Compassion is the guiding principle of the bodhisattvas, those who vow to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all sentient beings from the suffering and confusion of imperfect existence. To this end, they must renounce all self-centered goals and consider only the well-being of others. The bodhisattvas' enemies are the ego, passion, and hatred; their weapons are generosity, patience, perseverance, and wisdom. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is considered to be a living embodiment of this spiritual ideal. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama presents here a detailed manual of practical philosophy, based on The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), a well-known text of Mahayana Buddhism written by Shantideva. The Dalai Lama explains and amplifies the text, alluding throughout to the experience of daily life and showing how anyone can develop bodhichitta, the wish for perfect enlightenment for the sake of others. This book will surely become a standard manual for all those who wish to make the bodhisattva ideal a living experience.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

The first complete and annotated English translation of Maimon’s influential and delightfully entertaining memoir Solomon Maimon's autobiography has delighted readers for more than two hundred years, from Goethe, Schiller, and George Eliot to Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt. The American poet and critic Adam Kirsch has named it one of the most crucial Jewish books of modern times. Here is the first complete and annotated English edition of this enduring and lively work. Born into a down-on-its-luck provincial Jewish family in 1753, Maimon quickly distinguished himself as a prodigy in learning. Even as a young child, he chafed at the constraints of his Talmudic education and rabbinical training. He recounts how he sought stimulation in the Hasidic community and among students of the Kabbalah--and offers rare and often wickedly funny accounts of both. After a series of picaresque misadventures, Maimon reached Berlin, where he became part of the city's famed Jewish Enlightenment and achieved the philosophical education he so desperately wanted, winning acclaim for being the "sharpest" of Kant's critics, as Kant himself described him. This new edition restores text cut from the abridged 1888 translation by J. Clark Murray, which has long been the only available English edition. Paul Reitter's translation is brilliantly sensitive to the subtleties of Maimon's prose while providing a fluid rendering that contemporary readers will enjoy, and is accompanied by an introduction and notes by Yitzhak Melamed and Abraham Socher that give invaluable insights into Maimon and his extraordinary life. The book also features an afterword by Gideon Freudenthal that provides an authoritative overview of Maimon's contribution to modern philosophy.

"Plotinus, the Roman philosopher (c. 204-270 CE) who is widely regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism, was also the creator of numerous myths, images, and metaphors, which have frequently been dismissed by modern scholars as merely ornamental. In this book, distinguished philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark shows that they form a vital set of spiritual exercises by which individuals can achieve one of Plotinus's most important goals: self-transformation through contemplation. Clark examines a variety of Plotinus's myths and metaphors within the cultural and philosophical context of his time, asking probing questions about their contemplative effects. Through rich images and structures, Clark casts Plotinus as a philosopher deeply concerned with philosophy as a way of life." -- Résumé de l'éditeur.

"This volume contains works from two of the most important sets of teachings of the Geluk School, the stages of the path (lam rim) and the oral transmission (snyan brgyud), which includes mahāmudrā. The stages of the path present a systematic, step-by-step cultivation of the Buddhist path to enlightenment using key elements distilled from the scriptures and Indian treatises. Following Tsongkhapa's (1357-1419) composition of his magnum opus, the Great Treatise of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, the stages of the path became an integral component of the teachings of the Geluk school. The oral transmission originates in important oral instructions of Tsongkhapa, especially those that evolved from his visions of Mañjuśrī. The present volume is divided into four parts. Part 1 contains some of the central texts of the stages of the path instructions, such as the two root verses by Tsongkhapa, Gomchen Ngawang Drakpa's (fifteenth century) Stages of the Path in Verse, Panchen Losang Chögyen's (1570-1662) Easy Path, and the Fifth Dalai Lama's (1617-82) Sacred Words of Mañjuśrī. Part 2 features the Seventh Dalai Lama's guide to the Hundred Deities of Tushita Guru Yoga, Panchen Losang Chögyen's Offering to the Guru, and Jadrel Tsultrim Nyima's Sending the Final Testament through the Winds. Part 3 contains Panchen Losang Chögyen's mahāmudrā root text Highway of the Conquerors together with its commentary, as well as important texts by Yongzin Yeshé Gyaltsen and Shar Kalden Gyatso. The final section contains two concise works of essential oral advice from Ngulchu Dharmabhadra"--