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Books > Philosophy > Non-Western philosophy > Oriental & Indian philosophy
This book combines academic expertise and philosophical inquiry
with the practical expression of T'ai Chi. The authors combine
eastern philosophy and the wisdom of T'ai Chi as expressed through
a Master. The result is a harmonious blend of Taoist philosophy and
the everyday use of its principles through the Chinese art of T'ai
Chi Ch'uan. The exploration of Taoism and T'ai Chi begins by
examining their origins and affiliations under the title of
Beginnings. Subsequent chapters take up the themes of Harmony
(expressing the duality and interrelation of yin and yang); The Way
(which looks at the philosophy of the Tao and the path that leads
to its practical expression through T'ai Chi); Change (which
examines the influence of the I Ching and the Eight Energies);
Direction (an analysis of the Five Elements); and Energy (which
explores alchemy and the vital energy of ch'i). The primary focus
is on Movement and Stillness, which harmonizes the softness of
movement with the stillness of the inner self -- leading to the
theme of Unity, the ultimate goal of philosophical Taoism and the
practical dimensions of that philosophy in T'ai Chi.
Scholar, philosopher and political sage, Confucius lived at a
turbulent time in his country's history, the so-called 'Spring and
Autumn Period' of the sixth century BC, during which China was
wracked by warfare between rival feudal states. Against this
backdrop he developed a system of social and political behaviour
that he hoped could be used to create harmony and peace throughout
the land. The teachings of Confucius attracted a large number of
pupils, but were largely ignored by the rulers of China's various
kingdoms. As a result, he did not see his philosophical teachings
applied during his lifetime. After his death, however, his
teachings were kept alive by his followers, and within a few
centuries, his philosophy (as outlined in The Analects, which
record the words and acts of Confucius and his disciples) was
adopted by China's rulers and became the foundation for Chinese
government, education and social structure. Beyond its profound
influence on the culture and history of East Asia, Confucianism has
also exerted a powerful fascination for western thinkers and
philosophers. Meher McArthur's accessible and thoughtful biography
not only traces the outline of her subject's life, but also
examines why Confucius and his teachings are still relevant today.
This collection of articles is unique in the way it approaches
established material on the various logical traditions in India.
Instead of classifying these traditions within Schools as is the
usual approach, the material here is classified into sections based
on themes ranging from Fundamentals of ancient logical traditions
to logic in contemporary mathematics and computer science. This
collection offers not only an introduction to the key themes in
different logical traditions such as Nyaya, Buddhist and Jaina, it
also highlights certain unique characteristics of these traditions
as well as contribute new material in the relationship of logic to
aesthetics, linguistics, Kashmir Saivism as well as the forgotten
Tamil contribution to logic.
What is the place of the Eastern thought in the West? Oriental Enlightenment shows how despite current talk of 'globalisation', there is still a reluctance to accept that the West could have borrowed anything of significance from the East and offers a critique of the 'orientalist' view that we must view any study of the east through the lens of western colonialism and domination. Oriental Enlightenment provides a lucid and highly accessible introduction to the fascination Eastern thought has exerted on Western minds since the Renaissance. This panoramic new survey argues that any adequate history of Western thought must take into account how philosophical, religious and psychological ideas from India, China and Japan have been drawn into Western thought from the seventeenth century onwards. Tackling debates on orientalism, post colonialism and postmodernism. Oriental Enlightenment provides a new perspective on cross cultural exchanges between East and West.
From the foremost living authority on Yoga comes the most
comprehensive and reliable treatment of the subject available
today. This is a work of impeccable scholarship by a person who has
dedicated his life to the understanding and practice of yoga. The
book offers a complete overview of every Yogic tradition, from the
familiar to the lesser-known forms. It also covers all aspects of
Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina Yoga, including history, philosophy,
literature, psychology and practice. In addition, included are
translations of twenty Yoga treatises and the first translation of
the Goraksha Paddhati.
This handbook brings together a distinguished team of scholars from
philosophy, theology, and religious studies to provide the first
in-depth discussion of Vedanta and the many different systems of
thought that make up this tradition of Indian philosophy.
Emphasizing the historical development of Vedantic thought, it
includes chapters on numerous classical Vedantic philosophies as
well as the modern Vedantic views of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri
Aurobindo, and Romain Rolland. The volume offers careful
hermeneutic analyses of how Vedantic texts have been interpreted,
and it addresses key issues and debates in Vedanta, including
religious diversity, the nature of God, and the possibility of
embodied liberation. Venturing into cross-philosophical and
cross-cultural territory, it also brings Vedanta into dialogue with
Saiva Nondualism as well as contemporary Western analytic
philosophy. Highlighting current scholarly controversies and
charting new paths of inquiry, this is an indispensable research
guide for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of
Vedanta and Indian philosophy.
A treat for the mind, body and spirit! Step inside the pages of
this book to discover a world of tranquility and calm. You will be
guided on an internal journey to quieten the mind, release tension,
and create peace and well-being. This book is an ideal resource for
yoga teachers and health professionals, but also anyone who wants
to enjoy the benefits of deep relaxation - particularly those in
stressful professions and work environments. It includes: over 30
guided relaxation scripts; an easy to follow guide to conscious
relaxation; soothing breathing techniques; and a clear explanation
of the benefits you'll experience. Integrating ideas from wisdom
traditions such as yoga, Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine
with contemporary thinking, the author's depth of knowledge and
experience shine through the pages, yet the tone is always friendly
and accessible. A powerful tool to manage stress or mild anxiety
and depression, dive in to start looking after yourself now. "Katie
Brown's book, Guided Relaxation, not only teaches us how to relax,
it also shows us how in clear, friendly, and accessible words and
illustrations. An essential book in the modern world. It will
uplift your spirits and take you home to a sense of ease and rest."
Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D, PT, yoga teacher since 1971, and the
author of 11 books on yoga.
Based on the latest edition of the approved textbook on Medical
Qigong used in Chinese universities, this authoritative paperback
edition has been completely revised and edited to meet the needs of
western practitioners. The editors emphasize the practice of
Qigong, and this section of the book has been revised and expanded;
a wide range of Qigong forms are presented, taking full account of
the history, correct practice, and development of Qigong. The
section on the clinical applications of Qigong in the treatment of
a wide range of conditions, with the recommended Qigong forms for
treatment, and relevant references to the ancient texts has been
substantially revised, and focuses on conditions more common in the
West. The book also presents the newest research on Medical Qigong,
including groundbreaking new discoveries about the physiological
and psychological mechanisms. Omitted from this paperback edition
are the extensive excerpts from the ancient texts, and the detailed
history, more appropriate for academic study. This is an
unparalleled resource for practitioners of Qigong and Chinese
medicine, as well as medical students and other healthcare
professionals seeking a better understanding of the theory,
practice and beneficial health applications of Medical Qigong.
A provocative essay challenging the idea of Buddhist
exceptionalism, from one of the world's most widely respected
philosophers and writers on Buddhism and science Buddhism has
become a uniquely favored religion in our modern age. A burgeoning
number of books extol the scientifically proven benefits of
meditation and mindfulness for everything ranging from business to
romance. There are conferences, courses, and celebrities promoting
the notion that Buddhism is spirituality for the rational,
compatible with cutting-edge science, indeed, "a science of the
mind." In this provocative book, Evan Thompson argues that this
representation of Buddhism is false. In lucid and entertaining
prose, Thompson dives deep into both Western and Buddhist
philosophy to explain how the goals of science and religion are
fundamentally different. Efforts to seek their unification are
wrongheaded and promote mistaken ideas of both. He suggests
cosmopolitanism instead, a worldview with deep roots in both
Eastern and Western traditions. Smart, sympathetic, and
intellectually ambitious, this book is a must-read for anyone
interested in Buddhism's place in our world today.
Winner of the Stanislas Julien Prize Winner of the Joseph Levenson
Prize for Scholarship on Pre-1900 China Dreaming is a
near-universal human experience, but there is no consensus on why
we dream or what dreams should be taken to mean. In this book,
Robert Ford Campany investigates what people in late classical and
early medieval China thought of dreams. He maps a common
dreamscape-an array of ideas about what dreams are and what
responses they should provoke-that underlies texts of diverse
persuasions and genres over several centuries. These writings
include manuals of dream interpretation, scriptural instructions,
essays, treatises, poems, recovered manuscripts, histories, and
anecdotes of successful dream-based predictions. In these many
sources, we find culturally distinctive answers to questions
peoples the world over have asked for millennia: What happens when
we dream? Do dreams foretell future events? If so, how might their
imagistic code be unlocked to yield predictions? Could dreams
enable direct communication between the living and the dead, or
between humans and nonhuman animals? The Chinese Dreamscape, 300
BCE-800 CE sheds light on how people in a distant age negotiated
these mysteries and brings Chinese notions of dreaming into
conversation with studies of dreams in other cultures, ancient and
contemporary. Taking stock of how Chinese people wrestled with-and
celebrated-the strangeness of dreams, Campany asks us to reflect on
how we might reconsider our own notions of dreaming.
This anthology presents the distinctive insights of Chinese
philosophy and their relevance to contemporary issues in a range of
areas: moral philosophy, social and political philosophy,
metaphysics, epistemology, environmental ethics, medicine and
psychological health. New, especially interdisciplinary research
Applies insights in Chinese philosophy from eminent scholars in the
field of Chinese philosophy
The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Philosophy of Language
presents a systematic survey of philosophy of language in the
Indian tradition, providing an up-to-date research resource for
better understanding the history and future direction of the field.
Each chapter addresses a particular philosophical problem from the
viewpoint of seminal traditions and specific thinkers. Covering the
philosophical insight on language found in the mainstream
philosophies of Vyakarana, Mima?sa, Nyaya, Vedanta, Buddhism, and
Alankarasastra, the chapters tackle crucial semantic and pragmatic
questions such as the relation of the speaker to reality, the use
of metalanguage, the distinction between sentences, elliptic
statements, and figurative usages, and the impact of textual
structures on the philosophical message. Complete with further
reading suggestions and an annotated bibliography, this collection
makes an important contribution to both Eastern and Western
contemporary philosophy of language.
A renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his
groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan
Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep,
dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of
mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain.
Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static
thing. When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let
our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self
into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep,
the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world
dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a
lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the
dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as
dreamer. Finally, as we meditate-either in the waking state or in a
lucid dream-we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and
how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience
sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that
make up our image of the self. Contemplative traditions say that we
can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness
its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together
neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these
transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound
questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific
findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge
acquired by contemplatives.
We take for granted that only certain kind of things exist -
electrons but not angels, passports but not nymphs. This is what we
understand as 'reality'. But in fact, 'reality' varies with each
era of the world, in turn shaping the field of what is possible to
do, think and imagine. Our contemporary age has embraced a
troubling and painful form of reality: Technic. Under Technic, the
foundations of reality begin to crumble, shrinking the field of the
possible and freezing our lives in an anguished state of paralysis.
Technic and Magic shows that the way out of the present deadlock
lies much deeper than debates on politics or economics. By drawing
from an array of Northern and Southern sources - spanning from
Heidegger, Junger and Stirner's philosophies, through Pessoa's
poetry, to Advaita Vedanta, Bhartrhari, Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi and
Mulla Sadra's theosophies - Magic is presented as an alternative
system of reality to Technic. While Technic attempts to capture the
world through an 'absolute language', Magic centres its
reconstruction of the world around the notion of the 'ineffable'
that lies at the heart of existence. Technic and Magic is an
original philosophical work, and a timely cultural intervention. It
disturbs our understanding of the structure of reality, while
restoring it in a new form. This is possibly the most radical act:
if we wish to change our world, first we have to change the idea of
'reality' that defines it.
This yearbook from husband-and-wife duo Danielle and Olivier
Foellmi reveals the spiritual wisdom of the Far East. Each of
Olivier's photographs is accompanied by the thoughts of a great
master, including Confucius, Lao-tzu, Dogen Zenji, Chuang-tzu, Hong
Zicheng and the Buddha. Their words have guided generation after
generation for thousands of years, and they continue in this volume
to enrich our views and lives with thoughts on nature,
self-awareness, family and society. The photographs take us to
captivating temples in Thailand, the lavishly mystic nature of
Cambodia, mist-enshrouded landscapes in Myanmar, bamboo forests in
Vietnam, rice paddies in China and Zen gardens in Japan. The book
as a whole teaches us, one day at a time, the wisdom of the East.
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