Selfless Persons
Title | Selfless Persons PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Collins |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 344 |
Release | 1982 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780521397261 |
This book seeks to explain carefully and sympathetically the Buddhist doctrine of anatta ('not-self'), which denies the existence of any self, soul or enduring essence in human beings. The author relates this doctrine to its cultural and historical context, particularly to its Brahmanical background, and shows how the Theravada Buddhist tradition has constructed a philosophical and psychological account of personal identity and continuity on the apparently impossible basis of the denial of self.
Selfless Persons
Title | Selfless Persons PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Collins |
Publisher | |
Pages | 323 |
Release | 1982 |
Genre | Anātman |
ISBN |
Me the People, Or, One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America
Title | Me the People, Or, One Man's Selfless Quest to Rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America PDF eBook |
Author | Kevin Bleyer |
Publisher | Random House Digital, Inc. |
Pages | 354 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Constitutional history |
ISBN | 1400069351 |
Presents an offbeat revision of the U.S. Constitution that reflects twenty-first century realities and addresses unresolved questions while describing the author's research into ancient Greece's early practices of democracy.
Selfless Insight
Title | Selfless Insight PDF eBook |
Author | James H. Austin |
Publisher | MIT Press |
Pages | 371 |
Release | 2011-09-30 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0262516659 |
Attention, self-consciousness, insight, wisdom, emotional maturity: how Zen teachings can illuminate the way our brains function and vice-versa. When neurology researcher James Austin began Zen training, he found that his medical education was inadequate. During the past three decades, he has been at the cutting edge of both Zen and neuroscience, constantly discovering new examples of how these two large fields each illuminate the other. Now, in Selfless Insight, Austin arrives at a fresh synthesis, one that invokes the latest brain research to explain the basis for meditative states and clarifies what Zen awakening implies for our understanding of consciousness. Austin, author of the widely read Zen and the Brain, reminds us why Zen meditation is not only mindfully attentive but evolves to become increasingly selfless and intuitive. Meditators are gradually learning how to replace over-emotionality with calm, clear objective comprehension. In this new book, Austin discusses how meditation trains our attention, reprogramming it toward subtle forms of awareness that are more openly mindful. He explains how our maladaptive notions of self are rooted in interactive brain functions. And he describes how, after the extraordinary, deep states of kensho-satori strike off the roots of the self, a flash of transforming insight-wisdom leads toward ways of living more harmoniously and selflessly. Selfless Insight is the capstone to Austin's journey both as a creative neuroscientist and as a Zen practitioner. His quest has spanned an era of unprecedented progress in brain research and has helped define the exciting new field of contemplative neuroscience.
What Makes a Hero?
Title | What Makes a Hero? PDF eBook |
Author | Elizabeth Svoboda |
Publisher | Penguin |
Pages | 234 |
Release | 2013-08-29 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 1101622644 |
An entertaining investigation into the biology and psychology of why we sacrifice for other people Researchers are now applying the lens of science to study heroism for the first time. How do biology, upbringing, and outside influences intersect to produce altruistic and heroic behavior? And how can we encourage this behavior in corporations, classrooms, and individuals? Using dozens of fascinating real-life examples, Elizabeth Svoboda explains how our genes compel us to do good for others, how going through suffering is linked to altruism, and how acting heroic can greatly improve your mental health. She also reveals the concrete things we can do to encourage our most heroic selves to step forward. It’s a common misconception that heroes are heroic just because they’re innately predisposed to be that way. Svoboda shows why it’s not simply a matter of biological hardwiring and how anyone can be a hero if they're committed to developing their heroic potential.
The Selfless Mind
Title | The Selfless Mind PDF eBook |
Author | Peter Harvey |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 304 |
Release | 2013-09-13 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1136783296 |
This careful analysis of early Buddhist thought opens out a perspective in which no permanent Self is accepted, but a rich analysis of changing and potent mental processes is developed. It explores issues relating to the not-Self teaching: self-development, moral responsibility, the between-lives period, and the 'undetermined questions' on the world, on the 'life principle' and on the liberated one after death. It examines the 'person' as a flowing continuity centred on consciousness or discernment (vinnana) configured in changing minds-sets (cittas). The resting state of this is seen as 'brightly shining' - like the 'Buddha nature' of Mahayana thought - so as to represent the potential for Nirvana. Nirvana is then shown to be a state in which consciousness transcends all objects, and thus participates in a timeless, unconditioned realm.
Losing Ourselves
Title | Losing Ourselves PDF eBook |
Author | Jay L. Garfield |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 2022-05-24 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0691220298 |
Why you don’t have a self—and why that’s a good thing In Losing Ourselves, Jay Garfield, a leading expert on Buddhist philosophy, offers a brief and radically clear account of an idea that at first might seem frightening but that promises to liberate us and improve our lives, our relationships, and the world. Drawing on Indian and East Asian Buddhism, Daoism, Western philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience, Garfield shows why it is perfectly natural to think you have a self—and why it actually makes no sense at all and is even dangerous. Most importantly, he explains why shedding the illusion that you have a self can make you a better person. Examining a wide range of arguments for and against the existence of the self, Losing Ourselves makes the case that there are not only good philosophical and scientific reasons to deny the reality of the self, but that we can lead healthier social and moral lives if we understand that we are selfless persons. The book describes why the Buddhist idea of no-self is so powerful and why it has immense practical benefits, helping us to abandon egoism, act more morally and ethically, be more spontaneous, perform more expertly, and navigate ordinary life more skillfully. Getting over the self-illusion also means escaping the isolation of self-identity and becoming a person who participates with others in the shared enterprise of life. The result is a transformative book about why we have nothing to lose—and everything to gain—by losing our selves.