Hello =)

I'm interested in learning about Mystik Jawa, both for personal reasons and because I'm doing a project on it for a class I'm taking.

I'm not really sure where to start looking...I have one book, "Man in the Present: Javanese Mysticism" by Harun Hadiwijono, but there are a lot of Arabic terms that I have trouble parsing, and also some terms in what I think is Javanese. I've also seen "The Religion of Java" by Clifford Geertz for sale, but have heard bad things about it, specifically, that it is written by a westerner who doesn't have a real reverence for what he's covering. Additionally, I don't even know enough about this to know whether Mystik Jawa is synonymous with Javanese Mysticism, or if it is a specific school of mysticism within that categorization.

So I was wondering, does anyone know of a good Javanese/English dictionary I could pick up to help me with some of the terms in the book I already have?

Also, does anyone know of any good books or online resources that I could search through for more information on Mystik Jawa?

And lastly, I was wondering if anyone could tell me who Paryana is, and where I could get more information about him...the section in Man in the Present on current schools of mysticism has 5 sections, one on Sumarah, one on Sapta Dharma, one on Pangestu, one on Bratakesawa, and one on Paryana. I know three of those are schools of mysticism, but it looks like Paryana is actually the name of a person.

Thanks so much for any help! I am so clueless about it right now...but I want to study this material hard, with reverence for what I am learning.