so humbled, knowing that John was capable of this sort of moral goodness, despite having endured such an incredibly harsh life. Reading AoMC inevitably made me reflect on attachment to items I never even considered and the types of evil this inflicts over time on my character. He's a great teacher.

If I had not studied Advaita Vedanta beforehand, I would likely think, when John starts talking about detachment from memory, he was crazy — but he's not. He's describing what Vedantin sadhakas who followed jñana yoga have taught almost 1:1. What John called "a state of perfection" Vedantins call "jivanmukta". This type of sadhana is... really, really advanced.

Ok, so I think 1/3 this book is about visions so I think unless you're actively having visions (?) this might be a bit hard to absorb. Lol. It's a book on mysticism, what do you expect.

I'm actually impressed that John goes into so much detail about why "visions" are not to be relied on. Now he refutes the argument of "well, if they're not reliable, then why do people get them"? There definitely was always some doubt in my mind about the level of superstition in 1500s Spain, but John is probably the most "skeptical mystic" one can imagine. He doesn't put much stock in "visions and loquations".

For someone who was so deep into non-dualist mysticism (as far as a 16th century Spanish monk could be without being labeled as a heretic), John is extremely skeptical of "visions" and "supernatural experiences". He makes the case that it is extremely hard to discern if they're legitimate or not, and even if they were, it is harder to discern their meaning. This protects against delusion/egoism. Good stuff.

Absolutely underestimated the difficulty of these teachings. To put it in terms I'm familiar with, John describes advanced dhyana at this point of the book, that is, of going from meditation (with subject/object differentiation) into contemplation (to "go beyond the senses"). Translating what he's imparting from Catholic to Vedantin equivalents helps me parse this text a lot.

This book is doing more for me than therapy. Maybe I should dump my therapist and just read JotC 🥲

Trying to get through this book again! St. John of the Cross remains my favorite Catholic writer, and interpreting his mysticism through the lens of advaita vedanta is truly fascinating. Also, despite its density, AoMC is such a beautifully written work.

Trying to get through this again! St John of the Cross remains much favorite Catholic writer; interpretating his mysticism through the lens of advaita vedanta is fascinating. AoMC is also just a beautifully written text in general.

Ivan's monologue on the sublimation of the Church into the State — such that this new entity not only encompasses legalistic proceduresn but the entire social character of man, rendering it thus obsolete as a "State" or a "Church" but rather transforms both into a new entity — really hits differently after fully grasping the ultimate aims of socialism.

can you tell i am obsessed fr

idk how much money i'd pay for someone to draw the sequence of smol pompey changing his outfit 4x, riding a white horse decked out with 10 pounds of bling bling while fantasizing about meeting sulla-senpai, only to find a drunk & sick old man 😭