The Practice of Perfection

The Practice of Perfection PDF Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0307817474
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Robert Aiken, author of Encouraging Words and Taking the Path of Zen, is America’s most senior Zen Roshi. In this new book he presents the Ten Pãramitãs, of Transcendental Perfections—namely, giving, mortality, forbearance, zeal, focused meditation, wisdom, compassionate means, aspiration, spiritual power, and knowledge—two-thousand-year-old ideals that can serve us as both methods and goals. The Pãramitãs are the “skillful means” a person may employ to nurture and develop his or her spiritual and moral life. In religious instruction we are often met be restrictions, and are told what not to do. The Pãramitãs, explained from a Zen perspective, offer the seeker ten positive means of action, ten ways to live a life of clarity and grace in a modern world where neither seems easy or even possible. The transcendental perfections can lead us toward a life that is both spiritually invigorated and socially engaged. Aitken Roshi’s way of teaching—anecdotal, careful, insightful, and easily accessible—leads us further along the path of harmony and balance. Each of the inspiring and instructional essays in this book is followed by a section in which Aitken answers questions most often asked by his own students in their course of study. The Practice of Perfection will be useful to seekers of all cultures and faiths.

The Practice of Perfection

The Practice of Perfection PDF Author: Robert Aitken
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0307817474
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
Robert Aiken, author of Encouraging Words and Taking the Path of Zen, is America’s most senior Zen Roshi. In this new book he presents the Ten Pãramitãs, of Transcendental Perfections—namely, giving, mortality, forbearance, zeal, focused meditation, wisdom, compassionate means, aspiration, spiritual power, and knowledge—two-thousand-year-old ideals that can serve us as both methods and goals. The Pãramitãs are the “skillful means” a person may employ to nurture and develop his or her spiritual and moral life. In religious instruction we are often met be restrictions, and are told what not to do. The Pãramitãs, explained from a Zen perspective, offer the seeker ten positive means of action, ten ways to live a life of clarity and grace in a modern world where neither seems easy or even possible. The transcendental perfections can lead us toward a life that is both spiritually invigorated and socially engaged. Aitken Roshi’s way of teaching—anecdotal, careful, insightful, and easily accessible—leads us further along the path of harmony and balance. Each of the inspiring and instructional essays in this book is followed by a section in which Aitken answers questions most often asked by his own students in their course of study. The Practice of Perfection will be useful to seekers of all cultures and faiths.

The Practice of Christian and Religious Perfection

The Practice of Christian and Religious Perfection PDF Author: Alfonso Rodríguez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian life
Languages : en
Pages : 546

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Book Description


Approaching the Great Perfection

Approaching the Great Perfection PDF Author: Sam Van Schaik
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0861719123
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is the highest meditative practice of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Approaching the Great Perfection looks at a seminal figure of this lineage, Jigme Lingpa, an eighteenth-century scholar and meditation master whose cycle of teachings, the Longchen Nyingtig, has been handed down through generations as a complete path to enlightenment. Ten of Jigme Lingpa's texts are presented here, along with extensive analysis by van Schaik of a core tension within Buddhism: Does enlightenment develop gradually, or does it come all at once? Though these two positions are often portrayed by modern scholars as entrenched polemical views, van Schaik explains that both tendencies are present within each of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. He demonstrates how Jigme Lingpa is a great illustration of this balancing act, using the rhetoric of both sides to propel his students along the path of the Great Perfection.

The Practice of Dzogchen

The Practice of Dzogchen PDF Author: Longchenpa
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 155939434X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
A classic collection of writings on the meditation practice and theory of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, by the celebrated fourteenth-century scholar and adept Longchen Rabjam (Longchenpa). This classic collection of texts on the meditation practice and theory of Dzogchen presents the Great Perfection through the writings of its supreme authority, the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar and visionary Longchen Rabjam. The pinnacle of Vajrayana practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Dzogchen embodies a system of training that awakens the intrinsic nature of the mind to reveal its original essence, utterly perfect and free from all duality—buddha nature, or buddhahood itself. In The Practice of Dzogchen, Tulku Thondup translates essential passages from Longchen Rabjam’s voluminous writings to illuminate and clarify this teaching. He also draws on the works of later masters of the tradition, placing Dzogchen in context both in relation to other schools of Buddhism and in relation to the nine-vehicle outline of the Buddhist path described in the Nyingma tradition. This expanded edition includes Counsel for Liberation, Longchenpa’s poetic exhortation to readers to quickly enter the path of liberation, the first step toward the summit of Dzogchen practice.

Javanmardi

Javanmardi PDF Author: Lloyd Ridgeon
Publisher: Gingko Library
ISBN: 1909942316
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 617

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Book Description
Javanmardi is one of those Persian terms that is frequently mentions in discussions of Persian identity, and yet its precise meaning is difficult to comprehend. A number of equivalents have been offered, including chivalry and manliness, and while these terms are not incorrect, javanmardi transcends them. The concept encompasses character traits of generosity, selflessness, hospitality, bravery, courage, honesty, truthfulness and justice--and yet there are occasions when the exact opposite of these is required for one to be a javanmard. At times it would seem that being a javanmard is about knowing and doing the right thing, although this definition, too, falls short of the term's full meaning. The present collection is the product of a three-year project financed by the British Institute of Persian Studies on the theme of "Javanmardi in the Persianate world." The articles in this volume represent the sheer range, influence, and importance that the concept has had in creating and contributing to Persianate identities over the past one hundred and fifty years. The contributions are intentionally broad in scope. Rather than focus, for example, on medieval Sufi manifestations of javanmardi, both medieval and modern studies were encouraged, as were literary, artistic, archaeological, and sociological studies among others. The opening essays examine the concept’s origin in medieval history and legends throughout a geographical background that spans from modern Iran to Turkey, Armenia, and Bosnia, among both Muslim and Christian communities. Subsequent articles explore modern implications of javanmardi within such contexts as sportsmanship, political heroism, gender fluidity, cinematic representations, and the advent of digitalization.

The Practice of Christian and Religious Perfection, Vol. 2 of 3 (Classic Reprint)

The Practice of Christian and Religious Perfection, Vol. 2 of 3 (Classic Reprint) PDF Author: Alphonsus Rodriguez
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781331204718
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Practice of Christian and Religious Perfection, Vol. 2 of 3 Though this work is composed principally for religious, yet it is very useful to all Christians; and this second part, in particular, is so disposed, as to be of very great advantage to all secular persons who desire to give themselves entirely to God's service. For their first duty is to subdue their hearts by mortifying their passions, by subjecting their senses, (especially their tongue, ) and by humbling themselves before God, in order that those virtues and good works which they have planted in their souls, may spring up and bring forth such fruit as should be expected. It is for this reason that I treat first of mortification, then of modesty and silence, and afterwards of humility; which are the virtues a Christian ought chiefly practise in the beginning of his conversion. And because the Holy Ghost would have those that enter into God's service, remain in fear, and prepare themselves for temptation, I therefore speak in the fourth treatise, of the profit and advantage of temptations, and point out the means of overcoming them. In the fifth and sixth treatises, I show the obstacles that occur in the paths of virtue, and of how great advantage it is to walk always in these paths with joy and liberty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Perfection of Wisdom

The Perfection of Wisdom PDF Author:
Publisher: New York : Viking Studio
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
"At the heart of Buddhism lies the doctrine of the perfection of wisdom. The foremost principles of this teaching are the bodhisattva ideal of the religious life and the essential emptiness of all existence. The sutras known as The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines are the oldest version of this important Buddhist text, dating some two thousand years, and are the basis for the present translation." "The message of The Perfection of Wisdom is as applicable to the modern reader as it was to the monks who first studied the text two millennia ago: through an understanding of the perfection of wisdom, it is possible for all of us to detach from the suffering that binds us to the material world, and so move toward enlightenment. This important text is illustrated with extraordinary images taken from the earliest surviving Indian and Nepalese illustrated manuscripts of The Perfection of Wisdom - most of which have never been reproduced before."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Progress Over Perfection Workbook: Gift Edition

Progress Over Perfection Workbook: Gift Edition PDF Author: Emma Norris
Publisher: Rock Point Gift & Stationery
ISBN: 1631068652
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
The Progress Over Perfection Workbook gift editions includes pasted down flaps to make your hands-on exercises, trackers, and journaling prompts sturdy and ready to help you incorporate productivity into your daily routine, giving you an easy guide to building a calmer and more purposeful daily life.

Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection

Fundamentals of the Process of Spiritual Perfection PDF Author: Bahram Elahi, MD
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing
ISBN: 1948626624
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Written as a concise handbook, this Practical Guide presents a novel paradigm for addressing the enduring questions of our existence, while providing a roadmap to the rational pursuit of spirituality in contemporary life. Approaching our spiritual development as one would any experimental science, Bahram Elahi, MD, describes the nature of the human soul, or self, through a series of original diagrams and functional analogies to medicine, psychology, and physics. In so doing, he introduces a new medicine of the soul that not only establishes how to nourish and develop the soul through the practice of correct divine and ethical principles, but also how to diagnose and treat its various ailments. Explaining the purpose of our presence on earth as the completion of the first stage in our spiritual development, he summarizes this fundamental work in three main points: examining and mending one’s faith, sufficiently developing one’s sound reason, and cultivating one’s humanity. Ultimately, this timely Practical Guide offers readers of all backgrounds an accessible roadmap to our spiritual journey that is adapted to life in modern society.

The Path of Perfection

The Path of Perfection PDF Author: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Publisher: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
ISBN: 9171498257
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
In February 1969 Srila Prabhupada gave a series of lectures on the yoga system as it is discussed in the sixth and eighth chapters of the Bhagavad-gita. The Path of Perfection is a collection of these talks. The perfect life - the life that achieves the goal of yoga - is dynamic and full of activity, Srila Prabhupada says. It connects us with the Supreme Spirit in straightforward, practical ways and resonates with truth. These absorbing talks show us how the Gita's timeless teachings can help us walk the path of perfection.