If people get 'lost' in thought or in their emotions, in their work or chores - or in any element of their everyday activity and experience - then they may be 'conscious' but they are not aware. Awareness of the different elements of our conscious action and experience frees us from restricting attachments to them - from a confining identification of ourselves with anything we think, feel or do. This 'Awareness Principle' is both a liberatory life principle and a life practice of a sort long recognised in yogic philosophy. As well as being a healing and freeing life principle and practice, The Awareness Principle is also a new foundational principle for the sciences and religion - offering the sole possible philosophical basis for both a new Theology and a truly scientific 'Theory of Everything'. For the most fundamental scientific fact is not the objective existence of a manifest universe of bodies in space and time but awareness of that universe. In contrast to all current pseudo-scientific attempts to explain awareness or 'consciousness' however, The Awareness Principle is the recognition that awareness cannot - in principle - be explained by or reduced to any thing whatsoever that we are aware of, whether it be matter, energy or the human body and brain. Awareness is neither a by-product of our bodies and brains nor the private property of any being or beings - human or divine. What we call 'God' is neither 'Being' with a big 'B' nor some Supreme Being 'with' awareness. Instead God is awareness - and the entire universe its manifestation. And just as there can be nothing outside space or before time so there can be nothing outside or before the absolute and divine Awareness that is'God'. Neither the Big Bang of physics, the Big Being of philosophy nor a Supreme Being of the sort worshipped in the Abrahamic faiths - all expressions of 'The Being Principle' - can explain the fundamental nature of God and the Universe. The Awareness Principle can, based as it is on the recognition that: "The being of all things that exist in awareness in turn depends on awareness." (Abhinavagupta) Peter Wilberg's writings on 'The Awareness Principle', collected for the first time in this volume, reaffirm and rearticulate in a new and clear cut way a centuries-old understanding of Indian tantric philosophy - namely that the '1st Principle' of the universe is not matter or energy but the innate potentials and power (Shakti) of pure awareness (Shiva).

New York Times bestseller · This groundbreaking new book from New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., introduces readers to his pioneering, science-based meditation practice. Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one's day-to-day life. An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation's effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle "Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows." Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life. Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.

Most people want to be successful in life. And of course, everyone wants to be happy. When it comes to the pursuit of success and happiness, most people assume the same formula: if you work hard, you will become successful, and once you become successful, then you'll be happy. The only problem is that a decade of cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology has proven that this formula is backwards. Success does not beget happiness. Based on the largest study ever conducted on happiness and human potential (a survey conducted by the author of more than 1,600 students), Harvard lecturer Shawn Achor shares seven core principles of positive psychology that each one of us can use to improve our performance, grow our careers, and gain a competitive edge at work. He reveals how happiness actually fuels success and performance, not the other way around. Why? Because when we are happier and more positive we are more engaged, creative, resilient to stress, and productive. The Happiness Advantage will appeal to anyone who wants practical advice on how to become happier and also more successful.

"A departure at right angles to thinking in the modern Western world. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing" (Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary) Middle Way Philosophy is not about compromise, but about the avoidance of dogma and the integration of conflicting assumptions. To rely on experience as our guide, we need to avoid the interpretation of experience through unnecessary dogmas. Drawing on a range of influences in Buddhist practice, Western philosophy and psychology, Middle Way Philosophy questions alike the assumptions of scientific naturalism, religious revelation and political absolutism, trying to separate what addresses experience in these doctrines from what is merely assumed. This Omnibus edition of Middle Way Philosophy includes all four of the volumes previously published separately: 1. The Path of Objectivity, 2. The Integration of Desire, 3. The Integration of Meaning, and 4. The Integration of Belief.

The Tantric Tradition known as 'Kashmir Shaivism' bore within it the understanding that God is not a being 'with' awareness. Instead God is awareness, pure and unbounded. This pure awareness is like a stainless mirror - invisible in itself - in which all experienced realities are not only reflected but actively and continuously manifested. The New Yoga of Awareness is not merely a commentary on or an explanation of this tradition, but the most comprehensive and original contribution to it since its synthesis by the great 10th century teacher and tantric adept Abhinavagupta. It unites religion, science, philosophy and theology, psychology and metaphysics in a way that truly makes it not just 'a' new yoga but THE New Yoga - an entirely new school of 'tantra' evolved from and for today's world. Tantra does not separate religion and science. It is yogic religious science. The aim of The New Yoga is to make this new and highly practical religious science known to the world in order that it can begin to work for it. It does so by challenging the foundations of both Western science and the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), along with the "monotheism of money" (Marx) and the godless 'science' that is its religion. Peter Wilberg's wide-ranging writings on tantra, introduced in this book, constitute a new and highly practical body of theosophical and religious scientific knowledge of the sort that alone can help bring an end to today's rising ocean of religious and scientific ignorance - and to the ecological devastation, economic inequalities and global mayhem that go with it. Above all, they offer a way of accomplishing this world-transforming aim - not through jihad, violence or war but through learning to experience that pure and Divine Awareness ('Shiva') which pervades all things, and the Divine Power ('Shakti') of Awareness that manifests them all.

This book takes a fresh look at programs for advanced studies for high school students in the United States, with a particular focus on the Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs, and asks how advanced studies can be significantly improved in general. It also examines two of the core issues surrounding these programs: they can have a profound impact on other components of the education system and participation in the programs has become key to admission at selective institutions of higher education. By looking at what could enhance the quality of high school advanced study programs as well as what precedes and comes after these programs, this report provides teachers, parents, curriculum developers, administrators, college science and mathematics faculty, and the educational research community with a detailed assessment that can be used to guide change within advanced study programs.

What would it be like to know that you are indeed immortal, that your physical body is but the outward form taken by your own eternal inner form or soul body? What would it be like to dissolve the bodily boundaries that seem to separate you from the souls of others, learning to feel your soul in their body and their soul in yours? What would it be like to see and feel your partner as the embodiment of a god or goddess, and to experience the bliss of 'soul body sex' - an intensely sensual intimacy and intercourse with their divine soul body? The New Yoga is a yoga of the soul body - that body with which we can intimately sense, feel and touch others - independently of physical contact. The New Yoga is also 'Tantra Reborn', giving rebirth to the tantric tradition known as Kashmir Shaivism through a wholly new understanding of its sexual symbolism and of 'tantric sex' - seen not merely as a heightening or spiritual elevation of bodily sex, but as an expression of the sublime sensuality and divine sexuality of the soul and its body. 'Tantra Reborn' explains in detail the anatomy, nature and powers of the soul body, its relation to gender and sexuality, to tantric initiation and to the traditional tantric symbolism of 'Shiva-Shakti' and 'Kundalini'. It also offers a practical guide to experiencing the bliss of soul body intercourse through new and original forms of tantric pair and partner meditation.