Dilemma Of Narcissus

For Louis Lavelle, metaphysics means "the science of spiritual inwardness". "If the Greeks of old repeat 'Know thyself' and the Christians 'Forget thyself, '" he wrote, "it is because they are not speaking of the same self; and I can only know the one on condition that I forget the other". In this book, after a profound reading of the Narcissus tale, he shows what must be forgotten and what must be known if we would participate consciously in a reality that transcends the individual both without and within. His final chapter gives a portrait of the mature soul in whom - through the discipline of "participation" - being, knowledge, and love are perfected and virtually indistinguishable.

A profound reading of the Narcissus tale and of the recovery of one's own soul.