Effortless Spontaneity

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Effortless Spontaneity

Author : Dylan Esler
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004536371

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Effortless Spontaneity by Dylan Esler Pdf

This book explores the key notion of effortlessness in the early Dzogchen tradition of Tibet, focusing on a set of hitherto unstudied commentaries by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe (10th century).

Trying Not to Try

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Crown
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2014-03-04
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780770437626

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Trying Not to Try by Edward Slingerland Pdf

A deeply original exploration of the power of spontaneity—an ancient Chinese ideal that cognitive scientists are only now beginning to understand—and why it is so essential to our well-being Why is it always hard to fall asleep the night before an important meeting? Or be charming and relaxed on a first date? What is it about a politician who seems wooden or a comedian whose jokes fall flat or an athlete who chokes? In all of these cases, striving seems to backfire. In Trying Not To Try, Edward Slingerland explains why we find spontaneity so elusive, and shows how early Chinese thought points the way to happier, more authentic lives. We’ve long been told that the way to achieve our goals is through careful reasoning and conscious effort. But recent research suggests that many aspects of a satisfying life, like happiness and spontaneity, are best pursued indirectly. The early Chinese philosophers knew this, and they wrote extensively about an effortless way of being in the world, which they called wu-wei (ooo-way). They believed it was the source of all success in life, and they developed various strategies for getting it and hanging on to it. With clarity and wit, Slingerland introduces us to these thinkers and the marvelous characters in their texts, from the butcher whose blade glides effortlessly through an ox to the wood carver who sees his sculpture simply emerge from a solid block. Slingerland uncovers a direct line from wu-wei to the Force in Star Wars, explains why wu-wei is more powerful than flow, and tells us what it all means for getting a date. He also shows how new research reveals what’s happening in the brain when we’re in a state of wu-wei—why it makes us happy and effective and trustworthy, and how it might have even made civilization possible. Through stories of mythical creatures and drunken cart riders, jazz musicians and Japanese motorcycle gangs, Slingerland effortlessly blends Eastern thought and cutting-edge science to show us how we can live more fulfilling lives. Trying Not To Try is mind-expanding and deeply pleasurable, the perfect antidote to our striving modern culture.

Zhuangzi and the Happy Fish

Author : Roger T. Ames,Takahiro Nakajima
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780824854256

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Zhuangzi and the Happy Fish by Roger T. Ames,Takahiro Nakajima Pdf

The Zhuangzi is a deliciously protean text: it is concerned not only with personal realization, but also (albeit incidentally) with social and political order. In many ways the Zhuangzi established a unique literary and philosophical genre of its own, and while clearly the work of many hands, it is one of the finest pieces of literature in the classical Chinese corpus. It employs every trope and literary device available to set off rhetorically charged flashes of insight into the most unrestrained way to live one's life, free from oppressive, conventional judgments and values. The essays presented here constitute an attempt by a distinguished community of international scholars to provide a variety of exegeses of one of the Zhuangzi's most frequently rehearsed anecdotes, often referred to as "the Happy Fish debate." The editors have brought together essays from the broadest possible compass of scholarship, offering interpretations that range from formal logic to alternative epistemologies to transcendental mysticism. Many were commissioned by the editors and appear for the first time. Some of them have been available in other languages—Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish—and were translated especially for this anthology. And several older essays were chosen for the quality and variety of their arguments, formulated over years of engagement by their authors. All, however, demonstrate that the Zhuangzi as a text and as a philosophy is never one thing; indeed, it has always been and continues to be, many different things to many different people.

Insights into The Bhagavad Gita

Author : Vimala Thakar
Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9788120826755

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Insights into The Bhagavad Gita by Vimala Thakar Pdf

Vimala Thakar gave a series of inspiring talks on the Bhagavad Gita in three separate seminars, during 1992 and 1993 in Italy. To her, Bhagavad Gita is sacred because it deals with the organic wholeness of life and the inbuilt complexity of life and affirms the interplay between the microcosm and macrocosm. Moreover, persuades us to remain united with the ultimate reality, not only to intellectual understanding but through everything that we do, at every moment.

The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation

Author : Dylan Esler
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2023-01-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780197609903

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The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation by Dylan Esler Pdf

This book presents an English translation of the Samten Migdron (Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation) by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, a seminal 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist work on contemplation. This treatise is one of the most important sources for the study of the various meditative currents that were transmitted to Tibet from India and China during the early dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet. Written from the vantage point of the Great Completeness (Dzogchen) and its vehicle of effortless spontaneity, it discusses, in the manner of a doxography, both sutra-based-including Chan-and tantric approaches to meditation. The unabridged, annotated English translation of this Tibetan treatise is preceded by a general introduction situating the author-a pivotal figure in what would become the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism-and their work in historical and doctrinal context. The detailed annotations provide elucidating comments as well as crucial references to the numerous texts quoted by the Tibetan author. This book makes this groundbreaking Tibetan work on meditation accessible in English and opens fascinating windows on early forms of contemplative practice in Tibet.

How to Be a Happy Academic

Author : Alexander Clark,Bailey Sousa
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2018-03-12
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781526449047

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How to Be a Happy Academic by Alexander Clark,Bailey Sousa Pdf

Want to be an effective, successful and happy academic? This book helps you hone your skills, showcase your strengths, and manage all the professional aspects of academic life. With their focus on life-long learning and positive reflection, Alex and Bailey encourage you to focus on your own behaviours and personal challenges and help you to find real world solutions to your problems or concerns. Weaving inspirational stories, the best of research and theory, along with pragmatic advice from successful academics, this book provides step-by-step guidance and simple tools to help you better meet the demands of modern academia, including: Optimising your effectiveness, priorities & strategy Workflow & managing workload Interpersonal relationships, and how to influence Developing your writing, presenting and teaching skills Getting your work/life balance right. Clear, practical and refreshingly positive this book inspires you to build the career you want in academia.

Meditation from Buddhist, Hindu, and Taoist Perspectives

Author : Robert Altobello
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 1433106922

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Meditation from Buddhist, Hindu, and Taoist Perspectives by Robert Altobello Pdf

Engages readers with its original philosophical and pragmatic analysis of traditional Asian religions, philosophy, meditation practice, and the supreme spiritual ideals associated with the Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions. The text boldly bridges the theory/practice distinction. A central underpinning rests on the assumption that meditation practice without theory is groundless and that theory without practice is useless. Identifies and analyzes common elements found across traditions in which the practice of meditation plays a central role in human development, and readers will find a wealth of detailed reflection on the relationship between spiritual growth and meditation practice from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist perspectives. From publisher description.

Comparative Religious Ethics

Author : Darrell J. Fasching,Dell deChant,David M. Lantigua
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2011-03-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781444396126

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Comparative Religious Ethics by Darrell J. Fasching,Dell deChant,David M. Lantigua Pdf

This popular textbook has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect recent global developments, whilst retaining its unique and compelling narrative-style approach. Using ancient stories from diverse religions, it explores a broad range of important and complex moral issues, resulting in a truly reader-friendly and comparative introduction to religious ethics. A thoroughly revised and expanded new edition of this popular textbook, yet retains the unique narrative-style approach which has proved so successful with students Considers the ways in which ancient stories from diverse religions, such as the Bhagavad Gita and the lives of Jesus and Buddha, have provided ethical orientation in the modern world Updated to reflect recent discussions on globalization and its influence on cross-cultural and comparative ethics, economic dimensions to ethics, Gandhian traditions, and global ethics in an age of terrorism Expands coverage of Asian religions, quest narratives, the religious and philosophical approach to ethics in the West, and considers Chinese influences on Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen Buddhism, and Augustine’s Confessions Accompanied by an instructor’s manual (coming soon, see www.wiley.com/go/fasching) which shows how to use the book in conjunction with contemporary films

Sounds of Fear and Wonder

Author : Janet K. Halfyard
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2016-06-20
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780857729408

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Sounds of Fear and Wonder by Janet K. Halfyard Pdf

Characters and plot developments, similarly, are enhanced by their musical accompaniment. The different scoring strategies employed in supernatural and horror-based genres, comprising for example True Blood and Supernatural, are considered alongside cult shows set in our reality, such as Dexter, The Sopranos and 24. These discussions are complimented by in-depth case studies of musical approaches in two high-profile series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hannibal. Written from a musicological standpoint but fully accessible to non-musicologists, the book significantly advances television and music studies.

The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius

Author : Xiaoyan Hu
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2021-08-10
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781793641571

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The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius by Xiaoyan Hu Pdf

In The Aesthetics of Qiyun and Genius: Spirit Consonance in Chinese Landscape Painting and Some Kantian Echoes, Xiaoyan Hu provides an interpretation of the notion of qiyun, or spirit consonance, in Chinese painting, and considers why creating a painting—especially a landscape painting—replete with qiyun is regarded as an art of genius, where genius is an innate mental talent. Through a comparison of the role of this innate mental disposition in the aesthetics of qiyun and Kant’s account of artistic genius, the book addresses an important feature of the Chinese aesthetic tradition, one that evades the aesthetic universality assumed by a Kantian lens. Drawing on the views of influential sixth to fourteenth-century theorists and art historians and connoisseurs, the first part explains and discusses qiyun and its conceptual development from a notion mainly applied to figure painting to one that also plays an enduring role in the aesthetics of landscape painting. In the light of Kant’s account of genius, the second part examines a range of issues regarding the role of the mind in creating a painting replete with qiyun and the impossibility of teaching qiyun. Through this comparison with Kant, Hu demystifies the uniqueness of qiyun aesthetics and also illuminates some limitations in Kant’s aesthetics. The publication of this work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project no: 3213042202A1).

Sitting Meditation in Won Buddhism

Author : Serge V. Yarovoi
Publisher : BalboaPress
Page : 60 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2012-08-07
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781452556345

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Sitting Meditation in Won Buddhism by Serge V. Yarovoi Pdf

The practitioners of any meditation system, including those of Buddhist meditation, have a variety of contemplative practices to choose from. From those unlimited techniques and methods, informed and thoughtful practitioners can find their own approaches, depending on their level of understanding and eagerness, personal inclinations and preferences, and lifestyle and life goals. Digging to the roots of the instructions for sitting meditation in Korean Won Buddhism, the author presents various meditation practices on which the robust approach of the instructions for meditation in Won Buddhism is based.

China Root

Author : David Hinton
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2020-09-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781611807134

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China Root by David Hinton Pdf

A beautifully compelling and liberating guide to the original nature of Zen in ancient China by renowned author and translator David Hinton. Buddhism migrated from India to China in the first century C.E., and Ch'an (Japanese: Zen) is generally seen as China's most distinctive and enduring form of Buddhism. In China Root, however, David Hinton shows how Ch'an was in fact a Buddhist-influenced extension of Taoism, China's native system of spiritual philosophy. Unlike Indian Buddhism's abstract sensibility, Ch'an was grounded in an earthy and empirically-based vision. Exploring this vision, Hinton describes Ch'an as a kind of anti-Buddhism. A radical and wild practice aspiring to a deeply ecological liberation: the integration of individual consciousness with landscape and with a Cosmos seen as harmonious and alive. In China Root, Hinton describes this original form of Zen with his trademark clarity and elegance, each chapter exploring in enlightening ways a core Ch'an concept--such as meditation, mind, Buddha, awakening--as it was originally understood and practiced in ancient China. Finally, by examining a range of standard translations in the Appendix, Hinton reveals how this original understanding and practice of Ch'an/Zen is almost entirely missing in contemporary American Zen, because it was lost in Ch'an's migration from China through Japan and on to the West. Whether you practice Zen or not, taking this journey on the wings of Hinton's remarkable insight and powerful writing will transform how you understand yourself and the world.

Becoming Adult

Author : Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,Barbara Schneider
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2008-08-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780786722761

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Becoming Adult by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,Barbara Schneider Pdf

How do young people envision their occupational futures? What do teenagers feel about their schooling and after-school work, and how do these experiences affect their passage to adult work? These are the questions that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and sociologist Barbara Schneider posed in their five-year study of adolescents. The results provide an unprecedented window on society's future through which we can glimpse how today's youth are preparing themselves for the lives they will lead in the decades to come.

The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra)

Author : Vasubandhu,Maitreyanātha/Āsaṅga
Publisher : American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS)
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2014-09-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781935011217

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The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra) by Vasubandhu,Maitreyanātha/Āsaṅga Pdf

The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra) was transmitted from the bodhisattva Maitreyanātha to Āryā Āsaṅga, the fourth-century Indian Buddhist scholar-adept. The most foundational of the set of the famous Five Teachings of Maitreya, theDiscourse Literature is considered the wellspring of what the Tibetans call the “magnificent deeds trend of the path,” the compassion side, which balances the “profound view trend of the path,” the wisdom side. The Discourse Literature is also considered to be metaphysically aligned with and foundational for the Idealist (Vijñānavādin) school of Mahāyāna thought. Translated from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese by Lobsang Jamspal, Robert Thurman, and the AIBS team, the present work contains a fully annotated, critical English rendition of theDiscourse Literature along with its commentary (bhāṣya) by Āsaṅga’s brother, Vasubandhu. It also includes an introduction covering essential historical and philosophical topics, a bibliography, and a detailed index. This long-awaited work is the founding cornerstone of the AIBS Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences series.

The Great Secret of Mind

Author : Tulku Pema Rigtsal
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-04-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780834829046

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The Great Secret of Mind by Tulku Pema Rigtsal Pdf

Dzogchen (Great Perfection) goes to the heart of our experience by investigating the relationship between mind and world and uncovering the great secret of mind's luminous nature. Weaving in personal stories and everyday examples, Pema Rigtsal leads the reader to see that all phenomena are the spontaneous display of mind, a magical illusion, and yet there is something shining in the midst of experience that is naturally pure and spacious. Not recognizing this natural great perfection is the root cause of suffering and self-centered clinging. After introducing us to this liberating view, Pema Rigtsal explains how it is stabilized and sustained in effortless meditation: without modifying anything, whatever thoughts of happiness or sorrow arise simply dissolve by themselves into the spaciousness of pure presence. The book is divided into chapters on the view, meditation as the path, conduct, the attainment, and the four bardos. Each chapter consists of mini-sections that can be read as stand-alone Dharma talks. Pema Rigtsal has studied and lived with several authentic Dzogchen masters and has surprising stories to tell about their unconventional methods to introduce students to the subtle view of Dzogchen.