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Surveys contemporary pluralism, elaborates a typology of alternative religious worldviews, argues for the greater adequacy of one of the typological positions, and illustrates taht position briefly in Hindu and Buddhist and then more extensively in Christian traditions.
This book provides an outline of the Buddhist shunyata principle (the inherent emptiness of all phenomena), and presents a Western philosophical base by which to logically support its integration into the western mindset. Buddhim and Western philosophy are surprisingly compatible. Buddhist Existentialism outlines the influence of existentialists, such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, and introduces us to the ideas of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist thought.
Engaging in existential discourse beyond the European tradition, this book turns to Asian philosophies to reassess vital questions of life's purpose, death's imminence, and our capacity for living meaningfully in conditions of uncertainty. Inspired by the dilemmas of European existentialism, this cross-cultural study seeks concrete techniques for existential practice via the philosophies of East Asia. The investigation begins with the provocative writings of twentieth-century Korean Buddhist nun Kim Iryop, who asserts that meditative concentration conducts a potent energy outward throughout the entire karmic network, enabling the radical transformation of our shared existential conditions. Understanding her claim requires a look at East Asian sources more broadly. Considering practices as diverse as Buddhist merit-making ceremonies, Confucian/Ruist methods for self-cultivation, the ritual memorization and recitation of texts, and Yijing divination, the book concludes by advocating a speculative turn. This 'speculative existentialism' counters the suspicion toward metaphysics characteristic of twentieth-century European existential thought and, at the same time, advances a program for action. It is not a how-to guide for living, but rather a philosophical methodology that takes seriously the power of mental cultivation to transform the meaning of the life that we share.
Donna Quesada had been teaching for about a dozen years when the first signs of burnout hit her. Rather than give in to her frustration, she reached for Buddha’s teachings, the Zen wisdom that formed the basis of her own longtime spiritual practice. She survived the semester and gradually rediscovered the joy in her job that had been progressively declining. In this wise and inspirational book, she shares the lessons she learned—lessons that revealed, time and again, that no matter the situation, it’s always about getting your head in the right place first. Resolution begins in our own minds. Some days, some semesters, and even some years will be more challenging and more wearisome than others, she warns. But in The Inspired Teacher, Quesada offers a lasting source of encouragement and Zen. Although the book draws from Eastern teachings, the wisdom is for everyone, regardless of personal background, creed, or faith. With elements of The Last Lecture as well as Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul, this is the perfect gift for teachers—but also for anyone needing inspiration.
Identification of the phenomenon of marginality in The Marginal Self—the failure to become one’s authentic, best self, by refusing to actualize this potential that is inherent in us all—turns on recognizing that freedom, and its misuse, underlie most human behavior, normal and pathological. Jean-Paul Sartre insisted that people don’t just have freedom, they are freedom. Most philosophical anthropologies, including Freudian psychoanalysis, and the current medical model of mental illness propagated by the American Psychiatric Association and typified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), do not acknowledge this essential reality. Beyond Marginality came out first eleven years after the initial 1987 publication of The Marginal Self. The author, in the meantime, had become acquainted with the Zen philosophy of D. T. Suzuki, of whom Martin Heidegger said that if he understood this man’s work correctly, Suzuki had accomplished what Heidegger had been trying to do all his life. What did Heidegger see in Suzuki’s anthropology? That the Cartesian duality—ultimately the dissociation of our inner lives from the world around us and from one another—was a distortion created by us that we could overcome through Zen’s actionable intuition of human wholeness. How this overcoming might be brought about is the theme of Beyond Marginality, starting with Suzuki’s intuition and embracing the work of many allied thinkers. Equally compelling are vivid testimonials from those who had stumbled into marginality, some eventually recognizing the negative consequences of their misused freedom, then freely willing themselves out of their marginal states. Helping people move beyond marginality and its attendant psychic pathology parallels the present enthusiasm of the mental health community for a positive psychology. Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin left us with the counter-Cartesian, Zen-like insight that nothing is so practical as a good theory.
The past couple of decades have witnessed Buddhist communities both continuing the modernization of Buddhism and questioning some of its limitations. In this fascinating portrait of a rapidly changing religious landscape, Ann Gleig illuminates the aspirations and struggles of younger North American Buddhists during a period she identifies as a distinct stage in the assimilation of Buddhism to the West. She observes both the emergence of new innovative forms of deinstitutionalized Buddhism that blur the boundaries between the religious and secular, and a revalorization of traditional elements of Buddhism such as ethics and community that were discarded in the modernization process. Based on extensive ethnographic and textual research, the book ranges from mindfulness debates in the Vipassana network to the sex scandals in American Zen, while exploring issues around racial diversity and social justice, the impact of new technologies, and generational differences between baby boomer, Gen X, and millennial teachers.
This book is a memoir that explores the journey of one family. It examines how personal experiences interact with institutional settings to shape both individuals and communities. While the focus of the narrative is on the life and work of George Rupp, the telling of that story is inextricably connected with family relationships and also with institutional developments--in particular at Harvard Divinity School, Rice and Columbia Universities, and the International Rescue Committee.
Widely recognized as the finest definition of existentialist philosophy ever written, this book introduced existentialism to America in 1958. Barrett speaks eloquently and directly to concerns of the 1990s: a period when the irrational and the absurd are no better integrated than before and when humankind is in even greater danger of destroying its existence without ever understanding the meaning of its existence. Irrational Man begins by discussing the roots of existentialism in the art and thinking of Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Baudelaire, Blake, Dostoevski, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, and Beckett. The heart of the book explains the views of the foremost existentialists—Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. The result is a marvelously lucid definition of existentialism and a brilliant interpretation of its impact.
Loy draws from giants of psychotherapy and existentialism, from Nietzsche to Kierkegaard to Sartre, to explore the fundamental issues of life, death, and what motivates us. Whatever the differences in their methods and goals, psychotherapy, existentialism, and Buddhism are all concerned with the same fundamental issues of life and death—and death-in-life. In Lack and Transcendence (originally published by Humanities Press in 1996), David R. Loy brings all three traditions together, casting new light on each. Written in clear, jargon-free style that does not assume prior familiarity, this book will appeal to a wide variety of readers including psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, scholars of religion, Continental philosophers, and readers seeking clarity on the Great Matter itself. Loy draws from giants of psychotherapy, particularly Freud, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, and Otto Rank; great existentialist thinkers, particularly Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Sartre; and the teachings Buddhism, particularly as interpreted by Nagarjuna, Huineng and Dogen. This is the definitive edition of Loy’s seminal classic.