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Paul Brunton is the pen name of Raphael Hurst (21 October 1898 – 27 July 1981), a British theosophist and spiritualist. He is best known as one of the early popularizers of Neo-Hindu spiritualism in western esotericism, notably via his bestselling ''A Search in Secret India'' (1934). Brunton was a proponent of a doctrine of "Mentalism", or ''Oriental Mentalism'' to distinguish it from subjective idealism of the western tradition. Brunton expounds his doctrine of Mentalism in ''The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga'' (1941) and in ''The Wisdom of the Overself'' (1943). ==Biography== Hurst was born in London in 1898. He served in a tank division during the First World War, and later devoted himself to mysticism and came into contact with Theosophists. He married Karen Augusta Tuttrup in 1921, with whom he had a son, Kenneth Thurston Hurst (b. 1923). After his wife had an affair with his friend Leonard Gill, the marriage was divorced in 1926, but Hurst remained on friendly terms with his ex-wife and with Gill. He was a bookseller and journalist, and wrote under various pseudonyms, including Raphael Meriden and Raphael Delmonte. Being partner of an occult bookshop, The Atlantis Bookshop, in Bloomsbury, Hurst came into contact with both the literary and occult British intelligentsia of the 1920s. In 1930, Hurst embarked on a voyage to India, which brought him into contact with Meher Baba, Vishuddhananda Paramahansa, Paramacharya of Kancheepuram and Ramana Maharshi. At the Paramacharya's insistence, he met Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, which lead to a turn of events culminating in revealing Ramana to the western world. Hurst's first visit to Sri Ramana's ashram took place in 1931. During this visit, Hurst was accompanied by a Buddhist bhikshu, formerly a military officer but meanwhile known as Swami Prajnananda, the founder of the English ashram in Rangoon. Hurst asked several questions, including "What is the way to God-realization?" and Maharshi said: "Vichara, asking yourself the 'Who am I?' enquiry into the nature of your Self."〔(Description of the visit and reproduction of one of the dialogues with the Maharshi, done from rough notes )〕 ''Paul Brunton'' was the pseudonym under which ''A Search in Secret India'' was published in 1934. The book became a bestseller, and Hurst afterwards stuck to publishing under this name. Brunton has been credited with introducing Ramana Maharshi to the West through his books ''A Search in Secret India'' and ''The Secret Path''. One day—sitting with Ramana Maharshi—Brunton had an experience which Steve Taylor names "an experience of genuine enlightenment which changed him forever". Brunton describes it in the following way: Brunton was in India during World War II, as a guest of the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.〔Jeffrey M. Masson (1999), ''Der Guru meines Vaters, Eine Kindheit mit Paul Brunton'', Berlin, Theseus, ISBN 3-89620-144-1, p. 25〕〔Annie Cahn Fung, ''Paul Brunton A Bridge Between India and the West'', Part I: Genesis of a Quest, Chapter 3: In Mysore〕 He dedicated his book ''The Quest of the Overself'' to the Maharaja and when the Maharaja died in 1940, he was present at his funeral.〔("Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Category 15: The Orient" ), Chapter 2, p.453〕 Brunton was critical of Mahatma Gandhi the Indian independence movement: In the 1940s and 1950s, Brunton occasionally stayed as a guest, for a few weeks at a time, about six months total, with the parents of controversial American author and former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson. In 1956, Brunton decided that a third world war was imminent (with a great many other people living at the time, including the Swiss who built bunkers for the entire population ) and the Massons moved to Montevideo, since this location was considered safe. From Uruguay, Masson went with Brunton's encouragement to study Sanskrit at Harvard. Brunton himself did not move to South America, instead spending some time living in New Zealand. Masson wrote a critical account of Brunton titled ''My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion' in 1993.〔("In 1963, after several years of travelling and living in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Brunton withdrew to the serenity of the Swiss Alps." ) Adyar online. 〕 In the 1950s, Brunton retired from publishing books and devoted himself to writing essays and notes. Upon his death in 1981 in Vevey, Switzerland, it was noted that in the period since the last published book in 1952, he had rendered about 20,000 pages of philosophical writing. A longtime friend of Brunton's, philosopher Anthony Damiani, founder of ''Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies'' in 1972.〔(Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies )〕 Swedish-American publisher Robert Larson started publishing the 16-volume set in 1984. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Paul Brunton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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