A Partial Enlightenment

Author : Avram Alpert
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231553390
Total Pages : 119 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Partial Enlightenment written by Avram Alpert and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many ways, Buddhism has become the global religion of the modern world. For its contemporary followers, the ideal of enlightenment promises inner peace and worldly harmony. And whereas other philosophies feel abstract and disembodied, Buddhism offers meditation as a means to realize this ideal. If we could all be as enlightened as Buddhists, some imagine, we could live in a much better world. For some time now, however, this beatific image of Buddhism has been under attack. Scholars and practitioners have criticized it as a Western fantasy that has nothing to do with the actual experiences of Buddhists. Avram Alpert combines personal experience and readings of modern novels to offer another way to understand modern Buddhism. He argues that it represents a rich resource not for attaining perfection but rather for finding meaning and purpose in a chaotic world. Finding unexpected affinities across world literature—Rudyard Kipling in colonial India, Yukio Mishima in postwar Japan, Bessie Head escaping apartheid South Africa—as well as in his own experiences living with Tibetan exiles, Alpert shows how these stories illuminate a world in which suffering is inevitable and total enlightenment is impossible. Yet they also give us access to partial enlightenments: powerful insights that become available when we come to terms with imperfection and stop looking for wholeness. A Partial Enlightenment reveals the moments of personal and social transformation that the inventions of modern Buddhism help make possible.

Author : Peter H. Reill
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520931009
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment written by Peter H. Reill and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005-06-06 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This far-reaching study redraws the intellectual map of the Enlightenment and boldly reassesses the legacy of that highly influential period for us today. Peter Hanns Reill argues that in the middle of the eighteenth century, a major shift occurred in the way Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature that caused many of them to reject the prevailing doctrine of mechanism and turn to a vitalistic model to account for phenomena in natural history, the life sciences, and chemistry. As he traces the ramifications of this new way of thinking through time and across disciplines, Reill provocatively complicates our understanding of the way key Enlightenment thinkers viewed nature. His sophisticated analysis ultimately questions postmodern narratives that have assumed a monolithic Enlightenment—characterized by the dominance of instrumental reason—that has led to many of the disasters of modern life.

Author : Aziz Kristof
Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass
ISBN 13 : 8120817540
Total Pages : 652 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Human Buddha written by Aziz Kristof and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Message for the New Millennium presents a vision of Awakening which reveals the human face of the Buddha. It is essential at this moment in our evolution to return to a more realistic perspective of enlightenment. Most seekers cannot relate to the concept of enlightenment for they feel intimidated by the image of the 'flawless' Buddha. Here, The Human Buddha is no longer a spiritual superman who denies natural longings, desires and human imperfections. The Human Buddha is indeed a sensitive being, a child of the Beloved like all of us. The Human Buddha openly acknowledges the gentle and vulnerable quality of his or her heart.

Author : D. Harvey
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137002549
Total Pages : 435 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The French Enlightenment and its Others written by D. Harvey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the French Enlightenment's use of cross-cultural comparisons - particularly the figures of the Chinese mandarin and American and Polynesian savage - to praise of critique aspects of European society and to draw general conclusions regarding human nature, natural law, and the rise and decline of civilizations.

Author : Rumy Hasan
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
ISBN 13 : 1782847138
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Modern Europe and the Enlightenment written by Rumy Hasan and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-01 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 2019, in an interview given to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin baldly declared that the liberal idea had outlived its purpose as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism. If liberalism has indeed come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population then evidence should show that it is in retreat. Ipso facto, so should Enlightenment values that underpin liberal democracy. A key aim of the book is to garner evidence. Is the liberal idea characterised by Putin accurate or rather a caricature divorced from reality? Modern Europe and the Enlightenment explores whether the policy stance on the issues outlined above, and a host of similar topics being tackled by European governments, are consonant with Enlightenment values. The Enlightenment covered an array of issues on every aspect of life wherein reason was rigorously applied to solve problems, gain understanding and discover facts. It was a successor to the scientific revolution. The assumption is that the Enlightenment left a profound legacy on Western Europe, which lingers till the present day. The following broad areas of Enlightenment values are covered: reason, human rights, religion and secularism, freedom of expression, political and economic open-mindedness, race, and women's issues. The book examines the extent to which Enlightenment values are adhered to in various parts of modern Europe delineated into Western Europe, the progenitor of the Enlightenment; former communist countries that have joined the European Union; and former communist countries that are not in the EU. Discussion also focuses on the modern Counter-Enlightenment movement.

Author : Jan Golinski
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226302067
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment written by Jan Golinski and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlightenment inquiries into the weather sought to impose order on a force that had the power to alter human life and social conditions. British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment reveals how a new sense of the national climate emerged in the eighteenth century from the systematic recording of the weather, and how it was deployed in discussions of the health and welfare of the population. Enlightened intellectuals hailed climate’s role in the development of civilization but acknowledged that human existence depended on natural forces that would never submit to rational control. Reading the Enlightenment through the ideas, beliefs, and practices concerning the weather, Jan Golinski aims to reshape our understanding of the movement and its legacy for modern environmental thinking. With its combination of cultural history and the history of science, British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment counters the claim that Enlightenment progress set humans against nature, instead revealing that intellectuals of the age drew characteristically modern conclusions about the inextricability of nature and culture.

Author : Stanley Rosen
Publisher : CUP Archive
ISBN 13 : 9780521498890
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mask of Enlightenment written by Stanley Rosen and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1995-09-29 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to become the definitive study of Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Author : Avram Alpert
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691254680
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Good-Enough Life written by Avram Alpert and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How an acceptance of our limitations can lead to a more fulfilling life and a more harmonious society We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible—a good-enough life for all. Avram Alpert shows how our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives. Alpert makes no false utopian promises, however. Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around. Visionary and provocative, The Good-Enough Life demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.

Author : R. Squibbs
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137378247
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Urban Enlightenment and the Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essay written by R. Squibbs and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Enlightenment offers the first literary history of the British periodical essay spanning the entire eighteenth century, and the first to study the genre's development and cultural impact in a transatlantic context.

Author : Kenneth R. White
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Benkemmitsu-nikyōron written by Kenneth R. White and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains the translation and interpretation of the works of Kukai (744-845), the founder of the Japanese Shingon School of Buddhism.